Chapter 143: A Nighttime Dog Walk’s Unexpected Gain

The four of them sat around a square table. Cao Shujie brought out two bottles of Qinghua Fenjiu. Just by looking at the packaging, Cao Jianhua could tell it wasn’t cheap. On the other hand, Cao Shuchao, who hadn’t seen much of the world, couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Cao Shujie twisted open the cap and poured full glasses for his father, Cao Jianhua, and Cao Shuchao. Then he poured one for himself.

“Uncle Hua, Brother Chao, give it a try and see what you think,” Cao Shujie said with a smile.

Cao Jianhua asked how much the wine cost per bottle.

Cao Shujie chuckled. “It’s not that expensive. I bought it for my dad a couple of years ago when I was working in Beijing. We never got around to drinking it. It’s been sitting there since, so the flavor should be pretty good by now.”

“Must be over two hundred yuan a bottle, right?” Cao Jianhua asked.

Running a supermarket, he had a rough idea of what price range this kind of wine fell into.

Cao Shujie just smiled without answering, but it was clear to Cao Jianhua that he’d probably guessed right.

His opinion of Cao Shujie shifted a little.

Cao Jianguo pointed at the dishes on the table. “Brother Jianhua, Shuchao, eat up. Have some food to line your stomach first. Drinking on an empty stomach is bad for you.”

He was speaking from experience. The four of them picked up their chopsticks and each grabbed a bite of their favorite dish.

Half the dishes on the table had been brought over by Cao Jianhua.

With wine in hand, the atmosphere warmed up after the first round. Cao Jianhua hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “Brother Jianguo, Shujie, to be honest, I’ve been feeling really uneasy lately. I haven’t been sleeping well.”

Cao Jianguo had chatted with his son over the past couple of days about the market prices for pigs and piglets, so he wasn’t entirely in the dark.

Hearing Cao Jianhua’s heartfelt confession, Cao Jianguo felt a strange pang of emotion. He raised his glass and said, “Brother Jianhua, don’t think about anything tonight. Let’s just have a good drink.”

“Brother Jianguo, cheers!” Cao Jianhua lifted his glass and clinked it with Cao Jianguo’s, then tilted his head back and downed it in one go.

It was clear he was trying to drown his sorrows.

Cao Shujie shook his head at his father, signaling him to take it easy.

Given Cao Jianhua’s current state, drinking wasn’t a good idea. It could easily lead to trouble.

Fortunately, Cao Jianhua could hold his liquor and didn’t get knocked out after just two glasses.

He set down his wine glass and picked up a cup of tea, gulping down half of it.

Cao Shuchao couldn’t hold his alcohol, so he took on the role of helper, holding a thermos and refilling everyone’s cups as needed.

There’s a saying: “Remember the bitterness to savor the sweetness.” Before he got into livestock farming, Cao Jianhua’s family had hundreds of thousands in savings. That was a significant sum in Cao Family Village.

On top of that, his supermarket brought in steady income. He should have been the most enviable family in the village.

But ever since he started raising pigs, everything had changed. The good days were gone, replaced by exhaustion and regret. At this moment, only one word echoed in his heart: “Regret.”

He should’ve listened to the warnings and stayed away from an unfamiliar industry. He thought he was capable, but in the end, he realized he was in over his head.

His gaze grew unfocused as he stared ahead. Then he raised his glass again and gestured toward Cao Shujie, Cao Jianguo, and Cao Shuchao. “Brother Jianguo, let’s have another.”

“Brother Jianhua, slow down. There’s plenty of wine. Let’s talk a bit, drink some tea, eat something. Don’t drink on an empty stomach,” Cao Jianguo advised.

Cao Jianhua took the advice to heart. He set down his glass and sighed.

Cao Shujie had been wondering about something. He asked, “Uncle Hua, I’ve never understood. Your supermarket was doing just fine. Why did you suddenly decide to get into pig farming?”

It didn’t make sense.

Hearing the question, Cao Jianhua sighed and said, “It was my own fault for being too gullible. I heard that Cao Jianyou guy say you were building pigsties and planning to raise pigs on a large scale. I figured farming was easy work. Plus, pig prices have been rising all year, and I had some spare cash. I thought I’d invest and make a little extra. Who knew I was walking straight into a trap?”

But the investment had been his own decision. He couldn’t blame Cao Jianyou for it.

