Chapter 18
Jiang Ling didn't walk to the door of his house until the sky was slightly bright.
He was exhausted and curled up outside the door and fell asleep until a pair of hands carefully picked him up. He opened his eyes and saw his younger brother Jiang Yi bringing him into the house and placing him on a cushion. He found a piece of bread and broke it into pieces for him to eat. He had consumed a lot of energy along the way and was indeed very hungry, so he finished the bread in just two or three bites.
"Don't worry, there's more," Jiang Yi took out a few small packages of dried meat from his pocket.
"Xiaoyi, who are you talking to?" a voice came from the stairs.
Jiang Yi replied: "Mom, I brought a puppy in from outside. I think it's pitiful, so give it something to eat."
Liang Qian came down with a laundry basket, and Jiang Yi immediately took the clothes from her: "Mom, I told you, I will wash these clothes, so don't move. I will take care of all the housework at home, and you can't do anything."
"If you do nothing, you'll become a useless person," Liang Qian forced a smile from her face with difficulty.
"Mom!" Jiang Ling shouted.
Liang Qian took a look at the puppy and said to her son Jiang Yi, "If you want to raise one, go ahead. Having more puppies at home will make it more lively. Otherwise, it will be really deserted."
Jiang Yi's eyes immediately turned red and he couldn't hold back his tears. He turned around so that Liang Qian couldn't see him, quickly put the clothes in his hands into the washing machine, and then took his sneakers outside to wash them.
Jiang Ling saw all of this.
He also saw that his mother Liang Qian looked very bad, with dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was casually tied up, looking a little messy.
Why are the people at home in such bad spirits and why is the atmosphere so solemn?
As expected, it is related to the collapse of the school.
Could it be that I am already dead?
Jiang Ling felt uneasy when thinking about the issue of life and death. He had thought about this possibility a long time ago, but he had not thought about it deeply. He did not want to get himself stuck in a dead end before getting a definite answer.
"Mom, it's me, I'm Jiang Ling! I'm back!" Jiang Ling circled around Liang Qian's feet.
Liang Qian was just about to bend down and touch him when she heard several men yelling outside. She was afraid that the neighbors didn't know they were coming: "Hey, pay back the money, pay it back when it's due, don't keep dilly-dallying and forcing us to come to your house."
The debt collector is here again!
Jiang Ling rushed out angrily, his four short legs running as fast as the wind, and he yelled at the three men.
The short fat man in the lead was about to kick him, but Jiang Yi picked him up in time and blocked the three men: "Isn't it the end of every month? It's only the date now!"
"It doesn't matter whether you pay it back sooner or later. Why are you talking so much nonsense?" the short fat man said impatiently. "We heard that a building collapsed at your brother's school, and the injured students received compensation. Did you pay any compensation? How much did you pay?"
"What's your business about how much compensation I have to pay!" Jiang Yi said angrily.
"Why is it none of our business? You have to pay back the compensation, understand?" The man behind the short and fat man stepped forward and wanted to grab Jiang Yi by the collar. How could Jiang Ling bear to see them hurt his brother? With a loud bang, he jumped out of Jiang Yi's arms, bit the man's nose, and scratched him with his claws.
"Ah!!" The man felt pain and grabbed the dog and threw it to the ground.
Jiang Ling cried out in pain.
The puppy couldn't stand the fall, and Jiang Yi didn't have time to catch it. He was so scared that his face turned pale. He quickly picked him up from the ground. The three people wanted to say something else, but a broom flew out of the house. If the short and fat man hadn't dodged quickly, he would have been hit on the head. He cursed her as a shrew, and the noise attracted the neighbors to come and watch, but no one dared to come to help.
Liang Qian came out, holding a kitchen knife in her hand: "Get out, all of you, get out of my house!"
The scene frightened the three men and they couldn't help but step back. The man in the flowered shirt and the man who had just thrown Jiang Ling looked at each other and waited for the short and fat man to make a decision.
"You are such a shrew! It is only natural to pay back the money you owe, but why are you holding a knife? You are crazy!" The short and fat man pointed at Liang Qian and cursed.
Jiang Yi said angrily: "If you dare to curse my mother again, I will fight you to the death!"
Jiang Ling came to his senses and bared his teeth and screamed.
My younger brother cursed too lightly. If he were in their place, he would definitely curse all the ancestors of these three men.
"We agreed to pay it back at the end of the month, so there's no reason to come here to collect the debt in advance," Liang Qian said coldly, "If you don't leave today, I'll have a heart attack from all the pushing and shoving. Not only will you not get the money, you'll have to compensate me, do you believe it?"
The short fat man was furious: "Who pushed you? Who saw us push you? Nonsense!"
Liang Qian took a step forward, and the short and fat man and the two men behind him took a step back. After they retreated all the way out the door, they finally left cursing. However, they could still hear their loud cursing from afar. They said that if they couldn't pay the money back by the end of the month, they would come to smash things and move their belongings, and they would make their whole family live in unrest.
The neighbors around were also completely scattered by Liang Qian's fierce eyes.
"Mom! Are you okay?" Jiang Yi supported her.
Liang Qian exhaled, nodded gently, and said, "Just study hard, and mom will get the money together at the end of the month, don't worry."
Jiang Yi hesitated to speak.
Jiang Ling knew his younger brother's personality and what he was thinking at a glance. He would definitely agree on the surface, but actually find more part-time jobs on weekends. The family had such a difficult time because of their father who ran away from debt.
