Chapter 153

In an instant, everyone's gaze fell on her.

Some also understood the meaning of her words, though they wondered why Ling Yue would say that, they still stopped their actions and looked at her.

Ling Yue stepped forward first to protect Xunbao Shu Duo Duo, explaining: "This is my family's pet mouse; I'll take it away right away!"

This sentence showed that it had an owner, and she was also preparing to take it away.

Hearing this, Xunbao Shu Duo Duo was moved to tears, its little mouse eyes welling up: "Wuu wuu wuu, Yueyue, you finally came!"

"Great, the mouse's life is now secured!"

It jumped about excitedly, drawing astonished looks from the bystanders.

However, upon hearing Ling Yue wanted to take the mouse away, they were all too happy for her to do so, and some elderly people narrowed their eyes at her: "Is this your mouse? It's a gray mouse."

"What do you plan to do after taking it away? Keep raising it? That would be a disaster!"

Ling Yue blinked, her gaze falling on the gray mouse behind Xunbao Shu Duo Duo; if it were just Duo Duo, it wouldn't be too hard, for it was small and cute, its whole body gleaming gold like a little golden mouse.

But that big gray mouse could not be changed at all.

Its fuzzy gray fur and long, thick tail—this is the typical big rat of the north!

The big gray mouse obviously understood as well, nervously squeaking: "I, I didn't steal anything; I'm a good mouse!"

Ling Yue knew, but the others couldn't understand; seeing it almost about to jump, they immediately shook their heads and stepped back several paces.

"Rats are especially dirty, crawling with germs; even if we can't kill them, we must keep our distance!"

Many agreed deeply.

Ling Yue glanced around, seeing the crowd thrown off rhythm and some timid folk, and immediately gave Xunbao Shu Duo Duo a look.

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo instantly understood, tugging at the big fellow beside it; the big gray mouse's body stiffened as it nodded.

The next moment, it and the big mouse ran off in the same direction; in an instant, the others hadn't even had time to react, and already the mice's shadows were gone.

When they went to look for Ling Yue, she had already run away.

Moments later, in the narrow alley, Ling Yue walked to the entrance and looked; before she could even step out, a golden little paw stretched out from below: "Squeak squeak squeak!"

A round little head like a mushroom popped up with a chirp; Xunbao Shu Duo Duo looked at her: "Hey, Yueyue, you're finally back!"

It turned out that Ling Yue's glance back then was telling them: I'll draw attention, you guys run away quickly.

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo is such a clever little mouse; it immediately decided to split up with A Hui.

Oh, A Hui is the name of Xunbao Shu Duo Duo's little brother; it's a big, simple-minded mouse living in the sewers, rarely seeing people.

Upon hearing the boss call it, its two little paws rubbed together, and it looked respectfully at Ling Yue: "Boss's boss, hello!"

Ling Yue lowered her eyes slightly, found a secluded spot, then asked: "Are you looking for me?"

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo nodded: "Of course!"

Speaking of this, it's still fuming; originally it said it would bring them in, but the crow crow left midway, so it had to bring the simple-minded A Hui in alone—only to discover A Hui suffers from severe social anxiety!

Seeing people, it was so scared it couldn't even run; humans spotted it immediately—such a fat, big, dirty rat—many's first reaction was to hit it!

This mouse must have stolen who-knows-how-much food to grow so fat and sturdy!

Poor A Hui was frightened stupid in an instant; as the boss, Xunbao Shu Duo Duo couldn't just stand by, especially since it was the little brother it brought along—thus came the scene Ling Yue saw when she went out.

She now recalled it, and couldn't help curling the corner of her mouth.

"Cough." Ling Yue gave a light cough; she hadn't meant to, it was just too funny.

Ling Yue looked solemnly at Xunbao Shu Duo Duo: "You still haven't said—why did you look for me?"

Hearing this, Xunbao Shu Duo Duo's eyes widened instantly: "Actually it wasn't me, it was A Hui!"

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo said, pushing forward the severely socially anxious A Hui who had only spoken one sentence so far: "QAQ"

It was so scared!

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo: "... Speak up, weren't you the one looking for me? How come when you're in front of Yueyue you can't say a word?"

Socially anxious A Hui: "⊙﹏⊙"

It stammered for a while; Ling Yue only caught "sewer", "people", etc.; frankly, it was less than when it was being chased and beaten, jumping about in panic.

Seeing it was hopeless, Ling Yue turned her gaze to Xunbao Shu Duo Duo beside her; receiving her look, Xunbao Shu Duo Duo resignedly sighed: "Then I'll say it."

Ling Yue nodded.

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo: "The matter starts from this morning; I just woke up, my little brother suddenly ran over and told me there was a big gray mouse with something very important to discuss with me—if I didn't see it, I'd regret it for life!"

Ling Yue seriously suspected it might have smuggled some contraband.

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo: "Cough, that last line I added myself."

However, the situation really was just as it said.

Xunbao Shu Duo Duo had been especially busy lately; finally getting a break, it had wanted to sleep till dawn, but then A Hui popped up.

It got up irritably, stared at the big mouse, and demanded gruffly: "What do you want to say?"

I never expected that upon seeing it, A Hui would throw itself into a full prostration; after a halting introduction, Xunbao Shu Duo Duo finally grasped its meaning and froze: "You mean you want me to help rescue someone?"

A Hui kept nodding.

Returning to the topic, Ling Yue heard "rescue someone" and froze for a moment: "What happened? Where is that person now?"

