After Clearing the Infinite Flow, I Tamed the Mad Dog Boss - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

With its mouth seized, Tangyuan instinctively twisted its head, trying to struggle free.

Qin Xian tightened his grip and scolded, “Where did you pick up this habit? Licking blood? Watch out for zoonotic diseases. Or have you really been contaminated by some strange force?”

“Mmph mmph…”

Realizing it couldn’t pull its mouth out, Tangyuan stopped struggling, its round pupils drawing inward as it stared at Qin Xian’s hand. It looked a little cross-eyed and oddly stupid.

Qin Xian pushed the dog’s muzzle away and released his hand. “No licking me. Next time you do, I’ll grab the slipper…”

Before he could finish, Tangyuan stretched its head out again, trying to get close to the wound.

Qin Xian quickly grabbed the slipper from the floor and raised it high.

Tangyuan instinctively pinned its ears back and squinted, even sidestepping a little, but it still didn’t move away.

Seeing that, Qin Xian sighed. His eyes narrowed, and with a sharp smack, the slipper landed squarely on the dog’s cheek, avoiding the eyes and the cartilage of the nose.

The black dog froze for a moment, then let out a fierce growl, baring its tightly clenched fangs.

Smack!

This time, he used much more force than before, directly knocking its head to the side.

“You still dare growl? You won’t know what’s right and wrong until I really slap you?”

Qin Xian looked coldly down at the dog, whose eyes still held a vicious glint, and raised his hand high again.

Tangyuan instinctively shut its eyes at the sight, its ears folding back until they nearly disappeared. But the slipper didn’t come down. It opened its eyes and saw Qin Xian standing there, his hair slightly loose over his shoulders, his refined and handsome face expressionless.

His voice was stern. “Still dare?”

Tangyuan’s ears perked up, then flattened again. Its gaze turned a little clearer. It licked its lips and whined twice, as if cautiously trying to curry favor.

Qin Xian put away the slipper and snorted coldly in warning. “Do that again, and I’ll teach you a harsher lesson.”

With that, he snapped the first-aid kit shut, picked it up, and went back to his room. Before the dog could try to squeeze in, he slammed the door shut with a bang.

Tangyuan nearly got its nose caught. Seeing the tightly closed door in front of it, it began pawing at the gap beneath the door over and over, making a racket.

Inside the room, Qin Xian ignored it. Standing before the mirror, he took off his clothes and turned around. There were fewer injuries on his chest, but both arms and his back were covered in wounds of all sizes, most of them caused when the underground room collapsed.

The red-and-black scabs looked especially terrifying against his pale skin, but in fact none of them were serious… Of course, he would still have to go downstairs to the clinic for a tetanus shot later.

The worst injury was a large bruise on his left arm from falling off the strange entity. After the fall, he hadn’t paid it any mind at all and had kept fighting through the pain.

Now that he had stopped, the entire left arm was somewhat hard to lift.

Qin Xian raised his right hand and pressed his left arm, wincing as he slowly checked the bones.

No fracture. That was much better. A little ointment and a week or so of rest would be enough to recover.

Qin Xian took off his pants and set them aside too. He opened the first-aid kit, took out the iodine and anti-inflammatory medicine inside, and began slowly treating his wounds in the mirror. The scratching at the door suddenly stopped. Qin Xian glanced over; the door was still tightly shut and had not been opened.

He withdrew his gaze and continued handling all the wounds on his body.

Once he was done, he roughly washed up and changed into pajamas. He was so exhausted that every movement while changing was slow and heavy with sleepiness. Before he even got the shirt fully over his head, he had already fallen asleep. Only when his body tilted did he sluggishly pull the shirt down, then sleep on without even getting his arms into the sleeves.

After he was fully asleep, there was a faint rustle beside the open window. Something like a ghostly shadow floated outside it, its pale face greedily staring at the person on the bed. Just as it was about to squeeze through the crack in the window, it suddenly saw a huge shadow appear on the outer wall of the building.

The ghostly figure trembled and tried to flee, but the shadow suddenly lunged, biting it apart in a few bites and swallowing it whole.

Sensing something, Qin Xian opened his eyes and frowned as he walked to the window. The black shadow on the outer wall vanished instantly.

Outside, everything looked normal. The strange aura that had flashed by just now seemed to have been an illusion.

——————-

Qin Xian slept fairly peacefully this time-arguably the most peaceful sleep he’d had since coming back. It was also very long, lasting until noon the next day.

When you oversleep, you sometimes wake up even groggier than usual.

He got up unsteadily like a drunk man, his head buzzing, and it took him quite a while to clear it. He struggled out of bed, and just as he was about to leave the room, he tripped over the dog lying at the doorway and nearly fell flat on the floor.

“You really know how to choose a place to sleep. Might as well trip me to death,” Qin Xian scolded, pointing at the dog’s nose.

Tangyuan lifted its head and blinked, looking extremely innocent.

Qin Xian sighed. “Forget it.”

Why bother arguing with a stupid dog?

He opened the fridge, took out one egg for himself, then added two more after noticing the dog following at his feet. He fried the three eggs, then with a sizzle poured in boiling water. Qin Xian quickly made two big bowls of egg noodles.

The one with salt was for himself; the unsalted bowl was poured into Tangyuan’s dish and placed in front of it.

Tangyuan lowered its head and sniffed at it over and over, seeming uncertain about something.

Qin Xian tapped the table with his chopsticks and ordered the dog, “If you don’t eat it and let it go to waste, I won’t bother making it for you next time.”

Hearing his voice, Tangyuan looked up.

