PCJ – Chapter 54 Mountain Dog Chase

“The best in the world is only a mother, a child with a mother is like a treasure…” Zhang Jiaohua sat on the doorstep, holding his little gray dog, feeling somewhat sympathetic, watching the last rays of sunlight of the day gradually disappear behind the huge shadow of Meishan.

After returning from the guest’s house, Zhang Jiaohua had been searching for evidence that he was adopted at home. For example, a letter written in blood, revealing the mystery of his origins. Or a jade pendant engraved with some characters, or perhaps only half of it, so that when he met his biological relatives, putting the two halves together would confirm his identity. It could also be a piece of cloth or handkerchief wrapped around a piece of paper, with his birthdate, name, and perhaps the names of his biological parents. Or maybe it was embroidery on a baby’s clothes…

Zhang Jiaohua had checked every possibility he had seen in TV dramas, but unfortunately, perhaps his biological parents were too poor, as none of these things existed, or they might have been discarded by Zhang Youping and his wife. It was really annoying.

Perhaps every child would experience the mystery of their origins. Do those young parents know that a casual word could bring so much confusion to their baby?

After the incident last time, Dumb had started talking to Zhang Jiaohua behind his parents’ backs. At this moment, he appeared out of nowhere.

“Jiaohua, I brought something delicious for your gray dog.” Dumb immediately boasted to Zhang Jiaohua as soon as he arrived.

“What’s delicious? Does your house still have something good to eat?” Zhang Jiaohua didn’t believe it at all.

“Why wouldn’t we? Last time, weasel caused trouble with our chickens and ducks, and my mother preserved them all in jars. Now I have meat to eat every day. I brought a bone for your gray dog.” Dumb took out a bone from his pocket and threw it on the ground. The little gray dog immediately pounced on it and held the bone in its mouth.

Gulp. Zhang Jiaohua swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He hadn’t eaten meat since he returned from the guest’s house. As soon as he saw a chicken bone, he wanted to rush up and snatch it from the little gray dog’s mouth.

“Jiaohua, is the dog in your house really a mountain dog?” Dumb asked again, stuttering.

Zhang Jiaohua was very dissatisfied with Dumb’s attitude. “Of course it is.”

“Chen Santu’s dog is the real mountain dog. It can go up to the mountains to catch rabbits. I heard it from Chen Santu that they eat meat every day.” Dumb was also envious of those days with meat every day.

Meat every day! Zhang Jiaohua looked at his own dog, who often had rice stuck to its mouth, and still wanted it to catch wild rabbits? Zhang Jiaohua leaned weakly against the door frame and sighed.

“When my dog grows up, my family will also eat meat every day.” Zhang Jiaohua was quite ambitious.

“I don’t believe it.” Dumb was a child who stuck to logic, not even knowing how to use such free compliments.

“Go away. My chickens and ducks are about to go into the cage. They won’t dare to come in when you’re here.” Zhang Jiaohua chased him away unhappily.

“Why won’t they come in when I’m here? Aren’t you here too?” Dumb was not happy about it.

“You’ve been marked by a weasel. You smell fishy. When the chickens and ducks smell your odor, they think the weasel is here. Do you think they’ll dare to come in?” Zhang Jiaohua reasoned convincingly and drove away a puzzled and doubtful Dumb.

The little gray dog lay on the ground, happily gnawing on the chicken bone. The meat on it had long been gnawed clean by Dumb, and the little gray dog’s teeth couldn’t even handle the bone, but the taste of the bone made it unwilling to give up. It tried every possible posture but couldn’t get its tongue into the crevices of the bone, feeling desperate.

Zhang Jiaohua snatched the bone from the little gray dog’s mouth, “You’re useless, enjoying a bone so much.”

Zhang Jiaohua found a stone, smashed the bone on the ground, and the marrow inside burst out. The little gray dog happily pounced on it and licked up the scattered marrow crumbs on the ground.

Zhang Jiaohua looked at the little gray dog and recalled some things from his dreams.

Hunting was also an important part of Meishan’s daily life. For thousands of years, the people of Meishan had lived in high mountains and deep forests, coexisting with wild animals. Both humans and animals had to struggle for their survival. Meishan people had a set of hunting techniques.

Hunting dogs were the most helpful assistants for Meishan people’s hunting. In Meishan’s hunting techniques, there were “four flowers, four blacks, nine yellows, and seven whites,” twenty-four mountain dogs. When Meishan’s ancestor Zhang Wulang went hunting, as long as he released twenty-four mountain dogs, any tigers, leopards, or roe deer would be frightened and flee in panic.

Good mountain dogs were good at running, good at shuttling through dense forests, had keen sense of smell, were good at barking, and once in the mountains, their voices echoed through the mountains and rivers, resonating throughout the mountains. Naturally, they could make wild animals lose their courage and rush out of their nests obediently.

Meishan people had their own techniques for selecting hunting dogs, and they preferred certain colors. One yellow, two black, three tan, four white. Yellow was the best, black was second best. A color like the little gray dog’s was already of poor quality. But Zhang Jiaohua didn’t have much choice. Having a tan one was already good enough. Zhang Jiaohua valued the size of this little gray dog. Meishan people had a saying about hunting dogs: “Eyes like bronze bells, ears like forks, tail like a pick, waist like a card, all four feet touching the ground like zhaiba, seeing a wild animal is like meeting an enemy.”

After selecting the puppy, Meishan people had to carefully nurture it to cultivate a true mountain dog. Unfortunately, these conditions were beyond Zhang Jiaohua’s reach. So he particularly wanted to go into the mountains, hunt some prey, and use it to train the little dog into a true mountain dog.

Zhang Jiaohua remembered the day he caught a wild chicken in the mountains. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could catch another one.

These days, he had spent another happy week at the guest’s house. Attendance requirements at rural primary schools were not strict either. Zhang Jiaohua didn’t go to school, and Gong Ziyuan just casually asked about it. Dumb’s “He went to his guest’s house” settled the matter. By the time Zhang Jiaohua returned, it was another happy Sunday. Therefore, he didn’t have to go to school the next day either.

After breakfast, Zhang Jiaohua picked up a bamboo basket, took a hatchet, and said to his mother, “Mom, I’m going to the mountains to gather firewood.”

It was the most common thing for children to gather firewood. It was rare for Jiaohua to be so proactive, so Liu Qiangye naturally agreed happily.

Zhang Jiaohua happily sang “The best in the world is only a mother” as he set off for Meishan. The little gray dog jumped around behind him.

Liu Qiangye heard Zhang Jiaohua’s singing and felt extremely happy, but she didn’t realize that Zhang Jiaohua was thinking about his nonexistent “biological mother.”

As soon as he entered Meishan, Zhang Jiaohua looked around and, seeing no one, took out some paper money, incense, and other sacrificial items from the bamboo basket.

“As disciples go out, I ask for the guidance of the ancestral masters, to transform my body, to not be an ordinary person, and to transform into the true body of Meishan… I offer my respects to the Supreme Old Lord promptly as ordered!”