It was already midnight when Dahei came back.
Lu Lingxi waited and waited for Dahei to come back, but he didn't see it. He fell asleep in Yan Yue's arms. Because he was worried, he couldn't sleep well. He woke up when there was a noise outside. Yan Yue woke up earlier than him and was already getting dressed.
"Xiaoxi, go to sleep. I'll go check on you." Yan Yue forced Lu Lingxi to stay awake. It was a little cold outside, and it seemed that there was a wind. He was worried that Lu Lingxi would catch a cold from all the exertion.
Lu Lingxi couldn't sleep, thinking that Yan Yue would bring Dahei in soon, so he agreed and lay on the bed waiting for Dahei. But strangely, Yan Yue had been silent since he left, not even Dahei. He couldn't lie still any longer, so he quickly put on his clothes and went out, stunned for a moment.
Dahei is back, but he is not the only one who comes back.
There were more than 20 dogs of all sizes squatting in the yard. Dahei was squatting in the front, holding a puppy in his mouth that looked like it was only a few months old, curled up and sleeping soundly. Yan Yue stood in the front, looking at Dahei. Lu Lingxi could almost see the veins on Yan Yue's forehead throbbing.
Hearing the movement behind him, Yan Yue tried to soften his expression, turned around and looked at Lu Lingxi and said, "It's cold outside, why is Xiaoxi up?"
He looked helpless, and although he tried his best to suppress it, the twitching of his mouth could still be seen. Lu Lingxi knew that he shouldn't laugh at this time, but he couldn't help it. It was the first time he saw Yan Yue looking like he had a headache, and he smiled with curved eyebrows. "Brother Yan."
The boy spoke cheerfully, and this call of "Big Brother Yan" had a hint of coquettishness. Yan Yue had no choice but to indulge him: "Xiao Xi, do you want them all to stay?"
Lu Lingxi nodded and couldn't help laughing again.
Seeing Lu Lingxi nod, Dahei put down the puppy in his mouth, turned around and barked a few times in a serious manner. The dogs in the yard seemed to understand what he meant and responded in twos and threes. However, as if to avoid waking up the neighbors, they all deliberately lowered their voices, and it sounded like a group of dogs acting like a spoiled child.
Lu Lingxi looked at this scene with some curiosity. Dahei has always been a loner. Even when he went to Brother Dong's pet shop, he didn't communicate with other puppies at all. This was the first time that Dahei was with other dogs. And their way of communication... can they really understand each other? Lu Lingxi's mind drifted to who knows where. Yan Yue looked at the dogs in the yard and saw a strange color flash in his eyes. He thought of the question Lu Lingxi asked him last time. Plants have evolved, will animals evolve? Yan Yue thought this question was a bit far-fetched at the time, but looking at the scene in front of him, he began to be uncertain.
Dahei frightened the dogs in the yard, turned around and barked at Lu Lingxi softly a few times, as if explaining something.
Lu Lingxi felt that he understood Dahei's meaning. He was explaining the origins of these dogs. Some of these dogs were stray dogs from the neighborhood, some were dogs that could not return home because they did not have a dog hole at home, and there was also a little puppy that insisted on staying by Dahei's side and could not be driven away. When talking about the little puppy, Lu Lingxi even felt that he could hear the helpless taste in Dahei's mouth.
While Dahei was explaining, the puppy on the ground seemed to wake up. Its eyes were not fully open yet, and it sniffed with its pink little nose, then squinted its eyes and grunted as it moved to Dahei's side, crawled under his belly and continued to sleep.
Lu Lingxi was almost dying of laughter. Dahei was a male dog, and the illusion of being mistaken for a mother dog made Lu Lingxi hold her stomach and almost laugh to tears.
At daybreak, the dogs were finally settled. Lu Lingxi "brutally" grabbed each stray dog and gave them a bath, and then discussed with Yan Yue where to go for these dogs. Not all stray dogs followed Dahei back. The dogs that came back were all older dogs, and they looked very thin. They were probably the "old, weak, sick and disabled" among the stray dogs.
