Chapter 120 Golden-Eyed Dog Shadow

"Any disturbance? Heh, there really is one." Li Daniu scratched his head.

"I went out this morning, and my wife was still at home shelling beans. She said she seemed to hear a sound like a wild cat in heat, whimpering and wailing. She didn't think much of it, so she didn't come out to check."

As he was speaking, a low whimper, filled with menace, suddenly came from the woodpile in the corner of the courtyard, followed immediately by several faint, immature yelps.

Li Daniu's expression changed instantly.

"I almost forgot, my wife said that for the past few days, there's been constant movement in this woodpile, and a fishy stench. That monster might be hiding in there!"

Chen Mu raised an eyebrow slightly, signaling the yamen runners behind him to be on guard, while he and Qi Huan slowly approached the woodpile.

The air was indeed filled with a faint scent of blood, along with the distinct, musky odor of a wild beast.

Chen Mu signaled for Qi Huan to circle around from the side, while he himself slowly pushed aside the stacked firewood from the front.

"Awoo!" Suddenly, a low whimper erupted sharply, and immediately after, a grey-yellow figure lunged out, heading straight for Chen Mu's face.

Chen Mu had been prepared; his feet moved slightly with the Divine Void Step, instantly sliding him half a foot away. The lunging figure couldn't stop in time, slamming headfirst into the earthen wall behind him before falling to the ground.

Everyone then saw clearly that it was a mother dog.

It was medium-sized with a mix of black and yellow fur. At that moment, it was arching its back, baring its teeth, and emitting low growls.

One of its hind legs appeared to be injured, giving it an awkward stance. Its eyes stared fiercely at Chen Mu, but when its gaze swept over the woodpile, it revealed a trace of worry.

Faint, whimpering sounds came vaguely from the woodpile. It was the pups.

"It's just a stray dog!" The yamen runner in charge of security let out a sigh of relief, his face immediately showing disgust.

"After all this, it's just a beast stealing chickens. Was it worth making such a fuss?"

Chen Mu didn't speak; he just slowly crouched down, keeping a relatively safe distance from the mother dog, his gaze fixed deep within the gaps of the firewood.

The mother dog became even more agitated, its front paws continuously scraping the ground, its injured hind leg trembling slightly, as if it were about to lunge for a fight to the death.

Just during this tense standoff, the whimpering from the gap suddenly became clearer, and a furry little head tentatively poked out.

The puppy's fur was not a mix of black and yellow like its mother's, but completely jet black. It was struggling to lift its head, and a faint golden gleam seemed to flash across its eyes.

Golden pupils.

Chen Mu's heart skipped a beat; this scene was so familiar.

The old black dog at Blind Li's home in Sangye Village, the one that guarded its master until death, the black dog that understood human nature and knew righteousness, eventually perishing together with the cat demon.

Although the mother dog before him was just an ordinary mongrel, the golden gleam in this puppy's eyes...

Li Daniu was still chattering incessantly nearby. "Officer, that's it, kill it quickly! This beast came to my house to steal chickens! Also, it must be a monster, otherwise why is it so fierce?"

"Shut up." Chen Mu interrupted him. Li Daniu was silenced instantly after being swept by his gaze.

Chen Mu stood up, took out a coin purse from his bosom, weighed it, counted out five taels of silver, and handed them to Li Daniu.

Qi Huan's mouth twitched. That was his coin purse. When the two of them had snuck into the Peony Pavilion at night, Chen Mu had taken it to tip the male courtesans, and now he was using it with increasing lack of restraint.

Li Daniu was also stunned. "Officer, what is this for?"

"Compensation for your chickens." Chen Mu's tone was flat.

"I am keeping this dog and its pups. Until I finish handling matters in Qinglin Town, you are responsible for taking care of them. Feed them food and water daily; you are not to drive them away, and even less to harm them."

"If they lose even a single hair, I will hold you accountable."

Five taels of silver was more than enough to buy dozens of chickens. Li Daniu was instantly both surprised and delighted; he hurriedly took the money, nodding and bowing.

"Yes, yes, yes, don't worry, Officer. I will definitely take good care of them, treating them like my own ancestors."

Chen Mu ignored him and just looked at the mother dog. The mother dog seemed to sense that Chen Mu had no ill intent; its low growling gradually subsided. It slowly walked over to the puppy and licked its fur with its tongue.

"Let's go." Chen Mu said.

On the way away from the Li house, Qi Huan held back for a while, but finally couldn't help asking.

"Chen Mu, why did you spend that wasted money buying a stray dog? And with a pup, too? We are currently investigating a series of murders, not running a charity."

Chen Mu didn't stop walking, his gaze cast into the distance.

"Chief Qi, that puppy is an old acquaintance of mine from Sangye Village. It is sentimental and righteous; I cannot ignore it."

Qi Huan was stunned.

A complex emotion gradually flashed through Chen Mu's eyes.

"Dogs, though they are beasts, possess a spiritual loyalty that sometimes far exceeds what people imagine. I once saw an old dog in Sangye Village that gave everything for its master, even its life, and the golden gleam in that puppy's eyes just now felt exceptionally familiar to me."

He paused, then continued.

"Buying them is, first, to ensure their safety, and second... I always feel that meeting them here is not a coincidence."

"Everything in this world has its karmic connection; planting a seed today might yield a fruit another day. Even if it is unrelated to the case, what is wrong with saving a few innocent lives? Money is merely an external possession."

But you spent my money. Qi Huan's mouth twitched, but in the end, he held back and didn't say it out loud. The two had experienced life and death together; saying such things would seem distant.

"Fine, what you say makes sense. A few dog lives—if they are saved, so be it. But now the clues at Yiqing Courtyard are broken, and Xu Changze is eyeing us covetously from the sidelines. What should we do next?"

Chen Mu's gaze became sharp again.

"The disappearance of Clerk Hu and his party is suspicious. The scene was too clean. If it was the work of a monster, it either had special abilities to deal with the traces, or someone carefully cleaned up the scene after the monster left."

"Xu Changze is eager to label it as a monster disaster, which precisely shows that what he wants to cover up is something even more afraid of being investigated than a monster disaster."

Qi Huan lowered his voice. "Are you saying he might be related to that man-eating thing, or that he is even the one controlling it?"

Chen Mu shook his head. "These are all just guesses; there is no concrete evidence yet. But for the Yiqing Courtyard tragedy and Clerk Hu's disappearance, he tried hard to stop us from investigating the scene. I always feel there is a thread we haven't found connecting everything behind these events."

"Let's leave here first, then make plans."

The two stopped talking and quickened their pace to return. The crowing of chickens and barking of dogs at Li Daniu's house were gradually left behind. Before long, they ran into Liu Ziming.

Liu Ziming was pale, his forehead covered in sweat, and his injured leg seemed to be aching faintly again.

Upon seeing the two, he immediately hurried forward, his voice full of panic. "Chen Mu! Chief Qi! It's bad, something else has happened."

Qi Huan knit his brows, thinking to himself, how can these things keep happening one after another, not even giving anyone a chance to breathe. "What happened now?"

Liu Ziming caught his breath and wiped his sweat. "Near Lord Xu's villa, more people have been found, and it's not just one. At the same time, many more missing persons have been reported in town."