Chapter 56
Chapter 56: Blazing Hound: How Am I Supposed to Live After This?!
She’d checked the school supermarket. In this world, toilet brushes were expensive as hell.
Eight dollars for one brush.
Eight.
So she’d gone to Back Mountain, carved a chunk of wood, and made the handle herself.
“Anyway, it’s for you,” Qian Qi said brightly. “Self-made, self-used. Efficient, right?”
Then, when the blazing hound wasn’t paying attention, she yanked out a fistful of its fur with a happy little grin. “Right?”
The blazing hound felt a cold spot instantly. It whipped its head around, saw the bald patch on its hide, and stared at Qian Qi’s reaching hand like she was a horror movie.
Blazing hound: !!!
I’m dead.
Why are you plucking my fur?!
I’m ugly now! How am I supposed to survive in dog society?!
A minute later, the room turned into chaos—one human and one dog tearing around like a tornado. The blazing hound scrambled on four paws, panicked and frantic, while Qian Qi chased behind it, laughing like a villain and ripping fur like her life depended on it.
Screams and cackling bounced off the walls.
Dog hair floated everywhere.
A tuft drifted right onto Liu Wang Da’s nose at the doorway. He was so shocked his jaw was hanging open—and then he sneezed.
“Damn,” he muttered. “This little classmate is insane.”
Where had Uncle Li found this monster?
Still trembling, Liu Wang Da opened his lightbrain and sent Uncle Li a video of Qian Qi’s fur-plucking rampage.
[Jin Nian You Wang You Da]: Uncle Li, this isn’t going to get my pay docked, right?
Liu Wang Da stared at the reply.
“…Wait. What the hell does ‘hahaha’ mean? Are you docking it or not?!”
Inside, Qian Qi wrestled with the blazing hound for nearly an hour before she finally finished making her dog-hair toothbrush.
She held it up, admiring it with the kind of pride usually reserved for newborn babies. “Mmm. Gorgeous.”
Then she looked at the blazing hound—bald here, thin there, patchy everywhere—and abruptly swallowed her compliment.
“Ahem. This is for your dental health, okay? Try to understand.”
The blazing hound spat at her in grief.
Ptui.
Clearly it had learned that disgusting habit from a certain human.
Qian Qi didn’t get mad. She poured cleaner onto the brush, planted one foot on the blazing hound’s lower jaw, and went at its yellowed fangs with the intensity of someone sanding hardwood.
Ten minutes later, she flicked one freshly gleaming fang with her finger.
“Tsk. Look at that. Clean.”
The blazing hound, which nearly had its tooth flicked loose: “…”
Qian Qi cupped its big face and beamed. “Now our A Tu can go out and show off those big white teeth.”
Then she gave its cheeks a few ruthless rubs for good measure and set the brush aside. “Alright. Back to work.”
She left Room 1 and headed straight into Room 24 across the hall.
The blazing hound in Room 24 hadn’t even moved yet when Qian Qi raised her hand and slapped it across the mouth.
Smack.
Room 24 blazing hound: ???
Wait—what?!
Why did you hit me? I wasn’t even going to attack you!
It shrank into the corner, eyes wide, watching her scrub at the mess on the floor. Truthfully, it didn’t want to eat her at all.
Because earlier, when she fought Room 1, she’d kicked over the bucket. The floor was still smeared with crap, and she’d gotten splashed with filthy water.
These things might look like dogs, but they weren’t the same as dogs that ate crap.
Food covered in crap water—especially food covered in another blazing hound’s crap—was not appetizing. At all.
Did Qian Qi know?
Of course she knew.
It still didn’t stop her from slapping them.
Qian Qi believed in “stick and carrot” education. When a child behaved, you gave them sweets. When they didn’t, you gave them the stick. Gentle and strict together—perfect parenting.
After all, that was how the orphanage headmistress had raised her.
Look at her now. Upstanding. Proper. A shining example.
Once the room was clean, Qian Qi lifted the toothbrush and approached Room 24’s blazing hound. “Alright. Let’s keep those teeth healthy—”
The moment the bristles touched its fang, Room 1 exploded.
A furious growl ripped through the corridor. The blazing hound in Room 1 sprang up and gnawed the barred door, eyes blazing as it glared at Qian Qi.
How dare you use my fur to brush another dog’s teeth?!
That’s my fur!
That’s my toothbrush!
I won’t allow it!
Qian Qi glanced over and calmly looked away.
She assumed it was mad about fairness—mad she’d only plucked its fur and not anyone else’s.
But what could she do? She’d only made one brush.
“Relax. I’m very fair,” Qian Qi muttered to herself. “Once this brush wears out, it’ll be their turn. How often do humans change toothbrushes… three months? Magic beasts… maybe a week…”
The blazing hound under her foot shivered violently.
Why did it suddenly feel like the universe had it in a chokehold?
After Qian Qi clocked out, Uncle Li was waiting at the door with a smile. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“Little Qian, tomorrow at three in the afternoon, the Beast-Taming Department’s first-year students have a practical class. They’ll be training blazing hounds at Beast-Taming Plaza, and I’m short-handed. Want to come help?”
Qian Qi’s eyes lit up. She nodded so fast her neck nearly snapped. She’d never seen how a beast tamer trained blazing hounds. If she could watch up close, she’d definitely learn all kinds of ways to build a deep bond with them.
Just thinking about it made her giddy.
On her way out of the Magic Beast Storage Room, she headed toward the Back Mountain plantation—and got a payment notice mid-walk.
Right after that, Chen Tong called.
The moment she answered, his furious voice nearly tore her eardrums apart. “Qian Qi—Dong Fang Qian Qi, that’s you, isn’t it?! Delete that topic right now!”
She could practically see him raging in place.
Qian Qi dug a finger into her ear and said lazily, “What are you talking about? Whatever Dong Fang Qian Qi did has nothing to do with me, Qian Qi.”
The topic had blown past the old Hemostatic Magic Potion thread and hit number one.
Now the entire school basically believed he’d “gone into the business.”
Worse—people were actually messaging him to ask how much he charged for a night.
“I transferred fifty thousand to you,” Chen Tong snapped. “Delete it. Now.”
Then he hung up with a violent bang.
Qian Qi sighed. “Tsk. Why so impatient? You still haven’t reimbursed my clothes.”
She shook her head like the world was full of disappointments. “It’s only been a few days and Senior Chen’s temper is already getting worse…”
Back then, he’d even lean close to her ear and whisper softly, telling her to just wait and see.
Ah well.
Next time, she’d be kind and sell him a few packs of chrysanthemum tea—clear the mind, cool the fire.
Humming, Qian Qi continued toward Back Mountain to check on her magic plant babies.