Dou Changxiao’s pheromone levels gradually stabilized over the next few days, but the scent remained somewhat abnormal. He had no choice but to cancel his flight to Haicheng scheduled for Saturday.

Pheromone imbalances of this severity usually resolve on their own after a while, but Dou Changxiao was impatient and didn’t want to wait that long, so he went to a pharmacy outside the Third Hospital to buy medication to alleviate the symptoms.

However, due to the nature of his purchase, the clerk asked him to present a doctor’s prescription, so Dou Changxiao ended up making another trip to the Endocrinology Department.

The Endocrinology Department consisted of three sections; Dou Changxiao listened to the call number announcement and entered one of them. After completing the necessary procedures, he ran into Wei Tingfeng at the door, who had just finished his shift and was coming out of the neighboring department.

Dou Changxiao greeted him politely: “Senior.”

Seeing him there, Wei Tingfeng’s first thought was that something had happened to Ning Zhu. Only after Dou Changxiao denied it did he relax and nod.

“What are you doing in the Endocrinology Department?”

Dou Changxiao replied, “Just a minor issue—I’m here to get a prescription.”

Wei Tingfeng didn’t ask any further. Since both were leaving the hospital, they decided to walk together.

Stepping out of the main gate, the sudden temperature drop made Wei Tingfeng shiver involuntarily. He exhaled a breath of cold air and frowned. “It’s freezing. In a couple of years, I’ll definitely have to move to a warmer city. I’ve spent my whole life up here in the north.”

Dou Changxiao remarked offhandedly, “Have you never left Beicheng?”

“Ah, I’m not from North City, but my hometown is also in the north,” Wei Tingfeng said. “Have you heard of Haicheng?”

Before Dou Changxiao could respond, Wei Tingfeng continued, “Oh, you must have heard Ning Zhu mention it. He’s from Haicheng, too.” 

Dou Changxiao paused in his steps. “…He is?”

“Hmm, so he never mentioned it to you,” Wei Tingfeng said, oblivious to Dou Changxiao’s reaction. “We both attended junior high in Haicheng. Later, I don’t know where he transferred to for high school—none of our former classmates have heard from him either… Then, after I got into S University, I ran into him again here.”

“……” Dou Changxiao remained silent.

If Ning Zhu was also from Haicheng, why would his reaction have been so subdued when he first found out he was from there? Given his personality, upon meeting a fellow townsman, he should have dragged him along and chattered away happily about all sorts of trivial things.

【“Hey, you’re from Haicheng? Haha, what a coincidence! Let’s grab some Haicheng food together sometime…”】 

That would have been Ning Zhu’s style. Not smiling and saying, “Haicheng isn’t much of a great place.”

Haicheng—not a great place. Why is that?

Dou Changxiao wasn’t dressed warmly enough, and the wind made his legs feel a little chilly.

“Back when we were at Haizhong, he always came in first in our grade on every exam, while I was perpetually second…” It had been over a decade since then, and Wei Tingfeng had long since let it go, so he spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice. “That guy loved to show off when he was in school, so I really couldn’t stand him back then.”

“Haizhong, first…” Dou Changxiao repeated those two words, then suddenly asked a strange question: “Which graduating class were you in?”

Wei Tingfeng answered with a hint of confusion, “The 1X class.”

After speaking, he looked up and spotted the pharmacy’s sign in the distance. He tilted his chin toward Dou Changxiao. “We’re at the pharmacy. I’ll be going now.”

Dou Changxiao didn’t move.

“Senior,” he called out to Wei Tingfeng. After a few seconds, he asked an even stranger question: “Has Ning Zhu changed his name?”

Wei Tingfeng looked at him with a puzzled expression.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

That day after work, Ning Zhu returned to the hotel.

He wore several layers of thick clothing under his suit, but in Haicheng, no matter how many layers he wore underneath, nothing could compare to a windproof down jacket. He’d been freezing the whole way back, and by the time he entered the hotel, his face felt numb, and he’d lost all sensation from his head down to his neck. At one point, he even felt as though his brain had turned into a block of ice.

