Zhang Zian, who was going to dump the trash outside, happened to run into Sheng Ke. He asked with surprise, "Captain Sheng, what are you doing here so early?"
Sheng Ke's body exuded the smell of cigarettes all the time. Putting the kraft paper folder under his armpit, he looked at Zhang Zian with his sharp eyes. "Did you not sleep well last night?"
Damn it! Zhang Zian almost burst into tears. Are there words written on my face?! "I had a nightmare in the early morning," he replied truthfully.
"Oh, no wonder." Sheng Ke noticed that Lu Yiyun had returned after washing the food basin, so he whispered, "I need to speak to you, alone."
Zhang Zian was shocked again. He guessed that Sheng Ke must had to say something important or something private. It would be inconvenient if Lu Yiyun was present and heard their conversation, so he said, "Please go upstairs."
"Xiao Yun, I will go upstairs to speak with the captain. Take care of the shop. Call me if something happens," he told Lu Yiyun.
Lu Yiyun nodded, then sat down to draw her pictures. She had no interest in the privacy or gossip of others.
Sheng Ke glanced at the computer screen and exclaimed, "Your drawing is really good!"
They went to the living room on the second floor. Zhang Zian asked Sheng Ke to sit down on the couch as he went to pour tea.
"Don’t bother, I'll leave after a few words." Sheng Ke waved his hand. He looked around, making sure there was no one else in the room. "Just close the door."
Zhang Zian was unnerved by Sheng Ke’s mysteriousness. He reflected on what he had done, even the things that he had done in his childhood like stealing a bird’s egg and poking honeycomb. He wondered if he had been too pretentious recently, and that the police couldn’t stand him anymore and finally decided to punish him for the sake of the people. He closed the door, anxiously sitting opposite Sheng Ke.
Sheng Ke removed the kraft paper bag under his arm and threw it on the coffee table between the two of them. "Take a look at this."
Seeing there was only the character "Guan" on the portfolio, Zhang Zian did not understand what it meant. He pulled out a stack of documents and saw a photo of a person not wearing a hat on the first page. He realized that "Guan" referred to Guan Biao.
"This is?" he asked in wonder.
Sheng Ke untied his collar as if it was suffocating him. He said, "Manager Zhang, about yesterday's explosion accident, what do you think?"
Zhang Zian thought and said cautiously, "I think...it didn’t seem like an accident."
"It was definitely not an accident. Some police dogs who auditioned were injured. At the time, I thought it was an accident, but from what I saw yesterday, there was something strange!" Sheng Ke grit his teeth.
Zhang Zian had long been skeptical of this. He looked down at Guan Biao's photo. "Are you saying that this person deliberately used the explosion to injure the police dogs?"
"Very likely." Sheng Ke's tone was unfriendly.
"No way! Isn’t it a criminal offense to wound police dogs?! Shouldn’t he be punished for assaulting the police?" Zhang Zian asked in disbelief. "How dare he?!"
Zhang Zian did not understand the law, but from common sense, he knew harming police dogs was not a trivial issue, right? Therefore, although he had suspected Guan Biao, he was not sure without evidence. If this was true, then Guan Biao was extremely audacious!
"Here is the problem." Sheng Ke sighed. "Domestic laws and regulations are not perfect in this area, and there are many loopholes. I'll explain it to you." Having organized his wording in advance, Sheng Ke methodically explained the difficulties of this incident to Zhang Zian.
First, assaulting police was not specified under the Chinese Criminal Law. In the Criminal Law Amendment 9, passed in 2015, by adding a paragraph saying, "A criminal that strikes a violent attack on a policeman who is performing his duties in accordance with the law shall be punished severely according to the provisions of the first paragraph." The crime of assaulting a police officer was included in the crime of disrupting public service.
Second, Article 227 of the Criminal Law defined the crime of disrupting public service as follows, "By using violent and threatening methods to impede the staff of state origins from performing their duties according to law, such criminals shall be fined, put under public surveillance, under criminal detention, or sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment."
Sheng Ke continued helplessly, "Despite these provisions, a police dog is neither a human nor a police officer, nor a staff of state origins. From a legal sense, a police dog is a thing, and its legal nature is no difference from a police vehicle or a baton, so none of these legal provisions apply to them."
Zhang Zian realized this was a very difficult matter. If ordinary dogs were injured, the owner could ask the other party for compensation, but if police dogs were injured, there was not much to be done. As a law enforcement officer, what Sheng Ke said must have been true. And precisely because he was a law enforcement officer, although he was angry, he must act according to law.
"Is there any other way?" Zhang Zian believed that Sheng Ke did not visit him just to complain about this issue.
"Not unless there is a fuss about the crime of ‘intentionally damaging property’. But there is a prerequisite, the word ‘intentionally’." Sheng Ke emphasized, "It’s useless if there is no evidence to prove it was intentional."
