Husky’s Side Chapter 1

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Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
Epitaph

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Zhou Li propped his chin with one hand and sat cross-legged in front of a headstone.

On top of the headstone was a photo of him and engraved in the corner of the stone was a poem that read, “At the end of the ocean, the sky makes the shore. At the top of the mountain, I am the peak.” It was cheesy as hell.

This line was something he took from the internet on a whim, intended to be used as an epitaph. Unfortunately, his dad had overheard his plan while he was discussing with his friends. He was scolded all the way from the ward to the elevator doors and was very close to having his meal taken away.

In the end, his dad still carved it in for him.

He had struggled with this disease for two years and the doctor said he only had three more months to live.

Thus, he made a three-month long schedule, though it was a pity that he didn’t live for even a month more. The cause of this was a child he saw on the street, one who was about to be hit by an oncoming car. With a thousand pounds hanging by a thread*, he reached out for a push, and it became he who was hit.

[T/N: a matter of life or death]

But he was dying anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to save someone before his death.

It’s just, his current situation was a little unexpected.

He had no impression of his salvage, funeral, nor his cremation. After being run over by a car and regaining consciousness, he found himself in the cemetery. His ashes had long been buried and he was forced to watch the whole procedure of his relatives and friends saying their goodbyes to him.

This was something all of them were psychologically prepared for. Now, no matter how much he thought about it, he can only think of the good. For example, both his parents still had their families and they were all living very happy lives. Humans live for so long and sooner or later, the pain of losing a child will pass.

He should be more concerned about what was happening to him.

With his ‘common sense’, even if ghosts exist in this world, they should not be coming out under the blue sky and white sun. The ones who are able to walk about in broad daylights should all by evil spirits. He thought he lived a rather positive life and didn’t really have any lingering resentments over being hit by a car, so he refused to join the group of evil spirits.

Besides, looking around, there was only one ghost (himself) in the entire cemetery, which was really unusual.

Was it possible that there was a novice protection period, for new ghosts to celebrate for a day or two during the day?

Zhou Li’s brain hole expanded the more he thought about it.

Just when he was thinking whether the process of Samsara* was something to do with picking numbers or drawing cards, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps. Looking sideways, he saw two people stop in front of his grave: one big, one small.

[T/N: cycle of death and rebirth]

His eyes swept over them to check but he didn’t know either of them. The sentence “you’ve got the wrong grave” was about to jump out when he saw the little boy place a down a flower and bow to his tombstone. “Thank you for saving me.”

Zhou Li paused, then smiled.

The situation was urgent at the time and he didn’t have the luxury to see what the other party’s appearance was like. Now that he was able to, he found the boy to be pretty cute.

He said with a smile, “No need for thanks. You can go ba.”

The little boy naturally couldn’t hear him. He took off the jade dangling from his neck and said with a milky voice, “This is for you.”

This jade had a very large ‘head’, roughly the size of a thumb. It was neither round nor square and more like a petal. There was a word engraved in it, written in some unknown font. Zhou Li was unable to recognize it even after several glimpses.

Seeing that the child was digging a small hole to bury the jade with under the man’s suggestion, he couldn’t help but say, “I’ve received your feelings, there’s no need for this…”

Halfway thorough his attempt at persuading the other he remembered that no one could hear him anyway, so he shut up.

The little boy buried the jade with intense concentration, then bowed alongside the man three more times to his tombstone before leaving.

The surroundings returned to its previous silence. Other than Zhou Li, there were no sign of another ghost.

The mountain breeze passed through a gravestone forest. Flower clusters rustled softly, wrapped in the smell of late summer.

Zhou Li could not leave this square inch of land and after silently reminiscing his short life there was nothing else to do. His eyes swept around and landed on the novel placed in front of his headstone.

The novel was titled《Husky’s Marriage》and it belonged to his half-sister.

The reason for its appearance was because he had asked his little sister what kind of boyfriend she would look for in the future. With a ‘woosh’ his little sister whipped out this book and claimed she would look for someone who mirrored the male lead written inside. She strongly recommended him to have a look, saying the contents were very sweet.

So, he opened the cover with the attitude of someone studying his future brother-in-law. Unfortunately, he died before reaching the end.

His little sister probably also kept this in mind and left the book in front of his headstone.

Zhou Li stretched out his hand and noticed from the obvious touch on his fingertips that could actually make contact with the book.

