Animal Detective

Chapter 304 - 252: Seeing You So Comfortable Makes Me Uncomfortable

Shen Xin aspired to be a police officer with nerves of steel, but he was still a little scared of snakes.

Especially when it wasn’t quite dead and twitched again.

It scared Shen Xin so much he quickly backed far away, breaking out in goosebumps.

Sergeant tilted his head, looking at Shen Xin in confusion, his gaze seeming to say, ’That’s a big piece of meat. You sure you don’t want to eat it?’

In the end, several grown men were stumped, having no idea what to do with the snake.

They were supposed to throw it away.

But the thought of picking it up—even though it had stopped moving—and that slippery, slithery feeling was just too repulsive.

They all looked at each other, but no one dared to make a move.

Eventually, it drew the attention of others from the base, and even Tang Changhong was alerted to the commotion.

A crowd gathered around Sergeant and the viper, gossiping nonstop.

"Domestic cats really are something else. To think it could take on a snake this big. If it were my British Shorthair, he’d probably run faster than me."

"Of course. They’ve been perfected by generations of natural selection, how could they be anything but?"

"And this isn’t just any ordinary domestic cat. Haven’t you seen? It’s pure black. This is a legendary spirit cat."

"Director, having a cat around has its benefits. Two years ago, Leisu was bitten by a snake and almost didn’t make it."

"It’s not just snakes, they also catch mice. The other day in the dorms, I opened my cabinet, and a mouse ran out. I nearly jumped out of my skin."

Tang Changhong nodded in agreement, then looked around and asked who would get rid of the snake.

The crowd had been chattering away, but the moment he asked, everyone went silent.

Li Jiahui quietly scooted closer to Shen Xin and whispered, "Shouldn’t you give Sergeant a bath? He was all over that snake."

The thought of how often she petted Sergeant made her skin crawl.

But to each their own. Some people were scared, and some weren’t.

A colleague from procurement, a man in his thirties or forties, heard the commotion and came over. His eyes lit up when he saw the viper.

"Now this is a real treasure! You guys have no idea, this stuff is an incredible tonic."

He walked right up, picked up the viper, and gave it a shake. Seeing that it was limp, he coiled it up.

By the looks of it, he was about to stuff it in his pocket.

Shen Xin’s scalp prickled as he watched. He really wanted to ask the man where he was from.

Sergeant was not pleased. He hissed at the man and clawed at his pant leg, his gaze seeming to say, ’That’s my prey.’

The man’s name was Duan Yixin, and he immediately understood what Sergeant meant.

He sized up the viper again, then changed his tune. "How about this? I’ll cook it into a porridge for you, and we can eat it together."

"We’ll skin it, chop it into one-inch pieces, then simmer it slowly in a rice slurry over low heat. You don’t add anything else, just some shredded aged ginger, and a pinch of salt right before you serve it."

"The porridge comes out silky, the meat tender, and most importantly, it’s unbelievably savory. Do you know why the old-timers always said you have to cook snake porridge outdoors?"

Everyone got goosebumps listening to him, but they still asked in unison, "Why?"

Duan Yixin said, "Because this snake porridge is incredibly savory. The more venomous the snake, the more delicious it is. If you cook it indoors, the steam rises."

"In the old houses, you’d have geckos, centipedes, and whatnot on the roof beams. When they smelled that savory aroma, they’d start drooling, and their saliva would drip into the pot and poison the porridge."

"Of course, that’s just an old wives’ tale, but it just goes to show how ridiculously delicious this stuff is. For real. You can also have it salt-and-pepper style. That’s a taste that’s out of this world."

He got so excited as he spoke that he started to tremble, practically drooling.

The crowd trembled as they listened, too.

Li Jiahui said with a serious expression, "Old Duan, even if you remove the venom glands, wild venomous snakes are full of parasites. High heat doesn’t necessarily kill all of them, does it? Aren’t you afraid you’ll get sick?"

Duan Yixin retorted, completely unconcerned, "Once it’s cooked, it’s just protein."

He then added, "Don’t be scared, guys. I’m serious, it’s delicious. Besides, it’s very... restorative. Especially for, you know, *that* department."

"Don’t you guys know? When snakes mate, they can go for hours, especially vipers. That’s why it’s considered an aphrodisiac."

He shot all the men present a look that said, ’You know what I’m talking about.’

The expressions on the faces of Li Yinjiang and the other men immediately turned suggestive.

Tang Changhong cleared his throat. "Old Duan, there are ladies present. Don’t talk nonsense. You’re making it sound like some of us are... deficient."

Shen Xin immediately chimed in, "Exactly. A young guy like me has no need for that."

Chen Guo nodded in agreement.

There were women present, but they were all formidable, middle-aged ladies.

A feisty female colleague from the finance department said, "Old Duan, save a bowl for me later! I’ll take it home for my husband."

The women beside her started gossiping, asking just how "deficient" her husband was.

The group of women burst into laughter and playful teasing.

Li Jiahui secretly nudged Shen Xin’s arm, asking with a sly grin if he was sure he didn’t want a bowl.

"I’m plenty virile as it is."

Shen Xin flexed his bicep.

All jokes aside, Sergeant had performed a great service today by catching the viper and preventing any of the police dogs from being bitten.

His reward at noon was a chicken drumstick.

Everyone gathered around him, showering him with praise.

He could sense the shift in everyone’s emotions and strutted smugly through the crowd, his tail held high in the air.

Just like Da Mei, Sergeant had a vain streak.

Feeling neglected, Tian Kui grew discontent. He ran over, tugged on Shen Xin’s pant leg, and barked toward the main gate.

It was as if he were saying, ’Let me out, and I’ll bring you back a couple of venomous snakes, too!’

