Chapter 4

Knock, knock, knock!

"Coming, coming, stop knocking." Lin Yue was somewhat impatient, thinking how annoying this person was, especially since they were knocking on the door while he was researching the system.

"Mr. Lin, your package."

Lin Yue opened the door, and in front of him stood a man in black work clothes with a low cap.

He was taken aback for a moment, thinking he hadn't bought anything these past few days. Could it be from Tan Xiaoguang?

Tan Xiaoguang was his roommate, currently working at an event planning company. He had gone out of town a few days ago for a good case and hadn't returned yet.

"Is this Mr. Lin Yue?" The courier handed him the document and pen: "Please sign here."

Lin Yue subconsciously took the document and signed his name.

"Have a pleasant life." After saying this, the courier turned and left, quickly disappearing from sight.

What the heck, it's pretty heavy.

Lin Yue, puzzled, carried the box into the house and took out a pair of scissors to cut the tape on the seal.

Woof!

Suddenly, a sound came from inside the box.

He was so startled that he took several steps back, subconsciously gripping the scissors tightly. He then noticed that the box had many holes on one side, and something seemed to be moving inside.

Woof, woof, woof…

"Is this… a dog barking?"

Who the hell would send me a dog for no reason, and how did it pass security?

Lin Yue took a deep breath, mustered his courage, and carefully opened the box.

Inside was a cage, and he could vaguely see half of a dog's head, its mouth slightly open, tongue hanging out, looking at him pitifully.

Its face looked a bit like a fox, with white fur from its belly to its face, and yellow fur from its eyes to its back. Its tail was short and curled up like a ball of fluff.

Lin Yue felt that it looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

"What a lousy delivery, don't you worry about the dog suffocating in this heat?"

Lin Yue took the cage out of the box and, seeing the dog's listless tail wagging, squatted down and thought for a moment before going to the kitchen to pour some water into a takeout plastic container and bringing it back to the living room.

"Don't bite me…"

Woof, woof.

It tilted its head and barked softly.

Lin Yue slowly pushed the container to the front of the cage, stood up, and walked to the box, but couldn't find any label with the sender's information after looking around for a while.

Who on earth sent me a dog?

Rustle, rustle, rustle…

The sound of water behind him pulled him back to his thoughts. He turned his head and saw that the dog's tongue had splashed water all over the floor.

"Slow down, the person mopping the floor is me."

As soon as he said that, the dog seemed to understand and slowed down its licking, and no more water spilled out.

"Huh?"

Lin Yue, who had walked back to the cage, noticed a detail: a wooden tag hanging from the dog's neck, with only a large Chinese character "八" (eight) on it and no other information.

"Looks like you're not planning to find me, huh…"

Woof, woof.

The dog in the cage barked twice.

Lin Yue thought for a while, then got up and went into his room, opened his laptop, and searched for information about the dog, finally finding some details.

The dog in the cage was an Akita, not commonly kept in China, and quite expensive, costing a few thousand yuan.

Mysterious courier, no sender's address, simple wooden tag… Could it be that this is an extra reward from the system?

He had clearly completed the task about the police dog Xiaotian in "Operation Mekong," which should be a German Shepherd, but the system's reward was a cute and silly Akita. This dogshit logic, I'm speechless!

Lin Yue sat in front of his computer for a long time, finally deciding to keep the dog. If the landlord aunt didn't agree, he would move out.

When he returned to the living room, the dog had finished drinking the water and, judging by the tail wagging, was feeling better.

"I'm going to open the cage now, no biting me."

Woof, woof.

He went over, unlocked the cage, and took a few steps back.

The dog struggled for a moment, and with a few kicks of its hind legs, managed to squeeze its head out of the cage. It then stepped on the floor and shook its body, making its messy fur look much neater.

Just as Lin Yue was about to say something, the dog suddenly pounced forward, pounced on him, and started licking him on the sofa.

"Starting with a dog, all equipment depends on picking it up?" He dodged and rubbed the dog's head.

At this moment, the Akita stopped, its eyes full of confusion.

Lin Yue pinched the dog tag on its neck: "Want to give you a new name?"

"Dog Sheng'er?"

The Akita whined softly.

"Don't like it?" Lin Yue thought for a moment: "Dog Dan'er?"

Whine…

"Dog Buli?"

Whine…

"Dog Rou?"

Whine…

"You're so picky."

"Cuihua?"

"Qizi?"

"Nana?"

"Lauchang?"

"Yaowan?"

"Jojo?"

"Schrodinger?"

"Okay, I'll call you Badun."

"Your objection is invalid."

…

The next morning, Lin Yue took Badun out of the house. Today's tasks were a bit complicated.

The first thing was to take Badun to the pet hospital for vaccinations and to get a pet license. The second thing was to visit the antique market to check the market and hopefully cash in the Saint-Gaudens double eagle gold coin.

He ordered three meat pies and a bowl of millet porridge at the breakfast shop, ate two himself, and fed the remaining one to Badun. After that, he hailed a taxi and headed to Fenglin Road.

He remembered that there were many pet supply stores on Fenglin Road. After getting off the taxi, he walked less than 200 meters and indeed saw a pet hospital on the left side of the street, with a large black-and-white sign that was very eye-catching.

Like seeing a doctor, he registered and got a card, then led Badun to the outpatient area.

There were many people sitting on the benches on both sides of the corridor, and the dogs waiting for shots occasionally barked, making it a bit chaotic and noisy.

Lin Yue sat on the left side of the bench, and Badun squatted on the floor, curiously observing its fellow dogs.

In front of him was a woman in her thirties, wearing a knitted cardigan, with a strong scent of perfume. She had a brown Teddy in her arms, which was staring at a fierce Doberman on the opposite side with eyes like black beans.

"Hey, that's an Akita, right? It's so well-behaved, what's its name?"

Lin Yue rubbed Badun's head: "Badun."

"Isn't Patton a general?"

"No, Badun is a dog."

The woman said: "Can I pet it?"

Lin Yue patted Badun's neck, signaling it to come closer, and the woman tentatively reached out and scratched under its chin.

Badun's eyes lit up, as if saying, "Yes, there, right there, a bit harder, oh… you found my ticklish spot."

Woof, woof, woof.

The brown Teddy in the woman's arms barked in protest.

At this moment, the Doberman on the opposite side showed its fierce side, barking at the Teddy, scaring the small dog into burrowing into the woman's arms.

This started a chain reaction, and the surrounding dogs began barking, filling the air with woofs.

Lin Yue, annoyed, glared at the Doberman.

The dog, like a suddenly dud firecracker, drooped its eyes and lowered its head, cowering under the bench, not daring to move.

Lin Yue suddenly remembered the "Animal Friend" skill he received as a reward for completing the beginner's task.

No way… this is called "Animal Friend"? It's more like a predator's gaze.

He experimentally looked at the other pet dogs in the corridor.

As if an invisible magic wind had blown through the corridor, all the dogs that were barking just a moment ago fell silent.

The whole world became quiet.

Whether it was the old woman meditating, the big boy playing with his phone, or the women discussing celebrity gossip, they all shifted their attention to the outside, looking at each other in confusion and bewilderment.

Snap!

The door to the outpatient room opened from the inside.

The nurse, with a frown, walked out. She had intended to ask the people outside to control their pets and make them quiet, but the scene had suddenly changed, and the dogs had suddenly gone mute.

What happened?

From the expressions on the faces of the people in the corridor, it seemed they didn't know why things had turned out this way.

Could it be a ghost?

The nurse's face changed slightly, and without saying a word, she turned and retreated into the outpatient room, not daring to come out again.