Tch, this old woman was really annoying, resorting to personal attacks now.
The last time Shen Qi had run into someone this outrageous was back in her childhood, dealing with her first stepfather. Not a good memory, and this Liang Chunhua had somehow managed, purely through sheer obnoxiousness, to stir up that same old resentment in her.
Shen Qi stood up, intending to walk over and give this ill-mannered old woman a proper lesson with her “real” fists.
She’d survived that scum stepfather, and it hadn’t been by crying and whimpering.
Nuonuo was clever, able to read tone from a young age, and now it could even understand human speech. When Liang Chunhua had insulted it a few sentences earlier, it hadn’t cared at all, wagging its tail without so much as lifting an eyelid.
But when the old woman insulted Shen Qi, that, it could not tolerate.
Nuonuo got up and walked a few steps to stand right in front of Shen Qi, blocking her completely.
Liang Chunhua froze, and the onlookers froze too.
Earlier, Shen Qi and Nuonuo had been sitting in the shadows of a corner, with Nuonuo half-curled up, so from a distance one could only vaguely tell it was a large dog, without any sense of how big it actually was.
Now, with Nuonuo walking closer, all four paws on the ground, its enormous size was fully revealed, its eyes gleaming a yellow-green sheen under the moonlight, like a wolf on the grasslands, carrying a hint of predatory ferocity.
“This… this…”
Liang Chunhua stammered, unable to finish a sentence, while everyone else wished they could get eight yards away from Nuonuo, afraid of drawing trouble onto themselves.
What kind of dog was this! Wasn’t this basically a wolf!
Shen Qi walked out and stood beside Nuonuo, a faint smile on her face. “Go on, say it. Why’d you stop?” You little punk, look me in the eye, weren’t you so full of yourself just now?
Nuonuo, right on cue, fixed its glare on Liang Chunhua, bared its teeth, and growled low.
Liang Chunhua stiffened her neck and glared back, a mix of cowardice and stubbornness on her face, absolutely refusing to back down.
Her son had been dragged in front of her, a burly man nearly six foot three, who had stayed quiet from the very start, his presence practically nonexistent.
Shen Qi smiled slightly. “My dog is very well-behaved, it never bites anyone without reason. It just has a stubborn temper, when it’s angry over being wrongfully accused, even I can’t stop it. Ma’am, may you fend for yourself.”
Nuonuo trotted over to stand right in front of Liang Chunhua in a couple of strides, pushing the burly man aside, baring its teeth and drooling right at Liang Chunhua, looking as if it were deciding where exactly to take the first bite.
Liang Chunhua had never faced anything like this. She was the type who bullied the weak and feared the strong, when she actually ran into something tough, she folded instantly. She’d never liked dogs to begin with, both looking down on them and fearing their ferocity. With just a slight scare from Nuonuo, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.
Even as she fainted, she didn’t forget to yank her son over in front of her, terrified that if the dog couldn’t bite anyone else, it would bite her.
Shen Qi found this ridiculous, watching this old woman pick fights everywhere, she’d assumed she must be some kind of tough character, but she’d fainted from this little scare. What a letdown.
Her son was unlucky too, he hadn’t said a single word from start to finish, yet had been dragged in front twice to block for her. Was this really his own mother?
Shen Qi had no interest in bothering people who had nothing to do with this, so she called out, “Okay, Nuonuo, come back.”
Nuonuo had no interest in any bipedal beast besides Shen Qi, all its actions were in coordination with her, and it naturally obeyed her every word.
And so the crowd watched as the dog that had just seemed terrifyingly fierce, supposedly uncontrollable even by its own owner and about to bite someone, instantly switched to a docile, adorable(?) expression, wagging its tail and nuzzling up affectionately to its owner.
At that point, people finally caught on, so this dog really was obedient, and smart too, able to listen to its owner and scare off an annoying old woman on command!
A silence full of awkwardness hung in the air.
Some people, afraid of dogs, laughed dryly: “Haha… ha… this dog, really smart…”
Some dog lovers laughed heartily: “Good dog! Smart, obedient, and protective! Really impressive!”
Some neutral onlookers commented: “The dog’s good, but it’s just too big. If it accidentally hurt someone by mistake, that’d be awful. Ah, if I’d known dogs could be this protective, I’d have gotten one myself!”
Shen Qi smiled at the crowd without saying anything, and led Nuonuo back to their spot in the shadowy corner.
After this incident, everyone in the square avoided Shen Qi, but she didn’t care in the least, what other people thought didn’t interest her, as long as they didn’t come provoke her and Nuonuo, everything was fine.
But there was an exception.
Shen Qi looked at the little girl who’d come sidling up next to her, only remembering that her mother had called her Qingqing earlier.
Qingqing’s eyes seemed practically glued to Nuonuo, Shen Qi could tell at a glance, another kid coveting her dog’s mighty, imposing, silky fur.
Sure enough, Qingqing said in a soft little voice, “Big sister, the doggy is so cute, can I touch it? I’ll be really gentle!”
Shen Qi teased her: “Then you’ll have to ask the doggy. If the doggy’s willing, you can touch it however you like.”
Qingqing’s eyes lit up, and sure enough, she fell for it, asking Nuonuo, “Doggy, would you be willing to let me touch you?”
Shen Qi couldn’t help but laugh, feeling the earlier unpleasantness melt away, but before she or Nuonuo could respond, Qingqing’s mother, having noticed her daughter had run off, hurried over and said, “So sorry, so sorry, I turned my back for a second and she ran off. We didn’t cause you any trouble, did we?”
The woman clearly knew how much her daughter was drawn to fluffy creatures. She shot Qingqing a scolding glance while carefully studying Shen Qi and Nuonuo’s expressions.
