"Li Yong, watch your mouth."
Mrs. Li was slightly plump, with a well-to-do air about her. Dressed in a mink coat, she looked like someone not to be crossed.
Li Yong shut his mouth and said nothing more.
He was just about to lower himself onto the sofa when his mother glared at him. "Stay standing."
Li Yong rolled his eyes and watched helplessly as the family's Spitz was lifted onto the sofa.
Its fluffy white tail wagged, its gaze full of provocation and mockery as it looked at him, as though saying:
"See? I can get on the sofa, but you can't. You're not even as good as me."
Li Yong had been sick of his family's white Spitz for a long time.
The Spitz's foxy charms had his parents utterly bewitched, while he, their own son, was left out in the cold.
Not a single one of these dogs was pleasing to his eye.
"Li Yong is young and doesn't know any better. He's caused you both trouble." Mrs. Li got straight to the point. "He was responsible for the camera incident. There's no disputing that."
"As for eating dog meat, that was just something he said in a moment of anger. Why take it seriously?"
"How about this? I won't hold your dogs responsible, and you two delete your posts on Weibo. What do you say?"
Her son had been injured. The dogs certainly knew nothing, but their owners still had to take responsibility.
"We can also work together more in the future. It would benefit everyone." Mrs. Li tried to persuade them with a mixture of pressure and incentives.
Chang Yu couldn't bring himself to like anyone in this family. "The Chang Family has no intention of working with the Li Family. If you want to pursue this, I'm ready anytime."
"Oh, don't be so absolute," Mrs. Li said. "Saving Chang Liao may have been a coincidence, but doesn't that also show there's a connection between our families?"
Chang Yu had been utterly speechless when he received Chang Liao's call yesterday.
If Chang Liao hadn't fallen ill in the south and been taken to the hospital by members of the Li Family, he wouldn't have bothered coming to their home today.
When he had time, he would definitely drag Chang Liao back. He was nothing but a source of worry out there.
But no matter how he listened to Mrs. Li's words, they sounded deliberately aimed at him, using this to morally blackmail him.
"Even if there's a connection, it's a cursed one. Go ahead and pursue Li Yong's case." Because of Liao Mei, Chang Yu hated being threatened or pressured more than anything.
An oppressive aura enveloped him, and the words from his thin lips were ice-cold. "We'll see who comes out on top."
Mrs. Li hadn't expected Chang Yu to take such a hard line.
It was only a simple clarification statement, yet Chang Yu had forcibly elevated it to a matter of life and death.
She smiled to ease the awkwardness. Chang Yu couldn't even be bothered to listen to her nonsense. He clenched his fists, controlling his urge to hit someone.
He tugged irritably at his tie. The next second, he felt something wet and warm against his clenched fist.
Xiaotu was rubbing his nose against his hand, as though soothing his emotions.
When they first met, Xiaotu had fled in a panic at the sight of his violent temper. Now he lay obediently on him and even touched him.
With a mischievous impulse, Chang Yu brought his clenched fist closer to Xiaotu, wanting to see how he would react.
The dog's mouth opened. Although his sharp teeth didn't touch Chang Yu's hand, he took half of it into his mouth.
Chang Yu: "..." What was he supposed to do now that his hand felt dirty?
Besides, having his hand in that mouth felt strange somehow.
"Let go."
Yan Junye obediently opened his mouth and even gave Chang Yu's hand a friendly brush with his tongue.
He didn't dare pit his paws against Chang Yu's fist, so he could only choose this gentle, ingratiating approach.
Besides, after observing him closely and spending time with him, he felt Chang Yu's temper actually counted as good.
His temper only went out of control when someone touched his reverse scale.
Everyone had a reverse scale.
-"I've worked so hard to soothe your anger. You can't take it out on me."
Chang Yu lowered his eyes to his hand, at a loss for words.
Your way of comforting me is to put my hand in your mouth?
He rubbed his hand against Xiaotu, attempting to wipe off the saliva.
As for the smell, it shouldn't smell like river snail rice noodles, right?
Chang Yu didn't quite dare lower his head to sniff his hand.
Fortunately, he was sitting on the far left, so no one else saw the little movements between man and dog. The best actor was still smiling as he spoke with Mrs. Li.
Of course, that smile wasn't simple either.
They had all spent so many years making their way in society. Naturally, their thoughts ran deep.
"Mrs. Li, are you suggesting I can't afford that little bit of compensation?" After the Li Yong incident, people had come to ask him about it, saying they trusted the best actor's standing and account.