He blinked. Before he could react, a sudden force pressed against the back of his head, as if pushing him towards the book. Extremely strong and extremely fast, it gave no room for resistance at all——fortunately, he was already dead. If he were alive, there was a definite chance he’ll be killed again.

Everything before his eyes went black and when he returned to his senses, he found himself standing in a filthy alleyway. His right foot was even standing on something.

He looked down. It was a husky.

The husky was gray and white, still a cub*. The puppy laid on the ground stared dead into his eyes, but it seemed to have reached its end. The gaze only lasted for two to three seconds before it faded. It weakly closed its eyes.

[T/N: not the right word but it comes ups several time later on, so I’ll use it interchangeably with ‘puppy’]

Zhou Li was given the scare of his life and hurriedly retracted the foot that was stepping on the dog’s head.

At the same time, someone behind him ran over with a phone in hand and said, “Ying-ge, Er-ge* said he saw Song Yingshi!”

[T/N: Ying-ge = Brother Eagle, Er-ge = second brother, 哥/ge means older brother (related and not)]

Song Yingshi?

The name was somewhat familiar… No, wait, where was this?

Zhou Li remembered what happened in the cemetery just before and suddenly realised something. He grabbed the other person’s phone and checked the contents on WeChat.

Song–Ying–Shi. It really was these three characters.

The third month is bright and beautiful, and the birds sing so wonderfully. This phrase could also be summarised in one word: “Yingshi”*. In《Husky’s Marriage》the heroine was born in March, and this saying was made her name.

[T/N: March is described with 莺飞燕舞/ying fei yan wu, which is where ‘ying’ comes from. ‘Shi’/”时” is the
character for time, so ‘yingshi’ would (roughly) mean ‘bright and beautiful times] 

But that’s not the main focus.

The main focus is that the husky he just stepped on is the male lead.

Zhou Li looked at the dying dog and had no time to think about just exactly how weird everything was. Throwing the phone back to his companion, he picked up the dog and began to run.

The companion was startled and chased after him. “Ying-ge, what’re you doing?”

Zhou Li said, “There’s a veterinary hospital nearby, right? Lead the way.”

“Ah?” The companion didn’t understand. “You want to save it?”

Zhou Li said, “Don’t speak nonsense!”

Hearing that his tone was off, the other boy didn’t dare to ask anymore and steadily, but confusedly, lead the way.

Five minutes later, the two arrived at the veterinary hospital. Zhou Li strode in and plopped the dog on the front desk.

Although it was technically the front desk, it was actually about the same size as the cashier in a small supermarket.

The small clinic was like a sparrow, with all five internal organs* and stuffed full to the brim.

[T/N: having all the necessary components]

There were 3 cages positioned in a row against the left wall. Probably agitated by the breath of a stranger, one dog immediately began barking wilding and the other one was driven to follow. Although it still had the milky bark of a pup, it was persevering. Then, an uncle* cat somewhere seemed to find things too noisy and began shrieking many “ao” sounds dissatisfiedly. The already pitiful shop suddenly became even more crowded.

[T/N: in this case it’s sarcastically putting them in a higher position]

There were only two people in the shop, a nurse and a doctor.

The two had no time to appease the owners of this room, only taking a glance at the husky’s situation before hurriedly carrying him to the operation table.

Zhou Li stood, unmoving.

The five-minute journey was enough for him to organise his thoughts, and also enough for him to digest his character profile.

That’s right, character profile.

He didn’t know whether it was the remnant memories of this body or the care from that unknown force. In short, when he started to run, the past of this character was automatically injected into his mind and allowed him to completely confirm his theory, that he had entered《Husky’s Marriage》. 

Could it be that, because he died two months early, and because he performed a good deed by saving another, God gave him another chance to “live”?

After much deliberation, Zhou Li still couldn’t figure it out. Not wanting to waste more time thinking about it, he decided in preparation for solving the immediate problem first.

The male protagonist of《Husky’s Marriage》was called Ji Shaoyan. He had a good appearance, good grades, good temper and good family background; the legendary ‘four goods’ person.

After the death of his mother, his father granted his mistress an invitation into the family. His little brother, who was one year younger, was unwilling to live in his shadow and so when the male lead got into a car accident, his younger brother took advantage of the situation and stole his uncle’s experimental technology. He refracted Ji Shaoyan’s brainwaves, then projected them into a dog.

To be able to pull off this experiment between two different species, it really is quite ridiculous.

