As Song Shi Cheng turned his head around, he saw a man walking his dog. Or rather, a handsome looking dandy boy with his hair slicked back walking a Tibetan mastiff.
Yeah, he's the cousin that Chui Zhi was talking about. No doubt about that.
"Woof woof!" the mastiff barked rather aggressively before Song Shi Cheng even said his greetings.
Ah Da was suddenly growling as well. It seemed like the two dogs have met each other before. In fact, if Song Shi Cheng didn't have the leash in his hand, Ah Da might've rushed over and started a bloodbath this very instance.
"Was it your dog who hurt A Da last time?" Song Shi Cheng asked in advance. He took the initiative of the conversation since he couldn't figure out who he was facing.
"That's right, my dear cousin!" said the man with a cocky attitude, "I came all the way here with this bad boy so I could apologize to you in person! As you can see, it's still a bit feral since I only got it recently. Be careful around It, alright?"
Even though the two dogs were roughly the same size, the Tibetan mastiff was slightly leaner and therefore more agile. That was probably the reason Ah Da lost the fight last time.
More importantly, this 'cousin' person didn't seem polite at all.
"You see, cousin? He's apologizing to you!" Cousin laughed sarcastically as the mastiff barked even louder.
The other dogs inside the pen were now whimpering in fear as they tried to call for the Caucasian shepherd's protection.
Cousin's laughter became even more abnoxious, "While you were still busy getting hospitalized, I decided to borrow your dog so I could test out how well mine could fight. Guess what? It turned out that Ah Da the champion wasn't so tough after all! Strange how my mastiff beat it so easily! Maybe Ah Da wasn't feeling so energetic after, you know, its master was sent to the hospital!"
Cousin didn't just stop there, though. He wasn't done yet.
"You got fucked up pretty bad this time, didn't you cousin? Tell me what happened, man. How did the young master of the great Fenghua Group get beaten up by a nobody? Look, if it's a revenge you are looking, come for my help anytime."
'Man, he's a pretty savage one,' Song Shi Cheng thought to himself. For a character that has never made an appearance in the main story, this cousin was already showing a lot of sass within just a few seconds.
Before he was talking about how Ah Da couldn't fight when his master wasn't him, and then he went on about how Song Shi Cheng was badly beaten shortly after his father passed away. Whoever this cousin thought he was, he was obviously trying to ridicule Song Shi Cheng by comparing him to a masterless dog.
Unlike Shen Yi Zhu who showed no competence whatsoever, Cousin was actually quite smart with his analogies. Maybe it wasn't just the main characters that Song Shi Cheng needed to be aware of. Even those who didn't make an appearance in the story could pose as threats to him.
"Thanks for the generous help you are offering, my good cousin, but I've decided deal with this business personally," Song Shi Cheng replied with a dry smile, "By the way, aren't you scared that mastiff might take a bite out of you? If you've only had him till recently, that means you took him in only after he has already matured."
As Song Shi Cheng was looking at the Tibetan mastiff, he secretly opened the store system and selected the 'consumable' slot. He then picked the item which was named 'the master's meat bone."
[Master's meat bone] Cost: 1 luck point. It is an A-ranked meat bone that was cooked with a mysterious hypnotic drug. Once fed to any creature that is below humankind, whoever fed the bone will be granted ten minutes to gain control over the creature that consumed it.
"Well, it's smart enough to recognize its own master," Cousin shrugged his shoulders, then continued to taunt Song Shi Cheng, "You've got a few dumb pets yourself, so why don't you just make a barbeque feast out of them, eh? Why bother wasting your time on dogs that can't even fight properly?"
"Ha! Geez, don't say stuff like that in front of them! What if they decide to make a feast out of you instead?"
While replying Cousin's classless jokes with a stiff smile on his face, Song Shi Cheng suddenly took out a meat bone from nowhere and threw it in front of the Tibetan mastiff.
Despite Cousin and Che Chui wondering where Song Shi Cheng got a meat bone from, the Tibetan mastiff quickly closed in and took a sniff from it. Then, in an almost hysterical way, the mastiff lunged at the bone and started munching on it like it was the best thing it had ever tasted.
What was more bizarre was that, even some of the dogs which were too scared by the mastiff were now panting heavily at the meat bone. Instead of hiding inside the dog pen like before, all of the them were now moving towards the pen's exit like they wanted to climb out of it.
"Hey, stop it you little twat!" Cousin yanked on the mastiff's leash in embarrassment, "So you would waggle your tail at anyone as long as they give you food, huh? What a low, undignified animal! "
However, with Song Shi Cheng's meat bone in effect, the Tibetan mastiff wasn't tolerating his master's abusive attitude any further. It was now staring at Cousin like it was about to attack him at any time.
"Shit, it's giving me the looks! Hey, behave yourself, you little bastard! I'll deal with you when I get home!"
Despite that Cousin obviously wasn't stopping with the verbal abuse, his hands was giving away the fact that he was feeling so brave after all. Instead of pulling on the rope in his hand, he was now holding it loosely like he was ready to drop it at any time.
