Chapter 378: First Visit to Dog Market
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tie Ning, with a buzz cut, a standard proportioned physique, and a straight back, was wearing a long woolen black trench coat with his hands in the pockets. He did not wear a hat, so his ears had turned red from exposure to the chilliness.
The taxi driver could not expect that such a seemingly mediocre passenger was a former coach of free combat in the National Armed Police, had won the champion of free combat in the 75kg group in the National Military Contest, and had rendered several meritorious services of Class II and Class III. After retirement from military services, he was hired by a security company with a promising salary to become the exclusive bodyguard to the CEO and become the chief martial arts instructor for the company.
In fact, if he had a choice, Tie Ning did not want to leave the armed police forces that had trained him. However, he came from a poor family in a remote mountainous area in western Sichuan. He had to support his younger siblings, especially his youngest brother who had just been admitted into university and was majoring in medicine, which had very high tuition fees. Relying solely on the salary and allowances from the armed forces was inadequate.
After entering the security company, and freeing himself from the arduous routine training of the armed police force, he was actually unaccustomed to the leisure days. His tasks were to give brief directions to other coaches in the company every morning, and then they would train the ordinary security guards. When the CEO left the company, he should accompany him by his side, and was responsible for taking the CEO to work and then to his home. That was all.
The CEO appreciated him very much. On the day he signed the contract, the CEO gave him an apartment to live in, and assigned a car to him. More than six months since he started his career in the company, he hadn’t encountered any challenge, and making money seemed so easy.
But Tie Ning knew that as a bodyguard, he should remain alert even on the calm days, so that in case of an emergency, he could fend off bullets with his body for his boss to repay his appreciation. Therefore, he kept disciplined and maintained his physical energy and combatting skills after his retirement from the military.
He received the phone call from the CEO, and was surprised by the fact that this time, he was to secretly protect a young girl who did live broadcasts, and to help her out when she got into any troubles, and that he must not reveal his identity. The CEO made it very clear on the phone that protecting the girl's personal safety was the most important task, so he could beat the gangsters harshly, as long as they survived. Even if something happened to Tie Ning, the CEO guaranteed that the three important bosses in Binhai City would bail him out.
After receiving the task, Tie Ning quickly rushed to the Amazing Fate Pet Shop. He did not see Snowy go into the store, but when Snowy came out, through comparison with the photos on his phone, he confirmed that she was the target he needed to protect.
He couldn’t help but think that this girl was the same age as his younger brothers and sisters, but their social statuses were so different. This girl didn’t need to go to school or work — she could do whatever she wanted every day, and even if she might cause troubles, there was someone protecting her secretly…
However, Tie Ning was relatively new to the bodyguard industry, and when undertaking this task, he forgot to ask—did he need to protect Snowy’s companions as well?
He was sitting in the passenger seat of the taxi, and staring at the two heads in the rear row of the taxi in front of him... No, there were three heads, belonging to a middle-aged woman, a young man, and a dog, respectively—and then another head appeared from the young man’s hood. It was a grey parrot.
If Snowy was fine, but her companions had troubles, what should he do?
Tie Ning was in a very contradictory state of mind. Because of the years of education he received in the armed police force, he was unable to stand idly by as the lives of ordinary people were at risk. However, the CEO had stressed that his intervention should be the last resort. It was said that the young man beside Snowy was a martial arts master.
Martial arts master?
Tie Ning smiled silently.
These so-called martial arts masters maybe just won a few times unimportant championships of martial arts routines, right? These people could only make some standard postures, and couldn’t compare with Tie Ning’s wrestling combat skills that aimed to fight real enemies and make the opponents unable to strike back. Should Snowy and her companions encounter troubles, it was inevitable that Tie Ning would intervene.
After driving across nearly half of Binhai City, the taxicabs arrived at the dog market in the Nancheng District.
Tie Ning's hometown was in western Sichuan, and he had been in Binhai for only six months. There were many dialects he couldn’t understand, and he had never been to the dog market before.
Seeing that Snowy and her companions had gotten out of the taxi, he let his taxi driver park on the roadside and put the receipt for the ride into his pocket, waiting to reimburse it when he got back to the company.
Snowy was carrying her cell phone stably. She turned around slowly, so that the audience could have a peek into the city's largest distribution center for pets.
This area of Nancheng District was surrounded by low-rise and old two-story houses or bungalows. Vendors who sold various kinds of pets were on their respective stands. Bicycles, electric vehicles, tricycles, and pedestrians were coming and going in between. The ground was full of dust. Every time the wind blew, dust and sand would fly around in the air.
