The video call’s camera also panned over to the needle on the floor.

Zhao Rui squinted and leaned closer. "Officer Shen, what is that? It looks like a needle to me."

"It is a needle!"

Shen Xin was furious.

Tiger Stripes might be a slacker who ate more than he worked, but no matter how little he worked, he had still done his job. He had helped track suspects and find missing children and elderly people.

As a police dog, he had a commendable record.

"Tiger Stripes, where did you eat that?" Ding Yuwei asked urgently.

Tiger Stripes lolled his tongue out, still trying to vomit, and whimpered.

Zhao Rui quickly said, "Have him drink more soapy water. It looks like the sausage hasn’t been fully digested yet. He probably just ate it, so there’s still a chance he can throw it up."

"Okay, let me contact my local colleagues and see if they’re free to take him to the hospital. In a situation like this, getting an X-ray is the safest bet."

As she spoke, she added indignantly, "I’ve seen this before. Some people just hate stray cats and dogs. They’ll deliberately leave food laced with rat poison in areas where strays gather."

"The cats and dogs eat it and get poisoned. I’ve also seen cases like this, where people intentionally hide needles in food."

She sighed, then quickly hung up the video call to contact her colleague.

Tiger Stripes turned his head to look at Shen Xin.

’I feel awful.’

He heard the dog’s thoughts again.

"You have to drink it even if you feel awful. Hurry up," Shen Xin said, holding the basin in front of him.

Resigned, Tiger Stripes had no choice but to keep drinking the soapy water.

Ding Yuwei watched with a pained expression. "We can’t just let this go. I have to find the monster who did this."

Shen Xin felt the same way.

Calling it an assault on an officer might be an exaggeration, but this person had to be found and given a stern talking-to.

There was no specific law that made harming stray animals a crime.

But as Zhao Rui just mentioned, deliberate poisoning could actually be considered a public safety hazard, constituting the crime of releasing a dangerous substance.

Ding Yuwei called Chen Chao.

Chen Chao arrived shortly after.

Meanwhile, Tiger Stripes had thrown up everything.

Chen Chao’s expression darkened when he saw the sewing needle. After learning that they had contacted a vet clinic, he told Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei to go ahead while he checked the nearby surveillance footage to see where Tiger Stripes had wandered off to.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei rushed Tiger Stripes to the vet clinic. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Sorry to trouble you."

At the vet clinic, Zhao Rui’s colleague had already arrived. She was a female vet with glasses and was even wearing cotton slippers.

"It’s no trouble at all. This one’s a hero."

She crouched down and smilingly ruffled the fur on Tiger Stripes’s head.

She had seen videos online and knew that Tiger Stripes was a police dog who had helped solve cases.

Fortunately, the X-ray showed no other needles in his stomach.

It seemed the culprit had only fed him one.

They also drew some blood just in case, confirming that his levels were normal.

They were worried the person might have used poison as well.

Only then did Shen Xin relax. After thanking them profusely, he took Tiger Stripes back to the station.

Chen Chao had already pulled the surrounding surveillance footage, but he hadn’t found much.

Tiger Stripes didn’t stick to the main roads. He frequented all sorts of nooks and crannies, making him hard to track.

"Tiger Stripes, tell me. Where was it? Who gave you that sausage? Take me there."

Shen Xin crouched down, holding Tiger Stripes’s head as he questioned him.

The dog could understand him.

But his gaze was a bit evasive.

"Look at me," Shen Xin snapped, reprimanding him. "You have to take me there, or I’ll deal with you later."

This guy was always trying to get away with things. You had to be firm with him.

’Okay.’

He heard his thought.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei went; Chen Chao did not.

Even though it was the New Year holiday, something was always happening in a city this large.

Considering Tiger Stripes was likely to take shortcuts, they decided to borrow an electric scooter from a colleague at the gatehouse.

With Ding Yuwei on the back, Shen Xin rode into the cold night wind, following Tiger Stripes.

As soon as they left the station gates, Tiger Stripes bolted in the direction of Hongtu Vegetable Market.

That was where Shen Xin had found him.

He figured the dog had probably rounded up his old pack of followers again.

But after running a few hundred meters, he darted into the greenbelt on the side of the road.

There was a plot of land here slated for development.

Before they left, they had put the GPS collar on him. Ding Yuwei watched the tracker on her phone, tapping Shen Xin’s shoulder to give him directions.

Shen Xin had always thought Tiger Stripes just wandered around the vicinity of the station.

Only now did he realize the dog’s territory was much larger.

They passed Hongtu Vegetable Market and continued southeast. At this point, they were already two kilometers from the station as the crow flies.

’I’m going to have to keep him on a leash from now on.’

Shen Xin cursed under his breath.

"He stopped," Ding Yuwei said, patting Shen Xin and pointing ahead.

Shen Xin looked around.

If he remembered correctly, this place should be called Hamashita Village.

To the east was Hualin Steel City.

To the west was the New District.

This was an old village that hadn’t been demolished yet. In the dark of night, every house was lit up, and quite a few people were outside setting off fireworks.

Tiger Stripes stopped, and soon, two dogs emerged from the bushes, affectionately licking him.

Without a doubt, they were females.

Shen Xin gave him a light kick. ’I told you to find where you ate the sausage, not to come here and flirt.’

Tiger Stripes whimpered and finally turned around.

He returned to the village entrance, then turned right and headed into the village.

Finally, he stopped on the north side of the village, not far from the main road.

He barked twice at an iron gate.

It was a scrap recycling station.

The iron gate was shut tight, and a blue truck was parked against the wall by the entrance.

Shen Xin got off the scooter.

"You ate the sausage here?" Shen Xin asked, looking down at him.

