Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 17

Chapter 17 
Teasing the dog 
  
After Li Heming explained Xu Qingyin’s affairs to Old Chen, he returned to the Northern Office that night. He did not plan to return to the mansion before Xu Qingyin moved out. At night, he rested on the bed in the Northern Office, while during the day, he went to the imperial prison to interrogate people. When it was time for dinner, he could only go to the street to find a place to eat hot food. He had a home but could not go back, so miserable. 
  
At noon that day, Li Heming came out of the imperial prison and ordered a bowl of wontons at the wonton stall on the street. The blood in the imperial prison was dense, and the cold, fishy smell seemed to have penetrated his clothes. He sat on the stall in the Imperial Guard uniform and put the sword on the table. Soon, only two or three people remained at the initially crowded stall. 
  
The stall owner had a hard time, but he didn’t dare chase him away. He had to cook a bowl of wontons for him with a depressed face, hoping that the devil would finish eating and leave early. Otherwise, he would have to sell the remaining wontons until tomorrow. 
  
Not long ago, Li Heming was torturing someone in the imperial prison, and blood still stained his cuffs. He didn’t touch the table but sat on a low stool to eat the wontons. With his elbows on his knees and his back slightly hunched, he looked no different from those who sat on the street to eat cakes after working hard. The wonton skin was thin, and the pink filling inside could be seen through the skin after it cooked. When he ate it with the soup, it felt fresh and meaty, which made his cold stomach, which had been empty for the whole morning, feel extremely comfortable. He has only drunk a cup of cold tea since morning, which was the overnight tea left in the imperial prison yesterday. He was starving, so he ate most of the wontons in one go. 
  
Unsure whether it was the fishy smell on his body or the delicious wontons in the bowl, a ferocious black dog was soon attracted. A collar was around its neck, and an iron leash was dragging behind it, making a “ding-dong” sound as it ran towards him. It was unknown whose animal it was, but its fur was shiny. The dog looked fierce, but it did not make much noise. It sat before Li Heming and stared at the bowl in his hand. Its dark eyes gurgled as it followed the wontons on the tip of his chopsticks. It sniffed, licked its mouth with its tongue, panted, and drooled over the floor. 
  
Li Heming swallowed the wonton in his mouth, slowly picked one up, and handed it to the dog. He did not put it on the ground but just held it in front of its shiny black eyes. The dog was raised to be unruly. When it saw that he had not put the wonton down, it opened its mouth to bite it on his chopsticks. But its speed was no match for Li Heming. He raised his wrist slightly, and the dog’s mouth was empty. 
  
Li Heming looked at it, put the wonton in the bowl, dipped it in the fragrant bone soup, and threw it into his mouth. Before swallowing, he chewed his cheeks twice. 
 
Seeing this, the dog moved its front legs irritably. It failed to beg for food, exposing its true nature. It exhaled hot air from its nose, growled, and its soft lips trembled. If such a fierce dog stared at someone else, they would have put down their bowls in fear and run away while the dog was enjoying the food. 
  
However, having worked under the dragon, Li Heming was brave. Few things in the world that frightened him. He saw that the dog was furious, but his expression did not change. He had been hiding in the imperial prison for the past two days and finally pried open the mouths of several rebels. He was in a good mood and interested, so he used the same trick again and picked a fresh and fragrant wonton to tease the dog. 
  
But it was just teasing, and he still didn’t give it a bite of food. 
  
After several times of back and forth, the dog became visibly angry and growled at him threateningly. The stall owner on the side was panicking, fearing that something might happen to the official at his stall. 

The stall owner recognized the dog. It was a big, fierce dog raised by the Lin family. The dog loved the wontons at his stall, and the young lady and servants of the Lin family would bring it to buy a bowl of hot wontons from time to time. Today, the dog may have escaped, and they were probably still chasing it. 
  
The stall owner was thinking about whether to remind the lord, who was playing with the dog, about the identity of the dog’s owner, but before he could decide, he saw the dog suddenly stand up. 
  
As the saying goes, what you fear will come to you. Unsure where the dog learned the hyena method from, it opened its mouth and bit Li Heming’s legs. 
  
If Li Heming hadn’t reacted quickly and stepped back with the stool, he would have had to report to the Silijian (*). 

T/N: A department run by eunuchs. This means that the dog almost bit Li Heming’s precious things.
  
And Lin Yu, who came to look for the dog, saw this scene.
  
Lin Yu got caught in the rain that day and had a fever. She lay down for two days before she finally got better. Seeing that the sun was good today, she took Third Brother out to bask in it but didn’t expect it to bite Li Heming.
  
Lin Yu trembled with fear and hurriedly said, “Third Brother, come back!” 
  
Li Heming heard the voice and looked up at Lin Yu, who was approaching quickly. She had not recovered from the cold yet and could not be blown by the wind. There was a circle of soft white fox fur around her collar, and her fair cheeks were against the soft fur. Two jade hairpins were in her hair, which made her eyebrows dark and her skin white, fairer than winter snow. 
  
Li Heming only wore this official uniform all year round. He would put on a cloak outside when it was freezing. Now, seeing Lin Yu was wearing a fur cloak before December, he couldn’t help but think: How will she survive when the coldest time of winter comes? Should he learn from the cats that grow thick fur in winter and wrap up into a furry ball?