Zhang Hang owned a very clever black Labrador. After summer break ended, this spread throughout First School.
In actuality, Zhang Hang wasn"t the type of person who enjoyed showing off. Even if there were rumors being spread, this alone wouldn"t be enough to convince all the teachers and students that the dog was truly as smart as was said. After all, seeing is believing1.
Now that they had started high school, students would start studying by themselves at night. When Zhang Hang was in middle school, he had only ever studied in the evening in preparation for the high school entrance exam. The school occasionally arranged an evening study hall in the time leading up to the exam. Because the students were all quite young, not many attended, but Zhang Qiming always drove Zhang Hang. In 2005, there were not many cars on the street. Most students attending with Zhang Hang rode bicycles to school. One day, Zhang Hang came back from biking with bruised knees and a dented wheel. When he left his cla.s.smates, he rode his bike into a lamp post.
According to Zhang Hang, his vision had suddenly gone blurry and he couldn"t see what was ahead very clearly. When he reached up to rub at his eyes, he"d hit the lamp post. Zhang Qiming had been away from home at the time, and Zhao Xiaolian had taken him to her friend Ma You. He"d a.s.sumed that Zhang Hang had studied too hard and was suffering from shortsightedness, so Zhao Xiaolian gave him money to get gla.s.ses and didn"t pay much attention to it.
Zhang Hang went to an optometrist the next day and discovered that he did indeed have mild shortsightedness, so left with a pair of gla.s.ses. When Zhang Qiming returned home, he could not help sighing when he found out that his son was now nearsighted. That child had studied too hard and hurt his eyes2. Unfortunately, there was no way to go back. In modern society, more and more children wore gla.s.ses each day. There were even nearsighted people in elementary schools. At this point it, was a common phenomenon.
n.o.body took the issue seriously, but Lu Chengye knew of Zhang Hang"s night-blindness and fear of becoming shortsighted. When Zhang Hang left again to attend evening study hall, Lu Chengye felt uneasy in his heart. He took advantage of Zhang Qiming eating dinner and Zhao Xiaolian applying a face mask in her room to leave the house. He ran all the way to the First School.
At present, Lu Chengye was six months old and weighed more than 26 pounds3, enough to be seen as a big dog. He dodged traffic the entire way to the school, then sat down by the gate and waited for Zhang Hang to finish studying. This way, Lu Chengye could walk home with him and prevent any more lamp post incidents.
Lu Chengye wore a collar around his neck with a tag that had Zhang Hang"s number and address on it. This way if he ever got lost and someone found him, they could contact his family and send him back. At first glance, he is clearly a pet dog. When a security guard uncle4 saw Lu Chengye sitting at the school"s entrance, he was going to collect the dog and call its owner. However, the dog was smart enough to not let the security guard touch him.
Finally, study-hall ended and students began exiting through the school gate. Lu Chengye sat obediently by the gate with like a house pet awaiting its master, not even blinking. The security guard was afraid the dog would suddenly go crazy and bite the students, but was too afraid to actually grab him. Seeing that the poor man was afraid, Lu Chengye didn"t bother resisting, but refused to allow the security guard pull him away from his spot. He would put all his strength into remaining by the school"s gate.
Teenage students were usually good people. Seeing such a beautiful black dog sitting at the gate, they couldn"t help but gather around it. Now that Lu Chengye had grown, his previously adorable appearance had become much n.o.bler. The students had the courage to surround him and gesture among themselves, but dared not touch him.
Little by little, Lu Chengye was completely encircled by students. He could no longer see the people coming through the gate and was afraid he would miss Zhang Hang. He was unable to escape the students and could only "woof", hoping Zhang Hang would hear it.
He may have intimidated the students, but Lu Chengye didn"t dare approach them. However, someone had called the school"s security guard. Someone would soon come to catch him. Luckily, Zhang Hang had just walked out of the school along with several other students, and couldn"t help but approach when he heard a dog barking.
