Husky’s Side Chapter 40

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Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
Lucid dreaming

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For a moment, Zhou Li thought he had finally found the real reason for his transmigration. However, after a closer look, he realized this was not the case.

This was not ‘that’ piece of jade because the words engraved were different.

Although the little boy only took a short time burying the jade pendant by his grave, because he couldn’t recognise the words on it, he had deliberately floated closer to have a better view at that time and still remembered the character outlines, which were definitely not the same words as the one in his hand.

But this thing was still very mystifying.

He knows this place is a copy of his original world, so the appearance and brand of things such as phones, luxury cars, clothes, and other everyday necessities were similar to his world’s. But for such a small jade antique to be almost the exact same, he felt it was a little strange.

Besides, there was no passage of text describing this jade pendant in the original novel.

On the second day after the end of the little broken mobile game, Song Yingshi also received a prize, which was a scroll painting with calligraphy on it, although the Song family did not take it seriously and thought it was a gift randomly picked off the shelf to send to her.

He guessed the prize was the real deal, but at that time there was no (public) confirmation that the game was linked to Old Man Wei and his antiques so he had no evidence. He just theorised intuitively that this was a set-up to another face-slapping section of the plot. After all, what Ji Shaoyan received was also a scroll painting with calligraphy. The male and female protagonists both had the same treatment, so others naturally will not be given any privileges.

But that statement can’t be set in stone because the person who just delivered the goods said this was an extra prize given to him by Old Man Wei himself.

It happened to be the jade petal he had seen right after his death, then he happened to transmigrate and come into possession of another jade in another world. Even if it wasn’t the same piece, it was still concerning. Was this a coincidence, or was there another reason?

Zhou Luwen saw him holding the jade pendant and looked around the area, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Li said, “This has pretty fine craftsmanship.”

His thumb stroked over the engravings. “Is there any way to find out who carved this jade?”

Zhou Luwen: “You’ll have to ask Grandpa Wei.”

Zhou Li: “How can I meet up with him?”

Zhou Luwen thought for a bit. “You can’t just go and visit him. He has a weird personality; he definitely won’t agree to see you if you only want to thank him for the gift. You can occasionally meet him if you visit the antique market since he’s an antique collector and likes to visit those places, but it generally depends on whether they have any new things for sale. If there are antique auctions, he will definitely go.”

Zhou Li: “Then, are there any auctions recently?”

Zhou Luwen: “I haven’t heard of any for the time being.”

“Are you talking about the old man in the Wei family?”

Zhou Lubo was just about to head off to work when he vaguely heard this conversation while passing by. He said indifferently, “The family head’s son is going to be engaged next month. Invitations will be sent to each family in the next few days; you should be able to see him when that time comes.”

The juniors had their own junior circle, so naturally Zhou Lubo and others his age had their own circle of connections for their own fun. This news had a 100% accuracy rate.

But whether he will still exist by next month was a mystery. Maybe he will have already disappeared at that time… Zhou Li thought up to here and his expression hardened. He watched Zhou Lubo and Father Zhou leave for work, then gave the antique scroll to Madam Zhou.

Madam Zhou can be considered half a connoisseur. After a brief identification, they found that the paintings were genuinely authentic. Xiao-Wen’s one was worth more than one million and Xiao-Li’s was less than three or four million.

Zhou Li counted the numbers in his mind, a little speechless.

That old man’s mind was truly hard to understand. He made a small mobile game just to throw 10 to 20 million yuan to outsiders. What was he planning? Was this simply for the fun of it?

Madam Zhou also shook her head helplessly, storing away the two scrolls. Then she expressed her intentions to take her son out for clothes shopping.

This was what Zhou Li feared most.

He used to accompany the girls and women in his family to go shopping, so much so that he now had a psychological shadow. He said, “Don’t I already have clothes at home?”

Madam Zhou pushed, “Those were what we picked when we were short on time. Let’s go buy something you like.”

Zhou Li: “No need, I like the ones you picked out very much.”

Madam Zhou: “Then let’s go see the new trends.”

Zhou Li really didn’t want to go. He felt it was just as fine to choose stuff off the store’s website and let people deliver them to his door.

Madam Zhou tried persuading him with a few more words before realising that he might be afraid of going shopping. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry for a while, she eventually passed him a tablet and asked him to choose what he wanted. Zhou Li breathed a sigh of relief and smoothly added some clothes to the shopping basket, then returned to his bedroom with the small box.