Zhang Zian had more or less figured out Sheng Ke’s intention. "Captain Sheng, are you saying…"
At this point, Sheng Ke became hesitant. He was not sure whether it was a right to involve a civilian like Zhang Zian in this issue. However, if not for his desperation, Sheng Ke would never have come here so early in the morning.
"There is no way for me or the any other officer to go on the movie set to find evidence, but you are different. Mr. Zhang, you are the chief dog trainer of the crew and have the opportunity to monitor Guan Biao’s every move."
Zhang Zian gasped with surprise. Is he asking me to be an informant and go undercover?
Sheng Ke knew that he was being pushy. He added, "After the audition yesterday, Xiao Liu, Xiao Wang, and I reported the situation to the higher authorities, but the superiors required us to return to the police station and leave the dogs with the crew. Do you understand? Dog Warrior is a key project supported by Binhai Studio and our superiors, who have strictly instructed us to fully cooperate with the filming. For their political agenda, if a few dogs are injured, let alone if the dogs die, they won’t care a bit. If I could find another way to solve the problem, I would never brazenly come to you and ask for your help. But in the absence of conclusive evidence, we cannot act rashly."
Seeing that Zhang Zian was still silent, Sheng Ke sighed. "After the audition yesterday, I went to the police dog unit to visit a few injured dogs. Though the police dogs suffered from minor injuries to varying degrees, and are blemished by scars, after recuperating for some time, they should be able to recover and will be able to carry out tasks in the future. My comrades in the police dog unit are extremely distressed. They were holding the injured police dogs and crying until their eyes were swollen. Those comrades had not even blinked when being cut by knives, but here they were crying so pitifully."
Blemished by scars? Perhaps this was the purpose, to give the dogs scars? Zhang Zian thought. Scars were only a small injury and would not wound the dogs significantly, but obviously dogs with scars couldn’t be the protagonist of the movie.
He did not hastily promise Sheng Ke, not because he did not want to help, but because he had never been an informant or gone undercover before. He was clueless about how to monitor Guan Biao, and thought that it might be counterproductive if Guan Biao noticed what he was doing. However, when he heard the words, "blemished by scars," Zhang Zian felt differently.
Except for the fact that they did not possess studbooks, the German Shepherds on the police force were in fact much better than the German Shepherds in ordinary pet shops and kennels. Because the German Shepherds on the police force were purebred dogs introduced from Germany, they cost over 10,000 euros for each. Apart from Famous, an elfin born by the Strength of Faith, the well-trained police dogs with excellent pedigrees would have been the strongest contenders for the protagonist. Their very existence must have threatened the opportunities for other people's’ dogs, so they couldn’t wait to damage the police dogs’ faces. Who would be the biggest beneficiary now that the police dogs had been scared?
At this moment, Zhang Zian finally decided and said, "Captain Sheng, I promise you, but let me be clear in advance. Just because I promise to help doesn’t mean that I can I can get it done. If I cannot find evidence by the time filming is over, please don’t blame me."
Whether it was teaching Guo Dongyue's parrots to speak or this, Zhang Zian left some leeway for himself when he made the commitment. After trying his best to help, he did not want to end up with them complaining.
These words were what Sheng Ke had been waiting for. He said gratefully, "Don’t worry, Mr. Zhang. I believe in your ability! If there is anyone can get this done, it must be you! Even if you fail, the police force will still be thankful and would never blame you! Especially my comrades in the police dog unit. If you can help them with this, I promise you that they will treat you as their own brother! If you need help later, don’t hesitate to call!"
Sheng Ke was speaking with passion, but Zhang Zian just smiled. There was nothing he needed from the police dog unit. He decided to take on the mission for three reasons. First, taking care of Sheng Ke’s reputation. Second, Guan Biao had clearly targeted Famous yesterday, so revenge was a must now. Third, he felt that Famous would certainly be willing to take on this task. Judging from when it jumped over Red Dragon and Prince to save them yesterday, Famous wanted to be an angel of justice and goodness.
"It’s getting late. I planned to come here before work, so I must immediately return to the police force now. See you later." Sheng Ke looked at the watch, stood up and put on his cap.
Zhang Zian wanted to hand the kraft paper folder back to him, but Sheng Ke rejected. "You don’t need to give it back to me. This is Guan Biao’s file. Look closely, maybe it’ll be useful. We don’t have much time, and I can’t openly investigate him. This is all I can get for now." Sheng Ke also told him, "This must be kept confidential. Only you and I know about this. Don’t tell anyone so as not to arouse his suspicions."
"Rest assured, Captain Sheng, I understand. I will certainly be tight-lipped, and I won’t disclose anything to outsiders." Zhang Zian understood the stakes involved in the matter, but the elves in his shop certainly did not fall in the range of "outsiders". He dropped the file and said, "I'll take you downstairs."
Having released a burden, Sheng Ke’s mood became cheerful. He did not doubt Zhang Zian’s ability, he just needed to wait for Zhang Zian to be successful, then he and his colleagues would throw a celebration party for him.
Zhang Zian was not in a very good mood, now feeling the heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders.