Chapter 435: Delicious Salty Food
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian reluctantly ate the food in the lunchbox. The cold and hard rice was difficult for him to swallow, and he felt uncomfortable when it reached his stomach. After finishing the meal, and under Xu Junyu's instructions, he put the lunchboxes, along with Xu Junyu's lunchbox, into a plastic bag and went to throw them into the recycling bin. Xu Junyu went to wash her chopsticks after thanking Zhang Zian for his help.
When he returned, Xu Junyu was also back. She carried a small rectangular hard plastic box with her. After rinsing the chopsticks, she placed them into the box.
"Is there a deli nearby?" Zhang Zian asked. Famous and the two police dogs had not eaten enough. If there was a deli nearby, he intended to buy something for them.
"No." She shook her head. "Didn’t you see it when you came here? The studio is surrounded by wilderness, and the facilities have not yet been set up. Besides, providing lunch and dinner is an important income-generating means for the studio, so no takeout food is allowed here."
Holding the chopsticks box, she pointed to the actors in the center of the venue. "Although these celebrities usually lead extravagant lives, they still need to be approachable to the crew, and can’t ask for privileged treatment. They just eat what we eat."
Zhang Zian understood her meaning. She was advising him not to seek special treatment. If the entire crew was eating rubbish and he got himself a gourmet meal, he would easily make others resent him.
The deputy director called Xu Junyu over to discuss the issue of makeup. There must be differences on the leading actor Lin Feng’s face to reflect the changes in his age.
Since the shooting in the afternoon had not begun yet, Zhang Zian had nothing to do. He took out his cell phone and sent messages to Sun Xiaomeng.
Zhang Zian: "Do you have time? I want to ask you about something."
About ten minutes later.
Sun Xiaomeng: "One-hundred-yuan consulting fee for each piece of advice."
Zhang Zian: "Why don’t you go rob a bank? Seriously, do you know what the police dogs usually eat every day?"
Sun Xiaomeng: "Yep. A classmate of mine became a veterinarian at a police dog training base after graduation, and we often chat to exchange experience."
Zhang Zian couldn’t understand the psychosphere of the scholars. He sent another message to her: "Well, can you help me identify if there will be a problem if police dogs eat this?" He took a picture of the lunchbox and sent the image to her.
There would be no problem if ordinary dogs ate the food, but he worried that police dogs were more delicate, and might suffer from diarrhea and the like. Xiao Liu and Xiao Wang had asked him to take care of their dogs, and he had confidently promised them he would. If the police dogs fell ill in his hands, he would be too embarrassed to face their owners.
After a while, Sun Xiaomeng replied: "Isn’t this a lunchbox? The amount of food is less than usual, but the police dogs will be fine eating it."
Zhang Zian couldn’t believe this: "Really?"
Sun Xiaomeng: "Of course. Wait a second."
Zhang Zian waited for a while before Sun Xiaomeng sent him a picture.
Sun Xiaomeng: "This is a paper from Agriculture and Technology, Issue 19, 2016. I asked my classmate to send it to me. The paper is about how to raise police dogs, and don’t think it’s a very hard job to do."
Zhang Zian zoomed in on the picture to read carefully. There were generally two kinds of foods for police dogs: the homemade type, and the mass produced type. The mass produced type was pellet feed, which was nutritionally balanced, easy to use and store, but due to the dishonesty of some manufacturers, the quality of pellet feed couldn’t be guaranteed. The other type was the homemade feed—mixed vegetables and meat for the police dogs. Although the lunchbox was shabby, seriously speaking, it was quite nutritionally balanced with cabbage, cucumber, garlic, meat, eggs, and tomatoes in it.
Sun Xiaomeng said the amount of food was less than usual, because this paper mentioned that the full grown police dogs had more daily activity, and they needed to consume 2 to 3 kilograms of rice per day. But the rice in that lunchbox was no more than 0.6 kg. Zhang Zian estimated that the two police dogs and Famous were only half full.
Zhang Zian: "Well, I got it. Thanks."
Sun Xiaomeng: "I don’t care about you saying thanks. Save it. Just send me red packets."
Zhang Zian decided to pretend that he had not read this message and then put the phone back into his pocket.
The lunch was slightly salty, but it should not be an issue. Unlike cats, dogs must consume salt. Similar to human beings, dogs would suffer from hair loss and be susceptible to fatigue if their salt intake was insufficient. Fully grown, medium sized dogs such as German Shepherds must consume at least half a gram of salt daily. In fact, all dog food being sold in the market was salty. Don’t ask him how he knew about this…
The afternoon was busier than the morning. In addition to Famous, the other two police dogs also debuted as the supporting roles in the training scenes. The police dogs only listened to their owners, and Zhang Zian wasn’t unable to command them. Fortunately, Famous could tell them what to do. Though they were not as good as Famous at performing, at least they made no big mistakes.
By evening, all three dogs were hungry, and even Famous couldn’t run as fast as before. No evening scenes needed to be filmed that day. Feng Xuan looked at the sky and decided to call it a day.
Zhang Zian had been pondering during his break in the afternoon about how to make the dogs eat enough food, which would be best if it was hot. Even for his own sake, he did not want to eat cold food. As for the harmony in the crew, he didn’t give a damn about that!
"Xiao Zhang! What are you thinking about? We are getting off work, you want to join us for dinner? It’s Director Feng’s treat today. He’s going to throw a welcoming party for the new staff," Xu Junyu said to him. Zhang Zian noticed that most people did not leave, happily waiting for the free dinner.
At this time, Feng Xuan also came towards him and smiled. "Zhang, come on, join us. You’ve done very well today, and shooting is going much smoother than I expected. I was very worried before if these dogs would obey, but it seems that my worry was completely unnecessary. If possible, I really hope you can train the other dogs." Feng Xuan was referring to the German Shepherds led by other dog trainers. These dogs hadn’t behaved very well in the afternoon. They barked and ran around in the venue sometimes, disrupting shooting several times.
Zhang Zian thought for a moment and asked, "What about these dogs?"
Feng Xuan pointed to the standing iron cages not far from him. "Simple, put them in the cages and take them after dinner. Dogs are certainly not allowed in the restaurant."
"Well, I have some things to do tonight. Let’s get together later when we have time." Feng Xuan’s answer was almost what Zhang Zian had expected, so he politely refused. He knew that this sort of welcoming party would certainly be very lively. After dinner, they may also want to go to KTV, so the party would last at least three hours. The temperature dropped very quickly at night. That coupled with the blowing wind, he could not bear to let Famous and the two police dogs freeze in the cages for a few hours.
Feng Xuan said another few words, but Zhang Zian insisted that he had things to do. Xu Junyu had roughly guessed why he did not want to go. She did not say anything.