Chapter 23: Tonight I’ll Send You and Your Dog Off Together
Chen Jingshen wore a loose white hoodie and black pants, casual and simple.
It was the first time Yu Fan had seen him in anything other than a school uniform.
A little easier on the eyes than at school.
The dog was still plastered to Yu Fan’s leg, tail wagging so hard it swished, with zero intention of leaving. Yu Fan stayed where he was, cigarette between his teeth, and asked around it, “What are you doing here?”
“Walking the dog.”
Yu Fan glanced at the narrow street and the crowd. “Here?”
“I started at the park nearby.” Chen Jingshen seemed to remember something and for once, his expression turned hard to describe. “Then it dragged me over.”
“…”
Yu Fan mentally calculated where the closest park was.
Nice. Dragged the owner a full 3000 meters?
The Doberman looked fierce. Even with a muzzle and a leash, it still scared people. It circled Yu Fan’s legs, letting out low, muffled sounds through the muzzle, like a warning before a pounce.
A little boy walked by and locked eyes with it. He burst into tears on the spot.
“Hey hey, don’t cry, sweetheart.” The mother scooped him up, soothed him twice, then shot Yu Fan a glare and muttered, “Walking a dog here. What kind of person does that?”
Yu Fan: “…”
Annoyed, he pinched his brows together and slid the unlit cigarette back into the pack.
“The leash,” he said.
Chen Jingshen handed it over. Yu Fan slipped his hand through the loop. Their hands brushed for a second. Both were cold.
“You’re useless. Why keep a large-breed dog?”
Yu Fan tugged the leash and didn’t even look back. “Follow.”
“Okay.”
They had barely gone a few steps when the dog realized someone else held the other end and looked back at its owner.
Chen Jingshen lowered his eyes and wiggled a finger.
The dog let out two soft whines, wagged its tail, and kept moving like a good boy.
The whole street was food stalls; the later it got, the more people there were. Yu Fan hugged the edge of the road and kept the dog as far from the crowd as possible. Thankfully it behaved, padding along by the wall.
“Where are we going?” came the voice behind him.
“Out.”
Walking a dog through a snack street was wrong on every level.
After a beat, the voice asked again, “Did you have dinner?”
Yu Fan ignored him.
“I didn’t,” Chen Jingshen added.
“Then be hungry.”
“It hasn’t eaten either.”
As if it understood, the dog stopped and whined.
Yu Fan: “…”
Chen Jingshen picked a noodle shop by the road. To avoid scaring people, he went in to order takeout.
Yu Fan stood outside with the leash. One man and one dog guarding the door, and business dropped to zero for ten minutes.
Soon Chen Jingshen came out with several plastic bags.
Yu Fan took one look and thought the guy was throwing a full imperial banquet for the dog.
He led them to the nearby artificial lake. Benches lined the water. Yu Fan chose one at random, sat down, and lazily studied the dog.
Chen Jingshen sat with him. The dog immediately turned and leaned on his leg.
It looked exactly like the photo, well kept. Ears pricked high, it had a kind of inborn nobility whenever it sat still.
Yu Fan was still staring when a plastic bag appeared in his peripheral vision.
“There’s an extra bowl of noodles,” Chen Jingshen said. “Buy one get one at that place.”
“I’m not—”
Yu Fan’s stomach grumbled.
“.”
Thirty seconds later, he lifted the lid.
The smell hit. The dog couldn’t keep its seat, popped up, and let out two eager whines.
Chen Jingshen rubbed its back. “No barking.”
His hands were long and clean, knuckles distinct, faint veins rising when he used strength. His hands were big. Whether twirling a pen or handling a dog, he always looked unhurried, a little lazy.
That hand slid from the dog’s neck up to the metal muzzle and stopped.
“Mind if I take this off?” he asked Yu Fan.
Yu Fan snapped back and shook his head.
Chen Jingshen unclipped the muzzle. The dog opened its mouth and barked once, loud.
“Don’t bark. One more and it goes back on.”
Chen Jingshen tapped the dog’s cheek and added, “It doesn’t bite. This is just so passersby feel safe.”
“Mm.”
Yu Fan crossed one leg over the other. “What’s its name?”
“Fanfan.”
“?”
