Animal Detective

Chapter 153: An Unexpected Scare

Some encounters are completely unexpected.

About five minutes earlier, led by Dou Dou, Shen Xin’s group of nine officers and three dogs had entered the eastern section of Huibei Village.

Huili Road split the village into eastern and western sections.

Huili Road was lined with small shops and had a wet market in the middle, making it a very lively area.

The rest of Huibei Village consisted of old, six-story walk-up apartment buildings. Only the side near the wet market had some old houses that hadn’t yet been demolished.

It wasn’t a gated community. There was no property management, not even a perimeter wall.

The inner roads of the village were cramped and narrow, with a distinct lack of greenery.

It was now almost midnight.

The village had many tenants and even more elderly residents, so only a few lights were scattered here and there.

There were few pedestrians, save for some young people heading to Huili Road for a late-night snack.

Upon arriving, Dou Dou hadn’t lost the scent. The dog moved in fits and starts, tracking slowly, until it reached the entrance of Unit 21.

Being an old village, there was no underground parking garage. Cars were parked in front of the planters.

Electric scooters, meanwhile, were parked haphazardly against the building walls. They were everywhere.

Dou Dou propped her paws on one of the electric scooters and sniffed it.

Shen Xin immediately knew this scooter was likely the suspect’s mode of transportation.

Jiang Wengang immediately backed away to observe the floors above.

Meanwhile, Chen Guanglin notified the main force back on Meicha Road to head their way.

He even alerted the SWAT team on standby in the periphery.

They were arresting drug traffickers, after all. Not deploying SWAT was out of the question.

This building had two apartments per floor. In all of Unit 21, only two apartments had their lights on.

Jiang Wengang scanned the building for a few moments, then signaled for everyone to pull back.

Now that they had confirmed the trafficker’s approximate location, they couldn’t act rashly. They had to get a clear picture of the situation before making a move.

Just then, Shen Xin noticed Dou Dou was acting strangely. She paced around the electric scooter for a moment, then looked to the east.

The building had three units and faced south. The one to the east should be Unit 22.

Shen Xin followed her gaze.

Just then, two young men walked out of Unit 22 ahead.

One was more powerfully built, probably just over six feet tall, with a buzz cut. He wore a short, army-green jacket and carried a duffel bag.

The other was shorter and stockier, a little over five-foot-seven, with messy, medium-length hair. He was pulling a suitcase.

The two men started walking toward the officers, but their pace slowed as they went.

In that instant, they saw Shen Xin and the others.

And on Shen Xin’s side, Chen Guanglin, Jiang Wengang, and the rest of the team noticed them too.

And just like that, an unexpected encounter occurred.

But some encounters are just plain terrifying.

Beside him, Jiang Wengang slowly shifted his feet, moving to block Shen Xin.

Behind them, Li Teng, Geng Xinliang, and the others began to slowly press forward.

Shen Xin stared at the two men without blinking.

He had a strong premonition: these two had to be the suppliers they were looking for.

In that moment, both sides were caught completely off guard.

Shen Xin noticed Li Teng’s right hand was already slowly rising toward the handgun at his waist.

Just then, the men opposite them made the first move.

The powerfully built young man, with incredible speed, pulled something from the small of his back.

It was definitely not a knife.

It was a gun!

In an instant, the hair on Shen Xin’s arms stood on end.

"Run!"

"Don’t move."

"Get down!"

Several voices shouted at the same time.

But the most piercing sound, without a doubt, was a gunshot.

The distance between the two groups was twenty meters at most.

In that split second, Shen Xin and everyone around him reacted the same way: they dropped.

Only the two from the police dog base were slow to react.

Li Jiahui and Chen Guo were still standing ramrod straight, only showing a terrified, instinctual reaction after the shot rang out.

"Take cover!"

A voice, which sounded like Chen Guanglin’s, yelled from nearby.

Then Shen Xin felt someone shove him.

Another gunshot cracked from behind him.

The young man with the suitcase broke into a run, and the powerfully built one followed. Their target seemed to be a sedan a few steps away.

Everything was happening too fast. Fueled by adrenaline, Shen Xin’s mind couldn’t form a single coherent thought. He acted purely on instinct. Seeing Chen Guo still standing beside him, he quickly pulled him to the ground.

Then there was Li Jiahui. Shen Xin only had time to grab her clothes and yank her down, then drag both of them toward the cover of the nearby electric scooters.

The gunfire didn’t stop for a second.

