Feeling a headache coming on, Pei Shi watched as Bai Tao, feigning bravado, waved the fork twice. Then, something furry jumped onto the table, revealing itself to be a puppy.

“Help!”

Seeing the dog, Bai Tao was indeed scared out of her wits. Before Pei Shi could say anything, she jumped off the table and crawled into the gift box, quickly closing the lid to hide inside.

Pei Shi stood there, bewildered.

The puppy, a Labrador, tried to scratch the box open, but failing that, it soon lay down and started chewing on the tablecloth. Pei Shi, regaining his composure, bent down, and the lively puppy immediately looked at him, tongue out. After cautiously observing him and seeing Pei Shi smile and extend his hand, it leaped into his arms.

How did this dog get in here?

Puzzled, Pei Shi soon found the answer—the large gift box with “To my beloved husband” written in bold letters. The ribbon was undone, and Bai Tao was hiding inside.

Knowing Bai Tao’s fear of dogs, Pei Shi was shocked.

Despite the improbability, he approached the box and called out Bai Tao’s name.

Almost immediately, Bai Tao’s tearful voice, tinged with a nasal tone and filled with grievance, replied from inside, “You’re finally back.” She complained in a dependent tone, “Why did you take so long? I was scared to death!”

Pei Shi couldn’t help but laugh. “Why are you hiding in the box? Won’t you come out?”

Reassured by Pei Shi’s presence, Bai Tao’s voice grew louder and more justified, “Because there’s a dog!”

“But wasn’t the dog the gift you put in the box to give me?”

“Yes!”

Pei Shi was baffled by her logic. “You’re afraid of dogs, yet you gave me one?”

“But you like dogs.”

Pei Shi hesitated. “But you’re scared of them. Even if you give it to me, I can’t keep it.”

“Yes, you can.” Bai Tao’s voice, slightly muffled by the box, was still clear. She explained as if convincing herself, “I’ve undergone psychological counseling and interventions. I’m not that afraid of dogs anymore. With a few more sessions, I won’t be scared of them at all.”

“And this dog is small. I can handle it.”

“It doesn’t bark much, so it’s not too annoying.”
……

Inside the box, Bai Tao was still rambling. Pei Shi squatted outside the box, feeling a mix of complex emotions he couldn’t quite describe.

“So you went through psychological intervention just to give me a dog?”
“Yes,” Bai Tao responded naturally, as if it wasn’t a big deal. She fluently recited some marriage advice like she was quoting a self-help book. “I read that marriage is about mutual effort. You love dogs so much and always accommodate me, so for your birthday, I wanted to give you something you like. You’ve seen the dog, right? Do you like it?”
Pei Shi stroked the puppy’s head and, after pursing his lips, finally said, “I like it.”
Bai Tao seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s good, that’s good.”
“Can you come out of the box now?”
When this topic came up, Bai Tao’s voice grew tense again. “Is the dog still there? Where is it?”
“The dog is in my arms. I’m holding it.”
As if to underscore the point, the puppy barked a few times from Pei Shi’s arms.
“I… I’m still a bit nervous. Even though I’ve had a lot of psychological intervention, I might not be completely ready.” Hearing the dog bark, Bai Tao’s voice took on a pitiful, tearful tone again. “Maybe I’ll stay hidden for a while longer!”
“I don’t mind not keeping the dog. We can send it back.”
Pei Shi indeed loved dogs and had always wanted to have one, but at this moment, he suddenly felt that not being able to keep one wasn’t such a big deal.
However, Bai Tao strongly opposed this decision. “No! The dog can’t be sent away!”
“This dog was abused and abandoned before. It had been wandering for a long time and was severely injured when a kind person found it and brought it to the pet hospital. It has suffered a lot. I’ve decided to take care of it, so we can’t send it away. We need to be responsible!” Bai Tao rambled on, “The dog has had a hard life, and it’s not easy for it to find a rich ‘mom’ like me. We’ll keep it. I can overcome my fear. After all, you never know if you can do something unless you try, right? But you have to take care of walking it, cleaning up after it, and feeding it…”
In the end, Bai Tao was both scared of the dog and unwilling to send it away.
She encouraged herself, “Once we go back to the villa, it will be fine. You can keep the dog on the first floor, and I can stay on the third floor. We’ll both get used to it and eventually achieve peaceful coexistence.”
Pei Shi sighed. “If you don’t come out of the box, how are we going to get home?”
“I designed this box! It has wheels on the bottom. You can just push me home like this!” Bai Tao’s voice sounded proud as if she had come up with a brilliant solution. “This box is really good, very sturdy, safe, and spacious! I designed it with ventilation holes! It’s harmless!”
In the end, Bai Tao refused to come out of the box, and Pei Shi had no choice but to push the large gift box home with the puppy in his arms.
Fortunately, the restaurant wasn’t far from their villa, but the real trouble came at the villa’s security gate.
Recently, a new batch of security guards had been stationed in the villa area, and the new guard didn’t recognize Pei Shi. To ensure the residents’ safety, the guard dutifully asked for his address and was about to let him through when he noticed the unusually large gift box Pei Shi was pushing and became curious.
“I saw something move inside just now… What’s in there?”
Without thinking much, Pei Shi replied, “My wife.” Understanding the guard’s diligence, he offered, “Do you need me to open it and show you?”
Hearing this, the young security guard blushed and stammered, “N-no, no need…” The guard looked at Pei Shi a few more times, his eyes wide with shock as if his worldview had just been shattered.

