UCS Chapter 121.1

The tea was clear and fresh, the beautiful white Western-style teapot complementing the jade-green of the tea with a particular elegance.

“Please sit wherever you like.”

The villa was in a European style. White woollen throws were draped over the cream-coloured sofas, and a few simple oil paintings hung on the walls.

Sunlight filtered through the off-white curtains onto the tea table, illuminating a pale lavender vase that held a single pale yellow rose.

Xiao Yusheng pushed the tea toward them. Wu Qin had already been drawn to the paintings on the wall and was looking toward them repeatedly. Noticing this, Xiao Yusheng smiled. “These are works by Master Heilang. You are interested in them as well?”

Wu Qin could barely contain himself. The master was famously reclusive and his works exceptionally rare. He had not expected to find several of them here.

Xiao Yusheng read Wu Qin’s mood and guided him over to look at the paintings. His conversation was elegant and his knowledge extensive, and before long the two were deep in animated discussion. Gao Gusheng and Sun Jun, by contrast, received less attention, which almost had Sun Jun wondering whether all his earlier suspicions about Xiao Yusheng had been misplaced.

Not far from the sitting room was Xiao Yusheng’s studio. The door was open, and the interior was clearly visible.

Xiao Yusheng perhaps caught them looking out of the corner of his eye, and smiled. “That is my studio. You are welcome to have a look if you are curious, Student Gao, Student Sun. It is only my own paintings in there, nothing of particular value.”

Sun Jun thanked Xiao Yusheng, and walked into the studio with Gao Gusheng.

The moment Sun Jun stepped through the door, his eyes lit up.

This studio was everything any painter could dream of. One entire wall was taken up by floor-to-ceiling cabinets, filled to capacity with paints and tools.

A covered canvas sat on an easel in the corner. Near the cabinets was a dedicated station for making paint.

It was clear that Xiao Yusheng had been working here just now.

Sun Jun walked over in some amazement. “These paints were all made by him!”

Gao Gusheng leaned in to look, moving to the nearest position, and read the small label attached to one of the freshly made tubes of paint. “Bone black?”

“Junzi, aren’t bones white?”

Sun Jun explained, “Bone black is made by dry-distilling chicken bones or ivory and then grinding the result. The bones turn black after distillation, which is why the resulting colour is called bone black.”

Gao Gusheng nodded with a partial understanding, noticing Sun Jun’s eyes gleaming as he looked over the entire wall of paints. He made a mental note to track down some stones used in making pigments as a gift.

After a short while they heard a faint sound from outside and went out to look. The machines had arrived.

There were smaller drones and larger lifting machines.

Surprisingly, the noise produced when these machines operated was minimal, roughly between thirty and fifty decibels.

Gao Gusheng was somewhat struck by this, and instinctively sensed a business opportunity. He looked upward toward the sky, and when he spotted the drone, his gaze sharpened.

The Gao family’s focus was high technology, and drones sold on the consumer market were things he had played with as toys since childhood. He could identify the model at a glance.

This model was called Eye, because its defining feature was its high-definition camera.

Its resolution could rival lenses worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.

As a consequence, its flight capabilities were poor: it could only ascend a few metres, and could not be used in adverse weather. Drones with both high resolution and strong capability were simply not permitted to enter the consumer market.

For this reason, aside from some outdoor travel bloggers who used it for aerial landscape shots, very few people bought it.

Perhaps Xiao Yusheng simply wanted to use this kind of drone to photograph his rose garden?

At that moment, a burst of barking erupted outside, so deafening it was as though the dog were howling directly into one’s ear. Gao Gusheng jolted and sprang to his feet.

“Xiaosheng, what is it?”

“Student Gao, what is wrong?”

Gao Gusheng looked out the window. The dog was still barking, its cries threaded through with warning, anger, and grief. Whether it was because the dog carried spiritual energy or simply his own constitution, Gao Gusheng had no idea, but he was hearing all of this emotion in a few barks. Those feelings washed over him, and his heart began to pound furiously, almost leaping out of his chest. Something was pulling at him, urging him to go and look.

“Why has Edward started barking so intensely all of a sudden? Did Xiaohong wander over to him?”

Xiao Yusheng gave a rueful smile and held up his injured hand. Against the smooth skin, the wound looked particularly alarming. “Edward is in heat. He has been irritable lately.”

A lie.

Gao Gusheng looked him in the eye. His gaze was so sincere it was almost enough to make one feel sorry for him.

A pity it was a lie.

Gao Gusheng could feel his heart pounding wildly. He looked at Xiao Yusheng’s seemingly earnest expression and broke into a smile. “I am sorry, I am still a little worried. Would it be alright if we went to check?”

