Animal Detective

Following Shen Xin’s instructions, Teddy slowed down and glided gracefully over the camouflage netting.

After circling a few times, Teddy tilted his head down, curiously observing everything below.

He wasn’t flying high, only about a hundred meters off the ground.

At this distance, he could even see an unknown insect by the smoking man’s feet, struggling as it crawled out from the roots of the grass.

After watching for a moment, Teddy flapped his wings and climbed steadily, hovering seven or eight hundred meters in the air.

He swiveled his eyes, scanning the mountain forest below.

His brain wasn’t large, but it could process 130 frames per second. Coupled with his incredible zoom ability, a single sweep was enough to ensure that no minute change in the forest below escaped his eyes.

He saw a small trail leading up the mountain where someone was hiking with trekking poles.

He immediately circled low a few times, then ascended again.

He spotted a clearing in the mountains where a man and a woman were sitting on a rock, the woman nestled in the man’s arms.

Their lips were moving, whispering what must have been sweet nothings to each other.

In the distance, there was a temple in front of the main peak.

The temple had a pagoda, and Teddy landed lightly on its spire. He tilted his head, observing the figures in the temple and the rising incense smoke.

Before long, he soared high into the air once more.

He spent less than fifteen minutes meticulously searching every part of Dingshan. Finding nothing else, he prepared to return.

Just then, Teddy remembered something.

’I need to hunt for Shen Xin.’

’That’s my most important mission.’

He shot back up into the sky and circled above the forest, searching for a target.

Everywhere he passed, he seemed to exude an invisible, cold aura, causing the birdsong in the forest below to quiet down considerably.

In the forest, little birds huddled among the leaves, staring in terror at the massive shadow passing overhead.

Teddy was a little annoyed.

’It’s all trees down there. I can’t show off my skills.’

He tried to lower his altitude, circling just above the treetops to intimidate the trembling prey in the thickets.

No reaction.

Annoyed, Teddy let out a couple of cries, then climbed higher again, flapping his wings to head for a more distant hunting ground.

Just as he was about to fly out of the forest’s range, a fairly large, dark creature suddenly shot out from between the trees.

It startled Teddy.

He took a closer look. It was just some black thing.

It wasn’t small and was flying straight toward him.

Teddy gave a powerful flap of his wings, instantly gaining altitude and watching the charcoal-black thing shoot past beneath him.

Teddy recalled seeing these things on the grasslands, swarming in massive flocks.

They were obnoxious and would even come and harass him.

Teddy couldn’t be bothered with them.

This was because they were slightly larger, almost the same size as him.

It was more trouble than it was worth to hunt them; he’d rather catch a few mice or larks.

So after a few glances, Teddy ignored it and flew toward the outskirts, looking for suitable prey.

Unexpectedly, the charcoal-black thing gave chase.

It flew a curve in the air, swooping past Teddy.

’A provocation?’

Teddy turned his head to look, his eyelids twitching slightly, but he ignored it.

’Finding food for Shen Xin is what matters.’

But the black thing wouldn’t give up. It pulled up, then dived, streaking past him again.

This time, Teddy felt a murderous urge.

’I ignore you because you’re a pain. You think I’m actually scared of you?’

Once the killing intent rose, Teddy instantly shot into action. WHOOSH! He rocketed skyward, reaching an altitude of a thousand meters in a heartbeat.

His gaze was already locked onto the black thing below.

The next moment, Teddy dived. He instantly hit top speed, constantly adjusting his trajectory mid-dive based on his target’s position.

But the black thing’s reactions were extremely fast; it had already spotted Teddy diving down.

It quickly turned and plunged toward the forest below.

WHOOSH.

Just as Teddy was about to snatch its head, it vanished among the treetops.

Teddy powerfully flapped his wings, pulling up again.

’Damn it.’

Teddy locked his eyes on the creature in the treetops, feeling frustrated.

’So close. I could have let Shen Xin try something new.’

He circled overhead for a while.

The black thing hopped back and forth between the branches, even letting out a sound that resembled human laughter.

It was a good thing Teddy didn’t understand the mocking tone. If he had, he would have fought it to the death.

He circled once more, preparing to leave.

’By the time I’m done tangling with this thing, Shen Xin could have already eaten.’

Unexpectedly, just as Teddy flew off, the black thing flew out from the treetops again, cawing as it followed him.

Hey!

Teddy’s gaze hardened. ’So, you want to be a pest, huh?’

He wheeled around and gave chase immediately.

Even without diving, just in level flight, Teddy was faster.

As for aerial combat, Teddy was completely unafraid.

But the moment he turned to fly over, the black thing immediately dove back into the trees.

Teddy halted. He still didn’t like dense thickets.

He let out a few warning cries, then turned and left.

He had barely gotten far when the black thing flew out again.

This time, Teddy paid it no mind.

He’d seen how obnoxious these things could be on the grasslands—they clearly couldn’t beat him, but they insisted on harassing him anyway.

They’d even go and pluck feathers from that golden eagle fellow.

It was only because of the trees. If this were the open grasslands, Teddy would have definitely shown it just how sharp his talons were.

Seeing Teddy fly far away and ignore it completely, the black thing cawed twice, then turned and disappeared into the forest.

「At the assembly point, far in the distance.」

Zhang Hancheng and the others were pressing Shen Xin to recount the process of hunting down the poachers.

Hearing that Dawag had actually dared to attack the camp, Li Fang clicked his tongue. "That’s ruthless. What was he thinking? Isn’t that just asking to die?"

On this point, Chen Guanglin had some insight. He sighed, "Men die for wealth, and birds die for food. It’s just like drug traffickers. They know they’ll face death if they’re caught, but they do it anyway."

"Why? Isn’t it because the profits are so high? Think about it. They knew the camp was mostly empty and thought they had a chance of success."

