Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian listened to the grandmother. She said that the Pomeranian was not bought by her, but that she had picked it up. Zian immediately reacted that the Pomeranian must have been raised in the Love Lovely Pets Breeding Base. It must have escaped with the other cats and dogs while Old Time Tea and Famous were causing a scene there, but because of its age and short legs, it soon got separated from the pack.
Old Time Tea and Famous also heard the grandmother’s story. Old Time Tea turned off the television, Famous opened its eyes, and they both listened with interest.
Zhang Zian saw that the old grandmother’s mouth was dry from talking, so he got Wang Qian to pour her a cup of warm water in a disposable paper cup.
After the grandmother expressed her gratitude, she carefully took the paper cup and drank the water, then with the back of her hand, she wiped off the water flowing out from the corner of her mouth before she continued talking.
The white puppy was very pitiful. If it continued to stay in the snow, it was going to freeze to death before midnight.
She had wanted to take it home, but she was also afraid that it was be a dog that someone else had lost. What if the owner was looking for it and was unable to find the dog? How sad would that be?
So, she put down the sack filled with empty bottles, picked the dog up, and cradled it in her arms. She used her body to shield it from the wind as she stood there to wait for its owner to come and find it.
From picking up a full sack of empty bottles early in the morning, she could’ve gone home early. For the puppy, however, she stood in the same spot for an hour, stomping her feet and moving her body to prevent herself from being frozen.
In order to get past the loneliness, she also hummed her favorite song from the Kun Opera she used to listen to.
Although the road was remote, occasionally, one or two people would still pass by, No one seemed to be looking for anything, however, and all of them just hurried off with their heads down.
Although the grandmother was old, she was not slow, and she was not foolish to the point where she would ask everyone she met if they had lost the dog. Instead, she paid attention and observed their facial expressions and movements. If it was the owner of the lost dog, she would definitely be able to tell.
Being in her arms, the puppy was able to feel a little warmer. It then began to whimper from hunger.
After waiting for an hour, there were fewer and fewer pedestrians passing by. After a long time, there were none.
The old grandmother decided not to wait any longer, since just waiting alone wasn’t going to solve anything.
“Little one, you’re hungry, right? Why don’t you follow grandma back home.”
Because the puppy was very small, she temporarily placed it in her own pocket, carried the sack with the empty bottles again, and slowly walked home with her cane.
After arriving at home, she brewed some milk powder for it, which it happily drank.
After that, she made a small simple nest for it. She placed extra rags in the nest to make it warmer, then let it sleep.
Because she was afraid that the person who lost the dog would be worried, the next morning, she wrote on a piece of paper, braved the cold, and walked to the place where she had picked up the dog the night before. She then stuck the paper on the wall, asking for the dog owner to call her.
However, a few days passed, then a few months passed in the blink of an eye. Several times, the paper strip on the wall was blown away by the wind, and several times, it was removed by the groundskeeping workers. Every time it was removed, she would put it back up, but the dog owner never contacted her.
Zhang Zian knew the reason was because the dog had no owner at all, but she didn’t know and had been waiting.
During that period, the puppy grew up slowly day by day, and the relationship between them got better. The puppy always reluctantly watched her leave the house in the morning and then happily welcomed her back at night.
She was also very happy to have found company, but occasionally, she would be troubled. Subconsciously, she felt that the dog wasn’t hers and someday, the dog’s owner would find it and take it away.
Because she was busy all day trying to make a living, she rarely had time to take it out. One day, when she had nothing much to do, she took the puppy out for a walk and she met a nearby neighbor.
Her neighbor was very surprised and asked her when she bought the dog.
She answered truthfully and told her neighbor that she had actually found the dog, not bought it, and that she was still waiting for the dog’s owner to look for her.
Her neighbor scolded her for being so foolish. Her neighbor said that since she was the the one who found it, she shouldn’t return it. Would she return the empty bottle that she picked up?
But the old grandmother just shook her head and explained that the empty bottles are things that people no longer want. How could anyone not want such a cute dog?
When the neighbor saw that she couldn’t be convinced to think otherwise, the neighbor changed their approach and offered to buy the dog from her for a few hundred dollars. The neighbor also mentioned that the dog was a mixed-breed, so it was only worth a few hundred dollars. Selling the dog off would be the equivalent of how many days of picking up empty bottles?
No matter what her neighbor said, she stubbornly refused. First of all, it was because she felt that the dog did not belong to her, and second, even if the dog was hers, she would never want to sell it.
But there was also one more thing that she was troubled with: the puppy seemed to be growing too slow––it didn’t like to eat. She had watched other people’s dogs grow up, but the dog remained like a bean sprout.
In addition, the dog was always lethargic, and there were only a few periods of time in a day that it would be energetic. Other times, it would just lay on its side.
She had tried to change things around and feed it something that she herself couldn’t bear to eat, but it still had no appetite.
How could it grow if it didn’t eat?
Recently, its situation had become more and more serious. Not only did it stop growing, but it would also fall unconscious without warning at times. Initially, she had thought that it was asleep, but the dog just wouldn’t wake up when called. It was only after more than ten minutes later that it would slowly wake up.
She was very worried that it might have fallen sick.
Her neighbor then suggested again to buy the dog from her for a few hundred dollars, saying that she had no money to treat the dog, anyway. Her neighbor said that it would be better to sell the dog to him, or the dog would only die in her hands.
Previously, when the neighbor said that, she didn’t feel concerned, but that time, it was different. She also felt that if she continued to leave the dog with her, it might really die.
She knew that there’s a pet hospital that specialized in treating cats and dogs, but their fees were very costly. The money she got every day by exchanging bottles was not sufficient to cover the costs.
One night, she was hugging the puppy at home watching the television. The television was small and the screen was blurry, so she could also only use it to watch the local channels. The TV series on the local channels were all old, just like her.
However, at that time, the local station was not broadcasting any television series but had the local news on instead. In the news, there was a spirited young man who was interviewed by reporters.
From the reporter’s words, she learned that the young man was running a pet shop in the local area, and it seemed to be very famous. The dog he trained has also won the award for best actor overseas, and he had also solved the poisoning incident caused by an aquatic creature.
Anyone who was not interested in such news would have already changed the channel, but her small television could only receive the local stations, and she couldn’t change it even if she wanted to.
Then, she was surprised to see that the young man had taken the big dog to a green field to perform a show with the reporter.
Others might not be able to recognize the green space, but she’s able to recognize it because the green space was just behind her house. In other words, the young man’s pet shop was just be a green field away from the old, broken house where she lived.
Out of trust in the news program, she decided to take a look at the pet shop that was on the television.
