Animal Detective

’Just wait for a lead. It’s not too late to act once you have one and you’re confident.’

But now...

The division chief himself was asking about it. Could the level of priority possibly be the same?

They probably even used technical surveillance, which is how they confirmed the lead overnight and planned the operation.

’Fine by me.’

This was just a minor case, a chance to test Teddy’s abilities. Shen Xin didn’t want to waste too much energy on it either.

Just then, Zhang Hancheng sent the location.

Dingshan, in Ji Port.

The mountain wasn’t high—its main peak was less than 300 meters—but its area was substantial, a forest spanning nearly 15 square kilometers.

Trying to find someone hiding in such a vast, mountainous area would be no easy task.

The rendezvous point he sent was in He Wanli, a village at the northeastern foot of Dingshan.

Shen Xin was in his own car, so he drove straight there.

The exact location was outside a small stainless steel factory. When he arrived, a line of private cars was already parked outside.

It was quite a scene.

Captain Li Fang was there in person.

A deputy captain named Zhou Shaobo had come as well.

Li Fang was in charge of public security for a county-level city with a population of 1.6 million. If Yang Qingmin hadn’t called, he wouldn’t have had the time to bother with a single gambling case.

As Shen Xin got out of his car and walked over, he noticed someone yawning.

’They must have been busy last night,’ he figured.

In other words, Zhang Hancheng’s curiosity had just created more work for them.

But when they met, Li Fang didn’t complain. He just asked curiously about Teddy.

After learning about Teddy’s reconnaissance methods, Li Fang remarked, "That’s much more convenient than a drone."

Drones had their issues.

From a distance, you couldn’t see anything, but up close, they were too loud.

Then there was battery life. Searching such a large area was difficult.

That’s why, even with the rapid development of drone technology, traditional methods were still the go-to for busting gambling dens like this.

But this crew was clearly a cut above the rest.

Shen Xin asked about the situation.

And sure enough, they had used technical surveillance.

They had run an operation before. It had failed, but they’d identified some individuals.

The original plan was to take it slow, get a clear picture of the situation, and then make a move.

But now, one phone call from Yang Qingmin had forced them to close the net ahead of schedule.

They had tracked this group’s phones and checked their text messages, confirming that a game was scheduled for today.

Li Fang explained, "There are two crews: one runs the game, and the other works the perimeter as lookouts."

"The lookouts only know there’s a game today. They have to wait for a notification from the other crew to get the exact location."

"We’re keeping an eye on the lookouts, so we can confirm the game is somewhere on Dingshan today. But we still need to find out exactly when and where."

As for how to find them, his gaze fell on Teddy.

Without Teddy, Li Fang’s plan would have been to mobilize his officers.

He’d use a combination of drones and a human-wave search. Even if it meant combing through all of Dingshan, they would find their targets.

But now, the brass wanted to see what Teddy could do.

So, it was the perfect opportunity to let Teddy handle the search.

Shen Xin nodded. Knowing the location was on Dingshan was enough.

Fifteen square kilometers on an open prairie would be a drop in the ocean. Nothing to worry about.

Shen Xin asked if he should start the search now. If they could confirm the location, it would make it easier for them to plan the raid.

Li Fang smiled. "Let’s wait for Yang Zhi and the others to get here."

Shen Xin nodded. After a moment’s thought, he asked Li Fang for the footage from the first attempted raid.

They all wore body cams, so there should be a recording.

While Li Fang and his men were gathered around Teddy, Shen Xin got the video file and started reviewing it off to the side.

Yang Zeran came over to watch, too.

Shen Xin had experience with gambling busts from his time at the local police station.

At first glance, there was nothing wrong with the operation.

First, they took out the hidden lookouts, then they snuck up the mountain, surrounded the location, and on command, they moved in.

In the footage, the few men under the sun canopy were clearly caught by surprise.

Amid a chaotic chorus of police shouting "Get down!" and "Don’t run!" everyone at the scene was quickly brought under control.

Then came the search of the scene.

But it turned out the men were just sitting around playing a game of Fight the Landlord, not even for money.

When asked what they were doing on the mountain, they just said they were there to hang out.

They were all arrogant, shouting things like, "We haven’t done anything wrong! Can’t we even hang out on a mountain? What right do you have to arrest us?"

Seeing Shen Xin rewind the video to watch it again, Yang Zeran asked, "See anything?"

Shen Xin asked back, "Did you?"

Yang Zeran shook his head slightly.

Shen Xin rewound to the moment the police rushed the canopy. His eyes narrowed. He cranked up the volume and held the device to his ear, listening intently.

He hadn’t misheard. Amid the chaos, there was a sharp whistle.

Looking further into the footage, a fleeting glimpse caught his eye. One of the men was just lowering something from his mouth.

He watched it several more times. It was about the length of a finger. ’It must be a bird whistle.’

’So my guess was right. They’re using a bird to pass messages.’

The man blowing the whistle was likely giving a signal.

And in the ensuing chaos, nobody would have noticed a bird.

Shen Xin suspected it was a pigeon, but he wasn’t sure if a pigeon could be trained to immediately seek out its master just by the sound of a whistle.

From what he recalled, so-called homing pigeons didn’t deliver messages so much as they just returned home.

But this was a random location. A pigeon shouldn’t be able to respond instantly and find its master at the real gambling den.

But there was no doubt the man had blown a bird whistle.

Shen Xin had bought a bird whistle online to train Teddy; he wouldn’t mistake it for something else.

This meant one of the suspects was an expert bird trainer who had come up with this method of passing information.

Shen Xin’s interest was suddenly piqued. ’A kindred spirit, in a way.’

After a two-hour wait, Zhang Hancheng and two others finally arrived at a leisurely pace.

After a brief rundown of the situation, they told Shen Xin to get started.

In an instant, all eyes turned to Shen Xin—or more accurately, to Teddy.

Shen Xin had already given Teddy his instructions while they were waiting.

He didn’t have any special equipment with him, and he couldn’t very well say he could see Teddy’s memories.

So, he had attached a body cam to Teddy.

He’d ’told’ Teddy to search the mountain, find any groups of people, and confirm by circling at a low altitude.

Then he was to sweep the entirety of Dingshan before returning.

The body cam would record everything, so it wouldn’t be affected even if the suspects were using signal jammers.

Without any further delay, Shen Xin simply lifted his arm.

Teddy immediately beat his wings and shot into the sky.

Everyone craned their necks to watch as Teddy became a black dot in the sky in a matter of seconds.

Yang Qingmin asked in surprise, "Is that all? He’s just a bird. Does Teddy really know what he’s supposed to do?"

Chen Guanglin snorted. ’That’s because you haven’t seen what Shen Xin can do,’ he thought. ’If you had, you wouldn’t be asking that.’

Fifteen square kilometers wasn’t a huge area for Teddy.

He flew high, and with his ultraviolet vision, no movement in the forest hundreds of meters below could escape his eyes.

Before long, as he flew over a secondary peak of Dingshan, his gaze sharpened, locking onto a spot in the woods below.

A camouflage tarp was stretched out below. Nearby, a man leaned against a tree, smoking, completely unaware that a pair of eyes hundreds of meters above had already locked onto him.