NHSDO Chapter 1: One Man and One Dog Stare at Each Other, Feeling Extremely Anxious

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The sky in June brightens early.

As dawn broke, a small truck rumbled into Qingyao Village, located on the outskirts of A City, and came to a stop in front of a small courtyard house.

This small house was beautifully built, with potted green plants neatly arranged in the yard, all well cared for and thriving.

The courtyard had no tall walls, just a symbolic row of bamboo fences about waist-high for an adult. Lush green vines climbed over the fence, making the entire yard feel full of vitality.

The truck driver was a middle-aged man with graying hair and a face lined with the marks of time.

After getting out of the truck, he glanced at the picturesque fence, where the vines had bloomed with many flowers. However, he kept his distance, showing no interest in getting closer.

He knew very well that beneath the seemingly harmless and beautiful bamboo fence, sharp iron nails and bamboo spikes were hidden. Anyone attempting to climb over without permission would get their hands and thighs scraped raw.

The yard was also equipped with numerous surveillance cameras, covering every angle, leaving no blind spots—no thief would dare to try their luck here.

The driver walked up to the door and pressed the doorbell properly.

Lin Mu heard the bell, opened the window to respond, quickly wiped the grease off his hands, and rushed downstairs.

When Lin Mu opened the door, his smile was as vibrant as the plants in the yard. Two cute dimples appeared on his cheeks. "Good morning, Uncle De!"

"Morning, Xiao Lin!" Uncle De nodded and stepped into the courtyard.

"Breakfast is still warm in the pot—big meat buns. Go ahead and have some first," Lin Mu said as he placed a brick to keep the fence gate open and turned to move some flower pots in the yard.

Uncle De entered the kitchen, lifted the lid off the steaming basket on the stove, and saw six large, plump meat buns, each the size of a palm. Beside them, two bowls of warm tofu pudding sat waiting.

As was their routine, four of the buns were Uncle De’s, and two belonged to Lin Mu—his appetite was smaller.

Uncle De took a bowl, grabbed the buns, and sat on the doorstep, eating while watching Lin Mu move the flower pots in the yard.

Lin Mu had a talent for taking care of plants. The well-arranged potted plants in his yard were all cultivated to supply the grand hotels and government offices in A City.

Uncle De was responsible for the transportation. He and Lin Mu had been working together on and off for several years.

He often felt it was a pity that Lin Mu was working as an independent business owner. No matter how much he improved his production and pricing, he couldn’t scale up significantly.

As an honest man, Uncle De thought that if Lin Mu could take this opportunity to make money and bring the whole village along, they could all benefit together. Production and profits would increase.

But this idea always faded quickly. He’d scratch his head and move on.

Despite Lin Mu’s gentle appearance—like a well-read scholar, smiling in a way that could charm a crowd of young girls—he was actually notorious as the fiercest person in Qingyao Village.

Calling him a "tyrant" might not be entirely accurate, but no one dared to mess with him.

Lin Mu and his late mother had moved here from elsewhere.

In rural areas, outsiders often faced some level of exclusion. Being a widow and an orphan, they were easy targets for bullying.

When they first arrived, Lin Mu was still a toddler, and his mother was a kind and gentle woman who suffered a lot in such a place where kindness was taken advantage of.

As Lin Mu grew older and started school, he initially inherited his mother’s gentle and somewhat timid personality. But one day, he somehow learned how to hurl curses like an expert. Waving a broom and a brick, he aggressively chased away a local freeloader who had come to take advantage of them—nearly cracking the man’s skull open.

A man in his thirties, losing a fight to an eight-year-old kid—it was so unbelievable that no one would have believed it if they hadn’t seen it themselves.

Before long, the villagers discovered that Lin Mu had been born with immense strength.

The little boy had a sharp memory for grudges. After successfully driving away one bully, he gained confidence and systematically hunted down everyone who had ever bullied his mother, chasing them all over the village and giving them a thorough beating, regardless of whether they were men or women.

After that, no one dared to mess with the mother and son again. In fact, a few reasonable villagers even started treating them well.

Uncle De was one of those people.

