Pet King

What? There were 11 kinds of imperial, decorative animals in the eaves of the roof?

Zhang Zian was stunned for a while, but he seemed to understand something. He told Old Time Tea, “Grandpa Tea, I said it just now and perhaps you didn’t hear it clearly—there are ten types of decorative animals on this roof. The leader is a fairy that rides a chicken. If you count the chicken as one, then there are indeed 11 kinds.”

“Ga ga! A fairy riding a chicken? Is it riding its own chicken or someone else’s chicken1?” Richard did not care about how many types of decorative animals there were. It was only suddenly attentive upon hearing the word “chicken.”

“Ride you!” Zhang Zian glared at it.

“Ga ga! I also want to ride a chicken!” Richard flapped its wings and landed on his head.

Zhang Zian was so humiliated he was just about to pull it down and pluck all of its feathers off, but heard Old Time Tea spoke again. The doubts in its voice remained unchanged. “That’s not right. I counted again, and there are still 11 types. If we count the fairy riding a chicken, that’s 12 types of rare animals.” Zhang Zian was stunned again.

It could not be, right? Could it be that the Baidu Encyclopedia was wrong?

That was possible, after all. The Baidu Encyclopedia had not always been very reliable… But was it possible for something so important to be wrong and no one noticed it?

“Zian, I counted as well. Excluding the fairy that is the leader, there are indeed 11 kinds behind it,” Famous added.

What was going on? There was really an extra one?

If it were one or two fewer than expected, that was easier to explain. It could be that the wind blew them over or that they were spoiled because of some reason and had been taken down to be fixed… but what the heck. How could there be an extra one?

“Ga ga! I know! Isn’t there a saying, ‘Five backbone and six beasts?’ Since it is five backbone and six beasts, then five plus six is of course 11!” Richard called out, thinking it was very smart.

There were a total of only ten kinds of imperial, decorative animals, and according to the ancient Emperor’s rules, only the eaves of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Imperial Palace could be filled with all the ten kinds. Only odd numbers could be placed anywhere else, and dragons and phoenixes could hardly be used.

That meant that, in the whole world, it was only at the Hall of Supreme Harmony that one could see the gathering of all ten beasts.

Now that there was one more, could it be that one was a freebie that came along with the other ten?

Zhang Zian hurriedly lifted his head and looked towards the eaves.

He thought that if there really were 11, then perhaps it was going to be some great discovery. If he told the Imperial Palace workers, then perhaps he could get a big sum of reward money.

“One, two, three, four… ten.” He raised his head and slowly counted. “That’s not right. There are obviously ten types. Where’s the eleventh type? Did you all count incorrectly?”

“Idiot!” Richard raised its wing and hit his head. “You are all counting different eaves!”

Zhang Zian turned his head to look. Old Time Tea and Famous were staring at the eaves on the right while he was counting the eaves on the left.

He recounted the number of decorative animals on the right eaves.

“One, two, three… ten… eleven! F*ck! D*mn it. There really are 11!” Zhang Zian could not help but curse continuously. The discovery was too shocking.

“Is it that two of them developed feelings over a long time and had a small animal?” Richard cried out mischievously. “It must be very lonely squatting on the eaves the whole day.”

“Do you think it’s you?” Zhang Zian scolded.

If something went wrong, there had to be a demon. He could not be bothered to listen to what Richard was saying and looked at the decorative animals carefully.

It was a sunny day. The sun was very strong, and the sun shining on the roof of the glazed tile produced a strong reflection, affecting his line of sight.

“Ga?”

“Meow?”

“Woof?”

“Zhi zhi?”

“What the f*ck?”

Zhang Zian and the elfins shouted in shock at the same time because one of the “imperial decorative animals” suddenly started to move. It twisted its body and fell backwards off the eaves, then disappeared in front of their eyes. Before it left, it had even opened its mouth to smile.

“Which of you saw clearly? What sort of thing is that?” Zhang Zian asked, his voice trembling and his back going cold.

The elfins all shook their heads, expressing that they did not manage to see clearly. Cats, dogs, and monkeys did not have as good of vision in the daylight as humans did, and while parrots had good daytime vision, their eyes grew on the side of their heads. Their observation skills were not as keen as humans were when they looked directly ahead.

Furthermore, that thing was very agile in its movements. It had picked the time to leave very well, running away when Zhang Zian had seen it, but not clearly.

He and the elfins looked at each other, and everyone thought it was a bit weird. It was like it had been waiting for them… No, the elfins were invisible. It was waiting for him.

“Right, Zian… That feeling that you had of being watched… Is that happening now?” Old Time Tea suddenly asked.

Zhang Zian had already, more or less, become accustomed to the feeling, and it was not as uncomfortable as it was at the start. After he had left the parade square, that feeling had weakened. After Old Time Tea asked the question, he carefully felt for it, and answered in shock, “Not anymore! Grandpa Tea, that feeling has vanished!”

“When did it vanish?” Old Time Tea questioned.

Zhang Zian was not entirely sure. “It seems like… just now.”

Whatever Old Time Tea had left to say did not need to be said anymore; he already understood Old Time Tea’s meaning: It was that thing that had run away that had been watching him.

“So that thing appeared in the parade square, then came here a step before us and was waiting for us to come. It purposely let us see it before it left… What are its goals?” Old Time Tea pondered.

No one could answer.

Before now, that thing had been hiding very well and did not expose itself. If it wanted to continue watching Zhang Zian in secret, it should have kept hiding. Since it was squatting on such an obvious eave, that meant that it was purposely exposing its position.

“Hmph! In my opinion, we can just pretend that we did not see it. I hate these kinds of sneaky things!” Fina said unhappily.

“Your Majesty, I feel that it is inappropriate. If the other party is purposely doing this, it’s bound to return… Do you want to catch up to take a look?” Old Time Tea asked.

Zhang Zian turned back to take a look. The big group of tourists had almost caught up. If he did not want to squeeze with the other tourists, then he could not stop and waste time. He needed to advance quickly.

The direction that the thing ran in was deeper into the Imperial Palace. Anyway, Zhang Zian and the elfins had to continue forward, so chasing after it did not contradict with what they wanted to do.

But… he kept feeling like that thing was purposely luring them after it.

Could this be a trap?

As the saying went, ‘Do not pursue a beaten enemy.’ Zhang Zian was hesitating when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

He took out his phone to take a look. It was actually a notification from <Pet Hunter> about an elfin being detected.

[Game Hints]: A rare pet has been detected in the city you are in. Whether the player wants to find it to capture it is the player’s own decision.

[Game Hints]: Below are the details of the pet.

[Pet Type]: Elfin.

[Rarity]: Epic/Legendary.

[Capture Difficulty]: Extremely High.

[Danger Level]: Low.

On the electronic map provided by the game, the light clusters that indicated where the elfin was just happened to cover the entire range of the Imperial Palace.