Chapter 371

Sahala bears a grudge.

Usually Sahala seems easy to get along with, and plays well with many kids in the compound, but once it takes a dislike to someone, it likely will hold that dislike for a long time; this is the experience Zheng Tan has summed up from knowing Sahala for over five years. Judging by the current situation, those few people must have somehow provoked Sahala somewhere.

An animal's deep impression of a person is not necessarily only about appearance; it also involves voice and smell. Regardless, Sahala has remembered those three people.

Zheng Tan is not Sahala and does not understand dog language; he can only roughly interpret what they want to express from their behavior based on his years of familiarity with Sahala and other dogs in the compound, but he cannot know the reason behind things; if he wants to understand, he still has to find out himself.

Thinking that there's nothing much happening lately, Xiao Guo's New Year task is already done and he's not busy, so Zheng Tan has time to stroll around the school.

After Sahala dug in the soil for a while playing, it got bored; now in winter there are no grasshoppers or similar insects to amuse it, and digging up the plants used for greenery would get it scolded, so it can only dig in the soil; now that digging has made it hungry, it intends to go home, with no sense of causing trouble, and it doesn't even realize it might bring trouble to its owner and people related to the owner.

When hungry, one must eat; to eat one must go home; after returning home, one starts calling for food—this is the survival rule for every pet kept in the city.

After watching Sahala walk toward the compound, Zheng Tan did not follow it back but returned to the place where Sahala had just pushed someone's vehicle. Now there is no one gathered there, and passersby have no idea that a dog-pushing-person incident just occurred here.

Zheng Tan looked around. He didn't see the two men and one woman; seeing that the time was about up, he went back, and if he returned late he would also get scolded.

The next day, Zheng Tan took advantage of nobody being home to turn on the computer and look at Chu Hua Da Xue's campus forum. Whether the matter has become big or small, just checking the forum will tell you; nowadays, with the internet ever more developed, students post anything they have to discuss on the forum—discussing buying cars, buying earphones, even what medicine to use for smelly feet can generate hundreds of posts. Even though it's finals period now, the forum is still bustling, even more so than usual, with sellers of cheat devices, part-time scalpers selling train tickets, groups organizing to go home together—you name it, it's there.

When Zheng Tan goes online not knowing what to do, he just browses the campus forum.

Upon reaching the relevant discussion section, Zheng Tan opened it and saw a hot post; clicking it, he saw Sahala's goofy photo placed there—a snapshot taken by a student nearby when Sahala pushed someone yesterday. The photo quality is not great, but anyone familiar can easily recognize Sahala, after all, on campus there is only one dog with three bloodlines looking like this, while other people's huskies and Labradors are much purer.

The student who posted was one of the passersby yesterday; he often hangs out on the campus forum. He said that yesterday, while preparing to go out shopping with his classmates, he witnessed a dog knocking over a girl riding a bicycle, and the photo was taken by his classmate. His words convey dissatisfaction with this campus incident, worrying that the dog might be sick and could harm other students, making it a genuine hazard.

Below, many people replied, among them not a few who recognized Sahala, and they also dug up information about Sahala's owner Ruan Ying and Ruan Ying's grandfather, Academician Ruan.

Naturally, there were also some people sneering and mocking.

"Should we report this to the Security Office?"

"What's there to report? Didn't you see that his grandfather is an academician?"

"Who is Academician Ruan? Is he very impressive?"

"Haven't the guys upstairs ever heard the campus broadcast? They don't know the famous Academician Ruan, who appears often, giving lecture after lecture, racking up achievements—a celebrity; even if my advisor stood before him, he'd have to act like a child."

"There's a phrase: 'dog relying on human power.'"

"Next time we evaluate courses online, just give a bad review!"

"Maybe there's a misunderstanding here."

"What misunderstanding? I heard that dog is usually crazy."

"Hey, Ruan Ying is still teaching us; he's a nice person, but I don't know Academician Ruan—only heard his name, never seen him."

"What kind of dog has what kind of owner. My impression of Academician Ruan has plummeted to negative."

"A bunch of losers—if you've got the guts, say it to their faces instead of whining here; with this time you'd be better off getting some practice questions from a teacher, and if you fail, do you plan to retake classes next year with your junior schoolmates? I don't know which bastard canceled the makeup exam policy, damn it!"

……

Below the post, a large 'hot' label shows many people are following it; from the first page to the last, Zheng Tan realizes Sahala probably really caused trouble this time, as many students in the thread, even those who don't even know the cause, are just stirring things up—likely because it's finals period, and some stressed people are just looking for entertainment here.

Don't just look at it as only a dog; sometimes many things erupt only needing a tiny, inconspicuous fuse.

It's a pity dogs can't speak; even if Sahala truly felt wronged, it couldn't say so, and Ruan Ying could only go apologize to them. Now the matter has even dragged in Academician Ruan.

The upper echelons have their own games; don't think Professor Ruan being an academician means this school has only one such academician—there are also those who dare to oppose Academician Ruan, and many in this post are from other factions.

When research competition fails, they resort to 'strategy'—a widespread phenomenon that leaves people feeling helpless.

After turning off the computer, Zheng Tan went to the building where Sahala lives; downstairs he could still hear Sahala making whimpering sounds from its nose, sounding quite aggrieved, but there's nothing to be done now—letting it out would only make things more troublesome.

