The morning sky was clear and the sun shined bright.
Maria got out of bed right after waking up and started prepping for the morning rush. As a cafe, the morning really was her busiest time, but she didn't mind since she had already gotten used to it.
It took an hour to finish her prep work and as soon as she did, the customers started flying in.
The regulars came as usual and they all acted the same.
Seul Ah came in and gossiped with Maria.
Alexei silently came in and ordered the same thing as he always did.
Alexander came in as loudly as he could and asked her to marry her before heading off with his order.
One by one, Maria took care of all these customers until they were all gone.
It was now the middle of the morning and there was a brief lull before the cafe opened up for lunch.
Normally Maria would use this time to prepare for the lunch rush, but since she had finished the preparations early, she decided to take a walk outside.
"Xiao Bai, let's go for a walk." Maria called out to a corner of the restaurant.
In that corner, there was a little basket that had a cute white dog sleeping in it.
When the cute white dog heard Maria calling it, it suddenly looked up and gave a cheerful bark before running up in front of Maria.
Maria happily petted Xiao Bai on the head before bringing out one of her homemade pieces of jerky for Xiao Bai.
When Xiao Bai smelled this jerky, it immediately started licking Maria's face before using its teeth to take the jerky. However, it didn't start chewing on the jerky as soon as it got it, but rather it started slowly gnawing on it as if it couldn't bear eating the jerky in one bite.
Seeing this, Maria watched Xiao Bai for a bit with a smile on her face before picking up the leash on the side and attaching it to Xiao Bai's collar.
With this leash attached, Xiao Bai carefully put away the jerky in the basket that it slept in before excitedly walking out of the store with Maria.
With the way that Xiao Bai was pulling Maria along, it was hard to tell who was walking who. But Maria happily followed behind Xiao Bai holding the leash.
The two of them walked through the streets of the city, passing by many people that recognized them and greeted them as they went. They continued along until they reached a nearby park that Xiao Bai liked to play in.
When they arrived, Xiao Bai was once again filled with excitement as it started running around the park, dragging Maria all over.
There were a few people in the park as well that were also walking their dogs, but for some reason, the dogs all cowered when Xiao Bai came near. It was almost as if they were afraid of Xiao Bai.
The dog owners were all confused, but they couldn't figure out that it was because of Xiao Bai that this was happening. After all, in their eyes, Xiao Bai was nothing more than a cute little dog.
They never would have thought that it would be the cause of this.
So Xiao Bai and Maria continued on their walk until they came to the side of a manmade river.
This river bank was quite clean and refreshing because it had been designed that way.
This river was specially made for the park and this river bank was designed as a place for people to come and relax.
After arriving at the river bank, Maria and Xiao Bai laid down on the grass and just enjoyed the breeze that flowed across the river.
There was no one around them, so it felt like this scenery had been made just for the two of them.
But this didn't last long…
There were three people who clearly looked like thugs that came up to the river as well.
When they saw Maria lying there with Xiao Bai, they couldn't help revealing lewd smiles.
It had been a long time since they had seen such a juicy target, not to mention that it was a beautiful girl. There was no way that they would let such a prime target go.
So the three thugs made their way down the hill until they were right behind Maria before saying, "Oh, look what we have here."
Maria, who was lying there with her eyes closed enjoying the breeze, suddenly opened her eyes.
When she saw the three thugs standing not far away, she immediately stood up and faced them.
At the same time, Xiao Bai, who also saw the three thugs, jumped up in front of Maria and barked at them, as if it was trying to scare them away.
But the three thugs just revealed disdainful smiles as they said, "Little miss, what are you doing here?" They completely ignored Xiao Bai's barking and even glared at Xiao Bai, which scared it into running behind Maria.
Maria reached down to pat Xiao Bai on the head before turning back to the three thugs and saying, "I was just passing by and enjoying the breeze, I wasn't doing anything."
The three thugs looked at each other with sly smiles before turning back to Maria. But before they could say a thing, there was a pressure that was like a mountain that fell down on them.
