THE FIRST PUPPY
This year's summer arrived with a swiftness that surpassed the years before, with cicadas already chirping by May, tirelessly serenading the night, their song a constant that vexed the restless minds.
At half past nine, the bell for the end of the evening study session rang, and from the rear door of the teaching building, a girl burst forth, leading the pack.
She had raven-black French long curls, stood approximately 165cm tall, and boasted a figure that was neither too plump nor too thin, but rather, perfectly proportioned and fiery.
"Riven, why are you running so fast? Wait for me," panted the girl trailing behind.
Riven Jean Doherty did not slow her pace, "We have a sunshine barbecue gathering; I'm going to secure a spot first. Cissy, you notify the others."
Riven, usually a laid-back individual, turns ruthless and relentless when it comes to meals, charging forward with an unstoppable force, as if to say, "I will not be deterred, be it by gods or Buddhas."
She rented a one-bedroom apartment off-campus and raised a Siberian Husky. Her greatest wish was for this mischievous pup to learn to clean up after itself, tidy up the house, and perhaps even whip up a three-dish soup for her.
"Damn!"
A sharp pain was followed by a numbing sensation of weightlessness. In the second of her fall, she thought a lot—about how she might leave this world, whether by impact or by drowning in the foul-smelling sewage. What would happen to her mischievous pup at home? Her family? Would her roommates be left with psychological scars?
She cursed the thief who stole the manhole cover, wishing that they would be struck by a vehicle the next day. She would be waiting at the Naihe Bridge, ready to give them a piece of her mind!
"Ugh, it hurts..." Before even opening her eyes, Riven felt a stabbing pain in her head, as if she had a severe cold with a fever of 38 degrees Celsius and had stayed up all night.
As she opened her eyes, the scenery was still blurry, but the bed beneath her was soft. Hadn't she fallen into the sewer? She was still alive; had some kind soul rescued her?
"!" Upon seeing the enlarged face before her, the first thing she noticed was a pair of moist, gentle eyes, a long snout, and a face covered in soft, smooth golden fur, with ears drooping on the cheeks.
Golden Retriever?
"Are you feeling unwell anywhere?" The Golden Retriever's mouth curved into a gentle smile as it asked.
Was the smile the point?
The point was that this dog could speak human language!
Riven closed her eyes, then opened them again, wondering if she was still dreaming.
"Why are you so dazed, did you hit your head?" The warm, soft-furred paw with a gentle touch gently landed on Riven's forehead.
Riven wondered if she was having a mental breakdown, if there was a possibility that the other party was actually a human, but her brain and eyes had imagined the person as a dog.
But she didn't want to go to a psychiatric hospital!
No, she couldn't act surprised and show any signs of strangeness, letting the other party know that in her eyes, he had become a dog.
"I'm fine, just still have a bit of a headache. Did you save me?" Riven asked weakly.
"My name is Coleen, and I am a pediatrician. Last night, after work, I found you in the community's drainage ditch. You were completely unconscious. I wanted to take you to the hospital, but you don't have a chip on the back of your neck, and the hospital won't accept you, so I took you home. Don't worry, I have no ill intentions."
Coleen moved his large hand from her forehead and gently rubbed her head, "I've already taken care of your bruises, and I've sensed that your internal organs are basically healthy."
Although she was very grateful to the big Golden Retriever for saving her, what did it mean to talk and touch like that?
Riven glanced at Coleen subtly.
Coleen lively dog eyes showed an embarrassed expression, slowly retracting his hand and rubbing his fingertips.
Riven wondered if she had seen it wrong, how could she feel that this Golden Retriever seemed a bit reluctant to leave.
"My name is Riven Doherty, you can call me Riven, thank you for saving me."
Suddenly, this handsome dog face approached, and the gentle expression became serious.
"What's wrong? Is there something strange about me?" Riven asked uneasily.
"Riven, honestly tell me, have you been abused?" Coleen originally drooping dog eyes were full of anger.
