115: Chapter 115 Can a three-month-old baby use a remote control?

The doorbell to the living room didn't ring again until dinner time.

Hu Jinsi opened his eyes from meditation. Twilight had already closed in outside the window; the city lights filtered through, casting checkered patterns of light and shadow on the floor. He stood up, walked to the door, and looked through the peephole.

It was Su Wan. Xiaoquan Yilang was crouching at her feet; the cub's fur was neatly combed, but its eyes held an indescribable weariness.

As the door opened, Su Wan waved at him. "Sent back."

Xiaoquan Yilang dragged its feet into the living room, not sniffing around as usual, but heading straight for its sleeping mat and lying down.

It rested its chin on its front paws, ears drooping listlessly, too lazy to even twitch its tail. In those amber eyes, the vigilance and scrutiny that should have been there were replaced by a profound, almost human sense of exhaustion.

Hu Jinsi looked at it, and a strange sense of resonance suddenly welled up in his heart. He saw something familiar in those eyes. It was the exhaustion of a wage slave from his past life. The kind of exhaustion where, after being drained of all energy by endless tasks, meetings, social interactions, and obligations, all one wants to do upon returning to a rented room is collapse on the bed.

"What did you do to it?" Hu Jinsi asked.

"We didn't do anything." Su Wan shrugged. "We just let Su Qing and Su Yu play with it all afternoon. Chasing, hide-and-seek, teaching it to shake hands, and even put a little outfit on it..."

"A little outfit?"

"Pink. With a bow." Su Wan's mouth twitched. "Su Qing picked it."

Hu Jinsi looked down at Xiaoquan Yilang. The cub seemed to understand their conversation, closing its eyes tighter and letting out an extremely faint, almost mournful sigh from its throat. It buried its nose into the gap between its front paws, as if trying to escape this cruel world.

"You've worked hard." Hu Jinsi crouched down and gently patted its head. The fur still had the familiar coarse texture, but the muscles underneath seemed even more relaxed than in the morning. The cub didn't respond to his touch, just kept lying there, its breathing gradually becoming steady and deep.

Su Wan changed her shoes at the door and waved at him. "I'm off. See you later."

The door closed behind her. Only Hu Jinsi and Xiaoquan Yilang remained in the living room. One human and one wolf, one standing, one lying down, facing each other in silence as the twilight faded.

...

Perhaps because it had been exhausted by a double dose of brats, the Direwolf Cub stayed very quietly in its corner all night. The dark gray sleeping mat became its territory; it rested its chin on its front paws, ears occasionally twitching to catch the faintest sounds in the room.

When Hu Jinsi got up in the middle of the night, he glanced at it by the light filtering from the bathroom. The cub's eyes were narrowed, its breathing steady, shoulders and back rising and falling with each breath, almost merging with the sleeping mat.

The next morning, Hu Jinsi didn't get up until after eight. There was already movement in the living room. Xiaoquan Yilang was crouching at the edge of the sleeping mat, front paws placed neatly in front of it, its gaze locked on Hu Jinsi's bedroom door.

It clearly didn't understand its owner's routine. Leaving before dawn the previous day, yet sleeping until the sun was high today. The Dire Wolf's biological clock was much more standard than a human's; its confusion was written in those amber eyes, its pupils moving up and down with Hu Jinsi's footsteps.

"What are you looking at?" Hu Jinsi scratched his hair. "I was tired yesterday, catching up on sleep today."

The cub, of course, didn't answer. It just tilted its head, pressed its ears back, and then lay back down on the sleeping mat, burying its face in the gap between its front paws. Its shoulders and back hunched slightly, tail drooping, too lazy to even twitch its ears again. Humans were truly incomprehensible creatures.

Breakfast posed a dilemma for Hu Jinsi. He had originally intended to continue pan-frying lamb chops for Xiao Lang, but when he opened his backpack to rummage for ingredients, he found a pile of fish that had dropped from the Gnolls at Stillwater Lake.

Various sizes, various breeds, some scales still shimmering with the unique cyan-blue luster from the dungeon. He stared at the pile of fish for a few seconds, then turned to look at the living room.

"Xiao Lang." he called out.

The Direwolf Cub lifted its head.

"Do you eat fish?"

Hu Jinsi rarely saw a look of confusion on the Dire Wolf's face. The cub's nose wrinkled, nostrils flared, but there was no corresponding image in its pupils. It didn't understand the word "fish." This was the first time Hu Jinsi had mentioned this syllable to it; with the Dire Wolf's current vocabulary, it couldn't equate the sound with the image yet.