The dog considered himself the pack leader in all things and absolutely refused to be outdone, even by an animal of a different species.

Shen Xin ignored him. ’You running out and bringing back two snakes would just be making more trouble.’

In the end, Old Duan actually did make the viper into a snake porridge.

Sergeant stood guard over the process. The snake’s gallbladder and other parts ended up in the cat’s stomach, and he even got a bowl of the final product. Judging by his reaction, he found it quite delicious.

Because the next day, when Shen Xin arrived at the base, Sergeant was waiting for him at the entrance to the office building.

At his feet lay a many-banded krait.

Li Yinjiang and the others who were already at work were gathered around him, every single one of them creeped out.

"Shen Xin, you have to get him under control. If he starts bringing snakes to the base every day, it’s going to be terrifying," Li Yinjiang said, his skin crawling.

No one knew where Sergeant had caught it; they figured he must have run out of the base and up the mountain.

The point was, him bringing back a snake every time you turned around was just plain horrifying.

Shen Xin hadn’t expected Sergeant to develop such a hobby. He guessed the cat had gotten hooked on Old Duan’s snake porridge from the day before.

Just as Li Yinjiang said, this couldn’t become a daily occurrence.

Besides, these creatures were protected animals.

Shen Xin mulled over finding him a different hobby.

And he actually found one.

Fishing.

Up the mountain road in front of the base, there was a small reservoir halfway up where plenty of people often went to fish.

’He’s a cat. What’s with all this snake business? He should be eating fish.’

As it happened, Shen Xin had a lot of downtime while training the police dogs, so he decided to drag Li Mo along, bring Tian Kui and the others, and go fishing.

It was a way to kill time, walk the dogs and increase their favorability, and even incorporate some mountain-and-forest tracking training.

It was truly killing several birds with one stone.

So that very day, Shen Xin dragged Li Mo out to go fishing.

Li Mo was an avid fisherman.

On the first day, he felt a little guilty, thinking it wasn’t right to be slacking off on company time.

By the second day, his guilt had faded considerably. He even started making excuses for himself, putting the noble spin on it that he was providing extra meals for the base’s police dogs.

By the third day, he was already rambling on to Shen Xin about how to choose the best fishing spot based on the weather and the angle of the sun.

On this day, Shen Xin sat in a folding chair, and with a flick of his wrist, he jerked his rod back.

A small, silvery fish a couple of inches long flew out of the water.

Shen Xin unhooked it and glanced behind him.

On the gentle slope behind him, some twenty-odd dogs lay sprawled out.

Shen Xin’s gaze swept over them; the favorability ratings above each dog’s head varied.

"Tian Jie."

Shen Xin called out.

The yellow dog named Tian Jie broke away from the pack and trotted forward, its head held high with a touch of pride.

Shen Xin tossed the fish, and the dog tilted its head back, swallowing it with perfect accuracy.

A small fish of that size was a perfect single gulp.

It gave Shen Xin a single bark and trotted back to its spot, perfectly content.

All the surrounding dogs stared at him in unison.

Above its head, the favorability rating was at 8 bars—the highest among all the dogs there.

He had originally started fishing just to find a way to kill time, but Shen Xin had accidentally discovered a shortcut to raising their favorability.

Exploiting the dogs’ vanity.

The method was simple: in front of all the other dogs, Shen Xin would give the fish he caught to the one with the highest favorability.

Dogs are pack animals.

These thirty-six dogs now formed a single pack.

Tian Kui was the alpha.

And Shen Xin was their master.

They feared Tian Kui, but they were filled with respect for Shen Xin—or rather, they strove to please him.

So, from their perspective, the process was understood as, ’Wow, that dog is so cool. The master likes him so much he gave him a tasty reward.’

They would become envious.

And the dog that ate the fish would, fueled by that envy, feel a sense of vanity, even a feeling of rising in status, a sense of ’The master likes me more.’

Under these conditions, the favorability rating naturally shot up.

Using this method, Shen Xin had already gotten seven dogs to Stage Two.

He had sent them off with Tian Kui to run drills in the mountains.

Just then, Sergeant meowed unhappily from his feet, looking up at Shen Xin as if to ask, ’Where’s mine?’

Even though Li Mo caught more fish, Sergeant still preferred to eat the ones Shen Xin caught himself.

"It’s coming, hang on."

Shen Xin scratched the cat’s chin and cast his line again.

Just then, two figures appeared on the mountain path in the distance.

As they drew closer, he saw it was Zhao Tianxing and Ding Yuwei.

Shen Xin said in surprise, "What are you two doing here?"

Zhao Tianxing took in the sun umbrella, the folding chair, and the iced drinks on the folding table beside them. He let out a long sigh, then suddenly grabbed Shen Xin’s hand and pleaded, "Bro. I’m calling you my own brother now. Please, get me transferred over here to train police dogs with you."

"Look at me! I can run, I can jump, I’m a natural at walking dogs!"

Exasperated, Shen Xin shook his hand off and asked Ding Yuwei, who stood beside him, "What kind of cases has the team been working on? Why’s he acting like this?"

With a smile in her eyes, Ding Yuwei said breezily, "Oh, no major cases. Just a few assaults, fraud, that sort of thing. The only homicide case turned out to be a suicide."

Zhao Tianxing immediately shot back, "What do you mean, ’no major cases’? Xiaoding, my dear comrade, you need to speak the truth. You sit in the office writing reports all day while your big brother here is out pounding the pavement. Haven’t you noticed I’ve gotten thinner?"

With that, he turned back to Shen Xin.

"Shen Xin, please come back to the team. Seeing you so comfortable is making me *un*comfortable."