Chapter 361 - 299: A Top-Tier Dog
Zhang Yuanmin held up a finger, gesturing as he said something to Zhao Jun. When he finished, however, he saw Zhao Jun just staring at him blankly without a word.
The smile on Zhang Yuanmin’s face froze. He turned his head to look at Yang Yufeng, who was standing beside him.
Zhang Yuanmin was sitting on the kang-bed while Yang Yufeng stood beside it, looking down at him with a dark, expressionless face.
Zhang Yuanmin’s heart skipped a beat. He snapped his head back around and saw Little Lingdang, who had been studying at the back of the kang, had also put down her textbook and was staring intently at him.
For a moment, three of the four people in the room were staring at Zhang Yuanmin, but none of them said a word.
"This... What’s going on?" Zhang Yuanmin felt a surge of panic.
Zhao Jun gave him a deep look, then stood up and turned to Yang Yufeng. "It’s already past six," he said. "You should get dinner started. I’ll be heading back."
"Brother, don’t..." Zhang Yuanmin reached out and was about to get up to stop Zhao Jun.
But Yang Yufeng was quicker. She smacked Zhang Yuanmin back down onto the bed with one hand. Then she said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, I won’t keep you then."
Usually, whenever Zhao Jun visited, Yang Yufeng would insist he stay for dinner. This was the first time she hadn’t even made a polite offer.
Zhao Jun nodded at Yang Yufeng, then waved to Little Lingdang. "I’m off, Lingdang."
"Goodbye, Uncle Zhao."
"Hey..." Zhang Yuanmin wanted to call out to Zhao Jun, but it was too late. Seeing Zhao Jun leave through the window, Zhang Yuanmin turned to Yang Yufeng in anger. "You wasteful woman! My brother came over, and you didn’t even ask him to stay for dinner?"
"Just you sit there," Yang Yufeng snapped before heading to the outer room to serve the cracked corn porridge.
Zhang Yuanmin’s cheeks puffed out in anger, but he didn’t dare confront Yang Yufeng directly. He just pointed toward the outer room and said to Little Lingdang, "Look at your mother..."
Before Zhang Yuanmin could finish, Little Lingdang pulled her schoolbag over, took out two comic books, and handed them to him.
Little Lingdang said, "Dad, I borrowed the books you wanted. You should stay home and read. This one tells you how Wei Yan died."
「...」
When Zhao Jun got home, he first washed his hands and helped Wang Meilan wrap dumplings. While she was boiling them, he went into the inner room to check on the dogs.
Da Huang and White Dragon were a given. Their wounds had needed over thirty stitches each, and after only half a month, they weren’t going to heal that quickly.
Little Bear, on the other hand, whose rear had been nicked by a wild boar, was almost fully recovered. Still, Zhao Jun wanted him to rest for a few more days.
’As for the two Black Bears Zhang Yuanmin mentioned,’ Zhao Jun thought, ’if I can hunt them, I will. If not, I won’t. I can’t just ignore my dogs for the sake of some Bear Galls, can I?’
"Son! The dumplings are ready! Set the table!" Just then, Wang Meilan’s voice called from the outer room.
Zhao Jun hurried out to get the bowls, chopsticks, soy sauce, and vinegar. After the dumplings were brought to the table, just as he was using his chopsticks to separate the steaming dumplings for his two younger sisters, Zhao Youcai came home.
"Why did you buy alcohol?" Wang Meilan’s voice came from the outer room, asking Zhao Youcai.
"Someone gave it to me," Zhao Youcai replied as he entered the inner room.
"Dad, you’re back," Zhao Jun greeted him. Ever since he had given his old man five yuan the other day, the relationship between father and son had become much more amicable.
"Mhm." Zhao Youcai placed a green bottle of Xifengjiu on the edge of the kang. He looked at Zhao Jun and asked, "When did you make a friend like that? He came to our cafeteria today, didn’t say much, just gave me two bottles of liquor."
"What?" Zhao Jun was taken aback. He casually tipped the eight dumplings he had separated into Zhao Hong’s bowl and asked Zhao Youcai, "What did he look like?"
Zhao Youcai blinked, thinking. "Not tall, pretty thin... with shaggy hair."
"Ah." The first part of the description was so-so, but as soon as he heard the words "shaggy hair," Zhao Jun immediately knew who it was.
Jie Zhong!
He was a very sensible person who knew exactly who he was indebted to.