Hu Jinsi scratched his head. He pulled a palm-sized fish from his backpack and dangled it, shaking it. The fish's body still retained the chill from the dungeon, its scales shimmering with a moist luster under the living room lights.

"It's this thing." He placed the fish in front of the Dire Wolf. "Our word for it is 'fish.' Do you eat it?"

Xiaoquan Yilang lowered its head to sniff. Its nose carefully inspected the fish, from head to tail, missing not a single inch. Then it lifted its head and nodded in a human-like fashion. It raised its front paw and patted the floor, signaling Hu Jinsi to just put it on the ground.

Hu Jinsi took out the large food bowl he had bought at the Beast Taming Shop yesterday—stainless steel, nearly thirty centimeters in diameter.

He put the fish in the bowl, then took a lamb chop out of his backpack, cut off less than a quarter, and added it as well. The food bowl was pushed in front of the cub, the metal base sliding across the floor with a faint friction sound.

"This is your breakfast for today," Hu Jinsi said.

The cub didn't start immediately. It walked around the food bowl first, confirming there were no traps, then lowered its head, nudged the fish with its nose, sniffed the lamb chop, and finally chose to bite the fish first.

A faint tearing sound was made as its teeth cut into the fish meat; its table manners were much more refined than yesterday, but the crunch of chewing bones was still crisp.

Hu Jinsi wasn't that particular. He pulled a bag of frozen wontons from the freezer, dumped them into a pot, boiled them for five minutes, scooped them into a bowl, casually added some vinegar and chili oil, and sat at the dining table to eat.

One human and one wolf, each dealing with their own breakfast; only the sounds of chewing and the light clinking of a spoon against a bowl remained in the living room.

...

Breakfast over, Hu Jinsi pushed open the front door. Sure enough, the pile of items he had ordered yesterday was neatly placed at his doorstep. Two large cardboard boxes: one containing Kalada Root and Scutellaria, the other containing fifty empty bottles and ten units of medical supplies.

He carried the boxes inside, unpacked and checked them to confirm the quantities were correct, and then began preparing for today's work.

Considering the large quantity of herbs purchased this time, Hu Jinsi didn't plan to turn all the herbs into finished potions in a single day.

He planned to work for the morning and then rest well in the afternoon. He first opened the windows and turned on the exhaust fan to create a cross-breeze between the living room and the kitchen. The wind from outside poured in, dispersing the stuffiness that had accumulated in the room overnight.

But after completing the series of preparations like opening the windows and turning on the exhaust fan, he suddenly remembered he had forgotten one very important thing.

There was a new creature in the house that was very sensitive to smells.

He turned to look at Xiaoquan Yilang in the corner of the living room. The cub was lying on the sleeping mat, its nose pointed toward the window, nostrils gently flaring as it obviously evaluated the various new scents in the air. Hu Jinsi walked over and crouched in front of it.

"I need to brew medicine this morning. It smells very strong," he said. "Would you be willing to stay in the bedroom for a while? I'll move your mat and toys over there too."

The cub's ears swiveled. It looked up at Hu Jinsi, then at the herbs and pots already being set out in the kitchen, then slowly stood up, walked to the bedroom door, and looked back at him. Its gaze was urgent, and its tail gave a light flick. It meant: Hurry up.

Hu Jinsi moved the dark gray sleeping mat, the teething bone, the rope toy, and the jar of nutritional paste into the bedroom one by one, placing them in the corner by the window.

The cub followed at his heels, confirming every item was properly placed, before walking into the bedroom, circling the sleeping mat twice, and lying down. Its gaze remained locked on Hu Jinsi until he exited the room and closed the door, only then did it rest its chin back on its front paws.

Utilizing the cross-breeze between the kitchen and the living room, Hu Jinsi began his morning of potion brewing.

Except for the somewhat complex production of the ten bottles of Basic Agility Potions, the rest of the potions specifically for treating rabies were quite simple to make. Kalada Root plus Scutellaria, just boil in water.

Hu Jinsi even had time to check the news and scroll through videos. He propped his tablet up next to the stove, watching the herbal soup bubbling in the pot while scrolling through the local forum on the screen.

It was a good thing he had sent that little thing to the bedroom. The smell of brewing this Rabies Cure Potion was truly intense; a pungent odor, a mixture of rotten grass roots and burnt leather, rose from the pot and permeated the kitchen.

