The half-meter-tall golden retriever tentatively shuffled its paws forward.
"AHH!" Terrified, the girl with twin-tails screamed and flailed her arms even more frantically. "Stay away! I'm warning you, don't come any closer!"
The golden retriever immediately backed away in grievance, letting out a choked WHIMPER before freezing in place.
[You have successfully discovered the tracks of a magical beast. This beast possesses golden fur and a massive build, indicating profound cultivation. It appears to be locked in a fierce battle with a female warrior. Will you offer your assistance, or prioritize your own safety?]
So the so-called magical beast was just this big golden retriever. The dog hadn't even bared its teeth; it actually looked quite well-behaved. Lin Zhengran got out of the car and walked over. The closer he got, the more familiar the girl looked. Even her voice sounded like he had heard it somewhere before.
He stepped up behind the girl and called out to her. Startled, she screamed in panic, hugged the golden retriever puppy in her arms, and curled up into a ball on the ground. "Help! Help! Officer, save me!"
Lin Zhengran was bewildered, but he recognized her. "Jiang Xueli?"
Hearing a human voice and realizing the big dog wasn't biting her, Jiang Xueli slowly opened her tear-filled eyes.
"Huh?" She looked up at the person in front of her. "Lin... Lin Zhengran?"
The two of them were in the same class. Jiang Xueli was the class discipline committee member, responsible for maintaining order and rectifying any improper conduct. Lin Zhengran always slept or read extracurricular books during class—and the books he read were usually incomprehensible to the average person. As a result, Jiang Xueli had a rather deep impression of him.
"What are you doing?" Lin Zhengran asked curiously. "You've been yelling non-stop."
Snapping back to reality, Jiang Xueli clung to him like a drowning person catching a lifeline. She hurriedly stood up, hid beside Lin Zhengran, and pointed at the big dog in the distance.
"Lin Zhengran! Hurry and help me protect this puppy! That big yellow dog was just trying to bite this little yellow dog to death! Look, there's even blood on the puppy! If I hadn't rescued it, it would be dead!"
"Blood?"
Lin Zhengran looked at the puppy in her arms. He did notice some red patches around the puppy's mouth and eyes. However, the color was very odd—it didn't look like blood at all, and there were no wounds on its face. Furthermore, the red substance was mixed with some strange seeds.
He tentatively dabbed a little onto his finger and was utterly left speechless. "Why do I feel like this is dragon fruit?"
"Huh?" Jiang Xueli wore a clueless expression. "Dragon fruit? What dragon fruit?"
Lin Zhengran looked into the distance at the aggrieved, wrongly accused big golden retriever. By the name of the great detective... anyway, there is only one truth!
"If my guess is right, this big golden retriever should be the puppy's mother. Why don't you put the puppy on the ground and see if it runs over to her?"
Jiang Xueli was stunned, but she quickly retorted at the top of her lungs, "H-how is that possible?! I saw with my own eyes that this big dog was biting the puppy's head!"
Too lazy to argue, Lin Zhengran plucked the puppy from her arms and set it on the ground. The little golden retriever happily trotted over, wagging its tail, to nuzzle its mother. The big golden retriever licked the dragon fruit pulp off her child's face, gave two grateful WOOFs at Lin Zhengran, and turned to leave.
[You have rescued the magical beast mother and daughter. You have received the magical beast's blessing. Charm +1]
Jiang Xueli stood there, petrified, completely frozen like a statue.
"What do you have to say for yourself now?" Lin Zhengran asked.
"This... this... this..."
Lin Zhengran mocked her stuttering, "This... this... this?"
Blushing deeply, Jiang Xueli squeezed her eyes shut. "Even if that's the case, I had good intentions!" She clenched her fists and kept her arms stiff by her sides in a classic tsundere posture. "What's with that look? You're staring at me like I'm an idiot!"
Lin Zhengran thought she was quite self-aware. "Why are you getting so worked up? I didn't even say anything."
Her face flushed crimson; the strong-willed Jiang Xueli felt incredibly humiliated by his nonchalant remark.
