"What are you thinking about?"
Li Dongsheng patted Shen Xin.
Shen Xin snapped out of it and quickly said he was fine.
In the distance, the siren of a fire truck wailed. The firefighters had arrived.
'Wu Jiawang's situation probably isn't what I was imagining.' The reasoning was simple.
Xianghong Village was a bit remote, but it wasn't some untamed wilderness with so many places to hide that he'd never be found.
Most importantly, dead bodies start to stink.
The stench could be smelled from dozens of meters away. If he had really been trapped and died, it's impossible that no one would have discovered him.
So, the most likely scenario was still that he had been abducted.
Just then, the firefighters arrived with their tools. When they saw the helpless little Chen Zixuan in the gap, the lead firefighter almost burst out laughing.
The rescue went relatively smoothly.
Considering he was wedged in too tightly and pulling him out by force could cause further injury, they decided to dismantle the locker directly, since it was abandoned anyway.
Once the delivery locker was moved, the little rascal ran out on his own, buried his head in his mother's arms, and burst into tears with a loud "WAAAH!"
The family thanked them profusely.
Dong Yueming lectured the old woman, telling her they were lucky this happened inside the residential complex. If the boy had truly gone missing, it would have been too late for tears.
The group returned to the police station.
Since Shen Xin was already there, there was no reason for him to leave.
The police station was always busy and short-staffed.
So he might as well work the night shift.
After changing into his police uniform, he came out and saw Million sleeping curled up in his cage.
Shen Xin hadn't spent much time at the station these past few days, but he'd heard from his colleagues that Million was exceptionally well-behaved. He didn't bark or cause trouble, and he certainly didn't jump on people.
He was also incredibly smart, able to learn anything he was taught. He was very endearing. Knowing he liked sausage sticks, many people at the station made a point to bring them for him.
In just a few days, he had apparently put on a whole layer of fat.
Shen Xin asked about Li Jin's situation.
The sub-bureau had already taken him away.
The final case closure would ultimately be handled by the sub-bureau.
But the Yunlin Police Station had solved the case, and they had arrested Li Jin personally. That credit belonged to the Yunlin Police Station, and no one could take it away.
Shen Xin couldn't help but recall Li Jin's eerie smile.
'But now that he's been taken away, what can I do?'
Tonight was relatively calm.
The only major incident was being forced to conduct a prostitution raid.
A john was tailed by his wife and then caught in the act.
His wife had called the police in advance, so Dong Yueming and his team were forced to conduct a raid. Shen Xin went to provide backup, and they brought back a total of 11 prostitutes.
Shen Xin had been through this kind of thing several times, and frankly, he hated it.
Because they were all repeat offenders, they were a real handful. The station's holding cells had limited space, and when there were too many people, they couldn't fit them all.
A flock of chattering women, they were incredibly noisy and disruptive.
Some of them played the victim. As Shen Xin was escorting a girl in a nightclub miniskirt out of the car, she suddenly started crying and screaming, claiming it was her first time and begging him to let her go.
A colleague following behind deadpanned, "I alone have arrested you twice. You still have the nerve to say it's your first time?"
Shen Xin didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Just then, Million, who had been lying in his cage nearby, suddenly scrambled to his feet and started barking in their direction. WOOF WOOF.
And he was barking very fiercely.
The girl Shen Xin was holding onto was startled and shrank behind him.
The colleague behind them asked, puzzled, "Shen Xin, what's Million barking at?"
Shen Xin was puzzled too.
'Million's reaction is strange.'
Everyone at the station said he was incredibly well-behaved and never barked without reason.
Million jumped out of his cage. He was tied up with a leash and couldn't get free, but he kept barking relentlessly in his direction.
Perhaps because the icon had three bars, Shen Xin could empathize better with Million and understand what he meant.
Shen Xin turned his head and looked at the girl behind him.
'Why do I get the feeling Million is barking at this girl?'
The girl's eyes darted away, not daring to meet Shen Xin's gaze.
Thinking about the girl's earlier reaction, she was a repeat offender. She knew the procedure and understood the police couldn't do much to them besides detaining them for a few days. There was no reason for her to be so scared, begging for mercy and claiming it was her first time.
A thought struck Shen Xin. He leaned in and sniffed.
The sharp scent of perfume assaulted his nostrils.
Other than that, he couldn't smell anything else.
Shen Xin pulled her closer to Million.
Million let out two sharp barks.
'Just as I thought. He's barking at her.'
"Are you high?" Shen Xin asked in a low voice.
The girl's eyes widened in shock, and then she shook her head frantically.
If there was nothing wrong with that reaction, Shen Xin would eat his hat.
Shen Xin didn't waste any more words. He pulled the girl toward the station. Since he was suspicious, a urine test would clear things up.
The moment he heard Shen Xin suspected the girl was on drugs, Dong Yueming's expression immediately turned serious.
He was even a little excited.
Drug busts were always a top priority, and the station had quotas to meet.
It wasn't uncommon to cross jurisdictions just to arrest a single addict.
Sometimes, a single call from a hotel could bring several different groups of officers at once.
Dong Yueming immediately called over a female officer to take the girl for a urine test.
The girl started making a scene, throwing a tantrum on the floor. After being forcibly dragged into the bathroom, she began yelling that she couldn't pee.
'That settles it. She's one hundred percent guilty of something.'
"Xiaoshen, not bad! How did you spot her?" Dong Yueming was thoroughly surprised.
Normally, addicts are pretty easy to identify. An old-timer like Dong Yueming could probably pick one out of a crowd with a single glance.
But these girls were wearing heavy makeup, and it was nighttime, so he hadn't noticed anything earlier.
Yet somehow, Shen Xin had managed to sense it.
"It wasn't me, it was Million," Shen Xin said. "Captain Dong, have you guys been secretly training Million to be a drug-sniffing dog?"
Dong Yueming slapped his forehead. "Now I remember! The day before yesterday, I saw Yao Suo teasing Million, letting him sniff some evidence. Don't tell me he learned it then? This dog is too smart."
'Yao Wensheng trained him twice, and he just learned it like that?'
Shen Xin also found it incredible, but the facts were right in front of him.
All he could say was that Million truly had the potential to become a drug-sniffing dog.
And this was a good thing.
The station's drug arrest quota was no small matter. It was often Song Liang's biggest headache. They had already rounded up the addicts in their jurisdiction so many times it was like they'd plowed the same field over and over, yet their superiors kept imposing new quotas.
If they had a drug-sniffing dog, things would be so much easier.
The girl, named Tan Xiaoli, stalled for almost an hour. She was forced to drink two bottles of mineral water until she absolutely couldn't hold it anymore and finally peed.
As expected, she tested positive for drug use.
Seeing the urine test results, she went limp. Then she started swearing frantically that she'd only done it once.
No one believed that load of crap. They proceeded with the official process.
Having unexpectedly met a quota—and an unrecorded one at that—Dong Yueming was in an excellent mood. He dragged Shen Xin across the street to the 24-hour convenience store and bought a whole box of sausage sticks.
"Shen Xin, this dog is amazing." Dong Yueming, a man in his forties, was looking at Million with a doting grin as he peeled the casing off a sausage stick to feed him. "And you," he said, "you mess around with cats and dogs, and you've actually made a name for yourself doing it."
Li Jin's theft case, after all, was solved entirely because of a stray cat.