The broken mobile game had ended and his school transfer documents were still being processed. All he could do was wait for the school term to start.

He was idle and had nothing to do so his curiosity naturally took over. He ended up searching for any information regarding the jade, throwing himself into a forum specifically made for ancient petal jade pendants, but he still wasn’t able to find anything about his. He deleted the word “ancient” and searched again but there was still no gain, so he could only give up.

He heard a WeChat notification and reached out to open the message. It was from Liang Jingxiu.

When they were all drawing out parts of the maze before, the two of them had added each other as friends since they were in the same group chat. Liang Jingxiu had just send him an invitation into another group chat. He knew at a glance that this chat was for their circle of friends and accepted the invite. 

Zhou Luwen happened to knock on his door at this time, also here to talk about the WeChat group. “They said they want to have a meal together, feel like going?”

Zhou Li said, “There won’t be any vengeful people who will challenge me to a real-life PK ba?”

Zhou Luwen laughed. “There won’t be any.”

Zhou Li let out a sigh of relief, “Then let’s go bei.”

They agreed to have lunch together, with the whole meal personally arranged by Third Young Master Zheng.

This time, he even managed to suppress Young Master Jing and Young Master Yan to successfully clear customs, so they all believed he should be the one treating. Third Young Master Zheng was very happy and immediately agreed, making a big order at the restaurant where they often gathered. When Zhou Li arrived, he took the initiative to take out a phone made of chocolate and went to face the guest.

Zheng San said, “I agreed to the bet and I accept the loss. I’ll eat the phone.”

Zhou Li smiled. “Sure, eat ba.”

Zheng San saw that he had no objections or dissatisfaction at all towards his showy act, choosing to give him face instead, and immediately found the newcomer pleasing to the eyes.

Although this bastard was a bit hateful, you can see at a glance that he was not a serious and stick-up student like Zhou-er. As long as he wasn’t a copy of Zhou-er, they can be friends!

So under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he finished the entire phone in one session. Hearing Zhou Li turn this matter over, he snatched Zhou-er’s job from the young master and hooked an arm around Zhou Li’s shoulder, taking the initiative to introduce him to the everyone in the room.

Nearly ten people came today, Jing Shao, Xiao Yan, Liu Xiao Wei, Tang Xin Tian, ​​and more… Basically all of them were the second generations who often bubbles in the public chat.

[T/N: used their IDs here, will use their actual names (or how other address them) from here on out (I probably won’t be consistent tho, sorry)]

Zhou Li focused on Yan Yunhui.

He had the role of the male protagonist’s wise childhood friend, with the setting of a elegant gentleman suffering from a congenital heart disease. It goes by the rules that Yan Yunhui’s appearance must not be sub-par, and the book did not deceive the reader. Yan Yunhui really did have a tear mole* underneath the corner of his left eye.

[T/N: a mole next to beautiful eyes]

He vaguely felt the satisfaction of seeing the real person* and greeted the other kindly before pulling a nearby chair to sit down.

[T/N: meeting your favourite fictional character]

He was already an easy-going* person and after so many days of chatting with them online, he quickly became acquainted with everyone, neither a party-killer or an ice king.

[T/N: 自来熟: person who, when meeting someone new, can talk to them as if meeting up with an old friend. Cheerful, enthusiastic, easy-going]

The second generations observed in silence for a while and felt that netizens’ character investigation and his personality didn’t line up at all. 

Liu Xiao-Wei asked, “Are you really the school bully* ah?”

Zhou Li: “Really.”

He patiently explained his status to everyone. “This school tyrant does not have that kind of ruthless style as other bullies. I am a brother who advocates loyalty, has a good appearance, and is very principled. I do not go around fighting people. I am a school tyrant who lives on the tier of idols, understand?”

Liang Jingxiu: “……”

Zhou Luwen: “……”

The second generations didn’t know the truth and so they all booed him down, but after booing, they felt that what he said was just a little reasonable, which led to them all offering him a round of alcohol.

Zhou Li had a head injury and expressed that this cup will be the only one he drinks for the day. No one objected and they quickly switched the subject after the drink, asking something what weighed down on everybody’s minds.

“What’s up with Ji-shao?” Zheng San looked at the two surnamed Liang and Yan. “He can still play games, why can’t he come out today?”

Liang Jingxiu couldn’t say his best friend was currently being confined, so he smiled while answering, “He has an ankle injury and has to use a wheelchair to get in and out, it’s not too convenient.”

