Animal Detective

Shen Xin and the others were huddled in the car.

There was still some sashimi left from what Hu Mingchuan had bought, and Sheriff was gobbling it down.

The team anxiously discussed what to do.

According to their daily surveillance, the man wasn’t an early riser. He usually got up after seven.

He wouldn’t leave for work until almost nine in the morning.

There was no reason for him to be up at this hour.

Also, the man had a habit of getting up during the night, but he rarely seemed to do so in the latter half of the night.

So he must have been startled by Sheriff leaving.

Sure enough, they saw from a distance that the man had opened the curtains and was furtively peering outside.

This gave the team an even bigger headache.

"I don’t think it’s a big deal."

Zhang Songhao said quietly. When he saw everyone looking at him, he began to analyze the situation. "Look, it’s not like Sheriff left any traces."

"Even if he suspects someone got in, the door and windows are all shut tight. There’s no way for a person to have entered. He can only assume he didn’t close something properly, or there’s a problem with the lock and it opened on its own."

"At worst, he’ll just suspect it was a ghost."

Zhang Songhao added with a joke.

Shen Xin realized he had a point.

The doors and windows were closed, and a search of the house would turn up nothing. No matter how suspicious he was, the facts were right there in front of him. He’d have to assume it was just some kind of coincidence.

It was just like those so-called ghost stories online, the ones told in vivid detail—a window suddenly flying open, an object moving on its own, the TV switching on by itself.

In reality, there was always a rational explanation for those things.

A window opened? The wind blew it open.

An object moved? You just misremembered where you put it.

The TV turned on? There must be a problem with the wiring.

So when the physical conditions for an intrusion aren’t met, one is forced to accept the alternative, no matter how improbable.

The guy is a bank executive. He’s got to be highly educated, a staunch materialist. He’s not going to believe in all that supernatural nonsense, right?

Sure enough, from the team’s vantage point, the man began turning on the lights in one room after another.

He must be searching.

Inside, the man switched on all the lights in the master bedroom. He checked under the bed, inside the closets—everywhere a person could hide.

He found nothing.

Unconvinced, he left the bedroom and turned on every light in the villa, searching the entire house from top to bottom.

He even checked the door.

It was a smart door with a keypad lock that could display a log of when it was opened and closed. It also had an access control system and a camera outside.

The log only showed a record of the door being opened last night, and the access control system showed nothing.

He checked all the ground-floor windows. Only the kitchen window, a vent in the basement, and a window in a storage room were open.

But they were all just cracked open for ventilation, and they all had security bars.

It was impossible for anyone to get in.

The side door for the nanny, the sliding door to the back garden, the garage door—all of them were closed.

There was just no one there.

But instead of feeling relieved, the man grew even more tense.

He was absolutely certain he had closed the door.

And he didn’t have a habit of sleepwalking.

’Who opened the door, then?’

’A ghost?’

The thought popped into the man’s head uncontrollably, and a chill went down his spine.

Especially since he’d just had a nightmare.

It had felt so real that even now, wide awake, the images were still vivid in his mind.

The man felt as if something had really been pressing down on him.

Sitting on the sofa, he suddenly whipped his head around.

There was nothing behind him.

But he couldn’t help the hair on the back of his neck standing up, a feeling of panic rising within him.

Gritting his teeth, the man stood up and searched the entire house all over again.

He even went to the secret room, but it was the same story. He found nothing and no one.

But the more certain he was that he was alone, the more frightened he became.

He couldn’t get back to sleep. In the end, he turned on all the lights and just lay there with his eyes wide open until dawn.

At seven in the morning, the garage door opened, and he drove away from the house.

The team watched him leave.

"What does this mean? Is he suspicious?" Guan Wenkang asked softly. "He left in quite a hurry."

No one could answer.

Afterward, Shen Xin didn’t dare send Sheriff back in, so they didn’t know what had happened inside.

Team One had already started tailing him.

Zhang Songhao hesitated for a moment before saying, "Forget it. It’s not a big deal, really. Even if he did see Sheriff, so what? It’s just a cat. What could he possibly suspect?"

That was the biggest advantage of using a cat for reconnaissance—even if it was discovered, people wouldn’t think much of it.

The others nodded and said nothing more.

Mainly, what was done was done. There was no way to fix it now.

All they could do was report the facts as they happened.

Zhang Songhao reported the situation to Qin Chunyi.

Qin Chunyi didn’t say much.

It was a cat; ultimately, it was an uncontrollable factor.

In the end, he just told them to keep observing and dismissed the team for the day.

Shen Xin and Zhang Songhao got a hotel room to rest. Zhang Songhao also had a subordinate from the branch office bring over another collar.

That way, they could just swap it out directly instead of having to recharge it.

Shen Xin slept straight through until the afternoon before waking up.

After getting out of bed, he irritably tossed Sheriff to one side.

That little guy was just like Da Mei and Evil Bully; he’d occasionally sleep right on top of you.

Especially Da Mei. After she’d gotten plump, she weighed over eleven pounds. She’d make herself comfortable right on top of you without a single thought for her master’s well-being.

At six in the evening, the team gathered on time.

It was boxed dinners again.

Shen Xin noticed that Gao Siyu was the same as always, taking his boxed dinner to eat in the car by himself.

Shen Xin shot a look at Gu Dawei, who was on duty today.

Gu Dawei shrugged and said softly, "It’s not that we’re shunning him. He’s just like that."

He paused, then added mysteriously, "I think he might have a bit of OCD."

Shen Xin understood and didn’t ask any more questions.

It had drizzled a little that evening, making the traffic even worse. The target didn’t return to the villa until almost eight o’clock.

Zou Cong.

Shen Xin now knew his name.