Shu Sha had decided last night to follow Ma HuiYu and the other animal protectionists to go on the highway to save dogs, but she only told me today at 8 in the morning.
The reason why she didn’t notify me in advance was probably because she was worried I wouldn’t be able to sit still and also head to the pet hospital early in the morning.
In the class leader’s eyes, I was a patient who needed to be cared for. Of course, it would be better for me to avoid unnecessary troubles and rest at home.
However, I couldn’t really rest after hearing about their troubles. My heart condition is controllable, but even if it couldn’t be controlled, I still couldn’t stay at home.
Ma HuiYu was not the oldest, nor the most qualified, but she was the most active member. Although she wasn’t the leader, she could be at least considered as their spokesperson.
Since Niu Zong, the most qualified and eldest member was absent, Ma HuiYu acted as the interim leader. The group doesn’t really have a defined hierarchy anyway. Everyone was united in their stance towards animal rights and there were very few internal conflicts. (The Zong in Niu Zong means chief.)
However, Ma HuiYu miscalculated. The truck that was stopped on the highway with 16 volunteers including herself and Shu Sha on Tuesday did not contain stolen dogs, only more than 200 meat dogs with proper documentation.
“Do you guys want to die?”
There were two people in charge of transport. The truck driver was black-faced burly man who felt like a bandit. He was wearing a greasy white vest that was stained with engine oil and veins bulging out from both his arms. If a single woman met him in the middle of the night, they would immediately turn and run away.
The man in the passenger seat had a pale face and also thinner face, but it was only the face. He was half a head taller than the black-faced man, and the treacherousness seen in his face could be felt from two miles away.
Both of these two men had the surnames of Zeng. The black-faced man was referred to as ‘Zeng Lao Da’ (Lao Da means eldest), while the white-faced man was referred to as ‘Zeng Lao Liu’ (Lao Liu means the sixth sibling). They sound like they are brothers, but they don’t look alike at all.
The volunteers secretly referred to the two of them as Heibai Wuchang, since they were bringing over 200 dogs to the slaughterhouse.
After the black-faced Zeng Lao Da boss saw a group of people holding hands, and saw one of them holding a sign with a heart painted on it, plus nine large letters: “We obey the law, we love life”, he immediately knew he ran into a group trying to save dogs.
“Fuck, believe it or not, I’ll run you over.”
If it wasn’t for the white-faced Zeng Lao Liu stopping him, Zeng Lao Da really might not have stopped.
Thus the two brothers were at a standoff with the 16 volunteers formed a standoff. While the other side had more people, the Zeng brothers were extremely arrogant and Zeng Lao Da said words like “You want to die?”.
There was a reason why the brothers were arrogant. It was because out of the 16 volunteers Ma HuiYu called out today, the vast majority were women, and Shu Sha wasn’t the only female student. Out of the three male volunteers, Xiao Ding looked the strongest. He trained his body a lot in order to chase after Shu Zhe, but if he looked the strongest, then you could even imagine how frail the other two men were.
“We suspect that you have dogs without proper documentation in your truck.” Ma HuiYu was not intimidated by the Zeng brothers and uttered the most common phrase used by volunteers when they stop a car to save dogs.
“That’s right.” Another older woman also said bravely, “We already called the police, so they will be here soon. We want to see your cargo.”
“I think these bitches are tired of living…” Zeng Lao Da rubbed one fists on his palm and was about to cause trouble, but was stopped by Zeng Lao Liu.
“The traffic police are coming, we can just show them the back. We’re not doing anything wrong and we bought all these dogs. It’s not like they’re going to forcibly take all the dogs from us.”
“What’s going on?” Two traffic police walked over and began to question why they were blocking cars and disturbing traffic. The volunteers all began speaking at once to speak about the situation.
The traffic police had a headache once they heard that the car was stopped to save the dogs. It was something that was happening all over the country and it was very controversial. If they didn’t deal with it quickly, it would result in traffic congestion, but if they deal with it, they would be scolded regardless of which side they help. The dog dealer, Zeng Lao Da, had a very aggressive tone, but the traffic police weren’t afraid since long-distance drivers generally had bad tempers and they were used to it. But the animal protection group that was made up of mostly women, made the traffic police feel nervous and uneasy. A lot of radical animal protectionists in the country had integrated with the international ones and they always say life comes first, but what they really meant was “animal lives comes first” and they were on par with terrorist groups.
The two traffic police had a lot of experience and first told both sides to calm down, then asked the Zeng brothers to show their license along with any documentation for the dogs. They also told the brothers to open the back so that the volunteers could see there were 15 large steel cages with more than 200 farmed meat dogs, in line with the number of dogs on the documentation. The Zeng brothers did not break any laws when transporting the dogs.
It was a scenario the class leader was the most worried about. They couldn’t prove that the other party broke any laws, so that means they were breaking the law by stopping cars on the highway. The dogs in the steel cages also had really poor living conditions. The cages were extremely crowded to the point where their paws were almost all off the ground and their fur was a mess. Their innocent eyes looking out of the cages were filled with despair. It immediately caused some dog-loving ladies among the volunteers to cry out, the scene was a mess.
