Chapter 69: Human! Mimi Misses You So Much!
“The South China Sea has seen a huge influx of seabirds—among them the nationally protected White-bellied Frigatebird (Class I), and the Black-bellied Frigatebird and Lesser Frigatebird (Class II)!”
On the TV news footage, a vast flock of birds could be seen sweeping over the ocean in a grand, rolling formation, heading straight toward the South China Sea Coast Guard base… Huh??? Why were they flying to the coast guard base?!
Birdwatching enthusiasts and experts rushed to the base, only to be stopped outside.
Before they could even figure out why so many seabirds were gathering here, several large coast guard vessels slowly appeared on the horizon.
But the most striking thing wasn’t the ships themselves—it was the crowded decks, packed with people, and the smaller boats being dragged behind them on ropes.
What happened? Did they rescue survivors during a patrol?
Then, a few days later, television interrupted programming with a major announcement: the coast guard had rescued a group of victims on the high seas who were about to have their organs removed alive.
“Alive,” “organs”—those two words alone were enough to snap everyone’s attention into place. Not to mention the fact it happened in international waters.
And when people heard “high seas,” their minds immediately jumped to the scam compounds next door… and the Golden Triangle.
Sure enough, the list of rescued victims released later didn’t include only Chinese citizens, but also many Southeast Asians and even a small number of European and American tourists.
And the earlier mystery—those massive flocks of seabirds—finally had an explanation: the South China Sea Coast Guard had invited the special consultant from Yue City, using seabirds and orcas to help capture the criminals.
They didn’t explain exactly how, but if you thought about it, the seabirds’ role wasn’t hard to guess.
First: locating targets.
Second: surveillance.
Those two alone could give law enforcement a huge advantage.
Still, some people suspected the seabirds had even joined the fighting.
“Come on—there were that many frigatebirds! Those are pirate birds!”
With talons and hooked beaks, and speeds of three hundred—sometimes even four hundred—kilometers per hour… hurting someone was easy. Killing someone? Not impossible.
But the police gave no response to those speculations.
Meanwhile, the people inside the compound saw the news too. They’d been wondering where their boats had gone—well, now they knew.
China had taken them.
“Is China warning us?” someone murmured. The announcement felt oddly specific.
Why mention seabirds at all? Were they hinting that the police had special surveillance tools—telling them to behave?
“Boss, you don’t seriously believe that, do you?” the second-in-command thought his boss was overthinking it.
But whether it was true or not, they did need to rein themselves in for a while.
If Chinese authorities could get information about those ships, it meant someone had infiltrated their territory. Even though this batch of “stock” had been rescued, no one could be sure there weren’t still undercover agents hiding among them.
And most urgently, they now had to figure out how to explain things to the clients who had already placed “orders.”
Tch. What a headache.
During those days, Lin Jiangye was forced to lie flat in the coast guard clinic for treatment.
He wasn’t seriously hurt—just a few cuts on his arm, waist, collarbone, and calf. None of them were severe.
But in Lin Xia’s eyes, those injuries sparked deep guilt. He insisted on keeping Lin Jiangye there until every wound had fully healed before allowing him to leave.
When the day finally came, Lin Jiangye confirmed with the doctor that he could go—and immediately packed up his things, grabbed his birds, and sprinted out of the clinic as if escaping prison.
Before leaving, he also went to check on the orcas. Their wounds were healing well; it wouldn’t be long before they could return to deep water.
He didn’t see the leader this time—apparently it had taken the rest of the pod out hunting.
Most of the seabirds had also returned to their own territories. After this cooperation—and with the biscuit recipe in hand—the coast guard would have far more “helpers” during future patrols.
As for what made the cooperation work, besides the bird biscuits, the most important thing was sincerity.
“Sincerity?” Lin Xia stared at Lin Jiangye, thoughtful.
Lin Jiangye nodded, lightly ruffling his birds. “Animals are extremely sensitive. Even if you don’t share a language, they can still sense whether what you’re saying is true, and whether you mean it.”
Most small animals can’t do anything even if they know humans are lying to them.
A big predator can get angry—and can retaliate. But if a small animal gets angry, in human eyes it just looks like it’s being cute.
“And once you lie,” Lin Jiangye warned, his gaze sharp, “don’t even think about working with any animals again.”
He teased his own little ones all the time, and he enjoyed watching them puff up in outrage—but he had never broken a promise he’d made.
Lin Xia took a deep breath. He understood.
“Don’t worry. From now on, they’ll be our partners—our comrades. You don’t deceive comrades.” Lin Xia’s promise was firm.
Many of the birds that had helped were nationally protected species. Perhaps… they could even ask professionals to establish a nearby breeding and habitat base, so the birds could live better lives here.
