1338 Scavenging (1/2)

After the long speech, Zhang Zian stopped to catch his breath and felt that his oral eloquence had improved.

However, he immediately noticed that the white dog and Vladimir were looking at him in a rather strange way.

”How did you know so clearly what happened?” the white dog asked suspiciously.

”Don't misunderstand me,” Zhang Zian said. ”Though, do you need to see pigs walk before eating pork? I am merely sharing what I have heard. Let's focus on the issue at hand. This landfill is very large. Not only does it process the domestic garbage of Binhai City—it also deals with rubbish shipped in from neighboring cities. However, China has not established an effective garbage sorting system, so here, there is a complete mixture of trash. Although ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent of the things here are truly garbage, there must be hidden treasures. The so-called 'blowing off the dust to reveal the gold' will hold true here.”

The pressure of survival made the white dog unable to be too optimistic of things. It thought for a moment and shook his head. He said. ”This kind of plastic figurines is not common. It is even rarer for it to be entirely well preserved in a box like this. Even if what you said is true; pick one and feed a dog for two to three months, I cannot put all my hopes on doing this. What happens if my comrades and I cannot find this item? Won't we have to go hungry?”

”It's not just plastic figurines,” Zhang Zian said. ”There are a lot of items that people simply keep in their homes to collect dust. They may not know that the items are valuable. Then, they may throw them away when they clean up their homes. However, in the eyes of the experts, these may be valuable things. In addition, sometimes, old people pass away unexpectedly. They keep a lot of things, even valuable cultural relics. Yet to their children, these are not relics but trash. I have also heard that some elderly people do not trust the banks, thinking that there are corrupt officials there. Similarly, corrupt officials do not use the banks either. They choose to hide their money in quilts, pillows, et cetera, and then these are inadvertently thrown away... These things and money will all gather in the garbage dump. I would like to say that if we find gold, it should be returned to the original owner. However, it will actually be difficult to find the owner. If you do not go and pick these things up, they will only be crushed and buried deep underground, which is a waste.”

The white dog listened. He was tempted.

For a long time, the stray dogs had only known how to salvage food from the garbage dump. They hadn't even thought that some ”garbage” that they had just pulled apart might fetch them tens of thousands of times more than the expired and potentially poisonous sausages...

”Of course, your concerns are not unreasonable. If you are not lucky, and nothing like this is found, what should you do?” Zhang Zian added, ”In fact, a single dog may experience bad luck, but if the number of dogs swells to a few hundred, the possibility of a few hundred dogs with bad luck is almost nonexistent. However, let us first assume that this situation is true.”

The white dog listened carefully.

Zhang Zian recalled the person he'd met not long ago and said slowly. ”You know that I run a pet shop. Generally speaking, I sell cats, dogs, fish, and pet supplies. Just a few months ago, there was a clean but very poor-looking grandmother who brought a puppy to me. I think it was a Pomeranian. Anyway, she came to my store not to buy a pet, but to ask me for advice. The point here is that she picks up empty bottles for a living, much like this empty drink bottle here.”

He kicked an empty cola bottle with his shoe.

”She relies on picking up these bottles every day to support herself and that Pomeranian. I want to say that the empty bottle is equivalent to a subsistence allowance. Even if you have really bad luck, your efforts will not be entirely wasted. A dog can spend a few hours picking up empty bottles, and the money that can be exchanged with it can allow it to fully support itself. If you find something worthwhile through the process, you can eat delicious sausages for at least a few months.”

The white dog looked at the empty bottle that was rolling around and asked, ”How can I exchange an empty bottle for money?”

”Probably, after collecting it, you send it to a special waste-collection station,” Zhang Zian said, though he was not absolutely sure, ”and then charge by the weight.”

”Is there a limit? How many?” it asked.

He smiled and said, ”Of course there is no limit to the number. The more the better. The people will not reject your collection because the waste-collection station is not a charity. If you give them more, they will sell more bottles and earn more money.”

The white dog thought for a moment, ”But they definitely won't accept dogs to sell them bottles, will they?”

”That is true. If the scrap collection station saw a dog dragging a sack of bottles to the door, they would probably take the bottle and not give the money. That would be a wasted effort,” Zhang Zian admitted.

The white dog looked at him. ”So, I need an agent.”