“Officer, we can go now, right?” The white-faced Zeng Lao Liu handed the traffic police a cigarette, which they refused.
“You can’t let them leave.” The middle-aged woman who had spoken earlier was carrying a rather expensive leather bag. Her tears had blurred her thick makeup, “These dogs are so pitiful, but they actually want to heartlessly transport them to the slaughterhouse. We’re going to buy these dogs, we can’t leave a single one to them.”
Zeng Lao Liu frowned and his gaze fell on the middle-aged woman’s purse, he said sarcastically: “Rich lady, you can just stay at home and spend your husband’s money, why come out to meddle in other people’s business? In our eyes, there’s no difference between dogs or pigs, so why don’t you go save the pigs? Also, as for your purse, I wonder which animal’s skin it’s made from…”
The rich woman was enraged and quickly interrupted Zeng Lao Liu: “My purse if made from synthetic leather and I’m also a vegetarian. None of them volunteers present will even harm an animal, because you will receive retribution in your next life if you do harm animals.”
The class leader, who was standing at the back of the crowd, couldn’t help but lower her head with a little guilt as she thought: she once shot and killed a wild boar that had hurt people before with her uncle. Due to her hunter nature, she didn’t have much sympathy for the other animals in the forest. If she had a food emergency, it’s possible she would resort to using traps to catch small rabbits to eat.
That’s why the class leader felt very conflicted. She really liked dogs and cats, so she separated them from other animals which made her a narrow-minded animal protectionist. In the eyes of the rich woman, she may be considered a ruthless animal killer, a heretic who has infiltrated their group.
“Let’s leave that for our next life.” Zeng Lao Liu ignored the rich woman and continued to speak to the traffic police, “Can we leave now? If we take too much time, our boss will deduct from our wages.”
“Don’t even think about leaving.” The rich woman saw Zeng Lao Da about to close the back door so that more than 200 dogs to be slaughtered would be sent back into darkness, she immediately lost control of her emotions. She also forgot to even be afraid as she went forward and grabbed onto Zeng Lao Da’s vest, then shouted: “The truck can go, but the dogs must stay.”
The rich woman’s makeup had been completely ruined by her tears and it looked like she was a Peking Opera singer. Zeng Lao Da was initially stunned, then said angrily: “Fuck off.”
He casually shoved her, but she leaned a bit and fell back onto the asphalt road. Luckily, she was pretty big and had a thick layer of body fat, so she didn’t really get injured.
“They’re hitting me! They’re hitting me!” The rich woman laid on the ground and didn’t get up, but she cried out, “Where’s the justice? Where’s the law?”
“How can you hit someone?” The three men couldn’t keep watching anymore and walked forward with Xiao Ding in the lead.
Zeng Lao Da looked at Xiao Ding, who looked like an otaku, with contempt and grunted: “She was the one who grabbed my clothes first. I only pushed her off me, it’s not my damn fault she couldn’t stand still.”
“Murder! They’re committing murder!” The rich woman cried out even louder from the ground, “Not only are they going to kill the dogs, but they’re also going to kill a person! These scoundrels should be bitten to death by dogs…”
At this time, Ma HuiYu finished a phone call. She didn’t get involved with the black-faced Zeng Lao Da, but went directly to the white-faced Zeng Lao Liu to try to negotiate with him.
“Mr. Zeng, Niu Zong told us we intend to buy all your dogs. What price do you think is appropriate?”
She was using diplomacy before violence. She said in front of Shu Sha that “dog eaters are demons”, but she wasn’t as emotional as the rich woman. She at least called Zeng Lao Liu as “Mr. Zeng”.
“So Niu Zong is very rich, isn’t he.” Zeng Lao Liu stroked his smooth chin with interest, “Since you’re so sincere, then I’ll sell you the dogs a little cheaper, a thousand dollars each.”
Ma HuiYu’s face changed: “That’s extortion.”
Zeng Lao Liu tilted his head, “The dogs are our goods, so I can set whatever price I want. Are you going to buy them by force? Don’t tell me you’re going to snatch them from us right in front of the police?”
“Please cherish your time and mines.” Ma HuiYu tried her best to control her anger, “Hurry up and state a reasonable price, or you won’t be able to go on your way and we won’t be able to rescue those dogs who are already in a bad condition.”
Zeng Lao Liu said, “You guys were the ones who had nothing better to do and wasted our time first. Also, didn’t you say ‘life is priceless’, so why do you think a thousand dollars to buy a life is too expensive? You guys can just head to Guangzhou and wait for these dogs to be cooked, then they will be much cheaper.”
“They’re going to go down eighteen levels of hell, they’re going to go down eighteen levels of hell!” The rich woman continued to lie on the ground while thrashing her arms and legs. She was obviously crying, but it all looked very comical.
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