Chapter 13: Separation
After the neutering surgery, Plastic Bag became depressed.
Huai Dan had initially thought that Luo Jing’s “I’m afraid it’ll hate me” was just a child’s unfounded worry, but after bringing Plastic Bag home, he realized the surgery had indeed caused some psychological trauma to the puppy.
Plastic Bag hadn’t interacted with anyone for three days. It had abandoned its previous enthusiastic demeanor and stayed in its bed, facing everyone with its lonely back.
Including Luo Jing, whom it loved the most.
The adorable, clingy puppy that used to stick to Luo Jing 24/7 was gone, replaced by a dog that seemed to have seen through the coldness of the world, ignoring even Luo Jing’s calls.
“What should we do? Will it always be like this?” Luo Jing and Huai Dan stood by Plastic Bag’s cage. After calling it for the third time without a response, Luo Jing turned to Huai Dan with a worried look.
Plastic Bag’s bed was in the corner of the living room, right next to the French window. The puppy sat there, looking out at the falling snow, contemplating its dog life, looking lonely and desolate.
Huai Dan looked at the dejected ball of white fur and said after a moment of silence, “Probably not. It might just be… unable to accept it for now. It should be fine in a couple of days.”
Luo Jing didn’t quite trust someone with zero dog-raising experience like himself and continued to look at Plastic Bag with concern: “Do you think it’s depressed… Are there psychologists for dogs?”
He then took out his phone and started searching for signs of depression in dogs, and the more he read, the more he felt that every single one matched Plastic Bag perfectly.
Scrolling through the posts, Luo Jing’s expression became increasingly grave.
“Pet communicator?” He read the title aloud unconsciously and was about to click on it when he felt a light tap on his head.
Luo Jing instinctively covered his head and looked up at the culprit, seeing a phone screen in front of him.
It displayed Huai Dan’s chat history with the vet. The doctor said Plastic Bag’s behavior was normal and it would be fine in a couple of days, so there was no need to worry too much.
Seeing the chat history, Luo Jing was relieved, but also suddenly realized how comfortable he had been as a hands-off owner, not even adding the doctor’s contact information.
“Brother, can you forward the doctor’s contact to me?”
“Mm, I’ll send it to you later. You should add them. After I leave in a few days, you’ll have to communicate with them yourselves.”
Huai Dan’s tone was calm, no different from usual, but Luo Jing was stunned after hearing this and looked up at him: “Are you leaving so soon?”
It felt like he hadn’t been there for long.
Huai Dan chuckled: “Soon? I’ve been here for quite a while.”
“Aren’t you starting school soon too?” he said.
Luo Jing thought about it and realized it was indeed true. He would be starting school in a few days too.
But it felt so fast, especially since the day Huai Dan arrived. This Spring Festival seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye.
He had never felt this way before.
“Good luck with your high school entrance exam… Play less games,” Huai Dan said, seeing him speechless, and ruffled his soft hair.
Luo Jing lowered his eyes, unusually quiet.
A subtle sadness inexplicably welled up in his heart. If he had to put it into words, it was probably reluctance.
Perhaps children didn’t like goodbyes.
So for the remaining few days, Luo Jing and Plastic Bag fell into the same kind of depression. He had finally finished his homework, but he didn’t feel like playing games, just clinging to Huai Dan all day, feeling gloomy. When asked, he would simply say he didn’t want to go back to school.
But time wouldn’t stop for anyone’s subjective will. Luo Jing couldn’t resist the temptation of games either. After playing games with Brother Huai for a few days, it was soon time for Huai Dan to leave.
Due to some matters he needed to attend to, Huai Dan left a few days earlier than originally planned.
Not accustomed to staying at the old house, Luo Jing wasn’t used to sleeping in that room. So, after Huai Dan left, he would subconsciously open the guest room door every time, only to be reminded by the clean, empty room that the brother who had spent the winter vacation with him had left.
Then he would close the door dejectedly and go back to his own room next door, which wasn’t as empty but not much better.
It took him a while to get used to it.
He would occasionally message Huai Dan, and Huai Dan would always reply, but he seemed very busy, often taking a long time to respond.
As the doctor had said, Plastic Bag recovered from its post-neutering depression after a few days and returned to its cheerful self, its leg fully healed, bouncing around the house happily every day.
Petting the dog, Luo Jing felt a bit of comfort.
The start of school arrived quickly. After arranging for a cleaner to come after they left, the family left the old house and returned to their usual home.
Luo Feng took a plane back to school a few days after Huai Dan left. Luo Jing spent two idle days at home before also heading back to school.
A new semester, a new beginning. Although it was the first day of school, Luo Jing, unlike the others, wasn’t gloomy.
Because it was also his birthday.
There were no classes on the first day of school. The first thing the homeroom teacher did upon arriving was to have the class representatives collect the homework for the teachers to check. After all, this was the last semester before the high school entrance exam, and studying was the most important thing for these students.
After collecting the homework, she briefly rearranged the seating and then started the class meeting.
