Pet King

It was a super busy day!

Customers were walking in and out of the aquarium and the pet shop until eight that night. Most of them came for Famous, of course, but as long as they were drawn by the pets and bought something, then it was profit.

Zhang Zian had been running between the two shops and wished he could clone himself. Luckily, the two shops were close to each other. Otherwise, his legs would break.

It was almost nine at night. Zhang Zian had to put up the “Closed” sign and asked the late customers to go home and come back the next day. He promised them that they could still get the discounted price the next day.

The group sat in the pet shop in all sorts of poses, eating a late dinner in small groups of two or three. Zhang Zian was in a group of three, while Jiang Feifei formed a group of two with Lu Yiyun.

To celebrate the day, Zhang Zian had ordered extra barbecue and cold beer, offering them as much to eat and drink as they wanted.

The barbecue was generously seasoned, hot, and spicy. After a big bite and a sip of ice cold beer, it felt like heaven.

As the weather was getting warmer, and the guys were young, drinking ice cold beer would not give them diarrhea. When Zhang Zian was in Germany, he had seen Germans drinking cold beer on the coldest days of winter.

Jiang Feifei could tolerate some alcohol, but Lu Yiyun would not take a sip. She enjoyed the barbecue, though. Wang Qian and Li Kun were stuffing their stomachs as if they had not eaten anything for ages. Soon their faces turned red, and they started bragging.

The two girls discussed the anecdotes at the shop that day. After hearing that a rabid cat had almost started some big trouble, Jiang Feifei was astonished.

“Master, let’s fill up your glass!” Li Kun saw that Wang Qian and himself were drinking one glass after another, while Zhang Zian hadn’t drank at all. He thought it was inappropriate, so he quickly raised the beer bottle, wanting to fill Zhang Zian’s glass.

“No, thanks. I have to run an errand tonight. You can drink as much as you want. I’m good with soft drinks.” Zhang Zian declined, covering his glass with his palm.

Li Kun paused with the beer bottle in his hand. “It’s getting so late. What errand could you possibly have?”

“Shall… Shall we do it for you?” Wang Qian asked, slurring.

“Nothing special. I need to drive somewhere. Just now, the fishermen told me that they caught a few rare fish in their boat and kept them for me. They asked if I would be interested. I don’t have other things to do, anyway, so I’ll go and take a look in case someone else buys them first.” Zhang Zian made up some bullsh*t and chased Snowy Lionet away, who wanted to mooch some food.

He had already used that excuse in the past, so Wang Qian, Li Kun, and the two girls all believed him and thought that there were fishermen waiting for him at the beach.

After the big meal, they cleaned up the leftovers, took some rest, then left.

Wang Qian, Li Kun, and Jiang Feifei were all living in Binhai University students’ residences and could go back together. They sent Lu Yiyun home first, then headed back to campus together.

Normally, after the workers had left, Zhang Zian and the elfins would close the shutter door and rest at the end of the day.

“Do you know what I envy most about you humans?” Fina asked after a yawn. “I envy that you can put so much spice in your food.”

The barbecued meat for Fina and the others was barely seasoned, with nothing more than bay leaves in it. They started drooling after they saw how appetizing the human food was. The other cats didn’t do anything other than drool, while Snowy Lionet took action and tried to steal some.

“Actually, too much spice is not healthy, even for humans. Tasteless, healthy food is the safest,” Zhang Zian said. “We know too much grease and salt is bad for our health, but we can’t control our mouths!”

“Hehe, you should enjoy life as much as you can. It’s okay to indulge yourself every once in awhile. But Zian, you said you are heading out soon. What for?” Old Time Tea asked, smiling.

Zhang Zian had been keeping part of the stray cat story from the elfins, especially Old Time Tea and Famous. They had released the cats and dogs from Love Lovely Pets, and caused a spike of stray cats in Binhai City. They had good intentions, of course––the cats and dogs were starving at Love Lovely Pets Breeding Base, and had been injected with toxic drugs. Their actions had saved most of the cats and dogs, and they had helped them find new homes. Even if a only small percentage of those cats and dogs ended up as strays, they could not be blamed for it. Nobody could have foreseen such consequence, after all.

If doing the right thing always led to accusations, then who would do the right thing?

Therefore, Zhang Zian told them, “I’m planning to look for the Holy Cat statue according to the clues from Snowy.”

“At this hour? Why not go in the day?” Old Time Tea didn’t quite agree. The night was not as safe as the day.

“I have other business during the day,” Zhang Zian responded.

In fact, there was another reason: He believed that the cat abusers were more likely to be active at night––that way, they could avoid eye-witnesses during daylight.

