Animal Detective

Chapter 156: Lending Not Just a Person, but Also a Cat

He drove home.

Now that he was alone, Shen Xin finally felt the fear creep in.

Bullets don’t have eyes. In a situation like that, no one was truly in control.

Of course, quitting was out of the question.

Having solved a string of cases recently, Shen Xin truly felt like he was living out his dream of being a criminal detective.

But he needed to train.

His reactions had been too slow back there.

So he had to work on his physical fitness, and his marksmanship.

The bureau had a shooting range, but basically no one ever went.

Lost in thought, he arrived home to find it was already almost two in the morning.

On the way, Shen Shuang had called him repeatedly, but Shen Xin hadn’t answered.

He opened the door.

Just as he opened it a crack, SWOOSH, a cat darted out.

With quick eyes and even quicker hands, Shen Xin pinned it down.

"You’re asking for it again."

Shen Xin flicked the ear of the cat in his hands.

It was Da Mei’s son, the last remaining tabby.

He had inherited Evil Bully’s short-tail gene. He was smart and mischievous, always jumping and climbing all over the place. Da Mei was annoyed by him, and so was Shen Xin, a little.

He meowed at Shen Xin in protest.

Da Mei was also behind the door. She meowed at Shen Xin.

’Hungry.’

He immediately heard her thought.

He’d come home late today, and the cat bowls were already empty.

As Shen Xin grabbed some food for the cats, he said, "Seriously, you guys almost became ownerless cats again today."

Da Mei, who had been busy eating her cat food, looked up at Shen Xin with a puzzled gaze.

’What’s wrong?’

Her favorability was now at stage two, eight bars.

So it felt like she could understand most of what Shen Xin said.

"It’s nothing."

Shen Xin smiled and collapsed onto the sofa, casually shoving Evil Bully, who had taken it over, to the side.

The cat stirred slightly, then went back to sleep.

After getting his balls snipped, the guy had calmed down quite a bit once his hormone levels dropped.

Da Mei took a couple of bites, then actually ran over, leaped gracefully into Shen Xin’s lap, meowed, and then gently licked his hand.

’Happy.’

She wasn’t saying that she was happy, but rather that she wanted to cheer Shen Xin up.

"Good girl, Da Mei."

Shen Xin rubbed Da Mei’s head.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

Peeking through the peephole, Shen Xin jumped in fright.

Shen Shuang had actually stormed over.

The moment the door opened, Shen Shuang rushed in, grabbing Shen Xin and inspecting him carefully.

Only after confirming he wasn’t really hurt did she grab his ear and start scolding him.

In the middle of her scolding, her own eyes turned red.

"Weren’t you scared?"

When Shen Xin shook his head, Shen Shuang hugged him tightly and said, "But I was."

Even though Shen Shuang used to bully him when they were kids, the two siblings had always been very close.

Shen Shuang didn’t leave that night. She fell asleep holding onto Shen Xin’s arm.

So Shen Xin had no choice but to squeeze onto the sofa with Da Mei and her family.

Unable to sleep, Shen Xin searched for related news and checked his social media feed.

He didn’t see any news reports, nor were there any on the short video platforms. There were some posts on his feed, but the shared content wouldn’t open anymore.

The information was probably being controlled.

This was a good thing.

Because the case wasn’t solved yet.

The two men they’d caught were clearly just mid-level.

The true head of the organization had yet to appear.

These two had been captured alive. He wondered if they could get any useful clues from them.

It was a narcotics case, but since he’d helped out and almost taken a bullet, Shen Xin couldn’t help but be concerned.

The next day, Shen Xin asked about the situation with the Narcotics Division.

They hadn’t returned all night. Everyone was busy, and no one knew what was going on.

As for how the events of last night would be handled, there was no news on that either.

Who could possibly know what the higher-ups were thinking?

According to Zhao Tianxing’s analysis, not only would there be no punishment, there would have to be commendations.

Jiang Wengang and his team were literally putting their lives on the line for their work.

If they were criticized and punished on top of that, wouldn’t it demoralize the entire force?

During the day, Shen Xin also received a call from Li Jiahui.

She called to thank him.

If Shen Xin hadn’t pulled her down at the first moment yesterday, she might have been shot.

Then that evening, after having rested for a day, Shen Xin suddenly got another call, this time from Sun Zhao.

’So much for a two-day break.’

"Shen Xin, come to the bureau for a bit. Something’s come up. Oh, and bring your cat, Da Mei."

Sun Zhao didn’t say what it was about, but the strange part was the request to bring Da Mei.

