Animal Detective

Chapter 348: Chapter 284: It Was Supposed to Be Fine

There was a hidden door on the second floor.

It was well-hidden. From the outside, it looked like a fire hydrant access panel, faced with marble and fitted seamlessly into the wall.

It could only be opened from the inside.

If you were just passing by and didn’t know about it, you’d never spot it.

Now, the marble had been smashed and the door forced open.

’It would be strange if they hadn’t gotten a tip-off and done some recon beforehand.’

’So there was definitely something wrong with this place.’

Yuan Mingtao went to the office area deeper inside first.

He searched several offices but found nothing.

Only then did he head to the hostesses’ lounge behind the hidden door.

Apparently, the establishment had two teams of hostesses with different duties.

Behind the hidden door was a cramped corridor that led to a fairly large room at the end.

Nine hostesses in various outfits were now squatting on the floor, their IDs being checked.

The stench of cheap perfume in the air was even stronger, almost to the point of being suffocating.

As far as the eye could see, the room of several hundred square feet was a mess. Cosmetics and various work uniforms were thrown everywhere. In a corner were several boxes of jelly cups, mouthwash, and the like.

’This was a decent-sized operation, probably with ten to twenty staff.’

In the far back, there was another hidden door, which opened to reveal a small elevator.

’That must be their escape route.’

’Of course, by now, it had surely been cut off.’

Yuan Mingtao entered, wrinkling his nose, and led Qiuqiu to search for the target.

Shen Xin observed silently. In fact, he had already spotted the target.

’That kind of person doesn’t just have a lingering scent; their physical appearance changes too.’

’Anyone who had worked for a few years at a local precinct or in the narcotics division could spot one in a crowd almost instantly.’

Qiuqiu sniffed around and quickly stopped in front of a woman in a minidress, letting out two sharp barks.

Yuan Mingtao finally let out a sigh of relief and quickly signaled that there was an issue with the woman.

"I didn’t do it!"

The woman shouted in a panic.

The officers on scene immediately moved in and took her away for a urine test.

Just as Yuan Mingtao was about to tell the referee that the competition was over, he saw Shen Xin repeatedly giving him a pointed look.

’Don’t be so hasty. We’ve found the user, but not the stash yet.’

It dawned on Yuan Mingtao. A wave of belated fear washed over him, and he quickly had Qiuqiu resume the search.

Shen Xin thought, ’Does he even need to search? It has to be in her locker. Just get the woman’s name, find her locker, and search it. He’s bound to find something.’

But since they had already gotten this far, it probably wasn’t a huge issue, so Shen Xin wasn’t worried anymore.

He glanced around, his gaze falling upon the employee code of conduct on the wall.

’Well, look at that,’ he thought. ’The Eight Great Service Standards, the Ten Musts, and the Twelve Proactive Actions.’

Shen Xin tapped one of the hostesses nearby, pointed to the rules on the wall, and asked if they actually followed them.

Things like no using cell phones, always smiling, proactively offering tissues, and so on.

’It’s a big establishment, after all. The service standards are pretty high.’

The hostess was very direct: "We’re just here to fuck."

Shen Xin shook his head to himself.

Meanwhile, after some effort, Yuan Mingtao finally found the stash in an employee locker.

He excitedly informed the referee that he had completed the search task.

The referee nodded slightly and stopped the recording.

The group left the scene.

Li Yinjiang nervously asked how it went and whether it was difficult.

"It was fine." Yuan Mingtao seemed much more relaxed.

Shen Xin thought so, too.

’The difficulty didn’t seem that high,’ he mused. ’Perhaps Wan Chao and his team designed this event just to give the handlers a chance to experience the whole process on-site.’

Li Yinjiang felt relieved, then reminded Shen Xin that time was probably a crucial factor.

If the event itself wasn’t very difficult, then speed would be the deciding factor.

"But we have Celestial Skill. I’m confident we’ll take first place," Li Yinjiang said, looking at Celestial Skill, who had run to squat by Shen Xin’s feet the moment she got in the car.

Shen Xin thought so, too.

’With Celestial Skill’s abilities, it should be no problem.’

Xin Zifeng had just hung up the phone. He told the driver to set off, then said the "battle" at the next location was over; they could get straight to work once they arrived.

After that last raid, the group had grown more familiar. Xin Zifeng started chatting with them, curiously asking what breed Celestial Skill was, as he’d never seen one like her.

Drug dogs were usually Springer Spaniels, Labradors, or Malinois.

Celestial Skill was clearly none of those.

When he heard from Shen Xin that she was a stray, Xin Zifeng was astonished, never imagining a stray could be trained into a police dog.

It was a short drive, and they quickly reached their destination.

It was a fairly large club.

It had a KTV, a foot spa, and bathing facilities.

"Good luck."

As they got out of the car, Xin Zifeng even patted Shen Xin’s shoulder with a word of encouragement.

Shen Xin frowned slightly, feeling like there was a deeper meaning to the way Xin Zifeng had patted him.

