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Gong Jiang waved, flashing a brilliant smile. "Shall we go now?"

Shi Wen asked, "Have you eaten breakfast?"

"I have, I have. If you haven't, I can wait for you."

"I ate too. I was worried you hadn't, so I wanted to ask whether you wanted something to eat here." Shi Wen smiled, put on his helmet, and pushed his motorcycle. "Then let's get ready to go."

Gong Jiang said, "All right. By the way, local purebred sheepdogs are fairly expensive. Have you looked into it?"

Sheepdogs were working dogs, and they really were not cheap.

The best sheepdogs could even cost as much as a calf.

Shi Wen had asked around when he had first wanted to buy one, so he had no objections.

Seeing that he knew what he was doing, Gong Jiang happily led him toward the herders' homes.

This was an area where many ethnic groups lived together. Besides the Han people, there were quite a few ethnic minorities.

The family they were visiting today belonged to one of those minority groups.

Gong Jiang had worked here with the team for more than two years and could speak a little of each ethnic group's language.

Shi Wen followed behind him, riding into a minority village and then into a ranch.

The ranch owner greeted Gong Jiang in his own ethnic language, then turned to Shi Wen. "Hello. Looking at dogs?"

Shi Wen quickly returned the greeting. "Yes."

The ranch owner's Mandarin was heavily accented and rather difficult to understand.

Listening to his introduction, Shi Wen only caught that there were five puppies in total. They had only recently been weaned and had not yet been promised to anyone, so he could choose whichever one he liked.

The dogs were kept outside the livestock shed. Their nest was thickly lined with dry grass, while the mother dog lay outside it, alert and fierce. Because her tail had been docked, she looked a little like a wild beast rather than a dog.

She barked at Shi Wen and Gong Jiang, only to be sternly stopped by the ranch owner.

The ranch owner led Shi Wen and Gong Jiang over to see the puppies.

All five puppies were black and white, plump with baby fat, as round as freshly baked cakes. They were soft and fluffy, with bits of dry grass still clinging to their fur.

The ranch owner bent down, casually grabbed one, and stuffed it into Shi Wen's hands, gesturing for him to inspect it as he pleased.

Shi Wen took it. The puppy was soft and warm. Held by a stranger, it whimpered and pawed anxiously at Shi Wen's hand with its tiny fleshy paws.

"Good boy." Shi Wen soothingly stroked the puppy, and it quickly calmed down.

The puppy's chubby belly rested in Shi Wen's palm. He checked its ears and tail, felt along its back through the fur, examined the width of its nose and the heft of its bones, then held it by the scruff to observe its posture.

The ranch owner rattled off a few words in his ethnic language. Realizing Shi Wen could not understand, he switched to heavily accented Mandarin. "Very good puppy. More than a hundred years."

Gong Jiang said, "The old man means that this breed of dog is excellent, and his family has raised this kind of sheepdog for more than a hundred years."

Shi Wen gently set the puppy down and went to inspect another one. "That really is a long lineage."

The ranch owner said proudly, "My grandfather's grandfather was here!"

Shi Wen inspected the puppies one by one. They were all good, but something was missing. They were not the sheepdogs he had envisioned.

The ranch owner could tell that Shi Wen had not taken a liking to any of them. He did not mind and invited them inside for tea.

Shi Wen and Gong Jiang politely declined. They still needed to hurry to the next family.

The puppies at the second home were good as well—lively, clever, and quite fine-looking.

Gong Jiang had probably specially selected them for him. Their qualities were all better than those of ordinary puppies, and their bloodlines were very pure. They would certainly be excellent at herding.

Shi Wen took a look and acknowledged their outstanding qualities, but he still did not choose one.

He always felt that something was missing. There was no connection.

Until the third home.

The third family had three puppies in total. Two were chubby and sturdier than ordinary puppies of the same age, while the third was somewhat frail.

When Shi Wen held the frail puppy in his palm, it lowered its head and touched his finger with its wet nose. Its black eyes, veiled in grayish blue, stared at him as soft whimpers came from its nose.

He had seen so many puppies today—affectionate ones, fierce ones, clever ones—but none had caught his eye.

Now that he saw this puppy, although some of its traits did not quite meet the selection criteria, Shi Wen was struck at once. He felt, There's no need to look any further. This is the one.

It was an intuitive feeling, something almost mystical.

Shi Wen trusted his intuition.

Holding the puppy, he said to the woman beside him, Nurguli, "I'd like to choose this one."

Nurguli glanced at him and spoke a passage to Gong Jiang in her ethnic language.

Shi Wen did not understand. Gong Jiang translated for him, "This puppy was born relatively weak. Don't choose it just because it's pretty. For a sheepdog, it's better to choose a stronger one."

If Gong Jiang had not said so, Shi Wen would not even have noticed the puppy's looks.

He lifted the puppy before his eyes and examined it closely.

It looked like a black-and-white Border Collie with a very symmetrical facial pattern, though more imposing than a Border Collie, with slightly curly fur.

Meeting Shi Wen's gaze, the puppy stuck out its pink little tongue and licked him again, letting out a soft whimper. It was utterly adorable.

Shi Wen smiled. "I'm not choosing it because it's pretty. I just feel that it suits me."

After hearing the translation and studying Shi Wen's expression, Nurguli confirmed that he was serious and named a price of eight hundred yuan.

Compared with other sheepdogs, this was already quite a low price, perhaps because the puppy was rather frail.

Shi Wen did not bargain and paid readily.

The puppy was warm. Shi Wen placed it in a bag and tied the bag in front of himself.

Through the bag, the puppy obediently leaned against Shi Wen's leg without making a sound or moving.

Feeling the puppy's warm little body, Shi Wen's heart nearly melted.

Gong Jiang asked, "Are we still going to look at more?"

Shi Wen said, "Since we're already out, let's finish seeing them."