茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter Thirty-six: Other Scents

The elevator doors slowly closed. Inside the elevator, Xiang Kun held Little Fatty Girl Liu Shiling’s hand and stood with Shiling’s Mom on one side while Miss Yang held her pet dog, PINKIE, on the other.

However, at this point, the husky had completely lost its previous excitement and was crouched alone, pressing itself into an elevator corner, as if trying to shrink into the elevator wall. Miss Yanz’s efforts to Dull it or call it were in vain.

The husky is often called a “Husku” because of its playful and mischievous instincts and poor obedience, often causing mischief and tearing things up at home, earning it a place among the “foolish three sled-dogs” alongside the Alaskan Malamute and the Samoyed.

However, whether it’s the Husky or the other two types of sled dogs, they all have high intelligence. Sled dogs, initially domesticated as working dogs by Siberian herders, have better directional skills than humans when pulling sleds in snowstorms, often requiring them to make their own decisions and choices.

The low obedience of sled dogs is not because they do not understand their owner’s commands and intentions, but because they believe they are smarter than their owner, often making decisions on their own. Also, the owner may not have established enough dominance to command obedience from them. Alternatively, they may just be deliberately being naughty, all in pursuit of their own goals.

Miss Yang’s husky clearly hadn’t been trained properly and probably regarded her as a companion rather than a master, and even then, one ranked lower than itself.

Xiang Kun knew that the husky didn’t mean to attack Little Fatty Girl earlier but just wanted to play with her. However, if she were knocked down in such a situation, it could lead not only to physical injury but also to a severe psychological shock.

Ultimately, the cause of the problem was Miss Yang’s failure in training her dog.

Miss Yang might have been unable to control her pet, but Xiang Kun could.

During his previous nocturnal ‘patrols’, he often encountered stray dogs and cats scavenging for food, or people walking their dogs at night.

He quickly discovered that if he held his breath, slightly tensed his muscles, and exuded a fierce aura when these cats and dogs noticed him, they’d immediately withdraw, run away, or even lie flat on the ground, even without him making any movement.

Once, he encountered a Labrador Retriever on which its owner had loosened its leash. The dog ran over to sniff him, but one look from him made the dog lie flat on the ground and dare not move. The next day, upon seeing Xiang Kun again, even while its owner was holding it, the dog immediately lay down, looking submissive, and would not move regardless of how much its owner pulled at it.

At home, Xiang Kun had experimented with the meat rabbits he had bought. It was the same – the rabbits were frightened into shivering and curling up.

However, his intimidation seemed ineffective on birds. Pigeons in the square, sparrows on walls, chickens and ducks at the market, all seemed to completely ignore his “threats”.

Xiang Kun speculated that animals like cats and dogs, with their sensitive senses, might be detecting strong danger pheromones from him, hence their behavior.

In any case, he is now certain that in the future, Miss Yang’s husky will take a detour upon seeing him or Little Fatty Girl.

Little Fatty Girl, holding Xiang Kun’s hand, curiously stuck her head out from beside his thigh to look at the husky “facing the wall” in the corner of the elevator. The shock and fear in her eyes slowly faded away.

“If you’re not scared of it, it’ll be scared of you,” Xiang Kun patted Little Fatty Girl’s head and said.

Shiling’s Mom looked at Xiang Kun, then at the suddenly subdued husky in the corner, puzzled. She had clearly seen that the dog was “scared” after a glance from Xiang Kun?

The elevator quickly reached the first floor. Even after Xiang Kun, Little Fatty Girl, and Shiling’s Mom had left the buildings electronic door, Miss Yang still couldn’t get her pet dog out of the elevator.

After leaving the residential complex and bidding goodbye to Little Fatty Girl and her mom, Xiang Kun started by walking briskly. After 10 minutes, he began to run.

His running speed was very fast, drawing many passersby’s gazes. Seeing him carrying a bag, they assumed he was a white-collar worker rushing for time, and they were not much surprised.