Fortunately, the ventilation in the house was effective, and Hu Jinsi always stood upwind, so he wasn't overwhelmed to the point of incapacitation. Occasionally, when he changed positions, the smell would rush up, stinging his eyes and making him sneeze repeatedly.

In the course of the morning, Hu Jinsi only brewed over a hundred portions of the Rabies Cure Potion. Batch after batch of herbal residue was changed in the cauldron, and the empty bottles gradually emptied from the box, only to be filled one by one with the dark brown liquid, labeled, and stacked next to the stove.

As for the remaining herbs, he planned to brew another batch when he went to school in the next couple of days, utilizing the school's equipment. After all, with such a strong smell, Hu Jinsi felt a bit unbalanced if he didn't let his classmates get a whiff of it too.

At noon, he turned off the heat and packed the brewed potions into his backpack. A lingering smell of herbs permeated the kitchen; he opened the windows as wide as possible and ran the exhaust fan for another ten minutes before the air felt barely breathable.

Then he pushed open the bedroom door. Xiaoquan Yilang was lying on the sleeping mat, nose pressed to the floor, ears facing the doorway. The cub's nostrils flared violently a few times, obviously smelling the scent clinging to him, and a look of indescribable disgust flashed in its pupils.

"Don't be disgusted," Hu Jinsi spread his hands. "This is prepared for everyone. In case they get bitten by a Gnoll, they'll need this to save their lives."

The cub's ears twitched, but it didn't respond. It buried its face in the gap between its front paws, tail drooping, shoulders and back hunched into a ball. The smell on this human was worse than an Ogre's toe in the dungeon.

...

In the afternoon, the human and the wolf lounged on the sofa. Hu Jinsi turned on the TV to a variety show channel, where a group of entertainers were playing boring games, with screams and laughter rising and falling.

He wasn't originally interested, but he noticed that Xiaoquan Yilang's gaze remained locked on the TV screen, ears pricked straight up, pupils moving left and right with the moving objects on the screen.

Hu Jinsi suddenly realized that this Direwolf Cub still had too little grasp of current human vocabulary. And since he had no ability in early childhood education, he could only hope that the Dire Wolf would learn the corresponding meanings while watching TV.

At least the visuals and sounds corresponded; with the Dire Wolf's intelligence of eight, it should be able to establish some basic associations.

However, it had to be said that an intelligence of eight was truly extraordinary. Around three in the afternoon, when Hu Jinsi returned from the bathroom, he found that the image on the TV screen had changed.

It was originally a variety show channel, but now it had turned into a nature documentary; a lion was chasing a zebra on the savanna.

He paused, looking at the remote control.

Its original spot on the coffee table had changed; it had been moved to the edge of the sofa, right next to the front paws of Xiaoquan Yilang.

The Direwolf Cub was staring at the screen, its front paw hovering over the remote, its nose close to the buttons, seemingly studying which one to press next.

Its ears twitched back and forth. Hearing Hu Jinsi's footsteps, it looked up at him, then lowered its head and nudged the volume button with its nose.

The roar of the lion on the TV suddenly grew twice as loud, making the water glass on the coffee table tremble slightly.

"You... know how to change channels?"

The Direwolf Cub's ears flattened. It didn't respond, simply nudging the remote closer to itself and shielding it with its paw. It had claimed this spot; Hu Jinsi could go sit over there.

Hu Jinsi stood where he was, his mouth twitching. He suddenly had a premonition that from now on, his household might be down one remote control.

...

For once, it was a rare day where Su Wan didn't bring her two little devil sisters over to harass this Dire Wolf. The living room was so quiet that only the background noise from the TV and the occasional soft sound of the cub's claws scratching against the leather sofa remained.

The man and the wolf lived quite leisurely in Hu Jinsi's small house; they ate when it was time, and lounged about after eating. They slept when it was time to sleep, and stared at the TV when it was time to watch. They spent a full day just like that, in complete leisure.

That evening, Hu Jinsi learned from the team group chat that Su Wan and Lin Rui had taken the two little devils, Su Qing and Su Yu, to an amusement park today.

In the chat, Su Wan posted a few photos; the two girls' expressions on the carousel were more excited than the last, while in the background, one could catch a glimpse of Lin Rui holding a cotton candy with a stiff expression and a forced curve at the corner of his mouth, clearly having been driven nearly insane by the two little girls.

