Dou Dou headed east along Chunhua Second Road.
Upon reaching the intersection with Chunhua Third Road, she turned north onto it.
She kept her head down, moving at a slow, stop-and-go pace. Shen Xin followed on foot, while Sun Zhao and Chen Chao trailed behind in their car.
She ambled along until she reached the end of the road.
Ahead of them was East Yang Road.
It was a major, six-lane, two-way road bustling with traffic. Dou Dou stopped here.
She sniffed all around, first heading east for a bit before stopping and doubling back. Then she went west, but after a short distance, she stopped again and returned to the intersection once more.
The others had already gotten out of the car and were waiting by Shen Xin’s side.
"Shen Xin, I think Dou Dou has lost the scent source," Li Jiahui said. "There are too many interfering scents here. And look at the road—a street sweeper must have co through this morning."
Shen Xin called out to her.
Dou Dou imdiately ran over.
"Did you lose the trail?" Shen Xin asked, crouching down.
Dou Dou let out a single WOOF, and her thought appeared.
’Don’t know.’
Her Affinity level was limited, so her thoughts weren’t very long, but the aning was clear: she’d lost the trail.
"It’s okay. You’ve already done a great job."
Shen Xin praised her.
Dou Dou had only lost the trail after they turned onto the main road.
Just then, Li Jiahui said, "Shen Xin, sotis a police dog loses the scent source because there are too many competing slls. But we can manually expand the search area."
"For example, since the trail went cold here, we can pick a direction, skip ahead a certain distance, and have the dog search again. If she finds sothing, great. If not, we try a different direction."
"Basically, we work our way outward from the point where the scent was lost. Sotis, if we’re lucky, we can pick up the trail again."
’She’s the professional. Her advice is worth listening to.’
"So, left or right?"
Shen Xin asked, looking both ways.
Chen Chao said, "Let’s go right. Left heads downtown, but right leads toward the suburbs."
’Dumping a body, after all. They wouldn’t head into the city to do that.’
Shen Xin nodded, led Dou Dou into the car, and they drove four or five hundred ters ahead, stopping just before the next intersection.
He let Dou Dou out to continue the search.
She sniffed all over but eventually ran back. Her thoughts indicated she had found nothing.
"Then let’s keep going," Sun Zhao said.
’On a complicated road with this much traffic, it’s normal to lose the trail.’
Shen Xin paused.
At this intersection, East Yang Road ran east-west, and Xinyuan Road ran north-south.
To the southeast of the intersection, which was east of the Spring Tide Ho complex, was Yanguo Lane.
Tao Yufei’s ho was there.
Yanguo Lane was an old village, adjacent to the Bao’an Industrial Park, with a ditch to its southeast.
There had been talk of demolishing it for redevelopnt last year, but perhaps negotiations over relocation settlents had fallen through, so it still hadn’t been torn down.
Because of this, most of the original villagers, except for a few elderly residents, had moved away.
Many of the houses were now rented out to migrant workers.
There were a lot of factories in the area, and thus a lot of workers.
"Captain Sun, should we check over there?" Shen Xin asked, pointing toward Yanguo Lane.
Sun Zhao understood instantly. He glanced back the way they ca and said, "If Zhu Tianshun wanted to dump the body, or find a place to dismber it, it’s possible he’d use Tao Yufei’s house. Yanguo Lane is all residential houses, not like his Spring Tide Ho apartnt, where the floors and ceilings are thin and any loud noise would be noticed."
"As I recall, Yanguo Lane has no entrance from the southeast; you can only get in from the west and north. And look at the route he took. He didn’t take Xinyuan Road, so he must have used East Yang Road and entered from the north."
As he spoke, he pulled out his phone to check the map.
"It should be in this area," Shen Xin said, knowing what he was doing. He pointed to a section on the northeast side of Yanguo Lane.
Tao Yufei’s address was 67 Yanguo Lane, which should be in that section.
"Then that’s it. Let’s go."
Sun Zhao wasted no more ti and imdiately told everyone to get in the car.
