Animal Detective

Chapter 351: Chapter 287: Playing Tricks

Ningshan City, at the bustling Old Street intersection.

Here, the new and the old coexisted. There were skyscrapers that pierced the clouds, as well as old buildings steeped in classic Jiangnan charm.

Centered around the subway station were numerous large shopping malls and several pedestrian streets, making it an incredibly bustling area.

It was nine in the morning, but being a Saturday, the pedestrian street was already teeming with people.

In a corner of the entrance plaza, the competing teams had already assembled.

Everyone was in plain clothes, and none of the police dogs wore their official K9 vests.

Today was the second-to-last day of the competition, and the event was hard-surface tracking.

Peng An and his group were isolated.

Fang Weijie, however, didn’t seem to mind at all. He was busy pulling Li Yanfei aside for some last-minute instructions.

"Yanfei, you’re our last hope."

Fang Weijie’s expression was grim.

In the previous events, Peng An had suffered a crushing defeat.

To be more precise, all of them, the professionals, had been utterly defeated by the amateur, Shen Xin.

Public security and crime prevention, narcotics search, explosives search, blood-trail tracking—Shen Xin had dominated every single event.

All Fang Weijie wanted now was to reclaim the reputation of their "Peng An, the Kings of Jiangbei" in the final two events, the ones Number One was best at.

Li Yanfei nodded grimly and turned to look to the side.

Over there, twelve of the teams were gathered together, their discussion on strategies for the upcoming assessment as sharp as a battle of words.

With Ningshan having switched sides, Peng An was now the only team that didn’t know the details of the assessment.

But it didn’t matter.

"Number One, it’s all up to you."

Li Yanfei looked at Number One, who was squatting obediently by his side.

’So what if they know the test questions? In the end, it all comes down to skill.’

Having solved so many criminal cases, Li Yanfei was supremely confident when it came to tracking.

Just then, the team leaders’ phones vibrated. They had received a message from the organizing committee.

The test prompt had arrived.

On Shen Xin’s side, Li Yinjiang read the prompt aloud in front of everyone.

[A Class-A wanted fugitive has infiltrated our city. After a thorough investigation, the suspect was located at a hotel near the Old Street area. However, by the time police officers arrived on the scene, the suspect had already fled in a panic, leaving behind a personal bag containing clothes.]

[The municipal bureau immediately launched a large-scale dragnet search. With the help of the Skynet system, the target was spotted on the Old Street pedestrian street at 11:40 last night, via Xingguang Square’s surveillance cameras.]

[The trail then went cold. You are now to use K9 units to track the suspect. Upon finding the target, do not act rashly. Report immediately.]

After Li Yinjiang finished reading, he looked at the group.

Meng Fuqiang nodded slightly, saying that the test prompt was more or less what he had been told in advance.

They were to track a suspect in a real-world environment, right in the most bustling part of the city.

Shi Xianbo said, "It was almost midnight last night. Over nine hours have passed since then."

"Also, the Old Street area gets cleaned at night, right? It’s an open area with people coming and going. The scent will have dissipated significantly, making it hard to track."

Everyone nodded, understanding the difficulty.

Hundreds of thousands of people passed through here every day, each one leaving behind a scent.

Now, the K9s had to pick out the target from among hundreds of thousands of scents, and that was after nine hours and a thorough cleaning.

Li Yinjiang asked, "Shen Xin, are you confident?"

All eyes turned to Shen Xin.

They knew that tracking was the Peng An team’s strong suit.

After all, Number One was a national-level meritorious dog.

Shen Xin glanced at Tian Kui beside him and said, "Shouldn’t be a problem."

’Since this is supposed to be realistic, a suspect would naturally choose to flee through crowded areas.’

’Does that mean you just give up the chase?’

"But there is one question," Shen Xin said after a moment’s hesitation. "Look at the last part of the message. Why would they add a reminder not to act rashly and to report immediately upon finding the target?"

Everyone froze for a second.

Shen Xin continued, "What I mean is, could this be a real wanted fugitive?"

’Otherwise, why add such a superfluous line?’

The expressions on everyone’s faces changed abruptly.

"Now that you mention it..." Meng Fuqiang crossed his arms, his brow furrowed deeply.

The organizing committee had pulled quite a few stunts during this Grand Competition.

Like with the previous drug search event, they had been taken directly to a live drug bust.

And Wan Chao and the others had repeatedly emphasized "real-world application." So, could this assessment be another live operation involving a real wanted fugitive?

The contestant from the Nanjiang team was Wang Xiaojiang. His K9 partner was Gang Ya, a German Shepherd.

The corner of his eye twitched. "They wouldn’t be that ruthless, would they?"

’Face a wanted fugitive? A Class-A one at that?’

Everyone nodded, thinking to themselves, ’No, they wouldn’t go that far.’

After all, they were operating alone with just their K9 partners this time.

If there really was a fugitive, it would be incredibly dangerous.

Shen Xin said, "What I mean is, it might not be a Class-A fugitive, but there could be a real suspect who committed some other crime, and they’re having us track him."

"So, when we start tracking, we shouldn’t rely solely on our dogs. We should also use our heads and consider how a suspect would try to escape. That might help our search."

Shen Xin’s theory was that the "wanted fugitive" part was fake, but there might be a real suspect being used for the assessment.

Considering the events Wan Chao and the others had designed before, it was a real possibility.

