5, confused Lin Mo._1
Translator: 549690339
“Little guy, you’re still quite spirited.”
After confirming the pet dog was still alive, Lin Mo felt a slight sense of relief in his heart.
He had been worried that the pet dog had been trapped for too long; if the dog had died, then he probably wouldn’t have been able to earn the 30,000 yuan reward.
Now it seemed that things were proceeding fairly smoothly.
Without wasting time,
Lin Mo took off his leather jacket, held a flashlight in his mouth, and climbed down the steel rebar ladder in the well.
“Uh….”
As soon as he entered the well, a disgusting smell, like that of rotten eggs after fermentation, almost made Lin Mo vomit out his breakfast.
It wasn’t just the stench,
the farther down he climbed, the more damp and greasy it became,
and his clothes and shoes quickly got covered in disgusting sludge.
He could only hold his breath and hasten his actions.
Thankfully, the well wasn’t very deep,
As soon as Lin Mo reached the bottom, the dirty little dog eagerly and adorably stood up, its two front legs desperately clinging to his arm.
“The little guy is quite cooperative.”
“Don’t worry… you’re rescued now!”
Lin Mo smiled slightly, holding the pet dog with one arm while beginning to climb upwards.
In no time at all, they were back on the surface.
To prevent the dog from running off, Lin Mo got a rope from the electric bike to tie it up, then restored the manhole cover to its original state.
“Phew…”
Having done all this, Lin Mo sat gasping on the curb, taking deep breaths to catch his breath.
Unlike the tiredness from pure physical labor during transport,
this feeling of having to distract himself from the stench had almost made Lin Mo suffocate in the sewer.
But everything had gone very smoothly.
After regaining his breath, Lin Mo took out his mobile phone, found the dog owner’s number that he had recorded beforehand, and then made the call.
The dog-seeking advertisement offering a 30,000 yuan reward was quite a little news story; Lin Mo had found the owner’s contact information with a quick search on his phone earlier.
Beep… Beep beep…
The call was quickly connected, and a woman’s voice came through, “Hello.”
After glancing at the pet dog beside him, Lin Mo asked, “Hello, did you post a notice for a lost dog with a pink collar, a white curly-haired Teddy?”
The woman’s voice became excited as she replied, “Yes, that’s my dog! Have you seen it?”
“I know you’re anxious, but please calm down for a moment, the dog is safe now.”
“I’m currently at the intersection of Jiefang Road and Development Road, if it’s convenient for you, please come over now.”
“Okay, I’ll be there immediately!”
Beep… Beep beep…
The call was hung up.
Lin Mo, sitting by the roadside, called Li Jinwen to tell her that he would be home for lunch soon.
Meanwhile,
Lin Mo was already fantasizing about the surprised expression his wife would show once she found out he had earned 30,000 yuan just that morning.
Being admired by the woman he loved was definitely the greatest thrill for any man.
About ten minutes later, a khaki Volkswagen Beetle parked by the roadside, and a man and a woman got out of the car, anxiously searching for something.
At the same time,
Lin Mo’s phone rang.
Without answering the call, he waved his hand and called out to the young couple not far away, “Are you looking for the dog? Over here!”
The young couple saw him and the pet dog tied next to him.
“Youyou…”
The woman ran over in a panic, not minding the dirt on the little dog, picked it up in one motion, and with a tearful voice, she said, “Mommy has been so worried… where have you been these past few days?”
Honestly,
even though it’s now very common to treat pets as children, Lin Mo still found it a bit awkward.
But that was someone else’s business, and it had nothing to do with him.
At that moment,
a young boy next to him said with a face full of gratitude, “Ever since the dog got lost, my wife has been crying herself to sleep every night. Where did you find our Youyou?”
Lin Mo pointed to a nearby manhole cover and pulled out the excuse he had already prepared, “I was passing by this morning and heard a dog barking from inside the manhole. After I rescued it, I realized it looked a lot like your dog, so I gave you a call.”
“Brother, thank you so much. I won’t lie to you, my wife and I don’t have children, we treat this dog even dearer than a child!” The young boy laughed and pulled out a small stack of money from his pocket and handed it over, “This is a little token of our gratitude, please accept it.”
Looking at the money he was handing over, Lin Mo’s eyebrows couldn’t help but furrow.
Wasn’t it supposed to be 30,000?
Added up, this stack of money probably wasn’t even 1,000.
Lin Mo didn’t take the money, but asked with a smile, “Sir, this isn’t quite what the missing dog flyer said, is it?”
To tell the truth,
it was the 30,000 that had made Lin Mo undertake the long journey to rescue the dog.
Now he had worked for nothing the whole morning, his clothes and body were covered in mud, and all he got was a few hundred bucks in the end?
Anyone would be unhappy about that.
“Haha… stop acting!”
The woman holding the dog came over, snatched the stack of money from the man, and directly placed it on the nearby stone bench: “It’s the same old trick of stealing the dog first, then pretending to find it and bringing it back. I’ve seen this scam plenty!”
“We’re not calling the police, and we’re giving you money, that’s being nice to you!”
“This is all the money there is, take it or leave it!”
“Honey, let’s go!”
The woman, dragging the man, turned around without another word and walked toward their car parked not far away.
Leaving Lin Mo standing there, dumbfounded.
How… why did things not play out as he had expected?
As the couple walked farther away,
Lin Mo could faintly hear the woman laughing and asking her husband if she was very smart and how they had saved a few thousand dollars or something along those lines.
Lin Mo knew that society could be cruel.
But he had never expected it to be this cruel!
Even turning a missing dog flyer into a scam?
Really.
For a moment, Lin Mo felt an impulse to rush over, throw the money back at them, and then drop the dog back into the manhole, before giving the couple a good thrashing.
But,
he couldn’t do that.
If he really did that, he might blow off some steam, but he’d end up in jail.
He now had a wife and children, and aging parents.
His days of losing his temper at the drop of a hat were long behind him.
In the distance, the Volkswagen Beetle started and with a push of the accelerator, it left Lin Mo’s sight.
“….”
Watching the Beetle drive away, he instinctively lifted his foot to chase after it, to demand an explanation.
But on second thought, he let it go.
Eventually, Lin Mo just took a deep breath and laughed bitterly out of extreme frustration.
A man with a family, his courage was indeed smaller.
He dared not act recklessly.
However, if it had been in the past, Lin Mo might have stewed over such an incident, but he was different now. He had the ‘system’ and an infinite number of wonderful possibilities in the future. It wasn’t worth it to get angry over such trivial wrongdoing.
Experience teaches wisdom.
Moreover, the way he handled this situation was indeed immature and not thorough enough.
“Having the system and still getting played, what a mess!”