Cold Dark Cloud Lightning and Two Straight Losses

[Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. Hope everything goes smoothly for you in the coming year o(〃＾▽＾〃)o]

After the auction ended that day, Zhang Jun eagerly went to complete the handover procedures. Luo Heng had terrible luck today; everything had gone over his budget, and he had not managed to buy a single horse.

Dark Cloud Lightning had already been led into the stable to wait for her new owner. The auction groom was preparing her final meal here.

She stood quietly, facing the back wall of the stable. Her tail flicked occasionally, her gaze indifferent, while her ears remained pinned back.

Hearing Zhang Jun's approaching footsteps, Dark Cloud Lightning's ears twitched, but she still did not turn around.

Zhang Jun walked to the stable, greeted the groom, and did not rush to introduce himself to Dark Cloud Lightning. He simply stood at the entrance and watched her quietly.

After a while, Dark Cloud Lightning slowly turned her head. Her large dark-brown eyes calmly looked at Zhang Jun with a hint of scrutiny.

This girl's intelligence stat is definitely at least A-grade!

Zhang Jun praised her inwardly. Smiling, he took a round carrot-flavored horse treat from his pocket, placed it in his palm, and held it out before Dark Cloud Lightning—ever since learning to make horse treats, Zhang Jun carried nothing but these things on him.

After watching Zhang Jun for a while, Dark Cloud Lightning seemed to sense his friendliness. She lowered her head and sniffed his palm and the horse treat in it, then looked up at him.

Then, she touched Zhang Jun's palm with her wet pink nose before opening her mouth and eating the treat.

Her chewing was very quiet. Zhang Jun knew she still had some guard up around him.

Zhang Jun crouched down to ease Dark Cloud Lightning's wariness. He took out horse treats in other flavors and shapes and introduced them to her one by one.

"This one has sugar and apple in it. It's the club's horse treat, Shadow Hunter's favorite flavor. He's my first horse, and I treat him like a younger brother. He..."

Dark Cloud Lightning chewed quietly as she listened. Her gaze gradually softened, losing its coldness, and her ears lifted slightly from her head.

She sniffed each of the horse treats Zhang Jun took out before eating them, as though memorizing the scents of the little horses he had introduced.

The sky gradually darkened. Jianzhou Ranch's horse transport truck stopped outside the grounds, and Zhang Jun personally led Dark Cloud Lightning onto it before sitting with her in the back.

She stood quietly inside the carriage. Her ears were no longer pinned against her head, but slightly pricked up.

The days passed. With no suitable races to enter, Cloudstream Flying Shadow competed in a Class A Winter Plum Special after the auction and returned to Jianzhou Ranch to graze after winning.

Pouring River Moon had already finished his final race of the season before the auction began, a 2,000-meter Class B Lower race, and had returned to the ranch to graze even earlier than Cloudstream Flying Shadow.

After that, Flying Cloud Colt entered a 2,000-meter Class B2 race on Friday of the third week of January. After winning easily, he too returned to Jianzhou Ranch for grazing.

February arrived quickly. Over these past dozen days, Zhang Jun had built a good relationship with Dark Cloud Lightning.

Now, whenever Dark Cloud Lightning saw Zhang Jun, she no longer pinned her ears back in wary alertness as she had at first.

Though her personality still kept her from becoming close to Zhang Jun, whenever he beckoned, she obediently walked over and allowed him to stroke her.

Zhang Jun stroked Dark Cloud Lightning's forehead with a smile, stepped back two paces, took out his phone, snapped a photo of her, and uploaded it to the "Daily Life of the Little Horses" account.

Caption: A new child joining our big family, Dark Cloud Lightning. Please take good care of her from now on.

The account, which had already gained quite a few fans thanks to Shadow Hunter and Cloudstream Flying Shadow, quickly became lively in the comments.

