Chapter 265: Chapter 234: The Trio (2)
You just can’t hide a good figure.
Carrying her bag, she walked briskly up to Shen Xin and looked him up and down. With a beaming smile, she said, "Now that you’re a team leader, you carry yourself differently."
"Whoa..."
Shen Xin was taken aback and quickly waved his hands. "Don’t say that. How am I any different? I’m still the same old me."
Despite his words, he couldn’t help but straighten his back.
Li Jiahui’s eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. She gave Shen Xin a mock salute and promised that she would be his liaison for the police dog base. If he needed anything in the future, he should just come to her.
She would be sure to obey his arrangements and leadership.
"Jiahui, we’re friends, so it’s fine if you joke around with me, but you can’t talk like that in front of other people," Shen Xin said hurriedly. "What’s all this about leadership? As long as we all work together and get the job done, that’s what matters."
"By the way, are you wearing makeup?"
Shen Xin asked, looking Li Jiahui over.
Her skin looked fairer, and it seemed she had on a light shade of lipstick, making her lips look rosier.
The key thing was, female police officers weren’t allowed to wear makeup; it affected their professional image.
Li Jiahui shot Shen Xin an annoyed glance.
’I put on makeup just for you, and you have the nerve to complain?’
"What’s he doing?"
Shen Xin looked toward the other police car.
The door was open, and the driver had his butt sticking out as he leaned into the car, rummaging around for something. He didn’t emerge for a long time.
Shen Xin walked over.
Only then did Li Mo straighten up.
He was young, with a fair and clean-cut look. Shen Xin figured he couldn’t have been out of the police academy for more than a few years, and he must have gone straight into a desk job.
’He’s from the city bureau, after all.’
Because if he’d gone straight to a grassroots position and stayed for two years, his complexion definitely wouldn’t look like that.
He had a neat buzz cut, a clean and fresh appearance, and well-proportioned features. His fair skin made him look a little handsome.
His height was decent, about the same as his own.
It was just that his demeanor felt a bit... dazed.
After Shen Xin extended a hand in greeting, he hastily shook it, stated his name, and then said awkwardly, "Um, I forgot the documents. I remember bringing them when I left, but now I can’t find them."
He was talking about the coordinating documents from the city bureau, issued after contacting the CDC.
After all, this shelter was subordinate to the CDC; it was an official institution.
If you were going to take stray dogs from here, you needed some kind of official justification.
Li Mo asked, "Should I go back and get them?"
Shen Xin shook his head. "Forget it, we’ll deal with it later. If they need them, just take a picture with your phone. You can give them the physical copies later."
Li Mo breathed a silent sigh of relief, slung his bag over his shoulder, and then formally introduced himself again.
"The Police Support Division? Not bad!"
Li Mo was from the city bureau’s Police Support Division.
Within the public security system, there were the "Three Lucky Treasures."
The Domestic Security Division, the Campus Security Division, and the Police Support Division.
They didn’t handle cases or work shifts, making them some of the most relaxed departments to be in.
Li Mo looked frustrated and waved his hand dismissively. "What’s so great about it? We have just as much to do. We have to do a bit of everything."
"The main thing is, I never wanted this job in the first place. I wanted to be a criminal investigator. Back when I was applying for the police academy, my mom was dead set against it. She forced me to apply for the political work major, and I caved."
"Now I regret it to death."
Perhaps from spending too much time in an office, Li Mo had a strong urge to vent.
As the three of them walked toward the shelter, Shen Xin said, "Your mom was just looking out for you. The political work major is great! You get a desk job right away, get familiar with the leadership, and it’s easier to get promoted later."
In a government agency, the career prospects for those in operational roles really couldn’t compare to those with desk jobs.
"Besides, the fact that the city bureau sent you over to coordinate this project means they think highly of you. Look, you’re starting in Police Support. Later you can move to the main office, write some reports, handle some reception duties, and when your boss gets promoted, you’ll get promoted too."
But Li Mo just shook his head. "Forget it. What era are we in? I’m just not into playing that game. I really just want to be a criminal investigator or something. Anything’s better than this."
"And do you really think a desk job is easy? We work overtime every day, and my head is about to explode from all the reports. Plus, you work right next to the boss’s office, so you can’t slack off. You constantly have to be mindful of the leadership. The atmosphere is suffocating."
"If I had to do that, I couldn’t stand it. I’d rather be in an operational department like yours. You guys have a lot more freedom."
Shen Xin thought to himself, ’It really is a case of the grass being greener on the other side.’
The operations guys want desk jobs, and the desk jockeys want to be in operations.
"You think operations is all that great? Take being a criminal investigator, like you said. If you actually did it, the magic would wear off pretty quick."
Shen Xin ticked off the points on his fingers. "A colleague of mine once summed it up for me. Our job is just: investigate, interrogate, drive, get chewed out, type, and attend meetings."