Fanfan heard its name and dared not bark. It could only circle Chen Jingshen’s knees in excitement.
Yu Fan turned with the bowl. “Which ‘fan’?”
Chen Jingshen hesitated. “The one in ‘blooming and splendid.’”
“…”
Cutesy doubled names are normal for pets. Using “Fan” is rare but not unheard of. If it were anyone else, Yu Fan would not have thought twice.
But right now he felt vaguely… offended.
Chen Jingshen met the “are you a pervert” written across Yu Fan’s face and thought for a second. “It was delivered to me when I was in primary school. The name’s from back then.”
He hooked a finger under the dog tag on Fanfan’s collar. “Fanfan, come here.”
Yu Fan: “.”
He flipped the tag out. Yu Fan squinted at it.
On the front was Chen Jingshen’s number. On the back: 【Fanfan, 20111229】
“Its birthday,” Chen Jingshen said. “All of its tags have it.”
“… Fine.”
Yu Fan took a not-very-happy bite of noodles.
The dog, having gotten nothing, kept pacing by their feet. Holding its collar with one hand, Chen Jingshen fished in a bag with the other.
He pulled out a tea egg.
Yu Fan watched him peel the shell, split the egg, pop the white into his own mouth, and present the yolk to Fan, the dog.
“You bought it a single egg?”
“Mm,” said Chen Jingshen. “Can’t let him get too full. Otherwise I can’t hold him.”
“…”
You are shamelessly useless.
The moon was high. A light breeze came off the lake, cool and pleasant. With the noodles in his stomach, the tight wire that had been humming in Yu Fan’s head all evening finally eased.
He kind of wanted a smoke though.
He resisted, shoulders dropping a little as he drawled, “It doesn’t even look hard to walk. How did it drag you the whole way?”
“When he’s riled up, I can’t stop him,” Chen Jingshen said. “Most of the time he’s good.”
As if it knew they were talking about it, Fanfan tried to climb into Chen Jingshen’s lap. Chen Jingshen relaxed his legs and let it, hand moving over its body, fingers scritching lightly.
A crisp notification chimed. Yu Fan snapped back to himself.
Sh**.
He rubbed a hand over his face in the dark and fumbled his phone open.
【Wang Lu’an: The grueling study session is over. I’ve decided to relax. Any brothers gaming tonight? 】
【Wang Lu’an: Why are you offline? Not playing?】
Right. Yu Fan finally remembered.
He’d eaten. What was he still sitting here with Chen Jingshen for?
“I’m heading back.”
He stood. “You can walk it home yourself, right?”
“I can.”
“Then—”
“Wait.”
“I saw a bookstore around the corner. I want to grab a study guide.” One hand on the leash, Chen Jingshen caught Yu Fan’s sleeve with the other. “Can you watch him for five minutes?”
So once again, one man and one dog stood outside a door.
Yu Fan waited a while. Out of the corner of his eye, he met the dog’s gaze.
After a long beat, he squatted and told it, “From now on your name is Shen-Shen.”
Fanfan: “…”
“Shen-Shen.”
“…”
“Do you even know how to make a sound?”
“…”
Yu Fan decided he was insane for trying to rename someone else’s dog. He straightened and pulled out his phone to reply to Wang Lu’an.
The dog sat obediently by his legs, shiny black eyes roaming the passing pedestrians.
The bell over the bookstore door jingled. “Fanfan.”
Yu Fan reflexively looked back, together with the dog.
Chen Jingshen had aimed the call at the dog. Feeling Yu Fan’s gaze, he glanced over.
Yu Fan: “…”
Why the hell did I turn around?
“Mrrr-rrr! Whiiine!” The dog, still muzzled, launched several hundred joyous replies in Chen Jingshen’s direction.
Chen Jingshen walked over and had just opened his mouth when Yu Fan, face like a thundercloud, shoved the leash handle at him.
“Take your dog.”
His tone was worse than his expression.
“Okay.” Chen Jingshen took the handle. Then he slipped another heavy plastic bag into Yu Fan’s palm. “Thanks for tonight.”
Yu Fan looked down at the book inside: Clumsy Bird Flies First 2017.
No need to be polite, he thought. Tonight I’ll send you and your dog off together.
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