Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side

The moment Zhou Li woke up, he threw yesterday’s matters to the back of his mind. He was completely unaware of the extreme tragedy this would prove to be for the uncle dog who only heard half of the story before it was forcibly cut off.

He showered and ate breakfast as usual before packing the things necessary to send the dog away. In order for Young Master Ji’s mood to be at least a smidge better, he also brought along two flowers, one real and one fake, telling Xiao Wu to put them next to the husky to help adjust his mood. Xiao Wu was speechless for quite some time.

Zhou Li still didn’t think this was enough, so he clasped Xiao Wu’s hand tightly in his and carefully repeated his step-by-step care routine. It was only when Song Yingshi arrived at the bus stop did he separate, stepping onboard the bus with her.

Song Yingshi didn’t meet up with Tao Shanshan for breakfast today, and instead had a meal with her grandmother.

When the two arrived at the mall, they saw Tao Shanshan chewing on a straw and sipping soy milk from a distance, chatting to the girl standing by her side. She appeared to be in a very good mood.

Zhou Li raised his eyebrows slightly and made a guess in his heart.

Sure enough, after Tao Shanshan introduced the girl to them, he knew that the cannon fodder female co-worker from the original text had come into contact with the female lead.

The blame can be put on Mingying High for being too far too disconnected from ordinary people. The business owners learned that the female co-worker attended the legendary ‘noble’ school, and after a few curious discussions, found out that Qin-jie’s niece also went to Mingying High, so today the two students met up for a “hometown get-together”.

Tao Shanshan said, “Su Ya and Ji-shao are in the same class!”

Zhou Li thought, Wow!

Song Yingshi knew that this friend of hers was a hardcore Ji-shao fangirl* and gave her a cooperative “Wow”.

[T/N: a crazy fan, enough to make others think they’re brain-dead]

Su Ya’s eyes carried a hint of pride and while feigning indifference, said, “We’re just in the same class. Normally, we only exchange a few words at most.”

Zhou Li thought, I can’t even say this statement myself!

“A few words!” Tao Shanshan face was full of envy. “I’ll be satisfied if I can say just one word to him in a day, but the problem is that I don’t even have a chance to say this one word!”

Su Ya smiled, the pride in her eyes growing more intense.

Zhou Li’s expression was a little subtle.

Although he transmigrated into a novel, what he has heard and felt were all real. After a few days of instability, the sense of isolation gradually diminished. 

It wasn’t until this moment, when he listened to the dialogue that was very similar to the original text, that he realised the circumstances were still different. This gave him the illusion that he had the ability of foresight.

It’s just that this “foresight” was too diluted. Other than the fates of the protagonist and the dying Granny Song, he didn’t know the future of anyone else.

But this was also good. These people are alive, but their lives were not his to know.

Tomorrow or an accident, which comes first? Don’t know. One’s better half, what kind of a person will they be? Don’t know. Will hard work result in riches in the future? Don’t know that either. It was precisely because of these ‘don’t know’s that gave him hope for the future, and it was these ‘don’t know’s that gave him the motivation to take a step forward and continue onwards.

It wouldn’t be gentleman-like for Zhou Li listen in on a conversation between girls, so he decided to head in and get changed first. It was at this time that Su Ya’s eyes turned to focus on him. “Which school is he from?”

Tao Shanshan said, “No. 2.”

Su Ya replied with an “oh” and was no longer curious.

Zhou Li saw a flash of contempt in her eyes. He nodded politely to them and entered the changing room.

Liuxi No. 2 High School housed the number “2” in its name, so it wasn’t unreasonable to come to the conclusion that it was second only to No. 1 High School in terms of name, but in reality, it wasn’t even as good as No. 3 High School. In fact, it was the lowest ranked school in the district. As a study god who was admitted into Mingying by her own strength, Su Ya looked down on him for being far too ‘normal’.

His mentality has always been good. After changing his clothes, he started wiping down the windows, ready to begin a day’s worth of work.

Song Yingshi and the other two saw his hard-working attitude and followed suit, ending the hometown get-together quickly. Su Ya was also working on this floor, manning the counter at another store, but even if they wanted to stick together, they would have to wait until noon for the three of them to be able to chat again. 

While the other was away, Tao Shanshan asked Song Yingshi, “Say, do you think I can ask her to take a few pictures of Ji-shao for me?”

Song Yingshi looked at her both kindly and amused, then bluntly replied, “As if you can ah. If she gets caught, what do you want her to say? Want her to snitch on you?”

Tao Shanshan was successfully discouraged. “Ah, you’re right.”

Zhou Li listened from the side, trying to hold back his words. He failed miserably. “That Ji-shao of yours, what does he look like? Handsome?”

