PCJ – Chapter 394 Gathering the Mountain Dogs

Those people were naturally not very willing. Everyone knew that the tea plantation was essentially a steady income; each harvest of tea leaves could yield a profit. Selling the tea plantation would undoubtedly be a loss. However, they had no choice; without the acquisition of the Meizi’ao Tea Factory, their tea leaves would at best be sold as cheap tea.

The ones causing trouble with Liu Baoyi were lamenting, but they had to accept the outcome. Fortunately, Zhang Youping was relatively fair in his valuation, allowing them to obtain a considerable amount of money. It was still decent to go into town to buy a storefront and start a business.

However, they could see that they were no match for Zhang Youping. If they didn’t agree with his proposal, he would inevitably exclude their tea plantation from the Meizi’ao circle. Even if they produced better tea leaves, they would not be able to sell them at a good price. In a sense, they somewhat agreed with Zhang Youping; if they were in his position, the price they would offer would be even lower.

The Meizi’ao Tea Planting Co., Ltd. was quickly established, hiring professionals from the city to manage it. Various plans for the Meizi’ao Tea Planting Co. were immediately set in motion. Prior to this, Zhang Youping had already made ample preparations. However, the establishment of this tea planting company was very low-key and not widely publicized. Zhang Youping planned to officially announce the Meizi’ao Tea Planting Co. to the public only when the Meizi’ao sightseeing tea plantation was completed.

For the Meizi’ao Tea Planting Co., time was of the essence. Zhang Youping had to complete the various constructions for the sightseeing tea plantation before the provincial tea expo was held in Xintian County. There were no issues with funding; time was the only constraint. Fortunately, the construction difficulties were not very high. The difference between a sightseeing tea plantation and a regular tea plantation lay in road construction, as well as the need for hotels and experience areas for visitors, such as tea picking and tea processing.

When Zhang Jiaohua inadvertently concocted the Jade Elixir, he probably didn’t realize it would develop to such an extent. He didn’t care about how far the tea factory would evolve; anyway, he had enough money in his pocket. Earning more money didn’t hold much significance for him. The students at Yudu Water Middle School all had similar family conditions, and they rarely compared themselves to one another. Who wore new clothes, who had new shoes, who carried a new backpack, who bought a gold pen… none of these would attract much attention from others.

Although Zhang Jiaohua’s family conditions improved, his clothing didn’t differ much from that of his classmates. He just no longer wore patched clothes. It was also rare for students at Yudu Water Middle School to wear patched clothing. There were more colors in clothing now, offering a variety of choices, unlike the previous years when styles were monotonous and everyone looked the same.

“Jiaohua, someone is looking for you again,” Cai Kaiming called Zhang Jiaohua out of the classroom. He had begun to get used to the uniqueness of this student.

Zhang Jiaohua was quite surprised, unable to think of who would come to find him. He didn’t ask further, stood up, and walked outside the classroom.

“Jiaohua, do you want me to accompany you?” Cai Kaiming asked. The last time an elderly person came, Zhang Jiaohua had not shown up for a long time, worrying Cai Kaiming for quite a while.

“No need. At my age, even if a human trafficker took me away, they wouldn’t be able to sell me,” Zhang Jiaohua laughed.

“That’s true. There aren’t any human traffickers that bold,” Cai Kaiming chuckled, abandoning his plan to follow Zhang Jiaohua.

The person who came was someone Zhang Jiaohua did not expect, but he brought good news.

“Jiaohua.” By an SUV stood Zhu Kaixun, waving to Zhang Jiaohua. The SUV he was driving was much more upscale than the old canvas-covered Beijing Jeep. It was clear that there had been significant changes over the past few years. The Zijiang Municipal Public Security Bureau had equipped itself with better vehicles, and Zhu Kaixun’s position had also greatly improved.

“Uncle Zhu, why are you looking for me?” Zhang Jiaohua was quite surprised.

“Last time, I heard you say that you were just short of a white dog for your twenty-four mountain dogs. I happened to come across a litter of white herding dogs when I was in the mountains this time. I brought all the puppies back. White herding dogs aren’t really favored, so why do your twenty-four dogs need a white herding dog? And how many do you need?” Zhu Kaixun asked. He still had many channels to obtain herding dogs, but pure white herding dogs were indeed not very popular among hunters.

“I need seven,” Zhang Jiaohua replied.

“Is that so many? I only managed to get six. A litter had six, which is already quite a lot. It’s just unfortunate that I’m still short one,” Zhu Kaixun said, a bit regretful.

“That’s enough. A water service sent me four, so with your six, I’ll have more than enough,” Zhang Jiaohua said excitedly.

“Really?” Zhu Kaixun was also surprised, not expecting Zhang Jiaohua to have already gotten four white herding dogs. He knew that white herding dogs were indeed rare.

