Die einsame Stadt geschlossen

Kapitel 18

4.

On the fifth day of our illness, the stray dog returned.

Although it looked a bit chubby, it was very weak, always whimpering, its eyes wet and filled with sadness.

It first probed the perimeter of our activity area, and when none of us reacted, it boldly moved a little closer.

And so, tentatively, taking three steps forward and two steps back, it finally came to our side and carefully sniffed each of us. At that time, Xiao Bing was so sick that he had lost consciousness and could not even speak incoherently, only murmuring, "Brother... I see Mom... Mom... Mom..."

The stray dog suddenly stopped, let out a long, mournful howl towards the night sky, lowered its body, and placed its belly against Xiao Bing's. Its nipple brushed against his mouth.

I don't know what it's going to do, but whatever it intends to do, I have no power to stop it.

As soon as Xiao Bing's mouth touched the wild dog's nipple, he began to suckle desperately.

That night, the stray dogs seemed to have changed their previous hostility towards us. They took turns nursing us, and finally crawled among us, whimpering softly as they fell asleep.

Its fur is soft and has a strong, fishy smell, but it is warm and even makes you feel safe.

That night, I cried beside the stray dog. I whispered to Xiao Yi, "Have you ever been held by someone like a mother holding her child?"

Xiao Yi shook his head.

From childhood to adulthood, none of my brothers have ever been hugged. I guess this is what being hugged feels like.

A few days later, thanks to the care of the stray dogs, we miraculously recovered.

We became good friends with the stray dog, which often brought back food from outside, sometimes including particularly delicious meat buns and the like.

We call her Mommy Dog.

Of course, this only fueled the ridicule of the entire faculty and student body, who said, "Now it's complete, mother dog and brother dog! Haha..."

I know they all look down on dogs, just like they look down on us.

However, deep down, I vaguely feel that dogs are much better than humans; they are intelligent, kind, mischievous, cute, and loyal.

Being a dog is happier than being a human; being a dog brother is happier than being a human brother.

So I said to my brothers, "Let's not be human anymore, let's be dogs instead?"

The younger brothers also thought being a dog was good.

Therefore, we decided to stop being human.

Just like Dean Zhang used to say: It's tough being a person!

5.

Since Director Zhang took over the orphanage, it seems that fewer and fewer people are coming to adopt children, and even when they do, it's always just a few.

As the number of children increased, the number of teachers decreased, and many teachers were inexplicably dismissed. One day, just as we were learning how to distinguish scents from the stray dog mother, Dean Zhang suddenly came to the garbage dump with a man. They covered their noses and chased away the stray dog mother, then pointed at us and said, "These four idiots, pick any one you like, use whoever has the best kidneys... Don't worry, these four are just mentally challenged, their organs are all fine."

I yelled, "We're not idiots!"

Xiao Yi also shouted, "We are the smartest dogs in the world!"

Then Xiao Bing and Xiao Ding, along with the stray dog mother in the distance, shouted at them, "Woof! Woof!"

Then Dean Zhang and the man burst into laughter: "You still say you're not an idiot, hahaha..."

In the afternoon, Dean Zhang came again with that man, followed by several fierce-looking men, each carrying a syringe, who pinned us to the ground.

At that moment, the mother stray dog rushed over and began to bite them. Dean Zhang and several others grabbed large sticks and beat the dog's head repeatedly, but it wouldn't run away and continued to bite them fiercely.

"Mommy! Run!" we yelled, crawling on the ground. She looked at us, her gaze resolute, let out a long howl at the sky, then collapsed to the ground, motionless.

Finally, those bad guys each drew a vial of blood from our wrists and then left.

The stray dog mother died.

The only person in this world who ever loved us is dead. Its body smells even worse now, its eyes are cloudy, with some discharge and tear stains at the corners. It looks at us, seemingly still worried that we might be bullied by bad people...

We lay on the stray dog's body and wept bitterly, more heartbroken than ever before. We realized then how tragic, how painful, how unbearable the loss of something important could be.

"Hey! You idiots, why are you crying over a dog?" At some point, an older girl stood next to us. She was the only one who didn't cover her nose while talking to us.

“She’s our mother!” I said very seriously. Only then did she notice the chains on our feet, and frowned slightly: “Why are you tied up? And tied up in such a smelly place.”

“Because we’re not stupid, we’re dogs,” Xiao Yi said.

"It's the smartest dog in the world!" Xiao Bing added.

“She’s our mother!” Xiao Ding pointed to the stray dog mother.

The older girl's brows furrowed, then suddenly relaxed: "Wow...that's amazing...I've only ever heard of wolf children, not dog children? You were born from this dog?"

"This... how would we know..." I really didn't know whether my mother was a human or a dog.

“Oh, oh… how can you remember things from when you were born…” The girl took a few steps closer to us: “Do you bite?”

We shook our heads, so she took a few more steps closer, stroked Xiao Yi's head like she was petting a dog, and then nodded.

"Ding Yan—the water's full!" A big brother shouted to the older sister from outside the door. The older sister said "Oh," but instead of going to find him, she walked towards Dean Zhang's office.

6.

As evening approached, the older girl and the older boy came out of the director's office together. The older boy looked very unhappy: "This orphanage is too... too corrupt... They even charge money to adopt an orphan... and so much at that!"

"Oh dear! Everyone likes money! Besides, they already said we're a step too late, someone else has already taken a liking to them, unless we offer a higher price..." The older sister squatted down and looked at us.

