Chapter 97: An Important Clue

After recruiting an informant, Aofeng was in high spirits. But when he asked about the case, Lao Da¹‘s response made him sigh.

“When I got back, that human was already dead. I didn’t see anyone suspicious nearby,” Lao Da said.

Sigh… Aofeng had hoped to get some clues from him, but it turned out he hadn’t seen anything either. Disappointment washed over him. His expression stayed the same, but his tail drooped quietly.

Lao Da added, “I didn’t see anything, but maybe my boys did. I’ll call them over, and you can ask them.”

Right! Aofeng’s tail gave a happy wag. With such a big pack of stray dogs, surely one of them had seen something. After all, a killer wouldn’t be on guard against a dog.

Lao Da barked a few times toward the junkyard. The strays inside immediately dropped the food they’d just scavenged and rushed over. In less than two minutes, every stray in the junkyard had gathered. But once they caught the scent of an outsider, their expressions turned wary. When they got a good look at Aofeng, their bodies tensed with fighting spirit.

Lao Da barked at them again, briefly explaining Aofeng’s background and asking everyone to cooperate with him during the investigation.

The strays were a bit puzzled as to why Lao Da was treating this purebred so well, but that didn’t stop them from following orders. Not a single stray would dare challenge Lao Da’s authority.

As they sized up Aofeng, he was sizing them up too. Just as Lao Da had said, all of them were Chuanchuan², and the combinations were wild. There was a Golden Retriever-Corgi mix that looked like a golden sausage, a Husky-Labrador mix dubbed the Sahara, and all sorts of other bizarre blends that made one marvel at the wonders of creation.

Once Lao Da gave the go-ahead, Aofeng cleared his throat, stepped into the middle of the group, and began questioning them one by one. The questions were simple: Where were you this afternoon? When did you get back? Did you notice anything unusual? Did you see anyone suspicious?

After questioning over a dozen dogs, Aofeng couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. Lao Da’s territory extended beyond just the junkyard, so during the day, most of his underlings were sent out to patrol and re-mark the boundaries to reinforce control. If another dog entered the territory, it might be ignored if just passing through. But if it tried to mark or claim the area, the patrolling dogs would rally the pack to fight back.

Because of this, only a few dogs stayed behind in the junkyard each day. Aofeng had just questioned the two that had stayed today. They’d only heard a bit of noise, but since it didn’t sound like another dog, they hadn’t gone to check it out. They didn’t want to risk being spotted and having someone call the Inspection Team³ on them.

Looking at the group of confused dogs, Aofeng let out a weary sigh. It seemed there really weren’t any leads to be found. Just as he was about to thank everyone and dismiss them, another dog came limping over from a distance. It looked like it had been injured, which explained why it was so late.

This last dog was a Chuanchuan, a mix between a village dog and a Golden Retriever. It looked honest and simple, but there was a sharpness in its eyes. Aofeng guessed this dog was probably the second-in-command of the pack.

Sure enough, when Lao Da saw the dog was hurt, his expression changed immediately. He barked, “Who did this to you? Was it Lao Hei’s gang? Or the newcomers?”

Lao Jin quickly said, “It wasn’t them. I was hurt by a human!”

A human!

Lao Da’s eyes burned with fury. They always went out of their way to avoid humans and never provoked them. Why couldn’t humans just leave them alone?

“Despicable humans!”

“Yeah, they’re terrifying,” Lao Jin said, still shaken.

Aofeng noticed that the two dogs were emphasizing different things. Lao Da was condemning the humans, while Lao Jin was clearly afraid. Had that human done something to Lao Jin? Could his fear be connected to the case?

“Ahem, Lao Jin, hello, I’m Aofeng,” Aofeng quickly cut in, steering the conversation back on track.

Lao Jin gave Aofeng a puzzled look, then turned to Lao Da, as if to say, “I thought you didn’t take in purebreds?”

Still, he politely greeted Aofeng. As the second-in-command, Lao Da handled the muscle, and he handled diplomacy. Courtesy before force⁴ – that was how the pack had managed to thrive.

Aofeng repeated the same set of questions, and only then did Lao Jin understand why he was here. After getting a nod from Lao Da, he began to speak.

From its account, Aofeng learned that in the afternoon, the dog named Lao Jin was assigned to guard the junkyard to prevent other dogs from wandering in. While making its rounds, it heard the sound of the back door opening and quickly hid beneath a nearby pile of cardboard boxes. These boxes had been collected by the homeless man, who would sell them for money once he had enough.

