Superstars of Tomorrow

"... Alright, close your mouth."

Fang Zhao rubbed his face and then asked, "How did you manage to eat him?"

A fully grown human had vanished without a trace. It didn’t seem possible based on Curly Hair’s size!

Curly Hair tilted his head and wore a puzzled expression. This time, he really was puzzled. It wasn’t an act.

From Curly Hair’s expression, he probably only knew that he had eaten the perpetrator. After all, the order he had received was to not let the perpetrator off of Whale Island. Consuming him was one such method. Curly Hair still thought that he had rendered considerable service and ran back over to Fang Zhao to take credit! As for how he had eaten up that person? Curly Hair had no idea and recollection of how he had done it.

Fang Zhao sucked in another deep breath once more.

What exactly am I raising?!

The reaction from Fang Zhao caused Curly Hair’s proudly enthusiastic spirits to wilt. He crouched down and watched Fang Zhao carefully, feeling a little uneasy.

Fang Zhao continued to watch this dog in silence through the safety glass.

This dog couldn’t differentiate things clearly. Or, it should be said that the way he viewed things differed from humans. In his eyes, strangers were no different from the ground rats at farms. This dog had many unknown abilities. He was very smart and was still maturing. His intellect was increasing by the day, and he even knew how to pretend to avoid suspicion this time.

From the details Zhao Chao had given, Fang Zhao could roughly guess how things had unfolded. Curly Hair had heard the conversation between the two captains and had thought that Fang Zhao’s life was in danger. He had wanted to rush back but was stopped by Zhao Chao. Therefore, Curly Hair had forcibly snatched away the leash and had chased after the perpetrator on his own in a bid to complete the mission and return back.

When Fang Zhao had joined the inspection team, he had brought Curly Hair along with him to attend some training classes. The instructor had told Fang Zhao that on Whale Island, the moment any situation involving extremists were discovered, island inspection team, island guards, and other authorities could immediately kill them dead. Personnel equipped with guns would have the authority to handle urgent matters as they saw fit!

Not cooperating with security checks at the island’s entry points alone could already warrant shooting, much less an incident involving pathogens and a terrorist organization. There would always be some trouble during every Whale Island Conference. Many people who came to participate in the conference didn’t know about the billows surging beneath the picture of calm and tranquility. The price of peace and stability didn’t come cheap.

Although most wouldn’t begrudge the deaths of those extremists, this was a totally different thing. Eating a human was no small matter!

It no longer was the Period of Destruction. The New Era had its own set of rules.

Fang Zhao was now clearly aware of one point: This dog Curly Hair was capable of doing anything when he got excited!

It wasn’t too convenient for Fang Zhao to say or ask too much while still in quarantine. Zhao Chao also wouldn’t give him too much time to speak with Curly Hair.

Fang Zhao knocked on the safety glass and spoke to Curly Hair in a serious tone. "From now on, you aren’t allowed to eat anything other than dog food and water! Until my quarantine ends!"

Fang Zhao talked to Curly Hair for a little more before Zhao Chao came back over.

"Have you spoken to him?" Zhao Chao asked. "The veterinarian was sending reminders. He says that we mustn’t neglect even the slightest details that could threaten the life of an inspection dog.

Fang Zhao quashed all sorts of misgivings he had deep down and said, "Captain, can you get the vet to come over here and do the checkup?"

Curly Hair was too special. Fang Zhao had to watch him to prevent any unforeseen circumstances. Fang Zhao was also worried that the checkup would discover some hard to explain results. It would be better if he was present.

Before getting a reply from Zhao Chao, Fang Zhao asked another question. "Will his blood be drawn too?"

"Yes." Zhao Chao nodded.

Fang Zhao said, "He is afraid of needles."

Curly Hair gazed at Fang Zhao with those innocent eyes of his.

Fang Zhao’s expression didn’t change.

Zhao Chao chuckled. "No wonder you are always beside him whenever blood needs to be drawn. I understand. Many dogs are like that. They require that their owners be at their side to cooperate. Otherwise, they will throw a fuss."

Ignoring Curly Hair’s whimpers, Fang Zhao shot Zhao Chao an apologetic look. "Sorry for the trouble."

The vet had already been waiting and brought his equipment over the moment he received Zhao Chao’s notification. He performed the checkup on Curly Hair in front of Fang Zhao. The drawing of blood also went very smoothly. With Fang Zhao watching, there wasn’t an instance where the needle bent when pricking Curly Hair.

Fang Zhao kept his eye on the vet’s actions and waited for the results of this checkup.

"There aren’t any major problems, except that he has high levels of certain rare metals," the vet said. "He might have possibly eaten stuff that are high in such metals."

These excessive indications were in accordance with the results of Curly Hair’s previous medical examination. There were records of Curly Hair’s checkups since he had entered the inspection team.

