Pet King

As the powerful national anthem ended, the flag rose to the top of the pole.

The sun revealed a smile and shined its rays upon the blades of the bayonets that belonged to the honor guard of the three armies. The sun refracted multicolored lights that lit up the national flag and made it look like blood.

With the completion of the ceremony, the tourists applauded. Some of the tourists also turned around and gave their applause to Zhang Zian and the group of primary school students. Even the armed military officers on duty slightly shifted their gaze to look at them.

“Ga ga! So the idiot can sing! You’re about three percent of what I am!” Richard said, ruffling up Zian’s hair.

“Get lost!” Zhang Zian was not in a situation where he could get back at Richard, so he could only roll his eyes to the best of his ability. It was a cool hairstyle that he had combed for a long time that morning.

Old Time Tea seemed to be in its own thoughts. It seemed to have understood why Zhang Zian said that the raising of the national flag had to be seen in person and not through the recording on a phone.

“Hello there!” Right that moment, a male teacher in charge of the primary school students ran over.

He was of a similar age to Zhang Zian and spoke Mandarin with a strong local accent. “Thank you very much! If it wasn’t for your help today, we wouldn’t have been able to sing! Not to hide it from you––we’re from a small place and the children are not used to the world outside, so they’re quite afraid of the unfamiliar…”

“It’s nothing! I just wanted to sing myself. I didn’t do it just to help you guys.” Zhang Zian shook his head and turned down the teacher’s gratitude. Zian didn’t want him to feel that he owed Zian a favor. What was more, what he did couldn’t even be counted as a favor. The children didn’t need to be shy. The ones who should have felt ashamed were the adults who were still shouting during the ceremony.

“In any case, I would like to thank you on behalf of the other teachers and children.” The male teacher turned around and gestured, then the pupils and the teachers who remained in the same spot all smiled and waved towards them.

Zhang Zian also waved back in response and then asked, “Are you guys here in Beijing for a school trip?”

“Yeah, this is the first time that our school has organized such a long-distance trip. These children come from better family conditions, otherwise, parents wouldn’t have been willing to pay for their children to go on the trip. If it goes well, we’ll be able to organize one every year,” the male teacher enthusiastically said, “Since we’re here in the capital, we definitely wanted to visit the flag raising ceremony, as we want to inspire the children’s patriotic feelings for the country. Therefore, we had also encouraged the children to sing along with the national anthem during the flag raising, but due to the inadequate preparation, and the lack of consideration of the complexity of the actual situation and the shyness of the children, we almost failed…”

“It’s nothing. It’s always difficult the first time and easy the next. After the experience this time, there shouldn’t be a problem next time,” Zhang Zian encouraged him.

“I hope so… All right, I have to head back. I still have to organize the children and find a place to have breakfast, and then visit the Palace Museum.” The male teacher explained the situation and bid farewell to Zhang Zian, then returned to the children.

They had four teachers––two men, and two women––all of whom were young and had a strong sense of responsibility. They had about 40 children, and the children of that age were either too shy or too playful, so eating and drinking outside was also a problem.

The teachers were so busy that they didn’t have time to appreciate the scenery of the capital. They had been busy with arranging the accommodations since they alighted from the train, and whenever they were out to visit the sights, they would have to count their numbers every 20 minutes to prevent any children from getting lost or injured… They would not have been able to explain that to their parents.

Even though their voices were hoarse from all the shouting, the faces of the teachers didn’t reveal even the slightest impatience. They stood at all four corners of the children’s group and they tried their best to solve all the problems the children had encountered.

The teacher and all the children held a small flag in one hand and held each other’s hand with the other to prevent anyone from being left behind. They waved the flag at Zhang Zian to say goodbye, then left the parade square while singing a children’s song. They were off to find a cheap place to eat their breakfast.

In fact, Zhang Zian was heading in the same direction as them because he had also planned to bring the elfins to the National Palace Museum.

Visitors who came to the parade square to watch the flag raising ceremony would usually visit the Forbidden City, but it was still too early and the Forbidden City had not yet opened. Zian didn’t want to trouble the teachers so he planned to walk around the vicinity with the elfins and buy some local specialty snacks to satisfy their desire for food. They would just walk around until the Forbidden City is open, then they’d head in to visit the Forbidden City.

Seeing that no one was around, he said to the elfins, “How do you guys feel after watching the flag-raising ceremony?”

“Hmph, it was just okay,” Fina said with a sullen face. “This queen is only interested in how they practice. Their movements were as uniform as a marionette. After we head back, this queen is also planning to train a team… The honorable cat guards of the three armies to spread our cat name!”

“Your cat name is already known enough, you don’t need to spread it anymore!” Zhang Zian said. “You’re already planning on training honorable cat guards of the three armies after watching the flag raising ceremony in China… If you were to watch the flag raising ceremony in India, would you want to train a ten cat acrobatics group…?”

“Oh?” Zian didn’t mean anything when he said that, but Fina was interested. “Is India’s flag raising ceremony powerful?”