"Big Black?" Zhang Hang rubbed his eyes. His night vision was gradually getting worse, and he could only presently recognize his dog by body shape and familiar bark.
Lu Chengye jumped towards him right away. Zhang Hang may not have been able to see clearly, but the boy and dog had a tacit understanding. He skillfully bent down, allowing Lu Chengye to put a paw on each shoulder and rub his neck with a furry face.
"Zhang Hang, this is your dog?" A cla.s.smate stared at the spirited dog. "He didn"t come to pick you up, right?"
"Probably not…" Zhang Hang also wasn"t convinced. Did Big Black miss him? After all, he was very clingy towards Zhang Hang. He was only with his dog for a short time before leaving again. Each time he came home, Big Black was overcome with excitement. Speaking of which… the path from his home and school was so complicated and far. Big Black had never even been there before!
"Big Black, are you here to pick me up?" Zhang Hang asked doubtfully.
"Woof!" I"m concerned about you! You should take supplements and vitamins so you no longer have to worry about night-blindness, Lu Chengye cried out.
"It seems it really came to pick you up!" The students were very surprised. "Does it bite? If not, can I pet it?"
"Big Black doesn"t bite." Zhang Hang felt happy as he stroked his dog"s neck.
Such a smart dog caused a traffic jam of people. When the security guard arrived, everyone quickly scattered, leaving Zhang Hang and Lu Chengye to fend for themselves. The security guard shook his head and said, "No dogs are allowed at school. What if it bites somebody?"
Zhang Hang nodded and got on his bicycle. Lu Chengye followed him closely. He was no longer the 14-pound5 dog from two and a half months ago with close to no physical strength. Now he could run long distances alongside Zhang Hang!
"Woof!" Seeing a rock in front of Zhang Hang that he wasn"t going to avoid, Lu Chengye called out. Zhang Hang stopped to see what the matter was, then saw the rock from its shadow.
"Big Black is so clever!" Zhang Hang said in surprise, and couldn"t help but get off his bike and hug Chengye.
"Woof!" Lu Chengye barked anxiously. Young man, this is not a matter of being smart. Your night-blindness is very serious. Most people can see clearly under a street light, but you could barely see anything. You should go to the hospital as soon as possible!
Unfortunately, no matter how clever he was, Lu Chengye couldn"t speak human language. Zhang Hang naturally couldn"t understand him. He got back on his bike and continued onward. Lu Chengye could only do his best to ensure Zhang Hang"s safety on their journey home.
Lu Chengye was worried about Zhang Hang"s vision. He hoped either Zhang Xiaolian or Zhang Qiming could find out what was wrong with him. However, the two story home and nice cars weren"t just for show. Zhang Qiming was very busy, often not finishing until after Zhang Hang had already gone to bed. Zhao Xiaolian, on the other hand, spent her evenings applying face masks and doing yoga. She seldom paid attention to her son. Not one person suspected that he suffered from night-blindness. After all, Zhang Hang seemed like an ordinary, healthy high school student. Even when he did get sick, they were simply colds that could be treated by drinking some hot water and getting sleep. Because his daytime vision was un.o.bstructed, he didn"t think he had any problems with his eyesight besides perhaps not having proper lenses for his gla.s.ses.
There are street lights along the route between school and home, and Zhang Hang"s symptoms don"t always act up, so he doesn"t think much of it. Occasionally things are blurry at night, but that"s it.
Lu Chengye noticed that Zhang Hang often tripped when getting up in the middle of the night, and had trouble finding his gla.s.ses even with the lamp on. The problem wasn"t a lack of light, but with his eyes. To try to get their attention, Lu Chengye would bark "woof woof" at Zhao Xiaolian and Zhang Qiming. Once, Zhang Xiaolian got so annoyed that she threw a high-heel at him. Thankfully, he was quick enough that he dodged it.
He had no choice but to come with Zhang Hang to evening study-hall. However, after the first time when Lu Chengye was surrounded by students, Zhang Hang wouldn"t let him come. When he tried sneaking out the next evening, Zhang Hang tied him up to keep him at home.
