The Encounter

Chapter 24: The Encounter

Humans smelled with their noses, and the sense of smell came from various nerve cells inside the nostrils.

Generally speaking, sharper smell and the ability to distinguish more scents in greater detail required more olfactory cells. Humans, for example, had around five million olfactory cells, while dogs had as many as one hundred to two hundred million. That was why dogs had a far stronger sense of smell than humans.

Xiang Kun had been mulling over how his strength had improved. His muscles had clearly grown, and when he exerted himself, they became hard as steel—much harder than an ordinary person's muscles. It was obvious that his muscle fibers had undergone significant changes and growth.

So what changes had taken place in the organs responsible for his improved sense of smell?

Did he have more olfactory cells or related nerves?

Or had each individual cell become stronger, making his olfactory cells many times more effective than an ordinary person's?

His nose hadn't changed noticeably in appearance, so the latter seemed more likely.

If Xiang Kun had a medical background and the right equipment, he would probably have taken a sample from his own nasal cavity to study by now. His recovery was so strong that taking a small sample wouldn't affect him at all.

Maybe that discovery alone would be enough to win a Nobel Prize or something.

By August 2, more than a day had passed since Xiang Kun had encountered someone being stabbed on the evening of July 31.

Yesterday and today, he had stuck to his plan and routine. He went to the gym during the day to train, then wandered the streets at night to work on his hearing and sense of smell, while also building a "database" of different sounds and scents.

He also vaguely felt that training at night seemed to be more effective.

He would need to conduct more experiments to confirm this.

After chatting with Officer Chen on WeChat yesterday and learning that the suspect was wanted, Xiang Kun hadn't paid much attention to the matter. He figured there was no way the suspect could escape with his real identity exposed and the police watching so closely. As for whether the scent he had "collected" from the gloves in the trash the night before last belonged to the suspect, he hadn't planned to check.

But sometimes things just worked out that way: you could tend a flower and watch it fail to bloom, then accidentally plant a willow and have it grow. Xiang Kun hadn't been looking for the suspect, yet the suspect appeared in his field of vision.

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

A little after six in the evening, Xiang Kun left the gym and was about to follow the route he had planned to train his sense of smell and hearing. He hadn't gone far when, amid the jumble of scents, he caught a faint smell that seemed familiar.

The night before last, Xiang Kun had followed a scent all the way to see where it led. In the end, he had braved the stench and rummaged through a trash can, finding a bloodstained glove that the suspect might have left behind. The whole experience had been awful, but the smell had made a deep impression on him. After all, less than two days had passed.

Xiang Kun immediately looked up and searched for the suspect. Judging by the scent, his target couldn't be more than ten meters away.

Although he had focused on training his sense of smell and hearing lately, he hadn't neglected his vision. He spent so much time out at night that his ability to see in the dark had improved considerably, and targeted training had also improved his dynamic vision to some extent.

Xiang Kun quickly scanned the passersby around him, but couldn't find his target.

Before long, he sensed that the scent was growing fainter. The target was getting farther away.

Xiang Kun frowned slightly. It wasn't that he was bursting with righteous zeal and eager to catch a wanted criminal. In fact, he wanted to keep as low a profile as possible and avoid revealing his abilities. Even if he found the suspect, he would just notify Officer Chen and let him make the arrest. He had no need to catch the man himself and play the hero.

But now he could smell the suspect without seeing him. It was like stopping halfway through peeing without finishing. The frustration was unbearable.

So he started moving slowly in the direction of the scent, focusing his attention and searching carefully for its source.

More than ten minutes later, he finally spotted a thin, dark-skinned man with tousled, curly blond hair and sunglasses outside a phone repair shop.

Xiang Kun had already seen the photos Officer Chen sent him: an ID photo and several extremely blurry surveillance images. But the real person looked quite different from the pictures, especially with that unruly blond hair. In the photos, his hair had been black and crew-cut.

Once he got a little closer, Xiang Kun could tell from the man's chin, nose, mouth, height, and build that he was almost certainly the wanted suspect Officer Chen had shown him.

Just as Xiang Kun took out his phone to tell Officer Chen on WeChat that he had found the suspect, a voice behind him made him jump:

"Mr. Xiang!"

Xiang Kun froze and turned around. It was Tang Baona, along with the neat-looking young woman he had seen standing with her downstairs at the gym. Each of them was carrying a cup of juice as they walked toward him.

"Mr. Xiang, who are you messaging? We've been calling you for ages. Didn't you hear us?" the young woman walking with Tang Baona asked curiously.

Xiang Kun knew he had probably been so focused on his sense of smell and vision that he had blocked out a lot of sounds and failed to hear them calling him.

Still, he was a little confused. If Tang Baona had said that, it would have made sense, but what was with the girl beside her? He barely knew her. Why was she talking to him like that?

But he didn't have time to respond. His first reaction was to turn and look back in the direction of the blond suspect.

Maybe the girl had called out so loudly that she had drawn his attention, or maybe it was something else. Either way, the blond man happened to look over at him.

Their eyes met suddenly.

The eye contact lasted only an instant, a fraction of a second. Xiang Kun quickly and "naturally" looked away, pretending to admire the scene across the street.

But the blond man seemed to realize something. He abruptly quickened his pace and walked away.

"Damn it!" Xiang Kun muttered. He turned to Tang Baona and said, "I'll get in touch later!" Then he hurried after the blond man.

The streets were crowded at that hour, with people heading home from work or going out to dinner. The blond man was clearly an experienced fugitive. He weaved through the crowd and soon disappeared from Xiang Kun's sight. Xiang Kun couldn't tell whether he had ducked into a nearby shop or alley.

Afraid of alerting the blond man, Xiang Kun had kept his distance after identifying him. As a result, he hadn't been able to catch up right away.

An ordinary person would probably have had to search the area or guess which way the blond man had fled. But Xiang Kun had locked onto his scent and wasn't worried about losing him.

He even had time to send Officer Chen his location. Officer Chen, however, couldn't sit still and called him directly.