Animal Detective

Chapter 305 - 253: A Dog’s Vanity

Shen Xin ignored her and asked what they were doing here.

Zhao Tianxing snorted. "Xiaoding was worried about you. She wanted to come see how you’re doing, is that a crime?"

Ding Yuwei quickly shot her a glare.

’Although it was my idea to drop by and see what Shen Xin was up to, it was purely out of concern for a colleague.’

Zhao Tianxing, done with her joke, sat down. "It’s nothing much. We went to the New District Branch to pick up some documents. Chen Fang’s case has been transferred."

"Oh?"

Shen Xin raised an eyebrow slightly. He figured it was about time for the case to be transferred.

Even though Chen Fang was adamant in her denial, the chain of evidence was complete, so it didn’t prevent the transfer.

"What about Yu Dalin? What’s the story with him?"

Shen Xin thought of Yu Dalin.

And the situation over in Yanling.

Shen Xin hadn’t asked what happened with that case afterward.

He had only concerned himself with contacting Li Dian and the others to help handle the stray cats and dogs from Chen Fang’s shelter.

Then he had borrowed the branch’s short video account to promote their shelter.

He hoped that after seeing the video, some people would help by adopting some of them.

Zhao Tianxing said, "That old man? What else could they do? Even though he adamantly insisted the dog acted on its own, Yang Wenqing was seriously injured. So it’ll most likely be negligent injury."

The laws were getting stricter these days.

If a dog bites someone, the owner not only has to pay compensation but may also face criminal liability if it’s serious.

Because when you take a dog out, you have a duty of care to prevent it from harming others.

At the time, Yu Dalin didn’t have his black dog on a leash, which resulted in Yang Wenqing’s serious injuries, so he has to bear criminal responsibility.

Zhao Tianxing continued, "But he’s over seventy, so it’ll probably be a one-year suspended sentence."

Shen Xin nodded. He had figured that would be the outcome.

"What about his wife’s death? Is there any evidence linking it to Yang Wenqing?"

"Difficult."

Zhao Tianxing shook her head. "The New District Branch investigated. Yu Dalin’s wife had a stroke at the end of August. She was hospitalized for over half a month until mid-September, and she passed away due to pre-existing conditions."

"And the argument she had with Yang Wenqing was on August 3rd. There’s almost a month in between. How are you supposed to hold him responsible?"

Shen Xin fell silent.

’It’s true. With nearly a month having passed, it would be difficult to prove the stroke was caused by that argument with Yang Wenqing.’

Zhao Tianxing said, "Alright, cases don’t always turn out perfectly. Besides, with his current situation, it’s honestly more agonizing than spending a year or so in prison."

"I heard from Old Ma and the others that he developed an infection after the surgery. His function... in that department... might be completely gone."

She lowered her voice, shivering just thinking about it.

Shen Xin also felt an inexplicable discomfort in his nether regions and didn’t press the topic further. Instead, he asked about the situation in Yanling.

Without a doubt, under Xiong Yongjian’s command, the Yanling side was planning to build this into a major gang-related theft case.

Cai Huafeng’s annual theft case quota was probably already met thanks to this case.

The two of them had just come over to hand off the case files and decided to drop by.

Zhao Tianxing lingered for a while, insisting on casting her line a couple of times. After getting skunked, she left in a huff.

After fishing for a while longer, the sun sank behind Xishan. Shen Xin packed up his gear, ready to head back.

There was a whistle in his pocket.

Shen Xin blew it a few times, the sound echoing through the mountains.

Before long, several dogs darted out from the woods.

Leading the pack was none other than Tian Kui.

Every one of them was filthy; who knows what they’d been up to.

Shen Xin pointed at the reservoir.

Tian Xian, and Loki’s father, Odin—they were all at stage two. A single gesture from Shen Xin was enough for them to understand what he meant.

They all leaped into the water.

To wash themselves.

