Little Fool Chapter 97

Chapter 97: The Unexpected Arrives

With the puppy, Mu Mu’s world was complete. His eyes were filled with nothing but the little dog, and he held it without any intention of letting go. He didn’t even bother to ask where Yan Guixing had been all morning or where the puppy had magically appeared from.

Mu Mu didn’t ask, but Yan Guixing was more than willing to sing his own praises.

He recounted the entire story (with some embellishments, of course) for Mu Mu: how he’d had people keeping an eye out for Border Collies two months ago, wanting to select one that looked exactly like Mu Mu’s beloved Wang Wang; how he’d received news after leaving the store last night and had personally flown to the Capital Star to see the puppy; and how, after confirming it was a perfect match, he had brought it back himself.

This also conveniently explained why he hadn’t been waiting downstairs for Mu Mu that morning.

Mu Mu managed to tear a sliver of his attention away from the puppy and give it to Yan Guixing. He looked up, gazing against the light at the man leaning against the table.

Because of the angle and the light, he couldn’t see the man’s expression clearly, but he knew he was probably smiling.

Yet, for some reason, even though the man was bathed in sunlight, Mu Mu had the strange feeling that he was falling into darkness, all alone.

A sudden impulse to hug him washed over Mu Mu. But just as he started to get up, a soft, springy paw pad tapped his hand, not too hard and not too soft.

The sliver of attention Mu Mu had spared for Yan Guixing was instantly reclaimed by the puppy sitting beside him.

He shot a quick smile at Yan Guixing and said, “Thank you, Your Excellency the Admiral,” before lowering his head to whisper softly to the puppy in his arms.

Yan Guixing had noticed the strange look in Mu Mu’s eyes. While he didn’t know what Mu Mu had been about to do, he could guess it wasn’t anything bad. Maybe the little fool’s heart had softened, and he was about to agree to go home with him.

But now, this little dog had ruined everything.

Yan Guixing glared at the little Border Collie with his piercing green eyes. In response, the puppy tilted its head, stuck out its tongue, and snuggled its little black-caped body deeper into Mu Mu’s embrace. It was a master of the art of coyly playing cute.

To Yan Guixing, this was an undeniable provocation.

Oh, and in the end, Mu Mu gave the little Border Collie a very unoriginal name: Wang Wang.

When Zheng An, who had been catching up on sleep in the break room, emerged with a yawn, he saw Yan Guixing behind the counter, dressed in a navy-blue cashmere turtleneck and a green apron. Behind him, Mu Mu was playing with that impossibly expensive black-and-white dog. For a moment, Zheng An was sure he had opened his eyes the wrong way.

Why else would he be seeing Yan Guixing again, along with that ridiculously pricey dog?

Seeing that Zheng An was awake, Mu Mu wrapped his arms around Wang Wang’s neck and enthusiastically made the introductions. “Wang Wang, this is Uncle An An. We’re going to be living together from now on. Be a good boy, Wang Wang, and say hello to Uncle.”

Zheng An was on the verge of a breakdown. It wasn’t because he’d woken up to become a puppy’s uncle, but because he couldn’t figure out where this absurdly expensive dog had come from.

Surely the little fool didn’t love puppies so much that he’d secretly used their remaining savings to buy it?

Perhaps because he had just woken up, Zheng An’s IQ had temporarily dropped to zero. With the towering figure of Yan Guixing standing right there, he still had to ask Mu Mu where the dog came from.

It was painfully obvious that Yan Guixing had given it to Mu Mu to make him happy.

Just then, Yan Guixing shot a cold glance at Zheng An and said flatly, “I gave it to him.”

Even from several meters away, Zheng An felt the chill of that look. In an instant, it was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. He shivered, cold from head to toe, inside and out.

Zheng An was wide awake now. He shrank his neck, hunched his shoulders, and scurried to hide behind Mu Mu. At that exact moment, Mu Mu’s precious son, Wang Wang, decided to give Uncle An An a warm greeting.

A loud, standard “Woof!” made Zheng An jump—literally jump in place.

The culprit, Wang Wang, buried his head in Mu Mu’s arms and let out a series of pathetic whines, acting as if he was the one who had been scared.

Mu Mu hugged Wang Wang, stroking the smooth fur on his back over and over, then turned to glare at Zheng An.

“An An, you’ll scare Wang Wang like that! Wang Wang is only…” He tilted his head to look at Yan Guixing, who smoothly supplied, “Four months old.”

Mu Mu continued, “Wang Wang is only four months old. He’s still a baby. You can’t scare him.”

Zheng An was about to cry. The little fool himself wasn’t hard to raise. But he had an uncanny ability to attract terrifying figures like Yan Guixing and a troop of burly men.

Being surrounded on all sides by the admiral’s people was already like living in a prison. Now they’d brought home another little master. Was there no end to this torment?

Zheng An felt that coming to Planet D5 with the little fool was quite possibly the worst decision of his entire life.

A man like Yan Guixing, who calculated ten steps for every one he took, wouldn’t just give Mu Mu a dog without a plan.

Everything the puppy could possibly need was prepared: main food, snacks, an automatic feeder, a dog bed, a potty tray and pads, a playpen, a toothbrush, a comb, nail clippers, toys, and more.

This solved the problem for Mu Mu, who had never owned a pet and had no idea what to get for a puppy.

Even the puppy’s age had been carefully selected. It was old enough to have undergone basic training and knew how to use a potty pad on its own.

But it wasn’t so old that it would be aloof or difficult to train.

Not that Yan Guixing thought trainability was important. He figured Mu Mu wouldn’t discipline the dog anyway and would just spoil it rotten.