"And if they had succeeded, that would have been a seven-million-yuan payout. Tell me, wouldn’t you be tempted?"

Shen Xin nodded. Wealth moves the hearts of men; it was as simple as that.

After some more idle chatter, Yang Qingmin checked the time. It had already been forty minutes. He asked worriedly, "Shen Xin, why isn’t Teddy back yet?"

At his words, Zhang Hancheng and the others all turned to look at Shen Xin.

In truth, they had started to worry half an hour after Teddy left.

They felt that at a bird’s flight speed, half an hour was more than enough time to circle all of Dingshan.

Shen Xin himself had said that when they were searching for Dawag on the grasslands, Teddy had covered a range of several dozen kilometers.

This place was tiny in comparison.

Shen Xin said, "He should be fine."

Yang Qingmin and the others were worried, and so was Shen Xin.

Based on Shen Xin’s understanding of Teddy, he figured the search should have taken fifteen minutes at most.

But it had already been forty minutes.

In that time, Shen Xin had already run through every possible scenario he could think of.

Seeing the grave expressions on their faces, Li Fang hesitated before suggesting, "Should we send some people out to look for him?"

The other three didn’t speak, their eyes still on Shen Xin.

Just then, a black dot appeared in the distant sky.

Only then did Shen Xin’s secretly clenched fist relax.

The black dot rapidly approached, landing precisely in front of Shen Xin.

In its talons, it clutched a dead sparrow, which it dropped in front of Shen Xin before letting out two cries.

’Eat.’

Shen Xin cursed inwardly. ’Sure enough, he went hunting.’

’I need to find a way to adjust this hunting habit of his.’

But after adjusting it, Shen Xin worried that if Teddy left him and returned to the grasslands, he might forget his hunting skills.

It’s hard to go from a life of luxury to one of frugality. Once you’re used to being fed, who would bother putting in the effort to hunt?

Zhang Hancheng and the others gathered around.

Chen Guanglin secretly patted Zhang Hancheng on the shoulder and said in a low voice, "Old Zhang, let’s not do this again in the future."

Zhang Hancheng didn’t say anything, just nodded slightly.

The risk was a little too high.

Shen Xin removed the body camera from Teddy and then picked up the sparrow.

Poor little thing. Its head was broken.

He couldn’t possibly let Teddy eat it. Chen Wanbin had warned him to avoid feeding Teddy animals from the city, for fear of excessive heavy metals.

Shen Xin went to the car and got a white mouse.

’From now on, if I bring Teddy along, I’ll have to keep a cage of mice in the car at all times.’

"Don’t look at me, I’ve already eaten. It’s your turn," Shen Xin muttered when he saw Teddy pinning the white mouse’s head with its foot and looking up at him. Only then did Teddy begin to eat.

Meanwhile, Zhang Hancheng and the others were gathered around, watching the video downloaded from the body camera.

On the tablet, they saw Teddy fly straight up, the sprawling expanse of Dingshan immediately falling away beneath him.

After watching for a moment, Chen Guanglin asked, "He’s flying so high. Can he even see anything?"

The words had barely left his mouth when the camera began to zoom in as Teddy lowered his altitude.

Soon, Teddy began to glide, flying level.

The camera view swept smoothly over the ground, capturing the area covered by the camouflage netting.

"Holy crap, it’s real!" Li Fang exclaimed.

Zhang Hancheng and the other two were also in disbelief.

"How did he spot it?" Yang Qingmin asked, completely amazed, pointing at the video. "He must have been flying several hundred meters high before, right? That high up."

From several hundred meters up, over a vast, dense, green forest, with the target covered by camouflage netting, and only one person leaning against a tree smoking—and he was still spotted?

Chen Guanglin clicked his tongue. "This is basically a reconnaissance satellite."

Zhang Hancheng nodded in agreement. "Think about it. Shen Xin already told us this Hunting Falcon’s eyes are incredible. It can spot a small mouse on the ground from a thousand meters up, so finding this is perfectly normal, isn’t it?"

"The key is how fast he is."

He pointed to the time stamp on the video. "Look. From the moment he took off to when he found this place, it was just over three minutes. Just think how terrifyingly efficient that is."

Yang Qingmin nodded in deep agreement.

In their line of work, public security, they had a lot of contact with drones.

During large-scale events, for example, if a drone was flying overhead and was ordered to find a person...

...it would have to get extremely close, and the operator would have to strain their eyes to the point of exhaustion just to locate the individual.

But Teddy was a different story. He flew high, saw far and wide, and found the target in minutes.

His reconnaissance ability was in a completely different league from a drone.

Li Fang rewound the video to observe it more closely.

Teddy had lowered his altitude and circled over the camouflage netting for a while, getting a very clear shot.

"This has to be the real casino."

Li Fang immediately had someone bring over a detailed topographical map of the Dingshan area.

Then, starting from the take-off point, he used the video to trace Teddy’s flight path and cross-referenced it with the map, attempting to pinpoint the casino’s location.

After a long moment, he tapped a location on the map with his pen and said in a low voice, "That’s it. It should be right here."

Yang Qingmin squinted at the circled location.

It was quite far from them, in the central area of Dingshan.

Covered with camouflage netting, all secretive.

Add the signal jamming to that... if they had searched for it normally, God knows how long it would have taken to find.

But with Teddy, they found its location in minutes.

"Damn it."

Even the usually calm Yang Qingmin couldn’t help but curse, then said, "This falcon is incredible. When do you think drones will ever reach this falcon’s level?"

Zhang Hancheng glanced at Teddy, who had finished his white mouse and was now sidling up to Shen Xin, and thought, ’Who knows.’

In any case, for now, Teddy’s search capabilities were far superior to any drone.