Deng Jie put her mask back on and kindly handed a new spare mask to Snowy. But Snowy worried that if she wore a mask, the audience would not be able to hear her clearly, so she smiled and declined gracefully.
Zhang Zian looked up. It was almost noon, and the sky was cloudier than before. It would probably snow later.
This was just the edge of the dog market, and it was already so crowded and lively.
By glancing around casually, he saw that some vendors were selling cold-water fish, squirrels, rabbits, parrots, mynas, and magpies. There were many onlookers haggling with the vendors from time to time.
He patted Snowy’s shoulder and pointed to a street vendor selling dyed chicks. He said emotionally, "I remember when I was in primary school, some vendors sold these in front of the school. I can’t believe someone is still selling them right now."
There were about thirty or forty furry chicks packed into the basket. Each of them had beautiful orange fluff, and they were all cheeping with their mouths open. Several primary school senior students with their parents were surrounding the basket of chicks and pointing with great interest, while the street vendor was stroking the chicks by hand from time to time and tried to persuade the children and their parents to buy a few.
The prices of chicks were very cheap, RMB 2.5 for one and RMB 6 for three, equivalent to the price of a snack or a beverage.
The pupils were hesitant, worrying that the chicks would be difficult to keep alive. The vendor guaranteed that they were very easy to raise and that they only needed to eat millet.
Compared to the expensive dogs and cats, the parents were willing to buy their kids such cheap pets. Just a few minutes after Zhang Zian disembarked from the car, several chicks had been purchased.
It was the first time that Snowy had ever seen anyone selling chicks, and she yelled with surprise, "Wow! So cute!"
"Yes, they are cute. But they can’t survive long." Zhang Zian laughed helplessly, "When I was a kid, I bought two chicks with my pocket money, but they were dead the next day, and I was sad for a while. Look, these chicks have beautiful bright colors, but their feathers are actually dyed—the down of a newly born chickling should be a pale yellow instead of such bright saffron yellow!"
"What? Dyed?" Snowy’s exuberance was halted hearing this.
"Yeah. The vendors put a bunch of chicks in containers like plastic basins or plastic buckets, and then dump industrial dyes into the containers. To achieve even and long-lasting renderings, these dyes are often hot, and the vendors will keep stirring. When the dyeing process is completed, the chicks will be poured out from the containers and basked in the sun. And then they become dyed chicks like these," explained Zhang Zian.
Snowy frowned, "They are so poor!"
She looked again at the vendor selling chicks. Eyes flashing, she seemed to be thinking about something.
A few seconds later, she asked again, "Can the dyes be washed off?"
Zhang Zian had guessed what she was thinking, and he dispelled her thought, "Don’t intend to buy these chicks, for their days are numbered. Toxicity has long invaded their internal organs, and tomorrow, at best the day after tomorrow, they will die, and you can’t save them. The vendors use the toxic industrial dyes, the cheapest ones, and they have to wear thick rubber gloves and gas masks when they dye these chicks."
"How brutal!" Snowy fiercely stared at the street vendor smuggling to earn money.
The vendor thought Snowy was trying to buy chicks, and he waved to her, signaling her to go over.
Th4 group of parents and their children left joyfully with the dyed chicks they had just bought. Soon, other rounds of parents and children arrived at the dog market. They were also attracted to the cheap, bright-colored chicks.
Deng Jie shook her head and tried to persuade Snowy, "Don’t be mad, young girl. Think about that. Even if these chicks were not hatched, they would be eaten as eggs. They have gained more days in this world coming out of their egg shells... "
Snowy knew what Deng Jie said was correct. But she still felt something was wrong with the practice.
Zhang Zian said slowly, "There is a sentence that makes sense: No business, no harm."
Although the price of each chick was cheap, with so many people visiting the dog market every day, it was estimated that such a street vendor could sell at least a hundred chicks a day, and with the profit of near 2 RMB gained by one chickling, the vendor can earn around 200 RMB a day. Though it was a wicked business, it was easier than cleaning plates in restaurants.
Most of the parents that bought chicks for their kids were financially underprivileged, and they may understand that these chicks would not live long. However, they could make their children happy with so little money spent. When the chicks died, they could also justifiably refuse to buy their children other pets. What would be the harm in buying some chicks?
Their kids would be hurt, and would feel sad for the dead chicks. Unfortunately they didn’t know that it was not their fault, but the toxins that made it so that these chicks would certainly die soon.
"Let's go and look inside." Zhang Zian moved first.
Famous followed behind him.
Richard hid in his hood, grieving for the poor chicks.