Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu
Early next morning when the sun had just risen, Yan Liqiang went to find Liang Yijie on his own accord.
“Brother Liang, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you to get your opinion.”
Although he was perfectly confident, Yan Liqiang pretended to hesitate when he spoke as though he didn’t really have any confidence.
“Oh, what is it?” Liang Yijie asked curiously.
“Regarding the search we conducted yesterday at Ye Tiancheng’s manor… We didn’t make any discoveries, right? After we returned, I suddenly thought of an idea that we could try out. If it works, we might be able to find the stuff Ye Tiancheng had hidden!”
Upon hearing Yan Liqiang say that he had an idea which they could try, Liang Yijie who was worried about this incident instantly felt a rush of energy. He looked left and right first before he quickly pulled Yan Liqiang under a cypress tree at the side. He lowered his voice and asked, “What’s your idea? Let’s hear it!”
“Well… You know I have a dog, right, Brother Liang…?”
“Yes, that’s right!” Liang Yijie nodded.
“When I lived in Wuyang Village back then, I found out that dogs have an unusually keen sense of smell after I spent a long time together with mine. I guess everyone wasn’t wrong in claiming that dogs have sensitive noses. When I was playing with my dog back then, sometimes I’d deliberately hide some stuff in very secretive and very far places. I didn’t expect that even without looking at where I hid them, it could still track down those items just by smelling my scent with its nose. So I thought that if Ye Tiancheng had indeed hidden anything in that manor, perhaps we can find it if I bring Goldie along to give it a try!”
In Liang Yijie’s opinion, Yan Liqiang’s idea seemed to stem from an overly rich imagination at first, because no one had ever done such a thing before. Besides, everyone’s understanding of dogs was limited and they were used for two things at most — for hunting and to look after houses. Just as Yan Liqiang had mentioned, everyone knew that dogs had very sensitive noses, but no one in this world seemed to fully comprehend just how keen its sense of smell could be. Even so, Yan Liqiang still proposed a valid idea which was at least significantly more effective than tearing the entire manor down and digging three feet into the ground. Since they had no other better ideas, then there was no harm in giving this a try.
While keeping this in mind, he couldn’t help but have some slight doubts. However, after considering it for a few seconds, he nodded. “Hm, yes we can give it a try. We can go if you bring your dog today?”
“We can go anytime!”
“Great. We’ll leave now then!” Liang Yijie had always been a swift and decisive man. Since they had already made a decision, they should immediately begin their operation.
Yan Liqiang didn’t need to make any preparations either. He whistled only once and Goldie had already quickly arrived before him while wagging its tail.
Both of them made their way to the stable in the backyard to prepare two rhinodrake steeds, then instantly set out from the Prefectural Governor’s Office on their steeds with Goldie running behind Yan Liqiang.
“Can your dog keep up with the steeds?” Liang Yijie asked when he took a glance from his steed at Goldie which was unhurriedly following two meters behind Yan Liqiang.
“There’ll be no problem at all in the city. If we slow down the pace a little when we are outside the city, it will be able to keep up!” Yan Liqiang replied with a smile.
Of course, this statement was only meant for Liang Yijie’s ears. In reality, Goldie would definitely be able to keep up with a rhinodrake steed galloping in the wild. This creation from the Heavenly Stone was definitely not an ordinary dog despite their similar appearances.
Since man is the paragon of animals, the Heavenly Stone required 100 intelligence points and vitality points respectively to create an average man. However, Goldie was born with 50 intelligence points and 50 vitality points — equivalent to half a man. With that much energy spent on a dog, the difference between Goldie and any ordinary dog was like day and night.
Yan Liqiang had tested Goldie out before in the mountains and discovered that it exhibited qualities which were beyond that of a dog, regardless of its intellect, endurance, and reaction speed. He once encountered a stray wolf with Goldie on the mountain before. However, the speed, reaction, and strength of the wolf were significantly inferior to Goldie’s when they fought each other. In just a flash, Goldie left terrible bite marks all over the stray wolf, which fled with its tail between its legs in the end. If it wasn’t for Yan Liqiang’s intention to spare the life of the stray wolf, Goldie would have been able to effortlessly torture it to its death. From that point onward, Yan Liqiang fully understood that Goldie mustn’t be regarded as a dog despite the fact that it was a dog.
