Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side

Adding together the two lives he’s lived through, Zhou Li has never met anyone more ruthless than Ji Shaoyan.

If another person had turned into a dog, they would most likely try to cover it up desperately. However, when it came to Ji Shaoyan, if he wants to confess then he’ll confess. He didn’t care about face at all. Also, today was only the second day since this young master came to school!

School just started and he already wants to tell him the truth.

Isn’t this too insane*? I didn’t even see you act like this in the original novel. Are you thinking that you can be a little rougher just because I am a man? But young master, do you still remember your character design of ‘divine school grass’?

[T/N: 丧心病狂: completely crazy and ridiculous]

Zhou Li struggled on his deathbed. “Take it away, I don’t want to play.”

Ji Shaoyan observed his expression and saw a slight resistance, assuming that the other might’ve thought of the past.

He didn’t force Zhou Li and instead took the initiative to press a tooth, saying, “Xiao-Yang and I were not born from the same mother, do you know that?”

Zhou Li simply said, “I’ve heard about it.”

So far, only Zhou Luwen has mentioned a sentence or two about the half-brothers offhandedly. Because Ji Shaoyan was a first-class actor and appeared like an ideal big brother on the outside, no one else thought their blood relationship was worth gossiping over.

Ji Shaoyan asked, “Do you know the specifics?”

Zhou Li shook his head.

Ji Shaoyan whispered, “When I was younger, my mother and I were kidnapped. My mother was ripped apart by the kidnappers. Half a year later, my father helped his mistress enter the family. Xiao-Yang was born from that mistress, so he is only one year younger than me.”

Zhou Li already knew of his background.

But knowing was one thing. At this moment, listening to Ji Shaoyan personally describe his life in the past made him paint a vivid image of the pitiful scene, so he just looked at the young master without saying a word.

Ji Shaoyan continued, “My stepmother comes from the Lin family. Qinglian’s famous pharmaceutical company was founded by her family. She has a younger brother who owns a doctorate degree and is currently conducting a study on brainwave refraction. Using some kind of scientific instrument, they believe they can project a person’s brain waves onto another living thing. It could be another human, or an animal.”

Zhou Li: “……”

Seeing how he still has not responded, Ji Shaoyan pondered for a while more before deciding to continue.

He originally wanted to have a well-planned confession, waiting until Zhou Li had a strong and good impression of him, but his plans couldn’t keep up with the changes. There was no doubt that Zhou Li realised yesterday’s husky was not the same as the one he raised.

This silly fool has always been proactive to a fault. Today was Friday. If he takes his eyes off for even two days, god knows what Zhou Li might try to pull. Besides, he hasn’t finished his investigation on whatever was happening on his stupid brother’s side. He didn’t want Zhou Li to have too much contact with them.

On top of that, Zhou Li is already aware about his feelings, so he might as well combine these confessions into one.

This way, even if Zhou Li doesn’t like him for the time being, his place in Zhou Li’s heart will still be special. If he can expand Zhou Li’s brain hole even bigger and explain how his close intimacy lately was linked to his husky experience, he could make Zhou Li less alienated and vigilant towards him. This was the best case scenario.

He added, “Xiao-Yang has been an illegitimate child for several years and never liked me very much. On the day I fell into a coma from the car accident, he came to see me with a husky in his arms. Afterwards, something unbelievable happened and the husky escaped to Xiangman Town on the back of a vegetable truck.”

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan stared at him, pushing the toy that had one tooth pressed down, and asked, “Want to play?”

Zhou Li struggled to maintain his expression, staying mute.

Everything was very straightforward. Even if he really couldn’t figure it out from the hints, he would be able to understand with this much information. He just didn’t know what expression and reaction to give right now.

[T/N: not made clear with how this part is written, but under this line is ZL thinking about what reaction to give]

Slightly shocked, with a trembling voice and repeating “you”s, unable to form a whole sentence for a long time.

Or perhaps, slightly shocked at first, then lean in to hug and pat the person, saying, “So it turns out you are Eggy ah“.

Or maybe, slightly shocked at first, then he sneers and says, “Your Ji family will actually come up with such an absurd reason to stop me from saving Eggy… No, I don’t believe you. No matter what you say, I don’t believe you. I won’t be manipulated by you, I only trust myself”.

Or maybe he should just suck in a breath from the shock and faint on the spot.

…though they all seem to be a bit exaggerated.

Ji Shaoyan was still staring at him. After waiting for almost a full minute, he couldn’t figure out where this silly fool’s brain hole had taken him, so he took the initiative to ask, “Nothing you want to say?”

Zhou Li said, “…you, let me take everything in* first.”

[T/N: literally, ‘let me slow down first’]

The corners of Ji Shaoyan’s lips curled upwards, and he softly hummed “en”.  

