ACIFITFDB – Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Disobedient Dog

Qin Xian frowned, looking at his dog. Even with the skin on its nape stretched nearly ten centimeters, it still lunged forward. This was the first time he’d encountered such a fierce dog. He thought it wasn’t that close to him at home, but it acted like a mad dog towards others.

Qin Xian looked at Lin Qizhi apologetically. “I’m sorry, it seems I need to discipline him more. Let’s meet again another time.”

Lin Qizhi bowed frantically to Qin Xian and Tangyuan, looking relieved and repeatedly thanking him. “Thank you, Brother Qin. It’s not your fault, Brother Qin. I’ll be going now, goodbye!”

With that, he quickly disappeared into the stairwell.

Because the dog’s barking was too loud, Qin Xian saw a neighbor upstairs open their door to look, their expression quite displeased.

Qin Xian’s expression grew even more displeased. He held the dog’s neck and closed the door, dragging the dog to the sofa.

“Sit!” Qin Xian pushed its rear end down, grabbing the skin on its neck as if he were grabbing a collar.

“What’s wrong with you? No more barking at people, and definitely no biting! Do you know that biting dogs get put down? If you keep this up, I’ll have to buy a cage and lock you up. If you continue like this, I’ll spay you and release you, which would still be harmful.”

Qin Xian gritted his teeth and threatened, “If you don’t behave, I’ll get you neutered tomorrow.”

Looking at the dog again, its eyes darted around, staring elsewhere. Although it had stopped barking, it showed no sign of reflection.

Qin Xian directly slapped its head. Tangyuan whimpered a few times, its eyebrows raised, and its eyes looked up at Qin Xian. From this angle, it seemed to be cautiously observing his expression.

Qin Xian couldn’t detect any remorse on the dog’s furry face. Or rather, attempting to educate a dog is inherently a human’s wishful thinking.

“Forget it, go to the balcony and stay there! Go!”

Qin Xian pointed to the balcony, but Tangyuan panted and lay down on the spot.

“Tsk, to the balcony!” Qin Xian kicked the dog.

Tangyuan lowered its head and licked his ankle.

“You’re licking my feet too!?” Qin Xian, unable to stand it any longer, got up from the sofa and dragged the dog’s head towards the balcony.

Tangyuan stretched out all four legs, digging into the floor, refusing to move.

Qin Xian kicked its rear end. “Get going!”

It took Qin Xian a full few minutes to drag the dog to the balcony. With a bang, he closed the balcony door and struggled to turn the rusty lock to secure it.

“Whine…”

Tangyuan whined on the balcony, lifting its front paws to tap on the glass, its tail wagging behind it.

Qin Xian caught this small movement and sneered, “Now you’re acting cute and wagging your tail? Hmph, but it’s useless.”

After that, he coolly turned around and sat back on the sofa, sinking comfortably into it.

The noise in his ears finally ceased. The warm spring afternoon sun shone through the balcony glass, feeling cozy on his body and the floor. If not for the moving shadow of the dog, everything would have been peaceful and serene.

Qin Xian picked up his phone and scrolled aimlessly for a while, then turned on the TV for background noise, listening to news reports on recent current events.

The lengthy official discourse made Qin Xian drowsy. It wasn’t until the reporter mentioned a residential building explosion that Qin Xian turned his head.

An explosion occurred at the base of a residential area west of Longyuan River in A City, suspected to be caused by a fast-food restaurant’s LPG tank leak. The accident resulted in 2 deaths and 7 injuries. The injured have been transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, with one person in serious condition…

It seemed like an ordinary accident.

Qin Xian immediately opened Weibo and searched for keywords. As soon as he typed “A City,” trending topics popped up.

The discussion was very active. Some people were praying for the injured, while others questioned the inadequate management of LPG. Qin Xian skipped these netizen comments and directly clicked on videos from the scene. However, the official videos released were blurry and pixelated, only showing thick smoke billowing from the scene. The specific details were unknown.

Qin Xian browsed carefully and found that shortly before, photos of casualties from the scene had been circulating, but they had all been deleted. He didn’t search further; unpixelated photos from such scenes were disrespectful to the victims. As for whether this incident was related to anomalies, he could just go and see for himself. It was in A City anyway.

His current drive was quite high. As soon as the thought arose, he immediately opened his map to search for the address, changed into his going-out clothes, and prepared to leave.

But just as he reached the door, Tangyuan on the balcony suddenly barked.

“Woof! Woof woof!”

It barked and frantically scratched at the door crack, wanting to come out.

Qin Xian turned to look at the dog. Since Lin Qizhi left, Tangyuan had been silent as if mute. What was it doing now? But as Qin Xian turned to look at the balcony, Tangyuan immediately stopped, stood on all fours, and perked up its ears.

Qin Xian turned back to open the door, and the dog started barking desperately again.

Was it… wanting to go out and play?

But given Tangyuan’s previous behavior, it would be bad if it injured someone if he took it out. Wait, he seemed to have some useful items from when he bought pet supplies before.

