ACIFITFDB – Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Disobedient Dog

Qin Xian frowned, looking at his dog. Even with the skin on its neck stretched nearly ten centimeters, it still wanted to lunge forward. This was the first time he’d encountered such a fierce dog. He’d thought it wasn’t that close to him at home, but it was acting 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 when I have time.”

Lin Qizhi, flustered, bowed to Qin Xian and Tangyuan, looking relieved. He repeatedly thanked Qin Xian, “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 peek, their expression very displeased.

Qin Xian’s expression grew even more unhappy. He grabbed the dog’s neck, closed the door, and dragged the dog to the sofa.

“Sit!” Qin Xian pushed its rear down, gripping the skin of 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 beaten to death? If you keep this up, I’ll have to buy a cage and lock you up. If you’re like this, even releasing you after castration would be harmful.”

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

Looking at the dog, its eyeballs darted around, staring elsewhere. Although its mouth was closed, it showed no signs of remorse.

Qin Xian directly slapped its head. Tangyuan whimpered a few times, its eyebrows raised, eyes looking up at Qin Xian. From this angle, it looked like it was cautiously trying to read his expression.

Qin Xian couldn’t discern any emotion of regret on the furry dog’s face. Or rather, attempting to educate a dog’s mind was itself 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 immediately lay down on the spot.

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

Tangyuan lowered its head and opened its mouth, latching onto his ankle.

“You’re licking my feet too!?” Qin Xian, unable to take it anymore, stood up from the sofa and yanked the dog’s head, forcibly dragging it towards the balcony.

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

Qin Xian kicked its rear, “Go!”

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

“Whimper…”

Tangyuan whimpered on the balcony, raised its front legs, and tapped on the glass. Its tail wagged 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 speaking, he coolly turned back and sat on the sofa, comfortably sinking into it.

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

Qin Xian idly scrolled through his phone for a while, then turned on the TV for background music, listening to news reports on recent hot topics.

Qin Xian began to feel drowsy listening to the lengthy official statements, until the reporter mentioned the residential building explosion. Qin Xian then turned his head to look.

An explosion occurred in a residential complex west of Longyuan River in City A, suspected to be caused by a liquefied gas canister leak at a fast-food restaurant. 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 to be a normal accident.

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

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

Qin Xian scrolled carefully and found that photos of the injured and deceased from the scene had circulated not long ago, but they had all been deleted. He didn’t search further; un-pixelated photos from such scenes were disrespectful to the victims. As for whether this incident was related to the Guǐyì, he could just go and see for himself. It was in City A anyway.

His initiative was quite high now. As soon as the thought arose, he immediately opened a map to search for the address, went back to his room to change into going-out clothes, and prepared to leave.

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

“Woof! Woof woof!”

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

Qin Xian turned to look at the dog. Ever since Lin Qizhi left, Tangyuan had been silent as a mute. What was it going crazy about now? But as Qin Xian turned to look at the balcony, Tangyuan immediately stopped, its four paws on the ground, ears perked up.

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

Is it… wanting to go out and play?

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

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. He 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 stepped 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, trying to reach for the dog’s neck to put the leash on.

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps sensing the dangerous aura, 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 on, it looked less like a stray and more like a pet. The black collar looked quite good and handsome.

However, putting on the muzzle proved to be very difficult.

As soon as Qin Xian held up the item, the dog ran away. He frowned, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed it, and pinned it to the ground. Tangyuan resisted fiercely, refusing to wear it. After finally clamping its head between his legs to put it on, Tangyuan opened its mouth and bit directly onto 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, startling it. It perked up its ears and looked at Qin Xian.

“If you don’t wear it, then don’t go out.”

With that, he coldly dropped the dog’s leash and locked the balcony door, packing his things and leaving.

“Mmm…”

Hearing Tangyuan’s whimpering bark, Qin Xian shot it a glare, looking ready to neuter the dog 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 expressed his attitude with actions, closing the apartment door with a bang and leaving.

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

The accident site was neither too close nor too far from here. Ten minutes later, Qin Xian got off the taxi at the roadside. He put on a mask and walked towards the cordoned-off area as if he were just sightseeing.

More than ten hours had passed since the explosion, but the area was still very lively. Despite the dangerous event, citizens were gathered outside the police tape, holding up their phones to film the ruins. Some influencers were even being held back outside, broadcasting live.

Truly unafraid of death. What if another explosion occurred? However, 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 even more serious than reported in the news. He could clearly see a large hole under the building in front, with collapsed floor slabs exposed. The first and second floors were missing half of their structure, and the remaining floors were precarious, threatening to collapse at any moment.

He could only be glad that the explosion happened during working hours, so many people were not at home and escaped.

“Hey! You there! What are you doing here? You’re not allowed to come near here!”

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

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

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

Qin Xian nodded, not wanting to trouble the officer who was just doing his duty. He turned and went around in another direction.

Even if he went to the scene now, he probably wouldn’t find any clues. The more people there were, the fewer traces of Guǐyì there would be. It would be better to listen to gossip in the surrounding area, perhaps he could get more leads.

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

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

Author’s Notes:

———————-

The dog now: stubbornly refuses to wear the muzzle.

The dog later: will even put a muzzle on a person’s face, especially when [dog emoji] because Qin Xian will be even more excited.

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