Pei Shi didn’t pay much attention, pushing the box forward. After a few steps, he heard the guard muttering behind him—
“So, they can move now… Such a handsome and wealthy man still needs to buy an inflatable wife…”
“…”
At first, Pei Shi didn’t understand. After a few more steps, he finally realized the misunderstanding.
This was a matter of reputation and could not be ignored. He immediately crouched down and gently tapped on the gift box. “Bai Tao.”
If Bai Tao just peeked out or said something, his reputation would be preserved. However, she didn’t respond. Pei Shi called her name again a couple of times, but she still didn’t answer. He tentatively opened the lid of the box and found her curled up inside, fast asleep.
He could have woken her up to clarify, but seeing her sleeping so soundly, Pei Shi sighed, looked at her complicatedly for a moment, and resigned himself to not going back to the guard.
When they reached home, he petted the puppy, put it on the ground, and then bent down to lift Bai Tao out of the box.
Despite her intense fear of dogs, she had bought one for him and then hid in the box, with a remarkably big heart. Pei Shi looked at Bai Tao, who was now asleep in his arms like a child, her face flushed from the box’s enclosed environment.
Pei Shi couldn’t help but gently touch her face. The warmth of her skin was exactly as he imagined. Even though he was the one who initiated the touch, he pulled his hand back as if suddenly waking up.
Because of his movement, Bai Tao groggily woke up.
“Where’s the gift…” She rubbed her eyes, looking around warily. “Is the dog gone?”
“It’s downstairs.”
Hearing this, Bai Tao finally relaxed. She looked at Pei Shi with still sleepy eyes, “I’m sorry…”
“I didn’t know the dog would get out of the box early…”
Bai Tao complained about the dog jumping out of the box, ruining Pei Shi’s surprise of opening the gift. She was quite upset.
Pei Shi had celebrated many birthdays, most of them conventional, but the two most unique ones were thanks to Bai Tao—five years ago when she stormed into his villa with a loudspeaker and got chased around by dogs, and five years later when she was scared into hiding in a box by a dog, falling asleep without even saying “Happy Birthday.”
Bai Tao glanced at Pei Shi, feeling a bit down, “I had it all planned out. You were supposed to open the box and see your birthday gift. I read that opening birthday gifts brings double the joy! But the dog ran out! You didn’t get to open your gift!”
“I did open it.”
“Huh?”
“I did open the gift.”
He actually did open a gift, but the one in the box was Bai Tao, not the dog.
Bai Tao rolled her eyes, probably thinking Pei Shi was comforting her. She didn’t press the matter and simply asked, “So, do you like your gift?”
“Yes, I like it.”
“What do you think?”
Pei Shi thought for a moment, “It’s quite special.”
Bai Tao was pleased, “I overcame my fear of dogs and gave you such a great gift. Do you love me even more now?”
Pei Shi couldn’t help but laugh, “Yes.”
Though Bai Tao wasn’t fully awake, she was undeniably adorable.
But in the next second, Pei Shi wanted to take back his words because Bai Tao pouted and provocatively asked—
“If the dog and I both fell into the water, who would you save?”
“…”
Pei Shi felt he should retract his comment about Bai Tao being cute; her true nature was quite troublesome…
He could have ignored this foolish question, but inexplicably, Pei Shi answered, “I’d save you.”
He paused, then, under Bai Tao’s intense gaze, coughed and awkwardly added, “The dog can swim.”
Pei Shi didn’t realize that while answering this question, he didn’t remember that Bai Tao could swim too.