Lu Lingxi thought that since they followed Dahei back, they didn't want to wander anymore. They could just be kept in the flower garden to guard the house, since they wouldn't eat much anyway. As the flower garden grew bigger, Grandpa Li also suggested that they hire someone to guard the garden at night. If they had this group of dogs, it would be no problem to hire another person. After he finished speaking, he looked at Yan Yue with sparkling eyes. Yan Yue had always been indulgent towards him, so naturally he nodded in agreement. Although Yan Yue felt that it would be more appropriate to raise a few wolfhounds in the flower garden, these local dogs didn't matter. He liked the softness in the boy's heart, and precisely because he didn't have it, he was more willing to protect it.
"Thank you, Brother Yan." Lu Lingxi said seriously. It seemed that no matter what he did, Yan Yue would indulge him, making him unconsciously rely more and more on Yan Yue. This dependence seemed to have become a habit and integrated into life.
Yan Yue looked at the boy's serious expression and smiled slightly. The smile poured out from his eyes, and his handsome face became even more handsome, with an indescribable charm. Lu Lingxi was a little stunned, and the tip of his ears suddenly turned red. He could feel his heart pounding, as if it would jump out of his throat at the next moment.
"What does Xiaoxi want to give to thank Brother Yan?" Yan Yue asked with a hint of teasing.
Lu Lingxi blinked. Even though he was slow, he knew Yan Yue didn't really want his thanks. The smile in Yan Yue's eyes deepened, and he leaned over and kissed Lu Lingxi.
When he woke up again, it was already past nine o'clock. After taking care of the dog all night, Lu Lingxi overslept for the first time. Yan Yue had already called Dong Qi and asked him to help hang a sign at the door of Micro Gardening to announce that it was closed for the day. Since he didn't have to go to the store today, Lu Lingxi didn't rush back to Fengcheng. After washing his face and getting ready, he strolled around the village alone.
The fact that all the dogs in the village ran away and were found in the middle of the night became a hot topic in the whole village. Under the big willow tree, the villagers gathered in groups of three or four, and the first topic they would talk about was always: "Did your dog run away yesterday? When did it come back?" Because of Dahei, Lu Lingxi was asked this question several times.
Just when the villagers were focusing on this matter, a well-informed villager broke another bombshell. Last night, the plastic factory in Songjiazhuang was besieged by a group of dogs. It was said that hundreds of dogs surrounded the plastic factory. All the dogs from several nearby villages were mobilized, and even the dogs raised in Songjiazhuang surrounded them. The dogs had a clear division of labor. The big dogs were outside, prying at the door, and the small dogs squeezed in through the gaps to make trouble everywhere. Several machines in the plastic factory were broken, and the people inside were scared to death.
"They deserve it! They let them work and drain the wastewater in the middle of the night. They are just fooling us."
"That's right, they deserve to be scared."
Although the villagers had some strange expressions when they heard the news, most of them felt that the people in Songjiazhuang were asking for trouble. They couldn't even bear to watch the dogs. Come to think of it, there are many stray dogs nearby. Usually, the dogs in the village are not tied up and are allowed to run around. Dogs need to drink water when they are tired, and they also need to drink water when it is hot. The only water source nearby, Lingshui River, was polluted by Songjiazhuang. These dogs have no place to drink water. Won't they make trouble?
In rural China, dogs have always been considered spiritual animals, and there are many stories about dogs repaying kindness and seeking revenge. The older the people are, the more they believe these stories, saying that the dog king was angry and called on the dogs to seek revenge. In less than half a day, this story spread around the area.
