"What is the method for taming dogs?" Jiang Ye asked.
"To summarize, it's just eight characters," Helena said. "Those who obey me prosper, those who defy me perish!"
"After catching a wild dog, first lock it in a cage and starve it for two days," Helena continued to explain. "Some weak dogs will starve to death immediately. Such dogs definitely cannot be used as sled dogs; they are considered defective products. As for most strong wild dogs, starving them for two days is no big deal. Not only will they not be weakened, but they will become extremely irritable, and their aggression will reach its peak."
"They get angry from hunger," Jiang Ye said.
"Yes, at this time, when the dog cage is opened, the dog, hungry and enraged for two days, will pounce at me full of fury," Helena nodded. "I will hold a wooden stick with iron plating. I will aim at it. As soon as it pounces, I will knock it to the ground in mid-air. This kind of attack often lasts for five minutes. I need to knock down this mad dog more than ten times."
"That's very dangerous!" Jiang Ye said.
"It is indeed very dangerous. Every year, dog trainers are bitten to death by such mad dogs. I just mentioned that I use a wooden stick with iron plating. This stick has its reasons. My distant cousin used a pure wooden stick when taming dogs, but the stick broke while hitting the dog. My cousin's throat was bitten off by the mad dog. When people nearby went to rescue her, that beast was still biting madly, and my poor cousin's entire head was already gone. Later, we started using wooden sticks with iron plating, which don't break, and the dog's teeth are hard to grip."
"Don't you wear protective gear?" Jiang Ye asked.
"We're poor. Where would we get money to buy protective gear? Wearing a few more layers of cotton-padded clothes is considered protection, but we can't wear too many layers because being bulky makes it difficult to move," Helena said. "After beating the mad dog into submission, I would lock it back in the cage, then give it some food. After it eats its fill and I open the cage again, it's usually obedient and starts wagging its tail."
"It's a bit like taming a hawk," Jiang Ye said. "When taming eagles in ancient times, they wouldn't let the eagles sleep and didn't give them much food. When the eagles couldn't stand it anymore, they would be given food and allowed to sleep, and their wild nature would be gone, and they would start to obey people."
"Actually, the methods for taming wild animals are all interconnected. It's all about 'those who obey me prosper, those who defy me perish,' making the animal know that humans are the boss, and if they are obedient, they get food and drink; if they are disobedient, they are beaten to death," Helena smiled. "Humans dealing with humans are very similar. When I was in prison later, they treated me the same way in my cell."
"You've been to prison?" Jiang Ye was surprised.
"My business actually started because I went to prison. It's quite a coincidence."
"Oh?" Jiang Ye was curious. "You can make money by going to jail?"
"It was like this at the time. I had already been a dog trainer for five years, and I had subdued perhaps eight thousand dogs, so I had developed some skills through self-teaching, especially in strength. I could crush soda cans with my bare hands," Helena said. "One day, I was walking down the street late at night, and a drunken man walked towards me. He suddenly reached out to touch my chest."
"I had an instinctive reaction. I happened to have a collapsible baton in my sleeve for self-defense. I swung it and hit the drunkard in the face, releasing almost all my strength. The drunkard immediately fell to the ground and stopped moving. I kicked him a couple of times and left."
"As a result, the police came to arrest me the next morning, saying I was suspected of murder. I asked and found out that the blow last night hadn't landed precisely. It hit the drunkard's nose. After his nasal bone fractured, it pierced his brain, killing him on the spot."
"According to the new law on our planet, this should be considered excessive self-defense, and I phrased my statement in that direction. However, the police officer interrogating me clearly wanted to frame me for manslaughter. After the interrogation, I looked at the transcript, and it was completely different from what I had said, so I refused to sign it no matter what."
"If you don't sign, the police will wear you down, not let you sleep, and shine electric heat lamps on you all night. My right eye was blinded by that," Helena pointed to her right eye. "This eye I have now is a prosthetic eye I got after I had money. Can you tell?"
"I can't tell. This eye is very beautiful," Jiang Ye nodded.
Helena smiled. "I held my ground stubbornly, and in the end, it was determined to be excessive self-defense. According to our planet's law, I would serve five years in prison. But fate is unpredictable. I was serving my third year when our planet got a new female governor, and many related regulations changed. As a result, my case was retried, and my sentence was commuted. I only had to serve six months in prison."
"Then, because I served two and a half years extra in prison, the planet gave me compensation, two million seven hundred thousand, a huge sum of money!" Helena said. "With that two million seven hundred thousand, I walked out of the prison gate and transformed into a boss, opening my own sled dog company."
"Later, competitors even bribed the media to attack me, saying that I had killed someone and not only escaped punishment but also made a fortune. I was amused when I saw that report, knowing that my competitor was about to bring shame upon themselves. As expected, three days later, that media outlet was shut down, and a month later, my competitor's company was fined a huge amount and publicly apologized to me," Helena laughed proudly, recalling the past.
"Your planet's judiciary is quite chaotic, but it was a fortunate coincidence," Jiang Ye said. "You just said you came to Spiral Star to make money, but Spiral Star doesn't seem to have a market for sled dogs, does it?"
"My company has grown very large. We don't just do sled dogs; we also do pet dogs," Helena said. "I know your planet is generally quite wealthy. Although Spiral Star is just beginning its development, it's already much richer than my hometown. So, I believe the pet dog market here will be very large."
"Do you have any suggestions for the development of Spiral Star?" Jiang Ye picked up his small notebook.
"Yes, I've already written a letter in advance." Helena took out a golden envelope from her pocket, stood up, and respectfully handed it over with both hands. "It contains many heartfelt words, but some of the content is very confidential to my company, so I hope you will open and read it privately."
"Oh, thank you. I will read it carefully and privately," Jiang Ye said, taking the envelope in surprise and putting it in his trouser pocket.
"Next, Mr. Xiao Zhuo," Jiang Ye said. "Tell me the reason for your visit to Spiral Star?"
The name Xiao Zhuo sounded like a protagonist from a fantasy novel, and he himself looked handsome with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, but he was clearly a middle-aged man with rough, loose skin and a worldly, experienced gaze.
"I came to Spiral Star for work," Xiao Zhuo said with a rather serious expression. "My job is to buy medicine."
"Buy medicine?" Jiang Ye was taken aback.
"Spiral Star has 16 major pharmaceutical companies, especially Simiao Pharmaceutical Factory and Zabinlun Pharmaceutical Factory, which produce some rare drugs," Xiao Zhuo said. "My job is to build good relationships with these pharmaceutical companies so that I can regularly purchase a sufficient quantity of rare drugs and transport them to Salu Star."
Jiang Ye, who had been relaxed, became tense upon hearing Salu Star.
Isn't that his sister-in-law Cen Zi's planet?