After leaving Lin Xia with an entire list of reminders, Lin Jiangye prepared to leave the base. Lin Xia handed him an envelope—his payment for the operation, plus reimbursement for the food supplies.
“Thank you. Truly. I hope we get to work together again.”
The moment Lin Jiangye stepped outside, he tore open the envelope and saw five checks, neatly arranged.
“Woah!”
“What is it, what is it?!” Bixi shoved its head over—and then a rectangular slip of paper appeared in front of its beak.
“This one’s for you,” Lin Jiangye said.
He hadn’t expected the branch director to be so generous.
Not only was there a payment for him, but Bixi, Opal, Chang Geng, and Qiming each had their own reward too.
Each bird got ten thousand.
That was more than the bonus he’d received in the beginning when he dealt with the drug traffickers.
And his own bonus? A full two hundred thousand.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
When he got home, he was definitely buying his kids more shiny things.
He was just about to head to the bank when his phone rang.
It was Jiang Xin.
A wave of unease rose in Lin Jiangye’s chest. Jiang Xin never called for no reason. Had something happened to the animals back home?
He picked up, and only then learned they were… here.
“You guys? Guys?” Lin Jiangye frowned. “Who’s ‘guys’?”
On the other end, Jiang Xin let out a long, helpless sigh. “Just listen and you’ll know who’s here.”
Then the phone filled with a chaotic chorus of meowing, barking, and yowling.
The meowing was Tibetan Mastiff—the little tabby.
The “meow-meow” was the Caucasian cat.
The barking was Mimi—the real Tibetan Mastiff dog.
And the last, loud, dramatic howling—
“Wait—why did you bring Yuheng out too?!” Lin Jiangye blurted, shocked.
Jiang Xin sounded even more tormented than Lin Jiangye did. “What could I do? He kept whining and acting spoiled! What was I supposed to do?”
Yuheng and Kaiyang were the North American wolves. More precisely, they were a subspecies—Michigan tundra wolves.
But honestly, “North American wolf” just sounded nicer.
No matter what you called them, they were still large predators. Under normal circumstances they had no business appearing on a public street.
“That’s true,” Jiang Xin said, “but before leaving, Bai Zhengwen contacted the local police and the forestry bureau. He said Yuheng was mainly here to protect you… and the application got approved.”
Jiang Xin looked utterly resigned on the surface—while inside he was basically applauding Bai Zhengwen to the heavens.
Bai Zhengwen, driving, said nothing—but he thought it was absolutely necessary.
If it weren’t for fear of causing panic, he would’ve brought Tianshu and Tianji too.
Those two had filled out a lot. Even if they did nothing, just standing there would make sure nobody dared approach Lin Jiangye.
Good thing Lin Jiangye couldn’t hear Bai Zhengwen’s thoughts—because he’d have no idea what kind of face to make.
At least wolves could be passed off as some kind of wolfdog.
But a tiger or a lion? What was he supposed to pretend those were—oversized plush toys?
“Fine…” Lin Jiangye muttered. “Wolves it is…”
When he finally saw his armored car, his mouth twitched hard.
At this point, his armored vehicle had basically turned into the family pet shuttle.
The door opened—and the first one to jump down was Yuheng.
That massive frame instantly drew stares from nearby pedestrians.
Then another, slightly smaller canine hopped out. “Smaller” was relative—it still reached an adult’s waist.
Just as the passersby started to look nervous, two tiny cat heads suddenly popped up on the wolves’ heads.
“Human! Mimi came to find you!” the tabby shouted from atop Mimi’s head.
Mimi, with a muzzle on, just grinned so hard its whole face crinkled. If not for the muzzle, its tongue would’ve been flopping out like a happy idiot.
And the Caucasian cat perched on Yuheng’s head stretched out a little paw.
“Human… I missed you so much!”
Whatever Lin Jiangye had been about to say got shoved straight back down his throat.
His eyes softened instantly at that fluffy paw.
He gently held the cat’s paw, pinched the soft toe beans, and said quietly, “I missed you too.”
The next second, the tabby and the Caucasian both launched themselves at him.
Lin Jiangye caught them—and they immediately started meowing and purring and shamelessly clinging to him.
“I don’t believe you!” the tabby cried. “Every time you come home, you leave again! And you’re gone forever!”
As it spoke, little “pearls” welled up in its eyes.
Lin Jiangye suddenly started reflecting on whether he’d been too busy lately and hadn’t spent enough time bonding with everyone.
Thinking back…
Yeah. He really had.
He sighed silently, kissed both kittens’ heads, and said guiltily, “Then we’ll go home right now.”
