Chapter 26: Fight For The Golden Bone

Translator: Mukyuu
Editor: Mikyuu

Wei Zhounan felt self-conscious and had no words. 

He wanted to immediately call Ning Yan and complain about the spiteful little white puppy!

He had no idea that his “bro” himself was rolling around the floor, laughing so hard he got hiccups. 

Xue Lian laughed so hard he collapsed onto the floor and cried out, “Oh my god… oh… my god…”

He might as well have been choking on laughter. Despite being one of the most sought-after idols, he had completely forgotten—or didn’t care anymore—about his public image. 

Wei Zhounan whispered quietly, uncertainty in his voice, “Do… do we really have to record like this?” 

The staff struggled to hold in their laughter and indicated they needed to ask their “master.” 

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The man asked with weary resignation, “Had enough?” 

Wei Zhounan also hurried over and knelt down directly in front of Ning Yan. He howled, “Master Sese, forgive us! Even though your humble servant doesn’t know how I have offended thee, please let this humble servant retain some dignity!” 

Ning Yan kept the arrogant position of lying on his back with his paws in the air. He wagged his tail confidently. 

The man’s gaze fell hesitantly on Ning Yan’s lower half… and the two furry balls. 

Ning Yan sensed the gaze, squeezed his two hind legs shut, and flipped himself over. He looked up at the man—What, going to threaten him with neutering again?

“…” Lin Rong rubbed his temples and decided not to escalate this further. He bent down and scooped up the white puppy, saying soothingly in a low voice, “Good Sese, please go choose something else for us, please?” 

The white puppy’s tail wagged faster. 

Wei Zhounan looked pleadingly at the scene in front of him and urged, “Bro, say something else. It looks like it’s working!” 

Lin Rong thought for a moment and then lowered his face to plant a hurried kiss on the white puppy’s head. 

The white puppy’s tail immediately shot straight up. 

Wei Zhounan cried out, “Hey, hey, I think that worked! Hurry up bro, put him down!” 

“Wait, how did that work?” Xue Lian finally got up from the floor and looked over curiously. 

Once Ning Yan was put on the ground, he shook his fur and glanced at Lin Rong. Then he whined softly as he walked over again to the two rows of clothes. 

Everyone looked on with curiosity and shock as the puppy, regardless of if he really understood the situation or out of coincidence, finally picked out two men’s outfits. 

Wei Zhounan finally let out the breath he was holding and felt revived. 

“Lin Bro, your dog is so smart!” Xue Lian felt envious after he finished laughing. “I so want to take him home!” 

The two men changed into their new outfits and, when they walked out, it almost seemed like they walked out with their own spotlight. 

Wei Zhounan returned to looking like a cheerful and energetic young man. When Lin Rong put on the shirt and suit pants, he was handsome enough to walk on the runway. His pheromones were exploding in the air. 

The two girls stopped their chit-chat and their gazes were uncontrollably drawn towards Lin Rong. 

Ning Yan thought he had pretty good taste. The jerk is handsome!

Lin Rong looked down into the shining eyes of the white puppy and his lips lifted into a smile. 

After completing the “In Your Pet’s Eyes” mission, the group set out for their third mission—“Your Pet’s Dream.” 

The mission was by the lake again, and they ran into Wu Yu again! 

The staff explained the rules for this challenge. This mission seemed like a miniature drama: the young girl sitting on the bench by the lake—who might get swapped with a young man in the later rounds—had the stamp in her hands. For this mission, two groups would go up against each other to compete for the target’s affection. One group would send out a human representative and the other their pet. The human and the pet would sit on either side of the young girl and whoever won her affection would earn a stamp on their mission card. 

Since every team’s pet must be on camera at least once, every team had to compete twice. Only when both the human and pet representatives of the same team had earned the stamp of approval from the girl could the team receive the final mission card from a staff member. 

Wu Yu had arrived a few minutes earlier and was waiting for another team to arrive so he could start the task. He hadn’t thought it would be Lin Rong’s group and muttered to himself that today just wasn’t his lucky day. 

The staff requested, “You two discuss who is sending the human representative first.” 

Wu Yu immediately said, “We’ll send a human first.” 

Wei Zhounan and the puppy looked at each other. “… Then we’ll have to send Sese first.” 

Ning Yan walked up confidently. 

Wei Zhounan whispered to Lin Rong, “They probably guessed that we’d send you first. No matter how cute the animal is, they’d lose against you. So Wu Yu wants to win first.” 

But he’s certain he’ll win against the puppy? 

Lin Rong gave Wei Zhounan, whose words conveyed more confidence than Lin Rong himself felt, a weird look.  

Of course Wu Yu felt confident. 

