Chapter 94

The weather is getting colder and it's getting cold again.

Qu Watanabe did not go according to the plan, where to go today and where to go tomorrow.

He brought the puppy clothes made by his grandmother and took care of Dahei in the palace.

Dahei's spirits had improved a little, but after the return of the cold weather, he started to feel unwell again.

Old dogs are very afraid of winter. Qu Dubian tried his best to keep it warm throughout the winter and reserved a place for Dahei on his bed.

But Dahei never sleeps on the bed. After moving it up, it will come down by itself and curl up under the bed to sleep after Qu Dubian falls asleep.

Qu Watanabe was a little anxious and a little angry, but more of it was helpless.

He built a new nest under the bed, placed charcoal braziers around it, and put a hand warmer in Dahei's nest.

Dahei's spirit is getting worse day by day, and everyone in Shunning Palace seems to have sensed something.

In this way, they waited until after the New Year's Day, when officials went to court on the 8th day.

Zhiyi and Qu Watanabe also started going to school.

But after school every day, they would not stroll outside, but would rush back home and spend all their free time accompanying Dahei.

Dahei is a five-black dog. He is in good health and has almost never been sick.

When I get older, apart from the fact that my ears are not working well anymore, I can eat, drink and walk normally. I can also express what I want and show my emotions.

It's not sick now, but its energy is dissipating quickly.

Qu Dubian was holding a bowl, sitting cross-legged in front of Dahei's doghouse and eating. Dahei was also eating. He took a bite, Dahei looked at him, then lowered his head and took a bite himself.

Qu Dubian could see that it was having some difficulty eating and didn't seem to want to eat, but with him by its side, it still tried very hard to eat.

After watching Dahei finish his meal, it went to sleep again.

Qu Dubian wiped its mouth, picked it up, and put his chin on the big black head.

"Dahei, let's work hard. You will soon spend the eighth Lantern Festival with me. Shunning Palace cannot do without you. Everyone still needs to rely on you to guard the house. I have prepared a big bone for you to chew. You were not allowed to chew it before, but I have given you special permission this time."

"You can't be absent, do you understand?"

Dahei didn't say anything, closed his eyes, and didn't respond. It was unknown whether he heard it or not.

Qu Watanabe pinched its ears.

"Then let's stick to the old rules. If you don't say anything, I'll take it as your agreement. You can't break your promise."

Dahei's condition seems to have stabilized.

Qu Watanabe still takes care of him every day.

He didn't show any sadness, and was very happy every day with Dahei. However, he paid so much attention to the dosage and ingredients of every meal that Concubine Xuan was quite worried.

Dahei will leave one day sooner or later, and Xiaoqi has the deepest feelings for it. If that day comes, how sad will the child be? Will he be able to bear it?

Two more days passed.

Qu Watanabe found Dahei trying to go out.

It sneaked away several times. Qu Dubian searched the whole palace for it, but after finding it, he was reluctant to beat it. He pointed at it and scolded it harshly.

Dahei huddled in the corner with his head buried in his paws.

It can't hear anything at all, and doesn't know why it's covering its mouth.

At first, Qu Duanbian thought that Dahei had Alzheimer's disease and couldn't recognize the road or people. He held Dahei and said a little aggrievedly, rubbed its head, and asked fiercely:

"Are you leaving because you don't recognize me?"

Dahei tilted his head, rested his chin on his palm, and his ears moved around, which was very cute.

This was Dahei's little trick to make him happy. It was obvious that he still remembered him.

Qu Duanbian was happy and told it: "Don't mess with the bad puppy who sneaks away from home before going to Wangxing to avoid making his master sad. The old lady has to be well-behaved and be taken care of by the children."

Dahei couldn't hear, so he found a gap and always slipped out.

Finally, one dark night, it took advantage of the two-legged cub sleeping on the bed and slipped out the gate again - it didn't notice that the gate of Shunning Palace was not closed at all.

The sleeping Two-legged beast cub opened its eyes the moment it left.

Qu Dubian took advantage of the fact that Dahei couldn't hear and followed Dahei silently.

This five-black dog walked slowly, and its old age was faintly visible. Its tail was slightly drooping to protect it from the cold night wind. In the dark night, it walked a little lonely, but very firmly.

Step by step, I don’t know where to go.

The guards on duty were surprised to see Dahei, and even more surprised to see the Seventh Prince following it from a distance.

Qu Watanabe raised his hand slightly, shook his head, and made a gesture of silence.

The captain of the guard team immediately understood, bowed, and left with the guard team.

Dahei passed through one palace road after another. Several times, Qu Watanabe thought it was going to stop because of its slow movements, but it continued to walk.

Until it stopped in front of the kennel.