So, Jie Zhong had bought two bottles of liquor at the Forest Farm’s small store. Moreover, he hadn’t gone to thank Lin Xiangshun. He went straight to the Number One Cafeteria, said he was looking for Master Zhao, and gave both bottles to Zhao Youcai. He even said he was a friend of Zhao Jun’s and had bought the liquor to show respect to his elders.
Even Zhao Youcai was pleased to hear that. And for his son’s friend to come and deliver liquor in front of so many colleagues and apprentices—what a huge honor!
Just then, Zhao Jun took one of the bottles and said to Zhao Youcai, "Dad, open one and have a drink."
"Hey, don’t..." Zhao Youcai tried to stop him, but Zhao Jun had already popped the cap open.
Zhao Jun placed the bottle on the low kang table and smiled at his father. "Don’t save it, Dad. Just drink it. I’ll go get you a cup."
"This kid..." Zhao Youcai smiled too. Just then, he saw Wang Meilan come in with a plate of dumplings. He wanted to show off, but his words came out a bit snarky, "Never thought I’d live to see the day my son is providing for me."
The family atmosphere had been quite harmonious the past couple of days. Zhao Youcai might have forgotten that when it came to being passive-aggressive, no one could hold a candle to Wang Meilan.
Wang Meilan shot Zhao Youcai a glance, set the plate down on the table, and chuckled. "You’ve already forgotten about the several hundred yuan you pocketed after selling the Bear Gall and tiger cub hide our son brought back?"
"I..." At the mention of this, Zhao Youcai’s confidence immediately deflated. He muttered under his breath, "It’s not like I spent it! Besides, it’s not like he gave it to me."
"Right!" Wang Meilan nodded, continuing her attack. "You pocketed all of that with your own ’special talent’."
Zhao Youcai: "..."
「...」
The next day, Zhao Jun woke up early and left the house with the toolbox Jie Zhong had borrowed from the motor pool. He planned to give it to Li Baoyu so Baoyu could take it with him when he went to work.
Zhao Jun hopped the wall into the Li Family Courtyard. The dog, Xiaohua, didn’t bark at him and even wagged her head.
Just as Zhao Jun was about to step forward and pet her, he heard a dog yelping from inside the house.
A painful yelp, at that.
Zhao Jun’s brow furrowed, and he hurried toward the house.
He could tell it was the sound a dog makes when it’s being beaten. And right now, there was only one dog at Li Baoyu’s house: Black Tiger.
Zhao Jun rushed toward the Li’s House not to save Black Tiger, nor to speak up for him or seek justice. He was going to clean up his mess.
In Li Baoyu’s words, that dog was a menace reincarnate. He was already limping on one leg, yet he still couldn’t behave.
A normal hunting dog wouldn’t be a nuisance no matter where it went. It would usually just find a spot to lie down and be quiet.
But Black Tiger hadn’t stopped causing trouble since arriving at Baoyu’s house. The moment the Li Family took their eyes off him, he would wreak havoc.
On the first day, Black Tiger pried open the door of the cupboard under the dish rack and licked up half a basin of lard.
What happens when a dog eats that much grease?
By the time Jin Xiaomei got home, the air inside her house was unbreathable.
The stench was overpowering!
When she looked in the inner room, she saw the dog had pooped black stool all over the floor. It was lying on the ground with a bloated belly, whining half-dead.
This terrified Jin Xiaomei, who rushed next door to get Wang Meilan.
Pinching their noses, the two of them worked together to hoist Black Tiger up, holding him head-down and rear-up. They then massaged his stomach, forcing him to vomit out all the lard.
After that, the dog was subdued and quiet for one night.
The next day, afraid he would steal the lard again, Jin Xiaomei deliberately wedged a stool against the cupboard door before she left.
This time, he couldn’t get the bottom door open. But who would have thought the dog would climb onto the stool, use the height to open the upper cabinet door, pull down the package wrapped in Butter Paper, and devour all the sponge cakes inside?
Eating the sponge cakes wasn’t as agonizing as drinking the lard. But what he didn’t know was that the Li Family hadn’t beaten him yesterday only because they saw how miserable he was and didn’t have the heart to do it.
As a result, he earned a smack from Jin Xiaomei that day.
How strong could Jin Xiaomei be? She had just used her hand, and the smack to the back of Black Tiger’s head couldn’t have hurt much at all.
But with that one smack, Black Tiger started howling at the top of his lungs, so loudly that Wang Meilan from the next yard over came to see what was going on.
It was only because Li Baoyu’s family had kept dogs for years and had a special affection for them. Otherwise, they would have stewed him long ago.