Animal Detective-Chapter 37: Da Mei Strikes Again

"Da Mei, want to go bully some cats?"

Da Mei had been lying there with a look of utter despair, letting the three little ones nuzzle all over her. But upon hearing Shen Xin’s words, her spirits lifted instantly.

With a MEOW, she leaped off the sofa and bolted for the door.

’Hurry up!’

As expected, he heard her inner voice.

Even Evil Bully, who had been curled up in a ball sleeping, lifted his head, eager for a fight.

Although he had been neutered, robbing him of his virility as the king of the cat world, the ferocity ingrained in his very bones remained.

Evil Bully was still incredibly fierce.

Zhao Rui had also said that even though he was "snipped," his hormones hadn’t fully subsided yet. It would just take some time.

Shen Xin thought for a moment but decided not to bring Evil Bully along.

This wasn’t about picking a fight.

Evil Bully could throw his weight around and wreak havoc in the cat world, but the size difference between a cat and a dog was just too great. Shen Xin didn’t think he’d be any match for a stray dog.

So today’s mission was mainly reconnaissance.

Da Mei was agile and could dart into all sorts of nooks and crannies, but Shen Xin couldn’t.

He would put the cat-cam on her, and if she found anything, he would make his move.

He first clocked in at the station, then set off directly.

He had reported it to the station, so he was essentially playing hooky with permission.

「A short time later, he arrived at Xianghong Village.」

Out of habit, he drove to Wu Zhicun’s house.

Just yesterday, Zhao Shouchuan had sent him a message saying Wu Zhicun had been discharged from the hospital.

After he parked the car, Da Mei was already getting impatient.

Shen Xin put the cat-cam on her, adjusted it, and then took out a "missing dog" poster. He pointed to it and described the mutt.

"Its ears, and this spot next to its butt, are white. Remember that clearly."

It was a bit complicated, but Shen Xin believed Da Mei could understand.

The effect of the icon seemed to be mutual.

Shen Xin could better understand what animals meant, and animals with the icon could also understand his words more easily.

Sure enough, Da Mei understood. She settled down, let out a low meow at Shen Xin, and her eyelids drooped. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Her expression seemed to say, ’Are you serious?’

’You want me, a cat, to go teach a dog a lesson?’

’I can’t win.’

’Not happy!’

Shen Xin could hear her thoughts; her displeasure was practically written all over her face.

Shen Xin quickly said, "I’m not asking you to fight! Just find it and follow it. Observe, do you understand? Observe!"

Da Mei continued to MEOW.

’No fun.’

That was her inner voice.

Bullying other cats was fun.

It hadn’t been easy raising the icon’s favorability to its current level, so Shen Xin couldn’t force her. He could only coax her in a soft voice, "Please, just help me out. I’ll buy you tasty treats when we get back. And catnip! Do you know what that is? It’s good stuff."

He’d seen something about catnip while scrolling through his phone last time; apparently, cats loved it.

Da Mei meowed a couple of times, seemingly persuaded, and jumped out of the car.

This time, she didn’t bolt out impatiently. Instead, she sauntered away slowly, glancing back at Shen Xin from time to time as if hoping he would stop her.

But soon, she scrambled up a wall and disappeared.

Shen Xin quickly took out his phone and switched the camera to its real-time feed.

The battery life was about fifty minutes. He’d have to swap it out if it ran low.

He only watched for a short while before his mouth twisted into a grimace. That cat, Da Mei, was heading straight for Houzhuang Village. She was clearly off to bully that tuxedo cat again.

He sighed silently.

Da Mei was a cat, after all; she wouldn’t follow his orders completely.

Now that the cat was gone, Shen Xin could only pray that after she was done bullying the tuxedo cat, she wouldn’t forget about the actual job she was supposed to be doing.

And that poor tuxedo cat... he really felt sorry for it.

Seeing that Da Mei hadn’t found the tuxedo cat yet, Shen Xin thought for a moment and walked over to Wu Zhicun’s front door.

The courtyard gate was ajar, and the door to the main room was closed.

A flicker of unease went through Shen Xin, and he quickly pushed the gate open and went inside.

He pushed open the door to the main room and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Wu Zhicun was sitting alone on a chair, muttering something under his breath.

After his trip to the hospital, he could now be described as emaciated.

Moreover, Shen Xin could see a deathly air about his face.

This "deathly air" was a mysterious thing, but Shen Xin remembered that before his own grandfather passed away—he was old and had an accidental fall—his whole condition had deteriorated instantly. The look on his face had been exactly the same as Wu Zhicun’s.

