Wealthy Woof Chapter 76

Lu Chenghe’s room was not only filled with plush toys that didn’t match his style at all, but it also contained a pile of gaming equipment. Those items had been there for a while. When Lu Chenghan had installed the VR equipment, he had also brought in several sets of motion-sensing games that could be played on the television. However, back then, Zuo Ning, being a dog, clearly couldn’t play with them. Now that he had turned into a human, he had long been eager to play those games.

When the butler heard noise coming from the living room on the first floor, he went to check and was surprised to find the young master in the gaming room gathering equipment. He asked, “Young master, do you need help?”

Lu Chenghe glanced at the butler while carrying a pile of stuff and said, “No need, go and rest.”

The butler replied, “Alright, young master,” and then watched as Lu Chenghe carried the pile of equipment back to his room.

After entering the gaming room for an inspection, the butler saw that there was nothing left for him to tidy up, so he turned around and went back to his own quarters. However, internally, he thought that it seemed the Fourth Young Master wasn’t always doing unreliable things. Look at this—bringing in all this gaming equipment has sparked the young master’s interest! With all the work pressure, it’s good to relax.

Seeing Lu Chenghe come in with the gaming equipment, Zuo Ning quickly welcomed him, saying, “I’ve wanted to play these for a long time. These games are so discriminatory against dogs. You can’t play them without hands!”

Lu Chenghe looked at the time and said, “You must sleep at eleven o’clock. You can only play for two hours.”

While busy installing various cables and software onto the television, Zuo Ning kept nodding in agreement, as it was their usual bedtime anyway. Even if Lu Chenghe didn’t say anything, his biological clock would still make him sleepy at that time. After struggling for quite a while, Zuo Ning finally managed to figure out the software and set up the equipment.

Lu Chenghe then watched him foolishly flailing his arms and legs, forever out of sync with the game’s rhythm. Suddenly, Lu Chenghe recalled the time they were playing a game and enemies approached, but Zuo Ning was only spinning in circles instead of fighting. It seemed this little creature’s clumsiness wasn’t due to his adjustment to having hands and feet, but rather simply a lack of coordination overall.

Feeling quite pleased with himself after finishing a round of dancing, Zuo Ning turned to look at Lu Chenghe. Noticing that Lu Chenghe was also watching him, Zuo Ning quickly flashed a radiant smile and asked, “How did I do?”

Lu Chenghe outright lied with a straight face, “Hmm, very good.”

Although the standards for age in the spirit world were unclear, when calculated based on a dog’s physical age, a one-year-old dog was roughly equivalent to a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old human. As for maturity, well, Lu Chenghe didn’t expect Zuo Ning to have much of it. In conclusion, Little Pudding was still undeniably an immature child.

When dealing with an immature child, the Lu family’s consistent educational approach leaned heavily toward praise. But when it came to Little Pudding, it was perhaps a bit overly indulgent. Lu Chenghe didn’t aim to shape Little Pudding into some elite talent. Praising him to make him happy seemed like an effective way to avoid unnecessary trouble for himself.

Lacking any real self-awareness, Zuo Ning took Lu Chenghe’s praise at face value and truly believed he danced well, grinning sheepishly in pride. He had always wanted to try the dance machines he walked past in the arcade, but every time he saw girls dancing on them surrounded by crowds of onlookers, he felt too embarrassed to join in. Now, finally, he didn’t have to envy others—he had one at home.

Time always seemed to fly while gaming. Zuo Ning felt like he had barely started playing when it was already time for bed. After having an upset stomach all afternoon and evening, combined with the hour-long physical exertion, he was now completely famished.

So, when Lu Chenghe told him to go to bed, Zuo Ning climbed onto the bed, lay on top of Lu Chenghe, and stared at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

Thinking Zuo Ning still wanted to keep playing, Lu Chenghe said, “You promised to stick to bedtime. The most important principle of being human is to keep your word.”

Zuo Ning licked his lips and looked at him. “I’m hungry.”

Lu Chenghe glanced at him and replied, “No, you’re still having an upset stomach. Don’t eat tonight.”

Zuo Ning rolled around on the bed and exclaimed, “I’m all better now! I just played for so long, I’m so hungry, so hungry! I’m too hungry to sleep, Lu Chenghe, I’m hungry.”

Lu Chenghe pointed to a cabinet filled with snacks and said, “Go grab a bag of biscuits and eat.”

As soon as Zuo Ning heard Lu Chenghe allow him to eat, he quickly got up and threw himself on Lu Chenghe again, saying, “I want noodles. The kind with spicy beef sauce, but no scallions!”

When Zuo Ning used to lie on him as a dog, Lu Chenghe didn’t feel much about it. After all, he had raised him like this since he was young, holding him in his arms and getting accustomed to his clingy behavior. But now, having a person lying on top of him brought a subtle sense of strangeness. It was a peculiar feeling of instinctive familiarity mixed with slight unfamiliarity due to the change in form. Overall, though, he didn’t seem to mind that Little Pudding, now human, continued to be so clingy. It felt like certain habits had long been ingrained.

When Lu Chenghe didn’t immediately respond and simply stared at him silently, Zuo Ning quietly pressed his face against Lu Chenghe’s chest and muttered, “I’m so hungry, I really want noodles, Lu Chenghe, Chenghe.”

“Get up.”

Upon hearing this, Zuo Ning looked at Lu Chenghe pitifully.

With a sigh, Lu Chenghe said, “If you don’t get up, how can I make it for you?”

As soon as Zuo Ning heard that, he quickly got up, his pitiful pout transforming instantly into a radiant smile, like a sunflower blooming. Watching Lu Chenghe put on a robe and prepare to head downstairs, he hesitated for a while and then softly asked, “Can I go down with you?”