"And when we’re not doing that, we’re either writing reports or on our way to write reports. Most importantly, it’s risky! You know about the incident at Huibei Village last year, right? It was terrifying, and I was right there."
Li Mo’s eyes shot wide open.
"You were there? For real?!"
That incident had been a huge deal. Li Mo, being at the city bureau, knew it better than anyone. For a while there, the people in the office had been driven mad with work.
The atmosphere was so tense that no one even dared to speak loudly.
Shen Xin nodded. "That’s right, Jiahui was there too."
Shen Xin pointed at Li Jiahui beside him.
Li Jiahui tugged on Shen Xin’s arm. "Alright, that’s enough. Why bring up something so dangerous?"
She had lived through it and knew how terrifying it was. She never wanted to experience anything like it again.
The way Li Mo looked at Shen Xin changed. He gave Shen Xin a thumbs-up and said, "Badass."
The three of them entered the shelter.
Shen Xin had met the station chief before. His surname was Li, and his name was Li Zhengguang.
He actually remembered Shen Xin. When he heard the purpose of their visit, he immediately became enthusiastic.
"Come on, I’ll take you to have a look. Whichever ones you like, feel free to take them."
He led the three of them straight to the kennels.
He knew his own situation best. His shelter was one of those unloved and ignored departments.
There was no money to treat the severely ill cats and dogs, so they could only be euthanized.
As for the healthy ones, the shelter was supposed to find them homes, but it was so convenient to just buy a cat or dog these days that no one was willing to come here to adopt.
With few animals going out and many coming in, the expenses just kept growing.
The CDC only gave them a tiny budget each year. Li Zhengguang had talked himself hoarse, but he couldn’t get any more money.
He was overjoyed that someone was willing to take these strays off his hands.
"If they can be trained into police dogs, then that’s their good fortune."
Li Zhengguang looked as if he was thinking, ’The more, the merrier. In fact, it’d be best if you took them all.’
Shen Xin picked up on this and quickly said, "Station Chief Li, you know that the selection process for police dogs is extremely strict. We’ll take a look first, and then we’ll discuss the specifics of how we’ll choose."
The subtext of his words was to tell Li Zhengguang that they wouldn’t be able to pick very many.
Everyone had their own difficulties. Shen Xin’s project had dedicated funding and needed to produce results; it couldn’t just be used as an animal rescue effort.
As they spoke, the group entered the kennels.
They were immediately hit by a foul stench.
Li Jiahui frowned, not because of the smell, but because she felt that in an environment like this, even healthy animals could easily get sick.
But she also knew that with limited resources and funding, there was no easy solution.
Having studied veterinary medicine, she immediately went forward to check the health of the cats and dogs.
She could spot many problems, but knowing the reality of the situation, she also knew it was difficult to change anything. After a silent sigh, she pulled Shen Xin aside and told him the conditions weren’t good enough.
Many of the dogs were listless and sick.
"That’s still okay. If it’s just a minor illness, our base can treat it. Honestly, it won’t cost too much."
It was just a matter of using some medicine. Veterinary drugs were cheap.
But if it was a complicated illness, like parvovirus or something, that would be expensive and difficult to treat.
"The main problem is that they’re all kept in cages. I see many of them showing stereotypies. It’s difficult to correct that kind of mental state."
Li Jiahui’s brow was furrowed as she shook her head.
Both cats and dogs can develop stereotypies. It’s most common in caged animals suffering from high mental stress, or in other words, depression.
Once this kind of condition appears, it’s very difficult to reverse.
And a dog like that couldn’t even pass the first hurdle to become a police dog.
"Don’t worry, let’s just take a look."
Shen Xin, on the other hand, wasn’t flustered. They were supposed to be selecting stray dogs, and there were only so many places to find them.
They couldn’t just go out and catch them on the streets, after all.
Shen Xin went from cage to cage, first looking for a natural-born people-lover.
After making a full circle, he hadn’t found a single one.
It was normal, really. Being locked in a cage for a long time, surrounded by other cats and dogs, would cause high mental stress and make them less friendly to people.
Since there were no natural-born candidates, he would have to find ones he could nurture.
Shen Xin’s selection method was simple. He would crouch in front of a cage, make eye contact with the dog, or interact with it briefly.
If an affinity icon appeared quickly, it meant the dog was friendly enough.
Then he could take it back and give it a try.
Even with his Druid skill, Shen Xin wouldn’t dare claim he could train just any dog into a police dog. He still had to screen and eliminate candidates, selecting the best of the best.
That’s why he had to choose several.
Shen Xin had calculated it out. His initial goal was twenty dogs.
The police dog base had a 5-to-1, or even 10-to-1, washout rate. He didn’t need to be that strict; a 2-to-1 rate should be about right.
He would aim to train ten police dogs in the end, as the first batch.