After placing the six puppies down, Zhu Kaixun returned to Zijiang. He had now been promoted to deputy director of the municipal public security bureau, so he was quite busy. In his heart, he still felt conflicted about that batch of herding dogs. It had been a very unsuccessful venture during his time in the police dog squad, and to this day, it was still a laughingstock. This was a pain in Zhu Kaixun’s heart. He truly wanted to see just how powerful the real herding dogs in Zhang Jiaohua’s hands were. Would they be able to scare even tigers? He had indeed witnessed the true prowess of herding dogs, which were far superior to those so-called famous dogs, but he wanted to see just where the limit of the herding dogs lay.

Zhang Jiaohua carried the cardboard box to the classroom dormitory.

Seeing that Zhang Jiaohua had brought back so many puppies, Cai Kaiming felt a bit overwhelmed. “Jiaohua, how many dogs are you planning to raise?”

“Not too many, just twenty-four mountain dogs is enough,” Zhang Jiaohua laughed.

“Twenty-four mountain dogs? My goodness! Don’t treat our classroom dormitory as your dog-raising facility!” Cai Kaiming said with a bitter smile.

“Teacher Cai, if you don’t like it, I’ll just send all these dogs back. But then there won’t be any meat to eat at night,” Zhang Jiaohua said somewhat threateningly.

“I like it, I like it. Feel free,” Cai Kaiming quickly capitulated.

“Actually, Teacher Cai, you should thank me,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“Why should I thank you?” Cai Kaiming asked in confusion.

“Since the leopard came here, has anything been stolen from the teacher’s dormitory?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“Not at all. Everyone has been keeping the chickens indoors, or they’ve just eaten them. Naturally, no one has come to steal chickens,” Cai Kaiming replied, which was indeed true. In the evening, the chicken coops that had been placed in the corridor were already moved back inside.

“Teacher Cai, do you believe that if it weren’t for the leopard being here, even if they kept the chickens indoors, they would still be stolen?” Zhang Jiaohua looked at Cai Kaiming.

“Well, I can’t say for sure. Having a dog here is definitely safer than not having one, but I’ve never heard the leopard make a sound,” Cai Kaiming pondered before saying.

Zhang Jiaohua scratched his head. “Even if a thief comes, the leopard may not necessarily make a sound. It would definitely rush in and scare the thief away. These puppies will definitely bark.”

“Hmm. I have indeed heard these puppies barking at night. At the time, I thought they were just barking randomly. Could it be that there really was a thief?” Cai Kaiming became uncertain.

“I’ll put these puppies here first. If the teachers have any objections, I’ll take them back,” Zhang Jiaohua didn’t have much interest in catching thieves.

The puppies were always a bit mischievous, and as soon as they came out during the day, they would jump around. The herding puppies were much wilder than ordinary puppies. Once they came out, they would chase after the little chickens, sending the chickens from the teachers’ dormitory flying. This made the families raising chickens quite unhappy, especially Pei Guixiang, who recently caught another ten chicks. The moment she released them, a few white puppies pounced on them as if they were prey. As soon as they saw the chicks come out, they became excited and chased them around the yard. However, these puppies were quite smart; although they loved to scare the chicks, they were careful not to hurt them.

However, Pei Guixiang, who heard the cries of the chicks, was not having it and immediately stormed into Cai Kaiming’s room.

“Teacher Cai, our families all raise chickens. What do you mean by raising a pack of puppies? Your puppies are biting my chicks half to death; if this continues, I’ll have wasted my money on buying chicks!” Pei Guixiang was very dissatisfied.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I will get these puppies out of here as soon as possible,” Cai Kaiming could only apologize to Pei Guixiang.

When Zhang Jiaohua got off school, Cai Kaiming hurriedly found Zhang Jiaohua and explained the situation. “Jiaohua, there’s no way. These puppies can’t stay here.”

“It’s okay. During the break, I’ll send the puppies back. But the leopard can’t stay here anymore. I don’t come home often; these puppies will have to be raised by the leopard,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“That’s the only way. If others gossip, I have no other choice,” Cai Kaiming said helplessly.

During the weekend, Zhang Jiaohua returned to Meizi’ao to send the leopard and the group of puppies back. The villagers saw that Zhang Jiaohua had raised ten more white dogs, but they didn’t find it strange; after all, Zhang Jiaohua had already raised a large group of herding dogs. Adding a few more puppies was no big deal.

“Jiaohua, where did you get so many puppies?” Zhang Youlian looked a bit overwhelmed.

“Someone gave them to me. These white puppies are really rare. They’re hard to find,” Zhang Jiaohua valued these puppies highly.

“No matter how rare they are, raising so many is almost turning our pig farm into your dog-raising facility. Our place is only this big; where do you plan to raise so many puppies?” Zhang Youlian’s worries were not unfounded. The previous group of herding dogs Zhang Jiaohua raised had already grown to more than a hundred, and this was after he had sent many puppies away. Otherwise, the place would have been filled with herding dogs long ago. Now, with an additional batch of herding dogs, Zhang Youlian looked even more overwhelmed.