Chapter 128: Ladies’ Wristwatch

Liu Cuiping’s husband was named Wan Xiaogang. He was a long-haul freight driver who had been hauling cargo for others since around 1990. After more than two decades, he had built up a steady clientele and was very familiar with his routes.

This time, he was on the road with his apprentice, Yang Jun, delivering a truckload of construction materials to a port city in the neighboring province. When he received the call about his wife’s disappearance, it was fortunate he wasn’t the one driving at the time—otherwise, there might have been an accident.

Wan Xiaogang and Liu Cuiping had a strong relationship. He rushed back that very night and led a search party into the mountains, combing the area until dawn. After resting for barely two hours, he went back into the mountains again. In just two or three days, he had probably covered half the mountain on foot. The exhaustion, coupled with his deep worry, had turned much of his hair white in just a few days.

Aofeng sat beside him, secretly observing for a long while before coming to a conclusion: Wan Xiaogang likely had nothing to do with the disappearance. A person could fake their emotions, but micro-expressions when no one was watching were much harder to disguise.

After chatting for a bit, Wan Xiaogang took out several items. They were things Liu Cuiping loved and often carried with her, including the clothes she hadn’t washed because they were inconvenient to remove before she went up the mountain that day. He laid the items on the ground and looked at Aofeng with hopeful eyes.

Before Song Changfeng could even say anything, Aofeng stepped forward on his own, nose close to the items, sniffing carefully, not missing a single scent. Most of the items had faint smells due to the time that had passed, but the clothes had a particularly strong and familiar scent. Aofeng felt certain he had encountered this smell before, back when he was still human.

What was it? Aofeng glanced around, and when his gaze landed on a certain spot, his eyes lit up. That scent—it was exactly like the Six God Floral Water¹ sitting over there. This stuff had a strong, lingering fragrance that didn’t fade easily. Though a few days had passed and humans might not notice it anymore, for a dog with a keen sense of smell, it was still sharp and pungent.

The problem was, the chemicals in floral water were too stimulating for a dog’s nose. If sprayed directly on a dog’s face, it could cause sneezing, coughing, or in more sensitive dogs, even growling or biting due to the irritation.

However, Aofeng wasn’t that sensitive. In fact, having such a distinct scent to track was actually a good thing for him.

Once he confirmed the scent, Aofeng walked over to Song Changfeng and barked at him. Song Changfeng immediately understood and told the others to follow.

Several officers had been stationed here for the past few days. The area where the women had split up had already been visited multiple times. With them leading the way, Aofeng and the others quickly arrived at the spot.

It was a gentle slope, with a large parasol tree nearby. According to the woman who had called the police, Wang Qiulan, they had stopped here to rest, eaten a little, and drank some water. After downing half a bottle, Liu Cuiping had gone into a nearby patch of grass to relieve herself. When she came back out, she suggested they split up to search for wild amaranth.

They had come to this mountain at least seven or eight times a year, so they were all very familiar with the area. Liu Cuiping’s suggestion didn’t raise any suspicion. The others simply nodded and agreed.

So, the two other women went together down a path to the left, Wang Qiulan went to the right, and Liu Cuiping took the middle path straight ahead. After that, none of them ever saw Liu Cuiping again.

After understanding the situation, Song Changfeng didn’t immediately take Aofeng down the middle path to search. Instead, he first went to the patch of grass they had mentioned. The area had clearly been investigated already, with a chunk of soil dug up. Aofeng didn’t even need to sniff closely to confirm that Liu Cuiping had indeed relieved herself there. Aside from that, there were no other findings.

Song Changfeng was thoughtful. Liu Cuiping’s suggestion to split up after relieving herself struck him as odd. If they had planned to come up the mountain together, why separate once they arrived? According to Wang Qiulan’s statement, they rarely split up during past trips, unless they were foraging for mushrooms, which were scarce and scattered. But wild amaranth grew in large patches—was it really necessary to split up for that? Could the women be lying?

With that question in mind, Song Changfeng walked the middle path but kept glancing toward the other two directions. Even though the paths led in different directions, mountain trails often intertwined. It was entirely possible the women had pretended to go one way, only to circle back to the middle path later.

Aofeng didn’t notice that Song Changfeng was distracted. At the moment, he was fully focused on using his sense of smell to track the lingering scent of floral cologne nearby. Yes, right here on the middle path, he had caught a whiff similar to the one from the original trail. It was a body odor wrapped in floral cologne, the mix of sweat and perfume far from pleasant.