Zheng San was very suspicious. “What’s inconvenient, someone can just push him, he doesn’t have to do anything.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to trouble others too much. He’s always been ‘considerate’.” Liang Jingxiu smile was big enough for his eyes to crinkle at the corners. “Why don’t you video call him and ask in person, see if he wants to come and play with us in the afternoon.”

Zheng San thought this would do.

But right now he was eating, so he planned to ask after the meal.

The group of teenagers finished their meal in the lively atmosphere and the afternoon session began shortly after.

Zheng San really did go on to make the call. It was unknown exactly how Ji-shao phrased things over the phone, but once Zheng San came back, he showed no sign of dissatisfaction. He took them to the clubhouse* where that can sing karaoke and play some games together.

[T/N: private room to hang around with friends]

Zhou Li listened to their wolf howls and flipped through the song options on-stage for a long time before leaving with a sense of regret. 

This world was different. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many details were unalike.

As a karaoke prince and mic-hog, is there an even more tragic thing? The answer is: there were no songs he knew that can be sung in KTV.

He was very lonely.

The lonely Young Master Zhou stayed far away from the song station and poured himself a glass of juice.

Although today’s event was hosted by Third Young Master Zheng, the protagonist was actually Zhou Li, because everyone wanted to see the real Zhou-er who came. He wanted to be lonely by himself but all these people refused to let him go, pestering him to sing a song.

Mic-Hog Zhou was very reserved. “I can’t sing.”

Zheng San said, “If you can’t sing, just sing nonsense*, it doesn’t matter. See, Xiao-Wei’s voice sucks ass but she* still sang.”

[T/N: not sure of their gender, but I’m assuming a girl since LXW gets more scenes with girls than guys later on]

The named Liu Xiao-Wei followed closely, “That’s right, come on!”

Liang Jingxiu secretly made a call to his confined friend and inserted one side of an earphone into his ear, then asked the others to pause the music. The music-less room made it convenient for this group of people to besiege someone and he said, “Come, come, come, quickly sing.”

Just as Ji Shaoyan was about to ask his friend why he called, he heard a familiar voice say from the other end of the call, “I really can’t, I don’t know how to sing anything in the system. The ones I know, none of them are uploaded in the K station.” 

Zheng San said, “Then sing acappella. Anyway, you must sing at least once today.”

Zhou Li blinked. “You guys even want to listen to me sing acappella ah?”

The rich kids chorused: “Listen ah!”

The eavesdropping Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Zhou Li was a little emotional. After considering the set up for a few seconds, he came up with a brilliant idea. “How ‘bout this ba, you guys go find me a guitar and I will repay you with a concert!”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

The crowd of teenagers became very excited, treating him as a wandering singer who stopped to perform his original songs to this audience.

Without another word, Zheng San called for a waiter to find the performer a guitar. At this moment, turning his head to see the star of the show, he saw Zhou Li at the forefront of the room, holding the microphone and saying, “Before the guitar arrives, I will sing a warm up for you guys, full acappella.”

The crowd especially joined in on the hype, applauding and cheering one after another.

Liang Jingxiu smiled and lowered his voice, saying into the earphone mic, “How about it? Your little lover’s performance, I treat you quite well, don’t you think?”

Ji Shaoyan smiled. “No need, hang up ba.”

As soon as these words fell, he only heard Zhou Li introduce the song on the other end: “For you all, I will sing a repertoire of mine, the kind that can even coax the Eggy in my family.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Why didn’t I know there was still this?

In the private room, Liu Xiao-Wei raised her hand. “Let me ask something, who is the Eggy in your family?”

Zhou Li: “A little husky.”

The second generations: “……”

Liang Jingxiu was caught off guard and choked on the juice still in his mouth. He instantly trapped himself in a coughing fit and amidst the pain, wondered what the hell kind of joke scenario he had coughed himself into. He almost performed a full asphyxiation show on the spot.

Everyone looked at him. “Jing-shao, what’s wrong?”

It took a long time for Liang Jingxiu to fully suppress his grin, finally breaking free from the magical name “Eggy”. He met Zhou Li’s stare and said, “It’s nothing, you quickly sing.”

Zhou Li cleared his throat. “This song is called “Little Leaping Frog”, dedicated to you guys.”

Ji Shaoyan hung up without even thinking about it.

Liang Jingxiu laughed, guessing that he might’ve flew into a rage out of humiliation. Just as he was about to call him back, he heard Zhou Li start to sing, and then his fingers froze suddenly.