Of course, they didn’t know that Xiang Kun was running more than twenty kilometers at a stretch.

Xiang Kun wasn’t running at his top speed, instead keeping to a moderate pace that would allow him to observe and think simultaneously.

He had once casually measured his 100 meters speed, which was around 11 seconds.

For most people, this would already be deemed an impressive achievement, at least at the level of a national second-tier athlete. But for Xiang Kun, since he had not yet exceeded human limits, the achievements could only be considered ordinary.

If it were a long-distance run, Xiang Kun thought he could easily break a few world records.

After all, his recovery ability was too swift. He could run at near-maximum speed for a long time, slow down after reaching his limit for a while and then continue at full speed. If used in a marathon, it would almost be considered like cheating.

While running, Xiang Kun was also observing his surroundings, making note of street conditions, shops or other landmark buildings along the roadside, and cross-referencing them with an online map he had studied the previous night, hence forming a three-dimensional map of the area in his mind.

This was partly because he would be living nearby and needed to familiarize himself with the environment, and partly to train his observation and memory skills.

It took Xiang Kun over an hour to run to the gym, which was obviously slower than public transportation. But by running standards, it was an impressive feat indeed, especially considering he barely sweated and showed no signs of fatigue.

However, soon after spending a morning at the gym, Xiang Kun came up with a decision not to attend this gym anymore.

The young instructor at the boxing gym downstairs approached Xiang Kun after learning that he came to the gym, inviting him to join their boxing club. He was not offering him membership as a student but as a fighter. He revealed that one of the founders of the club, who acted as a referee when Xiang Kun first sparred, was willing to give Xiang Kun personal instruction.

Xiang Kun thanked them for the offer but still declined.

This incident made him realize that his performance at the gym in recent times, coupled with his performance at the boxing club and his backpacking trip with Tang Baona, already attracted a considerable amount of attention. Naturally, this would make him the focus of many people’s attention.

Although he was aware that after his refusal, the boxing club members would likely not bother him anymore, the attention would still persist. It was as though he had not used the maximum weight for bench press, squats, deadlifts and other workouts, but a lot of the coaches and members at the gym were still often keeping an eye on his training.

In this kind of environment, his workouts at the gym would naturally be a little constrained, with many apprehensions.

Although it was frustrating not being able to transfer his newly obtained membership card, Xiang Kun decided he needed to switch his training location.

Luckily, his current training regimen didn’t heavily rely on gym equipment, and could be performed without any.

Hence, after leaving the gym, Xiang Kun spent the whole afternoon searching for secluded spots within a ten kilometer radius of his apartment complex, where he could comfortably conduct his training and testing.

The spot he finally chose was a small mountain located more than four kilometers away from his housing complex.

There was an abandoned construction site at the foot of the mountain. Apparently, it was meant to be a villa complex but the project was never completed.

Residents living nearby had already moved out: the place was messy and

deserted, overgrown with weeds and the paths weren’t clear.

Once the sun set and darkness fell, the area was even quieter, void of any light source. Looking towards the distant housing complexes, he had the strange feeling of watching the outside world from the shadows.

Xiang Kun was very pleased with this location and decided to conduct his training exercises here for the time being.

Although close to a residential area, the disturbances from smells, sounds and various light sources were significantly reduced, making it an ideal location for training his senses.

The scents in the mountainous area were much simpler compared to those of a city or residential area, but they were relatively unfamiliar to Xiang Kun.

He smelled the stench of decay and blood not far from him. Based on his judgement, it seemed to be the smell of a rat carcass?

Following the scent, he switched on the light on his mobile phone and found the carcass of a rat that had been brutally ripped apart in a pile of grass.

After confirming his judgement, Xiang Kun prepared to leave. But he suddenly stopped, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began carefully distinguishing the pheromones in the air.

Besides the smell of the rat, there was a faint other smell, was it left by the animal that killed the rat?