Stepping into the heated lobby, Ning Zhu had no mind for anything else; he plowed straight toward the warmer elevator. It wasn’t until a tall figure in the nearby lounge took two steps toward him that he spared a moment’s attention.

Once he recognized the figure, he stopped in his tracks, his expression shifting from surprise to utter speechlessness.

Ning Zhu and Dou Changxiao stared at each other in silence for a moment, then Ning Zhu pulled out his phone to check the date.

Thursday—a workday. Ning Zhu could understand why Dou Changxiao hadn’t come over on the weekend. But choosing to come during the week left him utterly baffled.

While he was checking the date, Dou Changxiao walked over to him, stopped, and stared at Ning Zhu’s bright red nose and cheeks before raising his hand to cup Ning Zhu’s face.

He didn’t know how long he’d been waiting there, but his palm was warm. Ning Zhu didn’t struggle; he looked up at him. “What made you decide to come today?”

Dou Changxiao said, “I swapped shifts with someone. I don’t have to go in for the rest of the week.”

Ning Zhu did the math; the other man must have been working non-stop for several days. “Are you tired?”

“Not really. I slept for two hours on the plane.”

Ning Zhu: “Two hours… Dr. Dou, if you want to die of a heart attack, why choose such a slow method?” 

“……”

“Let’s find a place to catch some sleep first.” Ning Zhu glanced at the front desk; they hadn’t assigned Dou Changxiao a separate room yet. He pulled his face free from Dou Changxiao’s hand and hauled the man’s suitcase over.

“I’ll handle it.”

Ning Zhu ignored him. Dou Changxiao’s suitcase wasn’t packed with much and wasn’t heavy. He pulled the suitcase toward the elevator.

Dou Changxiao walked beside him, his gaze fixed on Ning Zhu’s profile, trying to find a shadow of the person from his memories within those now very familiar features.

But it was difficult. He had been only eight years old back then, and his memories were limited—including his recollection of that person’s face. Yet the person in his memory seemed even lonelier than the one standing before him now.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

On the day a snowstorm hit Haicheng, Dou Changxiao lost his way on the road. No one had ever told him that he should check the weather forecast before running away from home.

His plan to run away from the Lu household had fallen apart, and now he could barely make out the way back to the Lu residence in the blizzard. The heavy snow had already set in, and the howling wind whipped everything about; several trees by the roadside, as thick as a man’s waist, were bent into eerie arcs, their tops nearly touching the ground.

Every shop along the street was shuttered, and he couldn’t find a single passerby to ask for directions. Leading his little dog, he ducked into a nearby middle school to take shelter from the storm.

Dou Changxiao looked out the hallway window at the fallen trees outside and felt that the scene before him looked exactly like the end of the world.

The Saint Bernard he was walking was only three months old; when it sat down, it was barely shorter than Dou Changxiao, and it kept barking at the weather outside the window.

Both the man and the dog were soaking wet. The puppy had a thick coat and, being a snow rescue dog, wasn’t bothered by the cold. But the melting snow and ice had seeped down Dou Changxiao’s neck, soaking through his undershirt.

It was freezing. He pressed his lips together, feeling a twinge of regret.

Staying home and being bullied by Lu Chao would have been slightly better than this.

It was the holiday break, and the school building was completely silent. Dou Changxiao tried the doors of several classrooms in a row, but they were all locked from the inside.

The hallway was pitch-black, but there seemed to be a glimmer of light at the end. He thought for a moment, then led the Saint Bernard toward the light. The lights were on in Class 1 of the ninth grade, and a faint glow spilled out from the window above the back door.

Before Dou Changxiao could move, the Saint Bernard suddenly raised its front paw and scratched at the back door. The door wasn’t locked and swung open easily under the dog’s weight.

Inside the classroom, there was only one boy reading in the back row, sitting in a rather unseemly posture.

He was sitting with his back to the front of the classroom, perched on the desk in the very back row, his feet propped up on the chair. One hand held a book while the other twirled a pen. Only when he heard the sound coming from the back door did he stop twirling the pen and glance over at the two unfamiliar visitors—a man and a dog.

The boy stared at the two creatures appearing in the doorway, somewhat taken aback, his indifferent expression tinged with a hint of bewilderment.

