The little dog didn’t seem afraid of strangers at all. As Shu Yuxin walked closer, it just stood there and stared at her blankly. It even wagged its tail twice.

The light rain still hadn’t stopped. Its fur was already soaked, making it look a little scruffy. Only when Shu Yuxin crouched down in front of it did the puppy make a show of taking one step back.

“Tch, you really are pretty bold...” Shu Yuxin muttered softly. She pushed the umbrella a little farther forward to cover it. But it was only a single-person umbrella. Once she tried to fit both herself and the dog under it, there was no room left for the distance between them. The moment she held it out, a few raindrops landed on her back.

The weather had turned cooler, but Shu Yuxin hadn’t put on much more clothing. She had only put back on the little vest she wore when she first came to school. The vest blocked the few drops on her back, but it couldn’t stop the water falling onto her neck. Raindrops slid off the edge of the umbrella, seeped through the long hair draped over her shoulders, and touched the back of her neck. The sudden chill made her shrink her neck on instinct.

Realizing she was getting rained on, she stared at the little dog for two seconds, then silently pulled the umbrella back.

The puppy seemed to realize the person in front of it had taken back that cheap little act of generosity. It hesitated in place for a moment, then very consciously ducked under the umbrella on its own. There wasn’t much room beneath it. As the puppy hurried forward, it accidentally brushed its head against Shu Yuxin’s knee. It immediately jumped back two steps like it had been startled. After lifting its head to make sure Shu Yuxin wasn’t angry, it carefully tested the waters and stepped forward again, just enough to hide itself under the umbrella.

Shu Yuxin almost laughed.

It was a Chinese village dog, what people usually called a mutt. They used to be common in the countryside, and almost every household kept one to guard the home. Because of that, Shu Yuxin, who had spent her childhood back in her rural hometown, had an indescribable fondness for this kind of dog. Of course, a big part of that was also because of the dog she had once raised herself.

But in the city, especially in a big city like Minghai, Chinese village dogs were rare. Most dogs in the city were pet dogs raised by families. And as the most common native mutt in China, the Chinese village dog ranked very low in the world of pet dogs. Unless someone already liked this type of dog, most people would never choose one as a pet.

On top of that, Chinese village dogs weren’t worth much to begin with. So for people who bought a dog on impulse, then lost interest and couldn’t keep raising it, abandoning one didn’t come with much of a psychological burden.

That was why the chance of seeing a Chinese village dog in a big city was very low. And most of the ones you did see were strays.

Obviously, this little one was a stray that had been abandoned.

Shu Yuxin didn’t know what things were like over at Minghai University, but at least in South Lake College, there seemed to be quite a lot of stray cats and dogs. During military training, she had already seen plenty of stray cats. Those feline overlords were highly wary of strangers. Most of the time, all she could catch was a fleeting glimpse of them darting through some corner of the campus. There were quite a few residential areas near South Lake College, and not far away there was also a food processing plant. On top of that, it wasn’t too far from downtown. Naturally, this had become a kind of paradise for homeless animals. Not only were the odds of finding food pretty high, there were also plenty of college students here who still had some compassion and would offer them a decent little appetizer before the meal.

Like right now.

“I wonder if you like sausage?” With some difficulty, Shu Yuxin pulled a corn sausage out of her jeans pocket. She tore open the wrapper and brought the exposed end up to the puppy’s mouth.

The puppy was clearly stunned for a moment. When it saw Shu Yuxin reaching something toward it, it seemed to instinctively want to run. But just as it was about to turn around, it caught the smell of the sausage, and its legs stopped moving. It lifted its head and looked at Shu Yuxin with slight confusion. As if sensing she meant no harm, it cautiously leaned in and bit down on one end of the sausage.

Watching it wolf the food down, Shu Yuxin got a little worried it might bite her by accident. So she simply placed the sausage onto a fallen leaf on the ground, then crouched nearby and quietly watched it eat.

She really liked this feeling.

Because she wasn’t very good at making friends, she spent a lot of time alone. There weren’t many ways to entertain herself when she was by herself, and among them, what she liked most was staying with animals. At least talking to animals didn’t involve as many twists and turns as dealing with people.

The puppy ate quickly. Before long, there was only a tiny bit of the sausage left. Shu Yuxin seemed to think of something and suddenly pulled out her phone and opened the search bar.

After browsing encyclopedia entries, forums, and posts for a while, she found out that this kind of corn sausage actually wasn’t suitable for dogs. That made her a little worried that something might happen to the puppy after it finished eating. But right after that, she was amused by her own thoughts.

This was a stray dog. A stray dog only a few months old. Forget corn sausage. In this school, faced with those adult stray dogs and cats, it probably couldn’t even snatch a single bone. Maybe one day it would just starve to death in some corner. And here she was, worrying about whether it could eat corn sausage.

It didn’t have the life of a pet dog. It didn’t even have a life as good as those countryside mutts that guarded people’s homes.

Shu Yuxin let out a sigh and slowly put her phone away.

Only just now did she suddenly realize something. From the moment she saw this puppy until now, not once had she thought about adopting it.

If this had been when she was little, she absolutely would’ve picked the puppy up and taken it home without a second thought. Even if she got scolded, even if she got hit for it, just like with the dog that had stayed by her side for years back then. But now, even if she did think about adopting it, the first things that came to mind were whether she had the means, whether she could keep raising it, whether Jiang Zixuan would dislike it, whether a stray dog might be carrying diseases...

Maybe becoming more and more realistic was what growing up meant.

The puppy had already finished the whole sausage. Even the wrapper had been chewed into a mess. But it still didn’t seem full. Right now, it was wagging its tail and looking at Shu Yuxin with wide, eager eyes, a plea in them.

“I only had one...” As if she were talking to a close friend, Shu Yuxin looked at it and immediately showed a troubled expression.

That sausage had been given to her by Peng Xiaoxiao during class that morning. She just hadn’t had time to eat it.

Naturally, the puppy couldn’t understand what she was saying. It only kept looking at her with those eager eyes.

“Alright.” Shu Yuxin gave in. “Stay here and be good. I’ll go buy some snacks and bring them back for you.”

The supermarket in the west district wasn’t far from here. It had a pretty wide selection of snacks, and the prices weren’t too bad either. She didn’t expect the dog to understand her words. If she came back and it was gone by then, then all she could do was think it was a pity.

After saying that, she stood up, opened her umbrella, and turned to leave. Seeing this, the puppy immediately wagged its tail and followed after her. But it only chased her for a few meters. Once Shu Yuxin stepped onto the pebbled path, the puppy stopped where it was and stared blankly as she walked away.