Animal Detective

Chapter 328 - 268: He’s Simply the Dog King

’This is a bit inefficient.’

And it’s not just Shitang Mountain. To the south, there are several more mountains like Lang Xue and Zhang Jun, stretching seven or eight kilometers from north to south.

How long is this search going to take?

Shen Xin voiced his doubts. Wang Qing was clearly aware of the issue as well, saying, "There’s nothing we can do. The main problem is we’re short on drone pilots. You still need people watching the feeds to identify anything. Otherwise, we could bring in a couple more drones to search at the same time."

Shen Xin inwardly shook his head. The efficiency was just too low.

Besides, they weren’t even sure Fan Lei was hiding in the mountains.

But on second thought, there was some logic to Liu Baoqing’s theory.

After murdering Xu Rulin, his plan was to cross the mountains to get back to his dorm.

He was in prison for ten years, but he got out in 2014. He must have been aware of how rapidly society had developed since then.

The guy might be a bit rough around the edges, but he wasn’t a fool.

He was ruthless in his methods. Even Zhang Hancheng considered him a pro, which was why he’d thought to investigate him by starting with He Wei.

So, from Fan Lei’s perspective, he likely knew that escaping the ubiquitous surveillance cameras wouldn’t be easy.

So what was his plan?

Hiding in the mountains until the heat died down would be a decent option.

He was a veteran criminal. In the old days, perps knew to lie low after committing a crime and only make a run for it after the heat was off.

There were mountains to the north and south here. If he just holed up somewhere, he would be incredibly difficult to find.

As for food and water, he could have prepared some in advance. As long as he could endure the hardship, hiding out for a while was definitely possible.

Fan Lei could eat instant noodles every day, which showed he could handle rough living.

Shen Xin thought it over for a moment, then went to find Cui Xuesong, who was in charge of the on-site search.

He was the deputy captain of the New District’s criminal investigation division and was responsible for the search operation here.

Shen Xin explained his idea.

Cui Xuesong nodded in agreement.

Liu Baoqing had actually discussed the theory of Fan Lei hiding in the mountains with him before proposing it.

"The efficiency is a little low," Cui Xuesong said with a slight frown, watching Wang Qing and his partner in the distance.

But organizing a ground search with officers would be even less efficient.

The area was huge—at least ten square kilometers of mountainous terrain. How many people would it take to search all of that?

Shen Xin turned to look at the verdant Shitang Mountain, the wheels in his head turning as he searched for a solution.

’A search on foot is out of the question. It’s too slow.’

’The last time they searched Dingshan, it completely wore everyone out.’

’If people won’t work... what about dogs?’

An idea suddenly struck Shen Xin. He remembered the time he’d had Tian Kui lead a pack of dogs to run all over the mountains.

"Captain Cui, I have an idea," Shen Xin said quickly.

「Half an hour later.」

Liu Baoqing arrived after hearing the news.

Cai Zhe arrived right on his heels.

And, of course, so did his army of dogs.

Tian Kui and the others.

He had even brought Celestial Skill along. Although she was still nursing her pups, her body had mostly recovered.

Add to them Odin and his mate, Frigga.

Then there was Tiger Stripes and his two companions.

In total, there were exactly 41 dogs.

Cai Zhe brought out a large cardboard box, saying it was a good thing Shen Xin had asked him to prepare in advance. He wouldn’t have been able to gather everything on such short notice.

He was talking about the GPS collars.

When the K-9 program began, Shen Xin had already thought of this and had a batch of collars custom-made. This way, when the police dogs were sent out, they wouldn’t get lost.

Next, Tian Kui and the other dogs were all fitted with K-9 vests from the training base.

Cai Zhe came over and worked with Shen Xin, putting the collars on all the dogs and attaching cameras and power banks to their vests.

Liu Baoqing and the others just gathered around to watch.

It was a rather troublesome process. Shen Xin recalled Cai Zhe mentioning that the folks over at Songpu had smart helmets for their K-9s. They had integrated cameras and wireless transmission modules, which were much more convenient than their current setup.

’I’ll have to ask him to look into those later.’

’Having helmets like that would make reconnaissance so much easier.’

After some fiddling, everything was ready. Shen Xin grabbed a walkie-talkie and ran a short distance away to test it.

"Everyone, sit!"

Shen Xin gave the command from several dozen meters away.

Over by the dogs, Shen Xin’s voice erupted from the walkie-talkies in all the vests.

A few of the dogs stirred, looking around for the source of the sound.

However, Shen Xin had already taught them about the walkie-talkies and that his voice would come from them.

The command, however, remained.

All 41 dogs sat down in perfect unison.

Only Tian Kui and Tiger Stripes, who had finally found an opportunity to mess around together, dawdled before reluctantly sitting down.

