"Kettle," Jian Jing ordered.
The knight brought over his own kettle in his mouth.
"Backpack," she said.
The knight fetched his own cute little backpack in his mouth.
"Dog food."
The knight brought over the dog food that would last him for one meal.
"Anything else?" she asked.
The knight twisted his head and brought over his little toy and leash.
Jian Jing packed them into the mini suitcase and asked again, "Anything else?"
It whimpered twice and brought over its little cup as well.
"Got everything?"
It nodded and stayed still next to the suitcase.
"You call that everything? Where's the pooper scooper?" Jian Jing glared angrily at him.
The knight leapt up in a flash, swiftly fetched the poop bag, placed it ingratiatingly into the box, and wagged his tail vigorously.
"That's more like it," Jian Jing counted and felt there probably wasn't anything missing. She then closed the suitcase and tossed it aside.
With the dog stuff packed up, it was time to pack her own things.
Clothes, sun protection clothes, makeup bag, mosquito repellent, portable mosquito net...things were tossed duang duang into the 28-inch suitcase.
The knight glanced at his little box, then at his master’s big box, and sighed.
After what seemed like forever, Jian Jing finally packed up her things rather adequately, put on a face mask, and went to bed.
Tomorrow morning, she would be going on vacation with her dog.
Where were they going this time?
Southeast Asia.
The edge of the jungle.
Travel companions: Kang Lei and Kang Mu Cheng.
To be more precise, Madam Kang really wanted to spend a couple days playing in the tropical rainforest, challenge herself, and get close to nature. However, Kang Mu Cheng would absolutely not let his mother go alone, so he had no choice but to go with her.
Plus, when they went to the Amazon rainforest last time, Jian Jing was left out miserably. So this time, they asked if she wanted to come along.
Jian Jing agreed right away.
Since the mother and son pair from the Kang family were going, there would be no one to take care of the dog. Jian Jing also didn’t have the heart to board the knight at a pet hospital. So she decided to take time off earlier to bring the dog along on the trip.
She was very much looking forward to this trip and unusually did not sleep well that night. She woke up early the next morning, and casually nibbled on some bread. She also fed the knight dog food and water, urging it to relieve itself ahead of time.
"Get in," she opened the pet airline crate, and put food, water and a pee pad inside. "You'll have to stay put in there for a long time, so endure it, alright?"
The knight was very obedient and tolerant. It obediently crawled inside.
Then came the car ride, check-in, waiting at the terminal, boarding, and flying.
An amusing incident happened during that time.
A male passenger tried chatting up Madam Kang, complimenting that she and her daughter looked like sisters rather than mother and daughter.
Kang Xiao Er Mu Cheng: "..."
Jian Jian Nv Er Jing: "Hahahaha."
Having said that, Kang Lei was in her fifties this year, but maintained herself well. Her wrinkles and spots were not obvious. Plus she was wearing a white shirt and jeans, dressed like a college student. She did indeed look rather young.
After a few hours, the plane landed at its destination.
The sizzling heat blew everyone's tops off. Billowing heat waves seemed like they could roast someone at any time.
Jian Jing glanced at the character status panel several times, barely holding back from adding a point to Adaptability.
It was too damn hot.
So the group made a beeline for the hotel, with the knight lying under the AC without getting up.
On the first day, they enjoyed the AC, munched on fruit, and drank coconut water.
When night fell and the temperature cooled a bit, Jian Jing settled the dog and snuck out to watch an unspeakable show.
Then at the hotel entrance she ran into the equally sneaking out Madam Kang.
Jian Jing: ???
Kang Lei pretended not to see her.
Well...Jian Jing also had to pretend not to recognize her.
Both tacitly did not ask where the other was headed.
On the other side.
"Knock knock," Kang Mu Cheng knocked on his mother's door, "Mom, want to eat dinner?"
No response.
He knocked on Jian Jing's door again: "Jing Jing?"
Click, the door opened. It was opened by the dog. He went in and looked around but couldn't find anyone either.
Lowering his head, the knight wagged his tail at him.