Although it was the first day of the new semester, the content of the class meeting wasn’t much different from usual. The main idea was that the high school entrance exam was approaching, urging everyone to have a sense of urgency and to address any weaknesses in their studies. Luo Jing felt sleepy listening to it—he had been playing duo with Wu Li last night and, for some reason, had been on a roll, playing until past midnight before remembering he had school the next day.
His deskmate was still the same one. After returning to offline interactions, he had become more reserved, returning to his usual friendly demeanor, asking curiously what secrets Luo Jing had unlocked to suddenly become so good at games.
Luo Jing, however, remained cryptic, refusing to answer no matter how much he asked.
“Just listen to him bragging. Actually…” Wu Li, sitting in front, couldn’t stand it anymore and turned around to expose Luo Jing.
Luo Jing reacted quickly, grabbing the draft paper from the corner of his desk and slapping it onto Wu Li’s face, cutting him off.
“It’s my birthday today,” Luo Jing said, narrowing his eyes in a threatening manner.
The implication was to give him some face.
Wu Li took the draft paper off his face, exasperated: “Alright, alright.”
Luo Jing smiled with satisfaction and waved him away.
“You know you look like you’re commanding a dog, right?” Wu Li said indignantly.
“You know I have a dog,” Luo Jing replied matter-of-factly.
“…” Wu Li turned back, grumbling.
“You have a dog? Is it the one you posted on your Moments before?” His deskmate was also easily distracted, his attention immediately diverted by this news.
“Yeah, yeah.” At fifteen, it was the age of showing off. Talking about this topic, Luo Jing immediately became energized. He glanced at the homeroom teacher, who was engrossed in her own world, talking non-stop, and carefully took out his phone from his pocket.
His deskmate, also perceptive, instantly felt like they were engaging in some sort of underground operation and helped him check the back door of the classroom.
Good, it was closed.
While he was scouting the surroundings, Luo Jing had already opened his photo album.
He wasn’t organized and didn’t have the habit of categorizing his photos, so all his pictures were mixed together. He casually clicked on one and showed it to his deskmate with a hint of pride.
“Is it female?” His deskmate, seeing the puppy wearing a pink dress and cute little hair clips, asked instinctively.
“Male,” Luo Jing replied. “It looks good this way… It’s already neutered.”
And Plastic Bag didn’t seem to mind. After its wound healed, the first time it wore this outfit after a bath, it had spent a long time admiring itself in the mirror.
His deskmate was speechless and gave him a thumbs-up.
Luo Jing continued to show his deskmate pictures of Plastic Bag. Bored in class, his deskmate was happy to look at the puppy.
“What’s its name?”
“Plastic Bag.”
“Huh? Plastic Bag? That’s a strange name… Wait, what was that just now?”
An orange-hued photo flashed past on Luo Jing’s phone. Both of them froze, and Luo Jing instinctively swiped back.
The photo was of a man’s profile. Even though it wasn’t very clear, it wasn’t difficult to see his handsome features.
One hand was on the steering wheel, his eyelashes slightly lowered, looking relaxed and casual. The watch on his wrist shimmered in the morning light, adding a touch of elegance.
“Who is this?” Seeing him silent, his deskmate asked curiously, “A celebrity? From your dad’s company? He’s quite handsome.”
He knew Luo Jing’s family owned a film and television company, so he naturally assumed this.
Luo Jing’s fingertip touched the screen, suddenly feeling nervous, as if something was about to be exposed.
Perhaps he was worried that the fact he had used Huai Dan as a substitute in the game would be revealed.
His heart involuntarily beat faster.
“Yeah, yeah, he’s from my dad’s company, hasn’t debuted yet,” he quickly swiped past the photo, replying vaguely and guiltily.
“He’s quite good-looking, looks like he’ll be popular,” his deskmate commented, then asked with some confusion, “But why do you have his picture in your album?”
“Look at the dog, look at the dog…” Luo Jing quickly diverted his deskmate’s attention.
After the class meeting and various other tasks like cleaning, it was already afternoon. Luo Jing dragged his tired body home, and only after opening the door and seeing Plastic Bag, who rushed towards him happily, did he feel a bit of his energy return.
“Xiao Jing, you’re back.” Lin Xue came out of the kitchen with a plate of chicken wings and placed it on the dining table: “Dinner will be a while, go play in the living room first.”
“Okay…” Luo Jing was carrying Plastic Bag towards the living room when he caught sight of his birthday cake in the dining room and immediately went over to look.
“Do you like it? Guess who ordered it,” Lin Xue said with a smile, seeing that he had already seen the cake.
“I like it, it’s pretty,” Luo Jing said with satisfaction, guessing, “Did my sister send it?”
That didn’t seem right. His stingy sister had already sent him a red envelope. Had she suddenly changed?
“No, it was from your Brother Huai Dan,” Lin Xue replied. “He also bought you a gift, it’s in the living room… That child is really too polite.”
Luo Jing’s eyes lit up, a little happy: “Brother sent it?”
“Yes.”