’Was he trying to warn me that this would be a tough one?’

’It wouldn’t matter if it was. Celestial Skill’s abilities were more than enough to handle it.’

Shen Xin held Celestial Skill’s leash and murmured to her about the task ahead; she was familiar with the scents of all the drugs on the market.

The club had three floors.

The first floor was the KTV. Mindful of the time, Shen Xin quickly began his search.

In the first room, officers were checking IDs.

A few men were still trying to argue their way out of it, insisting they had met the girls online and this was their first time meeting in person.

’I wonder if her name is Candy,’ Shen Xin thought wryly. He didn’t have time to watch the drama and quickly swept the room with Celestial Skill.

’If she found anything, I could confirm it instantly by hearing her thoughts.’

He swept through all twenty-plus private rooms on the first floor but found nothing.

That was to be expected.

’Probably in the staff lounge, just like before,’ he figured.

The second floor was a main lobby with a buffet.

Shen Xin swept through it just as quickly, but still found nothing.

Then he headed straight for the third floor.

The third floor was filled with private rooms, presumably where the "business" took place.

As Shen Xin searched his way through, he already had a good sense of the place just by looking at the room layouts.

’A handjob joint at best,’ he concluded.

The problem was, he didn’t find any hidden doors.

The staff lounge was at the very back of the third floor.

It was quite large. Waiters, security guards, electricians, and other staff also rested there.

The place was surprisingly clean, and there was even a duty roster posted on the wall.

Shen Xin shot Xin Zifeng a questioning look.

’This place seems legitimate.’

After a quick search of the staff area, he still came up empty.

Shen Xin looked at Xin Zifeng again. ’Could this be part of the test, too? Is there a hidden door that I’m supposed to find?’

’No, that can’t be it. The competition is about sniffing out drugs.’

Suppressing his doubts, Shen Xin backed out and went through the third floor again, paying special attention to all the nooks and crannies.

Having been on so many raids with his local precinct, Shen Xin could tell if there was a hidden door or not.

After another sweep, Shen Xin was fairly certain there really were no hidden doors.

’Something’s not right!’

Shen Xin’s brows furrowed.

Yuan Mingtao whispered, "What’s going on? We’ve searched top to bottom, how have we not found anything?"

He believed in Celestial Skill’s ability.

It was just like the second event that morning; despite the strong distractions, Celestial Skill had still found the target immediately.

Shen Xin shook his head slightly, glancing again at Xin Zifeng and the referee.

Xin Zifeng’s expression was a little unnatural. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

’So there is a problem, I just haven’t found it yet.’

’This is bizarre.’

Shen Xin led Celestial Skill on another thorough search, from top to bottom.

’With Celestial Skill’s abilities, this shouldn’t be happening.’

In the middle of his search, the club’s owner rushed over. He was a middle-aged man in a suit who looked quite respectable.

He repeatedly explained to the lead officer that his establishment was completely legitimate and had none of that "shady business."

He even offered to let the officers check his accounting books to prove his innocence.

From what Shen Xin had seen himself, he also felt the place was legitimate.

’But since they brought me here for a competition, there has to be a problem, right?’

Shen Xin was starting to get a headache.

Seeing Shen Xin doggedly searching everywhere, Xin Zifeng couldn’t help but whisper to the referee, "Should we give him a hint?"

The referee hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

In truth, this competition event was designed first and foremost to be realistic, and secondly, to be a double-blind test.

Some of the locations had problems, based on prior intelligence.

And some, like the current one, had no problems at all.

The point was to test the handler’s trust in their canine’s search ability. If the dog couldn’t find anything, it meant there was nothing to be found.

But just then, Celestial Skill, who had searched her way to the kitchen storage room on the second floor, suddenly stopped and began barking at a shelf.

Shen Xin immediately heard her thoughts: ’Something’s wrong here.’

It was the oil.

Shen Xin looked at the second-to-last shelf, at the large tins of shortening.

That was the target Celestial Skill had found.

"Referee, the target has been located," Shen Xin announced immediately.

’I knew it,’ he thought. ’There had to be something here.’

’And damn, was it hidden well.’

Shen Xin picked up a tin of oil and looked it over.

’Hidden inside?’

These kinds of tins looked airtight, but in reality, it was difficult to create a perfect seal.

The scent of drugs is unique, and its molecules would slowly permeate the packaging and the oil itself. No matter how faint, a police dog would be able to smell it.

There were many cases, for example, of criminals hiding drugs in a car’s gas tank, only to have them discovered by a canine unit.

After all, a police dog’s sense of smell is hundreds of thousands of times more sensitive than a human’s.

However, when Shen Xin looked up, he found both the referee and Xin Zifeng staring at him, their eyes wide with shock.

The next moment, Xin Zifeng spun around with a WHOOSH and sprinted out of the room.

In that instant, Xin Zifeng’s mind went blank.

’They said this place was clean! How the hell did he find something?!’