He wanted to persuade the cat abusers to stop their meaningless action as much as he could. If they wanted to blow off steam, they could find better ways, such as playing FPS games, learning boxing, Taekwondo, or other combat games. What was the point of abusing cats?

Even rabbits could bite after repeated provoking. The stray cats might fight back if they got cornered. A scratch or a bite could really hurt.

Despite the faint chance, the cat abuser might get rabies without even knowing it…

He knew his persuasion might be fruitless, as being a psychological counselor was a tough job. Yet, being fruitful or not was one thing, while doing it or not was another.

After hearing about the cat abuse, he searched for information, which had revealed two causes of animal abuse: One cause was that a stressed abuser had discovered by chance that abusing animals could relieve their high stress levels, and an occasional act grew into a habit; another cause was that the abuser had been subject to violence or cold violence, but was unable to fight back. Therefore, the abuser opted to vent their emotions on weaker creatures. Small animals, such as cats and dogs, were the perfect victims.

To make matters worse, the behavior was psychologically addictive, which made the abusers unable to stop. It was just like taking drugs.

Accusations from other people would not make them feel guilty. Instead, there was a thrill in it. The louder the accusations, the more excited they became. It was not the right way to deal with their emotional problems… Deeper emptiness and pain followed the thrill. Therefore, they came up with more brutal ways to abuse animals.

Not even regular people––even kings who decided the fate of many lives––could abuse cats out of stress.

Since 1904, Russian tsar Nicolas II had been hiding in the royal village of suburban Saint Petersburg. Not only did he refuse to see officials, he even avoided his relatives. Nicolas II often found the arguments among officials insufferable. He hid away and shot cats with a rifle.

Royal record showed that he had killed thousands of cats. It was estimated that apart from security duties, his Cossack army also captured cats and put them in his palace. After hearing the news that the Russian navy was completely annihilated in the Baltic Sea during the Russo-Japanese War, Nicolas II took up a rifle and shot cats with a poker face. People considered him heartless because of it; however, it was how he blew off steam during an extremely anxious period.

Even great people did such things. More and more regular people chose to abuse cats as a way of venting their emotions during their stressful, modern lives.

The recent cat abuse happened at the same time as the Holy Cat statue’s revival––or, maybe the cat abuse had led to the Holy Cat statue’s revival.

If left on its own, the Holy Cat statue could absorb too much Strength of Faith. It could cause big trouble once it became an elfin.

The priority now was to find the Holy Cat statue, then find a way to stop the cat abuse. In the end, he needed to find a secure way to either seal off or destroy the Holy Cat statue.

Finding the Holy Cat statue was already very hard. The latter two things were even harder… Social accusations didn’t work, and legal weapons could not be used either. It was such a headache.

Old Time Tea thought for a while and said, “In that case, how about I accompany you on the trip? I’ve been staying inside these days. This is a good chance to stretch my muscles outside.”

“Of course. If Grandpa Tea is willing, I’d be very glad.” Zhang Zian nodded.

He was indeed weak all by himself. If Old Time Tea could go with him, they could beat the cat abusers into submission if they could not persuade them…

“I’ll go with you, too.” Famous stood up and shook its hair. “The shop is filled with a perfume smell––my nose is exploding! I’m desperate for some fresh air.”

It had been taking pictures with curious movie fans all day. Its hair had trapped all kinds of foundation, sunscreen, and perfume––both cheap and expensive.

Famous’s help would be great; it would certainly make tracking easier.

“Famous, do you still remember the Holy Cat statue’s scent?” Zhang Zian asked.

Famous walked to the shop entrance and sniffed around the pale marking on the floor. It thought hard for a while and answered, “More or less. It’s been a while, but I suppose there are not many bronze objects in this modern city.”

“Not many, indeed. It’s actually very rare.” Zhang Zian smiled. “Bronze is barely used in modern society. Most bronze can only be found in museums or artifact shops.”

“That’s good.” Famous nodded.

Fina jumped off the cat tree. “I’m going, too.”

It had been an enemy of the Evil God, represented by the Holy Cat statue, since the ancient times. It could not stay out of it.

“Meow meow meow! Your Majesty! Life is short. While they are away, we can lick hair for each other…” Snowy Lionet tried to persuade it not to go.

“You should stay in the shop.” Zhang Zian refused.

“Why?” Fina’s face turned angry, and its eyes were cold. “Are you looking down upon me?”

“No. If we all go out, who will stay to protect the shop? If something happens to your Sacred Palace, wouldn’t it look bad for your Great Cat Sacred Kingdom?” Zhang Zian asked.

Fina actually believed him. “It makes sense.”