Covered in this much dirt, he’d still have to hose them down when they got back.

Tian Kui barked at Shen Xin, somewhat reluctant.

Shen Xin had only discovered in the past few days that this guy was afraid of water and wasn’t a good swimmer.

Logically, dogs should have a natural instinct for swimming.

Shen Xin guessed that some bad experience in the past must have made Tian Kui afraid of water.

Shen Xin said, "Go on. Otherwise, you’re getting a wash when we get back anyway. Your choice."

Tian Kui’s current affection level was at seven bars.

Although he wasn’t at stage two, he was naturally smart enough that his comprehension was no worse than Tian Xian and the others who were already at stage two.

His ability to read moods and expressions, in particular, was even better than theirs.

He tilted his head, giving an exasperated and resigned look, and followed them into the reservoir.

But he only dared to stay in the shallows and quickly ran back out.

Right in front of Shen Xin, he vigorously shook himself, showering Shen Xin with water droplets.

"You little rascal!"

Shen Xin wasn’t angry. With a call, the whole pack of cats and dogs followed him down the mountain and back to the base.

The group was quite a sight—thirty-seven dogs in total, including two bloodhounds but not Celestial Skill, plus one cat.

He hadn’t gone far when he ran into a middle-aged man carrying a tackle box, heading up the mountain.

"Officer Shen, how’s the fishing today?"

He greeted Shen Xin cheerfully.

People often came to the reservoir to fish, and this middle-aged man, Huang Weili, was one of the regulars.

Besides fishing, he was also a dog lover.

Seeing Shen Xin command the dogs with a simple call, he was incredibly envious.

He was especially taken with the two bloodhounds and had even asked Shen Xin if he could buy them.

After saying hello, he took some jerky from his pocket and offered it to Tian Kui.

Tian Kui turned his head away, not even giving it a proper look.

The other dogs had a similar reaction.

Huang Weili said, puzzled, "They ate it the day before yesterday. Why won’t they eat it today?"

Shen Xin explained, "That’s because I’ve trained them. In K-9 training, this is called food refusal training. They can’t eat food from anyone but their handler."

Understanding dawned on Huang Weili. He praised them, "That’s amazing. You tell them not to eat, and they just don’t."

’They were all gobbling it down just the day before yesterday.’

’It’s only been a day, and he’s already trained them?’

’That was the easy part,’ Shen Xin thought to himself.

At the K-9 base, food refusal training is very difficult.

They’re dogs, after all. Many are even food-aggressive. Never mind having a fragrant chicken leg placed in front of them and only being allowed to look but not eat. A person couldn’t stand it, let alone a dog.

He’d heard from Li Jiahui that food refusal training was so hard that many dogs were eliminated at this stage.

Only the true warriors who could resist, even while drooling uncontrollably in the face of delicious food, could remain and become qualified police dogs.

But for Shen Xin, this kind of training was a walk in the park.

All it took was a single command. If any of them disobeyed, he’d just have to let them know they’d face the consequences, and that was enough.

And this was precisely why Shen Xin wasn’t rushing into any specialized skill training and was instead focusing on raising their affection levels.

Once their affection level was high enough, they were smart enough to understand human intentions. Then, no matter what he taught them, they could learn it immediately.

"Lao Huang, take it easy out here so late at night. Be safe."

Shen Xin offered a word of caution and left with his pack of dogs.

Huang Weili liked to fish at night because he said that’s when the big fish came out.

He returned to the base.

He ran right into Tang Changhong and Li Yinjiang, who were on their way out.

"Catch any big ones today?" Tang Changhong asked.

He was a leader, after all, so Shen Xin felt a bit awkward and shook his head, saying he hadn’t.

Tang Changhong said, "Then you definitely didn’t chum the spot right. There are big fish in that mountain reservoir."

Watching the two leave, Li Yinjiang couldn’t help but say, "I’m so jealous."

Getting paid to fish. It was enough to make anyone jealous.

