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Chapter 188: Chapter 188 Earthquake 4
Meanwhile, with Tong Yao.
Heading from the hospital to the rental house, Xiaohei briefly mentioned what happened before they went to the family compound. Sensing the danger, they first alerted the Si siblings, Boyi and Xiaohui. However, the siblings couldn’t understand the dogs and assumed they were hungry. Boyi prepared some food for them, but they refused to eat.
Seeing that Boyi couldn’t understand them, they anxiously bit his trousers and tried to pull him outside. However, Xiaohui misunderstood their behavior as aggressive and drove them out. Xiaohei could only lead Dahuang and Xiaohua to run all the way to the family compound.
Unexpectedly, they met Chen Yanmei who was outside throwing away trash. The wicked woman wouldn’t let them in, leading to the scene that Tong Yao saw.
Considering this, Tong Yao, beside sighing, had nothing else she could do. It was useless for the dogs to bark their throats out considering people couldn’t understand them.
Walking and running with the three dogs, she coincidentally met Boyi, who was out looking for them near the school. Seeing Tong Yao return the dogs, Boyi felt somewhat guilty, "Sister-in-law, did Xiaohei come to you?"
The sister-in-law took care of the dogs for them, even giving them twenty yuan a month, and yet they left the dogs outside. Indeed, what they did wasn’t right...
Actually, he disagreed with Xiaohui’s decision of leaving the dogs outside. Soon after, he opened the door wanting to let them in, only to find the dogs had disappeared. He waited for a while but when the dogs didn’t return, he went out to look for them, only to find them in the family compound. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
It seemed that these three dogs were indeed clever. They even knew how to lodge a complaint.
"Where’s Xiaohui?" Panting all the way, Tong Yao sweated profusely, feeling sticky all over, which was particularly uncomfortable. However, at the moment, she had no mind to care about these details.
Xiaohei said there would be an earthquake, but didn’t specify when. Facing an earthquake of unknown magnitude, which could take place at any time, every second spent inside the house was dangerous.
"Xiaohui is sleeping in the house." Sensing Tong Yao’s unusual state, Boyi thought Tong Yao was angry over Xiaohui leaving the dogs outside. He explained, "Sister-in-law, we only kept them outside because they kept barking. After a while, we wanted to let them in but they were already gone. I came out just to look for them..."
Tong Yao interrupted him, seriously saying, "Stop talking about this now, hurry up and call Xiaohui to come outside. There might be an earthquake tonight. Neither of you should stay in the house."
"Earthquake?"
These two words stunned Boyi, finding it unbelievable as Li City had never experienced an earthquake. Where did Tong Yao get this information from?
Seeing him staring blankly and not moving, Tong Yao sighed and decided to go wake others up herself. Boyi, who had now come to his senses, quickly followed. As they hurried back to the rental house, they found Xiaohui laying on the bed, writing a letter. Seeing Tong Yao enter, she got startled and quickly hid her letters in the quilt. Thinking that Tong Yao was here to blame her, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.
"Sister-in-law, why did you come over so late?"
"Come out quickly, there’s going to be an earthquake." Tong Yao didn’t have the energy to say much, she left a word and turned to leave.
As Xiaohui was still stunned, Boyi saw Tong Yao leaving, quickly picked up Xiaohui and dashed outside. He too didn’t know where to go, and instinctively followed Tong Yao. He thought that Tong Yao would head to the main road, but saw her knocking on the neighboring landlord’s door.
Xiaohui, who had finally snapped back into reality, struggled to get down from Boyi’s shoulder and anxiously said to Tong Yao, "Sister-in-law, if there’s going to be an earthquake we should run! Don’t worry about others." At this point, it was most important to save themselves, what’s the point of caring about others!
"If you’re scared, you go wait on the roadside, otherwise shout to wake up all the surrounding residents." Tong Yao remembered a movie about an earthquake she had watched before. Although she didn’t have a saintly heart, she wasn’t the kind of person who’d only look out for herself when faced with a disaster.
"I..." Xiaohui’s face flushed red, she muttered, "I’m not going to yell, what if others think I’m crazy."
After all, everything seemed normal now, right? It didn’t feel like there was going to be an earthquake at all, did it?
"Earthquake! Earthquake! Everyone out quickly, there’s going to be an earthquake."
Boyi suddenly began shouting loudly, startling Xiaohui. His voice was loud and particularly conspicuous in the silent night. In no time, several people ran out in panic, among them was the landlord Mrs. Luo. Seeing the trio at her doorstep, she thought something had happened. However, upon hearing about the earthquake, she immediately helped in alerting others.
Before long, all the surrounding residents had been woken up and a sea of people gathered on the main road, all a bit confused.
To imagine, you’re sleeping soundly when suddenly somebody shouts about an earthquake, yet the ground is perfectly still. Who wouldn’t find it strange? It was dark and crowded, they didn’t even know who woke them up to begin with. Everyone discussed amongst themselves, not really understanding what was happening, but they dutifully stayed outside their houses.
By now, Mrs. Luo had also regained her senses and couldn’t help but ask Tong Yao, "Yaoyao, where did you hear about the earthquake news?"
The surrounding people tuned in to Mrs. Luo’s words, all of them looked towards Tong Yao, curious about the source of the earthquake news.
The main road was filled with hundreds of people, dense and dark. It would be easy for the scene to get out of control. Afraid that people would doubt the credibility of her words, Tong Yao put on a professional demeanor and explained seriously.
"Aunt, I studied animal science before, which is to determine changes in the surrounding environment through animal behavior. Animals have more sensitive senses than us humans. I adopted these three stray dogs because they’re smarter than others. Tonight, they suddenly rushed into the compound, bit my trousers, and pulled me outside. They were quiet as long as I stood on the main road. As soon as I entered the house, they immediately started howling and pulled me out. So, I think this situation is a warning sign of an impending earthquake."
People who heard Tong Yao’s words were all stunned for a moment. They never thought that the earthquake news came from the three dogs. Just as someone was about to question her, Mrs. Luo spoke up.
"Dogs can indeed predict earthquakes, my nephew told me so. He said when participating in earthquake rescue operations before, dogs could accurately locate people buried under houses. Generally, at such times, dogs are unwilling to stay in the house and will run outside. Some smarter dogs will even bite and pull their owners away, just as you mentioned. Everyone must never go inside their houses, better to be safe than sorry."
"Did you all notice, tonight the dogs barked more than usual. I was even wondering why the dogs were barking all night, I went outside to check if there was a thief."
Mrs. Luo’s words were even more mysterious than Tong Yao’s. After a few sentences, even the people who previously didn’t believe began nodding. They even brought up similar examples, singing high praises for Xiaohei, Dahuang, and Xiaohua. They were only a step away from treating them as gods.
