The Search for a Dog

With Ms. Yang blocking the elevator doors from closing, Xiang Kun stared at her for a few seconds, then frowned. "Are you coming in or not?"

Ms. Yang seemed to hesitate before asking, "You... have you seen my Pinkie?"

Had her dog gone missing?

Thinking of how that husky had acted around Ms. Yang the other day, Xiang Kun didn't find it all that surprising that it had wandered off.

"No," Xiang Kun replied tersely.

But Ms. Yang didn't seem ready to leave. Looking at him, she said, "If you took Pinkie, just bring her back. I won't press charges... If you want money, I can pay you, too."

Xiang Kun found the accusation baffling. "Miss, we don't know each other, do we? Other than seeing each other in the elevator the day before yesterday, we haven't had any contact, right? I haven't even spoken to you... Why would you think I stole your dog?"

Ms. Yang said, "That day... you obviously scared Pinkie! She hasn't dared to get in that elevator since! You must hate dogs! If... if you really did take Pinkie, just bring her back. I promise I won't take her out anymore, okay?"

Xiang Kun looked at Ms. Yang standing by the elevator, at a loss for words. That husky was truly unlucky to have ended up with a owner like her.

Xiang Kun didn't hate dogs. He knew perfectly well that if a dog was annoying or bothered other people, nine times out of ten it was the owner's fault. It was like how annoying little brats were usually their parents' fault.

"I didn't take your dog, and I haven't seen her since that day. Instead of wasting time arguing with me, you should hurry up and look for her. Ask the dog owners in the neighborhood chat group to help, and put up some missing-dog notices. But take my advice: once you find her, look online for advice on raising and training dogs. If you keep doing things this way, both you and the dog will be miserable."

After hearing Xiang Kun's words, Ms. Yang backed away a couple of steps, looking dazed, and the elevator doors slowly began to close.

Just before they shut, Xiang Kun had a sudden thought. He pressed the door-open button, and the doors slowly slid apart again.

"Ms. Yang, when and where did your dog go missing?"

Xiang Kun stepped out of the elevator and asked Ms. Yang, who was still standing beside it in a daze.

Ms. Yang froze, then answered without thinking. "Yesterday... Yesterday evening I took Pinkie out to play. I was on the phone with a friend, and when I looked back, she was gone. A few friends and I searched for most of the night, but we couldn't find her. Do you think Pinkie could have been taken by a dog dealer...? I've seen so many posts online saying dog dealers catch dogs and sell them to dog-meat hot pot restaurants..." As she spoke, her eyes welled up with tears.

Xiang Kun couldn't be bothered to comfort her. He asked again, "Where did she go missing?"

"On the big lawn at the garden center by the neighborhood. Everyone nearby who has a dog takes them there for walks."

"Wasn't she on a leash while you were on the phone?"

"I took her leash off when we got there... Pinkie has wandered off twice before, but we found her within an hour or two. This time... this time someone might really have taken her..." Ms. Yang looked at him hopefully. "You... would you help me find her? If you do, I can pay you..."

Xiang Kun waved a hand. "I don't need your money. If I have time, I'll help you look. If we find her, you need to learn how to raise and train a dog properly."

"Mm-hm! If we find Pinkie, I'll take her to classes with me..." Ms. Yang said quickly. She had only met Xiang Kun once, and thought he didn't like her dog, but for some reason, she felt he was capable and found his words convincing.

Xiang Kun couldn't be bothered to say more. He walked straight out of the building and headed for the neighborhood entrance.

Xiang Kun wasn't helping because Ms. Yang was pretty and he wanted to impress her, nor was he overflowing with compassion and eager to do a good deed. He was wondering whether her husky's disappearance might have something to do with the source of the unusual scent he was tracking.

He also wanted to test whether his scent-tracking ability could lead him to the missing husky.

The lawn Ms. Yang had mentioned wasn't far from the neighborhood.

To be honest, most dog owners around here had little sense of what responsible pet ownership meant. Dog waste was scattered across the lawn and along the nearby roads, left for the sanitation workers to clean up.

It was nearly six in the evening, and plenty of people were out walking their pets nearby.

The strong scents left by all kinds of pet dogs also made it much harder for Xiang Kun to pick out the husky's scent.

He didn't need to ask Ms. Yang for something belonging to the husky to use as a scent source. He already remembered its smell from their encounter in the elevator.

After circling the lawn, Xiang Kun finally "caught" the husky's scent.

The scent led in several directions. He first ruled out the path back toward their neighborhood, then eliminated the remaining directions one by one by following the trail.

Xiang Kun had only been living here for three days at most, and he'd spent much of that time on the small hill and in the surrounding area.

But he had deliberately spent time memorizing, surveying, and exploring the neighborhood, so he actually knew the area better than most residents—especially the nooks and crannies that animals liked to visit but people tended to overlook.

Tracking scents, especially in a city, was extremely difficult. There was too much interference, and scents didn't cling well to concrete or asphalt. They dissipated more easily and offered little direction.

Even a highly trained urban tracking dog would struggle to follow a trail accurately. It took a lot of people and a great deal of time.

But Xiang Kun's sense of smell was already better than that of most dogs. And unlike them, he could consciously analyze and reason things out. As he followed a scent, he could assess the surroundings, terrain, and other clues to work out where his target might have gone.

It was after eleven that night when Xiang Kun finally found a clue.

But the clue was a large pool of blood and a few tufts of dog fur.

Judging by the amount of blood, the husky was likely in grave danger.

But here, Xiang Kun suddenly caught the unusual scent he had smelled in the mountains before. This time, it was far stronger than the scent he'd found near the dead rat!

That "thing" had done it!

This place was a long way from the lawn where Ms. Yang had walked her dog, and it was quite secluded.

There were no other animal or human tracks around the pool of dog blood. Had the body simply vanished?

But this time, Xiang Kun wasn't puzzled. He looked straight up at a thick branch on a nearby tree. He knew that "thing" had been up there.

No wonder he hadn't been able to find any traces of medium-sized or large animals around the dead rat in the mountains. That "thing" could fly!

The rat might not have been killed in the mountains at all. The creature could have killed it elsewhere and dropped it there from the sky.

What was it? A bird? Could there be a bird that big? One capable of killing an adult husky?

Xiang Kun's expression turned grim. If this thing was an animal, it was an extremely dangerous predator. If it could kill a husky, it could certainly kill a person.

He took out his phone, intending to call 110 directly. But after thinking it over, he opened WeChat and tapped Officer Chen's profile.

He typed a few words, then hesitated. After a moment, he put his phone away.

He looked into the distance. The husky's body had surely been carried off by the "thing," but with so much blood lost, even if it had flown away, it couldn't have gone without leaving drops behind. There was still a trail he could follow.

He followed the scent for a dozen meters and, sure enough, found a few drops of blood on the grass. He continued onward, finding more blood every so often.