Three years ago, Jiang Zai'an wanted to do business, so he asked his mother Liang Qian to take out a couple loan. Unexpectedly, he borrowed a loan with high interest rates. After his business lost money, his father abandoned his wife and children to avoid debt, leaving all the debts to the family. Later, through judicial protection, they naturally did not have to repay the high interest, but according to normal loan requirements, they had to repay the principal, so they had to pay more than 10,000 yuan every month. What made them angry was that the other party always hired some debt collectors to harass them just because they were exempted from the high interest.
His younger brother still has to go to school and needs living expenses and tuition fees. His mother is in poor health and has to pay for medical expenses every month. Add to that the debts, and the expenses are not small. If he hadn't turned into a puppy, he could have earned these expenses by doing part-time live streaming, but now that's no longer possible.
Jiang Ling was anxious: "Didn't that person just now say that the school has compensation? We can use the compensation to pay off the debt first!"
Jiang Yi helped Liang Qian back into the house.
Jiang Ling kept talking, but no one could understand him. After shouting for a while, he became tired and sat on the ground, gasping for breath.
He looked into the house, thinking that it would be difficult to get the compensation. There must be a lot of people injured in the building collapse, and that would be a huge amount of compensation. The school would surely not be able to come up with all the money at once. Thinking of this, Jiang Ling stood up, hooked one of his injured front paws and slowly walked out the door. It was useless for him to stay at home, he had to find a way to get the money.
When Jiang Yi came out to look for him, the Bichon Frise had disappeared.
Jiang Ling walked towards the city along the same route he came from. When he thought of making money, he thought of Fu Zhan. He had no choice but to find this person who liked to spend money first, and then look for business opportunities from him as a puppy to make money.
He passed through the town streets and rested for a while under the shade of a tree.
"Hey," a dog greeted him. Under the sunlight, the big dog looked golden and orange, a handsome guy in the dog world. The golden retriever wagged its tail and grinned, "Where are you from? I haven't seen you in this town. Do you need help? I'm happy to help you."
"And me," there was an Alaska one meter away, walking towards him with its head held high and its chest puffed out, looking very proud.
"I saw it first," said the golden retriever.
Alaska: “But I saw it too.”
Golden Retriever: "You always come here to butt in and try to be the center of attention."
Alaska: "I don't want to be in the limelight, you think too much, and taking a step back, even if I want to be in the limelight, why can't I?"
"Okay," the golden retriever jumped two steps on the spot, "It seems like you want to fight me head-on."
Alaska raised its two front paws: "Come on!"
Jiang Ling saw that they wanted to fight, and was about to move away for fear of hurting innocent people, but he saw two big dogs holding their heads with their front paws and rolling on the ground. As the saying goes, if you don't understand, just ask, Jiang Ling said, "What are you doing?"
The golden retriever loosened his head, shook his fur and said, "This is called head breaking. It's a human way of competing. Whoever can break the head off wins."
Alaska: “Yes, that’s it.”
Jiang Ling: ""
Once interrupted, the golden retriever and Alaska completely forgot about the fight and asked Jiang Ling if he needed help. Jiang Ling said he was going to the city. The golden retriever pointed forward with his paw and said, "We have a car that can take you on the road."
Jiang Ling: "Yellow Spring Road?"
Golden Retriever: “?”
Jiang Ling didn't want to explain the profoundness of Chinese, so he just read it silently.
Yes, an electric tricycle...is also a car.
Jiang Ling: "Okay, let's get going."
The golden retriever picked up Jiang Ling and jumped into the tricycle, and the Alaskan got on soon after. Soon, an old man brought a bag of vegetables and fruits and stuffed them into the bed. He patted the two big dogs on the head and asked them to sit down. Then the old man started the electric tricycle, and the car drove forward steadily.
Jiang Ling poked his head out from the gap between Alaska and Golden Retriever who were sitting side by side.
The golden retriever licked his paw and said, "Our car can't reach the city, we can only go to Sanli Bridge intersection. Dad's daughter lives in Sanli Community, but it's not far from the city."
"Thank you," Jiang Ling said, then he lay down to conserve his energy, after all, he still had some distance to go.
The golden retriever and the Alaskan were bickering all the way. Although it was noisy, it was lively. Jiang Ling unconsciously thought of the days in the school dormitory, which was also lively. He didn't know whether Song Xingqi and the others were dead or alive.
Alas, he sighed.
When they arrived at the Sanli Bridge intersection, the golden retriever kept barking, so the old man had to stop the car to check. The golden retriever grabbed Jiang Ling and jumped out of the car again. When the old man was wondering why there was a puppy on the ground, the puppy ran away.
Alaska also jumped out of the car, chased after him and shouted, "You can come and take a ride often in the future. Our dad will come to Sanli Bridge to deliver vegetables every weekend. Remember to do it in the morning!"
"Okay," Jiang Ling turned around, responded and continued running forward.
The golden retriever put his paw on Alaska's mouth and said, "Why are you interrupting? I should be the one saying these words. I was the one who fell in love with it first!"
Alaska: "I saw it earlier than you did. I have a longer-term vision."
The golden retriever jumped up: "Impossible!"
The two big dogs were about to start a fight, but the old man gave each of them a slap on the head, and the dogs went back to the tricycle whining.
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