“Come down.”

Zuo Ning scrambled up from the bed and followed closely behind Lu Chenghe. If he still had a tail right now, it would surely be wagging furiously.

Carefully descending the stairs, Zuo Ning clung to Lu Chenghe’s clothes and hid behind him, glancing around furtively like a thief, as if he’d dart away and hide if anyone appeared.

Although Zuo Ning was already very familiar with the house, this was his first time appearing here as a human, so everything seemed novel to him. His cautious demeanor made Lu Chenghe chuckle. “It’s not like you’ve never been to the living room. With me here, no one’s going to mistake you for a thief.”

Zuo Ning grumbled, “It’s different. The perspective is completely different, and the feeling is different, too.”

Watching Lu Chenghe enter the kitchen, roll up his sleeves, and effortlessly boil water and cook noodles with the skill of a seasoned home chef, Zuo Ning leaned on the counter and said, “I can do that, too.”

Lu Chenghe glanced at him, “Anyone can make a mess in the kitchen.”

Zuo Ning protested, “You haven’t even tried my cooking, how can you call it a mess? That’s so unfair. It’s kitchen prejudice!”

Lu Chenghe ignored him. After the noodles softened, he added the seasonings and scooped them into a bowl—just one portion.

Zuo Ning eagerly took out a chef-made sauce. He was very knowledgeable about the kitchen supplies. Although the house chef wouldn’t give him anything to eat, he often wandered into the kitchen out of boredom, sometimes picking up juicy gossip like tales of love and drama among the maids and bodyguards.

When Lu Chenghe saw him scoop two spoons of sauce and still try to add more, he stopped him abruptly. “You’re eating noodles, not sauce. If you get another diarrhea, you can forget about touching chili in the future.”

Reluctantly, Zuo Ning put the beef sauce away, muttering under his breath. Suddenly, he heard footsteps and hurriedly crouched behind the kitchen counter to hide. Then, as if appearing out of nowhere, the butler showed up at the doorway.

Seeing the bowl of noodles in front of Lu Chenghe, the butler was quite surprised but remained composed, showing no sign of it. Instead, he asked, “Young master, do you need anything else? Today, a Chinese chef is on duty and can prepare a few stir-fried dishes.”

Lu Chenghe replied, “No need. You can go to bed. I’ll handle it myself.”

The butler said, “Alright, young master,” and respectfully provided Lu Chenghe with his private space before turning and leaving.

Only after confirming that the butler was gone did Zuo Ning poke his head out, dramatically letting out a long breath. “I think the butler is amazing. Every time I try to do something, he suddenly appears out of nowhere. Is the house full of surveillance cameras or something, and the butler spends his days watching them?” As he spoke, he suddenly exclaimed, “Surveillance! Oh no, someone must have seen me!”

Lu Chenghe chuckled, “You even know about surveillance cameras? Come clean. How long have you been secretly observing humans?”

Zuo Ning, stirring his noodles with a smug expression, said, “For a very long time. So don’t think you can trick me just because I turned into a spirit. I’m pretty clever.” Saying this, he picked up a chopstick full of noodles and ate them in one big bite.

Though it was just a plain bowl of noodles, the beef sauce specially made by the house chef was truly exquisite. No leftovers were ever kept in the house, but Zuo Ning imagined that if there were leftover beef sauce fried rice, he could eat a whole giant bowl. After a couple of bites of the steaming noodles, he wasn’t feeling as hungry anymore. Noticing Lu Chenghe watching him eat, Zuo Ning leaned over and offered, “You should eat some, too. It’s so tasty.”

“I don’t have a habit of eating midnight snacks.”

Zuo Ning clicked his tongue in disdain. “You really don’t know how to enjoy life.”

Lu Chenghe simply watched him holding a bowl almost as large as his face, eating with deep satisfaction, one mouthful after another. Occasionally, Zuo Ning would look up at him, flash a smile, and then continue eating. Lu Chenghe thought that ever since he started raising a dog, many of his habits and principles had been broken one by one. He never imagined that one day he’d be making midnight snacks for someone in the middle of the night.

After finishing an entire bowl of noodles along with the soup, Zuo Ning let out an unreserved burp and looked at Lu Chenghe with a grin. “It was so good! Before… before, you were so strict with me. You wouldn’t let me eat this or that. But now, it’s so much better.”

What he really wanted to say was that, in the past, only his mother had ever made him midnight snacks. Lu Chenghe was the second person in his life to do so.

Lu Chenghe glanced at him and said, “Giving you midnight snacks is good for you? Today was an exception. Don’t even think about it in the future. Eating too much at night puts too much strain on your stomach.”

Zuo Ning chuckled, “I’m a spirit. It doesn’t affect me.”

“A spirit that gets an upset stomach and feels hungry?”

“Well, spirits have exceptions, too!”

“Excuses, excuses.”

Seeing Lu Chenghe finish washing the dishes and prepare to go back to his room, Zuo Ning suddenly pounced onto Lu Chenghe’s back, saying, “I’m too full to walk. Carry me!”

Lu Chenghe gave him a sidelong glance. “I’ll count to three. If you don’t get down, I’ll lock you in the kennel on the first floor to sleep.”

Zuo Ning rubbed himself against Lu Chenghe’s back and said, “Carry me now, and when you’re old, I’ll carry you.”

“One, two…”

Before Lu Chenghe could say “three”, Zuo Ning slid off his back and dashed back to his room with quick footsteps.

Watching Zuo Ning’s retreating figure disappear in an instant, Lu Chenghe couldn’t help but chuckle softly. So pampered yet so timid. He wondered what kind of TV dramas Zuo Ning watched every day. Sweet words seemed to roll off his tongue effortlessly.

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