And then, a few months later, his grandfather died.

Wu Zhicun’s situation was even more dire than his grandfather’s. He had taken rat poison and suffered a major health crisis in the hospital.

He was normally very alert; he would have known immediately if someone pushed the gate open.

But now, he had no reaction, just kept muttering to himself in a daze.

As he got closer, Shen Xin heard the names "Jia Wang" and "Da Jun."

Sighing inwardly, Shen Xin called out his name several times before Wu Zhicun finally snapped out of it.

Upon realizing it was Shen Xin, he suddenly grabbed the blind man’s cane in his hand and swung it at him, shouting in a rage, "It was you! Who told you to save me? Wouldn’t it have been better to just let me die?"

Shen Xin dodged out of the way.

’So, I save your life and this is the thanks I get?’

"Uncle Wu, calm down," Shen Xin urged.

Wu Zhicun kept cursing, his emotions running high, yelling that Shen Xin shouldn’t have saved him and should have let him die.

The rat poison seemed to have damaged his throat, too; his voice was terribly hoarse.

After shouting at the top of his lungs a few times, he broke into a violent coughing fit.

Shen Xin hurried to find some water.

There was no hot water, of course, but there were bags of rice and flour, and some bottled water in the corner.

The community center must have stopped by to check on him.

Shen Xin offered him a bottle of water, but he refused to take it, smacking it away. He pointed toward the inner room and told Shen Xin to get out.

Fearing he would become more agitated, Shen Xin didn’t want to provoke him further and backed out of the main room. But just as he was about to leave, he stopped, turned back, and said, "Uncle Wu, since you’re not even afraid of death, why not just wait a little longer? You never know, you might get some news."

Shen Xin didn’t mention the clue, lest he give him more false hope.

"Get out!"

Wu Zhicun screamed himself hoarse.

Shen Xin sighed and left the courtyard.

After a moment’s thought, Shen Xin called Zhao Shouchuan.

Zhao Shouchuan had mentioned before that the community wanted to send Wu Zhicun to a nursing home.

He asked and found out that Wu Zhicun was refusing to go, no matter what. He said this was his home, and he wanted to die in his own home.

On the phone, Zhao Shouchuan sighed endlessly. He lamented that the younger Wu Zhicun had been an outstanding employee and even a city-level model worker. He had worked diligently his whole life, only for his family to end up in such a tragic situation. It was truly pitiful.

He also brought up the matter of the mutt, saying he would continue to keep an eye out for Shen Xin.

Shen Xin thanked him and hung up. He glanced back at the courtyard and could faintly hear Wu Zhicun wailing at the top of his lungs.

A complex mix of emotions washed over him, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

He took out his phone again to check on Da Mei.

Shen Xin didn’t know if cats had some unique way of finding each other, but somehow, Da Mei had caught the tuxedo cat yet again.

The camera feed was shaking rapidly. Da Mei was leaping up and down, zipping back and forth along the top of a wall like the wind.

In no time, she pounced, tackling the tuxedo cat into a greenbelt.

The tuxedo cat shrieked and tried to flee, its ears flattened back in fear as it whimpered at Da Mei.

Da Mei was completely unafraid. She arrogantly advanced and gave the tuxedo cat a sound thrashing, not stopping until it was thoroughly beaten into submission.

The tuxedo cat finally gave up. It lay obediently on the ground, letting Da Mei circle it provocatively.

Shen Xin was speechless. ’Get on with the actual mission!’

’And besides, you were ganged up on by them once. Is it really necessary to hold such a grudge?’

On screen, the two cats were in a standoff for a moment before Da Mei was the first to leave.

She must have been satisfied.

She leisurely weaved through the greenbelt, across the road, and along the tops of walls, occasionally stopping to lick her fur or lie down for a bit.

She seemed to have no purpose at all.

Shen Xin felt that at this rate, finding that mutt was going to be a real long shot.

Sure enough, by the time the battery was about to die, Da Mei had wandered all the way to the national highway without a single discovery.

She did actually run into a few dogs along the way.

But they clearly weren’t the one.

Just as Shen Xin was about to give up and put his phone away, a yellow dog suddenly emerged from behind a garbage shed in the distance on the camera feed. It glanced warily in Da Mei’s direction, then turned and ran off.

His phone was already warning him that the battery was dead and the recording was about to stop.

But in that fleeting glimpse, Shen Xin noticed that this yellow dog had a grayish-white patch on its rump, near its left hind leg.

Shen Xin’s heart leaped. ’Could that be the mutt?’