Looking at the photos, Hu Jinsi suddenly understood why Su Wan hadn't come today. After the double dose of energy expenditure at the amusement park, she probably wouldn't even have the energy to scroll through her terminal upon returning, let alone bring the two wild girls to his house to torment Xiao Lang.

He put down his terminal and glanced at Xiaoquan Yilang curled up on the sleeping mat. The cub's eyes were closed, its breathing steady; the TV was still on, but it had turned the volume down to the minimum, and late-night shopping commercials were scrolling across the screen.

Hu Jinsi got up, picked up the remote from beside the cub's paws, and turned off the TV. The cub's ears twitched, but it didn't open its eyes, merely tucking its front paws in a bit more and continuing to sleep.

Before resting for the night, Hu Jinsi checked the local news again. His fingers swiped across the terminal screen, with forum posts sorted by popularity.

His gaze suddenly stopped on an inconspicuous official announcement; the title was plain, not bolded, and not pinned. But Hu Jinsi gave a start, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. The moment those words entered his pupils, he was instantly wide awake.

That National Defense student team had actually cleared The Cathedral dungeon in one go.

The content of the post wasn't long. After entering the dungeon, the National Defense student team didn't waste any time on the outskirts, heading straight for the deepest part to reach Andariel. After Andariel fell, the energy level of the entire dungeon instantly dropped significantly; although it slowly increased again afterward, it never returned to its peak.

This was perhaps the best news Hu Jinsi had received in the last few days. But such big, good news hadn't even made the local trending topics, nor were there any news pushes; it was just a brief official announcement buried in some corner.

Hu Jinsi stared at those lines of text several times, gradually grasping the situation. The authorities wanted to handle this matter low-key to avoid any interference or recurrence. After all, the phantom of The Cathedral had been looming over the city center for nearly a month; suddenly saying it was resolved would be hard to explain, no matter how they justified the process.

Hu Jinsi put down the terminal and leaned back in his chair. Outside the window, the city lights were sparse. In the distance, in the direction of the city center, that semi-transparent phantom of The Cathedral was still visible in the night sky, but its outline seemed a bit fainter than before. He took a deep breath, feeling the pressure on his heart finally lift.

Having heard good news for a change, Hu Jinsi's meditation that night felt very smooth. He sat cross-legged on the bedroom floor, hands resting on his knees, and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into his body, and his Qi rose from his Dantian, flowing slowly along his meridians. Without that dark cloud hanging over his head, his entire spirit relaxed, and even his breathing was deeper and longer than usual.

But before meditating, there was one more thing to do.

Hu Jinsi suddenly thought about the fact that he had to go to school tomorrow. And since the Dire Wolf didn't have a beast-taming bag, if he took it directly to school, he wouldn't be able to apply protective measures like a leash and collar.

There was no stable contractual relationship between them; doing so might be considered an insult by the Dire Wolf. Beneath that iron-gray fur hid a proud heart; the three-month-old Dire Wolf already understood what dignity meant.

He stood up from the floor, walked to the living room, and squatted down in front of the Dire Wolf.

"I have to go to school tomorrow." He spoke very slowly, enunciating every word clearly. "Are you going to school with me tomorrow, or staying home by yourself? If you go to school with me, you'll encounter many people my age, but I might need a leash to connect you to me. If you choose to stay home, I'll leave you enough food. Just don't make any strange noises in the house that would lead to complaints from the neighbors."

The Direwolf Cub's ears twitched. It tilted its head, its amber eyes staring at Hu Jinsi's face, a glint of assessment flashing in its pupils. Then it raised its front paw and tapped Hu Jinsi's thigh twice.

Twice. Staying home.

"Are you sure?" Hu Jinsi confirmed.

The cub tapped twice more. The action was crisp and decisive, without hesitation.

Hu Jinsi looked at it and suddenly smiled. Since this guy intended to stay home by itself, he would just grant its wish. It was convenient for everyone. He wouldn't have to explain to the security guards at the school gate why he was bringing a medium-sized wolf, and the Dire Wolf wouldn't have to be constrained by a collar and leash.

"Alright." He stood up. "I'll leave enough food for you tomorrow."

The next morning, Hu Jinsi made himself a simple meal and packed the breakfast and lunch for the Direwolf Cub into two separate plates. Breakfast was fish and lamb chops; lunch was smoked meat chunks and a few teething bones.

He placed the plates on the coffee table in the living room, setting a large bowl of fresh water beside them. Then he walked over to the sleeping mat and patted the cub on the head.

