Dog Bow Tie

In the classroom of Senior 2 Class 3, Sufang No. 1 Middle School, Claude held a pen in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Yan Anqing, who was just an aisle away from him, lying fast asleep on her textbook, her eyelids drooping involuntarily.

The spiritual power he had acquired from expelling the Hellcat last night was mostly used to heal the cat. Some of it was appropriated by the dog toy, specifically to debug the smoothness of his body and the vest when they were opened simultaneously. The remaining bit was insufficient to maintain his full energy throughout the day.

"Why don't you take a nap first?" the dog toy worriedly advised him. "I can record everything the teacher says for you, and I can play the audio tonight when I am free."

Claude couldn't help but laugh and retorted, "You used to glitch even when I recited a text at night. How can you play the audio of the teacher's lecture now?"

"This is a special case, and I certainly don't approve of it in normal times! It could easily expose your true identity, and there's the possibility of losing focus," the dog toy inflated, sounding concerned.

Although Claude acknowledged the dog toy's point, he couldn't resist teasing it, "Well, how about this? First, you..."

"Claude!!!" A roar erupted from the platform.

Terrified, Claude's eyes widened in horror as he instinctively sat up straight, facing the furious math teacher. Neither he nor the dog toy dared to make a sound. One sat upright, listening carefully, while the other silently extracted a virtual blackboard from his mind, summarizing the raccoon dog's remaining weaknesses that needed strengthening.

Upon returning home from school, Claude yawned while doing laundry, guiding the raccoon dog's vest out the door. The dog toy, finally recovering from the fear of being called out by the teacher, sighed quietly.

"Your teacher is so scary. I've never been so frightened, even when I was with the Dog God, pulling the fishing rod in the back garden of the Spring God's palace."

"Then you haven't seen my homeroom teacher lose his temper? That's scary," Claude reminisced, recalling the experience of being reprimanded by his usually smiling homeroom teacher, causing his tail to straighten. "Compared to that, I'd rather face three hundred Hellcats in a siege."

"Don't talk nonsense! If the gate of hell really cracks, the world will be destroyed!" The dog toy turned serious from its usual playful nature.

"What you're facing now is only the projection of the Hellcat, but the peak Hellcat is a powerful existence that can rival the Dog God! If not... well, in any case, you must not underestimate it, just like your injury yesterday. Though there's a reason for the Hellcat's advancement, it's also largely due to your underestimation."

"Yesterday's strategy was indeed a mistake," Claude nodded obediently.

With one hand gripping the security window of someone's house, he leaped to the top floor, ran for hundreds of meters, and jumped into a narrow alley three blocks away. With his cold, gleaming claws, he easily defeated the Hellcat that had just emerged from the trash can.

Watching the Hellcat turn into mist, he didn't pause. Instead, he stood on tiptoes, jumped back onto the wall, followed the dog toy's direction, and rushed to the next location. Within two hours, he had slain more than ten Hellcats. Finally, he landed on the circular building atop the central bank in Su Fang City, blowing on his spotless golden claws with a sense of accomplishment.

"Hooray!" he cheered, "The clothes are clean and ready to be sent to Yan Anqing!"

He thanked the dryer for saving him from having to hang his clothes out the window, which would have increased the risk of being discovered.

[...]

This guy just killed so many Hellcats, and the happiest thing is that he has finished washing clothes?

There are too many points, and it's hard to know when to start talking about dog toys. While I was organizing my words, Claude was already on his way home. The real body put the clothes into a bag and placed them on the windowsill, while the raccoon dog quickly swept past, grabbed the package at lightning speed, and turned around to run to Yan Anqing.

Yesterday, his legs were not very strong, which hindered his jumping ability. It took him more than ten minutes to walk the distance of three streets. Now, he is moving very fast, climbing high walls and flying between rooftops. He soon arrives at the neighborhood where Yan Anqing lives.

He didn't rush in, but first detoured to the elevator shaft to pick up the clothes he had left the day before, patting off the dust and crawling insects that were stuck to them, and then put them into an empty bag that he had prepared beforehand.

The communication device that Tang Aibai had previously given him was placed in his pants pocket and was thrown into the elevator shaft yesterday. Claude was a little worried that it would break, but when he picked it up, he was surprised to see that not even a corner was broken. He couldn't help but marvel at the high quality of the product produced by the Twenty-Eight Constellations.

The display screen of the communication device clearly showed more than ten missed calls. Claude scratched his head and quickly edited a message and sent it. After briefly explaining why he hadn't answered the call, he stuffed the device back in his pocket and climbed up the elevator shaft with a clatter.

When he arrived at Yan Anqing's house, he didn't enter through the main door, but walked around the courtyard to the second-floor bedroom, fiddled with the window for a moment, and jumped into the room.

It was past midnight, but Yan Anqing was still awake, sitting on the empty living room sofa, biting the end of a pen and drawing sketches on a notebook. He tore up each page as he drew, leaving a mess of paper on the floor.