Who is he kidding, how can such a handsome guy like him lose to a dog?

He knew very well that girls would involuntarily coo over fluffy pets, but since a rule of the game was that both the human and animal had to win once each in order to clear the stage, the program staff must have told the girl ahead of time that she couldn’t always pick the animal. 

In addition, he knew the girl. She was part of the staff for the show and usually looked at him admiringly. He refused to believe that she wouldn’t give him the honor. 

He sat down next to the girl and the girl immediately blushed while looking at him. Wu Yu smiled at her. 

Wei Zhounan yelled out, “Hey, we haven’t started yet! No flirting!” 

Wu Yu raised an eyebrow and the girl covered her face while she smiled in embarrassment.

At the same time, the white puppy was placed on the other side of the girl. The competition officially began. 

Wu Yu stretched out his arm and put it on the back of the chair behind the girl. His team member immediately squealed and the girl blushed even more furiously, covering her face again with her hands. 

Wu Yu reached out and placed his hands around the girl’s wrists. He pulled her hands down and looked at her with a half-smile. “Hey, no covering up that face. You have to look at me. Come on, look at me.” 

The girl was giggling so hard she couldn’t look at him. Wu Yu put his face up close and said, “Come on beautiful, give me the stamp? Your idol is struggling with work here.” 

His partner shouted directions, “Hey, you have to be a bit more bossy CEO! You’re not attractive like this!” 

While that scene unfolded, Wei Zhounan asked quizzically, “Bro, do you see what Sese’s doing?” 

The white puppy didn’t pay any attention to the girl at all. Instead, he stood on the edge of the bench and had stuck his head out. It looked like he was playing around in the grass. 

If this were any of the other pets, nobody would wonder about something like that happening. After all, logically speaking no animal would be that cooperative with the show and its rules. But the puppy had seemed like he really understood directions in the previous rounds, so when he behaved differently this time around, it seemed odd. 

Lin Rong looked carefully and then happiness colored his features. He reassured quietly, “Don’t worry.” 

Wu Yu had already talked the girl into taking out the stamp, and the girl seemed to have completely forgotten about the white puppy on her other side. 

Wu Yu’s gaze landed somewhere behind the girl. He saw the white puppy stick his head out, completely oblivious to what had happened, and held back a scoff. 

Previously during the food battle, there were staff members who discussed privately that this white puppy was extremely smart. Smart? It was all just coincidence!

Wu Yu smiled and confidently took out his mission card. The girl accepted the card and just as she was about to stamp it— 

Suddenly, something tapped her arm. 

She paused and something tapped her arm again. 

She turned around in confusion— 

The white puppy sat demurely by her side and looked at her with an “I’m so cool” gaze. He held a small yellow flower in his mouth. 

He lifted his head when he saw the girl turn around. His entire being exuded confidence and pride. 

Wu Yu, “…” 

The girl, “…” 

The girl put her hands against her cheeks and squealed, “Ahhhhhh! Is that for me?!” 

The white puppy took a step forward and the girl carefully held out her hands. He lowered his head and gently put the flower in her palms. Then he lifted his head and, upon careful inspection, it seemed like he had a smirk on his lips. 

The girl went wild. “AHHHHHHHH so cute!” 

She immediately whisked the puppy into her arms and petted him everywhere. 

Ning Yan let the girl pet his head and looked at Wu Yu sitting on the other end of the bench. Right then, Wu Yu looked like he had just swallowed a fly and in response, Ning Yan bared his teeth in a smile. 

Wu Yu’s partner said in shock, “I’ll be damned! That dog’s got some tricks!” 

Wei Zhounan also lost his mind. “Damn it, damn it, damn it. So cool! He can do this better than I can!” 

Lin Rong smiled as he shook his head. 

In the end, the stamp landed on the mission card from the white puppy’s team.

When the white puppy raced back towards his team, the staff members were all in awe. 

The girl looked longingly at the retreating figure of the white puppy and then glanced back down at the tiny flower in her palm. She once again melted at how adorable that had been! 

Wei Zhounan bent down to rub Ning Yan’s head and praised excitedly, “Sese, you’re so amazing!” 

This is your bro, after all!

Ning Yan thought proudly. 

When Ning Yan met the man’s joyful gaze, Ning Yan tilted his head, thought for a moment, and then raced back to the bench. When he returned, he had a bunch of flowers in his mouth. 

“Sese, your challenge is over. What are you doing with all these flowers?” Wei Zhounan burst into laughter. 

Beside him, the man has already bent down and reached out a hand. The white puppy walked over and put all of the flowers in the man’s palm. 

Wei Zhounan, “…”

He shut up out of jealousy. 

