Having Both a Cat and a Dog

February 1st, 7 days until the blizzard.

Ming Rong was excited to be going out with her sister today after being cooped up at home for several days. She got up even earlier than Ming Jiu.

While they were eating breakfast, Ming Jiu received a call from the modular housing factory. The two capsule units for the guesthouse had been renovated, and they needed Ming Jiu to come inspect them. If there were no problems, delivery could be arranged.

After settling on an approximate time, the sisters sped up their eating.

Once breakfast was over, Ming Jiu and Ming Rong quickly packed their luggage. Ming Jiu checked out and moved the suitcases to their new home.

The night before, Ming Rong had carefully prepared a cat carrier, a dog leash, heat packs, and pet pee pads. Once everything was packed, they drove toward City L.

They first went to the warehouse management office at the farmers' market to return the warehouse key and collect the deposit. Then Ming Jiu opened her navigation app and headed for a dog market in a nearby town. On the way, she spotted a small coal yard advertisement on the wall of a house by the main road. She immediately pulled over and started making calls.

In northern rural areas, people generally bought enough honeycomb coal in September or October to last the entire winter. It was the off-season now, but Ming Jiu was lucky—the factory she contacted still had a fairly ample supply in stock.

The factory was nearby. After hanging up, Ming Jiu turned the car around and drove straight there.

On the way, Ming Jiu did some rough calculations—since there was a system store, she could directly buy energy boxes and use various electric heaters for warmth. Coal and other fuels were not necessities for her.

She was only buying honeycomb coal for appearances' sake and as a precaution, so there was no need to stockpile too much. Ten thousand pieces would be enough.

Besides, the three Zuo Junhao warehouses she had her eye on also had coal in storage, so it was not a major issue.

When they arrived at the factory, Ming Jiu did not let her sister get out of the car and went straight to place the order.

Each honeycomb coal briquette weighed around one and a half jin. Ten thousand of them weighed 7.5 tons in total.

Ming Jiu also ordered ten stoves with water tanks and ovens, along with several large boxes of matching fire tongs, chimneys, solid alcohol fire starters, and wax blocks.

When she noticed the bricks placed between the stove and the tiled floor in the factory office, Ming Jiu bought quite a few firebricks as well.

She paid the deposit and delivery fee in cash, left the owner the address of the old factory district, and arranged for delivery that afternoon.

After another half-hour of driving, they finally reached the town.

The dog market in town was fairly large. It opened every weekend, and it was bustling right now. Stall after stall lined the market, and the moment Ming Jiu got out of the car, she heard all kinds of puppies barking.

Ming Rong's eyes lit up. Once she made sure Ming Jiu had the cat carrier secured on her back, she grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her into the market.

This was more like a general pet market, really. There were mostly dogs and cats, but also smaller pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters. Ming Jiu even saw a ferret stall, and Ming Rong squatted before its cages for quite a while.

The weather was cold, so most of the vendors had wrapped the outside of their cages in thick insulation. The breeds of cats and dogs were simply written on signs hanging outside, and only interested buyers got to take a look.

They had mainly come for the dog Ming Jiu wanted today. Ming Rong's zero-cost shopping—no, adoption—plan would have to wait a little longer.

After walking through over half the market, Ming Jiu had seen all kinds of breeds. Most were small and medium-sized dogs, while large dogs were few and far between. She had not even caught sight of the native mastiff she had been longing for.

Ming Jiu was squatting in front of a stall selling wolfdogs and German shepherds, observing the puppies inside through the ventilation gap in the cage, when she felt Ming Rong tug at her hat.

She looked in the direction Ming Rong was pointing and saw an old electric microcar squeezed behind two neighboring stalls.

A sheet of cardboard hung outside the microcar, bearing neat brush-written characters.

[Five-black dog. Home-raised, not from a dog farm. Only pup. Female. Two months old. Vaccinated (one shot).]

Ming Jiu understood and led Ming Rong straight toward the microcar.

