Chapter 63: Team Combat

“The National Police Dog Competition is now being broadcast live by Jingdu Television. Up next is the Blood Trail Search event. Forty police dogs are ready and waiting…”

On the couch in front of the TV sat an elderly woman and a young boy, none other than Wang Xiuyun and Shen Doudou. Shen Doudou stared intently at the screen, afraid to miss even a second. Beside him, a yellow-and-white Chinese Rural Dog lay on a sunflower-patterned cushion on the floor, its eyes also fixed on the screen.

“Grandma, why hasn’t Aofeng come out yet?” Shen Doudou asked, a little frustrated. He had been watching for a long time, but the broadcast kept showing other dogs, and Aofeng was nowhere to be seen.

“Be patient, just wait a little longer. He’ll be on soon.”

Shen Doudou leaned against his grandmother and looked up earnestly. “Grandma, I miss Aofeng. When will I be grown up already?”

Children’s thoughts often jumped around, but Wang Xiuyun clearly understood what he meant. She gently patted his head and said kindly, “You’ll grow up soon. As long as you eat well, sleep well, and stay happy every day, you’ll grow up in no time. Then you’ll be able to go out with Aofeng too.”

As the two of them chatted, Aofeng’s name suddenly came through the TV speakers. They quickly turned their heads just in time to see Song Changfeng walking Aofeng out from the waiting area.

The warm winter sunlight shone down on Aofeng, making him look radiant. His eyes were sharp and determined, his steps calm and steady. He exuded a sense of reliability and composure that set him apart from the other police dogs.

This round of the Blood Trail Search was held outdoors. The venue was a wide-open space, resembling a construction site, filled with sand and rubble, covering over two hundred square meters. An hour before the event, staff had prepared stones infused with blood diluted 5,000 times. Two minutes before each dog’s turn, a stone would be randomly placed somewhere in the area to test whether the dogs could use their keen sense of smell to locate it.

As soon as the rules were announced, Aofeng realized why each dog was taking much longer than before. The National Police Dog Competition was clearly much tougher than the Regional Competition. First, the outdoor setting meant the air was constantly moving, which diluted the scent. Any interference could easily lead to misjudgment. Second, the area was twice as large, which naturally slowed down the search. And finally, there was the diluted blood.

Last time, it had been a single drop of undiluted blood. Though small in quantity, the scent was strong, and it was indoors, making it easy to find. This time, with the blood diluted 5,000 times, the difficulty had increased dramatically. But this wasn’t just to make things harder.

In real criminal cases, suspects often clean the scene to cover their tracks. If a dog couldn’t detect the scent of diluted blood, it couldn’t be considered a qualified blood trail search dog.

And Aofeng’s goal was to become a qualified Criminal Investigation Dog. That meant he had to perform just as well as, if not better than, the others in every event related to criminal cases.

After the staff finished explaining the precautions, the starting bell rang.

This time, Aofeng couldn’t just stand still and sense the scent in the air like before. He had to take initiative. Even before the bell had fully rung, he was already off, head down, nose close to the ground, sniffing constantly. He didn’t need to sniff every inch, though. Aofeng had calculated that each sniff could cover an area of about two square meters. So to the untrained eye, it looked like he was sniffing randomly, but in truth, he had a clear plan in mind.

In front of the TV, Shen Doudou clenched his little fists tightly, whispering, “Come on, Aofeng!” Beside him, Da Huang had shifted from lying down to sitting up, leaning forward with his ears perked, looking like he was ready to dive into the screen and help Aofeng search.

Back at the competition, Aofeng was fully focused, his brain rapidly processing the scents picked up by his sensitive nose. Honestly, the smell of the sand and rocks was awful. He had no idea where they’d hauled this stuff from. Even as he concentrated, he couldn’t help but complain in his head. But there was nothing he could do about it. His thoughts were always a bit wild and hard to control.

Suddenly, a faint trace of blood, so light it was almost undetectable, drifted from about thirty centimeters away. In that instant, Aofeng’s body moved faster than his thoughts. Before he even realized it, he was already lying down beside the stone, signaling a find.

Song Changfeng had been watching closely. The moment Aofeng lay down, he raised his hand to signal the end of the round. The staff immediately hit the stop button, and the time froze on the big screen: 2 minutes, 27.33 seconds. A thunderous round of applause erupted. Most of the previous dogs had taken around four minutes, with few even getting close to three and a half. The official time limit was ten minutes, and any dog that failed to find the target within that window got no score. Aofeng’s speed wasn’t just due to his strength, but also his human-like reasoning. From start to finish, he understood exactly what he was looking for.

Of course, time alone wasn’t enough. The stone Aofeng found still had to be verified by the staff. If he had picked the wrong one, no matter how fast he was, it wouldn’t count. A staff member put on gloves and carefully examined the stone. Once they confirmed it was indeed the one they had placed, Aofeng’s result was officially validated.

At that moment, a deafening cheer erupted at the Training Base in Anyang City. For days, everyone had been gathering to watch the competition live. No one was willing to leave until their own dog finished competing. Among the three dogs from their base, Aofeng was the clear favorite, especially in the Blood Trail Search event. After all, when Aofeng took first place in this event last time, countless Criminal Investigation team leaders had called in, hoping to reserve him for their squads in advance.

Although the competition wasn’t over yet, everyone was already convinced that Aofeng would take first place without a doubt. Zhou Zihang, who loved to stir things up, had already started shouting.