A moment later, a police officer arrived and asked who had been screaming for help. Lin Zhengran pointed at Jiang Xueli without hesitation. Jiang Xueli was instantly embarrassed beyond belief.
Panicking, she frantically waved her hands and shook her head, her twin-tails whipping back and forth. "No, no, Officer, I wasn't screaming! Nothing happened just now!"
The officer smiled helplessly and walked away, knowing better than to take a child's playful antics seriously.
Lin Zhengran also prepared to head back. At this moment, Jiang Xueli clenched her small fists. After wrestling with herself for a while, she finally squeezed her eyes shut and shouted, "Thank you for saving me earlier! I always repay my debts!"
Lin Zhengran turned around. She was so embarrassed that she bit her lip.
After waiting for a moment, he deliberately asked, "What did you say just now? I didn't quite catch it."
Jiang Xueli hadn't expected to repeat herself. Her face grew even redder as she stammered, "I... I said..."
Lin Zhengran kept a straight face, genuinely surprised to encounter such a textbook tsundere personality in real life. "Actually, I heard you. You're welcome."
Jiang Xueli watched Lin Zhengran walk away, blinking her eyes a few times. She muttered, "Weirdo," under her breath, followed by another mutter of, "I feel so humiliated." Covering her face, she fled the scene as well.
A week passed by in a flash.
On this day, Lin Zhengran was walking to school with Xiao Heqing. On their way, Lin Zhengran suddenly noticed the discipline committee member, Jiang Xueli, walking toward him from the opposite direction. However, upon seeing him, she jolted and immediately scurried away. In fact, this exact scenario had played out several times over the past week.
Xiao Heqing hadn't seen the girl. She only saw Lin Zhengran's puzzled expression and asked in a soft voice, "Lin Zhengran, what are you looking at?"
"Oh," Lin Zhengran replied. "Nothing."
Xiao Heqing looked completely perplexed, unsure of what had just happened. Lin Zhengran was equally bewildered, and it wasn't until a self-study class that he finally understood the reason for her behavior.
The teacher was absent during that period. The students in the class were either chatting or sleeping, with Lin Zhengran firmly belonging to the latter category.
Unable to bear the noise any longer, the discipline committee member, Jiang Xueli, stood up. "Stop making so much noise! This is a self-study period! If you keep talking, I'm going to write all your names on the blackboard!"
The class quieted down for a brief moment before quickly returning to its bustling chatter, making Jiang Xueli grit her teeth and clench her fists in anger.
The role of a discipline committee member was quite a peculiar position in school. Since the class president was also responsible for maintaining order, their duties overlapped. This made Jiang Xueli seem rather useless and unappreciated, giving off the impression that her sole purpose was to draw everyone's ire.
She marched up to the podium and started writing the names of the rule-breakers on the blackboard in order—SCRIBBLE SCRIBBLE. However, when she reached Lin Zhengran, Jiang Xueli hesitated for a second and skipped over him entirely.
But Zhengzheng's exact omission was perfectly noticed by someone sharp-eyed: "Jiang Xueli, why didn't you write Lin Zhengran's name! He was sleeping too!"
Jiang Xueli turned around in a panic and stammered, "W-who said I didn't write it?! I was just about to! What are you rushing for?!"
"Nonsense! You wrote all the previous names in order; you just deliberately skipped Lin Zhengran!"
Hearing this, Lin Zhengran looked over curiously. Jiang Xueli made eye contact with him, blushed, and turned back to face the blackboard. "I'll write it right now!"
However, she only managed to write the character 'Lin' before her chalk came to a halt. Instead, she abruptly erased all the names she had previously written in one fell swoop.
She shouted at the class, "Stop making so much noise! I'm giving you one last chance. If you keep talking, I'll really write all your names on the blackboard!"
With that, she stepped down from the podium. As she returned to her seat, she awkwardly exchanged another glance with Lin Zhengran.
A boy in the class, who seemingly caught onto what was happening, called out, "Discipline Committee Member, do you like Lin Zhengran?"