Only after going around the stalls in front did Ming Jiu see the owner of the microcar—an older man who perfectly fit her stereotype of a dependable middle-aged or elderly northern man. He had a rough, rugged air about him, but he was dressed neatly.

The old man was sitting in the driver's seat with his hands tucked in his sleeves, dozing off. Ming Jiu knocked on the window for a long time before he woke up.

Too lazy to get out, the old man only rolled down the window a crack. A puff of warmth escaped through the gap, and Ming Jiu saw that he had a small space heater running in the car.

"You girls want to see the dog?"

Ming Jiu nodded. "I want to raise a native mastiff. I've been looking all day, and yours is the only one I've found. Can I take a look?"

"Sure, hang on."

The old man got up from his seat, bent over into the back compartment, grabbed the puppy, and placed it on the seat to show Ming Jiu through the window.

A fluffy, chubby little black ball—the baby form of the Black Bear Spirit from Journey to the West.

Ming Jiu fell for it at first sight. She had no complaints about the old man's way of showing the puppy. It was too cold; if he took the pup out every time someone came to look, it would freeze.

"Look at that muzzle. Nice and broad, right? And those paws—thick and sturdy. See its tongue? Pitch-black!"

The old man lifted the puppy by the scruff. "Look at the tail. Even lifted up like this, it doesn't tuck its tail. It's got a good temperament too."

"My Black Girl only had this one pup in her litter. Look at it—bigger than an ordinary two-month-old native mastiff by a whole size."

Ming Rong stood on tiptoe, her face nearly pressed against the window.

Ming Jiu made up her mind at once. "Sir, I want to raise her. How much are you selling her for?"

The old man was quite pleased with Ming Jiu's straightforward attitude.

"Not bad. You're a discerning one, girl. My little Black Girl isn't sold separately. Wait a moment."

As he spoke, the old man set Black Girl on the seat and bent into the back compartment again.

Not sold separately? What did that mean? Was he selling the mother dog along with her?

That would be fine too. An adult dog ready to go was also nice.

On the seat, Black Girl tilted her head and curiously studied Ming Jiu and Ming Rong with her round black eyes.

Ming Rong was delighted. She excitedly nudged Ming Jiu twice with her elbow, then copied Black Girl and tilted her own head.

The more Ming Jiu looked, the more she liked the puppy. She took the cat carrier off her back, tore open a heat pack, and stuck it to the bottom of the carrier, already impatient to take little Black Girl home.

The old man rummaged around in the back compartment for a long time. The rear window was covered with insulation, so they could not see what was happening inside.

Just as Ming Jiu began wondering whether the old man could bring the big dog from the back to the front of the car, he finally straightened up, holding another fluffy little black ball in his hand.

Ming Rong vigorously slapped Ming Jiu's arm—Ming Jiu saw it clearly now. The old man was holding a little black kitten, which looked only two or three months old.

So that was what he meant by not selling them separately.

The old man placed the little black cat beside little Black Girl. The puppy immediately stretched out a paw and pulled the kitten beneath her.

It was obvious that the two little ones were best friends.

"This little black cat was brought home by my Black Girl from who knows where. Its eyes hadn't even opened yet. My dog raised it. Later, she had her puppy, and she raised and fed them together. If you want to raise them, you've got to take both. I won't sell them separately. The two of them start crying whenever they're apart."

As he spoke, the old man bent down and rummaged beneath the seat for something.

"The cat's free. The dog costs a thousand. Let me find the papers..."

The old man pulled out two vaccination booklets and several sheets of paper, passing them through the window gap.

The vaccination booklets bore the name of a pet hospital in City L. Little Black Girl had already received one dose of the canine five-in-one vaccine, while the little black cat had received one dose of the feline triple vaccine.

The sheets of paper were the little black cat's health check report. It was very healthy. The checkup alone had cost several hundred yuan, yet the old man only wanted one thousand yuan for the two little ones together.

That was really not much. Rather than selling the dog, it was more like the old man was finding a dependable home for the dog and cat.