Chapter 37
The fresh air system was operating as usual. The air was slightly damp, carrying a faint fragrance of grass and trees. Jiang Qingyu lay diagonally on the sofa, his two long legs crossed over each other, swaying every now and then.
In order to distract himself, Fu Jingqiu cleaned the vehicle after dinner, then spread out Jiang Qingyu’s yoga mat and started exercising.
Jiang Qingyu watched him go from doing push-ups with both hands to one-handed push-ups, and finally to two-finger push-ups. His feelings went from admiration to amazement, then finally to numbness.
With the way Fu Jingqiu was training, he would probably be hungry again before bed. Should he make him some late-night snacks?
He admired Fu Jingqiu for a while, scrolled on his phone for a while, watched him do crunches, then scrolled on his phone again.
Many people would be unable to sleep tonight. The internet was extremely lively, and people trapped at home were posting all kinds of nonsense.
There were those asking for help, those venting, those asking questions. All kinds of information dazzled the eye.
His cousin also posted a plea for help on Moments, saying that his family had no supplies. Although there were no zombies in the building where he lived, there were zombies in the residential community. He asked whether people on the same floor could spare some food, and said he was willing to pay.
Jiang Qingyu laughed softly and swiped past the post as if he had not seen it.
Now was not the time to “show off” yet. He was certain that his cousin’s family should still have food.
They had not been forced into a desperate situation yet.
He tossed his phone aside, let out a small yawn, and watched Fu Jingqiu switch to another set of movements, wondering whether he should close his eyes for a short nap.
Just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly heard what seemed to be a strange sound coming from underneath the vehicle. After freezing for a few seconds, he slowly sat upright.
“Fu Jingqiu,” he called. “Did you hear something?”
Fu Jingqiu stopped exercising. He knelt on one knee on the yoga mat, his breathing not yet even. The area from his neck to his chest was wet, sweat beads hanging on his Adam’s apple, his temples damp.
He suppressed his breathing and held his breath to listen for more than ten seconds, then stood up as well. “There is indeed something.”
Jiang Qingyu silently picked up Meimei, who had been sleeping soundly against him. “Out here in the middle of nowhere, it couldn’t be a ghost, right?”
Fu Jingqiu was clearly a firm materialist and immediately denied his guess. “How could that be? There are no ghosts in this world.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “There are zombies now. What’s wrong with there being a ghost?”
Fu Jingqiu: “…”
That made a lot of sense.
The sound continued, sometimes soft, sometimes loud. One moment it was so faint it could barely be heard, and the next it suddenly grew sharp for a couple of notes. It whimpered and sobbed, sounding genuinely hair-raising.
Late night, heavy rain, wilderness.
Jiang Qingyu really could not sit still. During those two seconds when the sound had been especially loud, goosebumps almost rose all over him.
Because the situation was different now, he had thought it would be better for everyone to stay a little more alert, so he had not turned on the RV’s silent mode. He had not expected to encounter something like this.
Fu Jingqiu wiped his sweat with a towel. “Let’s check the surveillance first.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “Oh, oh, okay.”
With cold hands and feet, he pulled up the surveillance footage. The cameras circled the vehicle, but nothing unusual was found.
This place was just a broken-down square. There was not even anywhere to hide from the rain.
In the middle of the night, what exactly was that thing?
Fu Jingqiu glanced at Jiang Qingyu. “I’ll go down and take a look.”
Huh?
How was this different from those paranormal streamers charging straight ahead when they noticed something strange in a house?
Jiang Qingyu said, “You… you’re sure you want to go down and look?”
Fine, he admitted it. His courage really was a little small.
Jiang Qingyu said, “If we stay in the vehicle, even if it’s a ghost, it can’t get in, right?”
Fu Jingqiu raised an eyebrow, a trace of amusement flashing through his eyes as he went to get a raincoat. “That’s not necessarily true. What if it floats in?”
Damn it! Who was he trying to scare?
Jiang Qingyu gritted his teeth. “Then I’m going too.”
Fu Jingqiu said, “You can stay in the vehicle. Otherwise, you’ll get drenched.”
“…” Jiang Qingyu said, “Have you never watched horror movies? This is exactly a plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain. Once you go down, I’ll be the only one in the vehicle. What if something really appears?”
Fu Jingqiu asked, “Where’s the baseball bat?”
Jiang Qingyu said, “Can a baseball bat defend against ghosts?”
Only then did Fu Jingqiu realize that Jiang Qingyu was truly afraid of this. He quickly apologized to him and comforted him with a few words, then proposed a compromise.
In a moment, he would get out of the vehicle, and Jiang Qingyu would stand on the step by the door and wait for him. They would not close the door. That way, if something really happened, he could rush back.
Jiang Qingyu reluctantly agreed and dug out a strong flashlight for him.
Fu Jingqiu was very efficient. He put on the raincoat and got out to find the source of the sound.
Coincidentally, that thing’s cries suddenly became louder, sounding somewhat shrill in the rainy night, making it even more convenient for Fu Jingqiu to locate it.
Cold wind mixed with threads of rain blew onto Jiang Qingyu’s face. He bit his lip, trying not to shiver from the cold.
“Found it!” Fu Jingqiu’s voice came from the rear of the vehicle. Jiang Qingyu immediately straightened up, eyes wide as he asked nervously, “What’s the situation? What’s the situation?”
Fu Jingqiu walked toward him in a few strides. Without another word, he first stepped onto one step, then said, “It’s a puppy.”
A puppy??
The vehicle door slowly closed. Jiang Qingyu looked in surprise at the little black-and-white bundle in Fu Jingqiu’s arms. “Why would there be a puppy here?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “It was probably thrown out by someone from the village. There’s nowhere nearby to shelter from the rain. Aside from hiding under our vehicle, there was nowhere else.”
