If you were made a mascot, you would become a legend in the police force.

The courtyard of the police station was in complete chaos.

All the police cars were running, their flashing lights turning the evening sky blood red. Wang Zhenhua was yelling into the walkie-talkie, "Blockout! Block off all the roads leading out of town! Notify the traffic police to check the surveillance footage! Don't let a single fly out!"

Several parents who rushed to the scene collapsed to the ground, crying their hearts out.

"My child! I was only ten minutes late picking him up!"

"Officers, please, you must save the child!"

Li Tuantuan had seen such scenes on the news in his previous life, but witnessing them in person was a completely different experience. The desperate cries were like needles piercing his eardrums.

He walked to the familiar police motorcycle, jumped into the sidecar, pounded on the door, and yelled at the still-dazed Lin Wan, "Aww!" (Get in!)

Lin Wan wiped away her tears, put on her helmet, and hopped on her motorcycle: "Let's go!"

The motorcycle sped out of the police station like an arrow.

According to the command center's report, the suspect vehicle was a Jinbei van with a fake license plate, and its last known location was an abandoned logging road leading deep into the Qinling Mountains. The terrain there is complex, there is no surveillance, and it's all virgin forest.

"These bastards planned this all along." The wind howled into his helmet, and Lin Wan's voice was somewhat broken. "They knew that once we entered the mountains, it would be difficult to track us, and that as long as we crossed this ridge, we could leave the province, where there is no one to go."

Li Tuantuan sat in the sidecar, wearing those children's sunglasses, but her eyes behind the sunglasses were fixed on the grass and trees by the roadside.

[Li Tuantuan's inner monologue]: "No man's land? That's for you humans. For me, it's my backyard. Once I'm in the mountains, even the Heavenly King himself would have to behave!"

After driving for about twenty minutes, we saw police lights ahead.

Several police cars were parked on the side of the road; it was the end of the logging road, and cars couldn't go any further in.

Wang Zhenhua had arrived and was leading several police officers to investigate the scene. A dilapidated Jinbei van was parked in the bushes, its doors wide open, the interior empty except for a few scattered schoolbags.

"How is it?" Lin Wan jumped out of the car and rushed over.

"They abandoned the car and ran away." Wang Zhenhua's face was ashen. "Judging from the footprints, there were at least four adult men, with seven or eight children. They went deep into the dense forest and walked for about half an hour."

"Where are the search and rescue dogs?"

"Old Zhang took 'Black Panther' inside just now, but..." Wang Zhenhua pointed to a spot not far away.

The usually majestic German Shepherd police dog, "Black Panther," was now lying on the ground, its nose and eyes running, sneezing incessantly, clearly in great pain.

"They spread a lot of pepper and a chemical agent on the road, specifically to destroy the sense of smell," Wang Zhenhua said through gritted teeth. "These people are repeat offenders with extremely strong counter-surveillance capabilities."

Without search dogs, finding people in these vast mountains is like looking for a needle in a haystack. And it's getting dark soon; the temperature in the mountains will plummet, and with wild animals lurking, what about those children…?

A sense of despair spread through the police force.

Just then, Li Tuantuan climbed out of the sidecar.

Ignoring the stares of the crowd, he walked straight to the Jinbei van. Instead of sniffing the ground like a police dog, he climbed into the van and picked up a small pink backpack.

That was the description given by the mother who cried the most outside the police station—her daughter's schoolbag.

Li Tuantuan brought her nose close and took a deep breath.

[System notification: Olfactory enhancement activated. Analyzing odor molecules... Milky smell (residual), cheap tobacco smell (strong), sweaty smell (strong), a peculiar engine oil smell.]

The smell of engine oil was somewhat similar to the smell he had smelled on the underwear thief in the sewer, but stronger.

Li Tuantuan jumped out of the car and walked to the edge of the woods.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of pepper, truly overpowering. An ordinary person's sense of smell would have been completely ruined by now. But Li Tuantuan was different; his system enhancement was comprehensive, and he could also use merit points for temporary purification.

[Li Tuantuan's inner monologue]: "System, redeem [Basic Purification] to remove foreign objects from my nasal cavity."

