Chapter 115
Chapter 115
The little spotted puppy was all awkward reluctance as Qin Ying carried it through the front door in the crook of her arm.
The first floor of Qin Ying’s house was filled with all sorts of paper funeral offerings, along with two refrigerators that still hadn’t been unboxed.
Several brightly dressed paper effigies, their cheeks painted rosy red, had been neatly lined up on the sofa by her. If you didn’t look too closely, they almost seemed like guests visiting her home.
One thing had come after another. Qin Ying hadn’t expected that looking into the Huodou would somehow land her in the hospital too.
Later, she really should find a way to take all these paper offerings out and burn them.
Holding the Huodou’s true body-a tiny milk puppy-Qin Ying went straight up to the second floor.
Before she even opened the door, the Huodou, who had been wriggling awkwardly in her arms, suddenly bristled all over.
There was something terrifying behind that door.
It still didn’t trust Qin Ying completely. Startled, it began struggling to jump out of her arms.
Qin Ying knew it was the Dragon Bone she had left inside the room, so she quickly soothed it. “Don’t be scared.”
She tightened her hold, hugging the thrashing Huodou close as sulfurous smoke puffed from its nose.
With its heartbeat speeding up in her arms, she opened the door.
That intimidating aura was still there, but beyond the door, the room was empty.
The Huodou calmed down a little.
Qin Ying didn’t go in. Instead, like she had been possessed, she stood at the doorway and called out, “I’m home.”
Her voice echoed through the empty room.
The Huodou tilted its head up and glanced at her, suspecting this woman had lost her mind.
Just then, barking sounded from the crack by the door and the foot of the bed.
A tiny, fluffy red little thing squeezed out from the gap under the door.
As it ran toward Qin Ying, it barked in a thin, delicate voice.
When it reached Qin Ying’s slippers, it flopped down on the spot with a little roll, ingratiatingly exposing its belly.
Once there was a first, there was a second and a third.
Very soon, countless “Little Peanut Beans” came running out from every crack in the room.
More than a hundred fuzzy little things gathered in a cluster in front of Qin Ying.
Seeing that they were still quite healthy, Qin Ying let out a long sigh of relief.
She had only fed these fire-eating Hou a single plate of alcohol flame before leaving the house.
Who could have known she would be gone for so long?
Now that they still looked full of energy, Qin Ying finally felt reassured.
The Huodou in the crook of her arm stared at the floor full of fluffy creatures, its pupils quaking violently.
Qin Ying crouched down and held out her hand. Immediately, countless little red furballs came over and rubbed against her fingers.
“I’m sorry. You must be hungry.”
Faced with cute things, Qin Ying’s voice unconsciously rose into a sugary baby-talk pitch as she said to the Shamate Hou with a slanted stripe of white fur across its forehead, “I didn’t think this through properly.”
According to her original plan, she had intended to temporarily raise these little things.
Then she would find a suitable habitat in the World in the Box and move them there.
But the arrangements she had made before leaving had been too careless, and she had failed to come back for two whole days.
That oversight made Qin Ying feel very guilty.
After soothing the fuzzy creatures all over the floor for a while, she opened her palm, signaling for the Shamate Hou to jump onto it.
Then she lifted it in front of the Huodou so the two could meet each other.
Although they were both canine in shape, the Huodou and the Hou were two different species.
Their sizes were also vastly different. Qin Ying didn’t want some bloody tragedy to occur.
The Huodou’s nose twitched. It wasn’t very interested in the Hou.
The Hou, however, spun in circles on Qin Ying’s palm, eagerly wanting to get closer to the Huodou. It seemed to like it very much.
After thinking for a moment, Qin Ying understood.
The Huodou ate charcoal and discharged fire, while the Hou ate fire and discharged jade.
To the Hou, the Huodou was probably the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet-the filthy version.
After mentally running through their possible symbiotic arrangement, Qin Ying turned her gaze to the Huodou.
“They eat fire. How about you poop some out now-”
Before she could finish speaking, the Spotted Huodou in her arms rolled its eyes and gave her a sidelong look.
Humans. Honestly, so presumptuous.
Fine. The symbiotic model Qin Ying had envisioned was rejected by the Huodou.
She sighed and said to the panting Hou, whose tongue was hanging out, “It doesn’t want to. Forget it.”
“Have your clansmen move aside. I’ll get you all something to eat first.”
The Shamate Hou standing on her palm barked twice. The red fluffballs all over the floor voluntarily cleared a path so Qin Ying wouldn’t step on them and flatten them.
Qin Ying carried the Huodou over to the desk.
As usual, she poured alcohol into a stainless-steel tray and lit it on fire.
When she placed the stainless-steel tray on the floor, a crowd of Hou swarmed forward, happily leaping into the flames.
Only then did Qin Ying look at the Huodou. “What about you? Should I go burn some charcoal for you?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Huodou turned its head away like a bratty little kid throwing a tantrum.
