Gu Youyou was confused and said, "It’s my pet, what does it have to do with her? I didn’t go to her house to pick up bones to feed Abao."
"You couldn’t pick any other name but Abao? Your brothers’ nicknames all include the character ’bao’," Jin Zijin couldn’t help but remind her.
Gu Youyou rolled her eyes in disdain, saying, "The world is so big, there are bound to be many with the same name. If she insists on competing with a dog, I can’t help it. If I named it Agou, would Auntie Chen come to find trouble with me too? Her grandson’s nickname is Agou!"
So, she had made up her mind to keep this little guy and had even decided on such a provocative name? Jin Zijin wanted to say something else but eventually didn’t.
He took some clean clothes from inside the house and went to bathe in the river.
In the hot summer, the men of the village loved to bathe in the river, and Jin Zijin was no exception.
However, the spot he chose wasn’t where the villagers usually went; it was closer to the valley.
The water there was very cold, and most people dared not use it for fear of catching a chill and having to spend silver to get treated. Perhaps only someone like Jin Zijin, whose body was much warmer than the average person, would bathe in such chilly water.
Only when enveloped by the cool mountain spring water did he feel a bit more comfortable. But this bone-chilling coldness only relieved the heat on the surface of his skin. It was only she, who came into his life with her frost and snow, that could serve as his antidote.
When Wang Shun came to Gu Youyou’s house to deliver firewood, he was tremendously startled to see a snow-white wolf crouching in her haystack.
"Goodness, Sister Youyou, you have a wolf in your house!" he exclaimed, dropping the firewood from his back and picking up a stick to throw at the little wolf pup.
Gu Youyou saw it and shouted in alarm, "What are you doing? You don’t beat a dog before its owner!"
The little wolf pup was agile and ran away, escaping unharmed.
Gu Youyou dropped the winnowing basket she was holding, positioning herself in front of Wang Shun like a protective mother, and snatched the stick from his hands.
"Sister Youyou, this..." Wang Shun didn’t understand and looked at her with surprise, his eyes on the creature behind her, baring its teeth at him.
"It’s my... dog," said Gu Youyou impatiently.
"A dog? It looks more like a wolf to me," said Wang Shun, sticking out his tongue in confusion.
Gu Youyou picked up the little wolf pup from behind her, waved its cute paws at Wang Shun, and laughed, saying, "What wolf? This is just a dog."
"But why doesn’t it wag its tail? Its tail hangs down. My dad says only wolves have tails like that."
"Because it’s a wolfdog," Gu Youyou asserted as if it were obvious.
"A wolfdog? So is it a wolf or a dog?" Wang Shun was even more confused.
"Of course it’s a dog, one that looks like a wolf," Gu Youyou explained with a smile.
"But dogs wag their tails," Wang Shun still felt that what Gu Youyou was holding was no dog.
Gu Youyou’s expression darkened, and she said irritably, "It’s a dog that looks like a wolf. Have you ever seen a wolf wag its tail?"
"No," Wang Shun shook his head.
"There you go, so it’s a wolfdog that doesn’t wag its tail."
Wang Shun: "..." He felt dizzy with confusion; was this a wolf or a dog?
Initially, the Gu Family intended to wait until Dabao’s bride entered the household before marrying off Gu Erya.
Yet, on the night they settled on a wedding date with the Lei Family, a commotion erupted in the west wing where the third son of the Gu family lived.