Animal Detective

A hound on the left, a falcon on the right. Galloping wildly on horseback, Shen Xin was struck by a surge of heroic spirit, like an old man filled with youthful abandon.

The feeling rose in his throat, and he couldn’t resist the urge to shout aloud.

But before he could, a sudden shout came from behind him.

Shen Xin quickly glanced back and saw someone on horseback seemed to be catching up.

Earlier, Zhang Qifeng had told him that to stop, he had to slowly pull the reins tight.

But when he actually tried it, Shen Xin discovered it wasn’t so easy.

Behind him, Zhang Qifeng gave his reins a suave tug, slowing down slightly.

Amidst the urgent sound of hooves, the rider caught up.

"Saiyin Baina, Instructor!"

The rider was a young woman on a fine black horse. She held the reins in her left hand, placing her right hand over her chest as she nodded slightly in greeting.

She didn’t slow down as she made the gesture, showing off her superb equestrian skills.

"Doniya, what is it? Is something wrong?"

Zhang Qifeng sized up the newcomer.

The young woman wore a peacock-blue Mongolian robe with a red sash tied around her waist. A thick, braided ponytail was draped over her shoulder.

Her skin was sun-kissed, and she had freckles on her face, but her features were striking. A simple turquoise band adorned her forehead. She was known as the most beautiful girl in Chabuqi Village, and the line of suitors practically broke down her family’s door.

Doniya didn’t speak right away. She glanced at Shen Xin, who was getting farther away, and curiously asked if he was a tourist, pointing out how far he’d gone.

Only then did Zhang Qifeng notice Shen Xin galloping farther and farther away. ’Crap!’ he thought, quickly spurring his horse to give chase.

But Doniya was faster. With a crack of her whip, her black horse shot past the two men.

In an instant, she had caught up to Shen Xin from behind.

Just then, Shen Xin was finally getting the hang of how hard to pull the reins, guiding Delun to a slow stop.

With a flurry of hoofbeats, Doniya pulled up to a stop just ahead and to Shen Xin’s left.

With one hand on the reins, she had her fine horse sidestep slightly, turning gracefully to face Shen Xin.

"Saiyin Baina!"

She nodded in greeting.

"Sai... what?" Shen Xin was momentarily confused.

Doniya smiled. "It means ’hello.’"

Realization dawned on Shen Xin, and he quickly replied, "Hello."

Only then did he get a good look at her.

She was a girl with a sharp jawline, and sitting astride the tall horse, she had a thoroughly dashing air about her.

Just as Shen Xin was about to ask who she was, Zhang Qifeng and Liao Lei caught up.

"Shen Xin, are you alright?"

Zhang Qifeng asked worriedly.

Shen Xin shook his head, then asked Zhang Qifeng in confusion why the horse didn’t stop when he’d been shouting "whoa."

Before Zhang Qifeng could explain, Doniya let out a laugh like tinkling bells. "Hey, handsome," she said. "Out here on the grasslands, our horses grow up learning different commands from the ones you’re using. We rely on this."

She tugged on her reins and brandished the whip in her hand.

"That explains it."

Shen Xin had a sudden epiphany. ’So I was shouting in a foreign language this whole time.’

"Right, and you are?" Shen Xin finally remembered to ask the girl’s name.

The girl performed the elegant chest-press greeting again and smiled. "My name is Doniya."

Shen Xin nodded in return. "Hello, I’m Shen Xin. I’m from Nanjiang."

"Nanjiang?"

Doniya’s eyes lit up as she pressed, "Is that the Nanjiang where people put white sugar on their noodles?"

Shen Xin sucked in a sharp breath and defended himself, "Actually, we usually don’t."

’Well, only occasionally.’

Doniya gave him a look that said ’I understand,’ then asked, "Do you put sugar in your steamed buns, too?"

’What a huge misconception,’ Shen Xin thought, then explained, "It’s not just adding sugar. It’s mainly to enhance the flavor. It’s not as exaggerated as people online say."

Doniya said, "Oh," and was about to ask more when Zhang Qifeng cut her off, asking what she needed.

Only then did Doniya remember her reason for coming. "Instructor," she said urgently, "Hong Gu’er is missing! My dad won’t let me look for him. He says Hong Gu’er is a horse favored by the Eternal Heaven and was bound to leave sooner or later."

"But I’ve raised him for so many years! I can’t bear to lose him. Instructor, can you help me find him?"

Hearing that a horse was missing, Zhang Qifeng’s expression turned serious.

On the grasslands, a large part of a police officer’s job was helping herders find lost livestock.