“Don’t look at me. Eat.” Qin Xian pointed his chopsticks at the bowl in front of Tangyuan.
But the moment his hand and chopsticks reached Tangyuan, Tangyuan suddenly opened his mouth and licked them. The thin dog tongue brushed over the back of his hand and the chopsticks.

A vein popped at Qin Xian’s temple. He yanked his hand back and smacked the dog on the head with his chopsticks.

“Awoof!”

Tangyuan howled, his ears drooping as he cautiously looked at Qin Xian.

With his back to him, Qin Xian washed his hands in the kitchen and snapped, “Go eat on the balcony.”

Tangyuan didn’t seem to understand, but he probably knew his master was furious. He immediately turned around, crawled under the table, and slurped down the noodles along with the broth, then lay there beneath the table.

Qin Xian returned to the dining table, finished the noodles in his own bowl, and began checking how well his body had recovered.

Fine, dense pain came from the wounds all over him, but they had already scabbed over. His slightly pale skin was covered in tiny scars. There was even a cut on his waist, and another on his abdomen. This body seemed to have inherited the strength and speed of the Infinite Flow World. His combat ability was much higher than an ordinary person’s. When he tensed, defined abs and a V-line were visible, but many of his old, long-standing scars had completely vanished…

As he was examining himself, his gaze suddenly met the dog’s under the table. Tangyuan had also raised his head and was staring at him…

Qin Xian covered himself with his shirt in one second flat and stared back at the dog.

“What are you looking at? Go play by yourself.”

“…Woof.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t understand dog. Move. I’ve got things to do.”

Qin Xian nudged the dog’s thigh with the tip of his foot, drove him away, then opened his phone to check the new messages on the forum.

[Brother Get Well Soon: Hello, Mr. Q. Thank you for saving my brother. Please send me your bank card number, and I’ll transfer the money to you.]

Judging by that forum username, the girl’s brother had probably survived.

Qin Xian slowly typed a reply: [How is your brother now?]

[Brother Get Well Soon: He made it through the critical period overnight. The doctors and nurses seemed really surprised. But he may need someone to take care of him from now on. He hasn’t woken up yet.]

[Q: The eerie probably treated him when it cut off his limbs. Otherwise, it would’ve been very hard for him to survive. That also helped save his life. But you need to pay attention to your brother’s emotional state. People trapped in negative emotions are more likely to attract eeries. Something may very well use restoring his body as bait to lure him in. If you encounter anything abnormal, contact me again.]

[Brother Get Well Soon: Okay. But I also wanted to ask, is there really a way to restore my brother’s limbs?]

[Qin Xian: No. Please remember, there is absolutely no such thing as a free lunch.]

[Brother Get Well Soon: I understand. Thank you, Mr. Q. Um, your card number…]

[Qin Xian: Use your family’s money to treat your brother first.]

[Brother Get Well Soon: Actually, my family is pretty well-off. We have enough money to treat my brother. The fifty thousand is from my own New Year’s money. Please just give me your card number!]

Tsk, tsk. This little girl’s New Year’s money was more than all his savings.

Qin Xian stopped refusing and simply sent over his card number.

Before long, the transfer notification arrived by text. Looking at the extra digit in his savings, Qin Xian was in an excellent mood. Seeing Tangyuan craning his head around nearby, he reached out and roughly rubbed the dog’s head twice.

Tangyuan was startled and backed up two steps, tilting his head at him.

Qin Xian said, “What? I hit you and you don’t run, but I pet you and you do?”

Tangyuan froze, then stepped forward again and took the initiative to rub his head against Qin Xian’s hand.

Qin Xian withdrew his hand. “Not petting you anymore. Go away.”

Tangyuan: “…”

What a flexible attitude shift.

Just then, the faint sound of the door opening suddenly came from the entrance. Qin Xian immediately straightened up, frowning toward the door. Tangyuan was even faster, rushing behind the door and letting out a low, threatening growl.

The sound of the door opening paused, then continued turning little by little, extremely carefully.

“Grr-woof, woof, woof!! Woof, woof!!” Tangyuan started barking wildly, lifting himself up and planting his front paws on the door. His nails scraped against it with a shrill screech.

“Holy crap! You scared me to death!”

A startled cry came from outside. Only when Qin Xian heard that familiar voice did he remember that he had asked Lin Qizhi to help feed the dog, and he still hadn’t had time to tell him he was already back.

Qin Xian quickly got up and ordered Tangyuan, “Tangyuan! Stop barking! It’s someone we know.”

But Tangyuan kept barking madly until Qin Xian stepped forward, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and dragged him away.

Holding the dog with one hand, Qin Xian opened the door with the other and called out to Lin Qizhi, who had been so frightened he had turned around and was about to run.

Only then did Lin Qizhi look back. The moment he saw Qin Xian, he wailed, “Brother Qin! You’re finally back. I still couldn’t stop worrying today, so I came to check whether the dog was going to starve to death. Man, your Tangyuan is really… way too fierce…”

He furtively craned his head forward and bent down to glance at Tangyuan behind Qin Xian.

Tangyuan’s gaze was vicious, his lips pulled back ferociously to reveal his canines.

Lin Qizhi immediately trembled.

Qin Xian pressed down on the dog’s head and invited Lin Qizhi in. “Want to come in and sit for a bit?”

Lin Qizhi nodded, but the moment he put one foot into Qin Xian’s home, Tangyuan immediately started barking loudly again.

“Woof! Woof, woof, woof! Woof!” He glared at Lin Qizhi with savage fury, his eyes as if he wanted to tear him apart.

Lin Qizhi broke out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly withdrew, pressed his palms together at Qin Xian, and said, “No, no, no, no, better not! Maybe Tangyuan and I are astrologically incompatible. He looks like he wants to eat me. Let’s grab a meal and talk some other time!”