Perhaps it was the blizzard outside the window serving as a backdrop, but as the other person sat quietly in this dim scene, he gave off an inexplicable sense of loneliness and distance, making him seem unapproachable.

Dou Changxiao unconsciously tightened his grip on the leash in his hand; his instinct told him that the other person wasn’t someone easy to get along with.

The young man’s gaze followed the leash in Dou Changxiao’s hand to the Saint Bernard puppy, and after staring at it for a moment, his expression—as cold as snow—melted away.

He stared blankly and said, “Wow, that’s a huge dog.”

Dou Changxiao: “……”

Ning Zhu put down his book and pen, jumped off the desk, and walked over to the man and the dog. His eyes were initially glued to the dog, but finally, as if realizing it was impolite, he turned to look at Dou Changxiao.

Dou Changxiao had to tilt his head back to get a clear look at the other boy. He was a bit thin, and the winter school uniform hung unusually loose on him. His voice sounded hoarse, as if he were going through puberty. “How old are you?” Dou Changxiao asked.

Dou Changxiao replied, “Eight.”

Ning Zhu looked behind him but saw no one else, so he asked, “It’s vacation, and there’s a storm. What are you doing here? Are your parents school employees?”

Dou Changxiao held the dog’s leash and didn’t answer.

So Ning Zhu switched to a question that interested him more: “What kind of dog is that? It’s huge.” 

“A Saint Bernard,” Dou Changxiao said. “Four months old.”

“Four months old?” It was a breed name he’d never heard of before. Ning Zhu silently committed the name to memory, then looked down at the Saint Bernard. “Can I pet it?”

Dou Changxiao: “Sure.”

Ning Zhu crouched down and ruffled the puppy’s wet head a couple of times.

He turned his head and saw that Dou Changxiao was also soaking wet, so he reached out and ran his hand through his hair.

Dou Changxiao froze suddenly. He was very unaccustomed to being touched by strangers, so he immediately wriggled free from Ning Zhu’s grasp, stepping back a good distance with a look of wariness on his face.

Seeing his reaction, Ning Zhu was actually amused; he leaned in and ruffled his hair again.

Dou Changxiao’s back was pressed against the door; he had nowhere left to retreat. Frowning, he glared menacingly at the person across from him.

“Haha…” Ning Zhu found it quite amusing.

The boy was soaked to the bone, yet he looked at her with the eyes of a young wolf cub.

“What’s your name?”

“Dou…” Dou Changxiao instinctively started to say his name, but suddenly remembered his grandfather’s warning not to tell strangers his name. He hesitated for a moment. “Dou…”

“Dou Dou?” Ning Zhu furrowed his brow, looking at him with sympathy. “Is that your name, or a dog’s name?” 

“……”

The other person thought for a moment, then politely introduced himself: “My name is Cen Deng. ‘Deng’ is the character for ‘light bulb.’ Do you know how to write the character ‘Cen’? It’s the ‘mountain’ radical followed by ‘jin’ and ‘cen.’”

Dou Changxiao knew more characters than most kids his age, and since this character wasn’t particularly obscure, he recognized it immediately.

“It’s okay if you can’t write it,” the other person suddenly said with a smug grin. “In a few months, after the high school entrance exams, come check the honor roll at our school entrance—my name will be at the very top.”

Dou Changxiao’s lips twitched. “…Oh.”

“Dou Dou, where are your parents?”

“My name isn’t…” Dou Changxiao struggled to swallow the words, reluctantly accepting the unflattering name, and said, “They’re not here.” 

“Not here?” Ning Zhu raised an eyebrow.

In this kind of weather, most parents wouldn’t let their kids go out.

“You didn’t get lost, did you?” 

“No.”

Ning Zhu didn’t believe him. He stood up and headed toward the classroom door. The school security booth should still be staffed at this hour.

Dou Changxiao grabbed his sleeve. “I came out on my own.”

Ning Zhu turned to look at him. After a moment, he asked, “Ran away from home, Dou Dou?”

The term sounded harsh, almost childish, but this was exactly the kind of childish thing Dou Changxiao would do. So he said nothing, effectively admitting it. Strangely, Ning Zhu didn’t mock him; instead, he looked at him with a serious expression.