But how could a simple rope hold back Lu Chengye? He decisively freed himself from his restraints and once again ran to the school. This time, he had learned his lesson. Instead of waiting by the school gate, he hid himself in the shadows beside it. A black Labrador concealed itself in the shadows, invisible to all. It was only when lights went by that one could see a pair of bright eyes reflected.
This time when Zhang Hang left the school, he saw no Big Black waiting for him. Satisfied, he got on his bike and was about to leave when he heard a low "woof" and his dog appeared beside him.
Zhang Hang: "…"
He looked at Lu Chengye with exasperation, resenting iron for not being steel6. Despite this, Lu Chengye came to him with a wagging tail and repeatedly rubbed his furry face against Zhang Hang"s thigh. Zhang Hang couldn"t keep his heart from softening when he thought about how there was no one to take Big Black for walks after school each day. He was kept at home all day, waiting for Zhang Hang to come back.
"Your dog"s come to pick you up again." The students hadn"t seen such a strange occurrence before.
"Shhh…" Zhang Hang quickly got on his bike. "Keep it down, or we"ll get yelled at by the security guard again."
"Don"t worry." His close friends laughed and gazed at Lu Chengye enviously. They wanted to own such an obedient, clever dog.
"Ah, you should take your dog out to play on weekends. It"s so handsome!" Lin Sheng shouldered Zhang Hang. There was a puddle in front of them, but Zhang Hang didn"t see it at all and got splashed when he rode into it.
"Woof, woof, woof!" Lu Chengye barked fiercely at Lin Sheng. Instead of being afraid, the boys laughed. "This dog is really protective of its master!"
Zhang Hang navigated his way through the puddle and came to pat Big Black on the head. "It"s okay, we"re just joking around."
Lu Chengye growled at Lin Sheng threateningly. His family"s Zhang Hang couldn"t see well at night. Could you not make such jokes!
It"s a pity that n.o.body could understand his words. The boys were somewhat careless. By this time, they had been in school for two or three months. In the evening after study-hall, they all walked home together. n.o.body noticed Zhang Hang"s vision problems. More importantly, because they rode noisily the whole way, a person would occasionally bike into a ditch or a lamp post. Zhang Hang didn"t feel like b.u.mping into a lamp post from time was anything out of the ordinary.
Lu Chengye looked at the group of teenagers with disappointment. Sadly, Zhang Hang had no self-awareness at all, so Lu Chengye had to play the role of an escort. Every night, he secretly ran to the school to pick up his master and friends. As time went by, Zhang Hang gave up on stopping him, and the security guard turned a blind eye due to Lu Chengye cuteness.
In this way, being escorted by Lu Chengye, Zhang Hang pa.s.sed the first semester of school in safety.
Author"s notes:
Young people really don"t pay enough attention to their own bodies. When I was in high school, I got chicken pox. My roommates and I didn"t think it was a big issue, we didn"t even know what it was. However, when my mom came to see me over the weekend, my face full of pockmarks scared her. She took me to the hospital and they said it was chicken pox. However, me, being lazy, didn"t ask for leave. I"d been in cla.s.s and the people in my dorm didn"t care. n.o.body even ended up catching it.
But when I was in college, there was chicken pox in the next dorm over. After two days I went home to take a break, but more than ten girls were infected. Amazing.
So, it"s normal that Zhang Hang doesn"t care enough about his eyesight. At this time, as an experienced parent, his father should find out. However, this kind of father who works all day and mother who is out of tune with her child… So, n.o.body noticed but Big Black, but he can"t speak.
1. MTL gave “hearing can never compare with seeing”↩
2. MTL gave me “he"d broken his eyes” and it made me laugh↩
3. for non-american readers, that"s 11.7 kg↩
4. you know the drill, not literally his uncle. respectful form of address for an older man.↩
5. roughly 6 kg↩
6. idiom which means to regret that one"s offspring doesn"t live up to expectations↩