For the officers on patrol, tonight’s New Year’s Eve event was a great success.

Only two kids got lost, and they were found right away.

Only one person lost a phone.

There were a few minor squabbles, but they were all restrained enough to be limited to shouting insults about each other’s families.

This was the best possible outcome.

At the stroke of midnight, the enormous light show on the facade of Zhongteng Mansion, opposite Xingning Square, began its countdown.

Shen Xin was in the crowd, listening as everyone around him shouted in unison.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

As the countdown hit zero, amid the roaring cheers of the crowd, countless balloons rose from every corner of the square.

They filled the sky, looking as beautiful and dreamlike as a fantasy under the flashing lights.

Shen Xin felt a grip tighten on his arm.

It was Zhang Qian to his left, her face flushed with excitement as she looped her arm through his.

Then he sensed someone approaching on his right.

He turned his head—it was Li Jiahui.

In the distance, at the fireworks launch point in the sunken plaza, bursts of fireworks shot into the sky, their flickering light playing across Li Jiahui’s face.

She had her head turned, gazing at him without averting her eyes.

Their eyes met. She gave him a faint smile and didn’t look away.

"Shen Xin, Happy New Year!"

Zhang Qian shouted excitedly.

Shen Xin snapped back to reality and quickly replied, "Happy New Year."

Then he turned to Li Jiahui and said, "Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year."

An elegant smile remained on Li Jiahui’s face.

After getting off his shift, he went for a late-night snack with Zhang Qian, so it was already quite late by the time he got home.

Nevertheless, he still had to be at work on time the next day.

As soon as he walked in the door, he ran into Jiang Wengang leading a group of people out in a frantic rush.

Even as he was heading out the door, he turned back and shouted to Shen Xin that he’d need to borrow Dou Dou later.

’Another case, probably.’

When he got to the office and was clocking in with Old Zhou, Zhou pulled him aside to tell him the selections for the ’Outstanding Individual’ award were about to be made.

"It’s just grapevine news, so no guarantees, but I think your name is on the list."

Zhou Zhongyi said conspiratorially.

He wasn’t jealous, of course; Shen Xin’s case-solving abilities were beyond question.

"Oh?"

Shen Xin’s eyes lit up.

But on second thought, he already had a Third-Class Merit award to his name. On top of that, a Second-Class Merit award had been submitted for the Ningshan case and was just awaiting approval from the Ningshan City Bureau.

’So what’s a measly ’Outstanding Individual’ award in comparison?’

The next day, Li Jiahui did indeed contact him.

She asked to meet on Saturday.

Shen Xin mentioned it to Sun Zhao.

"Don’t just do all the hard work for someone else’s benefit. If you find any good prospects, quietly keep them so we can train them ourselves. Old Jiang is always borrowing Dou Dou; it’s gotten to the point where it feels like we raised the dog for them."

Sun Zhao pulled Shen Xin aside to give him a reminder.

Tiger Stripes had never really shaped up, which left only Dou Dou, who was frequently borrowed by Jiang Wengang.

’Well, Dou Dou was originally trained for the Narcotics Division to begin with,’ Shen Xin thought.

But Sun Zhao had a point. One should favor one’s own unit. If he came across a good prospect, why not keep it for themselves?

After giving a gesture to show he understood, Shen Xin drove to the police dog base.

The Nanjiang Police Dog Base was located in Nanzhu, in the New District.

The area was mountainous along Li Lake, and the police dog base was located near a film studio at the foot of Lishan Mountain.

It was a huge place, and the drive took over half an hour.

Taking the expressway made it a fairly convenient trip, though.

When he arrived, Li Jiahui was waiting for him outside the main gate.

To Shen Xin’s surprise, Zhang Qian was there too.

"What are you doing here?"

"Jiahui invited me."

Zhang Qian casually linked her arm with Li Jiahui’s.

Li Jiahui’s smile seemed a bit forced.

He drove to the internal parking lot and got out. Not far away, he saw a man and a woman unloading pet carriers from a Ford Transit van.

The police dog base acquired its dogs from two sources: their own breeding program and purchases from partnered kennels.

Many kennels were more than happy to sell to the police dog base.

For one, the base paid well. For another, it served as great publicity.

Having a dog from your kennel chosen by the police dog base was a huge badge of honor.

The problem was, this Ford Transit had Ningshan license plates.

Even though some kennels sold their dogs nationwide, it seemed unlikely that the Nanjiang Police Dog Base would be partnering with a kennel from Ningshan.

Before he could ask, Li Jiahui noticed his gaze and explained, "This selection event isn’t just for Nanjiang; Ningshan is participating too. It’s a joint selection process."

"Ningshan?"

Shen Xin’s interest was piqued. ’It must be because of that last case in Ningshan,’ he thought. ’They must have learned about my abilities.’