The main thing was that it had to be affectionate. Yan Guixing had brought the puppy back to make Mu Mu happy and to keep him company. If it wasn’t friendly, that would be a real problem.

On the way back, Wang Wang had been lively but not hyperactive, and a bit clingy—all perfectly in line with Yan Guixing’s expectations.

As for the intelligence it displayed after meeting Mu Mu, Yan Guixing wasn’t a fan. He had a feeling a smart dog would compete with him for affection. He preferred them a little dumber.

But whether Yan Guixing liked it or not was irrelevant. Mu Mu loved it. He loved it so much that he couldn’t bear to let Wang Wang sleep in his dog bed at night; he had to cuddle him in his own bed.

Once a puppy forms a habit, it’s very hard to break.

Because Mu Mu didn’t listen to Yan Guixing and let Wang Wang develop the bad habit of sleeping with him, countless future nights would be spent with Yan Guixing and Wang Wang battling for bed space.

It wasn’t that the bed wasn’t big enough for two people and a dog. It was that Yan Guixing really didn’t want to share a bed with a dog, nor did he want to compete with a dog for his wife.

In the end, however, Yan Guixing was always the one to compromise. Because if he didn’t, Mu Mu would just take Wang Wang and sleep in the guest room.

Of course, that was all in the future. For now, Yan Guixing was using the excuse of visiting the puppy to walk right into Mu Mu’s little rental apartment.

At first, Yan Guixing would exercise restraint, playing ball with Wang Wang for half an hour before leaving on his own accord.

Once he saw that Mu Mu was getting used to his presence and wasn’t as resistant as before, he would extend the half-hour to an hour, or an hour and a half, or even longer.

Without Mu Mu even realizing it, the time Yan Guixing spent at his place grew longer and longer. Until one day, “playing with the puppy” naturally turned into “staying the night.”

The victim, of course, was Zheng An.

The apartment he and Mu Mu rented had two bedrooms. Yan Guixing couldn’t possibly sleep in the same bed as him, and Mu Mu wouldn’t let him into his bedroom, so the only option left was their 1.8-meter-long sofa.

Yan Guixing was 1.92 meters tall. Seeing such a large man curled up on the sofa under a thin blanket was a sight that would make anyone’s heart ache.

But more importantly, who would dare make an admiral of the Empire sleep on a sofa?! Only Mu Mu, probably. Zheng An certainly didn’t dare; he was afraid Yan Guixing would hold a grudge.

So, without caring whether Yan Guixing would mind sleeping in a bed he’d used, Zheng An tactfully offered up his bedroom on the second night Yan Guixing stayed over, saying he would find somewhere else to stay.

Yan Guixing gave Zheng An a smile that said, “You’re a smart one,” and, when Mu Mu wasn’t looking, tapped his terminal twice and sent out a message. Then, with a few words, he diverted the attention of Mu Mu, who was trying to convince Zheng An to stay.

And so, Zheng An was kicked out, clutching his blanket and coat.

However, Yan Guixing didn’t actually make him find his own place. The moment Zheng An turned around, he saw A’Qi standing by the opposite wall.

The old building had two apartments per unit on each floor. The hallways were narrow and the ceilings high, which made the corridor lights seem particularly dim.

A’Qi’s skin was already a dark bronze, and he was dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants.

This dark figure wasn’t standing just anywhere, but in the dimmest part of the hallway, against the wall. At first glance, he looked like a giant, faceless shadow.

Zheng An already had a psychological complex about A’Qi and the other burly men. The sight made his heart skip a beat. A scream lodged in his throat, his eyes rolled back, and he nearly fainted.

A’Qi, unconcerned with Zheng An’s inner turmoil, grabbed him by the collar, opened the door to the adjacent apartment, and dragged him inside.

From that day on, Zheng An became A’Qi’s roommate. He lived every day in a state of terror, unable to even sleep soundly. In just a couple of days, the roundness he had gained on his face since arriving on Planet D5 had melted away.

Meanwhile, Yan Guixing’s status evolved from “staying over” to “permanent resident.” In a sense, they were now living together.

A gentle, silent infiltration. This was probably the best method Yan Guixing could come up with at the moment. And as it turned out, this kind of peaceful, comfortable, and warm life was the perfect tool for chipping away at the hard shell around Mu Mu’s heart.

If it weren’t for that unexpected war, Yan Guixing thought, he probably would have been able to bring Mu Mu home without a hitch.

But no matter how much he schemed and calculated, he could not have predicted that the Zerg race would tear up the security treaty and invade the border and mining planets, plundering their resources.

Then again, if the unexpected could be calculated, it wouldn’t be called the unexpected.

At first, it was just a small Zerg squad that infiltrated a mining planet to steal rare metals.

They were discovered by a company from the Fifth Army Corps stationed there. A small-scale firefight ensued. The Zerg squad was annihilated, and five soldiers from the stationed corps were injured.

When the report reached the military headquarters, it didn’t receive much attention.

The Zerg were greedy, violent, and lawless. Even with the security treaty in place, they would conduct these kinds of small-scale harassments on the border or mining planets every few years. The military was used to it.

But who could have imagined that this time would be different? The Zerg used this incident as a pretext to tear up the treaty and send a massive army to invade the border and mining planets.

In an instant, the StarNet was flooded with news of the Zerg invasion. That was when Mu Mu found out.

He was curled up behind the counter with Wang Wang, watching the floating screen in mid-air. A black-haired female news anchor in a magenta suit was reporting on the situation at the front lines in a somber tone.

Mu Mu blinked. He looked down at Wang Wang’s black-and-white head nestled in his lap. Two large, clear drops of water fell, landing on the white fur.

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