"Let’s go, Da Mei."

Shen Xin didn’t dwell on it. He called out to her and left with Da Mei.

She could now understand Shen Xin’s meaning with ease.

He drove to the bureau, where Chen Chao was waiting for him at the entrance. Chen Chao then led him directly to the Narcotics Division’s conference room on the third floor.

As soon as he entered, he saw it was full of people.

Lv Youwei and Chen Guanglin were there.

Of course, Jiang Wengang and Sun Zhao were there too.

Jiang Wengang’s eyes were bloodshot and his hair was greasy. Shen Xin guessed he hadn’t slept since yesterday.

"Xiaoshen, we have a situation."

Lv Youwei motioned for Shen Xin to sit down, then began to explain.

After arresting the two drug traffickers last night, they had immediately begun interrogation.

They were much more cooperative than Zhu Tianshun, especially the shorter young man.

His name was Fang Pinzhang. Between the two of them, he was the one in charge, responsible for managing the entire drug sales network in Nanjiang City.

Upon his arrest, he immediately expressed his willingness to cooperate in exchange for a lighter sentence and gave them information about his supplier.

He said the leader of their gang went by the codename K.

Everyone usually called him Brother K.

He didn’t know his real name or what he did for a living, because he’d never met him.

Usually, Brother K’s right-hand man, a man named Chen Liangxi, was responsible for managing them.

He also knew that Brother K seemed to have been in this business for several years and had deep connections with drug trafficking groups outside the country’s Southwest border.

And this time, he was making a comeback.

A few years ago, the drug ring Brother K belonged to was busted by the police. He got lucky and escaped.

Then he found a drug manufacturing expert and got back into the business in the first half of this year.

"Is this ’Brother K’ even real?" Shen Xin couldn’t help but interject.

Fang Pinzhang was in charge of all sales in Nanjiang; that was at least the level of a regional manager.

If even he had never met the boss, could this boss be a fabrication?

After all, he’d been through the Liu Laibin case.

"This person exists."

Chen Guanglin spoke up. "Six years ago, our provincial task force busted a drug ring. That ring had two core members: one was in charge of domestic sales channels, and the other was responsible for smuggling drugs into the country from abroad."

"The latter had deep ties overseas. After we took down the ring, he vanished without a trace. The intelligence we gathered at the time indicated that his codename was Old K."

"So we suspect that the current Brother K is likely the same Old K who got away back then."

Shen Xin murmured an "oh" and asked no more questions.

But something suddenly occurred to him.

’Six years ago?’

’Ding Yuwei’s father died in the line of duty six years ago.’

Lv Youwei continued with the briefing.

Although Fang Pinzhang had never met Brother K, he knew the location of the drug lab.

The current situation was that the police had temporarily suppressed news about what happened at Huibei Village.

Furthermore, Fang Pinzhang was fully cooperating.

Fang Pinzhang had not told Chen Liangxi about Zhu Tianshun’s capture or his own plans to evacuate Nanjiang.

And after the events of last night, Chen Liangxi had not contacted Fang Pinzhang.

So, for now, they could optimistically assume that Chen Liangxi might not know Fang Pinzhang had been caught.

But the news would get out sooner or later, and Chen Liangxi could become suspicious.

Therefore, speed was of the essence. They had to act quickly, before the drug ring had a chance to react.

The drug lab was in Yongyang County, south of Ningshan City.

"It used to be a shoe factory, but it went out of business."

"Colleagues from the provincial department have already conducted on-site reconnaissance. They flew a drone, but didn’t dare get too close. We can’t see what’s inside yet, but we can confirm there’s activity."

"Infrared and the like are useless. You know how it is."

Real-life thermal imagers aren’t as exaggerated as they are in the movies. A single pane of glass can block the scan, to say nothing of concrete brick walls.

"The situation inside is unclear. We don’t know how many people there are or how many weapons they have. If we act rashly, a lot of unforeseen circumstances could arise."

Chen Guanglin had clearly learned his lesson.

"Then Jiang Wengang brought something up. He said that in a previous kidnapping case, you used a cat to help with reconnaissance. So he proposed having your cat scout out the situation inside."

Across the table, Jiang Wengang smiled at him.

Everyone at the bureau knew what Da Mei had done in Zhang Qin’s case, and they were all astounded by it.

Shen Xin understood now. No wonder they’d asked him to bring Da Mei.

’And here was Sun Zhao.’

’Didn’t Chen Chao just chew you out yesterday for lending out your people?’

’And what do you do? Not only do you lend out a person, you even lend out a cat.’