"But they didn't even verify who we were or go through any formalities. They just gave us money and let us take the kids away. How is that any different from human traffickers? What if we were selling human organs? Wouldn't these kids be in big trouble?" The older brother became more and more upset as he spoke.

"We can come back and expose them after we take these four treasures back!" The older sister slowly approached, patted my head, and asked, "Would you like to come with me?"

"Where to?" I asked.

"Hmm...a very, very nice place."

"Does it smell bad?" Xiao Yi asked.

"It doesn't smell!" the older sister said with a smile.

"Is there anything good to eat?" Xiao Bing asked.

"As many as you want, we have them all!" the older sister said.

"Are there a lot of dogs there?" Xiao Bing asked.

No, there are only the four of you.

"Let's go."

Actually, we have no choice but to go, because Dean Zhang has already sold us out.

The older sister took out a key and unlocked our foot locks: "Don't run around, be good!"

“We’ve always been good dogs!” we said.

So the older sister hummed a nice little tune and said to the older brother, "Haha! We've struck gold! No more worrying about collecting rent, these four little devils will be famous all over the world! The world's number one little devils, and quadruplets at that! Then, there will be tons of red RMB..."

She spoke while smiling at us.

I feel like we're being taken seriously for the second time.

7.

Later, the older sister took us to all sorts of strange houses, where people in white coats drew our blood and did all sorts of tests. The more places we went, the uglier the older sister's expression became.

Finally, she almost lost her temper and became furious: "Hey, hey, hey! You guys aren't puppies at all! You're clearly idiots!"

"No! We are dogs!" we said in unison, our voices firm. "We are not human, and we are not fools!"

The older sister frowned, tilted her head, thought for a moment, sighed, and said, "Then we'll just have to reuse the waste..."

She found a very fierce man from somewhere, who claimed to be from some dog training base.

That person was really fierce. He forced us to run, practice our sense of smell, find things, and so on. After a few months, he said to the older girl, "That's enough."

The older sister reluctantly handed him a thick envelope and led us into a very tall building.

Here, we changed into dark blue uniforms and patrolled every day, checking people coming and going. The older sister said our job was "security guard," a very important job.

Although that older sister was always fierce, we all liked her a little.

She gave me food and drink, and a place to sleep that was a million times more comfortable than a garbage dump. But that's not all; most importantly, she valued us and needed us.

Before, we always needed to be cared for, even by other dogs, like our mother. In this world, we were just trash, abandoned, and nobody needed us.

Because we are not needed, our living or dying is the same for everyone.

But things are different now; our older sister needs us. It turns out that the feeling of being needed is more blissful and dignified than the feeling of needing others.

We have always upheld the dignity of a dog and protected the older sister's apartment.

We also swore that, in addition to protecting the eldest sister's apartment, we would protect the eldest sister herself, who is like a second mother to us, someone we would protect even at the cost of our lives.

Chapter Seven: The Reincarnation of Ksitigarbha

1.

"Hey! Old Postman!" Ding Yan shouted as soon as she entered the door, "Who exactly did you rent the 5th-floor apartment to? The one Li Meng used to live in!" She angrily opened the closet, took a cup of blood from Xi Li's body, and continued to vent her anger, "It makes the whole elevator and even the whole apartment smell like sandalwood! It stinks!"

Old Postman, hiding behind the curtains reading a book without looking up, said, "I'm a ghost, you know what ghosts are most afraid of? They're most afraid of monks and Taoist priests who catch ghosts! That house was rented out through Da Mi..."

"Dami—" Ding Yan screamed towards Dami's bedroom. "Do you know how many residents in the apartment have been complaining to me lately? They say that monk curses people all the time! And he brings a bunch of believers over for gatherings every day, it's such a mess!"

As soon as Ding Yan entered the room, Dami heard her shouting. He sheepishly walked out of the bedroom: "Who would dare rent that house except a monk? You know how many corpses Li Meng has brought to that house before..."

"If we can't rent it out, then we won't!" Ding Yan sat on the sofa resentfully. "I hate monks the most! I'm a vampire!!! What if he finds out? How am I supposed to live with myself then?"

"Tch! He really thinks he's a vampire..." Da Mi sat opposite Ding Yan and said, "I think that monk is a very nice person, and the sandalwood smells really good, it calms the mind. Besides, Aunt Mei ate so many children, maybe she has some infant spirits! Having a monk living here makes me feel safe."

"I don't care! Make him move out as soon as possible! This apartment is mine!" Ding Yan said, glancing weakly at the closet, "At least it's mine now!"

“At first I didn’t want him to rent it, but he insisted on renting it, saying that one of his lay disciples used to live in this apartment. Guess who that lay disciple was?” Da Mi said mysteriously.

"Who is it? Could it be you?" Ding Yan was still fuming.

“Of course it wasn’t me!” Da Mi continued. “It was Kang Hui… oh no, it was Yao Ying! He said…” Da Mi’s expression became even more mysterious. “He said that after Yao Ying committed suicide, her soul couldn’t find peace, and he came here to help her pass on to the afterlife…”

The old postman trembled with fear: "Please don't let me die along with him..."

“He also said,” Da Mi continued, “that his Buddhist name is Ying Jie, and that he is the reincarnation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva…”

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva? What kind of Bodhisattva is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?" Ding Yan couldn't help but become curious.

The old postman shouted, "I know! I know! Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is the greatest of all Bodhisattvas. You've heard the saying, 'I will not become a Buddha until hell is empty,' right?"