Encounter

Chapter 24: Encounter

The human organ of smell is the nose, and the actual olfactory function is performed by various nerve cells inside the nasal cavity.

Generally speaking, to make one's sense of smell more sensitive and capable of distinguishing more and finer scents, more olfactory cells are required. For instance, humans have about 5 million olfactory cells, while dogs have as many as 100 to 200 million, which is why a dog's sense of smell is far, far superior to that of a human.

Xiang Kun had been pondering this: as his strength increased, his muscles showed obvious growth, and when flexed, they were as hard as steel—seemingly much harder than the muscles of an ordinary person when exerting force. Clearly, his muscle fibers had undergone significant enhancement and transformation.

So, what kind of changes would occur in the organs to account for an improved sense of smell?

Would there be more olfactory cells or related nerves?

Or perhaps individual cells had been enhanced, making them many times more effective than those of an ordinary person?

His nose showed no obvious changes in appearance, so the latter seemed more likely.

If Xiang Kun had a medical background and access to the relevant equipment, he would probably be taking samples of his own nasal cavity to study right now. In any case, with his current recovery ability, taking a few samples wouldn't have any impact at all.

Perhaps this discovery alone could win him a Nobel Prize or something.

August 2nd. It had been over a day since Xiang Kun encountered the stabbing incident on the night of July 31st.

Both yesterday and today, he continued to follow his established plan and rhythm: training at the gym during the day and wandering the streets at night to train his hearing and sense of smell, while simultaneously building a "database" of various sounds and scents.

Moreover, he vaguely felt that training at night seemed to yield better results.

This point would still require subsequent experiments to prove.

Ever since he chatted with Officer Chen on WeChat yesterday and learned that the suspect was already wanted, Xiang Kun hadn't paid much attention to the matter. In his view, with the suspect's true identity exposed, there was no way he could escape under such police scrutiny. As for whether the scent he "collected" from the gloves in the trash can the night before last actually belonged to the suspect, he didn't bother to verify it.

But sometimes things just happen that way—you plant flowers with intent, and they don't bloom; you plant a willow by chance, and it grows into shade. Xiang Kun hadn't intended to look for the suspect, yet the suspect appeared within his field of vision.

Or, to be more precise, the suspect's scent appeared within the range of Xiang Kun's sense of smell.

A little after six in the evening, Xiang Kun left the gym and was preparing to follow his planned route to train his senses. He hadn't taken two steps when, suddenly, amidst the myriad of chaotic scents, he caught a whiff of something familiar.

The night before last, in order to see the results of his tracking, Xiang Kun had endured the stench to rummage through a trash can and find the blood-stained gloves suspected to have been left by the culprit. Although the process was quite unpleasant to recall, the scent had left a deep impression on him, especially since less than two days had passed.

Xiang Kun immediately scanned his surroundings to locate the suspect. Judging by the scent, the target couldn't be more than ten meters away.

During this period, although he focused on training his sense of smell and hearing, he hadn't neglected his eyesight. Especially since he was always walking around at night, his ability to see in the dark had greatly improved, and with targeted training, his dynamic vision had also been enhanced to a certain degree.

Xiang Kun swept his gaze rapidly over the suspicious passersby, but he couldn't find the target.

Soon, he felt the scent grow fainter; the target was moving further and further away.

Xiang Kun frowned slightly. It wasn't that he was bursting with a sense of justice and wanted to capture a wanted criminal; in fact, he just wanted to keep a low profile and didn't want to expose his abilities. Even if he found the suspect, he would just notify Officer Chen to make the arrest; he had no intention of playing the hero himself.

But now that he had caught the scent without seeing the person, it felt like being unable to finish a pee—it left Xiang Kun feeling incredibly frustrated.

Thus, he began to move slowly in the direction of the scent, concentrating his attention to carefully search for the source.

Ten minutes later, he finally saw a thin, dark-skinned man with fluffy, slightly curly yellow hair and sunglasses standing in front of a mobile phone repair shop.

Although he had seen the suspect's photo sent by Officer Chen, those were ID photos and a few extremely blurry images from surveillance cameras. To be honest, the person in reality looked quite different from the photos, especially that fluffy yellow hair—the one in the photos had black hair and a buzz cut.

As he got closer, with Xiang Kun's eyesight, he could basically confirm from the yellow-haired man's chin, nose, mouth, and build that this was indeed the wanted suspect Officer Chen had sent him.

Just as Xiang Kun took out his phone to report the discovery to Officer Chen via WeChat, a voice from behind startled him:

"Mr. Xiang!"

Xiang Kun froze. He turned around to see Tang Baona and the delicate-looking girl he had seen standing with her downstairs at the gym. The two were walking toward him, each holding a cup of fruit juice.

"Mr. Xiang, who are you messaging? Why didn't you hear us calling you for so long?" the girl walking with Tang Baona asked curiously.

Xiang Kun realized that he must have been so highly focused on his sense of smell and vision that he had effectively blocked out a large amount of auditory information, which was why he hadn't heard them calling him.

However, Xiang Kun still felt a bit bewildered. If Tang Baona had said that, it would be one thing, but what was up with this girl next to her? I'm not familiar with you, so why are you using that tone with me?

But he didn't have time to engage with them. His first reaction was to turn back toward the direction of the yellow-haired suspect.

Whether it was because the girl's voice had been too loud and attracted attention or for some other reason, the yellow-haired man happened to look over at him as well.

The two locked eyes for a brief, abrupt moment.

Although the eye contact lasted only a fraction of a second, Xiang Kun quickly and "naturally" shifted his gaze, appearing as if he were looking at the scenery on the other side of the street.

But the yellow-haired man still realized something and suddenly quickened his pace to walk away.

"Damn it!" Xiang Kun cursed under his breath. He turned back to Tang Baona and said, "Let's talk later!" before quickly chasing after the yellow-haired man.

At this time, the street was crowded with people getting off work or heading out for dinner. The flow of people was dense, and the yellow-haired man was clearly an experienced fugitive. He wove through the crowd and soon disappeared from Xiang Kun's sight, leaving it unclear whether he had ducked into a nearby shop or an alleyway.

Earlier, fearing he would be detected, Xiang Kun hadn't stayed too close once he confirmed the target, maintaining a distance, which was why he hadn't been able to catch up immediately.

If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have to search the area or guess the suspect's escape route. But Xiang Kun had locked onto the man's scent, so he wasn't worried about losing him.

He even had the leisure to use his phone to send his location to Officer Chen, though Officer Chen couldn't sit still and called him directly.