The people in Songjiazhuang also heard this story. Song Wancai was a little bit suspicious. What happened last night was a bit weird. First, a sound like a wolf howling was heard at the entrance of the village, and then the dogs in the village rioted, climbing over the walls and running out of their homes. When the people in the village chased them out, they saw a group of dogs surrounding the plastic field. The leading dogs were barking at the field, and the sound was really scary.
Song Wancai wanted to ask the villagers to drive the dogs away, but the dogs that were gathered at the outermost edge were all the dogs raised by the villagers. They couldn't be beaten, and they didn't listen to their owners' calls. They kept making noise until midnight, which made the villagers miserable.
"Is there really a dog king?"
Song Wancai believed it a little and wanted to discuss with the people at the plastic factory to stop working for a few days. The director of the plastic factory was called Jin Laoliu, who was not a local. He was a little unhappy after hearing what Song Wancai said. Stopping work meant losses. He was already worried about the money if he stopped working during the day. If he stopped working at night, he would be left with nothing.
Since Jin Laoliu insisted, Song Wancai hesitated but gritted his teeth and continued working.
The people in Songjiazhuang didn't believe in evil, and Yan Yue didn't think he could stop them from working just once. When he and Lu Lingxi returned to the city in the morning, Dahei was left in the flower garden. Since he had already done it, he might as well do it to the end and get rid of it once and for all.
Lu Lingxi was reluctant to leave Dahei, as this was the first time he and Dahei had parted. He squatted in front of Dahei and stroked his head, promising to pick him up in two days. Yan Yue felt a little jealous, as Lu Lingxi hadn't shown such reluctance the last time he went back to Zhongjing. While Lu Lingxi wasn't paying attention, Yan Yue glared at Dahei fiercely.
Stupid dog!
Dahei ignored Yan Yue's gaze and rubbed Lu Lingxi's palm affectionately. It knew what it was going to do, and it led the dogs behind it, looking very majestic and impressive. Of course, the premise of all this was to pretend that it didn't see the little puppy holding Dahei's legs.
The owner of the puppy was the couple that Lu Lingxi heard yesterday. It was unknown how the four-month-old puppy escaped from the yard. In the morning, Dahei followed the smell and sent the puppy back, but the puppy refused to leave Dahei. The hostess of the house looked at it with amusement and left it to Dahei without any worries.
After Lu Lingxi touched Dahei, he touched the little puppy, and finally followed Yan Yue back to the city.
That night, the Songjiazhuang Plastic Factory did not stop production. Dahei once again summoned the dogs to surround it. The plastic factory was prepared this time and found a lot of poles to tie the dogs. Dahei was furious and jumped over lightly, biting off the nearest bamboo pole. The dogs behind him followed suit and soon rushed into the plastic factory and started to mess up.
For three days in a row, Dahei led his pack of dogs to surround the plastic factory. The plastic factory also went from using poles to trap the dogs to buying a pack of rat poison wrapped in buns and scattering them around the plastic factory. But to the surprise of the people inside, no dog ate the buns. A few who couldn't resist eating them were also scolded by the leading dogs.
Under the cover of night, a group of dogs squatted outside the plastic factory, looking like a well-trained army. Not only the workers who were lured to the plastic factory by the high overtime pay, but also Song Wancai, who came with the villagers to disperse the dogs, could not hold on any longer, and felt that the scene before them was really scary. Some of the timid villagers were so weak that their legs went weak, and they said in a trembling voice, "Are these dogs spirits?"
Jin Laoliu saw that something was wrong and rushed out with a shotgun he got from somewhere. Before he could take aim, Dahei flew out and pinned him to the ground with his teeth bared.
"Kill...murder." Jin Laoliu shouted like a pig being slaughtered.
The people in the plastic factory shrank back and no one dared to step forward to save him.
Dahei used his paw to push away the hunting rifle, and a stray dog quickly rushed out and took the gun away. Dahei squinted his eyes and looked around. The people facing him trembled and said, "Dog... Dog Immortal?"