Claude originally just wanted to send a piece of clothing and say hello, but seeing him like this, he couldn't help but add a bit of concern to his tone when he spoke: "Why aren't you sleeping? Are you feeling bad?"

"Are you him?" Yan An raised his eyebrows slightly. "I thought you would come through the door."

He pointed to the door, and Claude looked over and saw the conspicuous dog hole in the door. He was speechless for a moment, paused for several seconds, and then resisted the urge to jump up and yell at him. Instead, he handed the paper bag in front of him and said, "I'll give you back your clothes, and thank you for letting me rest at your house last night.

Yan Anqing raised his chin and said, "No need to thank me. Just remember that you still owe me three things."

Claude smiled helplessly, "Okay, I'll go first."

"Wait!" Yan Anqing quickly spoke up to stop him. When he saw Claude turn to look at him, he realized that he seemed to be extremely anxious. So he cleared his throat and resumed his previous calm and unhurried manner as a young master, "I have something for you."

Without waiting for Claude to refuse, he stood up, dragged a huge package out from behind the sofa, opened the pocket, and took out the items inside one by one.

Dog toys, imitation bones, dog food, and teething sticks are all new high-end styles, piled up on the sofa and coffee table in a messy way.

Claude: "..."

He pointed to several items, his fingertips shaking slightly, "Dog toilet?"

"Ah, I bought it when I didn't know you were a dog demon," Yan Anqing said, embarrassed by the raccoon dog's wide-eyed, skeptical expression. "I originally bought a dog house, but then I thought that since you can jump up and down all over the place, you probably don't need a place to sleep, so I returned it.

Claude glanced at the dog toilet and those items, but remained silent, though his inquiry's intent was crystal clear.

"I think, just in case you want to revert to your natural instincts," Yan Anqing's voice faded, "such as digging a dog toilet."

Claude covered his face.

"At least it was a kind intention, and a lot of money was spent. Although I really wanted to grab Yan Anqing's ear to make him snap out of it, I'll still say thank you: 'I don't need these things. Maybe you could keep a dog? They can make direct use of them.'"

Yan Anqing pouted and took a dog collar out of her bag, removing the neck ring, leaving only the black bow tie. "How about this one? You can wear it without hindering your fight. It's like fulfilling my wish to have a dog."

Claude nodded, reached for the tie knot, pinned it to the center of his T-shirt's round neck, opened the living room window, and effortlessly leaped out, vanishing in an instant.

The moonlight was dim, and the evening breeze rustled through the cherry trees in the yard, carrying the scent of fresh soil into the house.

Yan Anqing gazed at the roof until she was sure she couldn't even see the raccoon dog's shadow. She sighed sadly, took out her phone, opened the pet location app, and watched the red dot labeled "pet dog" move through the city of Su Fang.

"The dog food and dog house were just to lower the guard of the leopard dog and make him willingly wear a bow tie," the dog toys jeered gleefully.

"Isn't it just a misunderstanding, using the toilet on the box and then burying it? Do you hold a grudge about this? No, no, no?" they continued mockingly.

"You know the raccoon dog can use its spiritual power to replace food to supplement energy," Claude retorted. "I want to say there's a locator in this bow tie."

Yan Anqing thought she had acted unnoticed, but that was only true if the cat-like dog didn't understand human society. Claude, who knew Yan Anqing well and liked dogs, immediately realized the bow tie was a pet locator.

"What should I do? Should I discard this bow tie?" Claude shrugged.

If a stranger did this, he would undoubtedly discard it without hesitation. However, knowing Yan Anqing well, Claude assumed he wasn't malicious. Likely, he was just bored and curious about the realm of superpowers, leading to these actions. Therefore, Claude didn't mind playing along.

"After completing today's task, I'll kidnap a stray puppy and tie it to Yan Anqing's bed with a bow tie. I guarantee he'll be frightened in the morning!"

Anyway, Yan Anqing wanted a dog, so it's akin to giving him a gift, making him feel less lonely when he returns home from school.

Maybe it's a gift from the dog god. Claude has a good relationship with dogs. Each night when he hunts Hellcats, he encounters many dogs. He's familiar with the stray dog forces in the entire host city. He was happily planning to tie up the corgi pups from the dog's mother's family in the city center or find the little black dog on Third Avenue when the dog's toy's scream interrupted his thoughts.

"Hurry, there are suddenly seven Hellcats in one place, most likely emerging from the Hellgate group and four of them have strong power fluctuations, likely advanced Hellcats!"

Claude gasped.

With his current abilities, dealing with so many Hellcats at once, especially highly advanced ones, seemed nearly impossible. But without a word, he turned and ran in the direction indicated by the dog toy, asking as he sprinted, "Is anyone nearby?"

Before the dog toy could respond, the communication device he had retrieved from the elevator shaft beeped.

When he answered the communication, Tang Aibai's hurried voice came through, "Li Hua, where are you now?"