Animal Detective

Chapter 109: Da Mei Is Going Viral

’I should install a shocker on Tiger Stripes’ vest,’ Shen Xin thought viciously.

’The remote-controlled kind.’

’Whenever I see him slacking off, I’ll zap him.’

Shen Xin closed the video feed.

He wasn’t in a hurry to deal with him just yet. He’d let him enjoy his freedom a little longer.

’He’s probably thinking he’s hot stuff right now, having finally escaped my "den of evil."’

He’d just go and catch him after work this evening.

He’d have to bring Black Panther, otherwise he might not be able to pin him down.

Then he’d pack him up and ship him straight to the shelter.

’I give you good food and drink, not so you can go chasing girls on company time.’

In the afternoon, the two continued their canvassing.

When they met up close to five o’clock, they had, as expected, come up with nothing.

Neither of them felt discouraged, though.

For police officers, coming up empty-handed from canvassing was the most common outcome.

As they walked to the car, Ding Yuwei said, "Shen Xin, I was thinking more about the case this afternoon. Did you notice that Xiao Hong didn’t have any defensive wounds?"

"According to his wife Gao Liyun’s statement, Xiao Hong had a bit of a bad temper. He once even injured a shipper over a dispute about a delivery fee. He was of average height, only 173 cm, but he did manual labor before becoming a driver, so he had a relatively strong build."

"Normally, if he were being robbed by a group and felt he was at a disadvantage and couldn’t win, he might have given in. But in this case, there were no traces of a second person at the scene."

"So if it was just one person robbing him, given his personality and physique, I don’t think he would’ve just submitted because the attacker had a small knife. Wouldn’t there be a good chance he’d fight back? But the autopsy showed no significant defensive wounds. Doesn’t that seem a little illogical?"

Shen Xin considered Ding Yuwei’s speculation, then said, "Are you suggesting the attack was sudden and doesn’t fit the pattern of a roadside robbery?"

A roadside robbery would obviously be for money.

The consequences of murder are severe.

A fatal stabbing would most likely only happen if Xiao Hong had resisted fiercely, causing the assailant to kill him in the heat of the struggle.

But the problem is, Xiao Hong didn’t have many defensive wounds.

That leaves two possibilities. One, the attack was very fast. The moment Xiao Hong started to resist, the killer immediately went for the kill—quick, precise, and ruthless—stabbing him straight in the neck.

The second possibility is that the killer’s motive wasn’t robbery, but murder. They attacked Xiao Hong directly when he was caught off guard.

Ding Yuwei said quickly, "Exactly, that’s what I mean! Think about it. According to the investigation, Xiao Hong had over four thousand in cash on him, plus a cell phone. His Nokia, used, would sell for a little over a thousand yuan at most. That means the total haul from the robbery would be less than six thousand yuan."

"I’m not saying six thousand yuan isn’t a lot. Back in ’11, six thousand was a decent sum."

"But the risk should match the reward. Knowing the potential haul from a highway robbery is limited, it doesn’t make sense that someone would kill so decisively, treating a human life as worthless, all for that amount of money. That’s why I feel like something is off."

Shen Xin knew about the phone.

After the incident, Sun Zhao had expended a great deal of effort investigating that phone, checking every known channel for fencing stolen goods.

But in the end, he found nothing.

He believed the killer had either gone somewhere far away to fence it or hadn’t fenced it at all and had just thrown it away.

Shen Xin said, "The killer was decisive, but there were signs that they rummaged through the driver’s cab after killing Xiao Hong. Of course, you could argue that was a disguise, that there’s a chance it was a revenge killing. But Captain Sun already investigated all of Xiao Hong’s social connections and didn’t find any suspicious individuals."

Although Xiao Hong had a fiery temper, his social circle was relatively simple. There was no one around him who seemed to harbor enough hatred to commit murder.

As they spoke, they reached his car.

"Let’s think about it later." Shen Xin gestured for Ding Yuwei to get in the car.

He took out his phone to check Da Mei and Black Panther’s locations.

"Huh?"

Da Mei and Black Panther were still wandering around the town, but Shen Xin was surprised to see that Tiger Stripes’ tracker showed him right next to them.

In other words, Tiger Stripes had gone looking for Da Mei on his own sometime this afternoon.

He opened the camera feed.

Sure enough, Da Mei was in the lead, Black Panther was in the middle, and Tiger Stripes was bringing up the rear.

"When did he go over there?" Ding Yuwei asked, puzzled.

Shen Xin pulled up Tiger Stripes’ movement history.

He had left Dongtou Village shortly after three in the afternoon.

First, he’d retraced his steps to the point where he’d initially deviated from Da Mei’s path, and then he began following her trail.

Moreover, Shen Xin was somewhat surprised to find that the path he’d taken was more direct than Black Panther’s.

In other words, when faced with an obstacle like a wall, Black Panther might have to circle around several times to pick up Da Mei’s scent again.

But Tiger Stripes, on the other hand, could pinpoint the direction after one lap at most.

