Chapter 925: The Scar-Covered Mountain Dog

The reason Wang An had to return to the village was that he suddenly remembered there were still four dogs in that courtyard.

It had to be said that when a human being is truly wretched, they are genuinely worse than fucking animals.

Of course, this statement was directed at that old scoundrel Wei Cheng, who had now met the Buddha.

The reason Wang An still spoke of him this way even after his death was that Wei Cheng and his gang of lackeys had seized so much grain—over 36,000 catties in total—yet those four dogs were so thin their fur was "chàng máo."

By "chàng máo," it meant the animals' fur not only lacked luster but looked as messy and tangled as a chicken coop.

All animals, including humans, are essentially the same; if they don't get enough to eat and their bodies lack nutrition, their coat becomes dull and lifeless. They might look long and lanky, but they lack any vitality or "suppleness."

For humans, however, this primarily manifests in the hair and complexion, which is where they differ from animals.

The dogs were starved to the point of "chàng máo," yet those 36,000 catties of grain were just sitting there. From this, one could see how utterly fucked up that old scoundrel Wei Cheng was; in this regard, he truly deserved the title of a Pi Xiu.

However, Wang An's return for the four dogs wasn't entirely out of pity; a man like Wang An didn't possess that much benevolence.

He did it because two of those four dogs—judging by the strange scars left on their bodies—were genuine mountain-hunting dogs.

Furthermore, the kid who had asked Captain Zhou for a cigarette earlier had mentioned that the four dogs were taken as collateral to settle debts, and the two dogs Wang An had his eye on happened to have been led back from a hunter.

While he didn't know if there was an alpha among them, Wang An felt that at the very least, they were "hard-boned" types like Er Hei and San Hei.

This was evident from the location of the scars on their bodies.

Those scars were clearly left during frontal battles with prey.

A dog that dares to fight prey head-on is bound to be high-quality.

To Wang An, such dogs were absolutely worth raising.

To be fair, Wang An already had eight dogs, as well as four wolf cubs and two lynxes that hadn't been trained yet. In other words, he didn't lack mountain-hunting dogs at all.

But since he had come across them, if he ignored them, the fate of those four dogs would most likely be death.

Besides, there was plenty of food at home; adding four more dogs was no big deal.

Two or three minutes later, Wang An reappeared in the courtyard.

At this moment, the group of "hat-brothers" were loading grain onto the large truck that had just arrived. When Sun Nian saw Wang An, she was momentarily stunned and asked with a face full of confusion

"We're heading back to the county as soon as we finish loading this grain. What are you coming back for?"

Wang An, with a beaming smile, pointed at the four dogs and said

"I was wondering how you plan to deal with these four dogs? Are you taking them back to raise, or just strangling them for meat?"

Locally, there was no such thing as not eating dog meat; even mountain hunters ate it.

But while they ate it, hunters would never eat their own mountain-hunting dogs.

If a hunting dog died, whether during a hunt or from illness, the norm was to bury it—and bury it deep, to prevent other animals from digging it up and eating it.

Of course, hunting dogs rarely died of old age; mainly because they never had the chance. Hunting inevitably involved this or that kind of accident.

Mountain hunters often said that injuries happened in a flash and death on the mountain was sudden; it was even more so for the dogs.

Hearing this, Sun Nian instinctively replied

"Raising them is definitely out of the question. Who has the time to raise these things?"

As she spoke, Sun Nian looked at the four dogs and frowned slightly.

"These dogs are so thin their backs are arched. Where is there any meat left on them? I don't know how these people raised them. This is too much."

Wang An didn't bite, continuing to ask

"Sister Nian, so what do you want to do?"

Sun Nian thought about it with a conflicted expression and said

"Maybe we could ask the nearby households to see if any of them want to raise a dog?"

Clearly, Sun Nian was also quite troubled by these four dogs. Killing them yielded no meat, she didn't want to raise them, and she feared people wouldn't even take them for free.

At this moment, Sun Nian had no inkling that Wang An wanted to adopt them.

It wasn't wrong of her not to realize it; primarily because Wang An already had so many dogs at home that no one would expect him to want more.

Hearing this, Wang An put on a face of reluctant necessity and said

"Forget it then, Sister Nian, don't worry about it. I'll take these four dogs. I've already got a pack of dogs at home anyway, a few more won't make a difference."

Sun Nian's eyes widened instantly upon hearing this, and she said with surprise

"You already have eight dogs; with these four, that's twelve! What do you need so many dogs for? Besides, these dogs are already grown; can you even tame them now?"

Wang An replied nonchalantly

"It's fine. Dogs get tame if you raise them for a bit. Besides, with them being this skinny, I doubt anyone else would want them. I'll just keep them."

Seeing Wang An's determination, Sun Nian finally nodded.

"If you're willing to raise them, that's even better. You've just solved a big problem for me."

After a pause, Wang An asked Sun Nian

"Uh, Sister Nian, these dogs are confiscated property after all. Do I need some kind of paperwork or something?"

Sun Nian turned to the logistics officer and asked

"Director Yang, do these dogs need paperwork?"

Director Yang instinctively waved his hand.

"No need. Nobody wants these dogs, so why bother with paperwork?"

Wang An nodded and walked toward one of the dogs.

The four dogs were tied to the four corners of the courtyard. The two in the southeast and northeast corners appeared to be from the same litter.

They looked very similar, both with black fur, a ring of yellow fur around their necks, and yellow fur from the knees down on all four legs.

The most distinctive feature was that above each of their eyes, there was a yellow spot about the size of a dog's eye.

At a glance, it looked as if both dogs had four eyes.

And these two were precisely the scar-covered mountain-hunting dogs.

Earlier, these two had been the fiercest barkers, but ever since the loan sharks were loaded onto the truck, these two had withered, lying motionless in their doghouse.

They were a perfect embodiment of the phrase "a dog acting tough because of its master."

Seeing Wang An approach, the dog in the northeast corner immediately stood up, leaned back on its hind legs, bared its fangs, and began "wu-wu"-ing at Wang An. Clearly, it was poised to bite him at any second.

To be honest, Wang An was a bit intimidated; after all, getting bitten for no reason was simply not worth it!

(End of Chapter)