Pet King

Zhang Zian didn’t forget what he came for and returned with his hands full.

He found a high rock at the beach, stood on it, and turned on the underwater loudspeaker. Sihwa’s song in an unknown language flew out of the speaker and mixed with some strange sound.

Soon, under the rocks and in the puddles nearby, the marine creatures that he had left behind started moving towards the sea like an ebb. Some were slow and some were fast. Some swam, some ran, and some jumped. Some presumingly local creatures stayed there without moving.

After the majority had left, Zhang Zian put the speaker into the sea and waited for a while. He could not see anything above the sea surface, but he expected it to work.

The coast was quiet again. He also started his journey home.

After driving back to the pet shop, he realized that he had already spent two to three hours outside. It was almost noon.

The Amazing Fate Aquarium door was open and a lot of loose pieces of cardboard and strings were on the ground. Zhang Zian guessed that the custom-made tanks had finally arrived.

“Wang Qian! Li Kun! Come out and carry this stuff inside!” he shouted.

“Aye! Coming!”

They ran out of the aquarium one after the other with sweat on their foreheads.

“Master, all the tanks are here. We examined each one. None of them are broken. Just come in and take a look,” they said.

“No rush. Just help me move the things in the car first.” The storage boxes filled with saltwater were quite heavy, so Zhang Zian asked them to help.

As the trunk opened, Wang Qian and Li Kun were stunned.

“Holy crap! Master, where did you get all these fish? And crabs… and shrimp.”

Zhang Zian recited the lines he prepared in advance, “I took a walk at the beach, and I happened to come across a group of fishermen returning from a fishing trip. I bought these from them. When you fish, anything can be caught in the net. Apart from edible fish, there are some ornamental fish occasionally, and even some rare fish. I told them not to throw them back into the sea next time. I’ll buy them for a high price.”

Part of what he said was the truth. Most fishermen had no idea that the colorful fish were in fact quite expensive. They either tossed them back or gave them to children to play with. Some even cooked and ate them. It was such a waste of the heavenly gifts.

Only a few fishermen knew how much the ornamental fish were worth, but they had nowhere to sell them. It was not worth it to set up a stand in the aquarium market just to sell one or two ornamental fish.

He made up such a good story that Wang Qian and Li Kun fully bought it. They exclaimed, “Master, this is such a brilliant idea! Is this direct selling? There won’t be any rip-off by the aquarium market middle men!”

Zhang Zian smiled calmly on purpose as an agreement.

There was another advantage in his story. There were neither invoices nor receipts. The transactions were untraceable, no matter the number, or the prices, of his purchase. It was as much as he claimed to be… there were so many fishermen in Binhai City. Who would bother asking them one by one?

Zhang Zian gave instructions while they carried the storage boxes into the aquarium. Lu Yiyun came out to help as well, recording the varieties and numbers of the creatures according to their kind.

After entering the aquarium, Zhang Zian saw that the custom-made tanks were all in their places. The empty first floor was totally transformed. Yet, as the tanks had just arrived, the accessories were still cluttered on the floor and the tanks were empty. After they were filled with saltwater and all sorts of marine creatures, they must look amazing with the lighting effects.

Knock, knock!

“Hello, anyone here?”

Zhang Zian turned his head and recognized Jiang Feifei, the girl from the aquarium market, standing at the door.

Compared to the delicate facial features and the smooth, fair skin of city girls, she had thick eyebrows and a rough skin texture. But she looked very healthy. She had a wheatish skin tone that Westerners loved a lot. She must have spent a lot of time working outdoors, and she must have done a lot of farmer’s work in her hometown. It was easy to recognize her from a crowd.

“Oh, what are you here for?” Zhang Zian asked Wang Qian and Li Kun to keep moving, while he went over and talked to her.

“I’m here to return this. There’s nobody next door. I saw the door open here and came in.” She took out a portable charger from her backpack. “Snowy lent me this the other day and never came looking for it. I don’t know how to return it to her… Then I remembered that you know Snowy. So I searched for the address of your pet shop, so that you can return it for me. Do you know where Snowy lives?”

Zhang Zian took the portable charger from her hands. He turned it on and the indicator bar was full.

He knew that Snowy would not care about a portable charger and would not mind giving it to her. She never expected it back. Yet, not only Feifei did male the trip to return it, but she had also charged it fully.

“I only know a rough location. I can mail it. But Snowy is coming here in a few days, so I can give it to her then to save on mailing costs,” he answered.

“Thank you! Sorry for the inconvenience! Same for the other day. If you and Snowy were not there, I’d surely have lost everything,” she said gratefully.

Zhang Zian shook his head. “Correcting the injustice is the right thing to do. Besides, it’s a small favor not worth mentioning… Don’t you have classes today?”

“I’m in my fourth year and classes are finished. I have one more semester left. Now I’m doing my undergraduate project, so I have lots of free time,” she answered.

“So? You are from Binhai University?” Wang Qian and Li Kun asked curiously after hearing their conversation.

“Yes. Are you studying there as well?” Jiang Feifei nodded.

“We are in our third year. We should call you senior. Haha!” They laughed.

“Watch your feet. Don’t stumble!” Zhang Zian reminded them.

After knowing that the two simple-minded guys were alumni, Jiang Feifei suddenly felt a bit closer to them. “Are you working here part time?”

“No, we are cultivating here,” they answered seriously.

Jiang Feifei was made clueless…

Zhang Zian interrupted. “Just ignore them. They are working here part-time. There’s something wrong with their brains.”

“Oh…” Jiang Feifei then looked at Lu Yiyun, who appeared two or three years younger. She asked, “Are you studying at Binhai University as well?”

“Me…” Lu Yiyun paused after hearing this, then whispered, “Sort of. But I dropped out.”

As Jiang Feifei realized that she just asked a sensitive question, she appeared embarrassed. Then she smiled awkwardly and said, “If I didn’t meet Store Manager Zhang and Snowy the other day, I’d have been expelled from the university…”

Zhang Zian said, “Everybody is good at something and not good at something. Yiyun doesn’t like school, but she’s an excellent painter… a professional one.”

“Really? I’ve always admired good painters ever since I was young!” Jiang Feifei continued on this topic.

“No, I’m not that good…” Lu Yiyun blushed, as she was not used to being praised.

Knock, knock!

“Anyone inside?”

As they were speaking, another person knocked at the door.