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Chapter 636: Chapter 636: The Dog is Lost
Tong Yao was amused by Zhang Lijuan’s action, was about to speak, when Zheng Xiaoshuang entered the ward with fruit. Since Zheng Xiaoshuang had helped to deliver the money earlier, Zhang Lijuan and Chen Jinlan treated her quite well.
The two showered Zheng Xiaoshuang with gratitude, but she seemed preoccupied, her eyes continually flickering over to Tong Yao. Sensing that she had something to say, Tong Yao called Zheng Xiaoshuang outside the room.
"Xiaoshuang, is something wrong?"
Zheng Xiaoshuang anxiously said, "Sister Yaoyao, on my way here, I bumped into our neighbor’s granny. They said they saw someone taking away Big Yellow and the others. We don’t know where they were taken to yet."
While in the ward earlier, upon seeing that Si Boyi was still unconscious, Zheng Xiaoshuang found it rather inappropriate to discuss this matter. After all, Si Boyi had just crossed the threshold between life and death. Bringing up the affair about the dogs seemed disrespectful to him.
Tong Yao’s countenance fell, "I understand, I’ll go call Hongwei, you lead us to the Granny you mentioned."
After she had finished speaking, Tong Yao turned and reentered the ward. Seeing Tong Yao’s expression, Gu Hongwei asked worriedly: "What happened?"
Tong Yao replied: "I’ll tell you later."
Having said that, she turned to Zhang Lijuan and Chen Jinlan, "Auntie, Lijuan, we have something to attend to. Please take care of Boyi temporarily – we’ll come back after we finish."
Chen Jinlan voiced her concern: "Ay, is there some big problem?"
Zhang Lijuan felt that it was not right to keep asking questions since Tong Yao did not want to mention it, hence she said: "Sister-in-law, then you guys go and do what you need to do! Boyi is out of danger now, so there’s no need for you to worry."
"Mm." Tong Yao nodded, "We’ll be leaving, then."
Having said that, Tong Yao led Gu Hongwei and Zheng Xiaoshuang out of the ward. As soon as they exited the ward, Tong Yao said to Gu Hongwei, "Big Yellow and the others have been taken away. We still don’t know what their motives were, so we need to hurry and investigate."
Gu Hongwei frowned, "Who would take them? A dog meat vendor?"
Other than a dog meat vendor, he couldn’t imagine who else would do such a thing. Big Yellow and the dogs were usually well-behaved, plus they had shown their cleverness during the earthquake which endeared them to the locals. How could they have been taken away?
Tong Yao shook her head, "It’s unclear. Let’s go back and investigate the situation."
The trio quickly made their way to the bottom of the hospital building. Gu Hongwei instructed the two to wait at the hospital entrance while he brought the car out. In that moment, Zheng Xiaoshuang was taken aback, "Sister Yaoyao, did you buy a car?"
Tong Yao nodded, "Yes, we actually planned to take Big Yellow and the others with us this time, but someone had already taken them away."
Zheng Xiaoshuang was happy for Tong Yao but upon thinking that all three dogs had been taken away, she felt a tinge of guilt, "Sister Yaoyao, I’m sorry, it’s my fault for not taking good care of Big Yellow."
Tong Yao gave a small shake of her head, "Don’t overthink it, it’s not your fault. Big Yellow and the others were quite well-known in our vicinity, and normal people wouldn’t mess with them. That’s why I think it’s likely that they weren’t taken by any dog meat vendor."
Hearing Tong Yao’s words, both Zheng Xiaoshuang and Gu Hongwei felt significantly relieved.
The three quickly located the old woman who had witnessed Big Yellow being taken. Seeing Tong Yao, the old woman initially thought that Tong Yao had returned for the dogs. The dogs being taken had also made her anxious.
She pointed to where the dogs had been taken and said, "I saw them rope the dogs and pull them into the vehicle. I was extremely worried at the time and wanted to call for help, but they acted so quickly, driving away as soon as they got the dogs in the car. I couldn’t catch up."
She was old and slow-moving; even if she had managed to catch up, she wouldn’t have been able to contend with several vigorous young men.
Tong Yao managed to glean the crux of her statement, "Granny, are you saying that there were quite a few people who took Big Yellow and they came in a car?"
The old woman nodded, "Yes, there were about three or four young men in their twenties, and they came in a van similar to yours."
Tong Yao pressed on, "Did you remember the car’s license plate?"
"What’s a license plate?" The old woman was utterly confused. She rarely loitered in the streets when she had nothing else to do, so she didn’t know much about cars.
Tong Yao explained, "It’s the row of numbers on the back of a car."
The old woman thought for a moment and then shook her head. "I don’t know, I didn’t notice."
Gu Hongwei and Tong Yao exchanged glances. Both of their hearts sank. At this point, they were left without any clues. After thinking for a while, Tong Yao lamented, "Let’s report to the police!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, the other three looked at Tong Yao strangely. It seemed that none of them had expected Tong Yao to utter such words, but it wasn’t their fault for being surprised. In their era, it was quite normal to lose dogs, and the police wouldn’t usually handle such matters.
After all, they had lost a big yellow dog, not a big yellow cow.
Seeing their confusion, Tong Yao explained, "Don’t look so surprised. These three dogs have help out during the earthquake, they’re quite famous here. People even come from afar just to see them—they’re not ordinary dogs. The police station won’t completely ignore this."
After hearing what Tong Yao had to say, Gu Hongwei immediately said, "Then we should report it to the police right away."
Tong Yao nodded, having Zheng Xiaoshuang stay behind to watch the shop, while she got into the van to report the matter to the police with Gu Hongwei. They arrived at the police station quickly. Initially, everyone looked at Tong Yao oddly when they heard her reporting for lost dogs. But after Tong Yao mentioned the roles the three dogs played during the earthquake, everyone started taking her seriously.
Soon, they initiated a search for the dogs and asked Tong Yao and Gu Hongwei to wait for news at home.
In an era without the internet, finding a lost dog was pretty difficult - it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Tong Yao, however, didn’t give up. She and Gu Hongwei asked about and tried to track the van that had left. But this was the city, and even though there weren’t many vehicles, there were a fair number of vans passing by every day. Who would remember an inconspicuous van?
Having looked for some time without any leads, Tong Yao massaged her temples. She said, "We stayed up all night yesterday and were busy all day today. You’ve also worked hard. Let’s rest after grabbing some food. We’ll go to the police station tomorrow to ask about the situation."
With the situation progressing to this point, they could only leave it at that.
Gu Hongwei nodded, drove the car to a noodle house and parked it. After eating some noodles, they went to the hospital to check on Si Boyi. Si Boyi had woken up and was asleep again; Zhang Lijuan was resting in her bed. Tong Yao didn’t want to disturb them, so she chatted briefly with Chen Jinlan at her bedside, then headed to the tea shop.
The evening of April was a bit chilly, but not too cold. Zheng Xiaoshuang and Tong Yao slept at the tea shop while Gu Hongwei slept on a long bench in the living room, huddled in a blanket. Thinking about how the dogs were missing, Tong Yao felt a sense of unease. The child in her belly seemed to sense her mood and was unusually active.
She had trouble sleeping, and it wasn’t until late into the night that she finally felt drowsy. Just as dawn was breaking, a dog’s bark could be heard outside.
Generally speaking, the barks of dogs were quite similar, but Tong Yao could not help but feel that this bark was familiar. She woke up from her sleep and, having determined she was not dreaming, she turned on the bedside lamp and went out to check. At the same time, Gu Hongwei had also turned on the light in the living room.