“Uh… we don’t have to rush that much!” the tabby immediately said.
Lin Jiangye: ???
Wait, weren’t you the one complaining I never stayed home?
Then the tabby smacked him with an affectionate little cat punch.
“I want to play a bit before we go back!”
“Me too!” the Caucasian cat chimed in.
Lin Jiangye narrowed his eyes and stared at the two of them for a long moment.
Then he clicked his tongue. “So missing me was just a bonus… and what you really wanted was to go out and have fun, huh?”
“No we didn’t!”
“Exactly, exactly!”
The moment they finished protesting, Bixi and Opal swooped in to mock them without mercy.
“Greedy little kittens, hehehe!”
“Meow—!” The tabby extended its claws, flashing sharp tips.
Bixi and Opal instantly shut up, ducked into Jiang Xin’s arms, and pretended they’d never spoken.
As for Chang Geng and Qiming, the two had already flopped onto Yuheng’s broad back.
Lin Jiangye squeezed the kittens’ chubby faces a couple of times, then said, “Fine. We’ll play properly here first—then we’ll go home.”
He held the two cats in his arms and looked at Jiang Xin and Bai Zhengwen with curiosity.
“I’m kind of curious how you got here. Don’t tell me you drove all the way?”
Jiang Xin nodded, utterly matter-of-fact. “Yeah. Yuheng is a wolf, not a dog. Even with permits, there’s no way we could take public transportation.”
So with Bai Zhengwen doing all the driving, it took them more than two days to get here.
…Alright then.
Lin Jiangye frowned at them, clearly disapproving. “Fine, you two came out here—but why did you bring the kids along too?!”
Then he looked straight at Bai Zhengwen. This trip had to be his idea.
Bai Zhengwen usually looked stern, but under Lin Jiangye’s probing gaze, he actually showed a trace of shame. “When I was talking, I accidentally let them hear.”
And then… there was no “then.” Once they heard, everything was decided.
The Tibetan Mastiff tabby and the Caucasian kitten stared up with round, innocent eyes. They weren’t eavesdropping on purpose—Bai Zhengwen had been talking right next to where they were sleeping!
“Right next to,” huh? Lin Jiangye didn’t buy that phrasing for a second.
But whatever. He hadn’t brought them along on his last few work trips, either. Maybe it was time to make it up to them.
“I remember there’s a pet park around here,” Lin Jiangye said. He didn’t treat Yuheng like a “wolf,” either. Yuheng still had a touch of wildness, but he was smart enough to know what he could and couldn’t do.
The only pity was that because of the Zhang family’s abuse and the long period of malnutrition, neither Yuheng nor Kaiyang could ever return to the wild.
The moment he said “pet park,” the eight kids—four plus four—lifted their heads at once, eyes full of curiosity.
But when they arrived at the entrance and saw the tiny patch of space and the noisy, chaotic atmosphere, their faces immediately twisted with disgust.
It wasn’t as big as home. The “friends” around them were loud, and some didn’t look very civilized—or clean. Even the ordinary crows back home were spotless.
“Uh…” Lin Jiangye hadn’t expected the pet park to be like this. The kids were disgusted—and honestly, so was he.
“Maybe it’s because it’s downtown,” Jiang Xin said. “Rent’s expensive, so it can only be this small.”
Not everyone could do what Lin Jiangye did—rent half a mountain near a resort right next to the city center in one go.
Well. Now it was a whole mountain.
“Let’s go to a park instead,” Lin Jiangye decided. “Yue City’s still cold right now, but down south all the flowers are blooming!”
If the pet park didn’t work, they’d do something else.
The moment they heard “flowers,” Mimi and Yuheng snapped their heads up, eyes shining.
“Flowers~” Yuheng wagged his tail like a dog. Back at the Zhang family’s place they’d seen flowers before, but they’d never been allowed to get close.
And when they arrived at Lin Jiangye’s home, it had been winter—forget flowers, most of the trees were bare.
At the city’s largest park, the moment they got out of the car, a sea of colorful blossoms spread out in every direction.
“It’s January and it feels like April in Yue City,” Jiang Xin murmured as the fragrance washed over them.
And for Mimi and Yuheng, this riot of blooming color was something they’d never seen before.
They were so excited their tails were practically helicopter blades. They kept looking back at Lin Jiangye and the others, whining in a spoiled, pleading way—wanting to see more flowers, wanting to get closer.
Lin Jiangye, of course, didn’t refuse. He had Jiang Xin and Bai Zhengwen take the leashes and lead the dogs in. Bixi and the others were released to fly freely, and Lin Jiangye followed behind at an easy pace, carrying the two kittens.
Compared to the two canine kids, the kittens in his arms were absurdly calm.