Moreover, he noticed that after a certain distance, the intensity of the sweat smell spiked sharply, nearly overpowering the floral scent. Aofeng found this odd. There was only one explanation: Liu Cuiping had suddenly started moving vigorously at that spot, causing her to sweat heavily in a short period of time. What had she seen that made her break into a sudden sprint?

Could it really be that a Wildman was chasing her? Aofeng shook his head, tossing aside the absurd idea. A Wildman was out of the question, but something chasing her might be real. In other words, Liu Cuiping had indeed encountered some kind of danger at the time—possibly a person, or maybe some animal from the mountains.

Aofeng sniffed more carefully, focusing intently and trying to ignore all the other messy scents around him as he followed the faint thread of the trail.

He pressed his nose close to the ground, sniffing as he moved forward. But then, all of a sudden, he realized the scent was gone! Aofeng jerked his head up. The smell had vanished far too abruptly, as if it had disappeared into thin air. He barked a few times at Song Changfeng, then began circling the spot instead of moving forward.

Song Changfeng quickly stepped up and crouched down to examine the terrain. Aofeng’s behavior suggested two possibilities: either he had found an important clue, or the scent trail had disappeared. After a quick inspection, Song Changfeng concluded it was the latter. The soil on this mountain path was firm, and nothing unusual was found nearby—it clearly wasn’t a clue.

“Comrade Changfeng, what’s going on?” a police officer asked, puzzled, as he approached. The path still stretched a long way ahead, and at the end of it was a lake. They were already considering whether to drain the water to check it, since they couldn’t fully rule out the possibility that she had fallen in.

“Aofeng says the scent ends here,” Song Changfeng replied. At that, everyone turned to look at Aofeng. Had this police dog just spoken?

They quickly realized that Song Changfeng was referring to body language. The scent ended here? That meant Liu Cuiping had gone missing partway through, rather than continuing all the way to the lake as they had assumed.

“But we searched the whole way and found no sign of Liu Cuiping.” So, she definitely wasn’t here.

“Aofeng, sniff around and see which direction the scent went,” Song Changfeng said, pulling out the piece of clothing Aofeng had spent the most time sniffing earlier to refresh the scent trail.

Aofeng walked forward a few steps and confirmed once again that there was no scent ahead. That meant Liu Cuiping had definitely not continued in that direction. He returned to the spot where the scent had vanished and sniffed carefully along both sides of the path. Eventually, he determined that Liu Cuiping had gone down to the left.

The right side of the path was a mountain wall, with some scattered trees growing on it. Climbing up was possible, but it would require both hands and feet and would be slow going. The left side sloped down into a field overgrown with weeds, with a height difference of about 1.2 meters.

Aofeng guessed that Liu Cuiping, in a panic while being chased, had leapt down without thinking. If she had jumped down, there would definitely be some trace left behind. So, under everyone’s watchful eyes, Aofeng followed the scent and leapt straight down, diving headfirst into the thick weeds below.

“Maybe he just found a rat?” someone muttered under their breath. They had already searched this area. Though the grass was tall, it wasn’t enough to hide a person. A quick sweep with a stick would reveal everything.

Song Changfeng ignored the comment and found a spot where he could jump down more easily, following Aofeng. The field had long been abandoned. The soil underfoot was dry and compacted, making it impossible to leave footprints. So even if Liu Cuiping had jumped down, they wouldn’t have noticed.

Aofeng spent quite a while rummaging through the grass before emerging. As soon as he came out, he began hopping around, shaking his head wildly to fling off the bits of grass and bugs clinging to him. There were way too many bugs in there—some even tried crawling into his ears. If not for his strong sense of duty, he would’ve bolted long ago.

Song Changfeng stepped in to help clean the debris from his fur. Soon, Aofeng was once again a clean, dashing, and majestic working dog. To show his gratitude, Aofeng opened his mouth and dropped something he had found in the grass into Song Changfeng’s hand.

Song Changfeng froze. When he looked down, he saw that Aofeng had given him a woman’s wristwatch. One end of the strap was already torn, as if it had been yanked off with force.

Song Changfeng immediately realized this must be a crucial clue, because the earlier report mentioned that Liu Cuiping’s outfit when she went up the mountain wasn’t suitable for carrying a phone, so she had brought a watch to keep track of time. He had a hunch that this watch was likely the very one that belonged to Liu Cuiping.

Translator’s Notes