Animal Detective

Chapter 363: Chapter 299: Showing Off a Little

Even though Shen Xin had said as much, Guo Jin was still hesitant.

As the group left the restaurant, Guo Jin grumbled that Sun Yongjie shouldn’t have brought the matter up.

He was feeling something strange, like he’d just picked up a brand-new car from the dealership. He’d driven it home but couldn’t even bear to peel off the protective plastic, let alone step too hard on the gas.

’It’s not like I was the one who brought it up,’ Sun Yongjie thought.

Besides, he figured that since they had a police dog, they ought to use it. They couldn’t just put it on a pedestal.

"So what if I put him on a pedestal? I want to," Guo Jin huffed.

A police dog used to life in the big city had just arrived in this remote area. Who knew if he was adjusting well? What was wrong with being a little extra careful with him?

Sun Yongjie couldn’t win the argument, so he just waved his hand and dropped it.

When they got back to the station, they happened to run into Li Shi riding out on his bicycle.

He was already in the eighth grade, yet it had taken him until now to finish writing a self-criticism.

And then there was Zhang Xi, another problem child, who still hadn’t finished his.

The bearings on Li Shi’s bicycle were probably shot; it made a whining sound as he rode, like a sad little trumpet.

Guo Jin saw him and quickly added a warning, telling him to go straight back to school and stop fooling around.

But the kid immediately turned left out the gate, heading west.

The town’s middle school was to the right.

"Hey, Shiwaizi! Where are you going? It’s already dark!" Guo Jin shouted after him.

From the distance, Li Shi’s voice drifted back. "None of your business."

Guo Jin stomped his foot lightly but couldn’t deal with it right now.

Shen Xin saw this and, after a moment’s thought, asked Guo Jin if they should stop the boy.

It was after seven at night and completely dark. It wouldn’t be good if he got into trouble running around.

Guo Jin shook his head and said as they walked, "He’s probably heading home. He has a little sister and an elderly grandmother. His grandmother is riddled with health problems, including varicose veins, and has trouble walking."

"He often rides his bike back to check on them. He knows the roads, and he’s old enough now. He should be fine."

Shen Xin hesitated but didn’t press the matter.

Meanwhile, Tian Kui had been led out.

He Wen Yu was filming with a camera; this was Tian Kui’s first mission in Ma Chang Town.

The smart helmet was already fastened onto Tian Kui. Shen Xin handed the leash to Guo Jin, gesturing for him to take it.

It was a good chance for them to get familiar with handling a police dog.

Guo Jin didn’t take it, demurring, "You should do it. I’m too nervous. I don’t want to mess up."

Shen Xin simply passed it to Sun Yongjie instead. "It’s not that complicated," he explained. "Tian Kui is very smart. Just talk to him directly. He’ll understand what you want him to do."

Sun Yongjie wasn’t one to get stage fright and took it without hesitation.

The moment Guo Jin saw this, he changed his tune. "On second thought, I’ll do it. Your own son asked you to feed his goldfish, and you managed to kill it. You don’t know your own strength. Don’t go yanking on Tian Kui."

Annoyed, Sun Yongjie handed the leash back to him. ’Why’d he have to bring that up?’ he thought.

Guo Jin took the leash, glanced at Tian Kui, then tried to hand it back to Shen Xin, still insisting he wasn’t up to it, that he didn’t know what to do and would mess up their coordination.

Tian Kui tilted his head up, watching the leash pass between the three men, and grumbled to himself.

’Are we going or not?’

Shen Xin shoved it back into Guo Jin’s hands.

It wasn’t far. Xu Erleng’s house was just a few hundred meters away in the southern part of town. But Guo Jin suggested they drive, so they wouldn’t tire out Tian Kui.

Sun Yongjie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "By the time we get that old pickup started," he said, "we could’ve walked there already."

So Guo Jin had no choice but to lead Tian Kui and set off on foot.

His pace was erratic, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, as he tried to match Tian Kui’s stride and keep the leash slack.

Shen Xin saw this and simply walked over to unclip the leash. "Don’t bother with the leash," he said. "Let Tian Kui run free. He’ll follow along, it’s fine."