But unfortunately, Lin Mu's mother was in poor health. It seemed that she had developed an illness when giving birth to Lin Mu. When he was eighteen and received his university admission letter, she passed away.

Before she left, she told Lin Mu to have his grandfather collect her body.

It was only then that Lin Mu found out his grandfather was the chairman of a well-known company in City A.

Lin Mu thought about how his mother had always been such a gentle person. She had never sought help from her family all these years—there must have been something fishy about it. So, he didn't reach out to them either. He quietly handled all the funeral arrangements on his own.

But Qingyao Village wasn’t a big place. News spread fast, and some nosy people even exposed it online, which caught his grandfather’s attention.

His grandfather was sharp-tongued and looked down on Lin Mu. But since Lin Mu was a boy, he still put on a charitable act and offered to take him in. However, Lin Mu mocked him a few times, making the old man storm off in anger.

Lin Mu was the type to hold grudges. At that time, he resented everyone. That very day, he hammered nails into the yard’s fence and scattered broken glass and wood chips all over the courtyard. Any journalist or nosy villager trying to climb over the fence ended up in the hospital.

With all the drama back then, now that he had found a way to make money, he certainly didn’t want to share it with anyone.

Uncle De genuinely liked the kid. He always felt that being around Lin Mu for a while made him feel at peace, like all his worries faded away.

Maybe it was because Lin Mu’s smile was truly beautiful. When he grinned, two dimples would pop up—sweet as honey.

As Uncle De chewed on his steamed bun, he watched the young man effortlessly carrying a big flower pot. Thinking about a recent conversation, he asked, "Xiao Lin, didn’t you say you were taking the civil service exam?"

"Yeah, I passed." Lin Mu loaded the potted plant onto a cart and smiled. "I’m reporting in today. The office isn’t too far from here—I can get there by subway."

"Oh, oh."

A new subway station had recently opened about four miles from the village. Uncle De knew about it.

"Government offices aren’t like our village. You can’t just start throwing punches if something goes wrong," Uncle De warned, glancing at the bamboo fence. "And you definitely can’t install those things in your office."

Lin Mu chuckled. "Of course not. It’s just a subdistrict office, nothing serious."

Uncle De still cautioned, "That’s still a proper job, a secure position. Don’t go around making enemies."

Lin Mu repeatedly agreed, then finished moving all the plants for the day. He clapped the dust off his hands. "Alright, take care on the road, don’t trip or bump into anything."

Uncle De quickly finished the rest of his breakfast and said, "People are more afraid of me than I am of them when I walk."

"Alright." Lin Mu nodded, watching Uncle De leave before turning back into the house to eat breakfast.

Lin Mu had only graduated a year ago. He had successfully obtained his civil service appointment letter, and since it was about to expire, he was finally going to report for work.

He had no big ambitions and had no interest in his grandfather’s fortune. He just wanted to live a stable life, save some money, and fulfill his mother’s last wish—to open a flower shop. He had no intention of finding his father, just wanted to live quietly on his own terms.

His mother didn’t have many hobbies—she just loved studying plants and tending to flowers.

In her family, she had older and younger brothers, making her an unremarkable presence. Her mother passed away early, so there was no one to care for her. She never listened to her father’s demands to study finance or go on arranged dates. Instead, she majored in botany in college and often stood up her matchmaking prospects to go on field expeditions with her research team.

That would’ve been fine, but one time, she was gone for six months—and when she came back, she was pregnant.

She stubbornly refused to reveal the father’s identity or have an abortion. Her grandfather, feeling deeply ashamed, kicked her out of the family.

So, out of pure spite, Lin Mu wanted to open his flower shop right across from A City’s Financial Tower—forcing his grandfather and uncles to see him every day when they went to and from work.

They hated him but couldn’t do anything about it. They’d have to live in constant irritation, always afraid he’d go to the media to stir up a scandal over the inheritance dispute. Wouldn’t that be satisfying?

Lin Mu finished washing the dishes and went upstairs. He took out his sealed personnel file and appointment letter from a drawer, checked that all the security cameras at home were working properly, then locked the house and rode off on his electric scooter.