Qin Ying shook it in exasperation. “Do you want it or not?”
There were already too many mysteries and too much nonsense going on. She really didn’t want to waste any more brainpower guessing over something so trivial.
At that, Huodou lowered its head, then hesitantly raised a paw and pointed at the… cookies on the desk.
Qin Ying was stunned. “Don’t you eat charcoal?”
Huodou hated that it couldn’t talk. It opened its mouth and whimpered twice: Did it look like it could eat burning charcoal in this form?
If it swallowed charcoal like this, its insides would probably be burned straight through.
Charcoal was food for its other form.
Which meant that, in this form, it also couldn’t pull out little flames to help her raise the puppy.
After a round of utterly mismatched communication between one human and one dog, Qin Ying finally understood.
So picking up one Huodou came with two different pet-raising experiences.
It was a little troublesome, but she’d already picked it up. What else could she do?
Qin Ying immediately checked her phone and placed an order for puppy food, goat milk powder, treats, a dog bed, and the like for Huodou.
After thinking it over, she also booked an appointment at the pet hospital for vaccinations and deworming.
Then she got Huodou some plain sugar-free yogurt.
“The dog bowls I bought haven’t arrived yet. Make do with some sugar-free yogurt for now.”
Qin Ying placed the little bowl of yogurt in front of Huodou.
It cautiously sniffed and snuffled at it, gave it one lick, and then buried its head in the bowl.
In the quiet kitchen, the only sound was its noisy licking as it wolfed down the yogurt.
Qin Ying watched it, and a smile crept into her eyes.
Huodou wasn’t exactly clean. Its whole body stank.
The first time it had transformed into its Huodou form, half of its body had been burned by its own flames.
After obtaining the complete meteorite fragment, those burns had already healed, but they had left behind a layer of dark, crusted scabs.
Once Huodou had licked up nearly half the bowl of yogurt, Qin Ying took it to the bathroom and pressed it into a small basin filled with bathwater.
Huodou instantly dropped its previous aloof act and let out cries as if it were being murdered.
It thrashed until the entire bathroom was splattered with water.
It tried to escape several times, but Qin Ying dragged it back each time and scrubbed its whole body down with clean water.
Patiently, Qin Ying soaked the charred scabs on its body until they softened, then washed them away bit by bit.
The drenched Huodou revealed its original white, speckled coloring. With its wet eyes and damp little nose, it actually looked rather cute.
Except…
Qin Ying lifted the soggy Huodou to her nose and sniffed it, then muttered to herself, “It still has that slightly stinky puppy smell.”
Sure enough, without pet shampoo, it just wouldn’t get properly clean.
Qin Ying’s dog-washing technique couldn’t be called gentle or meticulous. She prioritized efficiency, wrapped Huodou in a towel, rubbed it down thoroughly, and then blow-dried its fur.
Huodou didn’t dare bite her, but it was extremely annoyed with her. Wearing a sour expression and looking as if life had lost all meaning, it drooped its tail and stood on the sink counter.
The one that finally rescued Huodou was the same-city express delivery bringing the dog supplies.
Qin Ying wasn’t short on money, so everything she bought was the best.
Huodou sat in its newly purchased cotton dog bed while Qin Ying placed a puppy biscuit beside it.
There was also a plush doll that bore some resemblance to its dog mother.
Qin Ying had chosen it specially.
While she was watching, Huodou looked cold and utterly uninterested.
But after she went to clean the bathroom, took a shower, changed clothes, and came back to look again, the dog biscuit had been eaten clean.
Huodou was hugging the plush doll, curled up into a tiny ball in its new bed.
“What a nasty little habit.”
Qin Ying chuckled softly and stroked her hand along its back.
The short-haired puppy’s fuzzy feel was surprisingly nice.
Huodou’s ears twitched, but it remained fast asleep.
What broke this quiet, warm atmosphere was a sudden knock from the front courtyard.
Aunt Xu’s loud voice rang out. “Qin Ying, I brought you some cold dishes.”
Only then did Qin Ying remember that earlier, when she’d tried to get information out of Aunt Xu, she’d made up an excuse.
The neighbors were all straightforward, honest people. Since Qin Ying hadn’t gone to pick it up, Aunt Xu had probably brought it over herself.
Qin Ying patted the now-alert Huodou on the head and hurried downstairs.
After opening the door and seeing Aunt Xu’s poor expression, Qin Ying was just about to apologize.
Unexpectedly, Aunt Xu shoved a bowl of cold shredded vegetables into Qin Ying’s hands and, at the same time, grabbed her hand and whispered, “Be careful when you come and go these days.”
“I saw Huang Jun this afternoon. I don’t know when he got out of prison.”
“You live alone, and that brat has a vicious heart. Who knows, he might come after you for what happened back then.”