The other people were also on the brink of going insane but they did their absolute best with repressing their expressions, ending with the entire crowd looking at him stiffly.

Zhou Li felt he was in good condition and sang very vigorously. When he finished the song, he still had some lasting thoughts. “How was it?”

The second generations did not want to evaluate the show.

Zhou Luwen spoke nonsense without a single drop of conscience, “…Very good.”

The door just happened to be pushed open with a loud ‘creak’ and the waiter came in holding a guitar. The second generations stared at him intensely, wishing to stare a hole into his body.

The waiter felt a little cold inexplicably. He shuddered and weakly raised the guitar. “Here is…what you requested.”

“Thanks.” Zhou Li smiled and took it, walking to the front of the room and sitting down. “Come ba, the concert I promised.”

Everyone: “……”

No need, really!

However, it’s easier to invite the devil in than to send him away.

Everyone was tortured for the length of three full songs before they joined forces to invite him down under the excuse of “giving others a chance”. Hearing him announce he will climb back up later, they all wanted to go home, just a little.

Liang Jingxiu washed his ears and adjusted his pace. He approached him shamelessly and asked, “Is the husky you mentioned the one you saved in the accident this time?”

Zhou Li replied “en“.

Liang Jingxiu said, “I heard it was discharged from the vet, you haven’t had the itch to go visit it?”

Zhou Li sighed. “Probably not ba, it’s already returned to its owner’s side. I won’t bother it, lest both of us become sad.”

Liang Jingxiu tried enduring his curiosity but ultimately lost the fight. “Why did you name him Eggy?”

[T/N: they both use ‘it’ for the husky and ‘he’ for JSY in the husky’s body, but it sounds the same anyway]

Zhou Li glanced at him. Recalling that the other didn’t ask about his acquaintance with Ji Shaoyan at any time today, he guessed that the young master might already know about everything and did not hold back. “Why doesn’t Yan-shao sing?”

Liang Jingxiu said, “He doesn’t like it.”

Zhou Li immediately negotiated with him, “How about this, if you get him to sing a song, I will tell you why.”

Liang Jingxiu reacted slightly, looking back at the quiet Xiao-Yan, then at the person in front of him. He vaguely realised that Zhou Li seemed to be a little interested in Xiao-Yan and the words ‘it’s over, A-Yan’s hair might turn green*’ echoed in his mind. 

[T/N: green is usually associated to cheating (green hat)]

But in the end he couldn’t make Xiao-Yan sing and Zhou Li didn’t tell him about Eggy.

Young Master Zhou’s mic-hog personality broke out and he ran on and off the stage relentlessly, sing as many songs he could fit into the time-limit. Finally, under the eager anticipation of the people, Third Young Master Zheng announced the end of the gathering and a group of people uniformly stood up and left the room, heading directly back to their homes.

They arrived home in the early evening.

Zhou Li played around and was now in a very good mood, evident by the bright grin on his face. He walked into the dining room and had dinner with the Zhou family. After dinner, he want on a short walk with the little golden retriever as usual, then returned and briefly chatted with the other family members before heading upstairs.

The sky gradually darkened.

Probably because he skipped out on his afternoon nap, he felt sleepy much earlier than usual and went to bed after a speedy shower.

In his dream, there was a misty light.

For some reason, he strangely knew that he was dreaming and curiously went around looking for the light source. He approached the brightness and saw a piece of white jade that was as tall as his person. The white jade was in the shape of a flower petal, with some words carved into the surface. Upon closer look, he found that they were exactly the same as the jade he saw in his first life.

He was surprised. Looking up and turning all around him, he realised that other than this large jade piece, there was nothing else around. After walking around the jade several times, he boldly swung his leg upwards to kick at it——nothing happened.

He raised his voice and shouted, “Anyone here?”

It was quiet all throughout. Except for him, there was not a single living creature.

Fine ba.

He guessed that this might be a case of ‘problems of the day turn into your dreams at night’, so he lazily found a place to sit down.

[T/N: unable to let go of the problems you think about during the day, you end up dreaming about it at night]

The next morning, people of the Zhou family woke up one after another and headed to the dining room, only to find that the person who woke up early every day to walk the dog was not present. A quick question-and-answer session with the housekeeper was also useless, as no one had seen him earlier that morning. Zhou Luwen went upstairs and knocked on the door of his room. When he opened the door, he saw that the other boy was still asleep. After a tentative call of someone’s name, he was still unable to receive any form of response. 