The socially anxious A Hui shrank into a ball from fear: "At, at, at my doorstep!"

"Wuu wuu wuu, so scary, so scary!"

It trembled with fright, making Ling Yue frown tightly, afraid it might faint from terror.

After it calmed a bit, Ling Yue finally managed to grasp, haltingly, what was going on.

It turned out that A Hui, because of severe social anxiety, had always lived in the sewers of Jing Shi, along with other mice like it; they were a group of sewer-dwelling mice.

However, because the sewer network is extensive, they usually find it hard to meet.

So, as a socially anxious mouse, A Hui's days were actually pretty pleasant.

Until a few days ago.

A Hui leisurely went out, preparing to search along the pipe for a bit of food scraps to fill its stomach, but it never expected that just as it stepped out of its own front door, it directly encountered a human.

Compared to a mouse, the human was huge, like a little giant, staring at A Hui with shock and a bit of excitement, the light in his eyes making it flee in fright.

Still audible behind him was the human's exclamation: "Old, old mouse!"

A Hui's heart pounded wildly from fright, its heartbeat racing to two hundred.

It was like an overloaded machine in transition, on the verge of crashing, yet it could only slowly cool down.

Specifically, A Hui darted into the house with a hiss, shrank back for a moment, then suddenly an extremely sweet smell wafted out, continuously attracting it.

A Hui's hungry stomach growled; it smelled too good, and it couldn't resist, timidly poking its little head out to look outside.

It kept telling itself, just one glance, I'll only take one glance!

But unexpectedly, the human had already been crouching right outside its home; as soon as the little mouse poked its head out, he caught it red-handed.

His big, dark eyes fixed on it, the human suddenly reached out a hand, like the lucky cat on the counter that A Hui had seen as a child when its parents brought it, waving: "Hello, little mouse."

A Hui: "!!!"

Ahhh, this human must be crazy, why is he greeting me!

Soon A Hui realized, he wasn't crazy; he was on the verge of going crazy.

Through the boy's muttering, it learned that the young man hadn't seen a living creature in a long time, alone in the dark, damp sewer; all he could do each day was look up at the sky and shout for help.

But it was all useless; no one answered him, he was like someone locked in a dark room, isolated and quickly going crazy.

So A Hui had no idea that, in this state, he suddenly discovered himself, simply overjoyed beyond belief.

The young man occasionally looked up.

A Hui also felt a bit strange; following his gaze, the poor mouse realized that the sewer manhole cover originally there had long since vanished, and even its own rain‑proof cover had been stolen by someone!

A Hui was terrified.

What frightened it even more was that the young man trapped in the pipe suddenly pulled milk and bread from the backpack on his back, and beside his feet lay several packaging bags.

With a splashing sound, A Hui smelled a sweet, mouth‑watering aroma, presumably the food in the young man's hand.

A Hui was dying of hunger.

It lay at its doorstep, eyes wide, watching him eat.

The boy sensed its probing gaze, spotted A Hui behind the pipe; when only its little head was visible, it looked rather cute.

The boy suddenly spoke: "Do you want to eat bread?"

A Hui fled back in fright, but soon it poked its head out again; this time, as soon as it emerged, it discovered a great surprise: a big, white, sweet, soft loaf of bread lay on the pipe where it was lying.

Wow, what a huge piece of bread!

It was fragrant and sweet, giving off a tempting aroma; in A Hui's eyes it seemed to speak, saying over and over: "Want to eat? If you do, hurry up and eat me~"

Not far away, the young man glanced at it with his peripheral vision.

In the end, hunger overcame fear; A Hui clung to the loaf and began to gnaw, and thus it was no longer so afraid of the young man.

Thanks to a piece of food, its relationship with the young man leapt forward.

The boy sighed gloomily, sitting on his backpack, treating A Hui as a friend: "Little mouse, do you know how to get out?"

A Hui stared blankly at him, not understanding what he meant.

The young man clutched his stomach; he had been missing for three or five days, he wasn't sure, but he knew clearly that today his backpack's stored food had finally run out.

If this continued, he would surely starve or die of thirst!

He must save himself!

But upon glancing at the towering seven‑ or eight‑meter height, he knew he couldn't possibly manage it—escape along the sewer?

His gaze fell on the other direction of the sewer pipe, pitch black, like a bloody maw, and he dared not act rashly.

Suddenly he saw A Hui, who had been constantly by his side: "You just ate my food; can you take me out?"

After saying that, he felt foolish—how could it possibly understand his words?

However, what he didn't see was that after A Hui heard his words, it suddenly stepped back two steps: "Out? A little mouse like this could, but you, young man, definitely could not!"

The young man, unwilling to give up, asked again: "Can you help me find someone to come over?"

Suddenly unable to bear it, he leapt up, cupped his hands like a megaphone, and shouted upward: "Who will come save me? I'm down here!"

"Who will come save me?!"

This time, A Hui had a solution.

It suddenly turned and ran toward the pipe's exit; the young man watched in anguish: "Little mouse? Little mouse, why did you suddenly run off? Come back quickly!"

However, A Hui ran off without looking back; afterward, after enduring various hardships and spending a whole night, it finally found the villa where Xunbao Shu Duo Duo was located.

For a mouse that basically lives in sewers and suffers severe social anxiety, this was nothing short of an unbelievable adventure.

Fortunately, it succeeded.

A Hui still dared not look at Ling Yue, head lowered, voice low; if not for Ling Yue's keen ears and sharp eyes, it probably wouldn't have been heard at all.

A Hui: "You, you can help me save him?",,,.