He secretly let out a sigh of relief. When it came to coming clean, his only concern was that Zhou Li would be so stimulated to the point of switching personalities. But all in all, “a human narrating events” was ultimately more acceptable than “a dog typing on keyboard and saying he is a human”. Zhou Li’s state looked steady.

He nudged the toy over again. “Are you really not playing?”

Zhou Li snuck a glimpse at the dog, somewhat unable to refuse the temptation, and pressed a tooth.

Only to hear a “pop” as the dog’s head bit down on his hand. 

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

There was dead silence in the car for two seconds. Ji Shaoyan couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Before Zhou Li’s grief and anger settled in, he personally helped the boy open the toy, touching his fingertips as they came out. “Does it hurt? I had someone buy a new one so I haven’t tried it. I’m not sure how much the biting strength differs from the old one.”

Zhou Li retracted his hand and squinted at him in a slightly complicated manner. “You…”

Ji Shaoyan responded cooperatively, understanding that the other might’ve just returned to reality, and waited for him to start expressing his opinions.

Zhou Li pushed the toy over. “If you didn’t mention it then I would’ve forgotten. You still owe me one round. Press it yourself.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

If normal people were suddenly dropped with this revelation, no matter what conclusion they came to, they will most definitely think of this matter as unbelievable at first. If so, how can this silly fool’s first reaction be to settle scores at this opportune moment?

Young Master Ji has lost count of how many times he has been left speechless, let alone how many times he’s wondered about the size of the pit in this person’s head. In a good mood, he went through the row of teeth one-by-one until he was bitten.

He had been sidetracked and also wanted to settle accounts on his end. “You still owe me a story; you never finished telling it.”

Zhou Li only told him one story during his stay, which was 《Pirates of the Caribbean》. He nodded at these words, then turned to be face-to-face with the other, returning to silence.

Ji Shaoyan raised his eyebrows. “En?“

Zhou Li was a little depressed. “You’re not as cute as Eggy, I can’t find that feeling.”

“……” Ji Shaoyan faintly smiled. “It’s fine, I’ll repay my debt first.”

He felt it was best to let Silly Fool take everything in for a while longer, so he changed the subject. “Let’s talk about antiques ba. You can’t be suddenly interested in antiques for no reason. You’ve only had two chances recently where you came into contact with antiques; one, your family originally had one or just recently bought one, or two, Grandpa Wei sent you something when the game was over.”  

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan didn’t research things behind his back, but instead laid out his analysis clearly. He continued calmly and orderly, “Back at that auction, Grandpa Wei also went and bidded on a piece of jade, an ancient book, and a scroll, winning all of them. The only items that have some correlation is the jade and the book. Back then, my grandpa was displeased with him and stole a book from him at the auction. For you to ask about the auction, it means the gift he sent you might be one of the few items he won that day. Which one are you looking into?”

Zhou Li: “……”

Why was he in such a hurry to ask Ji Shaoyan? He couldn’t even interject with single punctuation mark*.

[T/N: doesn’t even have time to go ‘?’,’!’, etc.]

But the more quiet he was now will give more signs of him holding ulterior motives*.

[T/N: 心里越有鬼/his heart having ghosts: up to tricks/having a guilty conscience]

He decided to stop kicking around the bushes and said, “It’s that piece of jade. I am a little interested in the words engraved in it and I want to know what it says. Professor Xia said that there are still two books that were sold that day, which may have some records relating to the jade.”

He gazed at Ji Shaoyan with incredibly sincere eyes. “For the sake of me raising you, may I please borrow the book from you for a quick read?”

Ji Shaoyan was very happy. “Of course you can.”

He changed the conversation topic. “But, when I mentioned it before, why didn’t you say anything?”

Zhou Li justified his actions embarrassedly. “I planned to get more familiar with you before bringing it up, just a little.”

He suppressed the eagerness in his heart and pretended that he suddenly remembered something else. “Yi, that’s right, Professor Xia will still be here for the weekend. How about I come with you to get the book today and send it over to him tomorrow? If his efficiency’s high, maybe we’ll get it back to you by the end of this weekend.”

Ji Shaoyan had a talent for seizing opportunities. “I’m not sure if we still have it. I’ll need to go back and look for it first. If I can find it, I’ll give it to you tomorrow and visit Professor Xia with you.”

Zhou Li considered the possibility of the young master finding someone to translate it overnight before nodding. “Okay.”

Ji Shaoyan: “Other than visiting Professor Xia tomorrow, do you have any other plans?”

Zhou Li: “Yeah, I found a tutor for those little brothers of mine. Starting from this weekend, I have to accompany them for every tutoring session.”

“Public high schools and our school have different courses and different schedules.” Ji Shaoyan brought out Zhou Li’s excuse, thoughtfully offering, “For the sake of you raising me, how about I tutor you?”

