Animal Detective

Chapter 113: Kid, You’re in Trouble Now

Some people around were holding up smartphone tripods and handheld gimbals.

It was clear these weren’t just passersby who had stumbled upon the scene. They had likely been drawn by Da Mei’s viral videos, coming to Bao Lane to join the spectacle and wait for Da Mei herself.

Ding Yuwei quickly shot Shen Xin a look, asking him what they should do.

’What else can we do?’ Shen Xin thought. ’We can’t actually let them fight, can we?’

What would that make Black Panther?

A K-9 in training, brawling with stray dogs on the street?

In the distance, Da Mei was already poised for battle. So was Tiger Stripes—as a dog capable of gathering a pack of strays to terrorize the area, he was clearly a kindred spirit to Da Mei. He was baring his teeth, ready to strike at any moment.

If they weren’t stopped, a real fight was about to break out.

Shen Xin immediately pushed through the crowd and went to the front.

"Black Panther!"

Shen Xin shouted.

Without a doubt, Black Panther was the most obedient.

As soon as he heard Shen Xin’s voice and saw him, he turned and hurried over.

With Black Panther gone, the balanced standoff was immediately broken.

However, the stray dogs clearly didn’t want a full-blown fight either and didn’t take the opportunity to attack.

"Tiger Stripes!"

Shen Xin shouted again.

Tiger Stripes glanced at Shen Xin but didn’t budge.

His eyes seemed to say, ’Stay out of it. This is a grudge between us dogs.’

Shen Xin cursed inwardly. ’This guy is asking for it again.’

"Tiger Stripes, get over here!" Shen Xin commanded in a stern voice.

Tiger Stripes looked at his opponents, then back at Shen Xin, and only then did he run back.

Da Mei, as clever as a monkey, saw her two enforcers leave and immediately followed suit, running back as well.

The five stray dogs across from them remained still. They didn’t leave, just watched quietly.

Shen Xin bent down and picked up Da Mei.

She let out a meow, and he heard her thought: ’It’s not my fault.’

Shen Xin silently rolled his eyes.

Da Mei was perfect in every way, except for her love of acting like a gang boss.

He turned his head, and a phone was suddenly shoved in his face.

"Hey, handsome, are this dog and cat yours?"

The man was in his early twenties, not very tall, with monolids and a slightly blond Morgan perm. He was dressed trendily. As he spoke, he turned to aim the camera at himself and Shen Xin, saying, "Folks, what a shame. It looks like the Combat Cat’s owner is here. How about we get him to say hi to everyone?"

He then gestured for Shen Xin to say hello.

Only then did Shen Xin realize the man was livestreaming.

"Don’t film me."

Shen Xin immediately tried to dodge the camera.

But the young man relentlessly pushed forward.

And it wasn’t just him; many others in the crowd also swarmed in to film Shen Xin.

In the past couple of years, with the explosion of short-form videos, many streamers who used to be on professional platforms had switched to this format, stopping at nothing to go viral.

"Bro, just say hi to the guys and gals in the stream. You have no idea how famous your cat is online. Why don’t we, you know, collaborate?" The young man leaned in, trying to get Shen Xin’s face on camera from every angle.

Shen Xin ignored him.

With two dogs and a cat in tow, he pushed through the crowd and walked straight away.

To his surprise, they followed him all the way to his car.

"Bro, if not, then just sell me the cat," the young man said, not giving up.

Shen Xin whipped his head around and stared daggers at him.

The man, still holding his phone, subconsciously took a step back.

Shen Xin withdrew his gaze, got in the car, and left.

After the car drove off, the young man spat on the ground. "What’s wrong with him? Doesn’t even know how to make money when it’s handed to him."

The others present nodded in agreement.

Every one of them looked as if Shen Xin had just turned down a million dollars.

The young man cursed, then immediately raised his phone to the camera again. "Alright, guys and gals, Combat Cat has left the scene for now. But don’t worry, let’s go interview her opponents and see why they were about to throw down."

「Meanwhile.」

Shen Xin, no longer caring about favorability points, turned his head and pointed at Da Mei to scold her. "Da Mei, if you ever cause this kind of trouble again, I’m never letting you out."

Da Mei, perched on the back seat, meowed reluctantly at Shen Xin.

He heard her thought: ’I know.’

Surprisingly, not only did the five bars of Stage 2 Favorability above Da Mei’s head not decrease, but they actually increased by one bar.

’Strange?’

Just then, Ding Yuwei said with a half-smile, "Seriously, Shen Xin, if you started an account just sharing Da Mei’s daily life, it would definitely go viral."