"I'm leaving. Be good at home."

The cub's ears twitched. It climbed off the sleeping mat, walked to the center of the living room, and watched Hu Jinsi walk toward the door. Not until the door closed and the lock made a soft click did it turn around, jump onto the sofa, and rest its chin on the armrest, its gaze fixed on the remote control on the coffee table, which was flashing a dark red indicator light in the morning sun.

...

Lin Rui and Su Wan, who had arrived at the entrance of the residential complex, were a bit confused. The two were standing under the bus stop sign. They saw Hu Jinsi walking out of the complex alone, without that iron-gray figure following behind him.

"Why didn't you bring Xiao Lang to school with you?" Su Wan asked.

Hu Jinsi explained, "I checked the school's relevant regulations. For instance, medium-sized magical beasts and above that haven't been officially contracted require the use of a collar and leash."

"And the Dire Wolf clearly doesn't like those two things." He paused. "Therefore, after friendly negotiations between the Dire Wolf and me, the Dire Wolf chose to stay home today to watch TV."

"Watch TV?" Lin Rui's expression shifted from confusion to bewilderment. His eyebrows knitted into a knot; clearly, he was struggling to comprehend the combination of those three words.

Hu Jinsi confirmed his answer: "Yes. This guy already learned how to turn the TV on and off, change channels, and adjust the volume with the remote control yesterday."

Lin Rui's mouth opened, then closed. He looked down at his own palms, then looked up at Hu Jinsi, his eyes filled with an indescribable, complex emotion.

He was now not only doubting whether his social skills and understanding of worldly affairs as a child measured up to the Dire Wolf, but he couldn't even remember if he knew how to use a remote control when he was three months old.

Hu Jinsi patted Lin Rui on the shoulder and said, "I remember you only have an Intelligence of thirteen, right? You know, if a Dire Wolf is raised well, its Intelligence can reach twelve. By then, it's really hard to say who's smarter between the two of you!"

"Screw you." Lin Rui slapped Hu Jinsi's hand off his shoulder.

The three chatted on their way to school; besides the Dire Wolf, the topic was, of course, the incident with The Cathedral dungeon. Clearly, Lin Rui and Su Wan had also seen the relevant news.

Su Wan even said with a sigh of relief that her family had even considered temporarily moving to her grandparents' house for a while last week. At the time, she hadn't brought it up with the team due to fear and embarrassment, but fortunately, the matter had passed just like that.

Lin Rui's view on the matter was slightly different from Su Wan's. He walked while saying, "Right now, we can only say that The Cathedral dungeon has been temporarily suppressed. After a few more rounds of harvesting, at best, it can only be suppressed to the difficulty level it was at before the outbreak."

"But until now, it's been nearly a month since the incident occurred, and still no one can say why this dungeon mutated." Lin Rui's voice lowered. "There isn't even a scapegoat temp worker to blame; that's what's even more frightening."

Hu Jinsi, on the other hand, said heartlessly, "As long as it's temporarily suppressed, that's fine. Unlike you two, my biggest asset right now is this apartment. If it hadn't been suppressed and the entire complex had been swallowed up, I'm afraid I would have fallen below the execution line overnight."

He changed the subject, "Anyway, for our team, the focus of our future strategy will definitely be on Lakeside Town. We probably aren't planning on going to this The Cathedral dungeon for the rest of the semester, so as long as it doesn't cause any problems, that's the greatest help it can provide us."

Lin Rui chimed in at this point, "Although I agree that helping Su Wan farm those [Skill Stone · Shadow Bolt] in Lakeside Town is fine, don't you think the [Double Dragon III] dungeon is a bit frustrating? This should be the first dungeon we've failed to clear since we awakened. If we don't beat it, I always feel like something is missing."

Hu Jinsi looked back at Lin Rui and said helplessly, "Then what do you want us to do? The three of us—oh, now it's the three of us plus a wolf—is anyone good at solving mazes? Is anyone good at solving puzzles? If not, we really have no way to deal with the spatial maze in the final stage."

"Unless we are like the rich players in our class who rely on maze-solving items to get through, with our luck—well, I don't think any of us are the type who can walk out of a maze with our eyes closed."

Su Wan originally wanted to snap back, saying that her luck had always been pretty good. But she thought about the terrible experience in the maze over those two weeks, paused her steps, and gave up on speaking.

Her mouth twitched, and she swallowed the words that were already on the tip of her tongue, lowering her head and continuing to walk.