The three thugs started to panic as it took all that they had just to stand up straight.
They couldn't help looking around with great difficulty, but no matter how they looked around, they still couldn't find where the source of this pressure was.
During this time, Maria couldn't help looking at them with a strange look as they suddenly fell silent.
But behind Maria, Xiao Bai's expression was completely different. While Maria's attention was completely taken by the thugs in front of her, Xiao Bai's expression had turned completely cold.
In a voice that only the thugs could hear, Xiao Bai said, "If you don't get out of here, I'll kill you all."
The thugs suddenly trembled when they heard this voice.
They didn't know where this voice came from, but it was almost as if this voice was speaking right into their mind.
They looked around a bit before their eyes finally fell onto Xiao Bai.
The moment that their eyes fell onto Xiao Bai, they knew that this voice came from it.
But how could this dog talk?
Still, that wasn't the most important thing right now since they could see the killing intent in Xiao Bai's eyes. They knew that it was serious, if they didn't get out of here, it really would kill them.
The thugs immediately stood up straight, preparing to turn and run, but the voice spoke again in their minds, "Wait, make up an excuse before you leave. If you do anything to ruin big sis' carefree life, I'll hunt you all down and kill you all. You will suffer in ways that will make you wish that you were dead."
They once again trembled before stopping in place.
The thug that was the leader said, "Young miss, we were hoping to get directions to the nearest station."
Maria couldn't help revealing a surprised and confused look, but she still said, "If you just go to the entrance of the park and head a bit south, you'll find the station."
The thugs quickly nodded in response to this and thanked Maria profusely before running away.
Maria was completely confused when she saw this, but at the very least, this meant that she was safe. She couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief before her legs gave out under her and she fell to the ground on her butt.
Xiao Bai beside her nuzzled its nose up against her and seeing this, she revealed a smile and patted Xiao Bai on the head.
It took her a few minutes before the strength came back to her legs, but she no longer stayed by the river after she could stand up. She quickly went back to the shop since it was already getting late and she needed to get back for the lunch rush.
Xiao Bai didn't seem to mind at all and raced back to the store with her.
After arriving at the store, Maria patted Xiao Bai again before taking off the collar and then heading into the kitchen.
Xiao Bai just stood there watching her. After making sure that Maria was in the kitchen and wasn't able to see it, it walked over to the bird cage that was by the window and jumped up to the windowsill so it was right beside it.
Xiao Bai laid there as if it was bathing in the sun, but in their minds, there was a private conversation being held.
"Oi, you little chick, we need to talk."
The bird inside of the cage acted as if it didn't notice, but in Xiao Bai's mind, there was a female voice that sounded like ethereal bells that rang out, "Mongrel, what have I told you about calling me that?"
Xiao Bai gave a disdainful snort and was about to say something snarky in return, but then it remembered something and held back. Instead, it said, "There's no time for this, we have to talk about something important."
The bird was surprised to hear Xiao Bai talking with this serious tone, so it asked, "What happened?"
Xiao Bai gave another snort before saying, "There were a bunch of thugs that threatened big sis on our walk today."
The bird suddenly flared up as if it had been attacked, but it then quickly calmed down after remembering where it was. It pretended to preen its feathers as it said, "Thugs really dared to threaten big sis in this place? Do they not fear death?"
Xiao Bai just said, "How would I know? I never saw these thugs before, so they were most likely new ones that came to this city not long ago."
The bird was silent for a bit before saying, "Then do you think it's time for us to clean this place again?"
Xiao Bai was also silent for a bit before giving a nod and saying, "Un, it seems that we've been neglecting it for a while, so we need to be serious for a bit. Otherwise, who knows what will happen next time if we're not there with big sis."
The bird gave a sigh before saying, "It's such a pain talking to Guang Liang though."
Xiao Bai also revealed an annoyed look before saying, "He is a pain in the butt, but we need his help. He can do things that we can't since he's human."
The bird didn't say anything in response, it just gave a nod to agree with Xiao Bai.
As it nodded, the bright red feather on its head shook with its nodding.