Wen Bai collapsed onto the ground. A somewhat dirty, giant dog pinned him down with its two paws, sniffing him incessantly, baring its teeth, and then licking his neck.
Wen Bai finally seemed unable to bear it and tried to push the dog off him.
However, due to his injuries, he couldn't move easily and could only let the dog frolic.
"There's only one dog," System 001 observed after its inspection.
After its playful outburst, the dog ran back into the house and picked something up in its mouth.
Wen Bai heard the sound again and only then realized that the "dong dong dong" sound was the dog hitting the door with something that resembled a piece of wood in its mouth.
Wen Bai walked into the house. The dog actually led the way, not showing any fear and circling around Wen Bai.
In the many days Wen Bai had been here, he had never seen Su Ying walk the dog, let alone feed it. Most importantly, dogs couldn't be kept indoors like this, right?
He looked around the room. Although it was large, there was no dog bed or food bowl. Instead, there were piles of miscellaneous items.
Furthermore, from his observation, Su Ying was definitely not the type of person who could tolerate his pet being so dirty. Su Ying himself, while not having obsessive-compulsive disorder, was close to it.
There was practically no dust in the house. Wen Bai even suspected that if he hadn't been living there now, there wouldn't even be any trash.
The dog wasn't excessively dirty, but it certainly wasn't clean. Its fur looked like it should have been white, but now it was all dusty.
Indeed, it truly resembled a storage room. Although there weren't many items, the presence of this dog here felt very out of place.
Soon, Wen Bai's doubts were answered.
Next to a cabinet, there was another door. That door was half-open. Just as he was about to walk over and open the unlocked door, the dog consciously ran in front of Wen Bai and nudged the door open with its large head. The action was incredibly skillful.
As expected, this door led to the outer yard. The backyard was just a bare patch of grass, with no flowers, trees, or any cover. It was fully visible at a glance, and opposite the yard was a patch of woods.
This dog must have come in on its own, but it didn't look like a stray.
In this villa complex, stray dogs shouldn't be allowed to enter and exit freely.
After coming out, the dog headed in the direction of the woods opposite.
However, when it realized Wen Bai wasn't following, it ran back again, circled Wen Bai, and looked back in Wen Bai's direction every few steps, as if waiting for Wen Bai to follow.
Wen Bai felt a slight sense of novelty, but this dog had nothing to do with his mission. Even if this dog suddenly transformed into a person, Wen Bai's reaction wouldn't change.
He turned around, went back into the house, ignored the peculiar dog, locked the door securely, ensuring the dog couldn't get in again, and then felt satisfied.
Afterward, he instructed System 001 to keep the storage room locked and restore it to its original state.
Just then, the sound of a door opening could be heard from the entrance.
Wen Bai came out and saw Aunt Wang carrying a large bag of things.
"Mr. Wen, I'm sorry for being late," Aunt Wang said, placing the insulated container on the table.
Wen Bai was about to head upstairs. He hadn't changed his plan; he still intended to get some sleep.
Su Ying had said that sleep would help him recover better from his injuries, and System 001 had confirmed this.
Aunt Wang spoke, "Mr. Wen, well, because I had some things to attend to, I prepared the meals in advance. They're all in these insulated containers. If you could eat them now, I could start cleaning up..."
As if aware that she was being a bit unreasonable, she still looked at Wen Bai with a hesitant yet eager expression.
Wen Bai answered a question he wasn't asked, "Did Su Ying ever keep a dog?"
Aunt Wang paused for a moment and quickly replied, "No, Mr. Su doesn't really like pets, and as you know, Mr. Su is a doctor with an irregular schedule. How could he have the time and energy to raise a pet?"
Wen Bai nodded, his gaze sweeping past the food containers in Aunt Wang's hands, without stopping as he continued his ascent upstairs, "You can leave now."
System 001 posed a soul-searching question, "Does Su Ying know she's this kind of person?"
According to Aunt Wang, Su Ying felt pity for her and her son and paid her a salary higher than the market rate. Yet, when Su Ying needed her to help take care of his friend, she was being so perfunctory.
Su Ying's judgment of people was indeed lacking!
The person who was supposed to work overtime didn't return very late. By the time Su Ying returned, Wen Bai had already closed the door and was sitting obediently on the sofa, waiting for him.
Therefore, when Su Ying entered the room, he saw Wen Bai sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, hugging a large cushion, and staring intently at the television, watching his endlessly captivating food program.
Hearing the noise, Wen Bai immediately threw aside the cushion, stopped watching the food program, and ran over in his slippers with a "dada dada" sound, looking straight at Su Ying's hands.
He saw that Su Ying's hands were empty.
He frowned and looked at Su Ying's eyes, "I haven't gone out. I've been resting and recovering from my injuries."
This meant, "I've done what you told me to do. What about the promise you made me?"
Su Ying looked at Wen Bai's expression, which clearly conveyed "If you lie to me, I'll be very angry," and he smiled, producing a bag from behind him as if by magic, "I brought you some snacks."
Wen Bai then relaxed his furrowed brows.
He took the snacks and ran to the dining table, sat down, and opened them.
When Su Ying came to check his wounds, he sat obediently, his eyes fixed on the snacks in front of him.
Then, Su Ying heard Wen Bai's stomach rumble, "grumble~ grumble~."
Su Ying: "You didn't eat dinner?"
Wen Bai: "Mm."
"You didn't like what Aunt Wang made?"
System 001: "Hmph, Aunt Wang wasn't even here tonight! And he didn't eat lunch either!"
Unfortunately, Su Ying couldn't hear System 001's voice at all.
Su Ying stopped what he was doing and signaled for Wen Bai to eat first, then he went into the kitchen.
Seeing the insulated food containers in the refrigerator, Su Ying showed a rare expression of displeasure.
His home would never have such food containers, let alone cheap, insulated ones.
He took out some ingredients from the refrigerator.
Wen Bai was attracted by the food in front of him and didn't pay attention to Su Ying. Halfway through eating, he heard the sounds from the kitchen and his eyes lit up!
He ran to the kitchen and poked his head in, meeting Su Ying's gaze.
"It's past mealtime, so a simple bowl of beef noodles?"
Wen Bai nodded vigorously!
Everything Su Ying made tasted delicious!
He was not a picky eater at all.
System 001: "Host, Su Ying's anger level has decreased by more than half after a day of work. Although a small portion remains."
"Huh? Didn't I already appease him?" Wen Bai was dealing with the snacks in his hands, which were indeed to his taste. They were slightly surprising; Su Ying's taste in food was indeed discerning and matched his own.
System 001 thought about how its host hadn't achieved much by appeasing him yesterday. It thought for a moment and then decided to tell the truth, "Not at all."
As long as it didn't affect Su Ying's cooking skills, Wen Bai didn't mind. It had already decreased by half overnight, so it might return to normal tomorrow.
System 001 watched its host, who had finished his snacks and was holding a bowl of noodles, appearing refined but actually eating with astonishing speed.
It no longer felt heartbroken or pitying. It finally realized that Wen Bai's obsession with food was innate and it was highly unlikely that he had previously not eaten well or enough!
It fell into a gentle melancholy, feeling as though its host was missing a part of human emotion, and some of his actions and thoughts were incomprehensible to it.