Little Pudding is Sick (2)
Lu Chenghe had been sitting at a stone table with the owner of the courtyard. On the table, there were five cups of tea that were still emitting steam. Zuo Ning was lying on the cushion by Lu Chenghe's feet, and his black eyes were looking all over the place.
This place was a bit like a courtyard house but it was made to be very refined. Tree-lined, large numbers of koi, some kind of vine plant climbing up the flower box. Looking along the corridor, it seemed especially carefree. Through the chatting that took place for a while, Zuo Ning knew that it seemed this area was going to be turned into a privately-owned restaurant. Furthermore, it was the kind of privately-owned restaurant that had a lot of style and where without personal relationships, it was unlikely to know about it.
The owner of this courtyard was Lou Minzhi who was the ninth born in his family. As a result, his friend group all called him Lou Jiu [1]. This private restaurant hadn't been formally opened yet. However, Lou Jiu had already decided to live here to pass his rural life away from worldly affairs, so he'd just invited a few close friends to come over and visit.
As soon as Nie Yong came in, he sighed loudly. Seeing how well constructed this small courtyard was. Lou Jiu really knew how to live life; it was quiet even in a noisy neighbourhood all of a sudden, increasing its style.
Lou Jiu rolled his eyes at Nie Yong: "Can you speak like a human? You got another girlfriend again, this isn't the same girl you brought last time." Things like pulling out the rug from under his feet, who was afraid of who?
Nie Yong was suddenly startled: "What are you saying? Little Lu, don't listen to his nonsense, he's a single dog and can't bear to see our closeness!"
The girl on his side grinned, clearly not having taken it seriously.
Zuo Ning had extended the claws hidden in his paws and was sweeping away the ants on the ground for fun. Hearing what was said, he looked up to see that brush cut head. What's this about a single dog? He was looking down on single dogs. Thinking like this, he sat up on the cushion and clung to Lu Chenghe's leg, wanting a hug. He was also loved by someone. He really wasn't a single dog.
Zuo Ning, who originally had a low-profile existence, was carried onto Lu Chenghe's body and had his fur stroked. All of a sudden, he became the focus of everyone's attention. Nie Yong reached out to touch it but was smacked by Chen Tao: "Look at your dark hand, don't dirty the dog's white fur by touching it."
Nie Yong flew into a rage out of humiliation: "Don't discriminate against dark skin like this!"
The few people shouted, made a ruckus, made noise, and laughed for quite a while before they became quiet and sat down. At last, they could properly speak.
Lu Chenghe pacified Little Pudding for a while before undoing the leash on his body, releasing him and letting him run. In any case, the courtyard's doors were all closed so he wasn't worried about him running out. Although the space at home was enough for him to happily let loose every day, Lu Chenghe still didn't want to restrain him too much as to avoid raising him to have too timid of a temper.
After making sure that Lu Chenghe wouldn't be leaving for at least a short while, Zuo Ning started to curiously stroll around everywhere. Standing in the interesting and visually appealing courtyard, there was an inexplicable feeling of being lost in time and space. Zuo Ning felt that the owner of this courtyard really knew how to live. If he had this kind of small courtyard, how great would that be? However, with the current housing prices, he was afraid that he couldn't even afford a small washroom in this courtyard.
A courtyard standing alone in the downtown area like this, he didn't know how much it would cost. As expected, Lu Chenghe's friends were like him, very nouveau riche.
Walking on a stone bridge in the courtyard, there were groups of very fat koi swimming around. Zuo Ning laid on the slab of stone and extended his paws, wanting to tease them. He hadn't even touched the water yet when he heard a voice telling him to stop.
Zuo Ning raised his head and looked at that pretty young lady who was walking over. That young lady was still laughing as she said: "You're not allowed to do this. It would be dangerous if you were to fall." While speaking, she tried to reach her hand out, wanting to hug it.
Zuo Ning naturally wouldn't fall, so he obediently sat up. This young lady seemed to be quite fond of him. Petting his head and smoothing his fur, she touched the dog tag worn on his neck and took a quick look at it in particular. Apparently somewhat surprised, she muttered: "This dog tag actually has diamonds embedded. Your owner must really be too wealthy."
