322 The Disappearing Bulle (2/2)
A stockman at the kennel explained to Fang Zhao, ”Since we found and brought him back, he hasn't allowed anyone to get near him. He starts barking frantically, bares his teeth, and his body goes completely taut whenever someone gets close. I have never seen him so ferocious before. The vet has come over and observed, but he didn't discover any injuries. After using an apparatus to do a rough scan, the vet said Curly Hair's internal organs and bones are fine too, but he has no way of getting close to do a proper check, so we still can't be certain Curly Hair is completely fine. The commander said to wait for you to come over. If you too have no way of making him calm down, then we will have to adopt other methods.”
The stockman and instructor, as well as the lieutenant colonel normally in charge of handling Curly Hair, had all received the same treatment. They were unable to get close and couldn't do anything but wait for Fang Zhao to come over.
When he saw Fang Zhao, Curly Hair speedily ran over to Fang Zhao's side and whimpered as if he'd been wronged. Although he was no longer barking, he still wasn't friendly to others, baring his teeth and growling to anyone else who got too close.
Fang Zhao put out his hand to stroke Curly Hair's fur, firstly to pacify Curly Hair and secondly to check whether he was hurt in any way.
”He's all right,” Fang Zhao said.
Huo Yi heaved a sigh of relief. ”That's good. Let the vet give him a checkup, do some blood tests, and so on, to ensure that he hasn't received any harmful drugs or the like.”
However, the moment the vet moved a step closer, Curly Hair once again started barking. This time, he only barked twice before stopping, but as before, he stared at the vet, low warning growls originating from his throat as he revealed his sharp canines.
Fang Zhao patted him lightly before the growling stopped.
”Tell me what happened. Just that which can be said will do.” Fang Zhao glanced at Huo Yi. ”Previously, when I brought Curly Hair over, we agreed that I would have the right to know anything that happened.”
Huo Yi took a deep breath, his brows constricting, and he raised his hand, indicating the lieutenant colonel that normally handled Curly Hair should explain to Fang Zhao.
The lieutenant colonel gave a brief recount, which was similar to what Fang Zhao had found out on the way here.
”The perpetrator still hasn't been caught?” Fang Zhao asked.
When this was mentioned, Huo Yi's face became even darker and he fell silent. Evidently, he also felt ashamed.
The lieutenant colonel frowned helplessly. ”The perpetrator is probably an old hand. We have yet to find him. We even brought out two dogs that are good at tracking, but they lost the scent. Our surrounding monitoring system did not catch anyone on film, and our sentinel system didn't release any warnings. From the leads we have now, there was only one person that opened fire.” That lieutenant colonel handed over a set of analytical results. ”Although we were unable to catch the perpetrator's figure, the sentinel system recorded a sound. After filtering it out, the system's analysis results indicate that the perpetrator opened fire thrice. Luckily, none of them hit the mark.”
Fang Zhao's hand that was patting Curly Hair halted. He knew that what had happened here at the base was not just limited to this, but he would not chase further answers. The base would have stuff that they weren't liable to reveal too.
Thinking about it, Fang Zhao asked, ”The perpetrator fired three times. Where did they hit? Can I see the bullets? I remember that over here, you all are still equipped with live ammunition, not with energy firearms.”
A flash of embarrassment lit up across the lieutenant colonel's face as he looked towards Huo Yi.
Huo Yi nodded his head.
That lieutenant colonel said, ”Three shots, but we only found two bullets. One was on the ground in the dog shed, and the other was near the entrance of the kennel. As for the remaining one... we have yet to find it. We have already widened our search radius, and I believe we will find it very soon.”
”Could I trouble you to arrange a guest room? I want to bring Curly Hair over for a little rest. He has just experienced quite a scare, and his mood isn't all that well. Right now, he is very guarded against outsiders. Perhaps he needs some time alone. I'll bring him out again when he is feeling better,” Fang Zhao said.
This time, Huo Yi gave an instant reply. ”All right.”
”Can I have a copy of the monitoring footage from the kennels as well as the sound recordings from the surrounding sentinel system? For the sound recordings, can I have the original source, not ones that have been filtered?” asked Fang Zhao.
There was bewilderment on the lieutenant colonel's face. ”You can't really hear anything from the original source. The perpetrator had a silencer on his gun, and because it was broad daylight, there were many random noises nearby. Without processing them, you won't be able to hear the sound of gunfire.”
Fang Zhao nodded. ”That's the sort I want.”
”No problem.” Huo Yi's face was a little gloomy. However, it wasn't directed at Fang Zhao but at the day's happenings.
Fang Zhao brought Curly Hair to the room the base assigned them. This was a guest house in the base, for treating guests when they came over.
Curly Hair followed closely beside Fang Zhao. Only after there was nobody else inside the room did Curly Hair's tense body relax slightly, and he wagged his tail.
Fang Zhao paced the guest room, then fished out an object around the size of a palm from his pocket. This was an instrument for taking readings. After checking for surveillance equipment in the room and not finding any, Fang Zhao waved to Curly Hair, who was scratching his back with his hind legs. ”Come over.”
The people from the base viewed Curly Hair and those elite dogs from Muzhou Police Dog Academy the same way. They felt that these dogs had IQs much higher than other dogs. Just from some little drills and instructions, they could understand a lot and were similar to 10-year-old kids. But in the end, they were only dogs, and no matter how high their IQs were, they still could not compare to an adult.
In Muzhou's history, there were many dogs with especially high IQs. During those extraordinary circumstances of the Period of Destruction, many outstanding combat dogs had come about. There were many graves for meritorious service dogs in the Muzhou Cemetery of Martyrs alone.
But 500 years later, in the New Era, there was still a disparity for Muzhou dogs even if they inherited their forefathers IQ. In all that time, the number of dogs with really high IQs could be counted with the fingers on a person's hands, and every one of those dogs was considered a Muzhou treasure.
As for Curly Hair, Fang Zhao did not think that he was in any way inferior to those Muzhou treasures recorded down in history.
Because Curly Hair stood out from the masses, Fang Zhao had taught him a long time ago to pretend to be clumsier than he seemed and to be wary of outsiders. Today, in front of Huo Yi and the others, Curly Hair's barking might not have been because he'd received a shock but for other reasons.
Fang Zhao crouched down and stroked Curly Hair's head. ”There are no outsiders here. What do you wish to tell me?”
Curly Hair whimpered, groaned, and growled, as if trying to tell Fang Zhao something, but the language was different.
Fang Zhao watched as Curly Hair whimpered then growled. He knew Curly Hair was trying to tell him something, but... the language was different, so he really had no way of completely understanding what Curly Hair wanted to say.
Curly Hair's scratched his paws twice on the ground, as if he was trying to write something, but he gave it up quickly. Following that, he paced up and down on his spot and twirled around a few times.
Fang Zhao watched Curly Hair twirling around, his paws moving up and down. If this were a grass patch outside, this sort of action would generally be done to flatten the grass to prevent the grass from poking his butt. Then, Curly Hair... took a crap.
In front of Fang Zhao, Curly Hair took a long crap.
Fang Zhao: ”...”
After Curly Hair was done, he leaned in to take a sniff, then abruptly withdrew his neck, took two steps back, and cried out softly. Curly Hair looked at Fang Zhao, then turned to look at that fresh poop and continued to bark.
Fang Zhao remained quiet for a few seconds, then got up to get a pair of tweezers.
Thirty seconds later, Fang Zhao stared at the deformed bullet shell he had picked up with the tweezers from inside the dog poo, and he continued to remain silent.