Animal Detective

Chapter 278 - 239: Dog Theft (2)

"What if you just let a rabbit loose for them to chase? Wouldn’t that be easy?"

Dogs chasing rabbits—it’s in their nature.

Li Jiahui shook her head. "Give me a break. Unless it’s a specially trained hunting dog, most dogs can’t catch a rabbit. You have no idea how agile they are."

"Besides, why would we train them to chase rabbits? Criminals aren’t nearly as fast as rabbits. When we train police dogs, we’re focusing on explosive power and precision—on biting a target’s arm in an instant."

"As for stamina, you can just ride an electric bike and have the dog run alongside."

Shen Xin realized she had a point.

Police dogs were all about a decisive takedown, biting down and never letting go. There was really no need to use a rabbit for training.

As they were walking, a scream suddenly came from up ahead.

"Don’t you dare leave! Give me back my Niangao!"

A woman’s voice shouted.

Shen Xin immediately looked up. About twenty or thirty meters away, a crowd had gathered around a stall, and the shouting was coming from within the throng.

The two of them hurried over.

Before they could squeeze through the crowd, they heard a man shouting, "Let go! If you don’t let go now, I’m warning you!"

"I’ve told you already, this isn’t your dog! All golden retrievers look alike. How do you know this one is yours?"

"You called his name. Did he even respond to you?"

Shen Xin could finally see clearly. A young girl in jeans had a death grip on the sleeve of a man in his thirties.

The man had short hair and a chubby face. He was using one arm to block the girl while holding the leash of a golden retriever in the other.

The golden retriever was wearing a muzzle, and the man was pulling the leash so tight its front paws were nearly lifted off the ground.

The girl reached for the dog, crying out, "I called him! He responded to me! Didn’t you see it? He wagged his tail at me! He recognized me!"

"He’s my dog! I raised him from a puppy! How could I possibly not recognize him? Give him back to me!"

The man continued to block her, saying impatiently, "My dog is friendly with everyone; he wags his tail at anybody. Don’t give me this ’he’s my dog’ nonsense."

"This is my dog. I already told you, if you want him, then pay for him. But don’t you fucking tell me he’s your dog and then try to walk away with him without paying a single cent. You think life is that easy?"

"If that’s how it works, does that mean I can just point at any dog I like, claim it’s mine, and walk away with it?"

"If I tried that with your dog, would you be okay with it?"

He even pointed to a bystander in the crowd and asked loudly.

The person he pointed at just laughed and shook their head, not saying a word.

The crowd started pointing and whispering amongst themselves.

A middle-aged woman spoke up. "Young lady, stop making a scene. If you want a golden retriever, you can buy one from me. I’ll even give you a good price. They’re all puppies, perfect for raising. Why would you want a grown dog anyway?"

She was even using this as a chance to make a sale.

"I’m making a scene?" The girl’s voice was filled with frantic indignation.

She kept her death grip on the man’s sleeve with one hand while fumbling for her phone with the other. "I’ll show you a picture of Niangao," she said. "This is my Niangao."

The man violently jerked his arm away.

The girl stumbled, and in doing so, lost her grip on her phone, which fell to the ground with a CLATTER.

The man froze for a second, then quickly said, "That had nothing to do with me! You’re the one who wasn’t holding it properly."

The girl didn’t even bother to pick up her phone. She lunged forward and grabbed the man’s arm again, yelling, "Don’t you go anywhere! You’re not leaving until this is settled."

"Can someone help me call the police? This dog is really mine! He got lost, and I’ve been looking for him for so long! You can’t leave! Tell me where you got him. Did you steal him?"

"Hah!"

The man’s eyes widened in anger. He pointed at the girl and said, "Don’t you fucking spew nonsense at me! Who stole a dog?"

As he spoke, he violently swung his arm again.

He was nearly five-foot-eleven, broad and heavyset. The girl was maybe five-three, and thin—petite and delicate. The difference in their size was huge.

This violent jerk sent the girl stumbling to the ground.

But even then, she didn’t let go of his arm.

Even the golden retriever beside him began to get agitated.

"Let go!"

the man barked.

"What do you think you’re doing?!"

Shen Xin’s voice boomed as he immediately squeezed through the crowd.

What had been a simple dispute was now something different. From the looks of it, the man was about to get violent.

"Who the hell are you? This has nothing to do with you!"

The man looked annoyed and tried to shake his sleeve free again.

Shen Xin strode forward and grabbed the man’s arm. "What do you think you’re doing?" he demanded. "Can’t you talk things out? Or were you about to hit her?"

"Miss," he said to the girl, "you can let go of him now. I’m a police officer. Let’s get you up and we can sort this out."

The man was about to lash out, but his expression changed drastically the moment he heard Shen Xin say he was a police officer.

A stir went through the onlooking crowd as well.

Li Jiahui pushed through the crowd, picked up the girl’s phone, and helped her to her feet.

The man’s earlier impatience vanished, replaced by instant panic. "You... you’re really a cop?"

Shen Xin let go of the man’s arm and pulled out his ID.

’Not many people would dare impersonate a cop.’

The man shuddered. When Shen Xin had pulled the ID from his pants pocket, he’d pulled out the other contents along with it.

Among them was a pair of handcuffs.

Normally, uniformed officers from the local precinct wore duty belts with a proper holster for their cuffs for convenience.

Detectives like Shen Xin, on the other hand, usually just stuffed them in their pockets.

"See a problem?" Shen Xin asked.

The man hurriedly shook his head and took an unconscious step back.

He also pulled the golden retriever behind him.

Shen Xin noted these small movements, then turned to ask the girl what was going on.

The girl quickly grabbed her phone, showed Shen Xin a photo, and then pointed at the golden retriever behind the man. "Officer, look, this is my dog! See the fur on his hind leg here? It’s a little darker. Look, it’s exactly the same!"