Zhao Chao was fuming when he received this conclusion. "I just knew that someone surely tried to drug him!"

"Fortunately, it isn’t too serious. I will prescribe some medicine. Let him have some with his dog food."

After the vet left, Zhao Chao discussed with Fang Zhao about the issue with Curly Hair’s arrangement.

Now that Fang Zhao was in quarantine, Curly Hair couldn’t stay here all the time. Thus, Fang Zhao allowed Zhao Chao to bring Curly Hair out for patrols when there were assignments and let Curly Hair return here when the assignments were completed.

During the long quarantine, Fang Zhao wouldn’t be locked inside this cramped and small quarantine room for the entire time. A special quarantine apartment building was being prepared for him and the rest of those under quarantine for the next month.

They weren’t criminals and had even rendered meritorious service, so they would definitely be treated slightly better. The quarantine apartment building also had a visitor room which Curly Hair could stay at when he wasn’t on assignments or missions.

Zhao Chao was very busy every day and didn’t have time to keep an eye on Curly Hair outside of missions. However, he could bring Curly Hair to the visitor room after missions as it didn’t take up too much time.

After discussing this arrangement, Zhao Chao brought Curly Hair out. He had just received a notification that there were two warehouses that needed an inspection, so he could only take Curly Hair to work overtime. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much to inspect this time, and it wouldn’t take too long.

Before bringing Curly Hair to the warehouses, Zhao Chao was worried that Curly Hair would be hungry, so he tried to feed him something first.

Fang Zhao had said before that Curly Hair got hungry easily. Zhao Chao knew that some dogs were this way. Also, Curly Hair had rendered quite a huge service this time around, so Zhao Chao had specially gone to the dining hall to request for a huge pig knuckle. He brought it over when it was ready.

Normally, the dog food that the team’s dogs consumed were mixed with minced meat and fresh vegetables. There were both dry and wet rations. However, besides dog food, the were also given some rewards for good performance. For example, if Thornhead performed well at a certain inspection checkpoint, someone would send over a huge pork knuckle. Thornhead loved pork knuckles.

The other dogs in the team also ate pork knuckles, so Zhao Chao thought that Curly Hair would probably enjoy it too.

However, when Zhao Chao brought the pork knuckle over, Curly Hair only squatted beside the bowl and looked at it. Zhao Chao gave it to Curly Hair, but Curly Hair only stared at it and made groaning sounds. He didn’t eat it.

At first, Zhao Chao thought that Curly Hair wouldn’t eat anything that was given to him by anyone other than his owner. However, when Zhao Chao switched to dog food, Curly Hair ate it all up.

Zhao Chao felt that he had found the reason. When he was chatting with other team members, he mentioned, "I heard before that some pet dogs only eat dog food. I never imagined it to be true until I gave Curly Hair a huge pork knuckle and he wouldn’t eat it."

"That shouldn’t be. A few days back I saw Fang Zhao giving him some biscuits," An inspection team member said.

"Those are minor occasions. Besides, if the owner is the one feeding the dog, the dog might still eat a little even if the dog doesn’t like it. Have you seen Curly Hair eat a lot of biscuits?" Zhao Chao asked.

"Not a lot. But, isn’t there also pork knuckle inside our team’s dog food? Doesn’t Curly Hair eat pork knuckles when he consumes the dog food? Does he really not touch it?" Another team member voiced his doubts.

"Perhaps it’s because Curly Hair is a small-sized dog. Perhaps he can’t gnaw on it with his small mouth, so he doesn’t know how to eat it! The small pet dog at my aunt’s place is like this. It doesn’t have the patience to bite on food that is too big. At most, the dog only tries a few nibbles for fun. The food still has to be cut up into smaller pieces before the dog eats. Pet dogs are all rather pampered," The inspection team member continued.

From their point of view, Curly Hair was brought up as a pet dog most of the time. Although he had some experience herding sheep in Muzhou, that had only been temporary. He had been a pet dog for much longer. Curly Hair’s inspection dog status was also only temporary. When the Whale Island Conference concluded and the missions were completed, he would return to being a pet dog. Therefore, everyone’s expectations of him weren’t that strict.

Zhao Chao felt that it made sense. Pet dogs were willful. Curly Hair would also dawdle when doing an inspection unlike how military and police dogs complied with orders. He was also afraid of needles and was a little timid.

However, as long as he had the ability and could complete missions, being a little willful didn’t matter. Zhao Chao then placed the cut up pork knuckle into Curly Hair’s bowl, but Curly Hair still didn’t touch it.

Afterwards, Zhao Chao broke the pork knuckle down into even smaller pieces and mixed it into the dog food. This time, Curly Hair ate it.

Thus, everyone in the inspection team knew this — Fang Zhao’s dog only loved dog food. That dog absolutely wouldn’t touch any other larger pieces of food!