That smile of his was like a white rose beneath the moonlight, bloomed to its fullest and on the verge of falling.

An electric current shot up his spine and down through the base of it. Xiao Yusheng’s heart gave a numbing lurch, and he nearly lost control of his expression.

He gave a light cough. “Of course… you may.”

Sun Jun did not know why Gao Gusheng suddenly wanted to go and check on the dog, but stood up and fell in at Gao Gusheng’s side all the same, walking out of the sitting room. Outside, the machines were still at work in the garden. The barking drowned out every sound the machines made.

Evidently Xiao Yusheng doted on Edward greatly. Its kennel was enormous and elaborately appointed.

Xiao Yusheng cautioned them, “Edward has been quite fierce these past few days. The lead is on, so do not be alarmed.”

Gao Gusheng stared fixedly at that door and gave an absent nod.

The door opened. The barking ceased abruptly. At the end of the lead that should have been restraining the dog, there was nothing but a broken collar.

All three pairs of pupils contracted at once. Before any of them could react, an enormous black shape launched itself from behind the door.

“Xiaosheng!”

With a blast of foul stench, a dog the height of a man bore Gao Gusheng heavily to the ground, its massive jaws driving toward him.

Xiao Yusheng and Sun Jun lunged forward at the same instant.

But the very next second, Edward abruptly buried his head against Gao Gusheng’s neck and began letting out small, plaintive whimpers.

Xiao Yusheng broke into a cold sweat. How could he allow the rose he had set his sights on to wilt before it even reached his hands. He hurried to pull Edward back. “Up, Edward! You are being extremely rude to our guest!”

But Edward, standing upright, was a full metre eighty. It must be said that under ordinary circumstances, a human being of comparable size would find it very difficult to overpower an animal of the same. So his pulling not only failed to move Edward, it had the effect of granting Edward the right to register his grievances. The dog whimpered and struggled with a thoroughly wronged air, persistently shoving his head into Gao Gusheng’s arms.

Gao Gusheng felt his heart melting under the dog’s insistent nuzzling. He sat up and stroked the enormous furry head, quickly saying, “It is fine, I like him very much.”

Sun Jun, standing to one side, was quietly frowning as he looked Edward over.

The foul stench from earlier had come from Edward himself. His golden fur was dull, and his belly and paws were filthy, caked with muck.

Would an owner who truly doted on a pet allow their animal to end up in this condition?

The state of him was completely at odds with the pristine exterior of the kennel.

Sun Jun glanced unobtrusively at the interior of the kennel. Inside were two large food and water bowls. If Edward had not broken free of his lead, the signs that something was wrong would have been hidden from view, and Xiao Yusheng would most likely have cited safety concerns as a reason to keep them away from Edward.

What Xiao Yusheng had not anticipated was, first, that Edward could break free of his lead, and second, that Edward in heat, upon seeing Gao Gusheng, would shed every trace of aggression and behave like a pampered baby wanting attention.

Xiao Yusheng’s name was underlined with a heavy question mark in Sun Jun’s mind.

After rubbing against Gao Gusheng, Edward took hold of the corner of Gao Gusheng’s clothing in his mouth and tugged him, whimpering urgently, toward one side.

Gao Gusheng looked in the direction Edward was pulling. It was the kennel.

This enormous dog wanted to drag him into the kennel?

Gao Gusheng did not know whether to laugh or cry. He declined. “I can’t fit in…”

Bang!

Bang bang bang!

Before he finished speaking, a series of thumping sounds suddenly came from inside the kennel.

The kennel was large but squarely built, visible from end to end at a glance. It was clear that the thumping had come from the other side of the wall.

“What was that sound?”

Hearing the thumping, Edward grew agitated, whimpering and tugging at Gao Gusheng’s clothing, pulling him toward that side.

Xiao Yusheng said, “That is a new puppy I recently bought.”

He spread his hands with a wry smile. “The original plan was indeed to bring her back as a companion for Edward. But she is still young, only nine months old, not yet mature enough to breed with Edward.”

“These past few days I have been letting Edward get familiar with her scent. In a few more days I will have them separated for a while first.”

Is that so?

Gao Gusheng glanced at the wall. Edward was still whimpering.

A flash of red darted from somewhere unknown and leapt onto Gao Gusheng’s shoulder. It was the little red squirrel.

“Xiaohong!” Gao Gusheng grabbed Xiaohong firmly. “Where on earth did you go!”

Xiaohong let out two chittering sounds and ingratiatingly brushed Gao Gusheng’s fingers with her tail.

Edward released the corner of Gao Gusheng’s clothing.

…