Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian knew that it was sad to lose a pet. Although Fluffy had not been with Liu Wenying’s family long, they had all treated it as an irreplaceable part of their family. They had gotten used to its presence.
Liu Wenying suddenly returned to her senses, motioning to the inside of the house and saying, “Xiao Zhang, don’t stay out there. Come into the house and take a seat. What drink do you want to drink? Are you hungry?”
“There’s no need to trouble you. I’m just dropping by. I’ll leave after a short while.”
Zhang Zian did not enter the house; he just stood at the doorway and chatted about some daily matters. He smelled the fragrance of rice from a rice cooker and knew that Liu Wenying was probably preparing a grand lunch for the weekend. He did not want to disturb them anymore after chatting for a while, so he suggested that he should leave.
Liu Wenying very sincerely tried her best to get him to stay. She invited him to stay for lunch, but he said that he had a lot of things to do in the shop and rejected her offer.
“Then I’ll send you down.” She realized that Zhang Zian was insistent on leaving, so she changed into her outdoor slippers so she could walk him downstairs.
“There’s no need. You can just stay here,” Zhang Zian said, trying to convince her to stay.
“It’s nothing… I’m out of seasoning, so I need to go down to the minimart to buy it anyway.” She was also insistent.
“Then all right… Yue Yue, Brother Store Manager is leaving. Bye-bye!” Zhang Zian walked to the entrance to Yue Yue’s room and waved.
Yue Yue was hugging and rolling around on her bed happily with the Berlin Bear.
“Yue Yue, quickly––say goodbye to uncle!” Liu Wenying urged.
“Bye, uncle!” Yue Yue smiled happily.
“Yue Yue stay at home by yourself for a while. Be a good girl and play with the small bear. I need to go downstairs for a while but I’ll come back very quickly,” Liu Wenying instructed. Yue Yue nodded.
Liu Wenying locked the door and followed Zhang Zian to take the elevator down.
Walking out of the door, Liu Wenying was not in a rush to go to the minimart. Instead, she followed Zhang Zian to where he parked his car, and on the way there, they continued to chat about some daily happenings.
Suddenly, the mournful wail of a cat sounded, causing them to stop talking for a while. Their hearts stopped as they listened. They looked at each other, and at the same time, they started to walk quickly towards the direction where the sound came from.
Zhang Zian knew sound did not sound like Vladimir, but he hoped that nothing bad had happened to it.
They turned a corner and an empty space appeared in front of them. There was some exercise equipment that old people used in the space, while the rest was a green space with green grass and short trees.
A very rough looking, tall young man stood there, holding a metal baseball bat. His back was facing Zhang Zian and Liu Wenying.
The weather was quite cool, and the person was wearing a short-sleeved vest like he was scared of heat. In front of him, there was a kitten that was a few months old and probably had just been weaned off milk. It was curled up and so scared that it was continuously crying out mournfully.
The kitten’s whole body was white, and it had medium-length fur. It was a commonly seen, ordinary cat, but it was still quite pretty. Its pale blue eyes were full of fear as it looked around helplessly.
It was being forced into a corner by the burly man holding the metal bat. As it was not an adult yet, it could not jump very well and its escape paths had all been blocked. It was trapped like a turtle in a jar.
The burly man seemed to be admiring its look of fear as he laughed occasionally.
Zhang Zian suddenly remembered that he had seen that man before. It was the burly man that he saw last time he visited, and the baseball bat in the burly man’s hand was Liu Wenying’s.
“What is this person doing?” he lowered his voice and asked Liu Wenying.
Liu Wenying frowned slightly then answered him softly, “This person is called Liu Yonghui, but everyone calls him A Hui. He doesn’t have a job, so ever since the stray cats started to increase in this neighborhood, he volunteered to take care of them. He even asked the property management group for a sum of money… From that time on, he just wanders around the neighborhood day and night, carrying a metal bat. He always looks fierce and calls the security guards brothers… He’s like a dictator in this area. No one dares to provoke him…”
Zhang Zian nodded, expressing that he understood.
Liu Yonghui must have heard them talking; he suddenly turned his head back to look at them. His gaze stayed on Liu Wenying’s face for a while before it landed on Zhang Zian.
“What are you doing?” he coarsely asked Zhang Zian, pointing his baseball bat at towards him.
Before Zhang Zian could answer, Liu Wenying took the opportunity to answer first. “Yonghui, this is a friend of mine. He’s visiting me.”
“He’s visiting you?” Liu Yonghui stared at Zhang Zian’s face in suspicion for a long time. “I think I’ve seen you before…”
He lost interest in Zhang Zian. He waved his empty hand and said, “Go then! Go on! If you want to visit people, go and visit people. Don’t condemn me!”
Zhang Zian wore a cold expression before he smiled bitterly; he was thick-skinned, so he could handle the burly man.
Liu Wenying pulled on Zhang Zian, meaning to say, “Let’s hurry and leave––we don’t want to provoke this person.”
Zhang Zian stood still and did not move, learning from Liu Yonghui’s actions. He imitated Liu Yonghui’s tone and asked, “What are you doing?”
His courage stunned both Liu Wenying and Liu Yonghui.
What a joke!
If he were facing an old man and old lady, who were very used to falling and dirtying their clothes––the kind who would lie on the floor as soon as there was a disagreement––Zhang Zian would have taken the initiative and admitted his loss, for he truly could not afford to provoke them. However, he was facing a burly man––he was not scared at all!
Liu Wenying anxiously pulled on his arm. She didn’t want to make trouble and kept apologizing to Liu Yonghui.
Zhang Zian did not practice martial arts for no reason; he had learned the basics very well. No matter how much Liu Wenying tried to pull, he would not move. He did not interact with Old Time Tea for nothing, so how could he leave that kind of “strong bullying the weak” situation alone and pretend not to see it? How would he manage to face Old Time Tea when he went back?
It was the first time someone had dared to go against Lu Yonghui. Because of his 1.9 meter height and 190 pound weight, no one had ever dared to use that kind of tone to speak with him.
He was so angry that he smiled instead. He looked at Zhang Zian in disdain and asked, “What am I doing? What I’m doing is none of your business!”
Zhang Zian calmly nodded, then pointed at the small white cat and said, “What you are doing indeed has nothing to do with me, you’re right. But what are you doing to this cat?”
“What am I doing? Don’t you have eyes?” Liu Yonghui said, trying to provoke him. He tapped his baseball bat on his palm. “The property management group asked me to clear the stray cats in the area, so I’m working now!”
“The property management group asked you to clear them away, but that doesn’t mean you hit them until they die, right?” Through observation and conversation, Zhang Zian could confirm that Liu Yonghui was a normal person––meaning that his mindset and thoughts were not affected by the Holy Cat Statue. He just purely enjoyed abusing cats.
“It’s none of your business! If I hit them, what can you do about it?” Wen Yonghui laughed coldly. “You want to see it? Should I let you see how I beat it to death?”
Saying that, he raised his baseball bat up high and aimed it for the white cat’s head.
Zhang Zian was just about to reach a hand out to stop it when he suddenly heard a loud voice. “Red flag roll up, meow meow halberd! Black hand hangs high, hegemonic whip!”