The author probably thought so too, which was why there was plenty of jargon used in order to explain how it was done. Zhou Li never really looked that closely. Besides, this was just the setting. The author wanted the male protagonist to become a dog, so no matter how unreasonable it was, in the end it was still a reason.

The novel began with the scene of “becoming a dog”.

Ji Shaoyan’s brainwaves (or something or other that was basically his soul) entered the dog’s body and he awakened from a coma. He quickly started to run away, which was when he noticed something was wrong. Unfortunately, he was injured in his escape and when he collapsed out of exhaustion, he met the shell Zhou Li was currently occupying.

The shell was surnamed Qian, full name Qian Liye, and he was a gangster. The first reaction he had upon seeing a husky was to sell it.

But customers are not blind and could clearly see the dog was injured so none of them were willing to buy it. Qian Liye thought about healing it before selling but after consulting, he learned that the money for medical treatment might cost more than however much he would earn from selling it. He was mad for a long while and coupled with his horrible mood and some mental problems, he began to abuse the dog.

Qian Liye liked the heroine Song Yingshi.

According to the original plot development, when he learned about Song Yingshi’s close proximity, he abandoned the unconscious husky and left. A few minutes later, Song Ying happened to pass by the alley during her attempt to hide from the group. She saw the poor male lead and hugged him to the veterinary clinic and since then, they kicked off a wonderful love story.

Zhou Li knew that the heroine’s recklessness was not very authentic, but for the sake of his life, he must do this. Because Ji Shaoyan was a ruthless person. On the surface he had a gentle appearance, but in actuality, his heart was darker than anyone else’s.

Ji Shaoyan was kidnapped when he was a child and his mother was torn up in front of him by the abductors. This resulted in a severe trauma to his mind and soul at a young age, but more importantly, landed him the “beautiful and miserable*” personality set.

[T/N: can also mean ‘tragic’]

But people who were “beautiful and miserable” generally were miserable by themselves.

But Ji Shaoyan was not like that. He was beautiful…and loved to make others miserable.

Before his death, Zhou Li had just read up to when Ji Shaoyan’s soul returned to his original body and was about to retaliate against Qian Liye. At that point it wasn’t just physical revenge. He wanted to completely destroy Qian Liye, and that also meant spiritually.

Zhou Li didn’t know how long he could stay here for but considered the possibility of remaining here for a lifetime as the worst-case scenario. Naturally, he couldn’t just stand around, waiting to die. He could only heal Ji Shaoyan first and try to turn the tide on his favour and brush up on goodwill.

But here’s the tricky thing right now: he had no money.

After checking the balance of his WeChat and Alipay, Zhou Li silently looked at his companion.

The companion had a head full of yellow-dyed hair and was currently stretching his neck to look at the operation table. A few seconds later, he noticed the other’s stare and turned back.

It was rare for Zhou Li’s face to feel hot.

He was the great young master of the Zhou family, yet he didn’t expect to find out today that——all his savings put together only amounted to just over 500 yuan.

[T/N: less than $80 USD] 

He asked, “Do you have money? Lend me some.” 

His companion understood in seconds and happily took out his phone to transfer some money. “I’ll only keep fifty and send you the rest.”

Zhou Li’s heart was suddenly moved.

Even from far you can see this guy was a hooligan, but this loyalty between brothers was really not just talk ah!

He opened WeChat and accepted the red envelope.

A message box popped, occupying the centre of the screen.

Congratulations on becoming rich, wishing you good luck

8.37 yuan

Money has been deposited and can be consumed directly

Zhou Li: “……”

This shit brother, he was moved for nothing.

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The writing on his gravestone: “海到天边天作岸，山登绝顶我为峰”/ “At the end of the ocean, the sky makes the shore. At the top of the mountain, I am the peak.” A line from Lin Zexu. It expresses his ambitions, how the sea and the sky are connected (by the horizon) in the very far distance. Only when you cross the endless sea can you reach the sky; this means you will need to work hard to achieve what you aim for, only then will you reach the ‘peak’ of the mountain and be able to stand there.

There are no chapter titles so I’ll be making them up (and try not to accidentally spoil the chapter in advance) and for now the chapters will be released slowly (one a week)

Also, a very important note (tw/): this novel has some scenes of domestic abuse (the MC’s new dad from the novel is an alcoholic and physically abusive) and I recommend you don’t read it if you are uncomfortable. If you guys want me to, I can put trigger warnings at the beginning of the chapter.