Chapter 14: Buying a Dog

The three of them prepared to hit the road. Wang An felt very thirsty; it would be a wonder if he weren't, after eating fifteen or sixteen steamed buns!

He pondered for a long time, feeling as if he had forgotten something. He looked around and only remembered when he saw the sack on the cart.

He had forgotten to drink the soda. Good grief, day after day! When Mu Xueqing reminded him to buy the buns earlier, he had felt like he was being incompetent. Now, how did he feel even more incompetent?!

Thinking of this, Wang An hurriedly opened the sack, untied the hemp rope binding the soda bottles, and took one out. In his previous life, before he went to prison, he had drunk plenty of this bottled soda, cola, and beer, and he was in the habit of popping the cap off with his teeth. It was already at his lips when he realized that might not be a good look. He then placed the bottle cap against the corner of the wooden cart, applied a little downward pressure, and the cap popped right off!

He handed it to Liu Ruxin first and said apologetically, "Auntie, you must be thirsty. Have some soda; I completely forgot about it when we were eating the buns!"

Just as Liu Ruxin was about to decline, she saw Wang An already looking down, his left hand reaching into the sack for another bottle. Only then did she take it and sip a little, her expression looking quite satisfied.

Wang An popped the cap off this bottle with his teeth—mm, that felt much more satisfying!

He handed it directly to Mu Xueqing, taking the opportunity to brush her hand. The sensation was a bit rough, but soft nonetheless! His heart felt wonderful.

Mu Xueqing turned her head to sneak a glance at Liu Ruxin, who was still savoring her soda and didn't seem to notice them. Only then did she blush and glare at Wang An.

Wang An immediately opened a bottle for himself and chugged it down. It was gone in a few seconds. It tasted like nothing special—just sugar water with some carbonation, though it was nice and cold. He didn't know what that mother and daughter were savoring, but it certainly quenched his thirst!

"We're off, sit tight!" Wang An shouted, driving the cart through the middle of the market.

Just as they were about to leave the market, Wang An noticed a new stall where he had been set up earlier. The owner was a woman in her thirties. She wasn't shouting to attract customers, but she had a wicker basket in front of her, and three black dogs were squatting beside it.

They were all quite large, and each dog had scars of various sizes on its body, along with fresh, scabbed-over wounds. When they glanced at Wang An, they looked exceptionally fierce, giving one the feeling that they might bite at any moment.

Wang An concluded that these three dogs were definitely trained for mountain hunting; they were too similar to the hunting dogs kept by the hunters in his own village. Hunting dogs didn't cause trouble; they were trained bit by bit, obedient, sensible, and never barked aimlessly.

Although he didn't know how to judge the quality of a dog, the scars on these three spoke for themselves. Wang An immediately became interested! He had been thinking about buying trained hunting dogs for a long time. He called out "Whoa!" to stop the mule and walked over.

"Big sister, are these three dogs for sale?"

Seeing someone come over to ask, the woman seemed very happy. She pointed to the basket and said, "Big brother, it's not three, it's five. All five are for sale!" As she spoke, she lifted the sedge grass mat inside the basket.

Only then did Wang An realize he had misunderstood.

Looking down, he saw five puppies huddled together in the basket. He reached out to poke them, and the puppies let out threatening yaps—they were "milk-fierce"!

Only one was pure black and slightly larger; the other four were black and white spotted. They were pleasant to look at and quite endearing.

But the thing was, he didn't know how to train dogs, so buying them would be useless!

"Big sister, let's talk about the five little ones later. I wanted to ask, are you selling those three big ones?"

The woman looked a bit troubled when she heard this. "They are for sale, but I'm waiting for the person who is coming to pick them up."

Wang An thought there might be a chance, but he said, "You sold them all?" He put on a regretful expression.

Then he asked, "How much did they sell for? I think those three dogs are quite good!"

The woman didn't hide it. "Sold for 150! My husband said the biggest one is the lead dog, and the two smaller ones listen to it."

After thinking for a moment, she added, "My husband also said that our lead dog is a 'head-scent' dog, otherwise it wouldn't be worth that much."

In this day and age, a normal lead dog cost about 60 yuan, and a helper dog could be bought for 20-something yuan. Three dogs would normally be 100 yuan. 150 yuan was quite expensive.

Moreover, hunters who specialized in mountain trekking rarely sold their hunting dogs because the attrition rate was very high. If you were unlucky and ran into a large bear or a leopard, the whole pack could be wiped out!

Normally, a pack had 4 to 6 dogs; 4 was the minimum requirement, or they couldn't pin down the prey. Most hunters only kept 1 to 3 dogs—not because they didn't want more, but because they couldn't afford to feed them! A hunting dog's appetite was about the same as a pig's; they could really eat! Only those among the hunters who could be called "gunners" or were wealthy had the economic strength to keep a full pack on their own.

When hunting in a group, two or three hunters would combine their dogs, and after catching the prey, they would divide the spoils according to their shares.

Wang An said, "It seems your husband is also a mountain hunter! Then why sell the dogs? Doesn't it break your heart?"

"Sigh! We went into the mountains to raid a bear's den! The bullet misfired, the bear ran out, bit his leg, shredded his body, and two of the dogs died! Sigh!" the woman said with a heavy sigh.

Wang An couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy! He couldn't help but think of those three beasts that had almost cost him his own life! They were all mountain hunters, after all!

He heard the woman continue, "These five puppies are almost two months old. My husband said that the little black one can also become a lead dog."

Wang An thought to himself, "Whatever your husband says goes? How can he be so sure? If it doesn't become a lead dog, it's not your husband who loses out! Besides, I don't even know your husband, and he hasn't taught me how to train a dog!"

Wang An suddenly remembered what the hunters in the village said about "dogs training dogs."

It was very easy for a mature hunting dog to raise a new one; the hunter didn't even need to intervene. As long as the puppies followed a lead dog and a helper dog into the mountains when they were half-grown, they would slowly learn how to track and pin down prey on their own!

Thinking of this, Wang An asked, "Big sister, how do you want to sell these five puppies?"

"My husband said these are hunting dogs. Even though they're small, they're at least 5 yuan each," the woman said hurriedly.

Wang An finally understood why this stall had no customers! He had thought these five puppies would sell for five or eight yuan in total!

In the Northeast, when puppies were born, they were usually given away for free because people couldn't afford to feed them. Even then, few people wanted them—the reason was simple: they wasted grain!

In this era, grain was so precious! People didn't even have enough to eat!

Using that grain to raise a few hens—whether to sell eggs for needles and thread or to eat the eggs for nutrition—was better than raising a dog. Look at how malnourished everyone was these days!

Eggs in the countryside were hard currency! If someone was sick, or a woman was in confinement, they were the best gifts to give!

And these five puppies, not even two months old, were 5 yuan each! Who cared if they were hunting dogs or not? Any big, dumb dog in the Northeast was called a "hunting dog" once it was trained!

How many hunters were there in a village? Even if a hunter really needed a dog, those with money would buy a full-grown one and test it on the mountain! If it wasn't good, they'd bring it right back!

Even those without money would mostly ask a familiar hunter for a puppy to raise and train slowly.

Pay money to buy one? What a joke! If you gave one away for free, the person taking it would have to think twice about whether they could handle the wrath of their wife at home!

Wang An didn't want to talk anymore. To this woman, everything in her house was the best! Every dog was worth a fortune!