Even though they were somewhat prepared for it, the sight still startled everyone present.

Cui Xuesong was dumbfounded. He turned to Liu Baoqing and said, "Lao Liu, this kid is practically the Dog King."

Liu Baoqing nodded in profound agreement, inwardly stunned.

Shen Xin’s voice rang out again. "Everyone, turn around."

Having gone through it once, the pack had adapted. They all turned around in unison.

The display once again left everyone present speechless.

Wang Qing and his partner stopped operating their drone, simply staring with their mouths agape.

Shen Xin walked over and said, "Captain Liu, I think we’re good to go."

Liu Baoqing nodded numbly.

Shen Xin’s plan was to use this pack of K-9s to comb the entire mountain range.

With the GPS collars, they could track their locations, and with the cameras and drones, they could see whatever the dogs found.

Once a dog picked up Fan Lei’s scent, they could immediately pinpoint his location.

And with 41 dogs fanning out across the mountains, the scope and speed of the search would be far greater than what drones could achieve.

Meanwhile, Shen Xin could issue commands at any time through the walkie-talkie.

"If you say it’ll work, then let’s do it."

Liu Baoqing was truly baffled.

He had never seen a spectacle like this, nor had he ever experienced anything of the sort.

Shen Xin didn’t waste any more time. It was already nine in the morning.

Using the blanket from Fan Lei’s bed, Shen Xin communicated with each K-9, having them memorize the scent.

He then instructed them to search for that scent in the mountains and to follow his commands when they heard them.

As for the few dogs that hadn’t reached the second stage of training yet, Shen Xin couldn’t worry about them now.

In any case, the majority were at the second stage and could understand his intentions.

After quite a bit of effort, he finally got the message across to all of them.

Shen Xin clapped his hands to get all the dogs’ attention.

Then, pointing toward Shitang Mountain, he roared, "Go!"

With a WHOOSH, Tian Kui shot forward.

And of course, Tiger Stripes wasn’t about to be left behind.

Behind them, dozens of dogs surged up the mountain like a tidal wave.

The sight sent a shiver down everyone’s spine.

Shen Xin went over to Cai Zhe’s computer.

He had numbered all the K-9s’ GPS collars and imported them onto a map.

This way, he could track the location of Tian Kui and the others at all times, and also see if any of the dogs were slacking off instead of working.

And sure enough, they hadn’t gotten far before Tiger Stripes and Tian Kui strayed from the main pack, veering left and circling behind some houses.

They were trying to sneak off.

Shen Xin immediately grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Tiger Stripes! Tian Kui! What do you two think you’re doing? Get back here!"

On the map, the two dots stopped, then sullenly rejoined the main pack.

Cai Zhe shot Shen Xin a thumbs-up.

He knew that the one thing Tiger Stripes feared most was Shen Xin.

Climbing a mountain is difficult for humans, but for dogs, it’s much easier.

Seeing the dogs were still clustered together, Shen Xin gave another command for them to spread out and search on their own instead of following each other.

By this time, Zhang Hancheng and his team had also arrived after hearing the news.

They stared in disbelief at the map, which was covered in red dots swarming all over the mountainside.

"I’ve never seen anything like it. Never," Du Yong said, shaking his head repeatedly.

Zhang Hancheng watched with rapt attention.

It was a grand operation, but whether they could actually find Fan Lei was another question entirely.

And they still weren’t even sure if Fan Lei was on the mountain at all.

The dogs were fast. They scattered and ran all over the mountainside.

Shen Xin watched their numbers on the screen, using the walkie-talkie to correct any dog that ran in the wrong direction.

His general order was for them to search southward.

The terrain to the south was all mountains, and he had a feeling Fan Lei would hide in that direction.

Half an hour later, the fastest dogs had already reached a point two kilometers south of their starting position, leaving the Shitang Mountain area behind.

Soon, more and more dogs were running beyond its borders.

Still no sign of him.

If they found something, a dog would stop and bark.

Another twenty minutes passed. The farthest dogs were now almost three kilometers away.

Just then, Cai Zhe suddenly pointed to one of the dots. "Shen Xin, Tianyi has stopped! Did he find something?"

On the map, the red dot representing Tianyi had stopped and was now moving slowly.

That meant he was no longer running; he might have found something.

Shen Xin immediately looked over at Wang Qing.

At the same time, Cai Zhe remotely activated the camera on Tianyi’s vest.

An image appeared on the screen.

There was a microphone, so they could hear Tianyi barking.

Through the shaky camera lens, they could see a space hollowed out under a large rock about ten meters away.

A man was standing there, shouting at Tianyi and throwing rocks he picked up from the ground.

"It’s Fan Lei!"

Zhang Hancheng’s eyes went wide as he gasped in astonishment.

They had actually found him!