“Well, it is quite powerful. It would even shock you!” Zhang Zian nodded. “India has the most elite mechanized infantry in the world… This isn’t an exaggeration. Anyway, you’ll know when you see it.”

“We’ll talk about India later. For now, this queen only wants to know their training methods.” Fina didn’t let Zian distract her so easily. She spoke with an imperative note, meaning, “Go and get the training method for this queen.”

Zhang Zian was speechless.

“Right, do you get the feeling that we’re being watched?” Zian looked around and asked.

“Don’t try to change the subject!” Fina said with anger. “The same move will not work for the second time!”

“Meow, meow, meow! Your Majesty! I have a way to settle this once and for all. Would you like to hear it?” Snow Lionet said in the midst of the quarrel.

Zhang Zian glared at Snowy Lionet then quickly explained to Fina, “No, no, I wasn’t trying to change the subject. I really did feel like that. It wasn’t there when we first arrived in the parade square, but after a while I felt like there was a sharp pair of eyes watching us… Did you guys feel it too?”

“Zian, are you being serious?” Old Time Tea saw that Zian didn’t seem to be faking it.

“Yeah, could it be that I was the only one that felt it?” Zhang Zian was very puzzled because his perception was the slowest compared with the other elfins. He thought that the elfins had also felt it, but were deliberately not doing anything. It turned out, however, that they actually hadn’t felt it.

That time, he really wasn’t messing around with Fina. From earlier, or more precisely, while he was singing the national anthem, Zian suddenly felt like someone was watching him. An extremely sharp sense enveloped his body and made him feel like there were daggers at his back. It remained until they left. He had planned to talk to the elfins after he was done singing the national anthem, but he was interrupted by the male teacher, so he could only bring it up then.

Because of its long history of trust issues, Fina was still skeptical and suspected that Zhang Zian was deliberately trying to change the subject.

Famous looked at Old Time Tea, then the former sniffed around while the latter leaped and jumped its way up a light pole that was beside them and looked around.

After the flag raising ceremony ended, some people went back to sleep, and some stayed in the parade square to take pictures. There were also those that went off visiting places as they had planned, but there were some people who were late and had just arrived.

Some were coming, some were leaving, and some were staying. It was very chaotic.

When Zhang Zian spoke, he looked around to try and find out who was watching him; however, he was in the midst of a sea of ​​people and he didn’t have any specific target, so it wasn’t easy.

Old Time Tea looked down from above while Famous slowly ran around, avoiding the crowds. It ran around the vicinity before it returned back to their original spot. The two of them shook their heads one after another, indicating that no suspicious people were found.

Richard also fluttered its wings and flew high. It looked around but also found nothing.

That was to be expected. If there were any obvious suspicious people in the parade square, before Zhang Zian and the elfins did anything, the military officers all over the area would have already invited the suspicious people out to have a cup of tea…

“None of you felt anything?” Zhang Zian confirmed again.

“No.” Famous shook its head and gave a negative answer.

“No. Could it have been a stray cat?” Old Time Tea suggested.

“Impossible. No stray cats can get into the parade square,” Zhang Zian said with certainty.

“Meow, meow, meow! This stinky man. Aren’t you being too sensitive? Don’t be such a drag all day!” Snowy Lionet unreservedly asked, “Right, is there any place that sells beef sirloins nearby?”

Was he really being watched by the mysterious Chaoyang Residents?

The sky was up and the land was down… His conscience laid there right smack in the middle! He didn’t do anything that was against the law! At most, when Zian was going to visit the Forbidden City later, he was planning to have the elfins enter without a ticket. That plan of his hadn’t been put into action yet, though…

Zian slowly turned 360 degrees and his eyes swept across the faces of the nearby people one by one. Since the flag raising ceremony was over, no one was deliberately looking at him. At most, people briefly sweep their glance over him.

The elfins all indicated that they didn’t feel anything, and even Zhang Zian himself wondered if he was being over-sensitive.

“Forget it. Whoever wants to watch can just watch. Maybe some fair-skinned, rich beauty has secretly fallen for me.” Zian decided to let it go. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “There’s no choice. It’s such a hassle being so handsome. I even wake myself up from being too handsome every morning.”

“Ugly people just like to behave strangely,” Fina said disdainfully.

“Ga ga! Maybe some handsome guy in the honor guard of the three armies has taken a fancy in you!” Richard laughed insidiously and emphasized the word “in.”

“Meow!” Galaxy raised one of his front paws and stared at it. “Zian, there’s really someone watching you.”

Huh? Zhang Zian never imagined that Galaxy would be the one to prove it for him. In his initial thoughts, if any elfin were to find any evidence that he was being watched, it was certainly going to be either Old Time Tea, Famous, or Fina. The other elfins were also shocked.

“Galaxy, how do you know?” Zian asked.

Galaxy raised its head and looked around with its silver-gray eyes. “Meow! The person’s observation is very strong, so although you’re the one being watched, it has affected Galaxy too.”