Cao Shujie frowned at that. “Uncle Hua, this Cao Jianyou you mentioned… who is he?”

“He’s the one working for Uncle Zhengang, the guy helping you out,” Cao Jianhua replied.

Now it all made sense to Cao Shujie, and he couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and exasperation.

Cao Jianhua had invested hundreds of thousands just based on a few words from someone else. What was he thinking at the time?

With that in mind, Cao Shujie asked, “Uncle Hua, when you decided to start raising pigs, didn’t you do any market research?”

“Market research?” Cao Jianhua nodded. “Sure I did. I sell pork in my supermarket, right? I also asked around the market. The price of live pigs has been going up since last year. It’s been rising for quite a while.”

Hearing that explanation of “market research,” Cao Shujie felt a wave of helplessness. With that kind of attitude, how could anyone expect to make money in a field they knew nothing about?

He couldn’t help but feel curious about how Cao Jianhua had managed to run a supermarket for so many years. With that mindset, how had he even survived?

So he asked, “Uncle Hua, in all your years running the supermarket, did you ever hit rough patches?”

“Rough patches?” Cao Jianhua didn’t even have to think. He nodded immediately. “If we’re talking about that, I could go on for three days and nights.”

He said, “When I first started the supermarket, it was really tough. I took a lot of losses.”

As he spoke, he asked Cao Shujie, “Shujie, you know how it is. Old, outdated stuff doesn’t sell. To bring in some fresh products, I used to ride my motorcycle seventy or eighty kilometers to the wholesale market in Qingyin County, across the Yellow River. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, I’d ride all the way to Pingyuan County to get stock. The roads back then were way worse than they are now.”

“But you know what? The fresh goods I brought back from Qingyin and Pingyuan sold way better than the stuff from Qingshi Town. The profits were higher too.” As he reminisced about his younger days, everything felt like it had just happened yesterday.

Hearing this, Cao Shujie let out a breath of relief. “Uncle Hua, see? You’ve been through so much and still made it through. I think this time will be no different. You’ll be fine.”

“Heh heh!” Cao Jianhua laughed and said, “Shujie, you don’t need to comfort me. I know full well what’s going on. Now that the price has dropped, it’s bound to fall even further. By next month, it might dip below 30 yuan per kilo. As for the rest, I’m not going to think too much. I’ll just keep raising these 300 pigs. No matter what, I plan to sell them before the Spring Festival. As long as I can break even, that’ll be good enough.”

They drank until after nine in the evening. Mengmeng had already gone to bed, too sleepy to stay up. Cao Jianhua was starting to wobble on his feet. Wang Yuelan turned to her son and said, “Shujie, go walk Uncle Hua home.”

“Okay, Mom, don’t worry. I’ll make sure he gets home safe,” Cao Shujie replied.

His father, Cao Jianguo, had already gone to bed.

Cao Shuchao offered, “Shujie, how about I walk him instead?”

“I’m fine, Brother Chao. You should head home. Auntie still needs someone to look after her,” Cao Shujie said, then helped the unsteady Cao Jianhua toward the door.

But before they could step outside, Daha and Erha started barking loudly. Cao Shujie turned and looked at them. “You two want to go for a walk?”

“Woof!” Daha immediately quieted down, wagging its head like it really understood what he meant.

Wang Yuelan didn’t know whether to laugh or scold. “Shujie, it’s the middle of the night. Where are you going to walk the dogs? Just take them out in the morning.”

But Daha and Erha weren’t having it. They kept barking and tugging at their leashes, pacing back and forth like they couldn’t sit still another second.

Seeing this, Cao Shujie quickly said to his mother, “Mom, can you grab me a flashlight? After I drop Uncle Hua off, I’ll take them for a quick walk in the orchard and come right back.”

“Ay, Daha and Erha are such a handful,” Wang Yuelan grumbled, tempted to give them each a kick.

But there was no helping it. Cao Shujie leashed up Daha and Erha and headed out with Cao Jianhua.

They hadn’t even left the yard when the two German Shepherds started barking too.

“You might as well take them all,” Wang Yuelan muttered.

“Heh, you four mutts really know how to keep me busy,” Cao Shujie cursed, but his hands moved fast as he unhooked the leashes. He headed out with all four dogs, walking alongside Cao Jianhua toward the north.