Qin Xian changed back into his slippers and walked to the cabinet, pulling out the pet supplies An Baixin had bought him a few days ago. He rummaged through the bag and found a brand-new leash and a muzzle.

He walked onto the balcony with the two items. Tangyuan on the balcony eyed the items in his hands warily.

Qin Xian held them up. “If you want to go out, you have to wear these.”

As if understanding the purpose of these two items, Tangyuan whimpered and leaned forward, pushing off the ground with its front paws. Qin Xian took a step forward, and it immediately stepped back. Its ears stood straight up, clearly resisting.

Had it been abused by others with leashes before?

Qin Xian squatted down and tried to loop the leash around the dog’s neck.

“Woof!” Tangyuan’s head retracted, and it wriggled out of the loop. The dog’s head brushed against Qin Xian’s face.

“Pah, put it on!” Qin Xian spat out the dog hair from his mouth, grabbed the loose skin under its neck with one hand, and pulled its head over.

“Mmm… Woof!” Tangyuan struggled desperately, twisting its head left and right, refusing to obey. Qin Xian’s freshly changed clothes were covered in the smell of dog.

After another ten-odd seconds of stalemate, Qin Xian forced the dog’s head aside and threatened in a low voice, “If you don’t behave, I’ll drag you out and get you neutered! I’m not kidding.”

His tone was cold and menacing, and his expression was terrifying.

Perhaps sensing the danger, Tangyuan stopped moving. Qin Xian gave it a satisfied look and put the leash on it. After adjusting the size, Qin Xian leaned back and looked. With the collar, it looked less like a stray and more like a pet. The black collar looked quite good on it and made it look handsome.

However, putting on the muzzle proved to be much more difficult.

As soon as Qin Xian raised the item, the dog ran off. He frowned, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed it, and pinned it to the ground. Tangyuan, however, was extremely resistant and refused to wear it. After finally managing to hold the dog’s head between his legs and attempt to put it on, Tangyuan opened its mouth and bit down directly on the muzzle, refusing to let go, causing him to break out in a sweat.

His patience ran out. He directly let go of the dog and snatched the muzzle, throwing it onto the ground. The muzzle hit Tangyuan’s paw, making it pause. It perked up its ears and looked at Qin Xian.

“If you won’t wear it, then you’re not going out.”

With that, he coldly dropped the leash, locked the balcony door, and packed his things to leave.

“Mmm…”

Hearing Tangyuan’s whining, Qin Xian shot it a glare, looking ready to get the dog neutered at any moment.

Tangyuan: “…”

It lowered its ears, turned around, picked up the muzzle from the ground, and looked at Qin Xian.

“Heh heh.”

Qin Xian directly showed his attitude with his actions, closing the apartment door with a bang and leaving.

The sound of the dog’s claws scratching at the door came from inside, but Qin Xian indifferently brushed off the dog hair from his clothes and opened his phone’s map, choosing to take a taxi to his destination. Now that he had some money, he naturally wouldn’t tire himself out.

The incident location wasn’t too far from here. After more than ten minutes, Qin Xian got out of the car by the roadside. He put on a mask and walked towards the cordoned-off area as if he were just strolling.

More than ten hours had passed since the explosion, but the area was still very lively. Despite the dangerous incident, citizens were crowding outside the cordon. People were holding up their phones to film the ruins, and even some influencers were being held back from doing live streams.

They truly weren’t afraid of death. What if another explosion occurred? But in the eyes of the police, he was no different from these people…

Qin Xian approached the accident site. There were various fragments on the ground, all of which had flown from the five-story residential building two hundred meters away, indicating the power of the explosion.

The situation seemed worse than reported on the news. He could clearly see a large hole at the base of the building ahead, with collapsed floor slabs exposed. The first and second floors were half gone, and the remaining floors were precarious, threatening to collapse at any moment.

He could only be thankful that the explosion happened during working hours, and many people were not at home, thus escaping disaster.

“Hey! You over there! What are you doing here? You’re not allowed to get close!”

Qin Xian stopped. A auxiliary police officer blocked his path.

Qin Xian stepped forward and asked, “My brother’s family lives here. They were sent to the hospital. They asked me to come in and get some things.”

The auxiliary police officer waved his head. “No, no. Even if your family lives here, you’re not allowed to enter now. It’s very dangerous inside, you know? The building could collapse at any moment.”

Qin Xian nodded, not causing trouble for the officer who was doing his duty, and turned to go in another direction.

Even if he went to the scene now, he probably wouldn’t find any clues. Where there were more people, the traces of anomalies were fewer. It was better to listen to gossip around the area; he might get more leads.

Qin Xian ambled around the vicinity and finally entered a small, dingy restaurant selling “11 Yuan Buffet” during mealtime.

As soon as he entered, Qin Xian heard people inside heatedly discussing the “explosion incident.”

Author’s Note:

The dog now: stubbornly refuses to wear a muzzle.

The dog in the future: will even put a muzzle on its face when it becomes human, especially when doing [dog head] poses, because Qin Xian will get more excited.

By the way, has anyone noticed the collar on the dog’s neck on the character card? It’s very interesting. If you pull the ring in the middle, the collar tightens… [dog head]