Tao Shanshan said, “Of course he’s handsome ah, he’s our Mingying’s school grass!”

Zhou Li leaned over. “Have a photo? Let me see.”

Tao Shanshan, who regarded him as a concubine*, immediately looked at him suspiciously. 

[T/N: backup choice]

Her family’s Ji-shao was too good-looking. Not only did girls like him, but she’s heard that even boys have chased him. Perhaps, did this concubine also have a special interest?

She asked, “You’re a guy, what are you looking at his photos for?”

Of course, it’s because I want to see Eggy’s body ah!

Zhou Li asked, “Do you girls look at beautiful women?”

Tao Shanshan: “Yeah.”

“Well, we boys also occasionally look at handsome guys.” Zhou Li boasted without any face, “I, No. 2’s Face Rep, naturally want to see what other people’s school grass* looks like.”

[T/N: the boy with the best appearance in his school, for girls, it would be school flower]

Tao Shanshan thought what he said made sense, and so she pulled up her phone’s photo album and handed it to him. “Look, this is my family’s Ji-shao.”

Zhou Li lowered his head for a look, raising a single eyebrow.

The photo was taken in the school cafeteria. From this angle, he could see most of Ji Shaoyan’s face. He was wearing Mingying’s school uniform and sat by the window, talking to the person sitting opposite to him with a small smile at the corner of his mouth. Extremely pleasing to the eye.

His eyebrows were well defined, bent at the right places, and even his eyelashes seemed to flutter gently.

However, no one knew that this compassionate and beautiful jade-like young master was actually a sick, black-hearted man, carefully hidden beneath a white shell.

Tao Shanshan said, as if offering a treasure, “How ‘bout it, looks good ba?”

Zhou Li sincerely replied, “Looks good.”

How should he put it… This guy was the male protagonist, so naturally the readers can’t be disappointed with his looks.

It was as if Tao Shanshan was listening to others praise herself and she happily gave out a few choice facts about Ji-shao.

For example, not only was Ji-shao the school grass, but he was also an academic prodigy, remaining in the top five no matter what grade; for example, although Ji-shao was from a wealthy and powerful background, he didn’t have the arrogance of a young master and treated everyone warmly; for example, Ji-shao was very kind hearted, once there was a student burdened with too much stress and wanted to jump off from the building, and it was he who gave them the tear-jerking persuasion needed for them to come back.

Zhou Li’s mouth twitched.

Faced with that last line, he really wanted to correct her, because the original text had offered a simple recount. That student didn’t really want to jump off the building, but instead wanted to force Young Master Ji into giving them a kiss. Young Master Ji nodded gently in agreement, walked over, and knocked them unconscious. Three days later, that student transferred to another school in a hurry, claiming that their Ji-shao had nothing to do with this decision. But, who would believe that ah?

However, while he turned this thought over in his head, his face displayed an especially supportive look while his mouth spouted praise. Such as, this school grass of yours is really too perfect, like an angel descend from the heavens. 

The small group chatted amongst themselves, only stopping at the arrival of customers, turning their concentration to work.

When the time ticked towards noon, Zhou Li once again took the job of handing out flyers and went to find the whereabouts of the street where more people would pass by. At this time, when he swept his eyes over the surroundings, he suddenly saw his little brothers. A quick count gave him a total of four heads, and he smiled, waving them over.

The four knew that Ying-ge was working and wanted to come and have a look, but they were afraid of hurting Ying-ge’s self-esteem, so they planned to just take a sneaky peek before running away. In the end, they were blocked before they took a single step into the mall. They dilly-dallied their way over.

Zhou Li smiled and said, “Why did you guys come here?”

Er-ge saw that he was in good condition and let go of the weight in his heart. He said, “We were bored of doing nothing, just came to stroll around.”

Zhou Li said, “Come to see me?” 

The four shook their heads in unison. “No no no, just to stroll around.”

Zhou Li didn’t out them and handed over the flyers. “Not busy ba? Then help me distribute these flyers.” 

It was in their nature to follow the boss’ orders. They quickly divided the flyers amongst themselves and scurried off to choose their positions.

Zhou Li helped sell domestic-produced cameras, which already had a certain reputation. However, because their store was only a counter and not part of a branch, many people didn’t know of their anniversary promotion, hence why Qin-jie wanted to distribute some flyers.

The number of flyers were not too much, and with five people in on one task, they got through it very easily. But maybe it was because people tend to be more irritable during the summer, many people are unwilling to take it. It took a lot of time and effort to finish handing them out.

Er-ge: “Damn, how much energy do they need to just take one, so pretentious!”

“Someone waved a hand and almost smacked me in the face. If it weren’t for helping Ying-ge, I would’ve run up and punched his face in!”