At noon, Zheng Tan heard people in the compound saying Sahala had been locked up by Ruan Ying, likely not to be released for a long time, and Ruan Ying is currently looking for someone to apologize to.

In the afternoon, Zheng Tan went to the spot where Sahala had urinated on a bicycle yesterday; there was no vehicle with a urine smell, presumably already sold by those two people, and after waiting half a day he still didn't see them.

Over the next few days, Zheng Tan wandered around the school, specifically looking for those three people. Finally one day he spotted them, but not inside the school—rather near the school gate.

That day, Zheng Tan went to Jiao Wei's small restaurant for lunch, finished eating and headed back, glancing at the 'Wu Tarou Shaobing' shop on the way; there were still many people, though it was past mealtime so the line wasn't very long, but the queue still had seven or eight people.

A female student with a backpack rode her bike to the shaobing shop and stopped by a tree, thinking locking the bike was too troublesome just to buy a shaobing, which wouldn't take long; so she didn't lock it, parked it there and headed to the shop. When she reached the shaobing shop and got in line, Zheng Tan saw a person walk to where that female student had parked her bike, calmly push the bike aside, mount it, and ride away.

Zheng Tan stared, stunned from the side; but others seeing this wouldn't think anything else—it seemed completely natural.

But when that female student returned with her shaobing and didn't see her bike, shouting loudly, 'Where's my bike?', Zheng Tan knew that girl indeed had a problem.

The person who rode off with the bike was exactly the girl Sahala had knocked over together with her bike that day; and nearby, Zheng Tan also saw another face—the owner of the bicycle that Sahala had urinated on that day.

Zheng Tan didn't have time to think further; the girl who rode off on the bike had already disappeared from view, blocked by passing pedestrians and vehicles, but the other person Zheng Tan could still follow.

That man was riding a somewhat broken old bicycle, not fast, and Zheng Tan could follow easily.

That person rode not toward the campus but in the direction away from the school.

Zheng Tan hesitated a moment, since he didn't know where these two were headed, but soon he stopped thinking and just kept following.

Riding a bicycle wouldn't take them too far; besides, if it really were too far, Zheng Tan could simply stop pursuing later.

Fortunately, the person didn't ride far—only about two or three minutes—before arriving at a bike shop that both repairs and sells new and used bikes; the shopfront is roughly fifty square meters, filled with bikes, repairs done under a simple canopy outside, where two students were using a pump to inflate tires and one student was pushing a bike in to fix its chain.

Inside the shop sat a man in his forties on a velvet chair, playing with his phone; seeing the arrivals, he didn't speak, just tilted his head slightly.

A glance, a small gesture—each understood the other.

Zheng Tan watched that man push his bike into a side alley next to the shop, and he followed.

He wasn't wearing a cat tag, and no one would suspect a cat; onlookers just assumed it was someone's pet from around there.

That day, when Sahala caused trouble, Zheng Tan hadn't come out, so they hadn't seen him; thus, when the person ahead turned back and saw Zheng Tan, they didn't think much of it.

Behind the bike shop was a small courtyard with a two-meter-high wall; that person opened the rear gate and pushed his bike inside.

Zheng Tan went to the corner, jumped onto the wall, and looked inside.

In the courtyard stood four people—three men and one woman—about the same age, chatting and laughing; three of them Zheng Tan had seen on the day Sahala caused trouble, while the fourth was relatively unfamiliar, appearing also as a student, with no dyed hair and no unconventional clothing, so at first glance nobody would suspect ill intent.

Two vehicles were parked in the courtyard, one of which was the bicycle that the female student had just ridden over.

The person Zheng Tan had never seen before was wearing a set of blue work clothes, with tools placed beside him, intending to refurbish the vehicle, stripping off the old paint and spraying on new paint.

From the bearing of these few people, it's obvious they've been at this for more than just a month or two—they're practiced; just seeing how calmly that girl earlier rode off with someone else's bicycle shows they've done this sort of thing many times. Looking at that rather demure girl, when Sahala knocked her and her bike over that day she still drew considerable sympathy, yet who would have guessed she'd be capable of such an act?

None of these people look like they're up to no good, yet the fact is exactly that.

These few must have stolen a vehicle and somehow provoked Sahala at some point; Sahala fixed his gaze on them, but his approach was all wrong—he couldn't speak, couldn't explain, and nobody came to his aid to seek justice.

Just knowing these people steal cars is useless.

The other side has many people, many mouths, can argue; by comparison, Sahala could be instantly crushed to bits, and if wronged, they can only stay home crying.

Zheng Tan actually really wanted to pull out all the valve stems of the cars in that shop to piss them off, but he can't do that now; it would easily startle the snake.

After squatting on the courtyard wall and watching for a while, Zheng Tan left quietly.

To clear Sahala's name, the only option is to obtain evidence.

Zheng Tan ran toward the school while thinking: This time it's not me causing trouble; I'm just helping Sahala out.

At the same time, Zheng Tan had to admit that every time he does this kind of thing, he feels a little excited inside.

Sure enough, I can't stay idle! (To be continued...)

ps: Today a book friend sent me a private message saying: "Chen Ci, school starts soon, dare you do a third watch?"

Looking at it, today is the 27th, and with school starting on September 1st, there really aren't many days left.

I really can't guarantee doing a third watch; even on weekends I can't guarantee having time, so I can only squeeze it in. Today I'll just do one chapter, keep typing; however much I type tonight, we'll release it together tomorrow night.

Good night, everyone.