[Ding! 50 merit points consumed, purification complete.]

Instantly, the pungent smell disappeared, replaced by the original scent of the forest, along with a faint, lingering smell of fear and sweat.

The flavor is like a thin thread, winding its way into the depths of the dark forest.

Li Tuantuan turned around and called out to Wang Zhenhua and Lin Wan, "Mmm!" (Come with me!)

Then he pointed in that direction and patted his chest.

"Gungun?" Lin Wan was taken aback. "You can smell it?"

Li Tuantuan nodded, her eyes filled with unwavering determination.

Wang Zhenhua looked at the panda, then at the broken police dog, a fierce internal struggle raging within him. Let a panda lead the way? It sounded absurd. But this might be his last chance.

"Let's try anything, even if it's a last resort." Wang Zhenhua waved his hand. "Xiao Lin, you take two SWAT officers and follow it! Be careful! The rest of you continue the thorough search!"

"yes!"

Lin Wan checked his sidearm, then, accompanied by two fully armed SWAT officers, followed behind Li Tuantuan's round, chubby buttocks.

It got completely dark.

The forest was pitch black, with only a few beams of light from tactical flashlights flickering in the distance.

Li Tuantuan walked at the front, his pace not fast, but very steady. He could avoid any potholes or thorns in advance.

[Li Tuantuan's inner monologue]: "These bastards are pretty fast. But with a child in tow, they won't go far. And the paths in these mountains aren't easy to walk on."

Suddenly, Li Tuantuan stopped.

He crouched under a large tree and stretched out his paw to touch the trunk. There was a fresh scratch on the bark, with a strand of clothing fiber still clinging to it.

Lin Wan leaned closer for a look, and almost cried out excitedly, "It's the child's clothes! The direction is right!"

The way the two SWAT officers looked at Li Tuantuan changed. This wasn't just a panda, it was practically a mythical beast!

But Li Tuantuan was not happy.

He sensed a dangerous aura. Not from human traffickers, but from the forest itself.

A low, chilling growl came from the bushes ahead.

Two bright green "lanterns" lit up in the darkness.

Wild boar.

Moreover, it was a fully grown, solitary male wild boar weighing several hundred kilograms. In the mountains, this creature is even more troublesome than a tiger, and is commonly known as "first the boar, second the bear, third the tiger."

The two SWAT officers immediately raised their guns and nervously aimed them at those eyes.

"Don't shoot!" Lin Wan whispered, "The gunshots will alert the human traffickers!"

But if we don't fight back, and the wild boar charges at us, it'll be like a tank crashing into a wall—either dead or seriously injured.

At this tense moment, Li Tuantuan made her move.

Instead of retreating, he walked towards the wild boar.

Lin Wan's heart leaped into her throat: "Gun Gun! Come back!"

Li Tuantuan ignored her. He walked to within five meters of the wild boar and stopped. Then, he took a deep breath, and his aura suddenly changed.

It was a kind of oppressive aura belonging to those in power, a bloodline suppression from ancient beasts.

Although he usually acts cute and rolls around, he is ultimately an iron-eating beast and Chi You's mount!

"roar--!"

Li Tuantuan let out a short but powerful roar. The sound wasn't loud, but it was extremely penetrating, carrying a domineering "Get the hell out of here" attitude.

The wild boar, which had been pawing its hooves in preparation for a charge, froze at the roar. Its not-so-bright brain seemed to be weighing the situation: this black and white fat fellow opposite it didn't seem so easy to mess with?

The standoff lasted for three seconds.

The wild boar grunted, turned around, tucked its tail between its legs, and scurried into the bushes.

The two SWAT officers were stunned, forgetting to put down their guns.

Li Tuantuan turned around and rolled her eyes at them.

[Li Tuantuan's inner monologue]: "What's the big deal? We're all from the same mountain gang, everyone has some pride. Let's hurry up and get going, those human traffickers are smelling stronger and stronger, they're in that valley ahead."

He continued walking forward, but his pace quickened slightly.

Because he smelled it; besides the stench of sweat, there was also a hint of...blood.