They drove past Xinyuan Road, following the map slowly, and soon stopped in front of an alley.
"We can get through here," Sun Zhao said, pointing to the alley on their right.
Shen Xin got out first and led Dou Dou over.
Without needing a command, she knew what to do. She sniffed around the mouth of the alley and, after just over half a minute, let out a WOOF.
Shen Xin’s eyes lit up. "We’re back on the trail," he said, delighted.
He then gave Li Jiahui a thumbs-up.
’If she hadn’t suggested it, we might have given up at that last intersection.’
The team imdiately got out of the car and followed.
This wasn’t a main road, so there were fewer cars. Dou Dou’s tracking was decisive. She entered the alley, walked for about a hundred ters, and then turned east.
"No need to look any further. That’s Tao Yufei’s house," Sun Zhao said in a low voice.
After another two hundred ters of twists and turns, Dou Dou stopped.
Diagonally across from them was a row of residential houses. A BMW 3 Series was parked in front of one of them.
The front door was shut tight.
The group halted. Sun Zhao ran the license plate; it belonged to Zhu Tianshun, registered under his car wash sole proprietorship.
Just then, Zhao Tianxing suddenly asked, "By the way, do you guys sll that?"
He sniffed the air, and his expression changed abruptly. "It slls like... boiled at."
Shen Xin felt a sudden chill.
’Now that he ntioned it, I think I can sll it too.’
’Faintly, but it’s definitely the sll of at being boiled.’
A powerful wave of nausea washed over him, and Shen Xin quickly suppressed it.
"Don’t say another word."
Sun Zhao drew his pistol directly, his face cold as he signaled for them to move in.
Shen Xin handed Dou Dou over to Li Jiahui and drew his own pistol.
Chen Chao hurried forward and circled the house to check the periter. The row of houses backed onto the ditch, running northeast to southwest. The front door faced northwest, and there was also a back door that opened to a small patch of land leading to the edge of the ditch.
’So, a frontal assault and block the rear.’
Chen Chao waved to Shen Xin and Old Xing, and they moved to the back door.
They waited on either side of the back door.
About ten seconds later, they could faintly hear a commotion from the front.
Soone was shouting, "Don’t move!"
Then other, jumbled noises followed.
The next mont, a sound grew closer.
Then, with a loud BAM, the back door was thrown open. Shen Xin caught a glimpse of a figure about to burst out and reflexively stuck out his right foot.
With a muffled grunt, the figure was tripped by Shen Xin and fell sprawling to the ground.
The next second, Chen Chao and Old Xing pounced, instantly pinning the person down.
Sun Zhao led the charge out from the front, only relaxing when he saw the person was subdued.
Chen Chao twisted the man’s arm, cuffed him, and turned him over. As expected, it was Zhu Tianshun.
Even though it was November, the guy was shirtless, probably from doing manual labor.
And he was covered in blood—on his pants, his body, his hair, his face.
After being cuffed, he panted heavily, glaring at them with a fierce, defiant expression.
"Brother Xing, what happened to you?" Shen Xin asked when he saw Zhao Tianxing.
Zhao Tianxing’s fists were clenched. He was soaked from the waist down, drenched in sothing that looked like a thick bone broth.
His face was now pale and bloodless, and he was trembling all over, so angry he looked ready to charge over and give Zhu Tianshun a couple of kicks.
"What do you think? The bastard threw soup on ..."
Before he could finish, it was as if a switch had been flipped. He quickly took a few steps away and, with a WAH, threw up.
Shen Xin understood. He glanced inside the house.
And then he regretted it.
He decisively rushed back out and joined Zhao Tianxing.
He had seen dead bodies before, like the mangled remains of Chen Zhongyuan.
But the scene inside the house was still a trendous visual shock for Shen Xin.
’It was literally chopping, sawing, and then boiling.’
’Maybe Zhu Tianshun was worried a grinder would be too loud. Who knows what he was thinking, but he actually chose to chop up the body himself.’
’Like he was making dumpling filling.’
’In short, it was nothing less than hell on earth.’
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