Doudou barked once and obediently wagged its tail as it ran to the balcony.
Bo Ting shook his head and went back to eating his beef noodles, but for some reason, he felt… this dog was pretty smart?
Facts proved that Bo Ting’s feeling wasn’t wrong.
Doudou was indeed very smart.
After Bo Ting finished his beef noodles and played on his phone for a bit, Doudou suddenly looked at him and barked “Woof.”
The sudden, ambiguous dog bark startled him. Bo Ting turned his head, his first thought being that the Aunt Qian next door wouldn’t complain about him, right?
He perked up his ears and listened for a long time. Hearing no movement, Bo Ting finally relaxed and looked at Doudou.
“Sister Han already said that you ate this afternoon, so you have to wait until seven in the evening to eat again.”
Doudou barked “Woof-woo” twice more, discontentedly nudging the backpack in front of it with its snout.
Bo Ting: …
No way!
“There’s only ten minutes left. Hold on a bit longer.”
Doudou: …
Seeing the dog’s expression on the verge of losing control, its rough, husky voice almost breaking, Bo Ting remained unmoved and even twisted the knife further:
“Look at you—your weight is already over the limit. You’re much bigger than a normal black dog. It’s all because of binge eating.”
“So we have to control it.”
Bo Ting glanced at the diet plan Sister Han had sent, fully sensing her good intentions.
Having spent day and night with Doudou, facing her “dog son’s” pitiful yet ferocious big face, Sister Han couldn’t bring herself to control its portions. So she had specially handed it over to him, letting him feed the dog for these few days to make Doudou healthier.
Bo Ting slumped on the sofa, chewing on a piece of popcorn, ignoring Doudou’s eyes glowing red from hunger.
As Doudou circled the bamboo basket back and forth, he ate another piece.
The “crunch crunch” of the popcorn echoed in the quiet living room. Doudou suddenly lifted its head and let out an angry “Woo.” Only then did Bo Ting feel like he might be… bullying the dog a little.
But he was an air conditioner, right? It didn’t matter what he ate.
After staring at each other for a few seconds and seeing the dog’s big face full of grievance, Bo Ting twitched his mouth and finally set down the popcorn.
“Alright, ten minutes left.”
“I’ll open it and check first.”
Although Mr. Xu had bought it, Bo Ting still needed to be cautious with anything going into the dog’s mouth—after all, it was factory-produced, not made by Mr. Xu himself.
Hearing the keyword “open,” Doudou took a step back and watched as the human reached into the bamboo basket and pulled out that bag of brightly colored dog food.
Its nose twitched slightly, as if it could smell the enticing aroma through the packaging.
Ever since it started feeling hunger every day, Doudou had developed a particular fondness for this anomalous scent.
And it was certain that inside this green packaging bag was food it liked!
Before he even tore it open, Bo Ting saw the dog start wagging its tail to fawn over him.
He tore open a bag, and deep brown kibbles fell into his palm. The beef aroma was evident even after processing, and there was corn too.
Bo Ting subconsciously compared it to the beef noodles he’d just eaten. In terms of fragrance, this dog food actually won out?
Was that reasonable?
He couldn’t help but check the production date and logo again, then look for the manufacturer.
To see which company was this impressive!
But as soon as he flipped it over, a line of white printed small text caught his eye.
Bo Ting was stunned for a moment, then read it out subconsciously.
“Mengjia City Pet Food Processing Factory.”
What the hell?
The dog opposite him had no idea what was happening and was still single-mindedly craving the kibble.
Bo Ting’s expression turned strange as he pulled out another bag of dog food and checked carefully. It was still:
“Mengjia City Beishan Food Processing Factory.”
Both from Mengjia City.
But how was that possible?
Bo Ting’s first reaction was that he’d been hit again.
But… wasn’t this bought by Mr. Xu?
How could this happen?
And both bags were from Mengjia City.
This was too much of a coincidence, right?
No, he needed to take a moment.
His mind was a chaotic mess. As Bo Ting spaced out, Doudou suddenly snatched the dog food and wolfed down a whole bag before he snapped back to reality. He looked down and laughed in exasperation:
“Stop!”
“No more eating!”
The ferocious big maw was caught by one hand.
Bo Ting snatched back the bag, gathered up the remaining dog food, and then released the dog.
Doudou whined “Woo woo” twice. Seeing the human come back to his senses and realizing it had missed its chance, it could only swallow its pride and lower its head to pick up the scraps on the floor.
Bo Ting: …
Hey, this glutton!
Whatever.
He ignored it.
Rubbing his aching temple from all the thinking, Bo Ting let out a heavy sigh and stared at the manufacturer on the packaging, feeling like he had ten thousand questions!
What exactly was going on?
