Winter Returns

Chapter 150 "Waaah"

"Come out quickly!"

"I just find it strange. Think about it, if this house is from the last century, what was it used for back then? I originally thought it was for living, but a place for living wouldn't be without windows, would it?"

As Du Kang spoke, he shone his flashlight overhead again:
"Look, there's even a light bulb."

"Perhaps a warehouse or something?"

Zhang Shutong replied, while he took out his phone to look at the interior walls of the house.

There were no marks left on the wall either.

The interior of this red brick house was also very simple. There was no paint on the walls; it was just covered with mud mixed with straw. Zhang Shutong scratched it with his finger, but it wasn't powder. In the steamy atmosphere, it really turned into a puddle of mud.

No wonder the water inside the house was murky and muddy, making it impossible to tell the depth, which caused Du Kang to suffer a loss.

"Let's go, let's go," Ruoping urged Dukang again, "We were saying we were going to eat later, how can you go with your shoes all wet? Go home and change your shoes first."

"It really is!"

Only then did Du Kang remember that he still had to eat later. This house seemed a bit strange. Although he was curious, he hadn't been able to find anything despite paying such a high "price," which made him even more depressed.

"I knew I shouldn't have come in. What's the point of studying it anyway..."

As he spoke, he took another laborious step, stirring the muddy water inside the house with his movements. Du Kang stood on the doorframe, the only place above the water, and asked as he took off his shoes:

"Shall we go back?"

"Let's go back." Qingyi kept staring at the wooden door, trying to find some unusual evidence, but what could he find in an empty old house? He said disappointedly, "I was just overthinking it."

It seems that this expedition ended in failure; they came with high hopes but left disappointed.

But it's not necessarily a bad thing, Zhang Shutong thought. You can't expect to be surprised when a mud figure suddenly appears; that would be more of a shock than a surprise.

He agreed, saying it would be fine to go back.

Looking at the time, it had been twenty minutes since they left the hospital. The rain was gradually subsiding, but sometimes reality is just so dramatic. When the rain was heavy, they couldn't ride their bikes, and when the rain subsided, Du Kang's shoes got wet again.

Du Kang asked while tapping his shoe:
"How about we eat at my family's restaurant? My dad and the others might still be here. Let's cook a couple of dishes and go to the shopping street another day?"

“This door frame isn’t sturdy,” Zhang Shutong warned. “Be careful not to step on it and it might collapse.”

"Okay, I'm almost done."

Du Kang realized he had messed up and quickly tied his shoelaces:
"So, in all things, I can actually hold on for a while?"

"Stop 'suppressing' my foot! Why didn't we just go out for a nice meal? Why did we have to come to this kind of place to explore..." Ruoping, though sharp-tongued, had a kind heart. She reluctantly agreed, "Let's not trouble Uncle. Let's just make do with some instant noodles. What do you guys say?"

“Okay.” Qingyi voted in agreement.

"I don't care," Zhang Shutong said casually. "You know I'm an energy-saving..."

"Woo..."

"Try cutting it again?" Ruoping gritted her teeth.

"I agree with drinking instant noodles."

"No, no, no, it doesn't have to be just instant noodles. Let me think what else we can eat. Hmm, there's some leftover braised beef from the day before yesterday. My dad put it in the freezer. I'll go back and look for it..."

"Do you have pickled cabbage and beef noodles? I'd like to have that." Qingyi asked.

"There should be."

"Then add a fried egg, and it will be perfect."

"What's going on? No problem. Where's Ruoping?"

"I ate a lot at lunch, so I'm not hungry. By the way, could you please hurry up a bit?"

"Right away, right away..."

"Woo..."

"Speaking of lunch, I just remembered, there's also Zhang Shutong. How dare you save energy? Why didn't you save energy by eating sea cucumbers at lunchtime?"

"Why are you targeting me? Have mercy!"

"Du Kang, haven't you tied your shoelaces yet?"

"It's accidentally become a knot, oh well, let's just make do with it..."

"Woo..."

"This house might not be sturdy. Don't be careless; it's at least ten years old."

“Speaking of which, I suddenly realized that I should ask my dad instead,” Du Kang straightened up from the threshold. “My family’s shop had just opened back then, and he might know more about the past than the people at the hospital.”

The three nodded and then fell silent. Darkness enveloped them, and the only sound was the rushing water.

Zhang Shutong broke the silence, saying, "You're really good at being wise after the event. It doesn't really matter if you ask Dad or Mom, what matters is..."

"I've been wanting to ask this since just now."

He frowned:
"What exactly is making that 'woo' sound?"

"Woo..."

"Behind you!" Qingyi suddenly said.

Du Kang then turned and shone the flashlight into the house. The group held their breath and looked in the direction of the light, but all they could see was flowing mud and water.

"What...what's wrong now?" Ruoping's face paled again. "Don't play pranks on me, I didn't hear anything..."

“There is indeed one.” Qingyi said solemnly, “At first I thought it was the sound of the wind, but it doesn’t seem like it, and it’s coming from inside the house, so it should be… from the south. Du Kang, shine the light to the south.”

Du Kang moved the flashlight, and this time Zhang Shutong came to his side and looked in the same direction. The room was pitch black, and the flashlight beam moved its position very cautiously, little by little, until—

“Wait, let’s go back a little more.” Zhang Shutong gestured, “Just a little bit back, yes, just a little bit…” Finally, the beam of light stopped in the corner of the old house.

