Chapter 132: Defying the Heavens

The female owner was afraid that the dog would disturb the staff, and several times tried to carry the Shih Tzu away. But the dog acted as though it did not recognize its own owner. Whenever she reached for it, the Shih Tzu would scare her off by biting at her.

In the end, she could only let things take their course and leave the matter unresolved. Instead, she chose to carry her younger daughter away.

Since strangers were present, it was impossible to film the Shih Tzu’s usual behavior. The staff could do nothing but install several fixed cameras before hurriedly leaving.

When Zhang Congwen watched the prerecorded footage, he felt as though darkness had descended before his eyes.

These dog owners had failed both as pet owners and as parents. From any angle, they were utterly incompetent.

Song Jiawei was even more blunt. “This couple doesn’t deserve to keep a dog, and they certainly don’t deserve to raise a child.”

Zhang Congwen felt that the remark was somewhat extreme, but the couple’s behavior was indeed difficult to defend.

After saying this, Zhang Congwen began analyzing the Shih Tzu.

“The problem with this Shih Tzu isn’t merely that it’s jealous. It also doesn’t know how to express affection properly. If it were eight months old instead of eight years old, then what it’s doing might be barely understandable and acceptable. A little training would be enough. But at its current age, behaving like this makes it a full-fledged infant in the canine world.”

Once he had organized his approach to the training, Zhang Congwen and the others arrived in force at the home of the canine infant.

From the moment they stepped inside, the dog barked without pause. By contrast, the dachshund beside it remained perfectly calm, its emotions remarkably stable.

Even after everyone had taken their seats, the canine infant was still extremely agitated, constantly trying to get the strangers to pet it.

The two owners, Feng Zhaoyang and Su Xian, did nothing. Feng Zhaoyang stood silently to one side with their younger daughter in his arms, while Su Xian merely watched coldly.

Zhang Congwen frowned. “Could you please carry it away for now?”

Only then did the female owner react. She stood up and gathered the Shih Tzu into her arms. At last, the canine infant reluctantly settled down.

After a moment’s thought, Zhang Congwen asked the couple, “When did this problem first appear?”

Su Xian answered without hesitation. “We noticed it as soon as we brought it home. It loved barking even when it was little, but the problem became worse as it grew older. Later, we discovered that if we held it in our arms, spent more time with it, or stroked it more often, it wouldn’t bark as much.”

Just as expected.

Bad habits had been accumulating since the dog was young. Because its owners had never thought to stop the behavior, the problem had continued all the way to the present.

As soon as Su Xian finished speaking, Zhang Congwen asked, “So you spend far more time with this dog—this Shih Tzu—than you do with the dachshund, correct?”

Su Xian gave an embarrassed smile and replied with something that left Zhang Congwen speechless.

“It can’t be helped.”

After taking a long breath, Zhang Congwen finally recovered his train of thought. “Have you never considered stopping the dog when it behaves like this? For example, pushing it away?”

The husband’s response left Zhang Congwen even more bewildered.

“I tried a few times at first. But every time I pushed it away, it would start breathing heavily and whimpering. It looked terribly uncomfortable, as though it were about to suffocate.”

Zhang Congwen had never heard of a dog becoming so aggrieved over being denied its owner’s affection that it nearly suffocated itself.

Faced with such an absurd statement, he almost blurted out, “Push it away and let me see whether it really suffocates.”

Obviously, he could not actually say that.

For the sake of accuracy, Zhang Congwen ultimately asked the couple to imitate what the dog looked like when it supposedly ran out of breath.

The result made his vision go dark once again.

There was always something even more outrageous.

The couple’s imitation was uncannily lifelike. They then pushed the Shih Tzu onto the floor and pointed at the canine infant, claiming that this was the sound of its breathing.

But it was plainly just the dog’s normal respiration. There was nothing remotely as serious as they described, nor did it look as though it were about to suffocate.

In fact, the dog had so much vigor in its voice that it could easily keep barking for dozens of minutes straight.

With great difficulty, Zhang Congwen once again gathered his thoughts, intending to explain this extremely simple matter in language the couple could understand.

But before he could say a word, Feng Ling suddenly approached the Shih Tzu. The dog seemed to flip a switch in an instant and began emitting low, threatening whines at the little girl.

Even more outrageous was Su Xian’s reaction. She did not immediately move her daughter away from the Shih Tzu, nor did she stop the dog. Instead, she reached out to stroke it and began soothing the canine infant.

It was as though the one who had been frightened was not their daughter, but their dog.

Zhang Congwen stood stunned for a long moment, his expression growing grim. He abandoned all thought of explaining things tactfully to the two owners and spoke bluntly instead.

“Do you realize how dangerous that situation just now was?”

Before the couple could react, he continued, “That Shih Tzu was already threatening your child. It could bite and injure her at any moment. Compared with whether this dog can breathe properly or somehow suffocate itself, shouldn’t the safety of your younger daughter be more important?”

The moment Zhang Congwen said this, even the staff who had accompanied him nodded inwardly.

The little girl was clearly their biological child, yet in the eyes of outsiders, she seemed more like someone they had picked up off the street. Meanwhile, the Shih Tzu seemed more like the couple’s true flesh and blood, born from some bizarre mutation between the two of them.

Even if the girl really had been adopted, any normal person would choose human safety over a dog’s safety.

Indeed, clients might be incapable of doing much else, but their ability to create trouble for the people working for them was limitless.

For them to have selected such bizarre dog owners, they must have been well aware of just how peculiar this family was—and must have gone to considerable trouble to find them.

But Zhang Congwen had no time to concern himself with clients and contractors. The way these two people raised their dog would cause trouble sooner or later.

If the dog bit them, they would only have themselves to blame. But if it bit their innocent daughter, Zhang Congwen would be unable to live with himself, whether from a professional or moral standpoint.

He therefore had to correct the couple’s warped way of thinking.

Expressionless, Zhang Congwen said, “As the child’s parents, why is it that, from an outsider’s perspective, you seem more concerned with whether this dog is healthy than with your daughter’s safety? The way you behave will affect not only you, but your daughter as well. In this dog’s eyes, your child is not a person. She is merely a rival.”

Auntie Liu had been watching from the side, burning with anger. Unable to restrain herself, she added a few words of her own. Still, she was afraid of disrupting Zhang Congwen’s work and tried to keep herself in check.

Even restrained, Auntie Liu’s tongue was sharp and unforgiving. She left the couple unable to offer a rebuttal, their spirits completely deflated.

Zhang Congwen had not expected her words to be so effective. Whether the couple had truly understood or had merely been subdued for the moment, their current state was perfect for training.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhang Congwen began attempting to train the dog.