Animal Detective

Chapter 312 - 258: Are There Still Professional Killers These Days?

The killer grew angrier the more he thought about it, and in a fit of vicious rage, brutally murdered Huang Weili.

The story was incredibly vivid and detailed.

The next day, the discussions didn’t stop, and it seemed the canvassing work was still ongoing.

Liu Baoqing hadn’t contacted him, and Shen Xin felt it would be rude to bother him.

Shen Xin was curious, but not *that* curious.

To him, it was just an ordinary murder case.

Shen Xin’s focus remained on these dogs.

The lockdown around the entire reservoir on the mountain was finally lifted on the third day.

Only the crime scene itself remained cordoned off with police tape.

The recovery efforts had also concluded.

He heard they had apparently recovered something from the water.

Shen Xin didn’t find that strange.

If they were truly determined to find it, no matter the cost, it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to drain the entire reservoir.

Now that they had pulled out, Shen Xin figured they must have some leads on the case.

It was like he’d thought before: investigating Huang Weili’s social circle was bound to turn something up.

「Five days after the murder.」

Today was also the first day of formal police dog training for these canine candidates.

Excluding Celestial Skill, not all 37 of the canine candidates had entered the second stage.

There were still nine stubborn holdouts.

But Shen Xin felt it was time to begin.

’The sooner the training starts, the sooner I get results, and the sooner I can wrap this whole thing up.’

’I can’t just be stuck at the police dog base forever, can I?’

Watching his colleagues from the New District Branch run around canvassing and investigating, Shen Xin almost missed the days of walking tens of thousands of steps until his legs felt like they would break.

The actual training was left in Li Jiahui’s hands.

She was the professional.

On the training ground, quite a crowd had gathered to watch.

Every one of them wore a complex expression.

Chen Guo and Wang Zhuo stood together, watching with their hands in their pockets.

Li Jiahui was getting the dogs into formation.

The 28 dogs sat in a single line, like a row of soldiers.

"All eyes on me."

Li Jiahui shouted.

Every canine candidate turned to look at her in unison.

Li Jiahui enunciated clearly, raising her right hand. "Watch my hand signal. Down!"

Out of 28 dogs, 27 dropped down instantly.

Only Tian Kui, right in the middle, lay down a beat later.

He tilted his head, his reaction and posture seeming to say, ’I’m only doing this because it’s you.’

Tang Changhong had also come to the scene and was standing with Li Yinjiang, nodding repeatedly as he watched the 28 dogs in perfect formation.

Chen Guo watched this and couldn’t help but mutter, "I finally get why in novels, the righteous sects hate the demonic cultivators and want to fight them to the death."

"Just look at this."

He gestured at the scene before them.

’Look at me,’ he thought. ’I graduated from a police dog vocational program in college—a proper, by-the-book academic background.’

’I had to pass through hell and high water, walk dogs, clean kennels, do all the grunt work... I finally scraped my way up to become a handler.’

’Then I started training police dogs.’

’I poured my heart and soul into it, raising them from pups, carefully nurturing them as they grew up.’

’What’s the difference between that whole process and raising a child?’

’Then we spent every day together. I taught them over and over until they finally learned everything, were fully trained, and became glorious police dogs.’

’How is that any different from raising a child to adulthood?’

’Who could possibly understand all the hardship along the way?’

’And what’s the result? Look at what this Shen Xin character does.’

’Never mind that he’s a complete amateur who just switched careers. He just casually grabbed a bunch of strays from a shelter and brought them back.’

’How long have they been here? And now they’re starting formal training?’

Looking at these strays who would lie down when told to lie down and roll over when told to roll over, Chen Guo felt incredibly frustrated.

’So what was all my hard work for, rolling around on the ground over and over to demonstrate for Knight?’

Next to him, Wang Zhuo nodded in deep agreement and echoed, "Exactly. This is totally unorthodox sorcery."

He felt just like a disciple from a righteous sect who, after years of arduous martial arts training, finally leaves his mountain home only to find that some demonic cultivator mastered their evil arts in just a few days. It was infuriating.

What they were doing now was basic obedience training.

Sit, down, stand, heel, recall, stay, and so on.

Li Jiahui pointed in front of her, and Tian Kui ambled over.

"Follow me."

Li Jiahui led the way.

Tian Kui immediately followed behind her.

"A little closer. Stick to my leg."

Li Jiahui reminded him.

Normally, police dog training uses specialized, simplified commands to build conditioned reflexes in the dogs.

But Shen Xin had specifically instructed that she could communicate with Tian Kui and the others using conversational language.

The commands could be more detailed as well.