"Is there anything?" Du Kang asked quickly. "I can't see anything, it's still all black."

“‘Darkness’ is the biggest problem.” Zhang Shutong stared at the corner. “Didn’t you notice that place is impossible to light up?”

There was a shadow in the corner of the room.

Zhang Shutong wasn't sure if the sound came from the shadow, or if everyone was just having a false alarm. For a moment, no one dared to step forward, and they all gathered at the doorway, staring intently at the corner.

“To be honest,” Du Kang said uncertainly, “now that you’ve said that, it doesn’t sound like a supernatural event to me, but rather…”

"But what?"

Before Du Kang could finish speaking, the shadow in the corner suddenly came to life. It darted to another corner, and Du Kang hurriedly moved his flashlight, but he was a step too slow. When he shone it again, the shadow had stopped moving.

Du Kang suddenly chuckled:
"You all saw that, right?"

"I saw it." Qingyi nodded strangely.

Zhang Shutong also said helplessly to Ruoping:
"Open your eyes, it's alright, look—"

As he spoke, he held up his finger, and the flashlight formed a circle of light on the mud wall, with something in the center of the circle...

It's a puppy.

A small dog that is completely black.

Whether its fur was stained black by the mud or was originally black, the darkness of the night provided it with the best camouflage. Just now, the little dog was huddled in the corner of the house, and Du Kang went in and looked around, but he couldn't find it at all.

"Damn, no wonder it sounded like a dog barking to me," Du Kang said, laughing and crying at the same time. "This little thing is really good at hiding."

"Is it really a dog?" Ruoping took her hand away from her eyes and glanced at it quickly.

The puppy huddled up, trembling, and under the flashlight, it didn't even dare to whimper.

“It really is a dog.” Qingyi shook his head and chuckled. “Now everything makes sense. It was probably a stray dog ​​that had nowhere to hide from the rain. Then, when the ivy fell down not long ago, it stumbled into the door and took shelter from the rain inside, which explains the abnormal behavior we witnessed.”

Zhang Shutong wondered if he could change "wild dog" to "stray dog".

Of course, this was a joke. In reality, he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this, and the question of why the door suddenly opened inward was easily solved.

This dog really gave them a hard time, reminding him of Gu Qiumian's Doberman, which was also all black.

"So I got tricked by a dog," Du Kang said, but he wasn't angry at all. Instead, he squatted down with interest and whistled to tease the dog.

Zhang Shutong knew that Du Kang loved small animals, especially dogs. In fact, it was hard for a restaurant owner on the island not to keep a few dogs, mainly because they were easy to care for and could catch mice.

“I think this dog is quite good-looking.” Du Kang looked the puppy over. “Although I can’t tell what breed it is, it should be a mixed breed of hunting dog. It’s quite pretty.”

"Really?" Ruoping, eager to hide her embarrassment at being startled, replied casually. Zhang Shutong waved his phone at her, and she quickly turned her face away.

"You don't understand, she's still young, she'll be beautiful when she grows up."

"You're not thinking of raising it, are you?"

“I really want to raise it. I can’t just make this trip for nothing.” Du Kang rubbed his hands together. “Anyway, I can just take it back and feed it some leftovers. My restaurant has a yard too.”

Zhang Shutong was speechless. He had only ever heard of people who went fishing and didn't want to catch anything, so he picked some wild vegetables instead. This was the first time he had ever encountered someone who went on an adventure and picked up a dog along the way.

"Think it through, and let's finish this quickly."

"okay."

Du Kang responded.

He had just finished knocking his shoes and didn't really want to go back inside to wade through the water, so he kept calling to the puppy to lure it out. But the puppy was probably terrified by the four humans and stayed there motionless.

Du Kang was helpless upon seeing this:

"Alright, alright, I'll come in and get you, okay?" He went back into the house, muttering to himself as he went. "What should I name him? I've always wanted to get a black dog. How about Zorro? What do you guys think?"

"The Zorro from the movie?" Qingyi asked. "How old is that movie?"

"Yeah, Zorro the swordsman, the chivalrous one, so cool."

Zhang Shutong said, "If Zorro knew, he'd probably have you beaten up for being a hero."

"This is called paying tribute..."

As he spoke, Du Kang stumbled and suddenly fell forward. If he hadn't reacted quickly and braced himself with his hands, he would have fallen face-first into the water. Even so, he still ended up lying in the water.

The three of them, disregarding the water in the house, quickly went in and pulled him up.
"Are you okay?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing, ptooey!" Du Kang swallowed a mouthful of muddy water. "I tripped over something, my luck is a bit bad today."

"You even have a dog, and you slipped and fell flat on your face." Ruoping couldn't help but laugh as she looked at his messy face. "How did you manage to fall like that?"

“It wasn’t for no reason,” Du Kang said, equally annoyed. “Something really tripped me up.”

"What's inside?"

"I'm wondering too, wasn't everything in this house moved out..." Du Kang didn't mind the dirt. Since he was soaked to the bone, he simply put his hands into the water and insisted on retrieving the thing that had tripped him to take a look.

Zhang Shutong felt that the scene was familiar; he had once fished out a snake stick.

But Du Kang didn't stop touching it for a long time; instead, the more he touched it, the bigger his movements became, and the more his brows furrowed.

"I rely on!"

He suddenly swore:

Why is there a step on the ground?

(End of this chapter)