Jiang Qingyu understood.
This reminded him of when he had first found Meimei. The situation had not been much better.
He hurriedly found a small blanket. “Quick, quick. Put it here first.”
Fu Jingqiu asked, “Do we have a hot water bag?”
Jiang Qingyu said, “Yes, yes.”
What they feared most right now was hypothermia. As long as it could warm up first and eat something, it could usually be saved.
Fu Jingqiu placed the soaked little thing into the blanket, lightened his movements, and slowly wiped the water off it. Then he placed a hot water bag under its body.
Jiang Qingyu brought over a small storage box and some heat patches, sticking them all around it.
The puppy kept trembling. Its pair of wet eyes stared at them without blinking, whimpering nonstop, looking especially pitiful.
Jiang Qingyu said, “Sorry. I didn’t know it was you and misunderstood.”
He stroked the puppy’s head and said gently, “It’s okay now. You’re saved.”
Meimei smelled the unfamiliar scent and jumped onto the table. Standing beside the puppy’s temporary little nest, she curiously looked at the bundle inside.
Fu Jingqiu felt around it, his expression cold and stern. “Its hind leg was broken by someone.”
“!” Jiang Qingyu said in shock, “It’s still so little!”
Fu Jingqiu said, “I’ll find something and help fix it in place.”
After he walked away, the space in front of the little nest became empty. Looking at the puppy curled up into a miserable little ball, Jiang Qingyu felt terribly distressed and stroked its head twice more. “Later, I’ll put you in the medical cabin, okay? Don’t worry.”
It was even a baby border collie.
Jiang Qingyu had seen puppies at a friend’s house before. When they were little, they were all soft, fluffy, and plump. How could they be like this one? It was all bones under his hand, with barely any flesh.
He found a small baby bottle and mixed some of Meimei’s goat milk powder. After testing the temperature, he tried feeding the puppy a little.
Unexpectedly, this puppy’s desire to survive was terrifyingly strong. Probably knowing that Jiang Qingyu was saving it, it did not resist his feeding at all. After smelling the goat milk, it obediently began drinking, and even tried to hold the bottle with its two paws and feed itself.
The old saying went that as long as one could eat, one could recover. Although there was no scientific basis for it, Jiang Qingyu still felt a trace of joy.
By the time Fu Jingqiu returned, it had already finished almost half a bottle of milk and had started trembling faintly again while curled in the blanket.
Seeing that the blanket under it had become wet, Jiang Qingyu went to change it for another one, wrapping it inside like a little bundle.
While coaxing the puppy, he searched online. Seeing that when netizens rescued kittens, they would also prepare plastic bottles filled with hot water for the kittens to hold, he went and made one too.
The puppy was very smart. Jiang Qingyu guided its paw onto the water bottle, and it hugged it as if it had learned without being taught. At the same time, it secretly glanced at Jiang Qingyu, not quite daring to look at him directly.
Fu Jingqiu found a soft board, cut it to a suitable size, rounded the edges, and first folded it into a curve. Only then did he fit it onto the puppy’s hind leg and use finger-protecting bandages to carefully wrap around it, avoiding its dewclaw. Like this, it was considered fixed in place.
Meimei had already sat down beside them, watching very calmly as they carried out each step of the puppy rescue in an orderly fashion, as if she were a stern supervisor—oh no, a stern cat.
They did not know where this baby border collie had come from. From the outside, Jiang Qingyu’s RV clearly looked like a broken-down van, yet it had still dragged its broken leg over with determination.
In such heavy rain, with half its body submerged in water, it had used all its strength to make sounds and ask for help.
In its condition, if things had dragged on for another half an hour, it would probably have fallen into eternal sleep all alone in the rainy night.
The fur on the puppy’s head, neck, and little belly was almost completely dry now. Jiang Qingyu rubbed his finger against its chin. It was still trembling, but it stuck out its tongue and licked his finger.
Jiang Qingyu’s eyes widened slightly, and he subconsciously looked at Fu Jingqiu.
The latter met his gaze. “Mm, I saw it.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “So good!!”
Fu Jingqiu said, “Very smart, and very brave.”
I want to keep it!!!
Jiang Qingyu looked up at him from under his lashes, a trace of pleading in his eyes. “Brother Fu…”
Fu Jingqiu saw through his thoughts and thought: So now it’s not the time to call me big brother directly or use my full name, is it?
Jiang Qingyu said, “I stockpiled so much cat food and canned food. It can eat those too.”
Fu Jingqiu: “…”
Jiang Qingyu was just short of making a “please, please” gesture. “It braved such heavy rain to come pick us.”
Puppy, puppy, could you repeat once more the story of how you chose us in the heavy rain?
Fu Jingqiu: “…”
Jiang Qingyu said, “If we put it back outside now, it definitely won’t survive. Even if we try to find someone to adopt it, you know what the current situation is. No one will keep it.”
The puppy seemed to understand what he was saying. It worked hard to lift its head and look toward Fu Jingqiu, letting out a few weak whimpers.
Fu Jingqiu had already gotten a basic understanding of the food in the space when they had inventoried it earlier. Forget the two of them with one cat and one dog—even if another family of three came along with a cat and a dog, there would still be enough to eat.
At worst, they could share some of Meimei’s cat food with it. In any case, Meimei ate with them most of the time; the cat food was only a backup meal.
Fu Jingqiu lowered his eyes and looked at the puppy staring at him with its black eyes. At some point, it had started trembling again, pitifully whimpering.
“All right,” Fu Jingqiu compromised. “Tomorrow, we’ll go into the city and find a way to buy more food.”