Zhou Li refused without thinking, “No need, I have Zhou Luwen.”

Ji Shaoyan reminded, “My grades are better than his.”

Zhou Li didn’t buy it*. “He is also in our year’s top ten. It’s more than enough to help me make up for my studies.”

[T/N: 不买账: to not acknowledge someone being more superior]

Ji Shaoyan’s expression remained unchanged as he contemplated how to give Zhou Luwen something to busy himself over. Outwardly, his mouth agreed, “En, that’ll work too.”

Things went far more smoothly than he thought it would. After the discussion, he saw that they hadn’t driven too far out.

Ji Shaoyan had not said anything about Ji Tianyang and didn’t want to end things like this, so he signalled the driver to drive to a restaurant. Waiting until both of them were finished with their meal, he thoroughly laid out his investigation and warned Zhou Li to stay away from Ji Tianyang temporarily.

Zhou Li had an epiphany.

He had wondered why this young master was in such a hurry to confess. It turned out that there was still Ji Tianyang to worry about. The reason why he had been suddenly caught so off guard, it was all because he played basketball with Ji Tianyang!

He didn’t know what kind of response he should give. He opened WeChat and sent a photo to the other boy, saying, “That day I went to the pet competition, I saw Lin Ye talking to your brother. I didn’t know him at the time, and took a photo just in case. Can you see if you recognise anyone else in this picture?” 

Ji Shaoyan opened it for a look and found that it was really his stupid little brother.

He was rendered speechless once again. This silly fool had so many pits in his brain that he had turned a trip to the pet competition into an espionage event. The weird thing was that it was actually helpful.

He took a closer look but didn’t recognise anyone except Ji Tianyang, so he said, “I’ll go home to look further.”

The two ate and chatted, with the sky having turned dark before they finished their meal. They settled themselves in the car and drove back.

Their families lived in the same community and Ji Shaoyan sent Zhou Li home first. He secretly observed the other boy on the way back and noticed that his attitude towards him had not changed at all. He really didn’t know how the other’s brain worked. Seeing that the destination was approaching, he couldn’t help but raise the soundproof window again to ask, “About this whole thing, you really have nothing else to say?”

Zhou Li thought for a while then leaned forward to grasp his hands, emotion seeping through every word: “Eggy, it’s so great that you’re okay!”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Zhou Li: “How’s that?”

Ji Shaoyan looked at him with a ten-out-of-ten beautiful smile.

Zhou Li loosened his grip and finally answered decently. “I can’t think you two as the same person right now. You’re too different.”

Ji Shaoyan nodded, giving him some time to adapt.

Anyway, the show was finally over. From now on, he could approach the other in an open manner, and there was no need for him to deliberately act like they’ve only just met and treat each other politely, not daring to be too familiar.

The car soon came to a stop. Zhou Li said goodbye to him and opened the door to go home. The first thing he did was contact Professor Xia, informing him that he had found the ancient book.

Professor Xia thought he was experiencing some auditory hallucinations. “So fast?”

Zhou Li said, “But my friend is very suspicious and may not lend it to me. He might find someone to translate it first. Please pay attention to the updates in your circle tonight, he may find someone as early as tonight.” 

Professor Xia responded quickly and cut off the call.

But Zhou Li was truthfully a little worried.

Although Ji Shaoyan could see that Zhou Li had a different attitude towards this matter, he won’t think of transmigration no matter how clever he was. Besides, the book was in his hands, so he could simply flip through at any time he wanted to, so he wasn’t in a hurry. He turned a few boxes over to find the book they were after and on the following day, went straight to the Zhou family’s house after breakfast. 

At this time, Zhou Li had just finished eating, and was instructing the same bodyguard brother as last time to arrange a car to pick up the little brothers back in Xiangman Town.

Ji Shaoyan happened to come across their conversation, only then learning that Zhou Li was planning to bring them all over.

He immediately understood Zhou Li’s intentions, and when the bodyguard left he said, “You’re very good to them.”

Zhou Li heard the acidic edge of his tone and glanced at him, not speaking.

Ji Shaoyan: “What do you want to say?”

Zhou Li: “I have nothing to say.”

Ji Shaoyan took the initiative to help narrow the distance between them, warmly assuring, “It’s okay, if you have something to say, you can tell me. Don’t keep so many worries inside of you, I won’t mind whatever you say.”

Zhou Li: “Really?”

Ji Shaoyan nodded. “En.”

Zhou Li opened his lips and said, “Then okay ba, I was just thinking…they all hugged you when you were a child. You should also treat them a bit better.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

The author has something to say:

Ji Shaoyan: There are too many pits in his brain. The brain circuit will never have a complete loop.