However, they still had to find Tianxiong, and they were short on people. Zhang Qifeng first asked her when the horse went missing.

Doniya replied, "Sometime during the night, probably. He was gone when I woke up this morning. You know Hong Gu’er—we don’t usually tie him up. He ran off on his own today. I think he might be in heat."

May was typically the month when horses started going into heat.

Zhang Qifeng hesitated for a moment. "How about this? I’ll ask around in the group chats first to see if anyone has seen your horse. We’re busy right now; we have to find Tianxiong."

"Tianxiong?"

Doniya raised a delicate eyebrow and hurriedly asked if Tianxiong still hadn’t been found.

Zhang Qifeng shook his head in frustration and pointed at Shen Xin. "Nope. We’re out of options, so we had to ask Officer Shen to come all the way from Nanjiang. He’s the one who trained Tianxiong, so we asked him to come help find him."

Doniya was taken aback. She looked at Shen Xin in astonishment and said, "You’re a police officer, too? And Tianxiong, that incredibly well-behaved police dog, you trained him?"

"Then is this one a police dog, too?"

She looked at Tian Kui, who was beside Shen Xin.

Shen Xin nodded and told Tian Kui to say hello to Doniya.

Tian Kui immediately let out a bark.

"Wow, he’s just as smart as Tianxiong." Doniya’s eyes sparkled as she stared intently at Tian Kui. "I used to have a dog when I was little, a really smart sheepdog."

"But it was killed by a wolf, so I never got another one. But I really love dogs, especially Tianxiong. He’s so, so smart."

As she spoke, she gracefully swung herself off her horse and squatted down in front of Tian Kui to greet him.

She also casually pulled a strip of beef jerky from her Mongolian robe and offered it to Tian Kui.

Tian Kui didn’t take it, turning his head to look at Shen Xin instead.

"Go on, eat it."

’This little glutton.’

Only then did Tian Kui accept the treat.

Doniya grew even more excited, pointing at Tian Kui. "He’s so smart! I feel like he and Tianxiong can actually understand what we’re saying."

"You bet," Liao Lei chimed in. "Doniya, did you know? Tian Kui is a national-level, First-Class Merit dog. He saved over a dozen people in a landslide. He’s a hero dog. There are videos of him all over the internet."

"Really?"

With a look of disbelief, Doniya quickly pulled out her phone to search for it.

Shen Xin stopped her and said to Zhang Qifeng, "Instructor Zhang, why don’t you go with Do..."

"Doniya," she quickly supplied her name again.

Shen Xin continued, "Right. Instructor Zhang, you go with Doniya to find her horse. Liao Lei and I can handle things here. There are wolves on these grasslands; we don’t want anything to happen."

Before Zhang Qifeng could speak, Doniya shook her head. "It’s fine, I’m not in a hurry. Hong Gu’er is tough. He’s not afraid of wolves."

Then she added, "I’ll go with you to find Tianxiong. He’s been missing for days."

Zhang Qifeng wasn’t comfortable letting Shen Xin and Liao Lei go off by themselves. "Doniya," he said, "I’ll still ask around in the group chats for you first."

When Tianxiong was around, they could have him help with the search.

But without Tianxiong, all they could do was ask around, mobilize the local coordinators, and wait for news before starting a search.

As he spoke, he took out his phone and sent messages to several group chats.

Doniya’s family’s horse was quite famous, and many people knew it, so he figured it should be easy to find.

Meanwhile, Doniya simply joined the group.

Zhang Qifeng let her be. If any news came through the group chats, he could tell her immediately.

Doniya’s horsemanship was superb; she could gallop along while pulling out her phone to search for videos of Tian Kui.

They were all over the internet.

When she saw Tian Kui racing through the darkness with a police strobe in his mouth, saving so many lives, her eyes lit up. She exclaimed, "Officer Shen, were you there? I see you!"

Shen Xin just gave a quick nod, his full attention on Delun, not daring to get distracted.

The group galloped on, crossing stream after stream. They headed west for about half an hour before finally stopping.

They had probably covered ten or twenty kilometers.

"This is the place."

Zhang Qifeng reined in his horse, pointing down.

Shen Xin glanced over and could still see signs of the turf being trampled chaotically.

Nearby, there were also signs of digging, likely where the wolf’s body was buried.

Then, about a kilometer to the north was where Lakshen had been found.

Shen Xin dismounted and led Tian Kui forward to investigate.

Traces of a struggle remained at the scene, and faint bloodstains were still visible.

"Tian Kui, do you smell Tianxiong’s scent?" Shen Xin asked.