It struggled to get in under the fence, passed several cages, and kept sniffing around with its nose.

There are only people on duty at the zoo kennel at night.

Qu Dubian went over to greet the people on duty and asked them not to disturb Dahei. Then he followed the faint noises coming from the kennel.

Dahei stopped in front of a doghouse.

There are several pitch-black puppies kept here.

It sniffed carefully with the tip of its nose.

These puppies were the offspring of its offspring, and they could still smell a faint familiarity. Dahei reached out and rummaged around in the doghouse. The puppies were about a month old, and they woke up with a howl.

Their mother was near the kennel. She was startled by the noise and bared her teeth at Big Black.

Dahei let out a fierce roar and slapped it with his paw.

"Awoo! Awoo!" The familiar force made the middle-aged female dog immediately remember something. Her ferocity disappeared and she surrounded Dahei affectionately.

Dahei slapped over with his paw again.

The mature female dog immediately shrank to the side and dared not move.

Dahei carefully selected from the litter of puppies and finally picked the most unique one - this five-black dog had one white ear.

The breath smells the strongest and healthiest.

It walked back with the puppy in its mouth.

He returned the same way he came, and was even more vigilant, avoiding the escort team all the way.

Qu Watanabe still followed it, and then picked a good time to take a detour and returned to Shunning Palace a few minutes earlier. When Dahei came back with the puppy, he pretended to be angry and surprised:

"Where did you get such a little thing? Where did you go? I was just about to go out to look for you."

Dahei used his head to push him into the house. After entering the house, he placed the puppy in his mouth at Qu Dubian's feet and whimpered softly twice.

It first coaxed the angry two-legged cub, and then pushed the shivering puppy on the ground with its mouth.

Let it watch you continue to grow up.

Qu Dubian quickly brought a cotton blanket, brought the puppy into the nest to warm it up, then rubbed Dahei's almost frozen body with a stern face.

"Just go wild, who can be wilder than you?"

He rubbed Dahei's paws clean and urged it to go to the doghouse, "Drink some hot water later. I don't care about the puppy you found, you raise it yourself."

The second day.

The new puppy in Shunning Palace was given to Ye Banban to raise first.

After being frozen all night, Dahei felt better. He waited patiently for Qu Dubian to come back from school and took him to the warehouse.

There was a room specially used for storing miscellaneous items, and Dahei spent a long time rummaging around in it.

Qu Watanabe also helped it scratch: "Dahei, what are you looking for?"

The tip of the big black nose moved, then it dug hard towards a place and finally found what was pressed underneath in the corner - the puppy car.

It excitedly circled the puppy car.

He crawled under the rope in front, pulled himself in, and then bit the hem of Qu Watanabe's clothes.

Qu Watanabe said helplessly: "Big Black, I'm grown up now, you can't pull me anymore, and the wheels are broken."

The puppy car has been retired. A corner of the left wheel is cracked, so it can be considered a successful retirement.

Dahei didn't understand, but he could get a glimpse of it from Qu Dubian's expression. He whined anxiously, and the whining became louder and louder. Finally, he sat on the ground and wagged his tail, wanting him to go up.

After a moment of silence, Qu Watanabe asked, "You will walk faster. Don't you want to stay with me for a few more days?"

Dahei: “Woo woo.”

Qu Dubian took a deep breath, then picked up the puppy cart and ran to the backyard quickly: "Mrs. Guo! Quick! Help me!!"

Lady Guo: "What's wrong?"

Qu Dubian said solemnly: "Please fix the wheel quickly, Madam Guo."

He put the puppy cart down, "Here, you can fix it."

"Why suddenly...?" Lady Guo was slightly startled, as if she remembered something, "Is it Dahei?"

Qu Dubian sighed: "Old people are not easy to appease."

Lady Guo: "How long will it take?"

Qu Watanabe: "The sooner the better, preferably before dark."

"I'm afraid I can't do it before dark," Without waiting for Qu Dubian to be disappointed, Concubine Guo smiled, "This matter still requires everyone's help. If I'm only responsible for shaping, it will take half an hour."

Qu Watanabe's eyes lit up: "Okay!"

He borrowed the bronze gong from Concubine Guo, leaped onto the roof of Shunning Palace, and banged the gong. Everyone in the palace could hear it clearly:

"Level 1 alert! Level 1 alert! Shunning Palace Dahei recently applied to leave the palace permanently and needs a car!"

"Everyone who is not busy, come to the backyard to help, so that our Dahei can retire happily. Lady Guo needs to make a wheel!"

"Call Empress Xuan!"

Concubine Xuan rolled up her sleeves and said, "Here I come!"

Zhiyi: “I’m here too!”

Ye Xiaoyuan: "Here."