Shen Qi knew she’d left quite the impression on everyone earlier. Having kept large dogs in the city for years, she had her own way of handling things, not letting her dog frighten more people than necessary was one of her principles.
Besides, Nuonuo’s temperament was gentle and steady, always respectful to the elderly and gentle with children, the kids in her old neighborhood mostly loved playing with it, and nothing had ever gone wrong.
Shen Qi said with a smile, “It’s fine, Qingqing just wanted to touch Nuonuo. My dog loves kids, it’s no problem for her to pet it.”
The woman relaxed with a sigh of relief, and looking at her daughter’s longing eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse either, only cautioning gently, “Then Qingqing has to touch gently, don’t hurt the doggy.”
Qingqing nodded eagerly and hurried over to Nuonuo’s side, placing her hand on its head to stroke its fur.
Nuonuo, clearly already used to its poop-scooper pushing it out to win people’s favor, remained just as composed with the small human cub, not cold, not overly friendly, and somehow even a little courteous about it.
Qingqing was wearing a red nightgown, and standing next to Nuonuo, the pair looked exactly like the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.
The little girl and Nuonuo got along cozily (entirely one-sided on the girl’s part), while Shen Qi joked with Qingqing’s mother about the Little Red Riding Hood comparison, both of them looking on fondly as the little girl and the “big gray wolf” (heh) got along happily. The atmosphere in the square gradually began to ease.
Someone nearby muttered, “This dog really is well-behaved, letting a noisy kid pet its head without getting angry at all.”
Shen Qi had of course noticed the shift in mood, which was exactly what she’d hoped for.
The main shock had only just passed, and aftershocks kept coming in waves. If you paid attention, you could hear soft crying, even moaning. Being lucky enough to escape and wait for rescue was already a blessing, anyone with the energy left to stir up trouble was simply bored.
Everyone getting along peacefully to pet the good doggy (Nuonuo: how aloof of you) was surely better than needlessly creating conflict.
After Qingqing and her mother left, Shen Qi remained lost in thought.
She thought about the earthquake, about that yellow dog that had bitten someone and run off, and about Nuonuo’s strange changes and Little Tiger’s disappearance.
The sky gradually began to brighten.
After some unknown length of time, a commotion began approaching from the distance.
“Rescue… the rescue team’s here!”
Like water hitting hot oil, the atmosphere exploded at once.
Several military trucks carrying the rescue team and search dogs arrived, and survivors picked up along the way climbed out with them.
The rescue team had clearly gotten information beforehand, they knew this square was the largest and most suitable place nearby for temporarily housing survivors, so they’d brought quite a few along the way.
The team leader took out a megaphone and shouted, “Everyone, please pay attention. This is a global earthquake, no one has been spared! For the sake of better rescue efforts, please follow instructions! Please trust us, the nation will not abandon a single citizen!”
A wave of murmurs swept through the crowd—
Only then did people learn that it wasn’t just h City that had shaken, the whole country had, the whole world had!
Shen Qi frowned as she listened.
A global earthquake… this was too surreal.
Shen Qi looked at Nuonuo and asked, “Do you and Little Tiger know about this?”
Nuonuo: 【We know, we sensed it. The Earth has changed, besides the earthquake, there’s something else. Most animals have been affected, and Little Tiger and I are the same.】
【Different animals change in different ways. For me, my body’s been gradually growing bigger, and I can sense the surroundings without even needing to look, back in the rubble, it was that “sense” that helped us get out safely.】
Shen Qi wasn’t surprised, she’d already had her suspicions about animal mutation. She asked further, “Is this kind of change good or bad for you all?”
Nuonuo: 【Some have changed for the better, some for the worse. I’ve changed for the better, I’m much stronger than before, and I can even understand you two-legged beasts now. That Dahuang they mentioned, with red eyes biting people, probably changed for the worse.】
Nuonuo paused, glanced at Shen Qi’s expression, and said hesitantly: 【Little Tiger… I don’t know how It’s changed either… if It’s turned strange, or turned bad, don’t be scared, I’ll protect you!】
Shen Qi laughed despite herself: “I’m not scared, I believe It’s definitely had a good change.”
In fact, Shen Qi had no real confidence about this either. The worst possibility was that Little Tiger, foreseeing it might turn bad, had run off out of fear of losing control and hurting her.
But she wouldn’t give up on Little Tiger. Alive, she’d find the cat, dead, she’d find the body [1]alive, find the cat, dead, find the body (huó yào jiàn māo sǐ yào jiàn shī, 活要見貓死要見屍) Idiom, adapted from the set phrase “alive, one must see the person, dead, one must … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3166611_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3166611_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Even if it had turned bad, Shen Qi would find it, confirm whether it truly no longer wanted to be with her, and only then set it free. Otherwise, Little Tiger would remain her little cat for life, no sneaking off allowed!
When Shen Qi and Nuonuo communicated, she kept her voice low, Nuonuo transmitted information straight into her mind, so to anyone watching, it just looked like a girl hugging her dog, muttering to herself, most people didn’t notice anything unusual.
Only the rescue team captain, who was leading a German Shepherd, methodically arranging rescue supplies, comforting survivors, and quickly determining the rescue zone while assigning tasks to every member of his team, seemed different.
As he was leaving, he glanced over toward Shen Qi and announced through his megaphone, “Now that the earthquake has affected the entire globe, our rescue personnel are far below the standard needed, and there are still many places we haven’t been able to reach… so, we hope anyone with the energy to spare will step forward and contribute to the rescue effort! Regardless of gender, anyone willing to sign up can come talk to me anytime! Those who sign up will get an extra portion of meat and vegetables, plus a bottle of water each day, and it will also count toward your contribution points!”
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