Animal Detective

"So, what do you think?" Shen Xin asked, looking at Yang Zeran.

Yang Zeran looked completely shocked and confused. "I just don’t get it. What’s the logic behind this?"

He knew some people were naturally well-liked by small animals.

If that were the case with Shen Xin, it would make sense for him to befriend the animals and then slowly train them.

But this... managing to make an animal obey just by intimidating it.

How could that be explained?

Scaring an animal should just make it more afraid, right?

’Did he give it PTSD?’

Yang Zeran was completely baffled. This couldn’t be explained by science at all.

Shen Xin didn’t explain. He took the hundred-yuan bill that Charcoal had just brought over from Yang Zeran’s hand and placed it in front of the bird.

"Charcoal, since you’ve turned over a new leaf, you need to right your wrongs. Come on, take the money back."

Shen Xin pointed at the table.

Charcoal looked at Shen Xin, then at the money. It picked up the bill, flew to the table, dropped it, and then swiftly flew back.

"Not bad, huh?" Shen Xin said, looking at Yang Zeran.

Yang Zeran didn’t speak, just gave him a thumbs-up.

It was more than just "not bad"; he suspected that Shen Xin had hypnotized Charcoal when the two of them were staring at each other earlier.

Squatting nearby, Zhang Degui was also dumbfounded.

’Wait, it just got poached and turned over a new leaf like that?’

’Then what was all my time and effort for? All that racking my brain and catering to its every whim... was it all a joke?’

"Charcoal."

Zhang Degui called out urgently.

Charcoal turned its head and glanced at him.

Zhang Degui’s eyes lit up. ’As I thought, it still remembers me.’

But after just one glance, Charcoal turned its head away.

Zhang Degui grew anxious and was about to call out again when Zhou Shaobo yanked him to his feet.

"Forget about ’Charcoal, Charcoal.’ You should start worrying about yourself."

Running a casino with stakes in the millions, and this was just one game... he was in deep trouble.

The scene was mostly cleaned up.

Everyone headed down the mountain.

The experiment could be called a complete success, proving that Teddy could easily handle search and capture missions.

The only problem was that he was still too precious; they didn’t dare use him.

When they met up with Zhang Hancheng and the others, the three were still lamenting this fact.

This was especially true for Chen Guanglin.

Just then, he saw the crow Shen Xin was carrying and asked in surprise, "Is that the crow that was tipping them off?"

Shen Xin nodded and briefly explained Zhang Degui’s situation.

He originally worked in acrobatics, training rats, which is why he thought of training birds.

Zhang Hancheng scoffed and quipped, "So he’s a craftsman, then."

Chen Guanglin was clearly more interested in the matter of a police bird. Pointing at Charcoal, he asked Shen Xin if the crow could be trained to be like Teddy.

He felt that crows were also very smart and it should be possible.

Hearing Shen Xin say he could give it a try, he immediately perked up and told Shen Xin to spend more time on it.

In any case, he felt this kind of thing would be very useful.

Especially in anti-drug operations.

Drug traffickers could rack their brains forever and never imagine the police would use a bird to track and hunt them down.

Zhang Hancheng, Chen Guanglin, and Yang Qingmin were detachment commanders and very busy.

Now that the test was over and had proven viable, the three of them didn’t stay long.

Yang Qingmin gave Li Fang a few instructions, and the three of them drove away.

Shen Xin wasn’t in a hurry to leave. He went with Li Fang and the others to the Ji Port Branch.

The suspects needed to be interrogated.

At the same time, Shen Xin also proposed going to check Zhang Degui’s house.

The guy had admitted to buying a large number of birds to select the most intelligent ones.

There might still be some at his house.

Shen Xin had already been thinking that if this was feasible, he would try to get a batch of corvids to experiment with.

If Zhang Degui had some at his house, that would be perfect. It would save him the trouble of filing a report to purchase them.

Coincidentally, the branch office also needed to search Zhang Degui’s house for evidence, so Shen Xin set off with Li Fang.

Zhang Degui was from Anjing.

He was renting a house in a rural village in Ji Port Town.

He lived alone.

His wife and child stayed behind in Anjing.

He claimed he operated on a "hit-and-run" basis, never setting up a gambling den in one city for too long to avoid getting caught.

He wouldn’t say exactly how many places he’d been or how many gambling operations he’d run; that would have to be investigated slowly.

