Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Other than Jiang Feifei, who had joined the shop a little later and had never seen the Holy Cat statue herself but had merely heard about the loss of it from the others, the rest of them were old employees and had personally witnessed the Holy Cat statue’s journey—from being presented to them as a gift from Snowy to its mysterious disappearance.
Previously, they had never thought much of the Holy Cat statue. They guessed that it was just another weird thing that Zhang Zian did. Other shops displayed a copper cow statue to bring in good luck, but Zhang Zian displayed a copper cat.
After the Holy Cat statue disappeared, Zhang Zian had put out a great reward, saying that anyone who gave him useful information would be able to get a free pet from the shop. That was when they had realized that this Holy Cat statue might be different, but they couldn’t figure out how.
The Holy Cat statue had also disappeared in a bizarre manner. There were no signs of breaking and entering at all, and there were people guarding this place all day and night, but it had disappeared just like that. With how much Zhang Zian had valued it, it was even stranger that he hadn’t called the police. All of this had given them suspicions about the statue.
Now that the statue that had been missing for months had returned to them looking so different from the previous one, tattered and ruined, they weren’t even sure if it was the same statue at all.
Wang Qian saw the dip on the statue’s lower jaw and put out his own fist to compare them. “Why does this look like someone punched it?” he muttered, puzzled. “But it’s way too small. Even a child’s fist is bigger than this…”
“Don’t be stupid,” Li Kun retorted. “How can there be anyone who can cave a statue in like this with just a punch? Even Tarzan couldn’t do it! I think it was just made when the copper was poured into the mold!”
Lu Yiyun and Jiang Feifei both observed the lost and found statue closely, their shock evident on their faces as they asked the same questions as Wang Qian and Li Kun.
“Mr. Shopkeeper, how did you find this statue again?” she asked.
Zhang Zian couldn’t tell them the truth. He could only lie. “About that… After you guys left the shop after closing, someone added me on WeChat and sent me a message saying that they found a similar statue in the grass patch,” he said. “They asked me to go over to take a look. There were many people who said something similar, since they were all trying to get the attractive rewards, but I thought since it was close, it wouldn’t do any harm to just walk over and take a look. So I went over. It really was the statue that we had lost. I had wanted to wait for you guys to come to work so we could bring the statue back together, but I was worried that I would lose it again during the night, so I brought it back myself. Now my back and thighs are sore from torturing myself the whole night.”
The four employees didn’t quite believe him, and Wang Qian couldn’t help himself. “Teacher, I believe you when you say that your back and thighs are sore after torturing yourself the whole night.”
Zhang Zian glared at him. “Would it kill you to not talk?”
“Who was that person? When are they coming to pick up their reward?” Lu Yiyun asked. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t recognize the person if they came over to pick up their reward when you weren’t here.”
Of course, this person didn’t exist, and Zhang Zian didn’t want to actually give someone the reward, so he just brushed it off. “That person said there was no need. He doesn’t like pets, and he doesn’t want to have one. He only heard about it through the grapevine and saw something similar to the statue. Since he had nothing to do anyway, he informed me… After I found the statue, I sent him a red envelope as thanks.”
This answer didn’t completely remove all of their doubts, but it was at least logical. Some people really didn’t like pets or couldn’t have pets due to their physical situation. To them, a free pet wouldn’t be as attractive as a red envelope.
Vladimir nodded its head. He really did fit well into the role of President of the “Strategic Fooyou Agency.” Not just anyone had the ability to lie with a straight face.
“Gah gah! I heard earlier that an idiot like you was actually promoted!”
Richard jumped onto Zhang Zian’s shoulder, gawking away.
Zhang Zian wanted to grab onto its beak and make it shut up, but it slipped through his grasp.
“Promoted? Were you promoted into the City Political Consultative Conference National Committee?” Jiang Feifei really thought that Zhang Zian had succeeded in life.
“Gah gah! That’s not it! He was just promoted to the position of President of the ‘Strategic Fooyou Agency,’ so you can call him Mr. President!” Richard flew to a high spot, cheekily telling everyone the news.
“No, no!” Wang Qian waved his hand. “There’s only one President Zhang in the world, one who has done amazing and unquantifiable things for our country’s defense!”
“Then you can call him Mr. P*ss-ident!” Richard sang. “Stopping the car in the middle of the night, your butt redder than the flowers of February!”
Zhang Zian had already started to look for the feather duster to give Richard the beating it deserved.
Richard had had a great night of sleep last night, and Zhang Zian hadn’t slept a single wink. Their energy levels were as different as night and day. Zhang Zian soon gave up after only a few swats, letting it off easy.
The employees could all easily see how tired Zhang Zian was. They stopped asking him more about the Holy Cat statue and let him head upstairs to rest. They would be taking care of whatever happened in the shop and promised to only call him if there was something that they couldn’t handle.
Zhang Zian really needed the sleep. He could barely keep his eyes open, so he didn’t reject their offer.
Fina, Snowy Lionet, and Old Time Tea had all laid down in their usual places to catch up on sleep.
Back on the second floor, Zhang Zian saw that Galaxy was asleep too. That was weird. He hadn’t called Galaxy to follow them last night. Could it be that their conversation downstairs had woken it up?
He made his footsteps lighter and took off his jacket by his bedside.
He would’ve loved to fall asleep just like that until lunchtime, but seeing that Pi had already woken up and was spacing out in front of the computer, so out of it that it hadn’t even noticed him walk in, Zhang Zian got up again to stand by the study table. He asked softly, “Pi…has there been any news?”
On the screen was a blank document, filled with only the chapter number and no words.
Pi whipped its head back, shaking its head and panicking. It placed its hand on the keyboard, trying its best to pretend to type, but it wrote and deleted, deleted and wrote, only to leave “Morning, Zhang Zian” on the screen.
Something was weighing heavily on its mind, and it couldn’t focus on the words at all. With its heart so full of worry, it couldn’t calm down to think about the plot.
Seeing how hard it was trying to pretend to be okay, Zhang Zian knew to not ask more. This level of politics had already gotten out of hand for a small civilian like him. Other than sitting and waiting, there was no better way.
Vladimir came to the second floor too, yawning.
Suddenly, it seemed to hear something and forced itself to jump onto the window so it could watch the outdoors.
The temperature was nice, and a light breeze blew through the land. The second floor window had been open from day to night to facilitate the movement of air.
A graceful white cat sat on the wall opposite their street, waving its paw at Vladimir at the sight of it, meaning that it had new information to report.