There was a sudden bad premonition in his heart, and he called out once more. Seeing the still-unresponsive state, he tried to shake the other’s body. Zhou Luwen’s face paled and he ran downstairs, sprinting into the dining room. “Hurry, go look at him, I can’t wake him up!”

The always steady-headed person was now in this state. This ‘can’t wake up’ naturally wasn’t the same as ‘sleeping too deeply’.

The Zhou family were given the scare of their lives and ran upstairs to check Zhou Li’s condition, then his body was swiftly picked and brought directly to the hospital. After a series of examinations, the doctor finally gave the results——all data were normal and there were no problems.

Father Zhou was buzzing with anxiety. “Then why hasn’t he woken up?”

The doctor also had no idea why this was happening. “Does he have any other conditions or notable medical history?”

Father Zhou froze and said, “Yes.”

After hearing about the boy’s dual personality, the doctor felt that he had found the cause of this long sleep and speculated: “Generally, when the personality struggle in the body is fierce, the patient will suddenly fall into a coma. Just wait and everything will sort itself out.”

The Zhou family looked at the person on the hospital bed together, wondering which personality they would be greeted with when he awoke again.

As a result, after an entire day, Zhou Li still didn’t wake up. Then two days passed, then three, but he still showed no signs of waking. It was as if he will continue to sleep like this for an unknown time.

Ji Shaoyan heard of this situation on the first day.

Because he didn’t get a reply to the WeChat message he sent to Zhou Li, he simply made a call, only for Madam Zhou to answer the other’s phone. She told him that Zhou Li had fallen ill and it wasn’t convenient for him to answer the phone right now. He keenly heard that her tone was a bit off and offered a few words of consolation, then immediately turned his head to Liang Jingxiu to have him took into the ‘illness’. He quickly learned that Zhou Li had fallen into an unwakeable coma and was currently checked into the hospital he was confined in.

Afterwards, he would realise that, at that moment, he lost all rational thoughts. When he returned to his senses, his body had already taken the lead by pushing the wheelchair out into the corridor.

Liang Jingxiu had already reached the hospital by the end of the phone call. At that time, he immediately rushed to the entrance. Seeing his friend’s expression, the blood in his body froze*. “A-Yan…”

[T/N: scalp tingling, feelings of extreme fear or tension]

Ji Shaoyan hummed “en” and slightly recovered his previous state. His gentle voice said, “I will go see him.”

The nurse didn’t know anything and reminded, “Young Master, it’s not your recess time yet.”

Ji Shaoyan raised his head. “I will take my break early.”

His eyes were very dark, as if the smallest ray of light had no chance entering. Although his lips wore a smile, they were inexplicably cold. The nurse stood on the spot dumbly for a while before letting Liang Jingxiu push him into the elevator.

None of them were doctors, the only thing they could do was wait.

Fortunately, things did not develop to the point of making people fall into despair. On the morning of the fourth day, Zhou Li dazedly woke up and opened his eyes.

In his subconscious, he thought he was still in his own bedroom and stretched his waist to sit up. Next to his ear, he heard a “peng”. The cup in Madam Zhou’s hand fell to the floor.

The several people sitting in the room turned their heads, all staring at the patient on the bed.

Zhou Li met their faced abruptly, a little stunned, and raised his hand as a greeting. “Morning ah.”

Everyone: “……”

What the hell do you mean by ‘morning’, you’ve been asleep for three days!

During the past two days, Ji Shaoyan would come to see him every morning, noon, and night. Upon seeing the awakened patient, he closed his eyes slightly, adjusted his breathing to a calm steadiness, then said to the nurse behind him, “Call the doctor.”

The nurse returned to her senses in a daze and let go of the wheelchair handles, then turned her head and ran out.

Zhou Li: “……”

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The author has something to say:

Zhou Li: Who am I, where am I? What happened?

Small tip for confused readers*: Zhou Li’s fan is Yan Yunhui, see Chapter 25~

[T/N: 防鱼小贴士:  小贴士 means small tip, but I’m not sure what 防鱼 means (literally, prevents fish, so uh…)]

Also, read with me: Old Man【Wei】, Grandpa【Ji】, these are two different people.

[T/N: Old Man is 老爷子, Grandpa is 爷爷, technically both of them translate to ‘Grandpa’ but I will sometimes use Old Man Wei to not confuse anyone]

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I think the author is relying on her characters’ lack of knowledge on DID to give the doctors something to BS haha