Celestial Strategy Manor Soldier: [A new family member? Let me see who it is. Wait, I know this horse! Isn't this Dark Cloud Lightning, the one who won the LOP Camellia Special over in Sanyuan?]

Southeast Splendor: [That's her, all right. I checked! Sire: Stormcloud Leopard. Dam: Roll Cloud. Twenty-one career starts, five wins. Major victories include the Anshan Camellia Special and the Sanyuan Special Prize.]

Who Says Women Are Inferior to Men: [Wuwuwu, the new mare big sister is so beautiful! I love that cool, aloof aura!]

Back in his room at the ranch, Zhang Jun scrolled through the comments with a smile curling at his lips.

In the first week of February, due to the race schedule in Min Province, Forest Warrior, who had just turned three, had no Class A or Class B races to enter.

So Zheng Xing selected a three-year-old-only LOP race for Forest Warrior: the 1,600-meter dirt GT Special held at Funing Racecourse.

The sky was cloudless that day, and sunlight shone upon the earth, bringing traces of warmth to the cold winter day.

Zhang Jun sat in the owner's box, enjoying the warm breeze blown out by the heater.

Through the window of the box, he could see fifteen racehorses circling in warm-up before the gates.

Zhang Jun looked over them one by one:

[Speed: F]

[Health: C]

[Explosiveness: C+]

[Mentality: B+]

[Speed: E+]

[Distance: 1400–1800]

Their attributes were basically all lower than Forest Warrior's. It looked like this was another sure win. Zhang Jun nodded in satisfaction and was just raising his juice for a sip when his eyes suddenly widened.

Wait, had a Speed E+ just flashed past him?

Zhang Jun looked over the herd again, locking his gaze onto a tall bay colt:

[Horse Name: Wind Through Pines

Sex and Age: Three-Year-Old Colt

Coat Color: Chestnut

Racing Attributes:

Speed: E+

Explosiveness: B

Growth Type: Early Maturer

Breeding Attributes:

Offspring: 4]

Zhang Jun frowned. An early maturer, with Speed E+, one grade higher than Forest Warrior's E, and Explosiveness B, only one grade below Forest Warrior's.

It could be said that if Forest Warrior failed to accelerate before Wind Through Pines and open up a safe lead, this race would most likely be over.

Zhang Jun rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"I knew we'd have to lose sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to come so quickly. This sucks."

Sure enough, it happened just as Zhang Jun had expected.

When the race reached the final straight, Ning Fei decisively caught up to the number four horse that had led the entire race, but Wind Through Pines, who had been running behind, caught him at the fifty-meter mark. They lost by half a length.

Outside the stable, Zheng Xing lowered his head in shame and apologized. "I'm terribly sorry. I failed to devise a good strategy."

Zhang Jun had already mentally prepared himself, so he was not upset at all.

He waved his hand. "It's racing. Who can avoid losing? Do you remember the racing philosophy I told you about?"

Zheng Xing raised his head. "I remember. One win is not worth a lifetime."

"Just as I said, winning or losing isn't important. What matters is safety. Even if they lose, as long as the little horses are safe and well, that's enough."

Zhang Jun reached out and rubbed Forest Warrior's little ears.

The kid was not sad about losing at all. He was happily stuffing himself with feed and horse treats without a care in the world.

Ψ(￣∀￣)Ψ Awoo, awoo

In the second week of February, Mountain Patrol Leopard finished second in the 1,600-meter turf LOP Green Wheat Special, losing by a full three lengths—the winning horse had made a breakaway run from the start, then somehow unleashed another burst of speed in the final straight.

After chasing for a hundred meters and realizing she could not catch up, Shan Yao saw that the horses behind her had already been left four or five lengths behind by Mountain Patrol Leopard, so she simply chose not to keep chasing.

Zhang Jun greatly approved of this—he had long said that one win was not worth a lifetime. Since they could not win anyway, they might as well conserve some strength and reduce the risk of injury.

He even raised a glass to Shan Yao at the post-race gathering because of it.