Chapter 4: What Chu Say?
Dumbo was sitting right in front of Jiang He. Its jaws were slightly parted, revealing its long, scarlet tongue.
Being a wolfdog, it naturally resembled a wolf with mostly black fur. The coat on its tummy and feet are brown and white beneath its neck, and it appeared very imposing and handsome.
Wolfdogs were not often seen in cities since their kind’s ferocious looks and largeness did not make them good pets. They were very common in villages, however, since there was no better choice of guardian watching your home or guarding your yard.
“Woah…”
Startled, Jiang He flashed the light of his mobile phone in the dog’s direction. “What are you doing running to my house in the middle of the night, Dumbo?”
The light was quite blinding.
Dumbo tilted its head while wagging its tail firmly at Jiang He.
In dog language, that meant a show of friendship, which was why Jiang He couldn’t help laughing. “You dog. Smart, aren’t you? You ran here because you miss my big, big cucumber don’t you?”
Arf…
Dumbo whimpered, and then actually nodded.
“Wha…”
Jiang He almost dropped to the ground.
If Dumbo had shown that it was a smart creature by wagging its tail to extend greeting and goodwill to Jiang He, wouldn’t nodding go beyond smartness to the level of astonishment?
‘Did the dog actually turn smart?’
That was Jiang He’s first thought, but he soon realized what had happened.
“Could the revival of Spirit Qi allow animals to achieve transcendence? Could Dumbo be one of them?”
“Hold on, that’s not it. If Dumbo really did become smarter with Spirit Qi, it wouldn’t have eaten the beef I laced with rat poison. Maybe it only became smart after it ate my cucumber?”
Jiang He narrowed his eyes at Dumbo then, who got chills from the stare.
Its canine face actually made a very human expression then, as if it was saying ‘why are you looking at me?’.
“I will ask you a few questions. Nod if it’s a yes, and shake your head if it’s a no.”
Arf!
Dumbo nodded.
“Did you become clever because you ate that cucumber?”
Dumbo nodded, and then shook its head.
“…”
Jiang He scowled, but just as he was about to say something, Dumbo suddenly sprawled itself over the ground, its limbs twitching while it foamed at its mouth, even whimpering several times.
Jiang He understood immediately.
“So, you’re saying that the rat poison has something to do with it?”
Dumbo turned around and sat down again while nodding at Jiang He.
Jiang He groaned in thought.
“Could it be the same as Two Dog Li’s fever? The poison was some kind of trigger?”
“Wait, I got it!”
“The cucumber’s effect is detoxing, clearing heat, strengthening the brain and calming nerves. To put it simply, detoxing and clearing heat means to cure all poison while strengthening the brain and calming nerves means to improve spirit. Dogs are smart in the first place—after training, they could play skateboards, push strollers or go to supermarkets alone to buy stuff. Therefore, after Dumbo was stimulated by the poison and ate my cucumber, its intelligence was set free and it makes sense that it’s smarter now.”
A lightbulb lit up in Jiang He’s mind after a long look at Dumbo.
In the future, he would definitely grow more crops that needed researching in his yard, which was why there was nothing better for Dumbo to stay and watch his house.
Moreover, the theory of whether the cucumber from the System really cured all poison must be tested.
Reaching out to pat Dumbo’s head, Jiang He grinned. “Well, since you like my big cucumber, you could stay here from now on, Dumbo.”
Arf!
With a bark, Dumbo turned and fled—its ears were dropping and it kept an eye on Jiang He even as it ran, its gaze being rather evasive.
“This dog. Could it have known that I intend to use it for poison testing?”
Jiang He laughed drily, and picked up a stick beside his orchard, measuring it with a dark smile. “Running away after eating my cucumber? I’ll break your legs if you run!”
Dumbo turned around and ran back to him.
In turn, Jiang He drew out a cucumber, snapped off a third of it and threw it to Dumbo, saying, “Watch over this place. This could be your making: legends speak of a Black Emperor, the king of all dogs who once ruled the skies and the earth. You just might be the next.”
Dumbo’s eyes sparkled even as it wolfed down the cucumber.
(⊙o⊙)…
‘How annoying!
‘If I’m to be the king of dogs, what name should I take?
‘Uh…’
Jiang He watched as the dog grinned stupidly and quietly cursed that it had really gained human wisdom, before remembering something else.
“I wonder if Chief Wang would bother me after learning that I stole his dog?”
***
Returning to his room, Jiang He picked up his phone and browsed through any related videos and posts on the web.
But just like before, many videos and posts were 404ed as soon as they appeared.
Still, there was one post that caught his attention.
[Wolfpack spotted near Mount Dadong, 300 goats of a farmer all killed…]
Jiang He knows about Mount Dadong, which stood in the middle of a series of loess mountains. It was over three hundred miles away from Lingzhou and within the borders of Town Yuwang, which belonged under the same jurisdiction of Tongxin county like Lingzhou. The farmers living there were undergoing environmental migration over the last few years, moving their entire village out to the city and around it—what was left were mostly goat farms.
And the thumbnail of the video was a blurred photo, showing a mountaintop on a dark night.
An enormous wolf larger than a cow was howling at the moon.
Unsurprisingly, the video was soon cut off, with the discussion in the forums erased.
Jiang He felt a mysterious sense of danger right then. Others aside, the superstrength that Two Dog Li displayed was not something a Quasi Martial Artist like him could match.
“Are people who awakened on their own… really that terrifying?”
“My cultivation… strengthening by eating cucumber should count as normal cultivation, right?”
His thoughts were a mess, and only dozed off groggily at one in the morning.
***
At the same time, on a paved road that went straight up a mountain on the east end of Jinyintan Village.
While it was called a ‘mountain’, it was no more than a slightly elevated location than the village. Jinyintan Village was itself near a city and situated on a flatland, which was quite even and different from the mountain ravines of the Loess Plateau.
There were many farmlands and cornfields on the mountain, the latter of which was brightly lit with many large trucks driving in and out of the area.
Toward the end of August, the corn in the fields were mostly ripe. It was a delightful sight to see rolls of heavy corn ears dangling over the ground, which was the right time for various major farms and breeder’s union for silage.
As its name suggests, silage is the process of harvesting the farm’s corns with machinery, crushing the corn along with its corncob, before leaving it to ferment so that it could be used as fodder. It was nutritious and cost little, not to mention that it could be stored for an entire year.
“Dang it! It was a good livestream, why was I blocked at a moment’s notice?”
A BMW was parked near one particular cornfield, and Two Dog Li was cursing as he got off it. He has signed an agreement with the thousand Mu cornfield nearby, with every last corn in the field being supplied to his farm every year.
Two Dog Li had been busy with work over the last few days, and had to work overtime for several nights.
However, the moment he got off, he found a black MPV in his way.
Three men and one woman got off.
All the men were dressed in black, while the woman was wearing a body-hugging spandex suit, and headed straight toward Two Dog Li. She flashed a small red booklet at him, saying, “We’re special agents from the National Special Case Management Bureau, Western Xia provincial branch. Are you Two Dog Li?”
“…”
Two Dog Li did a double take, before asking in his thick Xibei accent, “What chu say? Repeat that, I didn’t quite catch that.”
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