113: Chapter 113 Show-Quality Huskies

The training ground was empty.

The garage doors were open, and the lights inside were still on, but the fire trucks had all driven away, leaving only a few black tire marks on the ground.

The guests dispersed and headed toward the dormitory building.

Han Su stood alone at the garage entrance, his hands pressed against the seams of his trousers, neck stretched out as he stared toward the courtyard gate.

Qin Xiaoshan pulled that half-pack of spicy strips from his pocket, tore it open, then stuffed it back in.

No one had an appetite.

Li Li went up to the second floor. The corridor was empty, and his footsteps echoed back and forth.

He pushed open the dormitory door. The iron bunk beds were arranged in two rows, and Ji Shen's giant suitcase was still lying across the middle of the aisle, forcing people to turn sideways to get past.

He walked around the suitcase and sat on his own bed.

【Ding—】

【Mission "Brave Blue Friends, is meant to embarrass friends" completed.】

【Overall Rating: Superman.】

【Comments: Crushed the competition without preparation, twenty one-armed pull-ups, the Firefighters are collectively suffering from PTSD. You didn't come here to experience life as a Firefighter; you came here to destroy the professional confidence of Firefighters.】

Li Li glanced at it and didn't take it to heart.

The point was the reward.

【Distributing prize—】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Perfect Gene Show-Quality Dog × 2.】

He froze for a moment.

Dogs?

Who are you insulting?

【Please check and receive.】

Check and receive what?

He was currently in the Fire Station dormitory, with two rows of iron bunk beds, a public bathhouse, and not even a wardrobe.

Where was he supposed to put two dogs? Stuff them between the bed slats?

"It's not convenient to receive them here. What should I do?"

The system replied—

【Delivered. Jiang Rumu has signed for them on your behalf.】

Li Li stared at this line of text.

Signed on his behalf.

He was in Pengcheng. Jiang Rumu was in Chengdu. One thousand six hundred kilometers away.

The system sent two dogs, and performed a precise inter-provincial delivery?

Even SF Express air freight didn't have this kind of speed.

His phone vibrated.

A WeChat video call came in.

Contact name: Jiang Rumu.

Li Li glanced at the door—no one had come up yet.

He walked out of the dormitory, found a corner without a security camera at the end of the corridor, leaned his back against the wall, and answered.

The screen lit up, and Jiang Rumu's face was pressed right against the camera lens.

She was covered in sweat, loose strands of hair sticking to her forehead, her cheeks flushed red. She wore a high ponytail and a sports tank top, and behind her was nothing but green—forests, mountain paths, and wild grass.

"Li Li!"

She was panting, unable to suppress her excitement.

"What are you doing? Why are you so sweaty?"

"Recovery training, hiking! But that's not important—"

She suddenly flipped the camera.

"Look, look, look!!!"

The image shook wildly, and when it steadied, it was aimed at the ground.

Two balls of fluff.

One gray-and-white, one gray-and-black, huddled together by the roadside grass. They were just over two months old, their fur fluffy and shiny, their frames well-proportioned, and their ears standing straight up.

Blue eyes.

Two pairs of icy blue eyes stared directly at the camera—with a kind of clear, foolish look that said, "Who are you?"

Li Li recognized them.

Huskies.

Perfect gene, show-quality—Huskies.

He closed his eyes for a second. "System brother, this is getting a bit Schrödinger-esque, huh."

And Schrödinger's Huskies?

Who could handle that!

Two house-wrecking nuclear bombs, sent to the orphanage? That place had over three hundred kids, and they already turned the yard into a demolition site every day.

And now adding two purebred Huskies?

This wasn't a delivery; this was deploying a biological weapon.

"I found them on the mountain!" Jiang Rumu's voice came from off-camera, sounding both excited and heartbroken. "They were just lying by the side of the road. They weren't dirty, their fur was fine, they had no collars, and no one was looking for them. Who could be so heartless—"

No one was heartless.

It was personally arranged by the system.

"Do you know what kind of dogs these are?"

Jiang Rumu flipped the camera back, wearing an expression that said, "You're underestimating me."

"Huskies, show-quality standard, double blue eyes. The gray-and-white one is the standard color, and the gray-and-black one is of excellent quality; the ear spacing and stop both meet AKC standards."

She took a breath and continued her lecture.

"High energy, requires a lot of exercise. Their IQ ranking isn't high, but they're actually smart; they just have poor obedience. House-wrecking is destructive behavior caused by insufficient exercise—"

Li Li listened to the end.

More professional than a dog-raising blogger.

"Have you raised them before?"

Jiang Rumu was quiet for a moment, then lowered her head.

"No. I've always wanted to, but my schedule was too full before, and I never had the time..."

She paused for two seconds.

"This time, I'm definitely taking them back to the orphanage!"

She crouched down and picked up the gray-and-white one, and the puppy stuck out its tongue and licked her all over her face.

"Ah—so cute!"