“First place! First place! First place!”

The others joined in, cheering like it was New Year’s.

Director Li, being an experienced leader, let them shout for a bit before raising his hand to signal them to keep it down. He said, “The competition’s not over yet, what’s the rush? The results aren’t out. If others hear us, won’t they say we’re getting cocky for nothing?”

His tone was stern, but if only the smile on his face wasn’t so bright, he might’ve sounded more convincing.

Director Li was genuinely pleased. In recent years, their Training Base hadn’t won first place in any individual events. It felt like ever since the glory of the first competition, things had gone downhill. The road had been long and dark, with no clear direction ahead. Sometimes, Director Li even questioned whether his training methods had fallen behind the times. Otherwise, why else would things be this way? Sure, training police dogs was about better serving the people, and competitions shouldn’t define their worth. But people naturally compare. When you put in the effort, you hope for results. Only those with truly broad minds or those who never tried in the first place can stay indifferent to the outcome.

By evening, the day’s event results and overall rankings were freshly released. Everyone eagerly clicked in and were thrilled to find that the Anyang City Training Base had jumped from eighth to fourth place. Climbing four ranks in a single day wasn’t just thanks to Aofeng’s individual win, but also Duo Duo’s outstanding performance in the indoor search earlier that morning.

There hadn’t been any unexpected incidents this time, so from day one, they’d been in the top ten. This showed that the Anyang City Training Base had solid overall strength.

They weren’t too surprised by this. Back during the Regional Competition, it had already become clear that most units had one particularly outstanding police dog. These dogs were clearly handpicked as seeded players for this year’s competition and likely received more resources. But aside from that one top dog, the others often performed just average, which meant that even if they scored high in one event, they lost points in others.

The Anyang City Training Base was different. Their seeded dogs had risen like dark horses. Even before Aofeng, Duo Duo and Xiao Qi had already been the Base’s top picks.

It was like a horse race: while others brought one thoroughbred and two average horses, they brought out three thoroughbreds. With an opening like that, even a strategist like Tian Ji¹ wouldn’t stand a chance.

Of course, there were a few other units in similar situations, all with top-tier dogs. In that case, it would come down to raw strength. But don’t forget, out of the six events already held, the strongest of them all, Aofeng, had only competed in two.

Tomorrow’s events were Physical Evidence Search and Anti-Explosives Response. Everyone believed that even if Aofeng didn’t take first again, his scores wouldn’t be far off. Once those points were added to the total, it would likely come down to securing second and contending for first. Pan Zi had already done some digging and found that there weren’t many strong contenders in those two events tomorrow.

Fueled by dreams of medals, everyone drifted into sweet sleep.

The next day arrived as scheduled. In the morning was the Physical Evidence Search, which was also held outdoors this time. The simulated scene was a patch of wasteland littered with garbage, and the competing police dogs had to find three pieces of evidence carrying the scent of a specific victim.

Each dog was assigned a different victim, so the items they had to find varied. Aofeng was assigned the belongings of a male victim. After carefully sniffing and searching, Aofeng located a pair of broken glasses, a torn basketball, and a damaged umbrella. These three items looked no different from the surrounding trash, but the scent on them matched the victim’s exactly.

After the morning event, everyone happily devoured their lunch in the cafeteria, then returned to their rooms for a nap, waiting for the afternoon competition. But two hours before it began, Instructor Zhang was suddenly called away for a meeting. When he returned to the lodging, his expression was grim.

Song Changfeng and the others looked at him in confusion and quickly asked what had happened. Had something gone wrong with the competition?

Instructor Zhang shook his head and said, “There’s no problem, but the rules have been changed.”

“Are they out of their minds?!” Pan Zi was the first to shout. “The competition’s about to start and they’re changing the rules now?”

“Keep your voice down!” Instructor Zhang warned. He didn’t like it either, but they were on someone else’s turf. What could they do?

“What are the new rules?” Song Changfeng, after a brief moment of shock, quickly regained his usual composure.

Instructor Zhang gave him an approving look, then explained, “Originally, it was one handler and one dog against a single criminal. Now it’s changed to a team battle: three handlers and three dogs versus eight criminals. The goal is to subdue them and force them to surrender.”

Zhou Xiaoyong couldn’t help but raise his fingers and made a six-plus-eight gesture. “Three and three versus eight? That math checks out, right?”

“Of course it does. You’ve got police dogs with you, don’t you? Three handlers and three dogs taking down eight unarmed criminals isn’t unreasonable, is it?”

It was unreasonable, but there was nothing they could do. The decision had already been made. The staff even said that if anyone found it unfair, they could choose not to participate. But after coming all this way, who could just bow out like that? Since they couldn’t change it, they had to find a way to adapt.

“Why change the rules all of a sudden?!” Pan Zi let out a pained wail. He hated nothing more than unexpected changes to the plan.

Instructor Zhang explained helplessly, “Word is, the higher-ups decided that in real major violent incidents, it’s usually team operations. Including this in the competition will make everyone take it more seriously in the future.”

Then he added quietly, “I heard that over on the coast, there was a smuggling gang. During a raid, a group of officers with a few dogs almost couldn’t handle it. No one died, but the injuries were serious. The higher-ups took it very seriously. Don’t spread this around, alright?”

Everyone suddenly understood. No wonder they were being tested on group combat – it was all about teamwork and coordination.

Translator’s Notes