Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 264 Team Expansion
This wasn't Lin Ge's first visit to the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau.

However, unlike the previous times, this was the first time he had seriously wandered around the various offices in the Municipal Public Security Bureau, carefully observing the differences between the bureau's case-handling departments and the local police stations.

But for some reason, the police officers in the city bureau always gave him a leisurely and unhurried feeling.

Perhaps it's because the cases they handle aren't as direct as those in the police station, and they rarely face the kind of urgent situation that comes with dealing with complainants. Therefore, in these departments that Lin Ge passed by, he inexplicably sensed a kind of 'leisurely' atmosphere.

I always thought the city's criminal investigation team was full of big, burly men, but I didn't expect there to be only a handful of them, and they were all younger than the last.

They were either writing documents at their desks or constantly making phone calls, making Lin Ge feel as if he had entered the sales department of an insurance company, rather than a tense, mysterious, and aggressive group of burly men.

Song Guoren, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, who was in charge of receiving them, had met them before in the Long Xiaojun case. After taking Zhang Yong and Lin Ge from Yang Ye, he simply told them to let the two of them look around as they pleased, and then turned to get busy.

Lin Ge and Zhang Yong exchanged a glance. One stood obediently in place, while the other strolled around freely.

"Tch! All that swagger at the police station, thinking he was some kind of unappreciated genius, turns out to be nothing but a coward at the city bureau."

Lin Ge glanced at Zhang Yong with disdain, then peered into the offices whose doors were not closed for a while before yawning boredly and finding a sunny spot to lie down.

"Mimi?"

A somewhat familiar voice sounded from behind. Lin Ge turned around and saw that it was Li Mei, the training captain of the municipal police dog squadron.

Unlike Zhuzhou, the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau places a much higher value on police dogs, and has far fewer of them. Lin Ge still remembers the arrogant way he used to be followed by a group of police dogs when he was in Zhuzhou. Unfortunately, after returning to Zhangzhou, he could no longer enjoy that kind of glory. He usually only has one dog, Beibei, following him around, completely lacking the exhilarating feeling of being surrounded by his underlings. This makes him feel a little regretful and nostalgic for the dogs in Zhuzhou.

"Heh heh, I knew why the Song people summoned me here!"

Li Mei wasn't surprised to see Lin Ge. She just walked over, squatted down, and patted Lin Ge's head, saying, "You'll be working for me for a while now. You have to be obedient, understand? I heard you're quite impressive in Zhuzhou City. You got another second-class merit!"

"Second class merit?"

Lin Ge looked up at Li Mei. Was this woman so well-informed? While Nie Guoqiang was still guessing what the reward might be, she had already found out what level of merit it was?

"We all own dogs, and we exchange puppies to treat police dogs, so we keep in touch quite often. Your story in Zhuzhou has been all over our police dog system. It's just a pity that you don't have many dogs to use this time."

Li Mei didn't mind handing her henchmen over to this cat for command. After all, as long as the case could be solved and the police dog squad could make a name for itself, she was willing to obey a cat's orders.

It's said that the training captain in Zhuzhou will at least receive a third-class merit medal this time. The injured trainer, Chen Song, has already received a second-class merit medal. Such mass awards are extremely rare in the police dog unit. Normally, even if a police dog performs meritorious service, only the dog receives an award. The trainers work diligently and just as hard as anyone else, but they are often inexplicably discriminated against when they want to receive honors, being accused of relying on the police dogs' efforts.

Li Mei and Nie Guoqiang are about the same age, but she has raised dogs for half her life and only received one commendation. To say that she had no ulterior motives would be a lie.

She took Lin Ge to the police dog base, leaving Zhang Yong alone to stand pitifully at the entrance of the Criminal Investigation Brigade as punishment.

When I visited the kennel last time, I felt it was quite good. However, after returning from Zhuzhou this time, I could clearly see the stark difference in how much importance the two places placed on police dogs.

In Zhuzhou, Lin Ge could easily gather a dozen or so henchmen. When they went all out, it was also a piece of cake for a handler to lead two or three dogs, and for a police dog unit to set up a search formation of twenty or thirty dogs.

However, the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau's entire police dog base only has six dogs, and not even a single extra puppy.

Lin Ge remembered there were originally supposed to be seven dogs. It seems the city bureau didn't replenish the police dog base at all after Bei Bei left. This kind of treatment shows the low status of the police dog squadron within the bureau; the difference is huge!
“Going through the procedures takes time. I ordered two Kunming dogs from the south, and they won’t be delivered for a while. The police dog puppies trained at the breeding base there from a young age are much better than the ones we train ourselves.”

Li Mei guessed what Lin Ge was thinking, after all, the cat was already drooping its tail and dragging on the ground.

"That's only eight dogs in total, just eight lackeys!"

Lin Ge was still very disappointed; the difference was simply too great. Back in Zhuzhou, he was able to command more than a dozen police dogs on his first visit, more than double the total number here.

"Wang!"

When Li Mei led a cat in, the police dogs in the cages started barking. Their barks weren't very aggressive; they were mostly excited.

Li Mei could naturally hear the difference, so she looked at Lin Ge with even greater surprise.

This cat... seems to have an inexplicably high level of friendliness.

Lin Ge himself didn't seem to mind; it had always been this way. Even when he was out for a stroll, he rarely encountered dogs attacking him. Even the unleashed dogs led by old men mostly just rushed over and wagged their tails. Some, being cheeky, tried to lick him, but a slap from him would silence them. Of course, in these cases, the old men with their dogs would usually curse and chase them away.

