After taking a sniff of the tissue, Luo Fei confirmed that the scent matched the odor lingering around the spot where the boy in the yellow T-shirt had been hiding.
“What is it?” Zhang Haiyang asked.
Hearing the commotion, Zhou Weimin also walked over.
“Have you two found something?” Zhou Weimin asked.
Luo Fei handed him the crumpled tissue.
“This was most likely left behind by the boy in the yellow T-shirt,” he explained, then shared his reasoning with Zhou Weimin and Zhang Haiyang.
Zhou Weimin's eyes lit up.
“Luo Fei, your sense of smell is incredibly sharp. Can you track the scent from this?”
“I can try,” Luo Fei replied.
He was actually quite confident.
That confidence came from the Police Dog Olfactory Gene he had fused with. Not long after obtaining it, curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had secretly used one of his younger brother Luo Hao's shirts to test his abilities and had successfully tracked him all the way to a basketball court.
Soon, Luo Fei, Zhang Haiyang, and Zhou Weimin arrived at a fork in the road.
Luo Fei took a deep breath.
Sure enough, traces of the yellow-shirted suspect's scent still lingered in the air.
That discovery strengthened his confidence even further.
Police dogs could track criminals because every person carried a unique scent signature. Human odor was composed of countless microscopic particles that constantly dispersed into the environment. As a person moved, those scent particles were left behind along their path.
By following those traces, trained police dogs could locate suspects.
And now, Luo Fei could do the same.
Following the scent trail for roughly five hundred meters, the trio soon spotted Liu Haiquan and Zhang Da ahead.
Upon seeing them, Liu Haiquan walked over.
“Chief Zhou, we tracked them this far. The road leads to that house over there. We already searched it and found nothing,” he reported, pointing toward a nearby residence.
“We suspect they crossed through that mulberry field. If they went that way, they could reach Xincheng Avenue and then head into the county.”
He pointed toward a large mulberry field beside the house.
Zhou Weimin glanced at the field before turning to Luo Fei.
Without hesitation, Luo Fei shook his head.
“They didn't go through the mulberry field.”
He pointed toward another direction.
“They went through the cornfield below.”
Before anyone could respond, Luo Fei took off at a run.
Zhang Haiyang hurried after him.
“What are you standing around for?” Zhou Weimin barked.
“Follow Luo Fei!”
Only then did Liu Haiquan and Zhang Da snap out of their daze and rush after them.
After emerging from the cornfield, Luo Fei plunged straight into a sugarcane field.
Once they cleared the sugarcane, the scent trail continued along a narrow dirt path.
They followed it relentlessly.
Thirty minutes later, Luo Fei and the others had tracked the suspects all the way to Daqiao Town, a township under Ningjiang County.
“These two brats can really run,” Zhou Weimin muttered between heavy breaths.
His forehead was drenched in sweat.
Liu Haiquan looked skeptical.
“Luo Fei, are you sure about this?”
Tracking suspects by scent alone sounded almost mystical.
Even Zhang Da looked doubtful.
Zhang Haiyang shot both men an irritated glare.
“You two should save your energy for walking.”
Unlike them, Zhang Haiyang had witnessed Luo Fei's extraordinary nose firsthand. He had absolutely no doubt in Luo Fei's ability.
After reaching Daqiao Town, the suspects hadn't continued south.
Instead, they had followed Ring Road for some distance before turning into Luozi Gully and heading uphill.
Another half hour passed.
Finally, Luo Fei stopped outside the gates of the Vocational Senior High School.
He turned around.
“Chief Zhou, Master, the suspects' scent entered the campus.”
He paused before adding,
“There's a very good chance they're vocational school students.”
Zhou Weimin's expression darkened.
“Let's go.”
“Luo Fei, lead the way.”
If the suspects were really students, the implications would be serious.
Very serious.
The vocational school's management was surprisingly lax.
No security guards were visible at the entrance.
Following the scent trail, Luo Fei quickly led everyone to the boys' dormitory.
Third Floor.
Room 308.
Inside the dorm room, Wang Zhi was lying on the upper bunk by the window, completely engrossed in a video game.
When he saw Zhu Bin and Liu Cheng enter the room, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, he looked up curiously.
“Where have you two been?” he asked.
“Why are you sweating so much?”
Zhu Bin exchanged a glance with Liu Cheng before grinning.
“Liu Cheng and I were playing one-on-one basketball at the square.”
“I'm exhausted.”
Without even taking off his shoes, he climbed onto the upper bunk and sprawled across the bed.
He pulled out his phone and began scrolling.
Yet despite constantly swiping through pages, it was obvious his mind was elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Liu Cheng sat down in his chair.
His hands rested on his knees.
They were trembling slightly.
This was his first crime.
Even now, he could still hear the frantic pounding of his own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Several minutes passed before he finally calmed down.
Standing up, he looked toward Zhu Bin.
“Zhu Bin, let's go take a shower.”
“Sure,” Zhu Bin replied.
He jumped down from the upper bunk.
The two quickly changed clothes and grabbed their washbasins.
Just as Liu Cheng opened the door—
Several police officers burst inside.
It was Luo Fei and the others, who had followed the scent trail all the way here.
“It's those two,” Luo Fei said, pointing directly at Zhu Bin and Liu Cheng.
Although he had initially only recognized the scent of the yellow-shirted suspect, he had noticed another scent accompanying it throughout the pursuit. That allowed him to identify the second suspect as well.
“Get down!”
“Squat down now!”
The moment Luo Fei identified them, Zhang Haiyang and the others moved in and restrained both teenagers.
Up on the bunk, Wang Zhi was still holding his phone.
The sudden scene terrified him.
He sat frozen in place, not daring to move or even speak.
Since it was their first offense—and because both suspects were minors—it didn't take long for them to confess.
Zhang Haiyang soon discovered the stolen 1,000 yuan hidden inside Zhu Bin's bedding on the upper bunk.
As for the handbag, phone, and lipstick, Zhu Bin admitted they had thrown them away during their escape.
The bag and lipstick had seemed useless.
The phone, however, had been discarded because they feared it could be tracked.
When asked why they had committed the robbery, the answer was surprisingly simple.
They had run out of money.
The two boys came from the same village.
Their parents worked out of town and sent them 800 yuan each month for living expenses.
Under normal circumstances, that amount was more than enough.
Unfortunately, the pair had recently become obsessed with arcade gaming centers.
They spent nearly all of their money there.
Only a few days into the month, they were already broke.
Too embarrassed to ask their parents for more money, they came up with another solution.
Robbery.
And so, after discussing it together, they decided to rob someone.
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