With just a few shouts, they were called to the backyard. Those who were looking for wood looked for wood, and those who were looking for files looked for files.

Concubine Guo rolled up her sleeves, looking neat and tidy. It was a cold winter day and everyone was sweating from working in the yard.

"Xiao Qi, use your knife to carve this piece out along the lines I drew."

"good."

Qu Dubian used his internal energy and moved as fast as Concubine Xuan.

He himself had not imagined that one day he would use his inner strength for the first time to do carpentry work.

Concubine Guo took off the original wheel.

Dahei lay on the ground, watching them work silently. He seemed to know that they were repairing the car, and his tail was slightly wagging.

The sun was slightly westward, and Dahei yawned.

Qu Dubian's heart tightened and he quickened his movements. When he finally finished, Concubine Guo successfully installed the wheels on the cart and pulled it smoothly, everyone cheered.

“Fixed!”

They looked at Dahei.

Dahei tried hard to stand up, shook his hair, walked step by step to the puppy cart, took the initiative to crawl under the rope, and pulled the puppy cart out.

When they reached the palace gate, Qu Dubian helped it carry the puppy carriage out.

Dahei turned his head to look at him.

Qu Dubian stepped forward and sat on it.

He always felt that he had not changed much from a few years ago, but the doggie carriage that could fit two of his children before was now very crowded with only him sitting in it.

Qu Dubian secretly used his internal strength to keep himself suspended so as not to put all his body's gravity on it.

Concubine Xuan, Noble Lady Guo, Zhiyi and Ye Xiaoyuan stood at the palace gate and looked at them.

Qu Dubian raised his lips and smiled: "Dahei and I are going out to play!"

He shouted, "Dahei! Let's go!"

He didn't say where the destination was, but Dahei had already started jogging.

It is much slower than before, but still as steady and reliable as ever. Qu Watanabe chose it from the kennel at first sight because of its reliability.

Some of the palace servants guarding the palace gate were still the same group. They had moved down the threshold before the puppy cart arrived, and some had replaced it with a new one. Qu Dubian shouted from afar at them to move the threshold.

Dahei has a smooth journey.

There is no destination.

It visited every place Qu Dubian had taken it to.

The school he visited most often, the Purple Palace, the martial arts training ground, the big tree behind the martial arts training ground where he and Liu Liu often stayed, the place where he watched fireworks in his first year in the palace, the palace outside the zoo near the ancestral tablets, and the palace path that was once kissed by an ostrich...

Joy, sadness.

Frame by frame, page by page.

Qu Dubian looked at Dahei's running back.

In a trance, he felt that time began to flow backwards, as if Dahei was trying to help him catch up with his childhood days.

They went in a big circle.

In the end, almost everyone knew that the Seventh Prince was riding around the palace in a small dog carriage, but no one tried to stop him. After hearing about this, Emperor Chong Zhao was silent for a few seconds and sighed, "Give the order, don't stop him."

After walking through all the places they had been to, Qu Watanabe had already realized that Dahei was almost exhausted.

But I don't know who this guy learned this from, he was just stubborn and just wouldn't stop. He didn't force Dahei to stop, he respected the ideas and persistence that Dahei expressed.

When they finally returned to Shunning Palace, Dahei let out a long roar and started to sprint suddenly.

It seems to be back to its peak.

Qu Watanabe was very respectful and shouted loudly: "Dahei is awesome! You are the most powerful of the Five Black Dogs!"

Dahei looked majestic and seemed to look back at him, then continued to accelerate.

By this time, it was already dark, and only the warm yellow lights at the entrance of Shunning Palace illuminated the gray floor tiles at the entrance.

Dahei stopped steadily at the door.

Qu Dubian jumped off the puppy carriage, took two steps back, sat on the doorstep, and waved at it, "Come on, Dahei, let's go home."

Dahei looked at him for a long time, as if he was making a choice between leaving or not.

If it stays here, will its death attract natural enemies and pose a threat to the two-legged beast cubs?

In the end, it compromised with the pleading in the eyes of the biped cub, crawled out from under the rope, walked step by step to Qu Dubian, and then its whole body collapsed into Qu Dubian's arms.

Qu Watanabe: "Good black, let's go home."

He held Dahei in his arms and stroked the fur on its head.

"The hair on his body is all messed up."

He combed Dahei's messy hair, combing it very carefully. As he combed, Dahei's breath became weaker. When he finished, Dahei's tail slowly drooped down and never moved again.

Qu Watanabe paused, then patted its head gently.

"You broke your promise, Dahei. You are still absent from this year's Lantern Festival."

He pressed his chin on the big black head, and a tear sank into its hair.

"Well, Shunning Palace Dahei has passed away due to old age and has applied to leave the palace permanently. The organization has approved it. Have a safe journey."