Husky’s Side Chapter 9

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Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
Nightmarish toy

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The original owner, Qian Liye, devoted himself to being a Young and Dangerous Gangster, which led to his little brothers becoming keen on the laid-back idea of “watching over the place”.

Therefore, after the assembly, several of them went straight to the Internet cafe, feeling that it was a safe option. But reality gave them a wake-up call.

After hearing of their purpose for walking in, the owner of the Internet cafe suddenly roared with laughter, saying that this was a serious business and he had no position over hiring staff as he was only the network manager. The group of hooligans were stunned, thinking that even if he was a network manager, there could be a small chance of taking them in. The owner smiled, saying that there were network administrators in the Internet café and there was no plan to recruit new employees for the time being, though if there were any openings in the future he will keep them in mind.

The little gangsters suffered a defeat just when things were getting started and had hit a soft nail*, so they went back, now wanting to hand out flyers.

[T/N: rejection]

A few people drove to the commercial centre of Liuxi District and found that the small flyers that seemed to be everywhere in the past could not be seen at all today. They guessed that it was either because it wasn’t the weekend, or because it wasn’t noon yet.  

They spent their time roaming around the commercial street, seeing if there were shops recruiting workers as they walked.

There were a few, it’s just that the ones hiring were all stores that sold women’s clothing. It was impossible for them to apply so they keep going until they turned to another street, and saw restaurants lining both sides of the street. Only on this part of the trip did they encounter a piece of A4 paper stuck onto the glass of a restaurant, the writing on it declaring that they were looking to hire several waiters.

They processed the word “several” in their minds, then immediately went in with excitement.

Zhou Li carried wounds around his body. In order for the owner to have a good impression of them, he didn’t follow in. Instead, he stood outside not far away and waited. Two minutes later, he saw them “hualala”* running out.

[T/N: a crashing sfx?]

He questioned, “So?”

Er-ge said, “Not suitable.”

Zhou Li raised his eyebrows.

Er-ge explained, “As long as two people work from ten in the morning to nine-thirty in the evening, the salary for this one is 1,500.”

[T/N: 1,500 yuan = 230 USD]

Zhou Li understood.

Xiangman Town was relatively remote. It took more than half an hour by bus to travel from the small town to the district’s commercial centre, and the latest bus set off at 7:30. If they really worked until 9:30, there will be no way for them to go back.

The group could only continue looking and soon found two hiring stores, but unfortunately both were also unsuitable.

Before they knew it, it was already noon. They finally met a brother who was handing out flyers. After hesitating for a moment, they sent Er-ge to ask about the market.

This time they were lucky. The brother had a good personality and pushed forward his agency’s WeChat account to them, saying, “The ones here usually find him for work. You guys add him and let him pull you into the group. If there’s a job, he’ll post it in the group.”

Er-ge asked, “Doe he collect a percentage bei?” 

The brother smiled and said, “Of course, but he deducts it directly from the client. For example, if there is a job and the client pays 100 a day, when he sends a notice in the group, he’ll say it’s 80 a day, but we can’t do anything about that. When it comes to passing out flyers, there’s no way business will have the patience to post a recruitment notice. They always just come to him directly to ask for someone, which is much faster.” 

Er-ge understood, thanked him, then added this middleman into his friends list.

When the other party accepted his request, he briefly explained their intentions.

The middleman was very pleasant and pulled them into the group, saying that he would post work in the group chat and if they wanted to pick it up then they will have to send him a private chat, first come first served.

Their group took a look and saw that there were more than a hundred people in the chat. It cannot be guaranteed if they’ll ever snatch one.

One of the younger brothers said, “Then…what next?”

Everyone looked at each other, thinking that they could only go home now.

They thoroughly circled around the business district once and found everything that could be found. As of now, they could only wait for news.

Zhou Li thought of a certain uncle and took the initiative to say, “Let’s go ba, go home.”

The group “oh“ed, all a bit more quiet than how they were at the beginning. They finally understood that job-seeking was not as simple as they thought, and that they had taken everything for granted.

How ambitious they were when they came, and how disgraced they were when they returned. Their arrogance towards making big money was drowned by reality.

Zhou Li was very considerate. After returning to town and accompanying them to lunch, he gave them some quiet time and went home under the excuse of “feeding the dog”.

Once entering the apartment complex, he practically ran home.

Opening the door and entering the house, he stumbled straight to the bedroom before he could catch his breath. “I’m home!”

Ji Shaoyan laid in the cage, motionless.

In the bowl in front of him was the meal left by Zhou Li before he went out. Less than a quarter of the meal had been eaten. 

Zhou Li suddenly felt distressed.

If Young Master Ji’s physical and actual body was in front of him, he might not even spare it a look, but the appearance of this husky was particularly distressing.

The most important thing was that, as a socialist successor with his three views of integrity, Zhou Li knew that it was morally wrong to lock him up.

But it wasn’t as if he could let the husky run out. This young master was still injured and it’s hard to say what will happened once he escapes, not to mention how Zhou Li still hasn’t fully gained the other’s favour. Right now, he cannot be reassured that his life will be spared.

But he also can’t tell Young Master Ji, please be a little more well behaved, the owner I found for you is both gentle and your future wife, you just follow her and the Shura Field at her house can send you back to your original body in minutes. If he really said this, these matters will explode to a much bigger scale.

Therefore, after weighing it on the scale, he could only put this uncle in a cage.

The direct consequences of this move were: one, Young Master Ji was displeased; two, Zhou Li felt guilty, extremely guilty.