Four days had passed.

Plus, it was open grassland, where scents would dissipate quickly.

One positive factor was that after the snow on the day of the incident, there had been no more rain or snow.

Furthermore, the struggle had left behind bloodstains, and that scent would be easier to track.

Tian Kui barked once.

[Yes.]

[There’s another scent, too.]

He had obviously picked up the wolf’s scent.

Shen Xin said, "That’s a wolf. Remember its scent. Track it."

Tian Kui shot forward.

Shen Xin immediately mounted his horse to follow.

Zhang Qifeng’s eyes lit up. ’Bringing Shen Xin here was the right call,’ he thought.

Doniya was also excited, pointing at Tian Kui and asking if this meant they could find Tianxiong.

Shen Xin glanced at Zhang Qifeng and said, "We should be able to."

He said they could, but deep down, Shen Xin stuck to his original assessment.

’Tianxiong is probably in trouble.’

He was friendly enough with people that if he were still alive, he would have sought human help within four days.

Tian Kui headed north first.

At first, despite the time that had passed, Tian Kui’s pace was decent, perhaps because of the large amount of blood loss.

He went north, then turned west.

The overall trail, just as Zhang Qifeng had said, followed the route he had previously tracked using the helmet’s locator.

After they had tracked for about three or four kilometers, Zhang Qifeng pointed to the ground and said this was where the helmet had last been found.

Tian Kui hadn’t lost the scent yet, so they continued the pursuit.

At this point, the trail was still generally westward, but it began to veer south.

And it wasn’t a straight line; the trail doubled back and changed directions.

It felt as if Tianxiong was still locked in a struggle with the wolf.

"That wretched wolf," Doniya said angrily.

By now, their phone signals were very weak, dropping to a 2G network.

The PDAs were fine, however, running on a satellite signal. Shen Xin and Zhang Qifeng checked the map and their location as they searched.

Zhang Qifeng looked vexed. "I knew it. Tianxiong ran out of our jurisdiction."

According to their current position, the group had already left the police station’s jurisdictional area.

’It’s not surprising he ran out of the jurisdiction,’ Shen Xin thought.

Besides, during the search, they had already contacted the neighboring jurisdictions to help look for him.

’If no one has found him yet, my deduction is probably correct.’

At this point, the general direction turned south.

After another eight or nine kilometers, Tian Kui began to circle.

From his inner voice, Shen Xin could tell he had lost the scent.

Shen Xin looked around in all directions.

The landscape was boundless, seemingly unchanging.

However, Shen Xin noticed the soil on the ground was unusually damp and asked Zhang Qifeng if it had rained here.

"Hard to say." Zhang Qifeng’s brow was tightly furrowed. He explained that the weather on the grasslands was unpredictable, especially during the transition from spring to summer. With intense air currents, snow, downpours, and hail were all common.

That must be it.

’It must have been a localized downpour,’ Shen Xin thought. ’It washed away the remaining bloodstains, which is why Tian Kui lost the scent.’

Without needing a prompt from Shen Xin, Tian Kui had already begun widening his search area, casting about in all directions.

It would be best if he could pick up the trail again.

If he couldn’t, then finding anything in this vast, disorienting grassland would be impossible.

After searching for a while, Tian Kui returned, frustrated, and barked twice at Shen Xin.

[Nothing.]

"He didn’t find it?" Doniya sounded even more anxious than Zhang Qifeng.

Shen Xin nodded slightly and motioned for the four of them to split up, each taking a different direction.

"Alive or dead, we need to find him. We’ve tracked him this far, so let’s keep searching," Shen Xin said in a low voice, trying to prepare Zhang Qifeng for the worst.

Zhang Qifeng understood the unspoken meaning. His face changed drastically as he chose a direction and rode off, searching silently.

Even after he had ridden far into the distance, his calls for Tianxiong could still be heard echoing across the grassland.

"Be careful," Doniya said to Shen Xin before quickly picking a direction and riding off as well.

Shen Xin set off immediately with Tian Kui.

They would start with a five-kilometer radius and see if they could pick up the scent again.

Shen Xin didn’t want to assume the worst, but all signs pointed to Tianxiong being in trouble.

Unable to help himself, Shen Xin also shouted Tianxiong’s name out into the vast grassland.

’Where did that little rascal run off to?!’

At that very moment, dozens of kilometers to the east of Wugai Banner, a head poked out from a ditch beside the foundation of a highway.

It was none other than Tianxiong.

His intelligent eyes were fixed on a car approaching in the distance.