Tang Changhong wouldn’t say anything about Shen Xin going fishing, though.

He wasn’t his subordinate, so it wasn’t his place to manage him.

He looked at Tian Kui and the other dogs around Shen Xin and said, "Lao Li, have you noticed? His dogs seem to be getting more and more obedient."

Li Yinjiang nodded in profound agreement.

He had noticed it too.

When these dogs were first selected for the base, their obedience was terrible.

But look at them now. Shen Xin calls, and they come. They do whatever he tells them to do.

What left the deepest impression on him was how, when it was time to go into the kennels each day, many of the dogs would run in on their own and cleverly pull the iron gates shut behind them.

And the key thing was, how long had it been?

He had no idea how Shen Xin had managed it.

He never saw Shen Xin formally training them, just taking them out to play every day.

Tang Changhong smacked his lips. "Some people are just different. What a shame."

He sighed with emotion and left.

After putting all the dogs back in their kennels, he went to check on Celestial Skill.

Celestial Skill had long since reached stage two and had grown increasingly attached to Shen Xin.

Shen Xin calculated that in another three or four days at most, all of these dogs would be able to enter stage two.

Then, he could begin their training.

As for how to train them, that would be up to Li Jiahui.

She was the professional, after all.

Besides, having Li Jiahui handle the training would make it easier to hand them over to other officers later.

The police dogs at the base were all one dog to one handler.

If the handler changed, the police dog wouldn’t necessarily be obedient.

The police dogs Shen Xin wanted to train would have super-strong comprehension, doing whatever they were told, no matter who was giving the command.

He got off work and went home.

The next day, Shen Xin arrived at the base for work on time as usual.

As he drove up to the base entrance, Shen Xin noticed several police cars parked on the side of the road leading up the mountain.

Puzzled, Shen Xin immediately parked his car at the entrance, got out, and walked over.

Walking a short distance up the road, he saw police tape cordoning off an area where Liu Baoqing and a few of his subordinates were gathered around a Prado.

"Captain Liu!"

Shen Xin called out.

Liu Baoqing was startled to see Shen Xin for a moment, then he immediately remembered that Shen Xin was now at the K-9 base training police dogs.

He waved Shen Xin over, beckoning him to come in.

Shen Xin saw they weren’t wearing shoe covers, which meant they must have already processed the scene, so he ducked under the police tape and walked in.

"Captain Liu, what’s going on? Is there a case?"

Shen Xin noticed someone from the forensics team carefully dusting the car’s door handle with a brush, presumably looking for fingerprints.

The fact that they were taking this step meant there must be a case.

The base was backed by the mountain, with a concrete road leading up the mountain in front of it. The main gate of the base was located not far from the start of this mountain road.

But the K-9 base wasn’t the only thing along this mountain road. Further in, there was a small wire mesh factory and some private residences.

If a case had occurred, it was likely related to them.

Liu Baoqing nodded and pointed up the mountain. "A fisherman drowned in the reservoir. Someone heading up the mountain to tend their vegetable patch found him around seven this morning and called it in immediately."

"A night fisherman?"

Shen Xin’s heart skipped a beat. ’It couldn’t be Lao Huang, could it?’

Shen Xin hurriedly described Huang Weili’s clothes and asked if it was him.

Liu Baoqing nodded and asked, surprised, if Shen Xin knew him.

Shen Xin cursed under his breath. It really was Huang Weili.

"Captain Liu, it wasn’t a drowning, was it?" Shen Xin said immediately.

Huang Weili was a veteran angler. He had once bragged to Shen Xin about hooking a grass carp that weighed dozens of pounds.

He’d been in a stalemate with it for over half an hour before his rod snapped.

His reflexes were incredibly fast; he dove headfirst into the pond and managed to drag the broken rod back to shore.

There was probably some exaggeration in the story, but for him to even tell it meant his swimming skills must be excellent.

So how could he have drowned?