The guilty Young Master Zhou hurriedly opened the cage and hugged the husky out, stretching out his hand to ruffle his fur. He saw that the little guy still wasn’t looking at him and said, “The food’s cold now bei, I’ll swap out a new one for you.”

He followed through on his promise and quickly changed the food and water bowls for Uncle Dog, placing them in front of Young Master Ji.

Young Master Ji continued to lay flat down there, still not moving and not even lifting his eyelids.

Zhou Li secretly thought to himself that this guy really needed to be (mentally) cured and lightly rested his palm on his head. “Master, are you angry?”

Ji Shaoyan ignored him.

This wasn’t enough to make him angry; his temperament wasn’t that bad. He mostly wanted to try pretending to be pitiful, so that he can earn himself some benefits later on.

After Zhou Li asked this, he thought about Ji Shaoyan as a person, wondering whether he would be angry about this matter in accordance to his character setting.

But doubt was just doubt and he still felt guilty, so he snuggled and hugged the husky, stroking his fur before remembering something. “I saw a lot of stalls down there on my way back. The market’s on today, I’ll take you down and we can walk around.”

Here, on every second, fifth, and eighth, they put on a market.

This meant the second day, fifth day, eighth day, twelfth day, fifteenth day…and so on the lunar calendar. It was put on during the afternoon every time, from two o’clock all the way until the sky darkened. The market happened to be on today.

Zhou Li glanced at the time and guessed that it was almost time, so he picked up the husky and travelled downstairs.

According to the novel information, this market was divided into ‘districts’. For example, clothes and shoes were in one district, fruits and vegetables were in one district, dry goods were in one district, and daily necessities were in one district. The rest were all odd bits and pieces. Snack stalls could be seen everywhere, most of which housed things that Zhou Li had never eaten.

One person and one dog, both of them having never been to a market in all their lives. 

The former found this incredibly refreshing and the latter, although cold by nature, also took a few glances this time around.

Except for the open space that extended to a street outside the apartment community, the market also occupied a lane on one side, which was out of sight.

Zhou Li looked around while walking and soon saw a few stalls selling plants. Remembering that the “bonsai” in the box was about to die, he bought a pot of small flowers for ten yuan and prepared to swap it out for the dog.

He continued to move forward and found a toss-the-ring game after a few dozen steps.

He has played this game once when he was a child and was overjoyed when he saw it, bounding over and immediately paying for ten rounds. When he saw Young Master Ji turn his head, he guess that the other probably wanted to see if he could get something.

Coming outside and strolling around really did come with its benefits. 

Zhou Li was very happy. When he won something with his ten rings he instantly became even more happy.

The happy Young Master Zhou went through the entire market once and was quickly tired. Not only tired, but also hot.

He noticed that the husky lying in his arms hadn’t moved for a while so he walked to the resting area on the side of the street, preparing to rest for a while before going back. He searched around online and found that dogs could eat a small amount of ice, so he bought a bowl of shaved ice and asked the stall owner for an empty bowl to split portions with the husky so the other one can cool down.

Ji Shaoyan didn’t ignore him this time and moved forward, lowering his head to eat the shaved ice.

Zhou Li was very satisfied and hit the iron while it was hot, putting his hard-earned prize in front of the puppy. “Do you see this? I won this specially for you. Once we go back we can give it a home in your nest.”

The prize was a toy sunflower, which looked like the same model from 《Plants vs. Zombies》. The flowerpot was about the same size as the flowers he bought and in addition to the main body, there was a slot for batteries on the underside, so maybe this toy was able to play some music when the switch was flicked.

A real flower and a musical flower, they’ll definitely improve the atmosphere in the box. Everything that was needed will be there.

The more Zhou Li thought about it, the more satisfied he was, so he inserted the battery he bought into the toy and pressed the switch.

He saw the sunflower begin to sway from side to side, accompanied by familiar background music from a certain game.

Just as Zhou Li was about to say “super meng*”, the rough voice of a rusty old man came through the toy. “Oh hahahahaha!”

[T/N: cute, but along the lines of ‘moe’ instead of the usual cute]

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan: “……” 

The laughter was bold and ghastly. “Zombies are coming oh hahahahaha!”

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan: “……” 

Hello, what’s the matter?

Why was this meng meng sunflower dubbed with this voice? Was this perhaps a defective product eliminated by the horror toy factory?

The sunflower continued to sway. “Zombies are coming to eat your brain oh hahahahaha!”

Ji Shaoyan looked at a certain someone in silence.

Zhou Li twitched his left hand and shut it off.

He subconsciously wanted to throw it directly in the trash can but then he thought about how difficult it was to get it in the first place, so he swallowed a mouthful of blood, ate his shaved ice, and forced himself to forget what just happened.

Ji Shaoyan glanced at him again, quietly took two bites of ice, and couldn’t help but laugh in his heart.

Since becoming a dog, he has been feeling absolutely terrible all the time, with no breaks at all. This was the first time he felt a moment of joy arise from within.

After this boy and dog duo finished off their delightful shaved ice snack, Zhou Li cradled Uncle Dog in his arms and began his walk back. At this very moment, he raised his head let his eyes sweep around his surroundings. He stopped abruptly.

He saw Song Yingshi.

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The author has something to say:

Zhou Li: Quickly look, it’s your wife!

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This chapter was translated/edited roughly, and it’s because my cat decided to absolutely shred my arm. It hurts so much but he’s so cute. Anyway, sorry for the choppiness.