His destination:

Qingyao Subdistrict Office, No. 404, Qingyao Road, Zhongyuan District, A City.

The location was remote—so remote that even pedestrians were a rare sight.

Lin Mu followed the GPS for a long time before finally stopping in front of a door.

He checked the house number on his phone, then glanced at the address in the email.

Finally, he looked at the run-down building in front of him, disbelief all over his face.

Just how run-down was this place?

It was an ordinary one-story house with peeling exterior walls, exposing the red bricks underneath. The windows had holes, patched up with newspaper.

The door was an old-fashioned green wooden one, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. Outside, there was an iron gate—also a narrow, single-entry one.

The lock on the iron gate had been broken for who knows how long—it was rusted beyond recognition.

Even the words "Qingyao Subdistrict Office" weren’t on a proper sign but were scribbled on the door in chalk. After years of rain and wind, only the words "Qingyao" and "Office" were faintly legible.

The only thing proving that Lin Mu hadn’t gone to the wrong place was the buildings next to it—Building 403 on the left, a condemned structure, and Building 405 on the right, a grimy, still-closed little restaurant.

Left was 403, right was 405. The middle had to be 404. No mistake.

Lin Mu: "…"

But it was so rundown.

How could it be this rundown?

Lin Mu was baffled.

He stood there in silence for a long time before finally pulling open the rusted iron gate and knocking on the door.

The moment he knocked, the weathered, green-painted door—already worn and tattered—collapsed with a loud thud.

Lin Mu shuddered all over: "???"

What the heck!!

What’s going on!!

Lin Mu stood at the doorway, dazed for quite a while. He peeked inside and found that the room was bright and tidy, with a few neatly arranged office desks and some work supplies on them—but no people.

The state of the office made Lin Mu sigh in relief. He checked the time and saw that it was only 8:30.

A nine-to-five job—still half an hour before work started. It made sense that no one was there yet.

Lin Mu stood at the door, contemplating for five minutes. Leaving the door lying there wasn’t an option, so he simply walked in and, relying on his own strength, wedged it back into the doorframe, pretending it was still perfectly intact.

After finishing, Lin Mu took several steps back to admire his handiwork. He felt it was fine, totally okay.

Absolutely perfect.

Just as Lin Mu was about to find a chair to sit and wait obediently for people to arrive, the door he had just put back into place was suddenly kicked open.

The person who entered was unbuttoning his shirt while walking, grumbling non-stop: "Old Turtle, it’s been over half a year. Have you found the person I asked for yet?! It’s been so long—I’m in a hurry, okay?!"

Lin Mu was utterly shocked at the sight of this man stripping as soon as he entered. He was so shaken that he had no idea what to say, eventually resorting to a polite yet unheard string of ellipses.

"……"

Receiving no response, the man grew impatient with the buttons and simply flicked his hand in frustration. He cursed angrily: "Damn it! Human clothes are so freaking uncomfortable!"

Lin Mu's eyes widened as he watched the man in front of him—who had just cursed—suddenly transform into a large, living, breathing black wolfdog.

Lin Mu shuddered, his face filled with five parts terror, four parts shock, and one part utter confusion. He opened his mouth… and hiccupped.

The large wolfdog didn’t even glance at the other person in the office. He was furiously shaking his head and wagging his tail, desperately trying to free himself from the confines of his human clothes.

He struggled for quite a while before finally using his paws to tear apart the tight shirt. Huffing in frustration, he lifted his head—only to meet Lin Mu’s silent, wide-eyed gaze.

One man and one dog froze simultaneously.

Lin Mu: "……"

Large wolfdog: "……"

…What the hell!

What’s going on!

Lin Mu clutched his file folder in panic, wondering if he was about to be silenced.

What the hell!

What’s going on!

The large wolfdog tucked his tail between his legs in alarm, wondering if he was about to be silenced.

One man and one dog stared at each other, internally freaking out.

_____

Author’s note:

A lighthearted, comedic, and heartwarming story—relaxing and free of angst.

T/N: Please give support on my ko-fi page, thank you🍊🍊🍊