RTCBM 44

After lunch, Wen Shang didn’t stay with Mu Yuan. He used the excuse of an urgent issue at work and left. Mu Yuan couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. As usual, he went home and vented to He Dongying, asking him to help analyze why Wen Shang had bullied Cha Cha.

No matter how high He Dongying’s EQ was, he wasn’t living in Wen Shang’s head. There was no way he could always know what the man was thinking. This time, he really couldn’t figure out Wen Shang’s motives.

“Dongzi, I think that guy might have a thing for abusing dogs.”

He Dongying glanced at the dog sleeping on the couch. “Did he hit Cha Cha that hard?”

Mu Yuan thought about it. “Not really, but it was obvious he was messing with him.”

“Maybe he thinks it’s cute and gets the urge to bully it a little?”

That actually made sense. Mu Yuan recalled how, back when he and Wen Shang weren’t getting along, the guy once pulled his pants down and spanked him. Maybe Wen Shang really did have an S streak.

Whatever the case, there was one thing he was sure of. He could never let that guy near Cha Cha again.

Gao Zhiyu had heard that Wen Shang recently got a new black-and-white tegu, and he’d been pestering him to visit ever since. Today, he finally got the chance.

After Nai Gai, Yu Yuan had successfully risen to become Wen Shang’s second favorite. This second son of his was treated like royalty. Wen Shang only let Gao Zhiyu look at him through the glass. Touching was strictly forbidden.

With no chance to play with it, Gao Zhiyu quickly lost interest. His attention shifted to the display cabinet full of model figures. Suddenly, he noticed that the Hulkbuster model on the top shelf looked a bit off. He reached up curiously, wanting a closer look. As soon as his fingers brushed it, the model’s arm dropped to the floor with a loud clack.

Wen Shang was in the middle of feeding Yu Yuan when he heard the noise. He turned his head to look and saw Gao Zhiyu standing in front of his model display cabinet, holding the Hulkbuster figure he had just recently gotten in his left hand, and gripping its detached arm in his right.

The moment he caught sight of Wen Shang’s cold, gloomy expression, Gao Zhiyu quickly tried to explain. “It… it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t even touch it hard. I just barely tapped it, and the arm fell off on its own.”

“If it wasn’t you, then who broke it?” Wen Shang demanded.

“How should I know…”

The evidence was right there. No matter how Gao Zhiyu tried to explain, Wen Shang wasn’t buying it. In the end, Gao Zhiyu not only got punched but also had to cough up a few thousand in compensation. It was like swallowing bitter herbs with a mouth full of blood. He had no way to defend himself.

After seeing off Gao Zhiyu, who had been forced to take the fall, Wen Shang changed into his workout clothes and went out for a night run. Lately, he had noticed himself slacking on exercise. When he took off his shirt in the shower and looked in the mirror, his abs didn’t seem as firm as before. A faint sense of crisis crept in, and he quickly made up his mind to ramp up his daily training.

While passing by a garbage lot, he saw a pack of stray dogs fighting. He was planning to take a detour, but just before turning away, his gaze swept past the pack and caught on something odd. One of the dogs was different. It was wearing a blue Doraemon shirt and had a collar around its neck. It clearly didn’t belong with the others. Right now, it was surrounded, being attacked by the rest. One dog was biting its tail, another its hind leg. The poor thing didn’t even dare to fight back. It could only yelp in pain as they mauled it.

That little mutt looked familiar. Wen Shang stopped walking. He took a closer look and realized it was Cha Cha.

Cha Cha was supposed to be with Mu Yuan. Why was it here?

Wen Shang walked over. The strays still hadn’t let up. They had knocked Cha Cha over, and it had rolled across the ground multiple times. Wen Shang looked around, walked up to a trash bin, grabbed a wooden stick someone had tossed, and charged into the middle of the strays. He swung the stick a few times, driving them away from Cha Cha.

On the other side of town, Mu Yuan was frantically searching the streets for Cha Cha. Earlier, he had taken the dog out for a walk. After walking for a while, they ducked into a convenience store to take a break and grab a drink. Mu Yuan had been glued to his phone and didn’t notice that the leash had snapped. By the time he looked up, Cha Cha was already gone.

He thought Cha Cha had gone home on its own, so he waited there, but the dog never showed up. He ran over to Liu Wu’s place to ask around, but the younger guys all shook their heads, saying they hadn’t seen it. That was when Mu Yuan started to panic.

He wandered the streets, searching blindly with no idea where to go. He was already planning to print missing dog posters that night when his phone rang. It was Wen Shang calling. Mu Yuan was still anxious over Cha Cha and wasn’t in the mood to talk, but just as his finger hovered over the decline button, something made him hesitate. He changed his mind and answered the call.

“Hello? What is it?” Mu Yuan’s voice was tight with urgency.

“You’re out looking for your dog, aren’t you?”

“How do you know?”

“I saw your little junior’s dog near the garbage lot when I went out just now.”

Mu Yuan lit up with relief. “Where is it now?”

“At my place.”

“I’m coming right over. Wait for me.”