“I was hiding in there, really worried someone would find me. But the person who came in didn’t even glance this way. He was dragging another human inside,” Lao Jin said.

“The person he was dragging… was it the victim from this afternoon?” Aofeng asked urgently.

“Yeah, it was her. After dragging her in, the man started beating her, cursing the whole time,” Lao Jin said. Due to the limitations of its understanding, it couldn’t quite grasp what the man was saying, but from his twisted expression and violent behavior, it could tell he was cursing, just like the Inspection Team did when they yelled at them.

“How was the woman dragged in?”

“Her hands and feet were tied, and something was taped over her mouth. She kept making muffled sounds, like she was crying. When the man hit her, she kept shaking her head,” Lao Jin said, eyes filled with sympathy. No wonder golden retrievers were known for their gentle and friendly nature. Even though Lao Jin was only half golden retriever, that instinct was still there.

“And then?”

“Then…” Lao Jin’s eyes filled with deep fear. “He suddenly crouched down. I didn’t know what he was doing, so I watched for a while. When the smell of blood hit me, I realized something was wrong.”

Without thinking, Lao Jin charged out. The man was startled at first, but when he saw it was just a dog, his expression turned scornful. He stood up, holding a blood-stained knife in his hand, his eyes gleaming with bloodlust.

At his feet lay the victim, her face slashed with several knife wounds. Her eyes were wide open, tears streaming down her cheeks, her face flushed red, but the tape over her mouth kept her from screaming in pain. Lao Jin also noticed a cut on her neck.

Seeing her breathing grow more and more labored, Lao Jin barked furiously at the man. The man slowly approached, gripping the knife, a twisted smile curling on his lips as he said, “Good doggy.”

Lao Jin had heard those words before. Ever since his owner died, he hadn’t heard them again. But now, hearing them from this man felt completely different. Terrified by the man’s expression, Lao Jin’s fur stood on end, his body crouched lower and lower. He barked while taking a defensive stance.

A fight was about to break out. In the struggle between man and dog, the homeless man’s pile of recyclables was scattered. Lao Jin’s paw was struck by something, and the man’s wrist was bitten. A piece of his shirt was torn off in the scuffle.

Enraged, the man was about to strike again when he suddenly seemed to hear something and turned to flee the scene.

By then, the victim was barely clinging to life.

Lao Jin looked at her, then at the fleeing man, and made a firm decision to follow. Unfortunately, his injured paw slowed him down. Before he could catch up, the man had already slipped out the back door and vanished.

Lao Jin had no choice but to return to the junkyard. Just then, he heard the front gate open. He rushed over, hoping the newcomer would notice the victim on the ground. Sadly, the person just came in to grab something and left, completely ignoring Lao Jin, who was barking desperately right in front of him.

With no other choice, Lao Jin went out to look for help, but everyone he approached just shooed him away. No matter how anxious he was, they only looked at him with disgust…

Aofeng fell silent. It was understandable that people ignored the warning of a stray dog, but no one knew it was doing it for a human. In comparison, animals sometimes seemed more compassionate than certain people.

Aofeng didn’t know if he would’ve cared about something like this in the past, but now, he had to. Even though he couldn’t save the victim’s life, if he could solve the case quickly, it might still bring her some peace.

He sorted through the information Lao Jin had provided. First, the perpetrator was a tall man. Second, he seemed to have a grudge against the victim. Once her identity was confirmed, investigating her social connections might turn up something useful. Third, the man appeared to be very familiar with the junkyard, likely knowing when people would come and go, which meant he probably lived nearby. Fourth, the scene wasn’t completely clean – the piece of cloth torn from the attacker’s wrist, stained with traces of blood, was the most crucial piece of evidence.

He had Lao Jin take him to search for the piece of torn cloth, and before long, they found it in a hidden corner. During their search, the police hadn’t even considered that such a crucial piece of evidence might be tucked away in a corner blocked by an old, discarded metal barrel.

Aofeng stepped forward and sniffed the cloth. He immediately noticed that the bloodstains on it didn’t match those of yesterday’s victim. A surge of excitement ran through him, and he felt lucky to have come in the middle of the night. Otherwise, how could he have found this?

Wait! Aofeng looked up at the sky. His excitement vanished in an instant. Damn, it was almost dawn! He quickly gave a few instructions, then turned and rushed straight back toward the police station without looking back.

Translator’s Notes