’But it doesn’t matter,’ he reasoned. ’The more dogs, the better. I can pick out a couple of good ones for our own bureau as well.’

Li Jiahui gave the two of them a brief tour of the police dog base.

Meanwhile, the leadership from both cities began to arrive.

There was Meng Fuqiang, the director of the Ningshan City Police Dog Base.

His rank was the same as Tang Changhong’s, a high-level appointment at the deputy-director level.

Of course, he still wasn’t senior enough to wear the white uniform shirt of top command.

He was in his forties, a bit on the short side, with thinning hair and square-framed glasses. The moment they were introduced, the first thing he said, surprisingly, was that he’d long heard of Shen Xin’s great reputation.

’Lin Weinian must have told him,’ Shen Xin guessed. ’He knows about me using a cat for surveillance.’

After the initial pleasantries, Meng Fuqiang asked curiously about Shen Xin’s experience training stray dogs to become police dogs.

Ningshan is home to a police dog research institute—the only one in the entire country dedicated to studying K-9 training techniques.

Meng Fuqiang also served as a professor and senior researcher there, so when he heard that even strays could be trained into police dogs, he was immensely curious.

"Well..."

Shen Xin’s mind raced as he searched for a plausible explanation.

"Director Meng, I think the key is intelligence. Many stray dogs are actually very smart. They can understand human speech and figure out what people mean."

"I think that while there are differences in the dogs’ sense of smell, the gap isn’t that huge. What’s more important, I believe, are intelligence and the ability to comprehend."

"As long as we can make a dog understand what we want it to do, and then reinforce its obedience, it should be able to complete its assigned tasks."

Shen Xin spouted this nonsense with a completely straight face, and Director Meng actually nodded along continuously.

He then even started discussing the theory with Tang Changhong.

Their police dog training primarily focused on conditioned reflexes, starting from puppyhood to build reactions to a trainer’s hand signals and verbal commands, as well as to target items like drugs and explosives.

The entire training process was centered on establishing these conditioned reflexes.

In Director Meng’s view, however, Shen Xin had taken a completely different path: trying to make the dog truly understand what it was being asked to do.

The two of them grew more and more animated in their discussion, leaving Shen Xin feeling rather awkward.

’This man is an expert in the K-9 training industry,’ Shen Xin thought, cringing. ’If I mislead him and he goes and writes a paper on it, guiding the nation’s training programs, won’t I be responsible for messing up K-9 development for the entire country?’

The two of them didn’t reach a conclusion, so they had to set the topic aside and proceed with the selection process first.

Both bases brought out the puppies from their own breeding programs.

In addition, eleven partner kennels delivered a total of 28 more puppies.

In all, there were 46 puppies for Shen Xin to evaluate.

Shen Xin had originally thought he was just coming to help out a little, but he hadn’t expected it to become such a major event with people from Ningshan attending.

Most importantly, Shen Xin didn’t actually know much about the official selection process for police dogs.

’It wasn’t in that police dog manual Lv Youwei asked for, either,’ he lamented internally.

Shen Xin shot Li Jiahui a look, silently pleading for help.

Li Jiahui was incredibly perceptive. She exchanged a few words with Tang Changhong, then came over to say she would help Shen Xin with the selection.

As they walked, she took the opportunity to explain the base’s selection procedures and standards to him.

"For puppies around three months old like these, we’re just doing a preliminary screening."

"We’re mainly looking at temperament."

"For example, whether they’re bold or timid, physically strong or weak, focused or easily distracted, their level of obedience, and things like that."

She handed Shen Xin a clipboard with the base’s puppy screening checklist.

"We mainly look at what we call their ’nerve type.’"

She leaned in closer, pointing to the items on the form as she explained them to Shen Xin.

"There’s also physique. For a protection dog, for instance, it has to reach a certain size. We have some specific metrics here, all based on data we’ve accumulated over years of breeding."

Shen Xin nodded. ’It’s pretty complicated,’ he thought.

All the puppies awaiting selection were now in a large pen.

Some were calm, some were running wild, some were barking nonstop, and some were completely silent.

The sheer number of them was enough to give Shen Xin a headache.

After a moment’s thought, Shen Xin decided to just walk straight into the pen. Under the watchful eyes of the two directors, Meng Fuqiang and Tang Changhong, and a crowd of colleagues from the base, he clapped his hands sharply, silencing all the barking.

Then, he employed the universal method for getting a dog’s attention.

A series of sharp "TSK, TSK, TSK" sounds.

Li Jiahui, standing next to him, was instantly dumbfounded.

Meng Fuqiang and the others had the same reaction. ’Isn’t this method a bit too unorthodox?’

But miraculously, after Shen Xin made the clicking sounds, all forty-something puppies in the pen fell completely silent. Every last one of them tilted their heads to look at him. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Shen Xin was thrilled.

’As expected,’ he thought gleefully. ’No selection standard is as effective as my Great Druid Skill.’