He didn't know why, as long as he thought of the female in front of him being plucked of fur, leaving only a little hair on the head, and even without an identity chip, he was angry enough to want to tear apart the canine who abused her.
"No, why do you say that?" Riven was at a loss, not understanding, this Golden Retriever was a bit strange.
"Why do you have no fur on your body except for your head, where your beautiful fur is gone?" Coleen even choked a bit, "Even you don't have an identity chip, even the stray dogs on the street without parents, the canine alliance will bury a chip in their necks when they are searched regularly..."
Riven's brain crashed, the fur is true? The dog face is also true? Then is she real or fake?
Her face can only be considered pretty, the family is also average, there is no special ability, there is no emotional dispute, it is impossible for someone to set up such a big game to mess with her, right?
So she is, through to the... dog world?
Are there humans in this world?
It seems that there are not, listening to the big Golden Retriever's meaning, when he treated her wounds, he had seen her body, but did not find anything wrong, only thought that she was an abused dog.
If a stinky man saw her, even if she had a life-saving grace, she would be embarrassed to death, but if it was a handsome Golden Retriever, then she would be fine.
Riven couldn't help but sigh, it is really a Golden Retriever little angel, it is too warm-hearted.
"Coleen, no one abused me, I was born deformed, without hair."
"Then what about your family? Did they abandon you? You can apply for disability benefits..." Coleen sadly rubbed Riven's face.
Feeling the soft fur rubbing on her face, Riven tried to control herself not to show too perverted a smile, what a good dog, can the world still function normally without dogs? Can't!
"I have no family, I have always been a dog living by myself, picking up garbage for a living, before I fainted while looking for food, I don't know how to come to your community. Coleen, can you help me think of a way? I want to live here." Riven blurred her origin.
She couldn't make up any perfect background, she could only be half true and half false, leaving half of the imagination space for the other party to fill in this lie for her.
She didn't know the attitude of this world towards humans, nor did she know what level of economic and technological development they had reached. For the unknown, she still had to take a cautious attitude.
"You can live here!" Coleen didn't want Riven to leave himself and said it in a hurry.
"But I don't want to trouble you too much, Coleen, your life-saving grace has already made me grateful to tears." The key is to live with Coleen, she has to pay attention all the time, and she will show a flaw if she is not careful.
Although Riven has only been with him for a day and a night, Coleen doesn't want to leave the other party, every dog can only stay with the mother for two years from birth, two years old, and then enter the primary school, eating scientifically nutritionally balanced food, learning basic knowledge.
Then enter the junior school at the age of ten, the first awakening of the ability, cultivate the ability, temper the body, until graduation at the age of sixteen.
After the age of sixteen, whether to choose to enter the advanced school to continue studying or to enter the society to work, it depends on the talent of each dog and the results of the unified examination.
Each dog can only feel the mother's love wholeheartedly for only two years, from the beginning of the primary school, each dog has to live in the school, only on the rest day of the week can be with the mother.
Coleen felt a warm, reassuring power on Riven.
Clearly, she is so weak, open her soft lips, he can't find a sharp fang, the tongue is too soft.
Clearly, she has been lying in bed all the time, doing nothing, but it makes him feel happy.
Now she wants to leave herself, is there something he didn't do well, let her dissatisfied?
God, she can hardly refuse to say, Riven felt her heart apologizing to Coleen crazily, she felt guilty and almost fainted.
Before her eyes, the towering canine crouched by the bedside, its head bowed, golden eyelashes veiling the moist eyes, the emotion of sorrow so thick it was nearly overwhelming her.
"Coleen, you are the only dog I can rely on," Riven said, placing her hand on Coleen head and gently twirling his ear.
The golden retriever's face flushed with a rosy hue in an instant, yes, a furry dog face actually revealed a faint pink, the drooping dog eyes looking at Riven with a moist gaze, "Riven..."