Kang Mu Cheng knitted his brows.
The next day, the tour guide arrived at the hotel to pick them up and take them to the National Wildlife Park.
It was one of the oldest rainforests in the area, with a rather abundant variety of wildlife. All sorts of animals like elephants, pythons, crocodiles, rhinos... As long as luck wasn’t too bad, you could basically see some kind of animal for sure.
Not to mention the natural environment did not mean primitive living conditions. In fact, their lodging place this time was quite nice. It not only had TV, internet, fridge, AC, but even had a 270° panoramic view bathroom facing the valley (......)
Yes, this was actually a glamping hotel, meaning even in the purely natural outdoor environment, you could still enjoy comfortable modern living.
What was even more interesting was that this hotel was not a cement building but a large tent. The interior design had a very jungle adventure vibe. Hammocks were hung right under a waterfall by the stream. Lying on them, you could feel the cool water droplets sprayed onto your body.
After checking in, the first thing Jian Jing did was toss aside her luggage and whistle, "Knight, let's go play in the water!"
"Woof!" The knight could usually only fool around at the dog park. When had he ever been to a tropical rainforest before? He had been excitedly raring to go for a while now.
Without another word, the owner and pet leapt into the creek attacking each other.
The knight swung his tail, splashing water. Jian Jing didn't stand on courtesy. She took out her gun...cough, water gun, and started spraying him.
"Woof!" The knight admitted defeat. He fetched a frisbee with his mouth.
Jian Jing flung it out. The knight doggie paddled to get it and brought it back. They continued.
In the tent next door, Kang Lei poured herself a glass of champagne. She flung her body onto the soft sofa, took a sip of the chilled wine, and exclaimed emotionally, "Getting old, getting old. If I were ten years younger, I would've joined Jing Jing."
Kang Mu Cheng was unpacking.
"Jing Jing, come have a drink!" Kang Lei waved at the person in the stream.
After playing fetch with the knight a few rounds, Jian Jing was drenched but her movements weren't hindered in the slightest. Stepping on the slippery rocks, she made her way up to the veranda and accepted the glass of wine passed to her by Madam Kang. She refreshingly downed it in one go.
"Refreshing," she exhaled in satisfaction. Seeing that Kang Mu Cheng was actually folding clothes, she couldn't help but call out, "President Kang!"
Kang Mu Cheng looked back.
She aimed the orange water gun upward and pulled the trigger. A thin jet of water shot out, hitting him square in the chest.
"Congratulations on the chicken dinner(1) tonight," she made a victory sign.
Kang Mu Cheng: "......"
Kang Lei: "Hahaha."
"Jing Jing!" He could stand it no longer.
Jian Jing turned and ran.
Kang Lei laughed until her stomach hurt.
"Mom," Kang Mu Cheng turned the muzzle. He couldn't control that one, but he could still control this one. "Drink less alcohol. Don't forget what the results of your gastroscopy were this year."
"Alright alright, I'll drink less." Kang Lei put down her wine glass, but said, "We're on vacation, so we should relax a bit. Why don't you go play with Jing Jing?"
"She's childish. How could I act like her?" Kang Mu Cheng said impatiently.
Playing water guns of all things, trust her to think that up.
However, Kang Lei disagreed. "What's wrong with water guns? Look over there."
She pointed into the distance.
Kang Mu Cheng turned to look. Good heavens, the immature one wasn't just little miss Jian Jing. An uncle came running out of a cabin in the distance, holding an extra jumbo sized water gun. Without showing the slightest chivalry, he opened fire on Jian Jing.
Jian Jing was also quite surprised.
—Two minutes ago.
The knight went to fetch the frisbee but halfway there, he yelped "Oww!"
Fearing it was some python, she rushed back to rescue the dog. But when she looked, d*mn it, it was actually just a monkey wearing a bright yellow tank top. It had picked up rocks to throw at her dog.
How outrageous!
She immediately fired back with her water gun.
The monkey with the yellow tank top got sprayed all over its face. It screamed and caused the uncle from the next tent to rush over.