The gray-and-black one came over and bit her shoelace.

With one in each hand, the expression on her face was even brighter than after she finished running the mountain.

"I'm even planning to bring them with me when I participate in the show! Oh right, I haven't named them yet—what should I call them? Should the gray-and-white one be Snowball? The gray-and-black one Coalball?"

"Do as you please."

"Help me think of some!"

"Call them Xiao Chai and Xiao Qian."

"...Do you have a prejudice against Huskies?"

"I'm just stating facts."

Jiang Rumu huffed, then buried her face in the puppy's head to sniff it.

Li Li leaned against the wall, watching the screen.

This woman was covered in sweat, squatting on a muddy road, hugging two stray dogs and smiling so wide she showed eight teeth. Sunlight leaked through the gaps in the leaves overhead, hitting her shoulders.

"Then take them back. Just don't let the kids play them to death."

"Don't worry! I've checked; Husky puppies can start basic training at three months old—"

"I meant don't let the kids break the dogs, and don't let the dogs bite the kids."

"No, no! Huskies are very friendly to people!"

"Friendly to people, not friendly to furniture."

"Then I'll just buy more! Your sister has money!"

This woman's logic was always bizarre and unshakeable.

"Alright, I have things to do on my end. Don't rush down the mountain."

Jiang Rumu held the two dogs and made an OK sign at the camera.

"You do your best too! The firefighting show is tough, right?"

"It's alright."

"Really? Don't push yourself."

"Really."

"Then I'm hanging up!"

Crisp and decisive. The final frame froze on the two Huskies' blue eyes.

Li Li put away his phone.

He leaned against the wall and stood for two seconds.

There was someone behind him.

He turned around.

Qi Wanyin was standing on the other side of the corridor corner, less than four meters away from him.

She was wearing a black baseball cap and a white shirt, holding a thermos in her hand with the lid unscrewed.

She just stood there, and he didn't know how long she had been standing there.

Li Li's back tightened—a woman over 1.7 meters tall walking in canvas shoes without making a sound.

"Sister Qi."

Qi Wanyin screwed the lid back on the thermos.

"Mumu's voice."

It wasn't a question.

Li Li opened his mouth.

"Well, as a singer, I'm sensitive to the voices of people I know." She twisted the lid and turned it once. "Her resonance placement and the ratio of breathy voice are very unique; she even chatted with me about it when we were recording the reverb."

Well.

There was no denying it.

Li Li nodded.

"Sister Qi, about this—"

"I won't tell anyone."

She interrupted him.

She turned the thermos half a circle in her hand, unscrewed it, then screwed it back on.

"However."

The corridor was very quiet. The training ground downstairs was empty; all the Firefighters had gone out on a call.

Qi Wanyin had the brim of her cap pulled low, shading half her face.

"If you want to go far, don't hide it."

Li Li didn't respond.

"Only by receiving everyone's blessing can you better withstand the things that come later."

When she said this, she rubbed her right ring finger—a simple silver ring used to be worn on that spot.

Now it was empty.

Qi Wanyin switched the thermos to her other hand and turned to walk away.

Her footsteps were light; her canvas shoes made almost no sound on the concrete floor.

After a few steps, she paused without turning back.

"Someone hid it for seven years, only to be unilaterally denied in the end."

Her voice was very flat.

"That feeling isn't very pleasant."

After saying this, she rounded the corner and disappeared.

Li Li was the only one left in the corridor.

He leaned against the wall, staring in the direction where she had disappeared.

He thought of her missing silver ring.

"If you want to go far, don't hide it."

—Seven years.

It seemed he had learned something.

Li Li put away his phone and stood up straight.

Footsteps came from the end of the corridor, and Shen Jue's head popped out from the stairwell.

"Brother Li! What are you doing here?"

"Getting some air."

"Oh. Captain Cheng and the others haven't returned yet, and that stubborn mule Han Su downstairs insists on standing at the garage entrance waiting—"

"They are proper Firefighters. We are here to record a show, so don't disturb them."

Back in the dormitory, the men didn't speak. After high-intensity exercise and with it nearing noon, snoring was soon heard.

An hour later, the fire trucks returned.

The sound of engines approached from afar, deep and heavy. The sirens weren't blaring, but the roar of the exhaust pipes penetrated the entire building.

Li Li walked to the corridor window and looked down.

The first fire truck drove into the garage. There were water stains and soot on the truck's body, and its headlights were still on.

Cheng Songyan jumped down from the passenger seat of the command vehicle. There was a large dark water stain on the chest of his training uniform, and there was soot on his face.

He stood at the garage entrance and looked up, scanning the second-floor windows.

He locked eyes with Li Li's position.

It only lasted for a second.

Cheng Songyan turned his head away, said something in a low voice to the Firefighter beside him, and turned to walk toward the building.

His pace was fast.

Li Li stared at his back.

His hands were pressed against the seams of his trousers.

They were shaking.