Dahei ignored them, raised his head and howled, and the dogs behind him howled. Song Wancai felt that he would never forget this day, the sight of hundreds of dogs howling together, and the big black dog in the front.
It was not until dawn that Dahei and the dogs dispersed. As soon as they left, the workers in the plastic factory started to clamor to resign, and no one dared to stay. Song Wancai felt his heart pounding and went to find Jin Laoliu, ruthlessly preparing to shut down the factory first. He was frightened. In the end, he couldn't find him after searching for a long time. Finally, he heard that Jin Laoliu had fainted from fear and was sent to the village clinic.
The surrounding villages all knew what happened in Songjiazhuang. It was said that the first thing Jin Laoliu did when he woke up was to close the plastic factory and leave. He was not going to stay in this hellhole. Those dogs were not dogs at all, they were all spirits.
Uncle Li quickly told Lu Lingxi about this over the phone. The old man didn't know that the legendary dog king was Dahei, and he praised the dog king over and over again on the phone. Although Lu Lingxi couldn't reveal Dahei's identity, he felt proud after hearing it, and decided to pick up Dahei in the evening and bring him a box of chicken legs.
After hanging up the phone, Lu Lingxi said something to Yan Yue again. Yan Yue was not at Micro Gardening, but went to Xue Yongtong's place. Gao Yongliang used the essential oil extracted from begonia to formulate the first perfume, and specially asked Yan Yue to take a look at the sample. Hearing Lu Lingxi say that he wanted to go to the flower garden to pick up Dahei in the evening, Yan Yue readily agreed and asked Lu Lingxi to wait for him in the store, and he would be back soon. However, not long after Yan Yue hung up the phone, the sky suddenly darkened, and a heavy rain poured down without warning. For a moment, there were lightning and thunder, and pedestrians on the road avoided it, and the falling rain quickly accumulated on the street.
Lu Lingxi braved the rain to move the flowers placed at the door back to the store, and looked at the sky outside with some worry. It was dark before five o'clock, and visibility was very low. He definitely couldn't go to the flower garden in this state. Dahei was being taken care of by Uncle Li, so he didn't need to worry about it. He was now worried about how Yan Yue would come back in such heavy rain.
Yan Yue's text message came quickly, saying that he was stuck in traffic and asked Lu Lingxi not to worry. It would have been fine if Yan Yue hadn't said anything, but when he said he was stuck in traffic, Lu Lingxi became even more worried. He glanced out the window again, and Lu Lingxi couldn't concentrate on what to do, so he simply moved a rattan chair and sat at the door, waiting for Yan Yue while browsing the news on his phone.
Fengcheng Meteorological Station was also very surprised by the rain, as there was no sign of it before. I don’t know what happened, but the weather in China this year is very abnormal. The southwest is originally a humid area, but it didn’t rain much throughout the summer, and there was a severe drought that was rare in decades. Fengcheng is better. Although the temperature is also ridiculously high, there is always a heavy rain every once in a while, so the drought is not severe. The most puzzling thing is that the northwest, as a traditionally drought-stricken area, it rained too much this year, and several small-scale floods broke out. These news together make it feel like the climate in China is completely messed up.
Lu Lingxi put away his phone and looked out the window again. The rain outside was getting heavier, as if there was a hole in the sky and someone was spraying water down. There were no pedestrians on the road. Occasionally, a car drove by, but it drove very slowly, passing by Micro Garden. Yan Yue hadn't come back for so long, and he didn't know where he was trapped. Lu Lingxi became a little anxious.
He was anxious, and Yan Yue was even more anxious.
A car accident just happened at the intersection not far from the street of Micro Gardening. All the cars on the road were blocked there, forming a long line in the distance. Yan Yue put his hands on the steering wheel, tapping it lightly with his fingers. This was his action when he was thinking, and it was also his subconscious action when he was irritated.