Tian Kui understood instantly. He stuck close to Li Jiahui’s leg, even looking up at her, his intelligent gaze seeming to ask, ’Can’t you give me more of a challenge?’

But this performance alone was enough to earn a round of applause from the crowd.

Especially from Tang Changhong.

It was a dog, an animal you couldn’t communicate with. Getting it to do whatever you asked was no easy feat.

"Xiaoshen, impressive."

Tang Changhong gave a thumbs-up to Shen Xin, who was standing beside him. "Did you secretly train them beforehand? Is this really their first training session?"

Shen Xin knew he was cheating, so he deflected the credit to Li Jiahui, saying it was her professional skills that made Tian Kui and the others so obedient.

"No, no, no!"

Tang Changhong shook his head. "Shen Xin, you must know some kind of Magic. I swear, these dogs seem to have gained sentience. They’re too smart."

He still couldn’t forget the scene of Tian Kui and Tiger Stripes jumping into the back of a truck to escape.

This kind of basic training was actually quite boring.

Shen Xin didn’t watch for long. He called over to the nine "holdouts" a short distance away and took them out for a walk.

Their affection levels were rising slowly, and they still hadn’t reached the second stage. Shen Xin didn’t think it was because they had personality problems or weren’t affectionate enough.

’None of the ones I picked out were unaffectionate.’

Shen Xin figured these few dogs were just too carefree.

’I’ve been using their vanity to quickly raise their affection levels.’

’But what if they have no vanity and don’t get jealous?’

When they saw other dogs playing with their owner, they didn’t get jealous; they remained indifferent.

In that case, their affection levels would naturally increase more slowly.

However, the lowest among them already had seven bars of affection, so it shouldn’t be long before they broke through to the second stage.

With their current affection and obedience levels, walking them off-leash wouldn’t be a problem.

But once outside the base’s gates, he had a responsibility to others, so Shen Xin kept them leashed.

He headed for the mountains again.

There were fewer people there.

He could let the dogs run around and frolic in the mountains, which would make them happy.

He ambled up the mountain.

The reservoir area had been unsealed, and not only had the number of anglers not decreased, but it had actually increased.

It was probably due to a rubbernecking mentality.

But after a while, the attention would likely die down.

Before long, Shen Xin reached the reservoir.

From a distance, he was surprised to see Liu Baoqing.

He was on a gentle slope on the north side of the reservoir, dressed in plainclothes. He was with Zhong Yu, accompanying a middle-aged man and pointing at the reservoir as they spoke.

The middle-aged man stood with his hands clasped behind his back. With that posture, he was clearly a leader.

Shen Xin, leading a pack of dogs, was rather conspicuous.

So Liu Baoqing must have seen him, as he waved him over.

Since he’d been spotted, Shen Xin felt it would be rude not to go over.

When he arrived, before he could even say hello, the middle-aged man spoke first, smiling. "You must be Shen Xin from the Tingyang Branch. I’ve heard Director Lv mention you quite a few times."

’No need to guess, then. He’s at least a deputy director,’ Shen Xin thought.

And sure enough, it was Shao Jingming, the Deputy Director of the New District Branch.

He was only in his forties but already sported the side-part hairstyle typical of a government official.

He had thick eyebrows and a sharp gaze, giving the impression that he’d also come up from an operational background.

Shen Xin quickly greeted him, feeling a little curious.

’Shao Jingming is likely the deputy director in charge of operations for the branch. For him to be visiting the scene with Liu Baoqing at this time... could it be that the case isn’t solved yet?’

Because leaders only got personally involved when a case went unsolved for a long time or hit a dead end.

Shao Jingming was clearly aware of the municipal bureau’s police dog donation project and made a point to thank Shen Xin.

He’d heard from Liu Baoqing that Shen Xin was preparing to train a dedicated police dog for the New District Branch.

Shen Xin also "casually" asked why the three of them were there.

Liu Baoqing sighed softly. "Don’t ask. We’ve run into a problem with the Huang Weili case. Director Shao came to look at the scene today."

Shen Xin thought, ’Just as I expected,’ and took the opportunity to ask what happened.

Logically, since the killer knew about Huang Weili’s night fishing habit, it should have been someone close to him.

And as for murder, the motive usually boiled down to one of two things: money or passion.

Focusing the investigation on Huang Weili’s social circle with those two points in mind, it’s unlikely they’d find nothing, right?

Liu Baoqing pressed his lips together. "This case is a bit strange. The direction we’re leaning toward now is a possible contract killing."

A contract killing?

Shen Xin was taken aback.

’Wait, in this day and age, there are still contract killings? Do professional hitmen actually exist?’