This dog was smart enough to break out of the K-9 base with Tiger Stripes.

Guo Jin gave an embarrassed smile and nodded, agreeing. He figured Tian Kui probably didn’t like being leashed anyway.

The group of six walked quickly toward Xu Erleng’s house.

Along the way, Guo Jin quickly explained the situation.

Xu Erleng’s real name wasn’t Xu Erleng; his given name was Xu Tao.

He was almost sixty, short, and not much to look at. He’d been an old bachelor for most of his life but was skilled at trimming donkey hooves.

It wasn’t until he was forty that a match was made, and he married a woman with some mental health problems. They were just scraping by.

Because of this, he was often mocked. Plus, his wife’s name was Zhou Er’feng. Some people started calling him "erlengzi," a dolt, as a play on her name. Over time, it just became Xu Erleng.

Zhou Er’feng had been unstable since she was a child. She was on medication now, but her condition still fluctuated—some days she was lucid, others she was not.

Xu Erleng had to travel around for his work trimming hooves, so he couldn’t look after Zhou Er’feng.

He’d ask the neighbors to keep an eye on her, but they couldn’t always manage.

Guo Jin said that Zhou Er’feng would wander off and get lost every so often.

But she usually didn’t go far and was easy to find.

On the south side of town, a low-slung house was Xu Erleng’s home.

When they arrived, Xu Erleng was waiting by the door.

He didn’t seem flustered; he was smoking with a neighbor.

He was probably used to it, seeing as she’d gone missing so many times.

Contacting Guo Jin was just a way to get a few more people to help with the search.

So when he saw Guo Jin and the others, he immediately stamped out his cigarette and told everyone to split up and start looking.

"Hold on."

Guo Jin held up a hand and first asked how long she’d been missing.

Xu Erleng shook his head, saying he didn’t know. He had gone out to work in the afternoon and only got back after dusk. He’d asked around and only then realized his wife was gone.

The neighbors all said they hadn’t noticed anything, so he figured it had been several hours.

Guo Jin told him to go get a couple of Zhou Er’feng’s clothing items.

Xu Erleng asked what for.

Only then did Guo Jin pat Tian Kui proudly. "What for? We’re letting the police dog find her."

"A police dog?"

Xu Erleng and his neighbor finally noticed Tian Kui.

"For real?" the neighbor asked curiously. "Is he like one of those police dogs from TV that can sniff out drugs and all that?"

Guo Jin nodded.

Xu Erleng asked curiously, "It’s been several hours. Can the police dog still track her?"

Guo Jin glanced at Shen Xin. "Of course he can. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a police dog, would he? Hey, don’t touch him!"

Seeing Xu Erleng reach out a hand, Guo Jin quickly slapped it away.

The men actually started chatting, completely forgetting that Zhou Er’feng was still missing.

Shen Xin had to speak up and remind them, at which point Guo Jin hurried Xu Erleng to go get the clothes.

The clothes were brought out. Guo Jin glanced at Shen Xin, motioned for Tian Kui to come forward and sniff, and then murmured to the dog that this was the person they were looking for.

He even finished by saying, "If you can’t find her, that’s fine too. Don’t wear yourself out."

’Probably not the best thing to say in front of the family,’ Shen Xin thought.

Unexpectedly, Xu Erleng himself didn’t seem to mind. He even nodded in agreement, saying that if they really couldn’t find her, they could just forget it. He traveled all over the area, and everyone around knew Zhou Er’feng was his wife.

If anyone saw her, they’d be sure to bring her back.

Tian Kui let out a single WOOF, confirming he had the scent.

He sniffed around the courtyard gate for a moment, then suddenly took off, running back in the direction Shen Xin and the others had come from.

Guo Jin hadn’t even processed what was happening until Shen Xin prompted him, letting him know Tian Kui was already on the trail.

"That was so fast."

Guo Jin exclaimed, scrambling to keep up.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know police dogs were impressive, but he hadn’t expected that with just a casual sniff, Tian Kui could pick up a trail from hours ago.

Tian Kui took off at a run, and the group hurried to follow. Shen Xin had to call out and tell Tian Kui to slow down, and only then did the dog slacken his pace.