Ning Yan rubbed against the man’s arm and thought, Don’t be jealous, the flowers I’m giving you are the real true love’s flowers!

He glanced over at his pitiful “little brother” and then his gaze wandered. He picked up a petal that had fallen onto the ground at some point and dropped it carelessly into his “little brother’s” hands. 

There, as if your bro hasn’t given you enough stuff before!

Wei Zhounan looked down at the tiny petal in his hand. 

Oh fine. 

In the second round, Wu Yu’s group sent their cat and Ning Yan’s group sent Lin Rong. 

When the man walked over with a blank face, Ning Yan realized what was happening. He barked unhappily at Wei Zhounan, “Woof, woof, woof!” 

At some point Wei Zhounan had developed an instinctive understanding for what Ning Yan was saying. He casually remarked, “Oh, Lin Bro’s the handsome one. Of course we have to make him go. Be good.” 

Ning Yan barked furiously, “Awwooooooo!” 

The group on the bench was awkward all around. 

After the Russian Blue sat down on the chair, it began to lick its paws. The man sat textbook-straight and his back was as stiff as a rod. 

The girl sat between the man and the Russian Blue with a smile that was gradually becoming frozen. 

The awkwardness seemed to solidify in the air. The staff members coughed lightly and mumbled, “Everyone failed the challenge.” 

Wei Zhounan asked in shock, “Lin Bro, how could you?” 

Lin Rong silently looked away. 

Ning Yan relaxed and his tail wagged again. 

Another group arrived soon after, but groups had to participate in the challenge one by one. 

In this round, the director exchanged the young woman for a young man and everyone despaired. All three of the currently present teams were made up of all men. How were they supposed to flirt with a man without a girl? 

The young man himself smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. 

Wei Zhounan took his turn and got beaten by a cat. 

Lin Rong went up again and just as he thought he’d fail due to awkwardness, Lin Rong noticed the young man sneaking longing glances at him. Lin Rong thought for a moment and asked quietly, “Can I sing a song?” 

“Yes, yes!” The young man got excited. Clearly he was a fan. 

So that was how Ning Yan’s team earned another stamp and finally got their hands on the mission card for the final mission. 

The final mission was to find the Golden Bone. 

Ning Yan actually thought the premise of the episode was pretty unfair for the two cats and the parrot. They weren’t dogs, so why did they have to hunt for the Golden Bone? But, eh, it didn’t have anything to do with him. 

Night had already fallen by the time they arrived at their final destination. 

The staff had prepared pieces of a map and the first to arrive would get the most pieces. 

But the map contained no words, so even if the first group to arrive had received the piece that indicated the location of the Golden Bone, the groups still had to make alliances in order to get other pieces and figure out the exact location. 

Ning Yan’s team was second. Wu Yu’s team was first since their Russian Blue had beaten Wei Zhounan. That team received three pieces of the puzzle and had long since disappeared without a trace. 

Ning Yan’s team could pick two pieces and, luckily for them, one of the pieces marked the location of the Golden Bone. Wei Zhounan jumped up in excitement. “Bro, why don’t we try and find it? Since we have the piece with the Golden Bone, we don’t have to worry. If we want to form an alliance later, it should be easy.” 

Lin Rong nodded his head. 

Sadly, the producers wouldn’t let them off that easily. When they discovered the boxes of props hidden in the corners, they realized that there were two versions of the map. The pieces of both versions of the map were mixed up together. Half were provided to the idols and half were hidden in various corners around the place. 

There were two versions of the map, but clearly only one was real. 

The rules of the game almost killed everyone. 

After the various teams arrived, one after the other, alliances were forged and betrayed. They chased after each other and the competition was fierce. 

In the end, Ning Yan’s team sat down with Xue Lian’s team and they put together the pieces they had between them.

They didn’t have the completed version to either map. The man examined both silently and then pointed to the map that lacked the Golden Bone before declaring, “This map is fake. It’s wrong.” 

“Bro, how did you figure it out?” Wei Zhounan smacked his lips in astonishment. “I’ve been going cross-eyed!” 

“Are you sure?” Xue Lian immediately looked at the other map. 

“I’m sure,” Lin Rong said calmly. 

Coincidentally, the supposedly-correct map had the location of the Golden Bone marked. 

They looked at each other and started running frantically. 

Lin Rong, who was immediately left behind, glanced at the retreating figures. Even the white puppy was running along without a care in the world. 

The Golden Bone was located on the first floor of the library at the center of the plaza. They ran into Wu Yu and the others when they got there—clearly Wu Yu’s team had the fake map’s location of the Golden Bone. Coincidentally, both the real and the fake locations of the Golden Bone were on the first floor of the library, just on opposite ends. 