Cousin didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Song Shi Cheng by stopping to curse at his dog, but this foolish act turned out to be his downfall.
In the next moment, the mastiff jumped at Cousin and started knawing on his shoulder.
"Agh!" Cousin shouted excruciatingly as the mastiff tackled him on the ground.
"Wow, he is a pretty smart boy," Song Shi Cheng stated calmly without any intention to help, "Look at how aggressive he got after you threatened to eat his family."
"What the fuck are you talking about? Get rid off this thing from me!" Cousin screamed as his clothe was now reddened with blood. The mastiff now had its entire weight on top of him.
"Hey, over here" Song Shi Cheng gestured Chui Zhi to come over with his finger, "Get some tools to rescue my good cousin over here."
Slowly. Song Shi Cheng whispered at the end of his sentence.
As numb-headed as Chui Zhi might seem, he still managed to catch Song Shi Cheng's signal and calmly walked away to go find some tools.
After Chui Zhi had disappeared from his sight, Song Shi Cheng turned to Cousin and smiled.
"Just wait here a bit, okay?" Song Shi Cheng said while standing still on his feet, then joked, "I don't think you can keep this mastiff anymore now it has had a taste of human blood. However you cook it when you get back home and we can a dog meat feast together sometime, hey Cousin?"
After having the last laugh in this conversation, Song Shi Cheng decided to simply walk away and ignored his cousin, who was now completely incapacitated from being able to get up.
'It wasn't like he was going to die to a dog anyways,' thought Song Shi Cheng. The meat bone was said to only have a ten minute effect. Plus, the shoulder was the only place where he ordered the mastiff to attack.
Since Song Shi Cheng wasn't certain how big of a deal his cousin was yet, he decided to not go too far to respond to the ridicules he was getting.
That being said, if this douchebag- or his parents even- had more ill intentions to the Fenghua group than just mockery and tease, Song Shi Cheng swore to God that he would do much worse than just an injured shoulder.
"Was that master Xuan's voice over there?" Ye Wen Sheng asked as he walked over in haste.
"Oh, that? It's nothing big. He got bitten while trying to walk his new dog," Song Shi Cheng said calmly.
"Huh," Ye Wen Sheng said in a much less worried voice, then commented, "I swear, that side of the family always make a fuss out of everything."
'So he is my blood related cousin,' Song Shi Cheng thought. Not only was Cousin actually a blood-related cousin, it appeared that that his side of the family wasn't quite liked at all.
That being said, Cousin still had some balls for talking to Song Shi Cheng that way. So that's how detrimental Father Song's death was.
Despite this experience being unpleasant for Song Shi Cheng, now he got a better understanding of his own current circumstances.
"Uncle Ye, could you do something for me please?" Song Shi Cheng asked to Ye Wen Sheng, "I want the profiles of all the upper members within our family including even our close relatives. Try to include all the details you can get including personality, hobbies and interpersonal ties. Just be as specific as you can?"
In response to the sudden request, Ye Wen Sheng asked with a raised brow, "May I ask what it's for, young master?"
"Um, it's for, you know. Now that father's passed away, I kind of want to start helping out the family business. Hey, I know I've sort just mucked around before, but I don't want Mother to bear all that responsibility onto herself. For now, I'll just learn as much as I can and try to contribute, okay uncle?"
Just as Song Shi Cheng expected, Ye We Sheng was quite moved by his proposal to help. Too bad he wasn't really asking for the profiles so he could help out the family business.
Throughout Father Song's entire life, he had failed time and time again to try to make Song Shi Cheng become a more production human being. In order to motivate his son, Father Song even gave Song Shi Cheng a fraction of his stock market shares and the title of board manager. However, even that hadn't made Song Shi Cheng to behave any more responsibly.
From Ye Wen Sheng's point of view, now that Father Song had passed away, it was truly a relief, a miracle even, that Song Shi Cheng was now offering to maintain the family business. Maybe Father Song could even truly rest in place now.
'Yes, young master! I'll get it done immediately!" Ye Wen Sheng answered energetically. He was feeling too emotional to question Song Shi Cheng's real intention behind asking for the profile..
'Good,' thought Song Shi Cheng, 'From now on, I can just say I want to help out the family whenever I want Ye Wen Sheng to do something for me."
As Ye We Sheng was wiping his eyes, Song Shi Cheng continued.
"Another thing. I'll try to convince my mother to accept the upcoming marriage arrangement. Please keep an eye for me on any collaborative events we might have with the other organizations."
"Young master…" Ye Wen Sheng said in a shaky voice, "Yes! This old man here will do everything he can to protect the Fenghua group! I'll never, ever let that old fox Sheng Guo Tao lay his filthy hand on this family!"
Shame. If only Ye Wen Sheng could know what Song Shi Cheng was actually thinking about, he would be in so much disappointment. Even after all that talk about trying to help, the only thing Song Shi Cheng could think of at this moment was the amount of luck point he would get if he were to marry Shen Xiao Yan.
As the two were having the time of their life bonding with each other, a loud, painful voice came over the distance.
"You little shit! I'll send you to the butchers! Ah, fuck! my arm's gone!"