Zuo Ning hadn't carefully looked at the dog tag on his neck, he had only heard Lu Chenghe say that it had a GPS. He didn't know that it would unexpectedly have diamonds embedded but he did know that wealth shouldn't be revealed inadvertently. Not waiting for Xue Lu to examine it carefully, he turned around and ran back to Lu Chenghe's side. Right away, he was met with avoidance and rejection: "Where did you rub against for your entire body to be green?"
Lou Jiu laughed and said: "It shouldn't have gone to catch fish, right? This green body looks like moss. Just so that you wouldn't ignore it, it ran all over the place without worrying about falling into the water."
While Lu Chenghe was in the middle of cleaning Zuo Ning's dog fur, Xue Lu walked over. Nie Yong took her hand and asked: "How is it? Isn't it pretty? If you like it, we can come often in the future. Eating and drinking here are free!"
Lou Jiu coldly snorted. Xue Lu was actually somewhat embarrassed and smiled: "Very pretty." Speaking while looking at Zuo Ning: "This doggy is really cute, just now it wanted to fish. Can I hug it? It seems to be a little afraid of strangers."
After all, this was a close childhood friend's girlfriend. Since he could bring his girlfriend over to their gathering, it proved that Nie Yong was serious. Therefore, even if Lu Chenghe wasn't very willing, he wasn't able to refuse and without any other option, he put Little Pudding down.
Generally, the dogs of people you're close to would bark and come over if you teased it a bit but no matter how Xue Lu teased, Zuo Ning stuck to Lu Chenghe's body. Towards this, Lu Chenghe was very satisfied but nevertheless, he said slightly apologetically to Xue Lu: "Sorry about this. This is his first time being brought out. He might be a bit timid."
Seeing that the dog wasn't getting closer to her, Xue Lu could only smile and say that it doesn't matter. From the side, Nie Yong said: "If you like dogs, we can raise one."
Xue Lu shook her head: "Work is so busy, where would there be the time to raise a pet."
Lou Jiu smiled from the side and asked: "Little Lu, what is your job?"
On behalf of Xue Lu, Nie Yong spoke: "Little Lu studied geology in university and now, she's interning at a pearl store. After she's familiar with this business, she might open a store."
Shen Tao heard Nie Yong's words, picked up a teacup, and sipped a mouthful of tea. Contrary to what one may expect, Lou Jiu gave a smile with an unclear meaning: "Really now, her plans for the future aren't bad."
As for Lu Chenghe, he was dedicating himself to cleaning dog fur. However, there was inevitably a bit of green that couldn't be wiped off. Looking at the foolishly and happily grinning little thing, he couldn't help but poke the little tongue that he exposed half of: "Dirty little dog. When we get back, I'll give you a nice bath."
Aside from the girlfriend Nie Yong brought, there was another stranger at the gathering so what they said was somewhat reserved because of outsiders. Nevertheless, the gathering was very satisfactory.
Until they were on the way back, Zuo Ning still curiously watched Lu Chenghe. This was totally different from what he thought a nouveau riche party would be like. Shouldn't there be something like a golf course? Compared to what sitting in a circle together looked like, that kind of scenery was different.
However, this kind of Lu Chenghe was really somewhat unexpected to Zuo Ning. He'd thought that the Lu family's big BOSS was that kind of aloof and remote person, especially placing himself above commoners. But today, he felt that Lu Chenghe wasn't that different from ordinary people. He also had noisy friends and would chat about gossip.
In the car on the way back, he saw Little Pudding staring at him. Lu Chenghe found it funny and picked him up: "What are you looking at so seriously? What are you looking at, hm?"
Zuo Ning grinned: "Awoo!" I’m looking at you. I feel like I like you even more today. Awoo.
It was just that this happy day was destined to have a bad ending. After taking a fragrant bath, Zuo Ning, who was watching a TV series, suddenly felt that his stomach was starting to hurt. He felt despair when he found out, it seemed that he'd fallen ill and this illness wasn't light.
The author’s note for this chapter is about another (BL) story so I didn’t translate it.
[1] – Instead of writing ninth for Lou Minzhi, I kept it as Jiu (九) which means nine as it sounded… off to fully translate it.
（｀Δ´）I agree with Nie Yong about skin tone! （╯｀Δ´）╯︵ ┻━┻