Tiger Stripes nodded.

’Yes.’

His thought confirmed it.

He turned and barked twice toward the inside of the yard. His meaning was clear.

It was an iron bar gate with gaps large enough for Tiger Stripes to squeeze through.

With the needle stuck inside the sausage, it was obvious he hadn’t been rummaging through trash. Someone had fed it to him.

"Anyone home?"

Shen Xin slapped the iron gate and shouted a couple of times.

The scrap yard was a decent size. Piles of various junk were stacked on both sides of the gate, and in the back were a few single-story buildings with their lights on.

Someone should be home.

Shen Xin shouted two more times before there was a stir inside.

Then, a man in a black down jacket appeared.

"Who is it?!"

He shouted as he walked toward the gate.

There was a streetlight outside, so they could roughly see what was happening inside.

As he walked out, he paused by a pile of scrap and kicked something deeper into the pile.

Shen Xin couldn’t see what it was before the man reached the gate.

He was in his thirties, with a beard and a dark complexion—a very ordinary-looking face. He jumped when he saw Ding Yuwei.

Shen Xin was in plain clothes, but Ding Yuwei was in uniform.

"Are you the police? Is there something you need?" he asked nervously.

Ding Yuwei flashed her badge.

Shen Xin pointed at Tiger Stripes and asked if he had seen this dog before.

The man glanced at Tiger Stripes. "No, I haven’t. What’s wrong?"

Shen Xin motioned for him to open the gate.

Once the gate was open, Shen Xin stepped inside. "This is a dog from our Public Security Bureau, a police dog. Tonight, we discovered he ate a sausage that had a sewing needle hidden inside."

"And according to his tracking, he ate that sausage right here. You say you’ve never seen him, so how do you explain that?"

As he spoke, Shen Xin walked further in, observing his surroundings.

The man frantically explained that he didn’t know anything about it, saying he had been out collecting scrap all day and wasn’t home.

"Could it have been my mom?!"

He slapped his forehead and shouted toward the single-story building.

Soon, an old woman opened the door and came out.

"Mom, did you feed someone’s dog a sausage? And did you put a sewing needle in it?!"

The man rushed over and questioned her loudly.

"Did you know that’s a police dog? Look, the police are here at our door now."

The old woman was quite elderly and walked with a slight limp. When she saw Tiger Stripes, her expression clearly changed.

"I... I didn’t," she stammered.

She denied it haltingly.

Just then, the woman of the house was also disturbed. She came out, throwing a coat over her shoulders, and asked what was going on.

When the man told her his mother had fed a needle to a police dog, she was also startled and anxiously asked the old woman if it was true.

"Officers, I... This..."

The man looked troubled. "Is the dog okay? Should we take him to a vet to get checked out? Don’t worry, if my mom really did it, we’ll definitely pay for everything."

The woman nodded along, looking extremely nervous.

Ding Yuwei subconsciously started to step forward to speak.

Shen Xin subtly grabbed her hand and gave it a slight tug.

"Ma’am."

Shen Xin stepped forward and said in a grave voice, "Tell the truth, and this will be easier to handle. If you don’t, let me tell you, this is a police dog. Harming a police dog is equivalent to assaulting an officer."

"Mom, hurry up and tell us what happened," the man shouted anxiously.

The old woman was a little frightened. She lowered her head and said, "I fed it to him. He came here and was rummaging through our scrap, making a mess of everything. I got angry and wanted to... teach him a lesson."

"Mom, how could you do that?!"

The man stomped his foot in frustration.

The woman also looked exasperated, muttering about what was wrong with rummaging through some scrap and why it mattered.

"Officer, what’s going to happen? You’re not going to take my mom away, are you?"

The man asked nervously, quickly adding, "How about this: if anything is wrong with the dog, we’ll pay for the treatment. Is that okay? We’ll compensate you."

Shen Xin snorted. "Is this something money can solve? This is a dog, a living creature. Does feeding him a sewing needle sound like something a decent person would do?"

"Ma’am, luckily the dog threw up the needle this time, and the vet checkup showed no other problems. If something serious had happened, you would have had to bear the responsibility."

"Do you understand?"

The old woman mumbled an "oh" and nodded repeatedly.

Seeing a chance for leniency, the man quickly said, "Officer, we’ll pay for the medical bills. How about we offer some compensation money as well?"

The woman nodded eagerly too.

Compensation was definitely in order.

After all, someone had gone to the vet clinic to help on New Year’s Eve. They couldn’t be expected to have made the trip for nothing.

No one’s time should be taken for granted.

"Here’s the bill." Shen Xin handed over the receipt for a few hundred yuan. "Next time this happens, you can shoo the stray dog away, but you can’t harm it by feeding it needles. Understand?"

The old woman nodded repeatedly.

The man took the bill and quickly pulled out his phone to transfer the money to Shen Xin.

"Don’t let this happen again."

Shen Xin accepted the payment, glanced at the payer’s name, and put his phone away with a warning.

The man repeatedly promised it wouldn’t, and saw the two of them out.

Shen Xin had Tiger Stripes hop onto the scooter’s floorboard, then pulled away with Ding Yuwei after giving one final warning.

As they drove off, Ding Yuwei asked in a low voice, "Shen Xin, why did you grab my hand? Is something wrong?"

Shen Xin glanced in the scooter’s rearview mirror, saw the man still standing at the gate watching them, and joked, "What? Can’t I just hold your hand?"

"Stop fooling around. Be serious."

Ding Yuwei huffed, her cheeks flushing slightly in the darkness.

Shen Xin turned onto the road leading out of the village before saying in a low, serious tone, "There is a problem. We’ll talk about it later."