Tian Kui was now retracing Zhou Er’feng’s steps from that afternoon with perfect accuracy.

It was clear she had wandered around town for a long time, just meandering about.

As they followed, Guo Jin didn’t feel tired at all. On the contrary, he was thrilled, pointing at Tian Kui and chattering to Sun Yongjie and the others. "It’s a miracle! No matter where she went, Tian Kui knows everything."

Eventually, Tian Kui followed the main street west from the crossroads, heading straight out of town.

Sun Yongjie had a sudden realization. "She must be heading back to her parents’ old home."

Xu Erleng sighed, grumbling about how his wife always acted on a whim.

Zhou Er’feng’s parents had passed away, and while she had an older brother, they barely had any contact.

Xu Erleng said, "The night before last, she couldn’t sleep. I heard her muttering, ’Er Feng, Er Feng.’ It seems she thought her late mother was calling her."

After following for so long, Xu Erleng, who was almost sixty, was starting to run out of steam.

Guo Jin just told him to wait there while he and the others continued on.

He Xiangcai, who had come along, remarked that if he’d known, he would have ridden his motorcycle.

Shen Xin nodded in agreement. They should have taken the police car.

But Guo Jin shot him a glare. "What motorcycle? Has Tian Kui said he’s tired? Could he even ride a motorcycle if he was?"

As he spoke, he turned to ask Shen Xin if they should let Tian Kui take a break.

He really was treating Tian Kui like a precious gem.

Shen Xin said there was no need to be so cautious. This amount of activity was nothing for Tian Kui.

After leaving town, they followed for a little over a kilometer before Tian Kui suddenly veered onto a fork in the road that led up a mountain.

It was pitch-black. There were no streetlights on the road, and now that they were heading up the mountain, it was even darker. They had to rely entirely on their flashlights.

Sun Yongjie’s expression started to grow serious.

In the past, whenever Zhou Er’feng got lost, she would mostly wander along the main road or stay near town.

This time, she had wandered this far out and even gone up the mountain.

Sun Yongjie speculated that Zhou Er’feng had probably gotten lost once it became too dark.

Now that she was on the mountain, with her bad leg and slight limp, an accident could easily happen.

And there were wild animals on the mountain, too.

So, without Tian Kui, if they had just followed their old methods, they could have exhausted themselves to death and still not found her. A real disaster could have happened.

It seemed to be a winding dirt road up the mountain. In the distance, against the black night sky, Shen Xin could see a massive pillar with a blinking light—probably a wind turbine at the summit.

Tian Kui never lost the scent. After rounding two bends, he suddenly started barking furiously at a patch of grass up ahead.

The flashlight beams swept over, and a human figure flinched in the grass by the side of the road.

They hurried forward and saw that it was indeed Zhou Er’feng, cowering and hiding from Tian Kui’s barks.

Guo Jin, who had been panting heavily on his way up the mountain, finally let out a long sigh of relief when he saw her. Leaning on his knees to catch his breath, he asked irritably, "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Er Feng... Er Feng..."

She called out in a thin, shrill voice, shielding her eyes from the flashlight beams.

Then she seemed to recognize Guo Jin, getting up to grab his arm while still calling for Er Feng.

She had lost one of her shoes. It was clear she had gotten lost after dark.

Guo Jin comforted her, "Alright, alright. We’ll take you to find Er Feng."

Then he waved a hand, motioning for He Xiangcai to help the woman down the mountain. Only then did he squat in front of Tian Kui, pull him into a joyful hug, and nuzzle him affectionately.

"Tian Kui, how can you be so amazing? You’re the best!"

Guo Jin looked like he wanted to plant a couple of big kisses on Tian Kui.

Sun Yongjie nodded in agreement.

In the pitch-black dark, with Zhou Er’feng having wandered up the mountain on her own... if it weren’t for Tian Kui, they could have run their legs off and never found her.

Tian Kui shrank back. He wasn’t that familiar with Guo Jin yet.

But his inner thoughts betrayed his true feelings.

’That’s all it took?’

He was quite the smug one.