At this hour, the streetlights in Cao Family Village were still on. A few people were gathered on the main road, chatting.

When they saw Cao Shujie walking four dogs and escorting Cao Jianhua, and caught a whiff of alcohol and smoke on them, they immediately knew the two had been drinking together.

As the pair and their dogs disappeared into the distance, the group began whispering among themselves.

“What do you think is going on between Cao Jianhua and Cao Shujie?”

“Who knows? We poor folks shouldn’t worry about other people’s business. Better to think about how to make some money ourselves.”

“That’s your problem right there. Look at them, doing big business, throwing around hundreds of thousands like it’s nothing. No wonder they’re making money.”

“Exactly. You’ve got to have guts. Unlike us, we hesitate to spend even a few thousand. How are we supposed to get anywhere like that?”

Cao Shujie had no idea what they were saying behind his back. He walked with Cao Jianhua all the way to his house, watched him stumble inside, then continued north with the four dogs.

He planned to take a stroll through the orchard on the hill and check on the calves to see if they needed a late-night feeding.

Next year, he was counting on those calves and the newly planted strawberries to bring in some income.

As he climbed the hill, a cold wind whipped past him. The alcohol buzz he’d had was quickly blown away, leaving him clear-headed.

He opened the gate and led the dogs inside, then locked the wire mesh fence behind him. When he turned on the lights in the orchard, the place lit up like daytime.

The four dogs immediately burst into a frenzy of barking. They’d been cooped up at home all day and were itching to let loose.

Seeing them like this, Cao Shujie chuckled and let go of the leashes. “Go on then, but don’t mess up my saplings. If you do, I’ll break your legs.”

The dogs flinched at his words. As they ran off, they kept glancing at the fruit tree saplings, careful not to knock anything over. They knew if they caused trouble, it might cost them dearly.

Cao Shujie headed toward the calves. As he approached, the young cows stirred uneasily under the bright lights.

But when they saw it was him, they settled back down onto the ground.

The sight made Cao Shujie grin. He pointed at them and shouted, “Still not eating? Hurry up and grow some meat on those bones!”

“Woof!”

Just as he was about to go in and toss them some feed, he suddenly heard Daha barking in the distance.

Cao Shujie frowned. Then the other three dogs started barking too, one after another. He figured they must have found something.

With that thought, he jogged toward the noise. As he got closer, he saw the four dogs had surrounded a small, scruffy puppy and were barking at it, trying to scare it.

The puppy looked filthy and pitiful.

Cao Shujie glanced around but didn’t see anything unusual.

A question popped into his mind: how did this little dog get in?

Looking at the dirt on the puppy’s body, a thought suddenly struck him: “Could it have dug its way in from under the fence?”

That possibility unsettled him. Wouldn’t that mean there was a major security flaw in the orchard?

He turned to Daha and said, “Daha, ask it where it came in from.”

He hadn’t expected anything, but to his surprise, Daha actually seemed to understand and went over to the puppy.

“Woof!”

Daha barked, then started communicating with the little one.

And it worked. After a moment of silence, the dirty puppy turned around and led the others in a certain direction.

Cao Shujie followed their gaze. They were heading toward the old orchard section, and his heart skipped a beat.

“Could it be that the patch job from last time didn’t hold and got dug open again?”

But something didn’t add up.

Last time, Cao Jianqiu and Cao Shubao had blatantly broken in to steal kiwi fruit to sell at a high price. But now, there wasn’t a single fruit left in the orchard. What was there to steal?

When they reached the wire mesh fence, Cao Shujie realized his guess had been spot on. The little dog had indeed dug a hole under the fence to get in.

It was small enough that the gap between the fence and the ground gave it just enough space to squeeze through.

At least it was an easy fix.

Cao Shujie walked over and kicked the loose dirt back into the hole. Then he looked down at the filthy little mutt and started wondering: where had it come from?

No matter how hard he thought about it, he just couldn’t recall anyone in the village ever raising such a tiny pup.

“What breed is this?” Cao Shujie gave up trying to figure it out for now. He reached out toward the little dog, thinking he might just take it home. But to his surprise, the pup was shy around strangers. It nestled close to Daha and Erha, avoiding Cao Shujie altogether.

That only made Cao Shujie more amused. This scruffy-looking little dog was actually quite interesting.

(End of this chapter)