Da Mei had gone viral not just because she was smart and dared to train Black Panther, but mainly because she was beautiful—her looks were top-tier.

Shen Xin gave Ding Yuwei a speechless look. Without much thought, his hand unconsciously landed on her shoulder. He began kneading it as he spoke, "Comrade Ding Yuwei, what do the civil service regulations say? Employees are forbidden from directly engaging in for-profit activities. If you’re that unhappy with me as a partn—"

As Shen Xin spoke, his eyes suddenly fell on his own right hand.

Ding Yuwei froze as well.

Shen Xin snatched his hand back like a bolt of lightning and quickly apologized, "I didn’t do it on purpose."

Ding Yuwei snapped out of it and immediately said, "What ’on purpose’? This isn’t feudal times. It’s not like men and women can’t touch."

As she spoke, she playfully reached out and patted Shen Xin’s shoulder, her expression seeming to say, ’See? I patted you too.’

Shen Xin gave an awkward laugh and quickly turned his attention to the road.

Ding Yuwei also quickly pulled her hand back. Under the guise of tucking a strand of hair, she subtly adjusted the bra strap on her shoulder as a faint blush flashed across her face.

Soon, Ding Yuwei began talking about Xiao Hong’s case again, as if nothing had happened.

Shen Xin resolved that he couldn’t let Da Mei out anymore.

Given her personality, she would definitely go back to Bao Lane.

In any case, he had already figured out the three dogs’ abilities. The next step was to cultivate their favorability and begin professional training.

As for the neighborhood canvassing, however, Shen Xin hadn’t really decided whether he should continue with it.

He had wanted to report his idea of gathering clues online to Sun Zhao, but Sun Zhao happened to be at the detachment for a meeting, so he had to drop it.

After settling the three dogs, Shen Xin finally got off work and headed home.

After walking twenty to thirty thousand steps a day, all Shen Xin wanted to do when he got home was collapse on the sofa and play dead.

As he was drifting off, his phone chimed with a notification.

In the "Young and Invincible" group chat, Zhao Tianxing had @’d him.

"Bro, you’re famous!"

He sent a link to a short video.

’Famous?’

Shen Xin jolted awake and quickly clicked on the video.

The title was "Epic Slice-of-Life Sitcom—Combat Cat’s First Battle."

The video started with a black screen.

Then, a deep voice rang out: "I believe in justice."

Then the picture appeared.

Shen Xin’s eyes widened.

It was him!

It was clearly a clip from The Godfather, the scene where he’s holding a tabby cat while talking.

Except his own head had been edited onto the body.

The deep voice continued: "I play by the rules, I don’t want to cause trouble. But unfortunately, they crossed the line. So, do you know what you have to do?"

The response was a single meow.

Then it cut to Da Mei leading Black Panther and Tiger Stripes in a single file line, strutting down the street like gangsters.

Set to a deep, intense soundtrack, the atmosphere was building.

Next was the shot of Da Mei and her two companions facing off against the stray dogs in the greenbelt.

There were even close-ups of Da Mei’s fur standing on end and Tiger Stripes baring his teeth.

And then, a huge "To Be Continued" appeared on the screen.

Although the video was short, the music and text perfectly captured a tense, dramatic atmosphere.

A glance at the poster’s avatar revealed it was the same blogger who had posted the video of Da Mei challenging the other cat to a duel.

His name was Wang Pao Fu.

The video had been posted over an hour ago and already had more than 70,000 likes and thousands of comments.

He clicked to see comments like "Badass!" "What a boss!" and "Update faster!"

Some were also asking if Shen Xin, the one with his head edited onto the Godfather, was the blogger himself.

A message popped up in the group chat.

Ding Yuwei had also been drawn out, posting an emoji of a face covering its mouth to hide a snicker.

"Can I file a complaint?" Shen Xin typed into the chat.

Zhao Tianxing: It’s fine, isn’t it great? With that many likes, at least hundreds of thousands of people know who you are now.

Shen Xin cursed inwardly. He didn’t even have to think about it—that guy must have been there in the afternoon when he left with Da Mei and filmed him.

The key issue was that he, a police officer, had been deepfaked into a Mafia godfather.

And so many people had seen it.

Shen Xin opened the guy’s profile page. As expected, the IP address was located in Nanjiang.

He already had over 300,000 followers, but looking at his previous videos, his likes were only in the dozens or hundreds.

It was obvious he had gotten famous off these two videos.

’Wang Pao Fu?’

’Kid, you’re in for it now.’