Zhou Li walked up to them, carrying a bag of ice cream in one hand and wearing a smile, saying, “Do you guys usually take flyers when you’re out and about?”

The four went silent, somewhat speechless.

Zhou Li said, “Be content ba. What I got is considered a small pile, and the time it took to finish was just under an hour. Look at the fellows over there, I’m guessing that they’ll be standing out there for a long time.” 

The four turned their heads as one, seeing the people walking back and forth on the street.

The stupid teenagers were immediately pricked in their soft little hearts and sprinted over to collect an entire set of flyers before allowing themselves to sit down and eat their ice cream, vowing as they put spoonfuls of ice in their mouths, “Next time I see a flyer, I swear I will take it.”

“Yes, if I didn’t get to experience this myself, I never would’ve known how difficult this is… Ai, Ying-ge, look at this.” The stingy little brother will forever be sensitive when it came to money. He handed him a flyer. “Pet competition, take your husky and try competing. If you can win a prize, it’ll definitely sell for a high price.”

Zhou Li took it and froze in an instant.

A pet competition. This event was also in the original text, and Song Yingshi had also taken the husky to the site, but the plot point wasn’t on this competition, instead, it was on the ‘Study Gods Get-Together’ held next to the venue. Next to the venue, someone was distributing a round of “Studying is so boring, everyone, lets hi hi hi together” flyers that was promoting a game of some sorts.

Handing out this type of flyer right next to a get-together consisting only of straight-A students, obviously no one paid any attention to it. Only Ji Shaoyan knew that this was an event organized by some kooky old man in their rich-people circle, so he just held the hand-out in his mouth, only dropping it when he heard Song Yingshi agree to give it a go.

Later on, Song Yingshi really did download it to play and even made a few friends from it, which was probably something done in preparation for the upcoming plot. 

He remembered that Song Yingshi came across the pet competition by chance when someone in her circle of friends shared the post online. So, it turns out that the organiser also had flyers sent out? Zhou Li put away the hand-out, planning to pass it onto Song Yingshi when it was time to give the dog away.

He waited for the little brothers to finish their ice cream, then invited them to a meal.

Er-ge said, “You don’t need to go back?”

Zhou Li said, “The boss said I’m allowed to eat once I’m done with the flyers. Let’s go ba.”

The younger brothers relaxed and followed him for the free meal before leaving contently. 

Zhou Li returned to the mall alone, coming to a sudden stop when he passed by a stall at the doors. He retraced his steps and saw something interesting on the shelf: a toy husky with its mouth wide open and a set of protruding teeth, one of which would trigger the mouth to bite down when pressed*.  

[T/N: like the crocodile dentist toy, but husky]

This was a big toy that had big teeth, and was stupidly meng. He cheerfully bought one before heading back into work.

The afternoon calmly passed and he went to pick up the husky with Song Yingshi as usual and, like before, Song Yingshi held the husky in her arms until they reached the fork in the road.

Qian Duoshu and his colleagues went out to drink, so it was only him at home.

Zhou Li randomly ate what he had and gave Uncle Dog a shower. After drying the other’s fur, he hugged the dog and placed him on the bed, sitting cross-legged in front of the young master and pulling out his newly bought toy. “Eggy, come and play ba!”

Ji Shaoyan was still in a disagreeable mood today. He briefly glanced at the set-up, not interested.

Zhou Li pressed down on a tooth the moment he finished speaking. Seeing that Uncle Dog was unmoving, he held the other’s paw to press on a tooth, then pressed another one himself, then took the paw to press another. 

Ji Shaoyan waited for this silly fool to reach out and grab his paw for the third time, and before the other was able to do so, his endurance ran out and he took the initiative to press down on a tooth himself. He didn’t want his destiny placed in the hands of others.

Zhou Li whispered a silent ‘keeping playing and maybe then you won’t be so broodish’, continuing to press the teeth down. 

With sixteen teeth in a set and eight back and forth rounds, the one boy, one dog duo quickly reached the end of the game. Zhou Li hesitantly pressed one, leaving three behind.

Ji Shaoyan made a quick observation and chose the one near the corner, pushing down.

“Pada“. Safe.

Instant satisfaction.

Zhou Li intensely studied the last two and chose one.

With a “pada“, he passed the elimination round safely.

Only one was left.

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Zhou Li: “Hahahahaha!“

Zhou Li laughed with enough power to knock himself over and quickly climbed up, nudging the toy over toward him. “Quick, it’s your turn, you’re not allowed to back out!”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Why?

Did he have a mental defect? Why on earth did he play such a childish game with Silly Fool?

The author has something to say:

Ji Shaoyan: Regret, the kind of regret that makes me want to chop off my paws.