Chapter 55

Chapter 55: Stray Cats and Stray Dogs

Ling Mo had no idea what Jiang Xin did, but he actually managed to bring her more than twenty stray cats and over a dozen stray dogs.

Most of the cats were tabby cats, ginger cats, and calicos. As for the dogs, they were all village mutts—Chinese village dogs.

The problem was, the animals weren’t doing well when they arrived.

Ye Kai wiped the sweat off his forehead. “This is everything I could find. The rest were either already dead, or…” He swallowed the rest of the sentence and pushed on. “We’ll handle their food. You just focus on training them.”

“Even so, taking care of them every day is going to eat up a lot of my time,” Ling Mo said, frowning.

She already felt like twenty-four hours weren’t enough. Where was she supposed to squeeze in caring for this many strays?

“Relax. It won’t take long,” Ye Kai said lightly. “We’ve already found a place for them—right in the villa behind yours. Once we renovate it a bit, it’ll be a pet house.”

Ling Mo paused, surprised. She knew that villa had been occupied—the home of the man who’d been calling on the players to stand up and protect the neighborhood.

But yesterday, that family had suddenly moved out.

They’d left at noon, the hottest time of day, rushing like they were fleeing for their lives.

Ling Mo wasn’t the type to dig into other people’s business. She didn’t ask why. She only nodded. “Fine. Wait here a moment.”

She hurried upstairs and came back a short while later, leading two german shepherds by their leashes.

“I’ve already trained these two. You can borrow them first.”

They still looked young, but their eyes were bright and alert.

Ye Kai’s expression lit up. Small was good—less intimidating, easier to move around with. “How capable are they?”

Ling Mo considered it. “Communicating with people won’t be a problem.”

German shepherds were smart by nature. A normal german shepherd was about as intelligent as a six-year-old child, and Ling Mo often used her mental power to communicate with these two. Even without deliberately teaching them, their intelligence had grown far beyond average.

When Ye Kai tried to leave, Big Black and Little Black clearly didn’t want to go. The heat outside was brutal. Their resistance didn’t matter—Ye Kai hauled them off anyway.

He’d promised to handle the food, but having so many strays suddenly in her house still disrupted Ling Mo’s life.

Luckily, her living room was big enough.

And because Ye Kai had come by, she didn’t dare take out the water-chilling stone in the open. Instead, she turned on every air conditioner.

Thankfully, her house was lined with insulation pads. Even without the water-chilling stone, the indoor temperature stayed far lower than outside.

After checking the animals, she found most of them were only mildly overheated and dehydrated. As long as they got water in time, they’d recover.

She poured water for them, fed the cats a little cat food, and left the rest to time.

The AC’s cold air was nothing compared to the water-chilling stone, but she was wearing an illusory cloak now. For her, the difference wasn’t that big.

For the next few hours, Ling Mo monitored the strays while using mental power to communicate with them now and then, helping them get used to her presence.

At one point, she pulled out a tablet and put on wilderness survival videos. Watching someone dig a food cellar made her thoughts drift.

Besides the front yard, the villa had a backyard too—just the right size for a cellar.

If something went wrong, she could hide underground.

For a player, the most dangerous moment was the instant they returned from a game. If someone lay in wait, the odds of fighting back successfully were slim.

Ling Mo had a pocket space, but she didn’t want to expose it. If she could help it, she’d hide it for the rest of her life. A person might be innocent, but a treasure made you a target.

With that idea in mind, she went to the backyard to inspect the ground. She even grabbed a shovel and dug a few times, but she quickly hit rock.

Using mental power, she probed deeper and confirmed it—the ground beneath her villa was packed with solid stone.

If she wanted a cellar, she’d need an excavator and professionals.

She could only shelve the plan for now. Fortunately, the neighborhood still seemed safe, and with the game schedule unpredictable, there was no guarantee she’d even be home when the next round began.

Once most of the strays had recovered, Ling Mo looked them over. They were filthy from head to toe. She decided to bathe them.

After communicating with them beforehand using mental power, the process went surprisingly smoothly.

Wash, blow-dry, then brushing.

The extreme heat had them shedding like crazy as their bodies tried to adapt. Before long, she’d piled up a ridiculous amount of fur.

It wasn’t until night that she finished washing the last dog.

Because of what happened earlier in the day, the neighborhood was unusually quiet. Players—and families with players—didn’t go out.

As for the residents who still ventured out to buy supplies, Jiang Xin didn’t stop them. Everyone had to live, and if they left now, it might even be a good thing. They wouldn’t be caught in any fighting later.

At that moment, the head security guard stood beside Jiang Xin and asked cautiously, “Young Master Jiang, will those people really choose to attack tonight?”

Jiang Xin only glanced at him and didn’t answer. To be honest, he wasn’t sure either. Fu You’s divination talent could only give rough predictions.

It wasn’t that Fu You couldn’t be more precise—doing so would cost too much.

This neighborhood was the result of one of Fu You’s divinations. Afterward, Fu You had spat blood and looked like he’d come down with a serious illness.

Only then did they understand: divination always demanded a price. The bigger the event and the more detailed the prediction, the higher the cost. If it was only a small matter, you might just have a bit of harmless bad luck.

Just then, a small german shepherd came running from the distance and barked once at Jiang Xin.

“You found suspicious people outside?”

“Woof.”

Little Black barked again and nodded its head.

The security captain couldn’t help clicking his tongue. “This dog’s really smart. Is it a border collie?

Doesn’t look like one… Is it a mix?”

Little Black understood. It bared its teeth and growled low, like it was ready to argue that last part to the death.