This little dog seemed completely unafraid of strangers. As Shu Yuxin approached, it simply stood there, staring at her blankly, and even wagged its tail a couple of times.

The light rain that still hadn’t stopped had soaked its fur, making it look a bit scruffy. Only when Shu Yuxin squatted down in front of it did the puppy make a token move backward, taking a single step.

“Tsk, you’re really bold…” Shu Yuxin muttered softly. She extended her umbrella forward to cover it, but since it was just a single-person umbrella, there obviously wasn’t enough space to shelter both her and the dog while keeping some distance between them. Once she pushed the umbrella out, a few raindrops landed on her back.

As the weather had cooled, Shu Yuxin hadn’t added many layers. She had only put back on the small vest she wore when she first came to school. The vest blocked the raindrops on her back, but it couldn’t stop the water dripping onto her neck. Raindrops sliding off the edge of the umbrella seeped through the long hair draped over her shoulders and touched the back of her neck. The sudden chill made her instinctively shrink her neck.

Realizing that she was getting rained on, she stared at the puppy for two seconds, then silently pulled the umbrella back.

The puppy seemed to understand that the person in front of it had withdrawn that cheap generosity. It hesitated in place for a moment, then very consciously took the initiative to slip under the umbrella. The space beneath the umbrella wasn’t large. As it rushed forward, the puppy accidentally bumped its head against Shu Yuxin’s knee. Startled, it jumped back two steps. After looking up to make sure Shu Yuxin wasn’t angry, it cautiously tried moving forward again, just enough to tuck itself under the umbrella.

Shu Yuxin felt like laughing.

This was a Chinese rural dog—commonly known as a mutt. In the countryside, they used to be very common, with almost every household keeping one to guard the home. Because of this, Shu Yuxin, who had spent her childhood in a rural hometown, had an indescribable fondness for this type of dog. Of course, a large part of that affection also came from the dog she once had.

In cities, however—especially big cities like Minghai—Chinese rural dogs were rare. Most dogs in the city were people’s pets, and as the most common kind of native dog in China, rural dogs held a very low status in the world of pet dogs. Unless someone genuinely liked this type, most people wouldn’t choose them as pets.

Moreover, Chinese rural dogs weren’t valuable. People who bought dogs on a whim and later couldn’t keep them didn’t feel much psychological burden when abandoning them.

As a result, the chance of seeing Chinese rural dogs in big cities was very low, and the vast majority of those you did see were strays.

Obviously, this little dog was one such abandoned stray.

Shu Yuxin didn’t know what the situation was like at Minghai University, but at Nanhu College, there seemed to be quite a few stray cats and dogs. During military training, she had seen many stray cats. Those feline residents were highly wary of strangers; most of the time, she could only catch fleeting glimpses of them darting through corners of the campus. There were many residential areas around Nanhu College, and not far away there was also a food processing factory. Combined with its proximity to the city, the area naturally became a haven for homeless animals. Besides the high chances of finding food, there were also many compassionate college students willing to provide them with decent pre-meal treats.

Just like now.

“Not sure if you like sausages,” Shu Yuxin said as she struggled to pull a corn sausage out of her jeans pocket. She tore open the packaging and brought the exposed end toward the puppy’s mouth.

The puppy clearly froze for a moment. Seeing Shu Yuxin extend the thing in her hand, it instinctively seemed ready to run, but just as it was about to turn away, it caught the scent of the sausage—and then it couldn’t move its legs anymore. It looked up at Shu Yuxin with some confusion, and after sensing no hostility from her, it cautiously moved closer and took a bite of one end of the sausage.

Seeing how it immediately began to wolf it down, Shu Yuxin worried that it might accidentally bite her. She simply dropped the sausage onto a fallen leaf on the ground and squatted nearby, quietly watching it eat.

She really liked this feeling. Since she wasn’t very good at making friends, she often spent time alone. There weren’t many forms of entertainment when she was by herself, and among them, her favorite was being with animals. At the very least, interacting with animals didn’t involve the same twists and turns as interacting with people.

The puppy ate quickly. Before long, only a small bit of the sausage was left. Shu Yuxin didn’t know what she was thinking, but she suddenly took out her phone and opened the search bar.

After browsing through some encyclopedia entries, forums, and posts, she learned that this kind of corn sausage wasn’t suitable for dogs. That made her a little worried that something might happen to the puppy after eating it—but soon after, she was amused by her own thoughts.

This was a stray dog—a stray dog only a few months old. Forget corn sausages; in this school, faced with adult stray dogs and cats, it might not even be able to snatch a single bone. It could very well starve to death in some corner one day, and yet here she was worrying about whether it could eat a corn sausage.

It didn’t have the fate of a pet dog. It didn’t even have a life as good as those guard dogs in the countryside.

Shu Yuxin sighed softly and slowly put her phone away.

Only then did she suddenly realize that from the moment she’d seen this puppy until now, she hadn’t once thought about adopting it.

If this had been when she was younger, she would have picked it up and taken it home without hesitation—even if she’d get scolded or beaten afterward, just like the dog that had accompanied her for so many years. But now, even if the thought of adopting it crossed her mind, the first things she would think about were whether she had the means to do so, whether she could keep it long-term, whether Jiang Zixuan would dislike it, whether a stray dog might carry diseases…

Becoming more and more realistic—perhaps that was what growing up meant.

The puppy had finished the entire sausage. Even the wrapper had been chewed beyond recognition. But it still didn’t seem full. It wagged its tail and looked at Shu Yuxin with longing in its eyes.

“I only had one…” As if she were facing a close friend, Shu Yuxin’s face immediately showed a troubled expression when she saw it.

That sausage had been given to her by Peng Xiaoxiao during class that morning. She hadn’t had the chance to eat it.

The puppy, of course, couldn’t understand her words. It just kept looking at her expectantly.

“Alright,” Shu Yuxin gave in. “Stay here obediently. I’ll go buy some snacks and come back for you.”

The West Area supermarket wasn’t far from here. It sold a wide variety of snacks, and they weren’t too expensive. She didn’t expect the dog to understand her words anyway. If she came back later and it was gone, then all she could do was accept it.

After saying this, she stood up with her umbrella and turned to leave. Seeing this, the puppy immediately wagged its tail and followed her. But it only chased her for a few meters. Once Shu Yuxin stepped onto the stone path, the puppy stopped where it was, staring blankly as she walked farther and farther away.