The rain didn’t stop. The entire mountain range was shrouded with green fog, and it was beautiful, like a wonderland. However, sightseeing was the last thing Lin Miao cared about, she was anxious that her brother would fall sick due to the constant rain.
The Young Master himself felt that he was fine despite all the walking. In fact, it was back at home that he felt uncomfortable. His head would often feel heavy and his body would frequently be sore.
He realized that apart from being tied up on the first day, it wasn’t so bad after all. He still felt healthy after running around, drinking raw water, running under the sun and wind, eating raw and cold food… He has done all of that, but he ended up fine.
Maybe he wasn’t as weak as he thought he was...
He felt as if he was struck by lightning.
The adults barely talked about his specific medical conditions. He thought it was serious so the adults kept it away from him.
The Young Master looked at Lin Miao, who was talking with the dog, unable to believe his conjecture.
“Shuishui, did any of the adults ever tell you what diseases I have?” He asked.
Lin Miao shook her head. “They never told me, but don’t be scared, I will protect Gege.”
The Young Master wasn’t scared, he just has a really bold guess right now. Originally, he felt that the kidnapping would be the end of him due to how frail his body was. He was determined to return alive with Shuishui. However, he soon forgot about this thought because of all the complications that happened.
And he just realized that his body seemed... good, better than any other time.
Lin Miao misunderstood her brother. She thought he was just feeling desperate because of the rain outside.
Lin Miao moved in front of him and gave him a hug. “Don’t worry, Gege. I’ll tell you a secret, don’t tell others. The Master said I was blessed, and I could shield misfortunes for you.”
She overheard some of the conversations between the Master and the village head. Even though she could only understand some of it, she was still able to make out some of its meaning.
No matter how smart the Young Master was, he never would’ve guessed that Lin Miao would say such a thing.
He could only stare dumbfoundedly at her, thinking that there was probably no one as pure as her.
The Young Master had stayed home more than he had gone to school because of his health.
He hated watching television because it would either be a show her mom starred in or an advertisement featuring her.
His mother would have children in many of the television shows. The kids in there probably called her mother “mom” more times than he ever did.
So he spent much of his time in the study because he didn’t know what else to do.
He started off reading fairy tales and eventually moved on to renowned mystery novels.
The more he read, the more he felt that he was alone more times than not, advancing by himself.
However, it wasn’t like children of his age have never come to his house. Sadly, many of the visitors thought that the Young Master was a lost only-child who wouldn’t make it far, so they all suggested his parents adopt others and such.
Some people even placed an infant in front of their doorsteps. Of course, his grandma called the police and delivered the kid to the orphanage. The police quickly found the person, and they were from the same neighbourhood.
They had placed the child in front of their door in hopes of them adopting him so that he could inherit the family fortune after the Young Master passes away.
Based on that, he thought that it was better for him to be alone.
The rain was still pouring outside, and it even felt like it was getting bigger. The Young Master lifted the little girl who wasn’t on the same train of thought as him. “Shuishui, let’s go back to school together once we get back, okay?”
Lin Miao thought for a bit. She didn’t really want to go to school but was also worried the Young Master might be bullied, so she said yes. Then, she thought of a problem. “We’ll have to wait until next year though. I have to ask my mother if we have money to go to school.”
The Young Master just realized the problem. Looking at Lin Miao’s situation, he could only nod.
Suddenly, the dog beside them whimpered.
“Blood! Gege! It’s bleeding!” Lin Miao said, seeing the blood on the ground.
Lin Miao wanted to see what happened to it.
The dog started to bark aggressively, “Woof! Woof! Woof!”
The Young Master was also surprised; why is it bleeding all of a sudden?
They then heard a quiet and weird noise. It wasn’t a “woof”, but rather more of a groan.
Lin Miao realized what was happening. “Gege! It birthed a baby!”
Lin Miao was very excited even though she didn’t know what exactly she was excited about. “Gege, the dog made a little dog!”
The Young Master came back to his senses. No wonder its stomach was so big despite its skinny body; it was pregnant. He was originally thinking about taking it to the vet.
Even though she was ecstatic, Lin Miao knew she wouldn’t be able to help, if not do the opposite and scare Dahuang. So, she pulled the Young Master aside, moving their sights away from the dog.
Lin Miao was still unable to suppress her excitement. “Gege, can we bring the babies back too?”
“Sure.” The Young Master didn’t mind.
Lin Miao’s excitement was only boosted by this. “Yay! We can bring Dahuang and the babies back together in the New Year!”
The Young Master sighed in his mind. How could they even do this during the New Year? They couldn’t get in contact with Shuishui’s mother.
A moment later, the dog finally stopped moving.
Lin Miao tried to approach her again. She realized that Dahuang no longer barked at her. Then, she noticed the two little puppies.
They were tiny. It was Lin Miao’s first time seeing dogs of such size. Dahuang was lying on the ground, exhausted. Lin Miao felt pity for her.
She hurried to peel some chestnuts for her. “Dahuang worked hard today. We’ll give you something good once we return.”
The Young Master searched around the cave, now that someone really couldn’t catch the wind, and then carried some rocks over.
Lin Miao threw some weird and dirty things on the ground outside. She didn’t know what they were, but throwing them out was the right thing to do.
They then piled the rocks to form a shield against the wind and covered the ground with some dried leaves.
Lin Miao talked while gesturing to the dogs, “Dahuang, can you hide behind that with your puppies?”