Only when butterflies fluttered past would they start squirming, itching to pounce—until Lin Jiangye pressed them down with a hand.
The park was huge. Even strolling through just half a loop took over an hour. To walk the entire park would easily take three hours.
As the sun slowly tilted toward the west, they started heading back.
But on the way, they spotted a commotion up ahead.
Several people seemed to be arguing. Three adult men were crowding in on a young woman, pushing her back step by step. Even when her friend tried to block them, she was shoved aside hard.
Bai Zhengwen clicked his tongue, handed the leash to Lin Jiangye, and strode forward. “What are you doing?”
“Get lost!” one of the men snapped. “I’m looking for my girlfriend—what the hell’s it to you?”
The girl being cornered burst into tears. “I’m not! I didn’t! I don’t even know them!”
Her friend rushed to explain too. “We don’t know them at all! We were just walking and they came up to flirt. When we said no, they started getting handsy!”
Before she even finished, one of the men slapped her so hard she went tumbling to the ground.
“Whoa—he hit her!” The onlookers had been watching like it was gossip, but the moment it turned violent they panicked and backed away.
Bai Zhengwen and Lin Jiangye’s expressions hardened instantly as they quickened their pace.
The man who’d hit her looked like the crowd’s shocked reaction excited him. He grinned and reached out again toward the victims.
But this time, he didn’t get what he wanted.
A young woman charged out from the side and kicked him hard—sending him flying onto the ground.
“Hit women, huh? Go to hell!”
As Lin Jiangye and Bai Zhengwen moved closer, the stench hit them—strong alcohol. All three men were clearly drunk.
But being drunk wasn’t an excuse to harass people.
Seeing their “brother” get kicked down, the other two men flew into a rage and lunged at the woman who’d intervened. “Bitch! Who do you think you are?!”
The second they moved, though, they regretted it.
Two big dogs—shoulder height around sixty or seventy centimeters—stood squarely in front of the women.
Two pairs of feral eyes locked onto them. Low growls rumbled from deep in their throats.
In that instant, the alcohol-hazed brains of those two men sobered right up.
Especially when they saw the larger one’s tail hanging low—not a relaxed pet-dog posture at all.
A Tibetan Mastiff is scary enough when it bares its teeth, but compared to the gray-black beast beside it, the mastiff almost looked… decent.
And the girls being protected by the dogs froze for half a second—then clapped hands over their mouths.
So handsome!!!!
Bai Zhengwen helped the girl who’d been slapped back to her feet. Her right cheek was already swelling red—clearly the man hadn’t held back at all.
“Go to the hospital and get it documented,” Bai Zhengwen said sharply. “Then sue him. Medical bills, emotional damages, lost wages—don’t let him off by a single cent.”
The three men immediately tried to run.
But the moment they turned, an enormous force slammed them down.
“Awooo!”
“Bad humans! Hate!”
The two big canines pounced. Three men couldn’t withstand that weight—honestly, even four or five probably wouldn’t. And one of them… was a real wolf.
Pinned under over a hundred pounds of muscle, they lost all their swagger, wailing and begging for mercy.
Lin Jiangye stood right in front of them. Watching them cry until their faces were drenched, he waved the shaken girls over.
“Come here.”
The girls hesitated. They exchanged a glance, then held hands and came to him. Before they could ask what he wanted, he pointed at the three men and said bluntly:
“Want to take photos of them crying like babies? If they ever harass you again, post the pictures online.”
“…???”
That was vicious. Not physically—socially.
The moment he said it, their crying cut off like a switch.
Their faces went purple as they stared at him in disbelief—like they couldn’t understand why a man would do this to other men.
Lin Jiangye raised an eyebrow. He judged people by whether they were decent, not by gender. Half the time he didn’t even feel like being human—so don’t drag “male solidarity” into it.
When the girls still didn’t move, he pressed again. “Guys like this care a lot about face. If this gets out, it’s basically social death.”
A loser who can’t take rejection definitely doesn’t want the world seeing him sobbing on the ground.
One of the girls snapped back to herself and whipped out her phone, snapping photos in rapid-fire bursts. Her voice trembled, but she forced the words out:
“If… if you ever do this again, I’ll find your workplace and send these to your company—your coworkers and your boss!”
As expected, their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.
What they didn’t know was: their whole “hit-on-girls, get rejected, assault them, then get flattened by giant dogs” scene was already online.
Because they were just that lucky—there was a streamer live on the spot.
Now thousands of viewers had already seen them sobbing with snot and tears everywhere.
And along with the ridicule, a new wave of curiosity exploded online:
What exactly was that fierce gray-black dog?
So cool. So handsome.
People wanted one.