He hung up and ran to the nearby intersection to get a ride. As he passed the entrance of a foot massage club, a group of men walked out. One of them was lecturing the others and wasn’t watching where he was going. He bumped straight into Mu Yuan and lost his balance, falling hard to the ground.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Can’t you watch where you’re going? Are you blind or what?” The man who had walked into him was even fiercer than the one who got knocked down, pinning all the blame on Mu Yuan.

Once Mu Yuan got a good look at the man’s face, he froze. It was Da K. That made things a lot more complicated.

Ever since Da K was stripped of his position as the person in charge of the Qing District, he had been holding a grudge against Mu Yuan. On top of that, he had just lost money betting on horses today and was already in a foul mood. Now that Mu Yuan had bumped into him, Da K wasn’t about to let it slide.

“Well, well, look who it is. Boss Mu. Long time no see.”

Da K patted the dust off his pants, stood up, rolled his neck, and grinned provocatively. “You hit someone, Boss Mu. Don’t you think it’s time you gave a proper apology?”

“Who was it that wasn’t watching where they were going?” Mu Yuan shot him a sideways glance. “Da K, I think it’s not just your eyesight that’s messed up. Your brain’s not doing so great either.”

Then he barked at the few people blocking his way, “Get the fuck out of my face. I don’t have time to waste on your bullshit.”

Mu Yuan had no intention of wasting any more words. He stepped forward to walk past them. But Da K was clearly looking for trouble and wasn’t going to let him go that easily. He gave his underlings a look, and a few of them stepped forward to block Mu Yuan’s path.

“Boss Mu, who would’ve thought you had that much pull. Thanks to you, I got kicked out of my Qing District post. Impressive,” Da K spat through clenched teeth, then swung a punch straight at Mu Yuan’s face.

That was the signal for a brawl. Da K and his group of underlings jumped him right there on the street, using their numbers to gang up on him.

Mu Yuan wasn’t the type to back down. If fists were the only way out, then so be it. He had trained under Mu Huafeng for years. These guys might look tough, but they were just street thugs with no real skill. Taking on a few of them at once was no problem for him.

Mu Yuan lifted his leg and landed a heavy kick on Da K, sending him crashing into a trash bin. The bin toppled, spilling garbage all over the ground.

Da K was fuming. He spat out a string of curses, dragging Mu Yuan’s entire ancestral line into it. He pulled a folding military knife from his pocket and charged straight at Mu Yuan, aiming for his abdomen. Mu Yuan twisted his body just in time to dodge the vital spot, but the blade still sliced a deep gash into his right arm. Blood soaked through his sleeve in an instant, dripping onto the pavement.

The nearby pedestrians didn’t dare step in. A few quietly pulled out their phones, possibly trying to call the police. Da K shouted at the crowd, pointing in their direction. “Anyone dares call the cops, I’ll fucking slash them too!”

Those few people quickly tucked their phones back into their pockets, choosing self-preservation. No one dared interfere after that.

Taking advantage of Mu Yuan’s injury, Da K barked at his underlings, “Grab him. Don’t let him get away.”

A few of them rushed forward at once, working together to restrain Mu Yuan and pin him against the wall behind them.

“Boss Mu, thought you were such a badass. Why aren’t you fighting back now?” Da K stood in front of him with a mocking grin, gloating like he had already won.

Mu Yuan had always despised this kind of cowardly scum. He didn’t bother hiding the disgust in his eyes. He spat right at Da K’s filthy face.

“Fuck your mother!” Da K roared, veins bulging on his hand as he slapped Mu Yuan hard across the face.

Mu Yuan took the hit without flinching. He let out a cold snort, his eyes full of scorn.

“You’re begging for pain,” Da K growled. He raised the knife again. The blade gleamed as he drove it hard toward Mu Yuan’s abdomen.

Wen Shang waited for over an hour, but Mu Yuan still didn’t show up. He called his phone several times, but no one picked up. Just as he was starting to wonder what the hell the guy was up to, he heard Cha Cha barking in the living room. He went out to check and saw that Cha Cha, starving and desperate, had tried to eat from Nai Gai’s food bowl and ended up getting bitten.

Seeing Cha Cha curled up in the corner of the room, too scared to move, Wen Shang suddenly remembered the time Nai Gai had gone missing. Being taken from its owner and dropped into a strange environment must have been terrifying. That thought made Cha Cha seem a little pitiful. For once, Wen Shang didn’t have the heart to mess with it.

He took Nai Gai into the room next door to keep them apart, then went into the kitchen. He found some frozen beef in the fridge, heated it up, cut it into small pieces, and put them in a bowl before taking it to the living room to feed Cha Cha.

While he was in the bathroom taking a shower, Cha Cha vanished. When Wen Shang came back out, the bowl on the floor had been licked spotless, and the dog was nowhere in sight. The windows and doors were all shut, so it couldn’t have left the house. He searched around and finally found a small lump under the blanket on his bed. The little thing had somehow crawled under his covers and fallen asleep. Not a bad choice of spot.

Wen Shang walked over to the bed and gently lifted the blanket. Peeking inside, he saw the dog still sound asleep, its eyes tightly shut. He stood there watching it for a while. In the end, he didn’t wake it. Instead, he walked around to the other side of the bed, lay down, pulled out his phone, and sent Mu Yuan a message.

“When are you coming to pick up your dog?”