Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The employees at the waste acquisition station were likely planning to kill and eat the dog, and it didn’t seem to be their first time doing this. Even the pot and seasoning were ready. They were merely waiting to slaughter it and remove its hair. Once done, they could start the stew.
They’ve eaten dog meat before and drooled thinking about how it tasted. They couldn’t wait to eat the fragrant dog meat served with a cold beer as soon as they could. That would’ve been heaven.
Although this unfortunate dog couldn’t understand what the people were saying, it seemed to have a hunch thanks to its biological instincts and the fact that it was tied up. Seeing these people staring at its body and constantly licking their lips made it shiver. From time to time, small whimpers emerged from the sides of its mouth, begging to be free.
It may have been a native dog from the nearby village, or it may have been a stray dog. It was likely driven by hunger to find food at a scrap purchase station but was unfortunately caught by these people.
They don’t care if it had an owner. They could bury its hair and bones after eating it, anyway. Who would find it? Was it possible for them to test it with their own fecal matter tomorrow?
In the shadow of the nearby corner, another dirt dog, Little White, was shaking with anger with an intense look in his eyes.
To these people, dogs were nothing more than free food. However, the dog was the same kind as Little White. He would’ve reacted similarly to how people would react to cannibalism.
Zhang Zian feared that Little White would jump in too soon. If he made a mistake, the situation might’ve been made worse for everyone. Instead, he quickly gestured for Little White to calm down. After all, the native dog was not dead.
Those people had a knife in their hands and a set of dog poles set aside. One end of the pole was an adjustable loop of steel wire sleeve. The dog’s neck was twisted with steel wires, so squeezing the loop would’ve quickly stopped the carotid blood flow. In this situation, the dog was unable to resist. Even if Little White was invincible, the dog’ss neck was still fragile.
Zhang Zian understood Little White’s desire to save his companion. If he saw another human being eating here, then he wouldn’t stand idly by either. However, he needed to think carefully and couldn’t jump in himself.
Little White was extremely anxious because the person might kill the dog at any time. He had already drawn the knife onto the dog’s neck and was instructing the others to boil water using the pot.
Zhang Zian tried to calm down Little White and gestured for him to run a little farther and bark loudly to distract these people. That way, he would be able to rescue the dog.
Little White didn’t have a better idea and knew that if he bit the leash with his teeth, it would’ve taken a long time to bite through or untie the rope.
He quickly ran into the shadow of the other direction. A dog’s bark soon came from where he went, spreading far and wide in the night.
“Huh? Another dog?”
“Now today is twice as… no, three times as happy!”
“This dog isn’t good enough for our gluttonous brothers. This is great!”
“Oh, I hope this dog is fat!”
Rather than being surprised, the few people were pleased when they heard the barking of dogs. They felt that today was their lucky day.
“Go get the dog!”
Without much hesitation, they grabbed the set of dog poles and ran in that direction, for fear that the dogs would run away if they didn’t act quickly.
As for the dog that was tied up, it couldn’t untie the rope by itself. It was already like a dead fish on the chopping board. Those people thought it would be okay to leave it there. As for the new dog that appeared, it might’ve been harder to block and capture it if fewer people went.
Zhang Zian waited for them to run into the darkness, took out the Swiss army knife in his pocket, and ran quickly over to the native dog.
Seeing the light from the fire reflecting off the Swiss Army Knife, the dog struggled in shock, thinking that he was going to kill it and eat it.
“Shh!”
He put his forefinger to his lips and shushed while gesturing to it, but he didn’t know if it understood him. However, it did struggle less fiercely, either because it sensed the presence of Little White and the other dogs or instinctively sensed Zhang Zian’s kindness.
To prevent it from calling back those people too soon, Zhang Zian cut the rope of its limbs separately but did not cut the rope tied around its mouth with a serrated knife to mislead them. If he used an ordinary knife, the cut was obvious at first glance. However, a cut from a serrated knife was uneven; it would look as if another dog bit through the rope.
The broken rope came off, freeing the native dog.
Since its mouth was still tied, Zhang Zian grabbed that rope and dragged it into the darkness. Then, they ran to where he parked, took it to the car, and quietly started the car. Using the MPV’s excellent off-road ability, they drove directly into the field.
When the firelight on the open space of the waste acquisition station was almost out of their sight, he stopped and turned off all the lights, quietly waiting for Little White to find their smell.
After nearly half an hour, when he began to worry about Little White’s safety, a gray shadow suddenly stood up and slammed itself to the window and scared him. He thought something was haunting the wilderness.
Upon taking a closer look, it was just Little White.
“Are you okay? What took you so long?” Zhang Zian opened the door.
“I’m fine. I was worried you didn’t have enough time to run away, so I tried to get them farther away and left some footprints around the open space.” Little White shook his head and saw the dirt dog with its mouth still tied up. “What’s wrong with it? Is it OK? You can untie the rope now, you know. ”
“It’s all right.” Zhang Zian cut the rope.
Upon seeing Little White, the scabby dog sniffed beside it but did not bark.
The dogs didn’t need to bark at each other because plenty of information could be exchanged simply by smell.
“It seems that it’ll be hard for me to successfully negotiate with them. We can only do so while exchanging the bottles in person.” Zhang Zian said to himself with some uncertainty.
His previous method of dealing with them was also more of a last resort. He was worried that if he asked the wrong amount, those people would recklessly ask him to count it again. Then, how much time would it have taken to settle the bottles? How much time would he have to spend on this? There was still so much to do back home.
Proceeding with this line of questioning would’ve been too draining for him. Thus, he preferred to shut his mouth and stop asking. However, doing so further emboldened them into becoming even more reckless trying to take from him.
Little White and the native dog exchanged information through whispers that Zhang Zian couldn’t understand, sometimes staring out into the darkness.
Shortly afterward, they seemed to have finished communicating, Little White said, “Don’t go back yet. Please take us to any other dogs. I can’t accept this; I must teach those people a lesson!”
