Chang Yu followed the golden retriever at an unhurried pace.
Was there a chance the noise had come from a stray dog or cat? Rather than a person.
Before he reached the spot where Xiaotu had disappeared, Xiaotu leaped out from the side, looking, for once, like an energetic dog who wasn't getting on in years.
As he ran, he kept shooting Chang Yu meaningful looks.
-"Hurry up, or we're both going to croak here tonight!"
-"What rotten luck. The owner I just picked might be a bust again. Does everyone really have a dark side no one knows about? Picking an owner is so hard!"
He had already been ready to welcome his wonderful new life, only for it to fall through again!
Chang Yu ducked behind the wall and peeked out with one eye, spotting a husky's eye that shone blue and looked rather stupid.
The husky held fragrant roast lamb in its mouth.
Sure enough, what could suddenly energize a lazy, food-loving dog was definitely not a passion for eating melons.
It was the smell of food.
Had he gotten hungry again after going to the bathroom?
A man followed close behind the husky. It was the real estate tycoon Xi Wu, the new owner Xiaotu had been dreaming of.
Xi Wu patted the husky's head. "Find anything?"
The husky's stupid, vacant eyes didn't change in the slightest.
Xi Wu hadn't held out any hope to begin with. He hadn't noticed anything unusual either, and he led the husky back into the darkness.
Chang Yu didn't linger. He caught Xiaotu up ahead and took him home.
Xiaotu didn't complain about what he had just seen and heard in the night along the way, either. His canine body merely trembled, whether from fright or cold.
Without an answer, Chang Yu instead began to wonder what exactly had happened in the dead of night.
How had it gotten serious enough to warrant murder to silence witnesses?
Could someone have been having an affair, and Xiaotu had happened to stumble upon it?
Or had someone been seeking some perverse thrills, like Ke Yichun?
Such things weren't uncommon in wealthy circles, anyway. They had all seen enough not to be surprised; there was nothing new about it.
Still, every time something came out, everyone discussed it with great relish.
Chang Yu remembered to open the windows to air the place out first when he got home.
Without any noise disturbing him, he soon went back to sleep.
Xiaotu fell asleep even faster than he did.
As a dog, he really seemed not to care about anything, nor did he have the slightest desire to turn human again.
Early the next morning, Chang Yu picked Xiaotu up without another word and carried him downstairs into the car, not disturbing his quality sleep at all.
Yan Junye expressed great satisfaction with this. He rolled over comfortably in the spacious car, belly up, making little grunting noises.
-"Couldn't you have done this from the start? You just had to make a dog cranky."
Chang Yu: "..." Apparently, he had been too good-tempered lately.
One of these days, he ought to put this emotional support dog to work.
There hadn't been the slightest improvement in his depression.
At the office, he left the dog in his assistant's care as usual and went to attend to work.
The assistant also handed Chang Yu a report. "Mr. Chang, this is the information you asked me to investigate last time."
Chang Yu took it and headed upstairs without looking back.
The information concerned Yan Junye's background, which he had asked his assistant to investigate last time.
The first thing he saw was a color photograph.
The person in the photo had light coffee-colored curls and wore a khaki hoodie. Standing in the sunlight, he gave off a cheerful, energetic impression.
It was an entirely different impression from the golden retriever who couldn't be bothered to move at home every day.
And the boy's gentle eyes curved as he looked at the camera. No matter how you looked at him, he was likable.
But the golden retriever at home had no shortage of crooked ideas, thinking every day about how to wreak havoc on the house and on him.
After looking at it, Chang Yu felt that the actual product seriously failed to match the photo.
He shook his head and flipped on to the family information.
Yan Junye had an older brother in his third year of graduate school, and both his parents were alive.
His mother was a full-time homemaker, and his father had a decent job with a salary that could support the family.
They also had a native dog at home, who was very cute.
It looked like a perfect family, lacking neither money nor companionship.
There was another important point: Yan Junye's comatose, vegetative state might last his entire life.
At present, Yan Junye's parents had no intention of giving up on him.
But if Xiaotu really was Yan Junye, and Xiaotu didn't go back, then Yan Junye would never wake up for the rest of his life.
Before he finished reading, he heard hurried footsteps approaching and quickly put the information away.
He stood up and waved to indicate that his assistant could leave, then greeted his unexpected visitor.
"Your presence truly honors my humble abode, Mr. Xi."
At the same time, he wondered, Were we spotted last night?
Or has Xiaotu already successfully pitched himself?
Having weathered the bloody storms of the business world, Xi Wu looked Chang Yu over with smiling eyes that showed a little age but far more shrewdness.
"You certainly have a way with words, Mr. Chang. I've come today to discuss a major project with you."
Chang Yu had thought it was just a person, but then half a dog's head poked out from behind Xi Wu.
Chang Yu immediately ushered the man and dog out of his office and called for his assistant to bring Xiaotu to the meeting room.
He would have to get the gossip from Xiaotu to find out what had happened last night.
The two dogs had met once before, and now they were especially friendly when they saw each other.
The husky said, "I didn't think you'd actually get to eat a fresh melon. You're amazing!"
"But you're still not as amazing as I am at trashing houses. If you'd taken me that day, I'd have torn that whole bar apart for him. Everyone could've seen the truth in under five minutes."
Yan Junye: "..." You're amazing.
"Good thing your owner's a real estate boss. Otherwise, he wouldn't have enough houses for you to wreck."
The husky couldn't handle praise. At the compliment, the whole dog grew so excited that it seemed ready to tear the office apart.
It decided to make the painful sacrifice of giving half its owner's love to the golden retriever. "Go act cute with my owner! Then we can trash the house, dig holes, and go out at midnight together!"
It would have been fine if it hadn't brought that up, but at the mention of midnight, Yan Junye trembled all over.
He backed away two steps and shook his head. "I think I'll pass on going to your owner."
He felt that Xi Wu wasn't nearly as good as the husky claimed.
No, rather, Xi Wu's good points only suited energetic breeds like huskies.
Huskies were energetic and needed lots of outdoor exercise. Many corporate-slave owners didn't have that much time, but Xi Wu was very diligent, walking his dog even in the middle of the night.
And he was a dog who was always lying flat. He didn't want to trash houses, dig holes, and go out at midnight with a husky every day.
He just wanted to sleep!
"Also, what were you doing downstairs in the residential complex last night?" He had seen a needle glinting coldly.
As everyone knew, sharp needles made him faint. That needle was practically enough to take his dog life.
Of course, subconsciously, he still thought of himself as human and had lumped Yan Junye and himself together among those who would be killed.
The husky wagged its tail. "I knew it was you yesterday."
It didn't answer. Its wisdom-filled eyes turned toward the golden retriever. "What did you and Chang Yu go downstairs to do last night?"
Yan Junye felt that this husky could barely resist rubbing its paws together in anticipation.
One look made it clear that it wanted to eat his melon.
No chance!
"You tell me first."
The husky curled its lip. Since the golden retriever had eaten a hidden melon last time, they had all unanimously recognized him as the melon king among dogs.
Now it could only speak first.