Dou Changxiao was pulled over to the radiator. Ning Zhu brought a stool for him and gestured for him to press against the radiator to warm up. Dou Changxiao did as he was told. The Saint Bernard nuzzled up to Ning Zhu, carefully lifting its head to sniff his leg.

After a few seconds of silence, Dou Changxiao heard Ning Zhu speak again: “What was the reason?”

Before he could answer, Ning Zhu continued, “Running away from home isn’t done this way. You should at least check the weather forecast. Besides, you’re so young—if you went out to work for someone, they’d turn you away for being a child laborer. You can’t even afford to take care of your own dog.”

As he spoke, he rummaged through the inner pocket of his backpack for tissues. Realizing he was almost out, he stole two from the drawer of the desk next to him, then smeared them all over Dou Changxiao’s hair and face, wiping away the melted snow.

Dou Changxiao: “……”

After wiping him down, Ning Zhu turned to the dog and said softly, “If you absolutely have to leave, at least wait until you’re a little older. Take your phone and ID with you, figure out where you’re going, and try to save up some money for travel and living expenses.”

The Saint Bernard kept dodging, but finally shook himself, flinging the water off his fur all by himself.

“Of course, if your family wants to find you, they’ll definitely be able to.” Ning Zhu’s slightly hoarse voice softened a bit. “If they want you to come back and you miss home, then you should just go back obediently.”

He grew more and more serious as he spoke, almost as if he were sharing a survival guide. Dou Changxiao couldn’t help but interrupt him: “I just need to get to my grandfather’s house. I don’t need to… work as a child laborer to support a dog.”

Ning Zhu froze for a moment, pouted, and wore an expression that said his feelings had been wasted. “Oh… well, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“……” Dou Changxiao hadn’t intended to say much to this stranger, but seeing the displeased look on the other person’s face, he found himself—for some reason—explaining why he’d snuck out: “I’m going back to my grandfather’s house. He lied to me.”

Ning Zhu asked curiously, “What did he lie about?”

“He said if I stayed at my parents’ house for just one month, he’d let me have a puppy.” Dou Changxiao’s long, thick eyelashes drooped. “It’s been two months now, and he still hasn’t taken me back.”

Ning Zhu looked down at him and gave a soft “Oh.” A classic trick parents use on kids.

He sat back down at his desk and climbed onto the stool again. “Can’t you stand staying at your parents’ house anymore?”

“My brother doesn’t like me.” Dou Changxiao didn’t seem particularly upset when he said this; he merely furrowed his brow slightly, looking more annoyed than sad. “And I really miss Grandpa.”

Ning Zhu nodded. “Where is your grandfather?”

Dou Changxiao named a place.

Ning Zhu: “That’s over ten kilometers from here. How do you plan to get there?”

Dou Changxiao: “I was planning to take the bus, but I waited at the stop for an hour, and no buses came.”

Due to extreme weather, many buses in Haicheng have been suspended today. Ning Zhu said, “So since you couldn’t catch a bus, you decided to walk back on your own?”

Dou Changxiao gave no clear answer.

“How long have you been out here?”

“I don’t know. I left… before the wind picked up.”

Ning Zhu did the math—it had to be over two hours.

With a child missing in this kind of weather, Ning Zhu imagined Dou Changxiao’s parents must be frantic with worry. He tried to reason with the boy: “If your parents find out you’re not home, they’ll be very worried.”

“They’re not home today. Only my older brother is here.”

“Well, if your brother finds out you’re not here, he’ll be worried too.”

Dou Changxiao: “He’ll set off firecrackers to celebrate. Besides, you’re here all by yourself too.”

Ning Zhu choked on his words. “That’s different. My parents trust me completely.”

He pulled out a notebook, tore off a sheet of paper, picked up a pen, and asked, “Dou Dou, what’s your family’s phone number?”

Dou Changxiao was silent for two seconds.

Ning Zhu thought for a moment, then added, “Your grandfather’s number would work too.”

Dou Changxiao still looked reluctant, but this time he obediently gave the number.