The others exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

Li Yinjiang said, "Xiaoshen is right. For example, don’t just search on the main roads. The suspect would definitely take the side streets. If you lose the scent trail, you can try searching those smaller paths."

Everyone nodded, taking note.

Just then, Lv Yuan arrived with the scent source.

It was indeed a bag, containing a few items of clothing.

One by one, the handlers led their dogs forward to get the scent.

When it was Shen Xin’s turn, he glanced at the contents: men’s clothes.

He then took them out to examine the style.

They seemed rather old-fashioned, and all in dark colors.

From this, Shen Xin deduced that the target was likely around forty years old.

’A young person probably wouldn’t wear clothes like these.’

Shen Xin also picked up the pants and held them against his own trouser leg. They were quite a bit shorter.

With that, Shen Xin could roughly estimate the man’s height at around five-foot-seven.

Lv Yuan watched Shen Xin with a peculiar expression.

「Meanwhile, in the intelligent command center at the Old Street Police Station.」

Wan Chao, Wang Peidong, Lin Weinian, and others were observing Shen Xin’s group through the surveillance cameras in Xingguang Square.

They noticed Shen Xin’s unusual actions.

Wan Chao raised an eyebrow. "He must be deducing the suspect’s physical characteristics."

Wang Peidong nodded.

Lin Weinian, however, just smiled without a word and shook his head slightly.

Back at the square, Tian Kui barked once, having confirmed the scent.

Shen Xin put down the clothes, walked back to Wang Xiaojiang and the others, and said, "The suspect is likely a male, around forty years old, about five-foot-seven, and weighs around 165 pounds. The waist on his pants isn’t small, so he’s probably heavyset."

The others stared at him, completely surprised. They had never imagined this kind of approach.

Meng Fuqiang snapped out of it and immediately reminded everyone to look for someone matching Shen Xin’s description.

Shen Xin added, "But that’s not for certain. Everything I said is based on the assumption that these clothes really belong to the suspect and weren’t just randomly picked out. In any case, the scent is still the key."

Everyone nodded, their faces tense with anticipation.

They prepared to begin.

The instructions were to spread out around the perimeter of the square and start searching from different points.

"Shen Xin, good luck!"

Li Jiahui offered a word of encouragement, and Li Yinjiang and the others nodded as well.

All their hopes were pinned on Shen Xin.

Shen Xin took Tian Kui by the leash and found a spot to start.

The position was random, but it didn’t matter.

The starting point was what was critical.

The scent source was confirmed, but it wasn’t certain where the target had passed through.

So, the first step was to determine the direction of the search.

Shen Xin glanced at the others.

Li Yanfei was leading Number One straight toward the pedestrian street ahead.

Wang Xiaojiang and the others also set off on their own paths.

Shen Xin didn’t rush off. First, he thought.

’The prompt mentioned that the target was captured on the square’s surveillance cameras.’

’But the square is huge, and it didn’t specify which camera.’

Shen Xin pulled out his phone and looked at a map.

’Assuming this suspect is real, if I put myself in his shoes, how would I escape?’

’I’d definitely avoid the cameras.’

Shen Xin zoomed in on the map.

The greater Old Street area was centered around the subway station and covered a large area. The current pedestrian street was to the southeast of the intersection, running north-south for over a kilometer.

To the west of the pedestrian street was a row of shopping malls right next to the main road.

To the east was the antique-style Charming Street.

It was really just old houses and old streets, with some man-made, antique-style buildings added in. In essence, it was another commercial pedestrian street.

There were more small alleys over there, so there should be fewer surveillance cameras.

Shen Xin figured that if he were the suspect, he would have gone that way.

So, Shen Xin led Tian Kui and headed straight for the east side.

「In the police station’s command center.」

After the contestants started moving, a topographical map appeared on the big screen, showing 14 red dots, each with a corresponding label.

Each K9 was wearing a GPS collar, making it easy to track everyone’s movements.

Wan Chao stroked his chin, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Shen Xin is taking the unconventional path again."

Lin Weinian said, "This time, however, his cleverness has backfired. He’s fallen for it."

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

Considering that Shen Xin was not only highly skilled but also unpredictable and always full of surprises, the organizers had played a little trick on this event.

It was originally just a standard urban tracking assessment.

The bustling Old Street area, combined with a nine-hour time lapse, already made it very difficult.

But now, they had deliberately made some changes to the prompt, planted some key information, and even specially prepared the scent source.

All of it was to mislead Shen Xin.

It seemed now that Shen Xin had completely fallen for the trap. He had overthought the assessment and led himself in the wrong direction.

Because in their minds, the correct approach was to simply search the square carefully, confirm the scent, and then track directly.

There was no need to consider the suspect’s height and weight, or whether he would be avoiding cameras.

And there was no so-called wanted fugitive.

Of course, they weren’t intentionally trying to suppress Shen Xin. Rather, they wanted to use this opportunity to teach him a lesson: trusting your own judgment is fine, but you must also have greater faith in your K9’s abilities.

Seeing the red dot representing Shen Xin move toward Charming Street, Wang Peidong shook his head slightly, but then said, "However, if he hadn’t considered any of this and just started tracking like everyone else, I would have been truly disappointed."

After all, Shen Xin is a criminal detective; he should think like one.

Just as he said that, they noticed several other dots starting to move toward Charming Street.

Clearly, they had been led astray by Shen Xin.