Dahuang listened and went by herself.
Lin Miao looked at the little puppies left alone on the ground. She froze and then realized that Dahuang probably went numb from delivering the puppies.
Lin Miao tried to hold one of them up with both her hands. She was excited but nervous as she had never seen such tiny puppies.
Its eyes were still shut, whining. It even licked Lin Miao’s finger. Her heart was melting from it. “Gege, look.”
The Young Master lifted the other one up like how Lin Miao did it and placed it beside Dahuang.
Dahuang didn’t seem to mind.; She was probably too tired, lying flat in the dried leaves.
One of the puppies was purely yellow and the other one had a handful of black hair on its head. It was pretty easy to tell them apart.
Lin Miao began to think of names for the puppies
She wasn’t able to think of many, so she asked the Young Master for ideas.
The Young Master thought for a bit. “Let’s name this one Huihui, and this Jiajia, okay?”
(Note: Huihui and Jiajia corresponds to 回回 and 家家, which together mean “go home”)
“Feifei, Jiajia, yay! Let’s get home as soon as we can!”
The Young Master couldn’t control his laugh. “Mm, yes, Feifei, Jiajia, let’s go home together!”
He didn’t know how she did it. Lin Miao pronounced “huijia” perfectly fine, but somehow misheard “Huihui” as “Feifei.” However, she didn’t notice herself, which was super adorable.
(Note: Feifei refers to 肥肥 meaning fat)
“Feifei, Jiajia, you guys have to be cooperative, we’ll be home very shortly.” Lin Miao said.
No matter how smart and knowledgeable the Young Master was, he was still a kid who stayed at home all year round. So he was also very excited when he saw the little puppies.
The two were exhilarated for the entire afternoon. They even saved some sweet potatoes to feed Dahuang, who had to care for the puppies.
During the night, the puppies were quiet, very well-behaved.
The rain was still pouring by the time they woke up the next day. As usual, Lin Miao placed a hand on the Young Master’s forehead to check his temperature. It was normal.
This time, the Young Master also woke up with Lin Miao. The storm was extremely inconvenient for them to keep traveling in the forest.
Birds would occasionally fly in to shelter away from the rain. The two kids would look at them, at the dogs, and play tic tac toe on the floor.
People in the outside world weren’t nearly as calm as them. They had been missing for six days now. Two of the kidnappers have been arrested three days ago, but the others were not found nor were the children.
The police have made some progress, however. A store reported a young man and woman adamant on selling their second-hand jades for hundreds of thousands of dollars despite it only being worth a bit over ten dollars.
The owner of the store said that the jade was only worth around a dozen dollars and that it was from a street stand. However, the young adults instead accused him of lying in an attempt to bring down the price.
The store owner felt that the two were a bit mentally ill, so they called the police.
Coincidentally, the police who arrived to investigate just received new information from their bureau. They were able to identify right away that it was from the Young Master and Lin Miao.
The grandma thought of the amulets the Master had given to Shuishui and Little Yu when she dialed him for help, so she also told the officers about it.
The police were quick to interrogate information out of the two.
From it, they realized that their investigation was misled from the start. They were focused on investigating people who had grudges with the Young Master’s mother.
Criminals who didn’t even know the Young Master’s mother were the least they expected.
The young man and woman were not like the others. They were quick to tell the police the entire truth.
All the adults in the Yu family headed to the police bureau. The young man and woman told them that the two kids have been missing for two days, along with the dog that guarded them. They also said that they waited for them at key points that lead them to the road, but were still unable to find them. They were beginning to think that perhaps they slipped down the cliffs while walking in the rain.
Despite this, the Young Master’s parents and grandmother still headed to the cliffs with the police.
A lot of netizens also came with the news of this discovery.
However, they weren’t able to find anyone in the dirt hut at the base of the cliff.
The search dogs were pretty useless due to the storm that has been going on for two days.
The search team went through the entire base of the cliffs but came back empty-handed.
The local villagers also said that they didn’t see the two kids.
The search extended into the night. The adults told the volunteers and the police to sleep while they continued with a group of bodyguards they hired. They were insistent even though many suggested that it was unlikely for them to run into the woods due to the Young Master’s health and how Lin Miao was just a little girl. It would be impossible for them to climb the cliff.
Moreover, even if they did make it, they would have headed for the village, and not the mountain.
The Yu family wasn’t going to give up their rare sliver of hope yet. They went up the cliff and continued under the storm.
In the middle of the night, Dahuang suddenly started barking, waking Lin Miao and the Young Master from their dreams.
Lin Miao hurried to cover its mouth. “Don’t bark, Dahuang, stop it.” What if she led the bad guys to them?
But Dahuang only barked louder, making the little puppies shiver.
The Young Master went to pack their sweet potatoes, preparing to run into the forest again.
Not far away, the search team, who had reached the end and was about to return, heard the barking noise.
“Didn’t they say that a dog went missing as well?!” The father said, his face much more haggard than before.
They were pretty far from the village, so it was impossible for it to come from there.
“Listen, where is it coming from?” Tears flooded the mother’s eyes.
Back in the cave, the two kids heard people calling what seems to be their names.
Shortly after, a beam of light shone in the cave.
“Little Yu, Shuishui, are you in here?”
“Grandma! We’re in here!”
The search team stepped into the cave and saw two energetic and dirt-covered kids. There was also a sack of sweet potatoes and two puppies in their arms.
And a big yellow dog staring at them with hostility.