Yan Liqiang and Liang Yijie went past the city gates and slightly raised the speed of their rhinodrake steeds. After galloping two or three li away from the city, Liang Yijie turned his head around and much to his astonishment, he realized that Goldie was still excitedly running closely behind Yan Liqiang’s rhinodrake steed instead of lagging behind. He nodded and told Yan Liqiang, “No wonder why you insisted on taking this dog everywhere you go. It is indeed quite an interesting one!”
“Yes! It is very obedient if you are nice to it!” Yan Liqiang chuckled.
In just a short while, Yan Liqiang and Liang Yijie once again arrived at the entrance of that manor.
The soldiers they saw yesterday were still guarding outside the manor, prohibiting unauthorized people from entering the vicinity. However, there wouldn’t be any issues if Yan Liqiang and Liang Yijie wished to go in.
As for the dog which followed Yan Liqiang here, the soldiers didn’t seem to be bewildered once they found out it was Yan Liqiang’s pet. They just thought Goldie had followed them here to have fun.
….
Compared to yesterday, the inside of the manor was completely empty when both of them entered. All the soldiers remained outside and they didn’t follow them inside.
“How should we begin?” Liang Yijie asked Yan Liqiang.
“We will go to Ye Tiancheng’s bedroom first to let Goldie familiarize itself with his scent, then go to the study room to let Goldie smell the scent of ink. I’m guessing that with both odors, it would be easier for it to track down the location of that thing!”
“Good!” Liang Yijie nodded, then followed Yan Liqiang and Goldie to Ye Tiancheng’s bedroom. “Liqiang, I’ll leave the rest up to you!”
Yan Liqiang pointed to the bed in the bedroom and instructed Goldie, “Go sniff on that!”
Goldie immediately ran toward the bedside per Yan Liqiang’s instruction, then sniffed around the bed. It then jumped directly onto the bed and sniffed around before it jumped off again and came back to Yan Liqiang, wagging its tail.
Yan Liqiang opened the wardrobe in the bedroom, pointed at the Ye Tiancheng’s clothes inside, and had Goldie sniff them too. There was a study room near the bedroom where Yan Liqiang later retrieved a piece of paper and an ink stick — he let Goldie smell them too.
“Someone hid something in this manor. Inside that hidden item is something which smells kind of like this ink and paper, but it may also have a completely different scent. Go search for it, Goldie!”
“Woof, woof…!” Goldie barked softly in response to Yan Liqiang. It instantly lowered its head and sniffed the floor while wagging its tail. It sniffed toward the outside of the door, with Yan Liqiang following behind it…
Liang Yijie was greatly astonished at the scene before his eyes. “Liqiang, your dog can understand what you are saying?”
“Well… I feel like it can.” Yan Liqiang humbly replied.
In reality, not only could Goldie understand Liqiang’s words, if Yan Liqiang needed anything, he didn’t even have to move his mouth; all he had to do was signal it with his eyes, then Goldie would carry out his orders…
…….
Goldie quickly sniffed every corner of the rooms around the courtyard. It roved around with Yan Liqiang and Liang Yijie silently following behind it. About ten minutes later, Goldie wandered into the rear garden of the manor. After making two rounds, it started barking while scratching at a rock of about several hundred kilograms by the pondside in the garden.
Upon seeing this, Yan Liqiang reached out to flip the big rock over without a second thought.
“Don’t tell me it has been buried under the ground…” Liang Yijie suddenly felt a rush of energy as he carefully inspected the ground underneath the rock.
However, Goldie was still scratching that rock with its paws and it started barking again.
“Brother Liang, I think Goldie is trying to say that this rock seems fishy…” Yan Liqiang said while he started groping the area that Goldie was scratching. Soon after that, he managed to dig out a rock about the size of a brick underneath the rock which was covered with green moss. The surface of this smaller rock was also covered with moss, which completely concealed fine crack between the two rocks. Without careful inspection, no one would discover that this rock could be detached from the bigger rock and one would even think that it was impossible to detach anything from that big rock.
Yan Liqiang reached his hand in between the rocks and fished out an iron case which had been sealed with wax…