Wu Yu already had doubts about the location of the Golden Bone indicated on his piece, and when he saw Xue Lian and the others run unhesitatingly towards the other end, he immediately followed after. Then the scenario devolved into an all-out fight for the Golden Bone!

The show had mandated that whoever had the Golden Bone at the end of the three-hour competition period would be the winner. There were only a few minutes left and the two sides were mired in a chaotic struggle. Suddenly, the Golden Bone slipped out of someone’s grasp and flew through the air. 

Ning Yan heard Lin Rong call from somewhere behind him, “Sese!” 

He let out a howl in response, kept his gaze on the bone, and ran forwards a few steps before leaping mightily into the air. His jaws snapped shut around the bone and he immediately raced back the way he came!

The man leaned down and Ning Yan jumped into the man’s embrace. Time’s up, game’s over!

… 

By the time the show had finally wrapped up filming, everyone was exhausted. 

Wei Zhounan kept complaining, “I’m so tired! Dammit!” 

No matter what happened, they would always be dead tired after filming. At least this time their group was the overall winner.

The people chatted a bit more and petted each other’s pets—Xue Lian, especially, was attached to Ning Yan. But he definitely would not be able to take Ning Yan home and the guy was finally dragged away by his assistant. 

Everyone else said their goodbyes. 

Only then did Wei Zhounan have a chance to sneakily ask, “By the way, Lin Bro, is Sese really Ning Bro’s dog?” 

Lin Rong glanced at him. “Mmhmm.” 

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Wei Zhounan leaned close again. “Did this happen after the thing at Riverside?” 

Of course not. 

But both Lin Rong and the white puppy nodded thoughtfully. 

“Mmhmm.” 

“Woof!” 

Wei Zhounan had a simple mind and believed what they said. He said in confusion, “Damn me, but how far did you and Ning Bro get?!”

This was probably the same question that Jiang Mo, Jiang Xiaoning, and Lu Ming also had. But the truth was… absolutely no real progress had been made. So Lin Rong answered unperturbed and they were all left with more questions than answers. 

Nearby, Wu Yu and his assistant were walking away when he caught sight of Wei Zhounan and Lin Rong huddling together. His expression darkened. 

When did Wei Zhounan get to be this friendly with that guy? He had said those things to Wei Zhounan at the beginning of the shoot…

Wu Yu’s unhappiness could have solidified as he thought about all the misfortunes he had experienced this day. 

Ning Yan felt the weight of the gaze and looked over, narrowing his puppy eyes. 

He knew what kind of person Wu Yu was and he could also tell, for the entire day, that guy had seen their group, especially Lin Rong, as a needle in his eye. Ning Yan was just too lazy to care about it. 

But being continually harassed by those looks was getting annoying.

Ning Yan glanced around, and when he realized nobody was paying attention to him and that there were no cameras around, he cackled inwardly and stood on his hind legs with his two front paws in the air. 

A normal dog won’t be able to do this, but is Ning Yan a regular dog? 

He put some effort into the movement and realized he could control his toes individually. So he slightly bent the other toes, leaving just one toe standing up, which meant it looked like… 

He was giving someone the middle finger. 

Wu Yu’s footsteps halted and then he squinted to examine the scene more closely…

Then he stood rooted to the same spot in confusion. 

Is that dog giving him the middle finger???

He got the middle finger from a dog???

Ning Yan finished making the gesture and put his paws back on the ground. He tilted his head and wagged his tail. 

Wu Yu grabbed his assistant, pointed to Ning Yan, and swallowed. “You, did you, did you just see that?!”

The assistant looked over blankly. 

The white puppy’s tongue lolled out as he panted adorably. 

“What? Lin Rong’s dog?” The assistant asked quietly. “What about him?” 

“You didn’t see it?” Cold sweat broke out all over Wu Yu’s body. “He gave me the middle finger! Like this—” 

He copied the gesture of the dog giving him two middle fingers. 

The assistant, “…” 

Wu Yu said, “Oh fine, pretend I didn’t say anything!” 

Come to think of it, that dog did give him the middle finger, right?!

Maybe he was mistaken? Maybe his eyes tricked him???

While Wu Yu was questioning his life, Lin Rong sensed the gaze directed their way. He angled his body, looked at Wu Yu, glanced at the white puppy, and finally looked back at Wu Yu with a deathly calm. 

That gaze was quiet and cold. 

Wu Yu shivered. He didn’t know why, but he felt scared. He hurriedly grabbed his assistant. “No more looking, no more looking. Let’s go, let’s go.” 

f*ck, Lin Rong and that dog are a little creepy!

He never wants to see them again!

Wu Yu thought wimpishly and felt the goosebumps on his arms.