Chapter 87

As San tiptoed to the door of a small shop in an alley corner, he turned back and called out to Su Jing.

Su Jing nodded at Wang Xiao, who then signaled to Zhao Ming and Shao Le. Zhao Ming and Shao Le quietly moved to the back of the house to block the back door.

Wang Xiao tried to peek through the window to see what was happening inside, but the windows were tightly shut. Wang Xiao pulled Su Jing to the side of the roller shutter door, pressed against the wall, and then knocked on the door quite openly, as if he were a familiar neighbor. However, there was no response from inside. Wang Xiao knocked again, but still no answer.

Wang Xiao gave Su Jing a look and then deliberately said, "No one's here. Let's ask around elsewhere. Da Huang usually doesn't run far. He should be nearby."

Wang Xiao's words were quite skillful. If the kidnappers were inside, they wouldn't be suspicious upon hearing that they were looking for a dog. After all, San shouldn't have made a mistake, and A Jiu should have been captured here. As for calling A Jiu "Da Huang," it was mainly because calling him "A Jiu" might not be understood by others, but "Da Huang" would immediately be recognized as a dog, and A Jiu was indeed a big yellow dog.

Wang Xiao felt something was amiss with this house. If San hadn't made a mistake, it suggested that there was likely someone inside. The lack of response to the knocking was strange. However, Wang Xiao knew they couldn't alert the kidnappers, as they had a hostage and a direct assault was out of the question.

"Wait," Su Jing pulled Wang Xiao to a stop.

"Don't alert them," Wang Xiao whispered.

"The person inside isn't a kidnapper, but a dog meat seller," Su Jing's voice was filled with anger. He had just released his mental power, which penetrated through the door crack and detected the situation inside. He found many iron cages containing over a dozen listless dogs. A bald man was standing next to a large chopping block, holding a butcher's knife. A motionless dog, which was A Jiu, lay on the block. The bald man was smoking, seemingly considering how to make the cut. Upon hearing the knocking, he stood still, making no sound.

"How do you know?" Wang Xiao was taken aback.

"Trust me," Su Jing was extremely anxious, fearing the bald man would make the cut. Without further explanation, he kicked the door with a loud "bang." The roller shutter door, which seemed as fragile as foam, flew out, and Su Jing rushed in.

"Damn," even Wang Xiao, who had seen many things, was almost stunned. How could the roller shutter door be so easy to kick? But he didn't have time to think about it and quickly followed in.

The bald man was also stunned. He turned around and saw the roller shutter door crash into the wall and a young man charging at him like a cheetah. Terrified, he immediately shouted, "Spare my life, sir!"

Su Jing paid no attention to what the bald man said. He swiftly snatched the butcher's knife and slammed the bald man's head onto the chopping block, causing him to bleed profusely and faint.

Wang Xiao rushed over, handcuffed the bald man, and quickly checked the corners of the room to confirm no one else was there. The situation inside confirmed that Su Jing was right; it was indeed a dog meat seller.

"Captain, what's going on?" Zhao Ming and Shao Le's voices came over the walkie-talkie. They had heard the loud noise.

"Nothing, it's not the kidnappers, just a dog meat seller. Come over," Wang Xiao's voice was also filled with anger. He walked over to check on A Jiu, who was lying on the chopping block, and sighed in relief, "Fortunately, he's just been sedated, probably by a tranquilizer gun."

"Thank goodness," Su Jing also sighed in relief.

"What's going on?" Zhao Ming and Shao Le ran over, seeing the completely deformed roller shutter door and the deep footprint on it. They were dumbfounded. How much strength would it take to kick it like that? They knew the captain didn't have that kind of strength, so it must have been Su Jing.

"Is this the bastard who caught A Jiu?" Zhao Ming glanced at the bald man.

"Probably. Damn, not only did he waste our time, but he almost killed A Jiu," Wang Xiao said angrily.

"I really want to kill him," Su Jing said, slapping the bald man's face. A few of the bald man's teeth flew out, and he woke up in pain but quickly fainted again.

"Stop, let's have the police take him. Since he hurt A Jiu, he's probably done this many times and has a criminal record. We can dig up his past, and he'll get what he deserves. We need to focus on the task at hand," Wang Xiao quickly stopped Su Jing. The bald man was already half-dead, and with Su Jing's strength, another couple of slaps might kill him.

Su Jing kicked the bald man a couple more times, then ignored him. He took out a piece of monster meat and brought it close to A Jiu's nose. A Jiu's nose twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes. Su Jing then fed him the monster meat. After eating it, A Jiu quickly regained his strength and stood up.

"Take A Jiu back to the car to rest," Wang Xiao said.

"Okay," Su Jing nodded and left with A Jiu and San. As for the bald man, he wasn't worth Wang Xiao's attention. Wang Xiao had already called the police, who would come to take him away.

"It's 3:30 PM, only two and a half hours until the kidnappers' appointed time," Wang Xiao looked at his watch, his face darkening.

"Right now, we can only hope the other dogs find something or that the investigation makes progress," Zhao Ming said.

When they returned to the meeting point, they saw the dogs had all come back, panting and lying on the ground. The other special police officers were giving them water. Su Jing walked over, fed them monster meat, and spoke to them.

"Any leads?" Wang Xiao asked.

"No," Su Jing shook his head, thinking about the possibility of Wang Yan being violated or killed, which made him extremely anxious. However, the dogs were so exhausted, and A Jiu had almost been killed. Su Jing couldn't bear to have them continue the investigation.

"Hmm?" Su Jing suddenly noticed a dozen rats gathering from the sewers. In broad daylight, the sudden appearance of rats was clearly due to the smell of the monster meat.

"Right, I almost forgot about the rats. Their sense of smell is even better than dogs," Su Jing had a sudden idea. Rats have poor eyesight but an extremely sensitive sense of smell, even better than dogs. Some countries use trained rats to search for explosives and drugs.

"Officer Wang, I have a proposal," Su Jing suddenly said to Wang Xiao, having an idea but needing Wang Xiao's cooperation.