And it wasn’t because he was tracking Black Panther, either.

For instance, at one point, Da Mei had jumped a fence and entered a factory.

Black Panther had followed the wall to the left.

Tiger Stripes, however, went right, taking a different route.

He went halfway around the other side and immediately picked up Da Mei’s scent.

This was enough to prove that his sense of smell was superior to Black Panther’s.

What’s more, Black Panther had started tracking first thing in the morning. Tiger Stripes, in contrast, had waited a whole day, starting his search after three in the afternoon, with the sun baking the pavement and countless pedestrians muddling the scents.

Nearly twenty-four hours had passed.

Ding Yuwei glanced at the video, then at Shen Xin. "Shen Xin, he did do his job, after all. Maybe you shouldn’t send him to the shelter."

Shen Xin snorted softly.

Tiger Stripes was like one of those so-called geniuses from the movies.

The master assigns a task.

Black Panther is the honest one who diligently completes the mission.

But Tiger Stripes has to take the opportunity to slack off and have some fun before casually completing the task with ease.

Even though they both get the job done, the latter is clearly undisciplined and lacks organization.

He’d forget about the shelter.

But he still had to find a way to correct Tiger Stripes’ behavior.

The two of them drove off and, following the GPS, quickly found the two dogs and one cat.

When they arrived, the three animals weren’t avoiding people at all. They were walking in a single file line, their steps nearly synchronized, looking like that gang of villainous alley cats from *Tom and Jerry* on their way to cause some trouble.

Their perfectly neat formation was like a piece of performance art, compelling passing pedestrians to pull out their phones and start recording.

Shen Xin pulled over to the side of the road, rolled down his window, and whistled.

Black Panther responded immediately, running over at once.

Tiger Stripes did the same, hurrying over and wagging his tail obediently at Shen Xin.

He probably thought Shen Xin had no idea he’d been out goofing off and chasing females.

Only Da Mei turned to glance at Shen Xin, but stubbornly refused to come over.

"Da Mei!"

Shen Xin called out again.

Only then did Da Mei reluctantly run over and jump straight into the car through the open window.

She landed on Shen Xin’s lap and let out a displeased meow.

’Not leaving.’ Shen Xin heard her thoughts. She hadn’t had enough fun yet.

"Time to go home. You have kittens to look after. We’ll come back tomorrow."

At the mention of her kittens, Da Mei grew even more agitated and tried to jump back out the window, but Shen Xin was quick enough to grab her.

Just as Ding Yuwei was about to get out to open a car door, Tiger Stripes unexpectedly went to the back door, used his paw to pull the handle, and actually managed to open it.

He then squeezed himself through the gap and into the back seat.

Ding Yuwei was stunned.

The surrounding pedestrians gasped in amazement.

"Let’s go."

Shen Xin quickly urged Ding Yuwei to get going.

They returned to the station to clock out.

They didn’t run into Sun Zhao or Chen Chao; no idea where they’d gone.

Things had been relatively quiet at the station lately, with no serious violent crimes like murders.

After putting Black Panther and Tiger Stripes back in their kennels, Shen Xin drove home.

That evening, Shen Xin was drawing a topographical map for the Xiao Hong case when his phone vibrated.

It was a message from Zhang Qian.

The two had stayed in touch.

The results of Zhang Jian’s disciplinary action were also out. He received a demerit but wasn’t forced to leave the police force.

However, the incident had all but destroyed any chance of further promotion for Zhang Jian. He would probably spend the rest of his career at the station until retirement.

"Shen Xin, is this Da Mei?"

Zhang Qian had shared a link to a short video on Kuaishou.

Shen Xin opened the video and immediately sat up straight.

It was none other than the clip of Da Mei training Black Panther.

It must have been those two girls who filmed it and posted it on the short-video platform.

The crucial part was that some talented person had edited the video to have a plot.

It started with Da Mei pushing a sausage in front of Black Panther, who looked at it arrogantly and refused to eat.

Then, Da Mei leaped up and smacked Black Panther.

The text overlay read: "The f*ck you lookin’ at? Come on, let’s go one-on-one!"

After that, it showed Black Panther pouncing at Da Mei, and Da Mei turning tail and running.

Combined with the voiceover and the perfect editing, it was incredibly vivid.

The most important thing was that the video seemed to have gone viral.

It had 420,000 likes, over 20,000 comments, and more than a hundred thousand shares.

Shen Xin subconsciously tapped open the comments.

"That cat is such a little jerk."

"Y’all don’t know the full story. The cat bought that sausage for the dog. I was there."

"They’re a team. Don’t be fooled by how big the Cassaro is, he’s the one getting bullied."

Even more incredibly, there was also a GIF of two dogs and one cat advancing in a single-file line.

With a filter added, it had been made to look like a mafia crew on the move.

Seeing a large number of people in the comments asking where the cat could be found so they could go "intercept" her, Shen Xin couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat.

It looked like Da Mei was on the verge of becoming famous.