BANG! BANG! BANG! It was just like a string of firecrackers.

A car chirped.

Chen Guanglin shouted, "They’re getting away!"

Jiang Wengang seemed to do a combat roll on the ground, drew his pistol, and fired.

When Shen Xin looked over, Li Teng and the others had all taken cover behind cars and scooters on either side.

It seemed no one was hurt.

He could hear the ragged breathing of Chen Guo and Li Jiahui beside him. Chen Guo was hugging Knight tightly, prone on the ground.

Li Jiahui, after being pulled down by Shen Xin, had scrambled on all fours behind a scooter and was now cowering behind him.

Shen Xin reached for his handgun.

But it was still in its holster, and in his crouched position, it was pinned under his stomach. He had to stretch out one leg just to unfasten the strap and draw the weapon.

From the start of the chaos to this moment, not even ten seconds had likely passed.

Jiang Wengang and his men had opened fire, but they hadn’t hit the suspects.

At this range, in the midst of the chaos, there was frankly no time to aim. It was all just a frantic exchange of fire, shooting by feel.

Several nearby electric scooters let out shrill alarms.

The suspects’ car had already started. Jiang Wengang fired directly at it, but only sparks flew.

Then, with a ROAR of the engine, the car mounted the planter, knocked down a small tree as thick as a bowl, drove onto the opposite side, sent two electric scooters flying, and sped off.

Chen Guanglin got up and gave chase, firing as he ran.

Jiang Wengang was also in pursuit, the sound of gunfire unceasing.

"Stay down!"

Geng Xinliang shouted as he ran past Shen Xin.

Several officers took off after the car.

Shen Xin’s heart was hammering at least two hundred beats per minute, and his limbs felt numb.

Beside him, Chen Guo hugged Knight tightly, not daring to move from his spot on the ground.

Li Jiahui was terrified too.

Shen Xin looked over. The six of them, led by Jiang Wengang, were chasing the car relentlessly as gunshots continued to ring out.

It seemed the traffickers inside the car were firing back.

Just then, something struck the outer wall of a building a few meters away.

Then Shen Xin heard a PING—the sound of sheet metal being pierced.

Shen Xin quickly yanked on Li Jiahui beside him, forcing her to press her body lower.

’A stray bullet must have hit the wall and ricocheted onto the scooter.’

’It was only a few meters away from me!’

Just then, there was a loud BOOM.

Shen Xin looked up and saw that the gray sedan seemed to have crashed into a parked car in the distance.

The roads in Huibei Village were too narrow, and parking was a notorious headache.

More gunshots erupted.

"Follow me."

Shen Xin grabbed Li Jiahui with one hand and dragged the still-grounded Chen Guo with the other, running into the building entrance a few meters away.

Another gunshot sounded in the distance.

Then what sounded like Chen Guanglin’s voice rang out, "Don’t kill them! Try to take them alive!"

"Shoot the engine!"

The roar of an engine followed.

Shen Xin peeked out and saw the sedan still ramming back and forth.

It looked like Jiang Wengang had rushed out and fired two shots at the car from several meters away.

With a CRASH, a car window seemed to shatter.

But the driver clearly hadn’t given up. He threw the car into a hard reverse, slamming into a pile of electric scooters, then immediately revved the engine and charged forward again.

It drove straight onto the planter.

This time, however, he must have misjudged the angle. With a deafening THUD, the car slammed hard into a bowl-thick tree in the middle of the planter.

The car’s airbags seemed to have deployed, and white smoke billowed out.

Chen Guanglin and the others remained in cover, not rushing out rashly.

Several long seconds passed before a voice called out.

"Don’t shoot! I surrender! I’m coming out!"

Then, the passenger door opened, and the powerfully built man got out with his hands raised high.

"Drop the gun! Hands up!" Jiang Wengang yelled.

"There’s still one more," came Chen Guanglin’s voice.

Jiang Wengang took a quick peek and shouted, "Looks like he’s been knocked unconscious by the crash!"

"Keep your hands up! Don’t move! Move and you’re dead!" Only then did Chen Guanglin emerge from behind the car he was using as cover, shouting as he and the others closed in.

Once they were close, several officers swarmed forward, instantly subduing the powerfully built young man.

The young man in the driver’s seat was also forcibly dragged out.

Only then did Shen Xin feel grounded in his own body again.

He turned his head and saw Chen Guo still crouching nervously on the ground.

And Li Jiahui was trembling, her hand clutching his clothes.