"Miss Li."

"team leader."

Three police dog handlers came over to greet Li Mei, then stared at Lin Ge with curiosity.

Seeing the three young policemen wearing rubber boots and gloves, and still soaking wet, Lin Ge knew they must have just finished cleaning the kennels. Their stench made them look more like pet shop employees than policemen.

"You've all heard of Mimi, right? Yuan Qu and Yu Rong weren't here when it came last time, but Zhou Bo should have seen it, right?"

Li Mei introduced Lin Ge to three handlers who also served as dog caretakers—two men and one woman—and all three seemed quite honest. In Lin Ge's eyes, these three lacked the liveliness of the Zhuzhou police dog team; instead, they resembled dull, hardworking laborers. Furthermore, Lin Ge noticed something interesting: all four members of the police dog squad had single-character names; he wondered if Li Mei had deliberately chosen them that way.

"Hehe, how could we not know Mimi's name?"

Zhou Bo was a slightly chubby, honest young man in his twenties, and his flattering words made Lin Ge feel quite comfortable.

"A police cat!"

Yu Rong is quite pretty, and you can still see some makeup on her face. However, after doing all that hard work scooping poop, even the best makeup gets a bit damp, making this young girl look more disheveled than her two companions.

The tall and thin Yuan Qu remained silent, only looking exhausted as he took off his gloves and quietly changed into clean shoes.

Li Mei didn't mind the attitude of her three subordinates; after all, it was a fact that the police dog squad wasn't highly regarded by the municipal bureau. Zhangzhou City was highly industrialized, and unlike Zhuzhou City, it wasn't surrounded by deep mountains and forests, so there weren't many places where police dogs were needed for tackling difficult cases. Often, the police dogs were even used for patrols and to show off their strength to the public, with very few opportunities to actually solve cases. No wonder the three men looked so discouraged and lacking in enthusiasm.

"The task ahead is arduous and the road is long!"

Lin Ge sighed, feeling that it would take a lot of effort to make Zhangzhou's police dog team like Zhuzhou's.

However, for him, the trainers were just icing on the cake; they were unnecessary. What he really cared about was whether his police dog handlers were obedient and to his liking, so he didn't care whether the three of them could fight.

Lin Ge walked over to the cages of the police dogs and looked up to observe his next underlings.

Even though Yang Ye didn't say anything about putting the police dog squad under Lin Ge's command, since Lin Ge had come to this place, wasn't it only natural for him to take over as the host?

"Wang!"

"Woo..."

As Lingo approached, the dogs became even more excited. They climbed onto the cage and wagged their tails frantically, except for one that looked very unhappy that Lingo could move freely while it had to be kept in a cage, showing a wronged expression.

"Two Labradors, two Rottweilers, and two... mixed breeds?"

Lin Ge struggled to identify the pedigrees of the six police dogs, and found that he couldn't distinguish two of them. One looked somewhat like a German Shepherd, but the coat color and length were off, the short tail was strange, and the droopy ears were more like a Rottweiler.

"No way? Zhangzhou police dogs have fallen to this level?"

Lin Ge found it somewhat hard to understand. Generally speaking, police dogs are quite particular about their pedigree, since working dogs need to demonstrate their abilities. Mixed-breed dogs aren't unacceptable, but given the right conditions, who wouldn't want to be even better?
Fortunately, the two dogs were fairly obedient when facing Lingo, so Lingo reluctantly let the mess go.

"These guys will be my new underlings."

With a sigh, Lin Ge tried to pull himself together and not be so disappointed. Seeing that Li Mei and the other three were watching from a distance without approaching, he ignored them and slowly walked to a dog cage, climbed up by the steel bars, and reached for the lock.

"Hey!"

Yuan Qu frowned, about to stop him, but saw Lin Ge slap the mouth of the police dog that was sticking out of the cage and licking Lin Ge, causing the Labrador, which was four or five times the size of Lin Ge, to whimper and shrink back.

"Yingying is so obedient?"

Yu Rong exclaimed in surprise, never expecting that the oldest police dog in the station would be bullied by a cat.

Lin Ge chose to try out this Labrador because it was quite old, almost at retirement age. Without a doubt, this dog was the leader of the police dog unit and had been there the longest.

Under the astonished gazes of the four, Lin Ge easily turned the lock and opened the iron cage door in a few quick movements.

This lock is actually quite complex; you have to pull it up three notches and then turn it. Even the police dogs inside have tried it at will, and none of them have ever managed to escape. And now, a cat... seems to know exactly how to pick it. Is it just a coincidence?

"Holy crap! No wonder it's the famous police cat, its intelligence is comparable to that of a child, right?"

Zhou Bo exclaimed in shock.

"Wang Wang!"

Seeing the cage being forcefully pushed open by the cat, the police dog named Yingying ran out, its tail swishing like a pinwheel, and followed behind Lin Ge, barking obediently.

This scene excited the other dogs even more.

Then, under Yuan Qu's hesitant gaze, Lin Ge successfully opened all six dog cages. The six freed police dogs did not run around, but obediently followed behind Lin Ge, their barking giving him a headache.

"They still need training! Why is the first thing I do when I come to the Municipal Bureau to train the dogs, and even teach them to shut up?"

Lin Ge was somewhat annoyed.

(End of this chapter)