Ning Zhu folded the paper and tucked it into his jacket. “Stay here. I’ll go to the security booth and ask the guard to call your grandfather to let him know you’re okay.”

Dou Changxiao turned to glance out the window.

The storm was even more violent than when he’d entered the building. The way the two century-old trees outside swayed—and the way the younger trees looked as if they were about to be snapped and blown over—was terrifying. Ning Zhu didn’t look very tall, and he was a bit thin.

In a moment of sheer naivety, Dou Changxiao began to worry that Ning Zhu might be blown away. He called out to him, “Wait a little while before you go.”

“Huh? Why…?” 

“It’s really windy.”

Ning Zhu also glanced outside, then walked toward the back door with a nonchalant air. “It’s nothing.”

But after taking two steps, the hem of his shirt was grabbed and tugged backward.

Ning Zhu turned around and met Dou Changxiao’s tense, sour expression. After a moment, he laughed out loud, his expression softening slightly. “Dou Dou, you’re such a good boy. How could your big brother not love you?”

“……”

“Alright, then I’ll go in a few minutes.” Ning Zhu sat back down, conceding, and ruffled the Saint Bernard’s fur on its neck.

His two books lay open on the desk. Dou Changxiao noticed one was an English novel, its pages marked with underlines and new vocabulary. The other didn’t look like a textbook; half the pages were filled with illustrations of chessboards and similar diagrams, covered in pencil marks made by Ning Zhu.

Dou Changxiao looked at the illustrations and heard Ning Zhu ask, “Do you know how to play Go?”

He shook his head.

Ning Zhu said, “Want to try some life-and-death problems? It’s a fun way to pass the time.”

Dou Changxiao hesitated and said, “I don’t know how.”

Then, he felt the other person move closer, take the book and pen from his hand, and say, “I’ll teach you.”

Solving life-and-death problems doesn’t require knowing all the rules; as long as you understand the basics of “qi” and “eye” positions, you can pick it up quickly. After Ning Zhu taught him for five minutes, Dou Changxiao was already poring over the book on his own.

Ning Zhu then played with the dog and asked him, “What’s its name?”

Dou Changxiao said, “It doesn’t have a name.” 

“Why not?”

Dou Changxiao replied coolly, “No reason.”

Naming a dog makes it easier to teach it various things later on, but since he only saw the puppy as a playmate, the idea hadn’t occurred to him.

“Alright,” Ning Zhu smiled, teasing him, “But your name would actually suit it pretty well.”

Dou Changxiao: “……”

The wind outside seemed to have died down a bit, but with weather like this, it could easily pick up again at any moment. Ning Zhu was worried that Dou Changxiao’s family had been waiting too long, so he seized this brief lull and got up to go out.

Dou Changxiao put down his book and leaned against the window, watching Ning Zhu.

Two minutes later, he struggled to make out Ning Zhu’s figure downstairs through the snowflakes swirling wildly in the air.

The snowy ground resembled a vast, pristine sea, whipped by the gale into wave after wave of white foam. Ning Zhu’s blue school uniform stood out as black against the gloomy, oppressive sky as he walked slowly against the wind toward the security booth.

Suddenly, without warning, the wind picked up. The white waves on the ground surged higher and swelled, rising up as if to swallow that black silhouette whole.

A tall, gnarled tree suddenly snapped and crashed straight down toward Ning Zhu. The black figure couldn’t dodge in time and was crushed by the falling branches.

Dou Changxiao froze for a moment, then snapped out of it and immediately ran out of the classroom. With its leash gone, the Saint Bernard scrambled to its feet and followed close behind him.

Dou Changxiao pushed open the school building’s door with great difficulty. As he did so, he saw the person pinned beneath the tree struggling vigorously.

After a few seconds, the struggling movements stopped for some unknown reason.

Dou Changxiao pushed the door open with great effort, ran through the wind and snow to the dark figure, and tried to pull the tree away, but clearly failed. Frantically, he turned to the side and called out Ning Zhu’s name.

The person lay in the snow, eyes closed in peace. Motionless, as if dead. 

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

A Note from the Author:

Little Ning the Boss, Hobby: Scaring Kids