"Your dad gave you a dog? And you're keeping it in the faculty dormitory?" Wang Xiaoming was the first to express disbelief at the girl's words. "Pets aren't allowed on campus — that's the rule. No teacher would break school policy like that."
"My dad was worried I'd be lonely all by himself, so he specially gave me a big dog. But I never let it leave the room, so nobody's ever found out." The girl's tone was sweet and innocent, but the more
"So the dog has never left this room since your father gave it to you?" Chen Ge raised an eyebrow slightly.
"What's wrong? That big dog was really fierce at first — my dad and I had to work really hard to get it to behave." The corners of the girl's mouth curled upward, and she smiled with pure delight.
"It's nothing. Keeping a dog cooped up inside for that long, it'll get sick. You should take it out for a walk once in a while." Chen Ge glanced toward the bedroom where the strange noise had come from earlier. The door was closed — he couldn't see anything, and the sound had vanished without a trace.
"Xiao Lin, don't listen to this girl's nonsense. Our school's rules are very strict. Whether you're a student or a teacher, if you're caught breaking the rules, the punishment is severe. Dogs aren't like lizards or snakes — they make noise. If neighbors hear something, they'll definitely report it to the administration. You can't keep something like that under wraps." Wang Xiaoming didn't believe a word the little girl said. "It's not like you're the only one living in the faculty dormitory."
"My dad and I thought about that, so we specially trained the dog." The girl smiled adorably, the kind of smile that made you want to scoop her up and nuzzle her. "When the dog first arrived, it was really unruly. Whenever someone walked by, it would scratch at the door and bump into the furniture. So my dad and I came up with a method. We'd deliberately leave the house and then pretend to be passersby walking up and down the hallway. Every time the dog made a sound inside, my dad and I would go back and take something away from it. After repeating that more than a dozen times, the dog gradually learned to behave. Now, even if someone really does walk past, it stays perfectly quiet."
"You seem pretty experienced with dog training."
The girl perked up at Chen Ge's praise. "It's not really experience — it's just that I've raised so many of them, I figured things out as I went along."
"You've raised that many dogs?" Chen Ge looked genuinely surprised.
"Mm-hm. At first I was raising one in secret. When my dad found out, he was really angry." The girl's voice turned a little aggrieved. "He got rid of the dog without even asking me, and I was furious. I didn't talk to him for the longest time — until he finally gave me another big dog."
"Something tells me you haven't kept any of them for very long. Dogs don't have short lifespans, and you look about eleven or twelve. If you'd raised one properly, a single dog would have kept you company as you grew up." Chen Ge crouched in front of the girl, his pupils narrowing as he stared into her eyes.
"The main thing was that they wouldn't listen. If they had just behaved, they wouldn't have been punished." The girl looked at Chen Ge with a playful expression, her voice dropping lower. "I don't know why, but they were all afraid of me. If only they could be more friendly with me, like you are, big brother."
Friendly?
A little girl, faced with two strangers who had barged into her room in the dead of night — not only was she not scared, she seemed delighted. You didn't need a brain to figure out something was off.
"What did you say?" Chen Ge pretended not to have heard her last remark. A warm smile still on his face, he gently picked the girl up. "You're the first child I've met who's this adorable. What's your name?"
Chen Ge settled onto the sofa and set the girl on his lap.
"My name is Bai Ling."
Hearing this name, Chen Ge paused for a moment. Three feet of white silk — in ancient times, that was what you used to hang yourself.
"Beautiful name. Elegant, pure, with a touch of something ethereal." Chen Ge casually added another question. "Your surname is Bai — is your father Teacher Bai from the night school?"
The little girl batted her eyelashes and gave a soft nod. "Mm."
"You're Teacher Bai's daughter?!" Before Chen Ge could say a word, Wang Xiaoming let out a shriek. He seemed to have suddenly remembered something terrifying, his face turning deathly pale as he frantically gestured at Chen Ge.
"We may be students from the neighboring campus, but we've heard of Teacher Bai too. He's a responsible and conscientious teacher." Chen Ge kept up his amiable smile. "Bai Ling, we actually have things to take care of, so we won't keep you any longer."
"You're leaving?" The girl's expression shifted in an instant. Every trace of cuteness and innocence vanished from her face. Fine blue-green veins surfaced along her neck, and her large eyes fixed on Chen Ge with a vicious glare.
"We're done for." Wang Xiaoming quietly circled behind the little girl and made a gesture at Chen Ge — one hand clamped over a mouth. He wanted to restrain the girl and then make a run for it.
Their faces had already been seen. What good was running now? Chen Ge reached out and gently patted Bai Ling's head. Since she'd already seen them, he figured he might as well try to extract some benefits and information before leaving.
The timid starved, the bold grew fat — that saying could not have been more fitting for Chen Ge.
"Bai Ling, we're not leaving. We just wanted to go find something in that repair room down the hallway. You live in the faculty apartments — do you happen to know how to open that door?" Chen Ge's expression was perfectly calm, as if he hadn't noticed the terrifying change on the little girl's face at all, and he affectionately stroked her head.
"My dad might have a spare key. It's in the drawer in the bedroom — let me go check." The blue-green veins on the little girl's neck slowly faded, and she returned to her earlier demeanor — though her grip on Chen Ge's hand was remarkably tight.
The girl led Chen Ge by the hand to the bedroom door. Just as she was about to push it open, she suddenly hesitated, seemingly worried that something inside the room might be seen by Chen Ge. "Wait here for me. I'll be right back — don't you go running off!"
She cracked the bedroom door open just a sliver, darted inside, and shut it behind her.
"Xiao Lin! This is our chance — we have to go!" Wang Xiaoming rushed over and grabbed Chen Ge's wrist. "She's Teacher Bai's daughter! Teacher Bai will definitely come back soon! If he catches us, we're really done for!"
"Our faces have already been seen by the girl. Even if we run now, she'll tell her father everything. The biggest problem is that we deceived her — she'll definitely make it sound worse than it was." Chen Ge stood his ground without moving. He had noticed that everyone in this school seemed to like grabbing people's arms — it gave the strange impression that they were all fighting over him.
"There's no time to worry about that! We run first and figure out the rest later!" Wang Xiaoming saw that Chen Ge was still standing by the door, and sweat beaded on his forehead from anxiety. "Xiao Lin, you heard what she said — Teacher Bai has brought Bai Ling several big dogs before!"
"I know."
"After students were locked in the confinement room before, they disappeared without a trace! It was Teacher Bai who sent them in there!"