Naturally, he had to tell the truth.
Besides, his German Shepherd only looked fierce. In reality, its temperament was better than most dogs'.
Li Yong was the first person to make his dog angry.
The conversation was hardly amicable. The Spitz turned its backside toward Li Yong, then went to ingratiate itself with the guests.
It was far more useful than that useless Li Yong.
The German Shepherd looked frightening to a dog, so it could only approach the friendly, gentle Golden Retriever first.
Yan Junye looked at the Spitz, which was several sizes smaller than him, and felt he could crush it to death with one paw.
"You're so tiny."
The Spitz glared furiously at the Golden Retriever.
It took two steps forward, planted a paw on the Golden Retriever's paw resting on the sofa, then pressed down hard.
Yan Junye felt something soft touch his paw, but beyond that, he felt nothing.
What was that?
He lifted his paw to lick the fur that something unknown had touched, then heard a short yelp.
Raising his head slightly, he saw a white snowball tumbling.
"Sorry, I didn't notice you were on my paw."
The Spitz rolled across the sofa before barely managing to stop. It felt as though it was seeing stars.
Big dogs really weren't friendly to it.
"You're as annoying as the maternity nanny at home."
Yan Junye sounded rather proud. "It's just me and Chang Yu at my home. Nobody hates me."
The Spitz stared speechlessly at the Golden Retriever.
Was that the point?
The point was clearly that they were equally annoying!
"But did your maternity nanny do something?" Yan Junye faintly caught the scent of gossip. Maternity nannies abusing babies wasn't exactly uncommon.
No one in the family could understand its complaints, so the Spitz reluctantly vented to the Golden Retriever.
"That maternity nanny is shameless. Whenever my owner isn't home, she's always kissing the baby."
At first, it hadn't seen anything unusual. In its understanding, kisses were an expression of love.
But later, it discovered that the baby often felt unwell after being kissed.
The maternity nanny must have done something to the baby while it wasn't paying attention.
Unfortunately, its owner couldn't understand what it said.
Yan Junye frowned. "She's a maternity nanny. Shouldn't she know you shouldn't kiss babies?"
"Older people carry lots of germs, and babies have weak immune systems. They can get sick easily."
The Spitz immediately looked at the Golden Retriever differently. "You know so much."
Yan Junye gave a little huff and raised his canine head to accept the praise.
The Spitz grew even more enthusiastic. "The maternity nanny also invites her daughter over when my owner isn't home, and uses all sorts of excuses to call my owner's fourth younger brother over too, trying to match them up."
Mrs. Li's fourth younger brother was already forty this year, while the maternity nanny's daughter was twenty.
Put plainly, the maternity nanny wanted to climb the social ladder and turn a sparrow into a phoenix. Age wasn't an issue at all.
"And she's such a gossip. I heard her on the phone, talking about my owner having a baby at her age, blah, blah, blah, making all sorts of disgusting wild guesses."
Who knew what other nonsense she spouted behind her back?
"You think that's all? No! She steals things from my home too!"
Yan Junye said, "Hasn't your owner noticed her stealing?"
The Spitz sighed. "Don't get me started. She steals things like my owner's designer cosmetics and bags, then puts fakes back in their places."
"She also calls her daughter to ask when my owner will be back."
Yan Junye said, "...That's outrageous."
The Spitz shook its head despondently, as though life's burdens had crushed this palm-sized little dog.
"Unfortunately, she's too good at putting on an act in front of my owner. My owner has never suspected her."
The maternity nanny's advantage lay in her excessive fondness for babies. No one would think she would abuse a child.
If she were abusing the baby, it would actually be easier. There would be plenty of evidence, and firing her would be effortless.
Yan Junye felt the Spitz had endured too much. "Don't worry. I'll definitely expose that maternity nanny for you!"
The argument between the three people on the sofa was still at its most heated, with no one willing to give way.
Yan Junye hurried to tell Chang Yu what he had learned, so they could turn their passive position into an active one.
He had nowhere to keep his phone, so he had stuffed it into Chang Yu's pocket.
He reached a paw toward a trouser pocket first, but didn't find it.
It wasn't in the coat pocket on his side either. He could only sit on Chang Yu's lap again and feel all over Chang Yu's body with his two front paws.
Chang Yu noticed everyone looking at him. Combined with the sensation, it somehow felt as though he was being fondled in public.