茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Chapter 38 Looking for the Dog

Xiang Kun frowned at Miss Yang, who was blocking the elevator door, and asked, “Are you going in or not, after several seconds of staring?

Miss Yang seemed to hesitate, then asked, “Have… Have you seen my PINKIE?” The dog is missing?

Thinking of the husky and how it behaved around Miss Yang, Xiang Kun didn’t find it strange that it might have gotten lost.

“I haven’t seen her,” responded Xiang Kun succinctly.

But Miss Yang looked like she had no intention of leaving, staring at him and saying, “If you took PINKIE, just return her. I won’t make a fuss… If it’s about money, I can give that to you.”

Xiang Kun was somewhat baffled: “Miss Yang, we don’t know each other, right? Besides meeting in the elevator the day before yesterday, we’ve had no other contact. We didn’t even talk… How could you suspect me of stealing your dog?”

Speechless, Xiang Kun looked at Miss Yang standing by the elevator, thinking that the husky must be miserable to have such an owner.

Xiang Kun did not dislike dogs, he knew very well, if a dog is annoying or bothersome, 90 percent of the time it was the owner’s fault. Just like how the behaviour of rambunctious kids largely depend on the parents.

“I didn’t take your dog, and I haven’t seen her since that day. Instead of wasting your time suspecting me, you should go off and look for her. Ask the dog owners in the neighbourhood to help, and post a “Lost Dog” notice. But let me advise you, once you find your dog, go online and research how to properly raise and train a dog. If you continue like this, both you and your dog will suffer,” he said.

Having heard Xiang Kun’s words, Miss Yang stepped back in a daze, allowing the elevator doors to slowly close.

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, Xiang Kun felt a sudden urge, pressed the open button, and the elevator doors slowly opened again.

“When did your dog go missing, and where?” Xiang Kun asked as he stepped out of the elevator.

Startled, Miss Yang absent-mindedly responded, “Yesterday… yesterday evening I took PINKIE out for a stroll while I was talking to a friend. When I glanced over, she had disappeared. I spent most of last night with friends looking but we had no luck. Do you think PINKIE could have ended up with a dog thief? I heard a lot of things online about dog thieves selling them to hot pot restaurants…” As she spoke, her eyes welled up with tears.

Xiang Kun couldn’t be bothered to console her, and simply asked again, “Where did she go missing?

“Within the large grassy area in the center of the garden bordering our complex. Most people around here take their dogs there for a walk,” she replied.

“Didn’t you leash her when you were on your phone?”

“I let the leash go once we reached there… PINKIE has gotten lost twice before, but we always found her within an hour or two. This time…. It could really be someone who took her away…” Miss Yang looked at him hopefully: “You… Will you help me find my dog? If you help me find her, I can pay you…”

Xiang Kun waved away her offer: “I don’t need your money. If I have time, I will help look for her. But if we find her, you will need to learn how to properly raise and train a dog.”

“Yes, yes. If PINKIE is found, I will take her with me to dog training classes…” Miss Yang hastily agreed. Even though she’d only met Xiang Kun once and thought he didn’t like her dog, she inexplicably trusted him and felt that he was very capable and persuasive.

Xiang Kun didn’t wish to argue further. He walked outside the building and headed towards the complex’s perimeter.

Xiang Kun certainly did not offer help just because he thought Miss Yang was pretty, nor was he bursting with compassion. He wondered if Miss Yang’s missing husky had anything to do with the peculiar scent he was trying to identify?

At the same time, he wanted to test if he could track down the missing husky using his scent tracking abilities.

The grassy area Miss Yang mentioned was not far from the complex.

Truth be told, the people here do not have much awareness of responsible dog ownership; dog feces can be seen all over the lawns and the nearby roadsides, often neglected by their owners and left for cleaning workers to deal with.

It’s almost six in the evening now, and there are quite a few people out walking their pets in the neighborhood.

The strong scent of various pet dogs has significantly interfered with Xiang Kun’s pursuit of the Husky’s scent.

Xiang Kun does not need to get something from Miss Yang to used as a scent source for the Husky, because he had familiarized himself with the scent when they met in the elevator last time.

After circling around the lawn, Xiang Kun finally “caught” the scent of the Husky.

There were multiple directions where the scent extended. Xiang Kun first ruled out the direction towards their residential area, and then systematically eliminated the remaining directions one by one based on the scent.

Although Xiang Kun had moved in just three days ago and had spent most of that time on a small hill and its surroundings, he had deliberately memorized, patrolled and investigated the surroundings and thus was more familiar with the area than most residents. Especially the corners and crevices that animals like to explore and people tend to ignore.

Tracing a scent, especially in the city, is very difficult – firstly because there are too many distractions, and secondly, because various concrete and asphalt surfaces do not easily retain scents, causing the scent to dissipate and lack directionality.

Even well-trained urban tracking dogs can have difficulty accurately tracking a target. It requires a lot of manpower and a considerable amount of time.

But Xiang Kun’s sense of smell was now stronger than most dogs, and he had the ability to analyze and think subjectively. While tracing a scent, he can analyze the actual environment, terrain, and other gathered information to predict the potential movement direction and location of the target.

By around eleven at night, Xiang Kun finally found a clue.

But this clue was a large puddle of blood, and a few clumps of dog hair.

Judging by the amount of blood, the survival of the Husky was uncertain.

However, Xiang Kun suddenly smelled the peculiar scent that he had detected before in the mountains. This time it was much stronger than what he had smelled beside the dead rat!

It was that “thing” that did it!

This spot was far from the lawn where Miss Yang was walking her dog, and rather secluded.

There were no other animal or human footprints found around the pool of dog blood. The body had vanished without a trace?

But Xiang Kun did not question this again. He looked up directly into the sky and at a large branch on the side of a tree. He knew that the “thing” had stayed up there.

No wonder he couldn’t find any traces of medium or large animals around the dead rat in the mountains. It turned out that this “thing” can fly!

The rat was probably not killed in the mountains, but rather, thrown there from the sky after being killed.

What was it? Was it a bird? Are there birds that big? Big enough to directly prey on a full-grown Husky?

Xiang Kun’s expression hardened; if this creature were an animal, it would be a very dangerous “beast” indeed. Capable of killing a Husky, it wouldn’t be impossible for it to kill a human.

He took out his phone with the intention to call 110, but after some thought, he opened Wechat and clicked on Officer Chen’s avatar instead.

After typing a few words, Xiang Kun hesitated again. After a moment he put his phone away.

Looking at the distance, although the Husky’s body must have been carried away by that “thing,” the Husky lost so much blood that even in flight, it would inevitably leave behind some traces. This gave Xiang Kun a hint where to follow.

He followed the scent and walked about a dozen meters, spotting a few droplets of blood on the grass. Then he continued forward, finding traces of blood after each interval..