Bo Ting was certain there was no place called Mengjia City near him—or even on any map.
And he was sure of this because his major was geography.
But now, from the morning chat, the location, and the packaging manufacturer, everything pointed to him being in Mengjia City?
But that was too ridiculous!
Even becoming an air conditioner hadn’t been this absurd!
Bo Ting expressionlessly sent a message in the neighborhood chat group.
“Folks, my phone’s glitching. Does anyone have a saved photo of the last Excellent Community award?”
“It’s Little Bo. Hold on, let me check.”
In one sentence, Elder Wen upstairs enthusiastically screenshotted the [Excellent Community] photo from his phone and sent it.
He even @’d him.
The glaring “Yunshan City” appeared on the screen in the group.
Bo Ting nodded.
Yeah.
This was Yunshan City, right?
Their neighborhood was Taiping Luxury Garden in Yunshan City. How had it become Mengjia City?
Unwilling to believe it, Bo Ting switched to his chat list with the netizen, hesitated, stared at Mr. Xu’s avatar for a long time, then clicked in.
“Mr. Xu, you asleep?”
The slightly cold voice sounded through the phone.
Xu Qinglai opened the voice message, and his eyes darkened for a moment.
“Not yet.”
Even the second time hearing it, the voice from the other side still moved him somewhat.
It seemed he’d need to listen a few more times to desensitize. Xu Qinglai thought thoughtfully, then recalled today’s “dog food.”
He had always wondered why the Worm Anomaly said it couldn’t find Bo Ting’s “address.”
Today, when transferring the dog food, he had sent an anomaly over and discovered some unexpected things.
【Taiping Luxury Garden】
This name, which he hadn’t paid much attention to before, jumped into his mind.
Xu Qinglai pondered for a moment and understood the source of the Resurgence Management Office’s vigilance.
—This was a neighborhood that didn’t exist!
Even with his memory, he had never heard of such a place in the past.
This neighborhood at the boundary between Wenhua District and Ligang stood out as if—it had appeared out of thin air.
Completely beyond the bounds of any anomaly incident.
Xu Qinglai turned his watch slightly and looked at the lit-up screen.
So.
What kind of identity did this netizen living in the neighborhood, raising a “Bone Dog,” have?
Xu Qinglai lowered his gaze and waited just a moment before a message came from the other side.
But the content was completely different from what he expected?
“Cough, Mr. Xu.”
“Um, are you in the city proper? If so, could you send me your location now?”
Bo Ting felt a bit embarrassed typing this, fully imagining how inexplicable—even invasive of privacy—his request sounded.
But…
As the only outside contact he’d had lately, Bo Ting still wanted to confirm with him.
It couldn’t really be what he thought, right?
His gaze drifted, and connecting it to the “Yunhe Convenience Store” he’d suddenly discovered last time, Bo Ting came up with a bold guess.
A few minutes later, a location icon arrived.
Bo Ting took a deep breath, pursed his lips, and tapped it open.
“Mengjia City”…
It was hard to say if it was a surprise or expected. Now that he was prepared, seeing those words actually brought a strange sense of relief.
Good. It looked like it wasn’t his imagination running wild.
He hadn’t suddenly fallen for a scam, and there were no illegal buildings popping up overnight at their neighborhood entrance.
Everything pointed to the most unreasonable—yet now most plausible—conclusion.
—Their neighborhood had crossed over!
From Yunshan City to this unknown Mengjia City.
Who would’ve thought? After getting fired, he still ran into something this huge.
But this crossover was a bit too horrifying, wasn’t it?
It had emptied and moved their entire neighborhood.
Thinking of how the neighborhood residents hadn’t gone out these past few days and had no idea, Bo Ting’s expression turned odd.
How was he supposed to tell the elders?
The chat box went silent for a while before Xu Qinglai raised a brow.
“What’s up?”
“Is there a problem with the location?”
“No, no.”
Bo Ting quickly shook his head. He really wanted to tell the netizen something huge had happened, but suddenly saying he suspected they’d crossed over would probably make him seem crazy, right?
After thinking it over, Bo Ting could only shut up and make a casual excuse.
“Just a sudden whim. Wanted to know how far you are from me.”
“Goodnight.”
The clear, cold young voice sounded in his ear again.
Xu Qinglai paused with his phone. Under the driver’s puzzled gaze, he still spoke into the phone: “Goodnight.”
…
Putting away his phone, Bo Ting turned to stare down Doudou.
After finishing the last kibble, Doudou looked up and barked “Woof-woo.”
Bo Ting: …
“That good, huh?”
Muttering to himself, Bo Ting checked the time, wondering if he should drop this bombshell in the group so late. But if he didn’t say anything… if someone went out tomorrow and got a huge shock, that wouldn’t be good.