The uncle grabbed a colossal water gun and charged over, aiming straight at Jian Jing without an ounce of chivalry, and attacked.
Jian Jing: Scared of you?
The two sides immediately launched into intense guerrilla warfare after a disagreement.
The monkey continued picking up rocks to ambush Jian Jing from behind. The knight swam to the tree, climbed onto the trunk, and barked wildly, "Woof woof woof!"
Shortly after, Jian Jing's water gun ran out of ammo.
She was furious. She charged into her own tent, rummaged out another one, filled it with water, and held up both guns against them.
One hand sprayed the uncle while the other sprayed the monkey.
The monkey screeched “Eek eek” angrily in the tree.
The knight howled even more vigorously without faltering.
As the chaos escalated, the peacemaker finally emerged. A blonde girl hurried out, "(English) Dad, what are you doing? Stop it!"
"(English) Damn it, she shot Bolly with her gun!" the uncle bellowed.
Jian Jing retorted, "(English) This d*mn monkey threw rocks at my dog!"
Knight: "Woof!"
"(English) Oh my god,” the girl covered her face. “Bolly, I knew it was you. Come down!"
The monkey swiftly scurried down and hid behind the uncle, making faces at her.
The girl was furious.
(1) Eating chicken is slang for winning in video games.
"It's just a misunderstanding," Kang Lei said with a smile as she came out to greet them. "Hello, long time no see, Professor Lao."
The big guy put his hands on his hips and said in fluent Chinese: "Madam, you should teach your daughter proper manners."
"She's not my daughter. I only have a son," Kang Lei said, trying not to laugh. She quickly introduced them.
In fact, this hotel was not purely a hotel, but rather a wildlife observation station built by the famous zoologist Professor Lao, the red-faced white man standing before them.
He was an American who had been married once years ago but got divorced not long after. He then went to South Asia to do research and ended up staying for many years. That's how he met his second wife.
She was a university professor. After marrying Professor Lao, she wrote a diary about protecting wildlife. The copyright owner who introduced the diary to China was CEO Kang.
That's how the two parties met and became friends.
Last year, a company took interest in Professor Lao's wife's diary and bought the rights to make it into a movie. The couple thus obtained a considerable amount of royalties. After discussing it, they decided to rebuild the observation station and hired designers to build five tent campsites into a hotel, so they could use tourism revenue to subsidize research expenses.
When CEO Kang heard about this, she decided to come for a visit, to enjoy the natural scenery while supporting her friend's business.
Currently there were three employees at the observation station: Professor Lao, his daughter and assistant Fei Na, and a forest ranger.
Oh yes, there was also the monkey Bolly that Professor Lao had rescued.
"Bolly is very naughty," Fei Na said in clumsy Chinese. "I believe he was bullying your dog, but my father is very biased towards that little guy..."
Jian Jing suffered no loss, so she generously said, "It was just a misunderstanding, don't worry about it."
But Fei Na still felt very guilty. She invited Jian Jing into the observation station and found some beef bones as compensation. She also served coffee and cookies to Jian Jing, "You shot very accurately. Bolly is so sly I can't even catch him."
"Well, he's a monkey after all," Jian Jing said, nibbling on a cookie. Curiously she asked, "Are there really crocodiles here?"
"You want to catch crocodiles?" Fei Na asked.
Jian Jing was startled: "We can't catch them, can we?"
"Oh, that's not what I meant," she blinked. "I often catch those little guys to put tracking devices on them. If you're interested, I can take you along next time."
Jian Jing immediately said, "Please take me along."
Fei Na gave a thumbs up: "I can let you hug one and take pictures."
Jian Jing: =口=
"Is that not against the law?"
"Killing wild animals is against the law," she said. "You need to be careful not to hurt them."
Jian Jing swore: "I'll be very careful."
Kang Mu Cheng, standing on the side: "..."
Two girls not even 25, talking about not hurting crocodiles? Seriously?
Author's note: Jian Jing is on vacation, and so am I
Amitabha, unexpectedly (I) also went to Jian Jing's place (?), May everything go smoothly for me