But according to his accomplices, Zhang Degui was very capable and had bragged to them about having dabbled in many things.

For example, cockfighting.

And mouse racing. Basically, if you could bet on it, he’d done it.

He was an old hand at this, that was for sure.

The rented house was in a corner of the village.

It had a large courtyard with high walls, and a net was stretched over the top, presumably to prevent birds from flying out.

As soon as they reached the gate, they could hear the faint sound of birds chirping from inside.

Seeing the police arrive, the onlooking villagers even complained that Zhang Degui was secretly raising a lot of birds and that they were usually very noisy.

Just as they were about to open the gate, a voice suddenly came from inside.

"Who’s back?"

The voice was high and shrill, like someone speaking with a pinched throat, startling the officer who was opening the gate.

Logically, no one should have been there.

Zhang Degui’s accomplices had said he treasured his birds and usually didn’t let them visit his house, lest they startle them.

Li Fang signaled for the gate to be opened.

The gate opened. There was no one behind it, only a gray bird standing on the ground, tilting its head as it sized them up.

Yang Zeran said, "That’s a parrot, isn’t it?"

Only then did everyone realize it was the parrot that had been speaking.

Shen Xin glanced at it.

’It looks like a Grey Parrot.’

’This species isn’t openly available for sale in the country. You need a permit to keep one personally.’

’But Zhang Degui deals in gray-market goods, so its origin is probably illegal.’

When Shen Xin stepped forward, it immediately hopped back, then flapped its wings and landed on a bird stand in the courtyard, squawking, "Who are you?"

Its tone was a bit strange, but its enunciation was quite clear.

And it knew a lot of phrases.

Shen Xin guessed Zhang Degui had put a lot of effort into it, teaching it many words.

The group entered.

There were no flowers or plants in the courtyard, just some stands built for birds to rest on.

In the distance, under the eaves of the house, hung numerous birdcages.

There were also large birdcages on the ground.

As soon as the group entered, it was as if a pot had exploded; all the birds started squawking.

"What’s this for?"

Everyone’s attention was immediately drawn to something.

On the right side of the courtyard stood a mannequin dressed in a blue "police uniform."

It was probably a security guard’s uniform.

The group gathered around it.

Yang Zeran examined it, then looked at the birdcages in the distance. "This has to be for training, right? Like training the birds to immediately give a warning signal the moment they see someone in a police uniform."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement.

’Zhang Degui probably planned to release the birds to act as hidden sentinels, providing a perimeter watch.’

’As soon as they saw someone in a police uniform nearby, their conditioned reflex would be to immediately return to find their master.’

’That would serve as an early warning system.’

Li Fang shook his head, speechless. "He’s certainly full of ideas."

He then ordered his subordinates to begin the search.

Shen Xin walked over to the birdcages.

It was obvious this courtyard was Zhang Degui’s bird training ground.

A place to train what he called "sufficiently intelligent" birds to assist his grand casino enterprise.

He looked at the birds in the cages.

Two cages held parrots: one cockatiel and one Quaker parrot.

There was also a lark.

Shen Xin had seen plenty of these on the grasslands, and Teddy had caught a lot for him too.

The rest were all black at a glance.

They must all be corvids.

Since Zhang Degui had found success training crows, he would definitely continue down that path.

Shen Xin inspected them one by one.

There was quite a variety of species.

The cages on the ground held large-sized crows.

Two of them appeared to be Ravens.

The remaining one looked like a rook.

The hanging cages contained smaller species.

There were house crows, jackdaws, and red-billed choughs.

The others were mynas and magpies.

It was clear that Zhang Degui had deliberately selected intelligent bird species for training.

Shen Xin was squatting down to get a closer look.

Each one had glossy, shining feathers, and the cages were kept spotlessly clean.

He must have put in a lot of effort.

With a flap of wings, the grey parrot from before landed lightly next to Shen Xin, looking him up and down.

Then it spoke: "What are you looking at?"

Shen Xin was amused and asked back, "What are you looking at?"

The grey parrot tilted its head and replied, "You idiot. I’m looking at you."

Shen Xin was taken aback. ’Well, I’ll be.’

’How did Zhang Degui train this thing? It’s got a potty mouth.’

’If I don’t correct this, it’ll end up just like Broo, calling people dumbasses left and right and getting into arguments.’