It was already past six o'clock, and Lu Lingxi was still trapped in Micro Gardening. Yan Yue was anxious to find him, fearing that something might happen to the boy alone. The window of a car next to him was slightly open, and faint curses could be heard. "What a horrible weather."
After hearing this, Yan Yue almost wanted to curse, "What a damn weather."
When he went to Xue Yongtong's place in the afternoon, everything was fine. The weather forecast didn't say it would rain this afternoon. Who would have thought that such a rainstorm would come suddenly? Fortunately, the traffic police seemed to have taken today's weather conditions into consideration and handled the accident ahead quickly. Soon, the cars stuck together slowly moved forward.
Yan Yue breathed a sigh of relief and looked out the window somewhat nonchalantly. Suddenly, his eyes changed and his gaze fell on a car opposite. That car was the car that had an accident at the bend before. The person in the driver's seat was Yin Ya, whom he hadn't seen for a while, and the person in the passenger seat was unexpectedly Lu Weian.
From his perspective, Yin Ya was smiling and talking to Lu Weian, and the relationship between the two seemed to be somewhat close. Yan Yue's eyes were clear, and he remembered the housekeeper's mention of his mother's plan. He just didn't know what the two of them were doing in Fengcheng?
In another car, Lu Weian looked outside with some keenness. Yin Ya asked with concern: "Brother Weian, what's wrong?"
Lu Weian frowned slightly, "I always felt like someone was looking at us just now?" Because of his illness, he was very sensitive to other people's gazes. He was sure that someone was looking at them just now, and it was not an illusion.
Yin Ya didn't care much, "Maybe he was looking at our car."
Lu Weian smiled and said nothing more, as if he accepted this explanation.
Meeting Yin Ya was just a minor incident, and Yan Yue quickly withdrew his attention. The two cars passed each other across the barrier, and Yan Yue didn't look at each other again, but turned in the direction of Micro Gardening. A quarter of an hour later, Yan Yue finally picked up Lu Lingxi. "Hurry up and get in the car."
Lu Lingxi folded his umbrella and trotted into the car, and his right shoulder also got wet.
Yan Yue touched Lu Lingxi's face anxiously, and felt that it was too cold. He found a coat from the back seat and changed Lu Lingxi's clothes, and asked, "Are you cold?"
Lu Lingxi shook his head, "Not bad."
Yan Yue reluctantly felt relieved after hearing this. Now that he had picked up Lu Lingxi, he was no longer in a hurry. The two drove slowly along the way, and even planned to turn to a small restaurant to pick up Wang Shuxiu. However, Wang Shuxiu said that it was raining too hard, so she asked them to leave her alone and that she would just stay upstairs in the small restaurant.
Lu Lingxi faintly heard Brother Feng's voice on the phone and hung up the phone with a strange look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Yan Yue asked, noticing his expression.
Lu Lingxi frowned, "Brother Feng was trapped in the restaurant by the rain."
Yan Yue was stunned for a moment, then realized what Lu Lingxi meant, and couldn't help laughing in his heart. After all, Lu Lingxi was still a child, and seemed to have a natural possessiveness towards his mother. Xiao Feng was just blocked in the small restaurant by the rain, and Lu Lingxi was already on guard, as if Xiao Feng was going to do something.
"Don't like Xiao Feng?"
Lu Lingxi shook his head. "No, it just feels weird."
Yan Yue smiled and ruffled his hair without commenting on the matter.
The two went to bed early after returning home, not knowing that on that night, continuous heavy rains caused the water level of Lingshui River to surge, and the black river water wrapped in silt began to spread to the fields on the village side. From Songjiazhuang to Shigou River, the black river water slowly seeped into the ground, polluting large tracts of fields.
Among the villages along the Lingshui River, Lingshui Village is the only one that has not been polluted by the river water. The roots of the big willow tree are firmly rooted in the river, and the tangled roots block the infiltration of the river water, slowly absorbing the river water bit by bit.
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