Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian and Galaxy played hide-and-seek for a while, then they suddenly heard Vladimir shout, “One-Two-One, left, right, left! One-Two-One, left, right, left!”
The three Abyssinian cats were following the rhythm of its cries, moving their left foreleg and right hind leg when it shouted one, and their right foreleg and left hind leg when it shouted two. Although it was still not very neat, but had improved and was much better than before. After more practice, they should be able to walk around in a very neat pace.
Cats characteristically walked the easy walk, meaning that their four feet could step on the same line. A model on a catwalk walked the same way, but the model was trained. For cats, however, it was instinctive, and they hardly ever walked askew. While human soldiers walked in two straight lines, the cat was more ornamental when it walked.
Vladimir said, “What matters the most when doing things is doing it the correct way. This way, we can complete the same tasks with half the effort.”
Fina finally felt satisfied. After a reserved nod, it said, “Walking together is just the beginning. I still want to let them learn to walk forward. Turn off the music; we’ll end it here. Don’t disturb the palace, I’m going to sleep.” After saying that, it jumped onto the highest level of the cat climbing rack, closed its eyes, and fell asleep.
Zhang Zian said in his heart, This is one thing happening after another. They really knew how to mess with me!
He switched off the music, then pulled opened the curtain door and let the fresh air enter the shop.
Now was almost the most suitable season of the year. If one didn’t go out for a walk, it would be a waste of fine weather.
Famous peeked out from the top of the staircase to check if the hide-and-seek game was over before it dared to quietly sneak down.
Zhang Zian was sweeping the floor and cleaning up the place when he saw Vladimir stroll over. It raised its head to ask, “Yesterday, with that dumb big guy and that middle-aged woman… What was the contagious disease they were talking about?”
The dumb big guy was, of course, Liu Yonghui, and the middle-aged woman was Liu Wenying.
Vladimir had arrived in Binhai after Liu Wenying’s Siamese cat was infected with rabies, so he did not understand some details of the conversation between them yesterday. It was inconvenient for him to ask at that time. When he was free, he raised his doubts.
“You’re asking about this…” Zhang Zian swept the floor while he told it about Liu Wenying’s experience. When she was walking around the residential area, the Siamese cat was scratched by a stray cat that came out of nowhere and was infected with rabies. The incident made the residents of that area extremely angry, especially some old people with stubborn ideas, so they decided to kill the stray cats in the residential area.
“Oh. What’s rabies?” Vladimir asked.
“It is an infectious disease that people and felines and canines share. Whether they are a human, a dog, or a cat, once someone gets infected, they will almost always die,” Zhang Zian explained. “People are very afraid of this infectious disease, and sometimes fear allows excessive behavior.”
“Now that’s a problem…” Vladimir pondered.
For domestic pet cats, the impact of the problem was very small. After all, most pet cats didn’t leave their homes, and there was little possibility of infection. But for stray cats, the problem was more serious. The frequent cat abuse had made their lives difficult, and the terrible infectious diseases raged among stray cats like ghosts.
“If we want to fight a powerful enemy and win, we must try our best to preserve our vital strength,” it said. “If we can’t stop the spread of infectious diseases in time, the stray cats will be destroyed by the disease without the help of the Holy Cat Statue and the cat abusers.”
“It can be said like that, but it seems like there is no good solution,” Zhang Zian admitted. The rabies was an old and large scale problem; it would not be able to be solved that easily. “When you go out next time, you need to be careful. Although it is a good thing to be friends with a lot of cats, you need to be careful for your own safety.”
“Because someone has choked to death eating rice before, you won’t eat rice again in the future?” Vladimir did not seem to care that much about its own safety and was not concerned about it at all. That part of it was quite similar to Fina.
It thought for a while, then asked, “After getting rabies, are there any obvious symptoms?”
“There are, like how they are scared of light, scared of wind, scared of water, and their mental condition is not clear. Individual cases might have a larger sense of aggression towards humans and other animals,” Zhang Zian said.
Vladimir’s eyes brightened as if it had thought of a good idea. It confidently said, “Then that’s easy to tackle.”
Zhang Zian thought in his heart, It is not like you are Bethune, an internationalist fighter. Could you come up with a special medicine?
He saw it walk to the doorway of the shop and whistle.
Not long after, a black cat appeared from the top of the wall of the opposite housing estate. It jumped down the wall, carefully avoiding the cars, and ran towards them side.
“It’s a member of the Meow Meow Branch Organization from the opposite estate,” Vladimir said.
Zhang Zian was speechless.
It seemed like every night, while he was snoring and sleeping, Vladimir had secretly done quite a lot of things…
After passing across the road, the black cat kept a safe distance from the pedestrians on the road and walked to a place that was about a few meters away from the pet shops. It squatted down, not daring to come any nearer.
Vladimir turned its head to look a Fina.
Zhang Zian was stunned for a while, but he understood it right after. The black cat was a stray cat, and it had smelled Fina’s scent so it did not dare to come too close.
Since it did not dare to come over, Vladimir just walked out of the pet shop and over to the black cat, then sat down.
Zhang Zian was confused as to what it wanted to do.
Before he asked, Vladimir actively explained, “Didn’t you say that after the rabies illness kicks in, they have a confused mental state? I was thinking of a method…”
Zhang Zian nodded. “What method?”
An infected party being scared of light, wind, and water were all symptoms quite easy to identify if a human had rabies, but cats were nocturnal animals. They were also scared of water, and would also normally find places to avoid the wind to rest. Using those symptoms to identify if a cat had rabies was not very reliable.
But if it was delirious… How could they identify that?
Vladimir smiled. “The method is to use a secret signal.”
“A secret signal?” Zhang Zian thought what it said was quite interesting. “Cats using a secret signal?”
Vladimir nodded its head. “That’s right! There are often fights between stray cats over territory, and sometimes, even if it was not to fight for territory, they would still fight. From a neutral standpoint, this makes it easier for rabies to spread.
Zhang Zian had to admit that what it said was very right. Fighting was very common for stray cats. Although it was more common for them to make noises at each other, to see which one made the loudest sounds, they would occasionally use their claws.
“So I’m going to let the stray cats in the vicinity signal to each other when they are close to each other. If the cat is not in its right mind, it would not be able to signal to the other, right? If the other party is right, it means that they are sane and have little chance of having the rabies infection. On the contrary, if the other party is not able to show the signal, they should not approach the other party,” Vladimir explained.
The method was quite meaningful. To put it plainly, it was for the isolation of infectious sources. its method was very old, but effective. People thousands of years ago, without specific drugs and vaccines against infectious diseases, could adopt the method of isolating patients from the general population to control the spread of infectious diseases.
“Practice is the only criterion for testing how effective it is! I am going to cross the river by touching the stones, neither conservative nor aggressive. First, I will conduct a small-scale test in Binhai City. If it works, it will be further promoted to stray cats in the rest of the country in the future,” it said confidently.
Zhang Zian felt that there were a lot of parts to attack, but for a peaceful society, it was better not to insult people.
“All right… then what kind of secret signal are you planning on doing? If you meow twice, it will meow three times? How’s that? Or if you meow three times, it will meow four times?” he asked, half-jokingly.
“That’s too simple. It’s easy to just roughly pass the test, so it won’t be effective in identifying the enemy.” Vladimir waved its paw and disagreed, saying, “Let me and this cat give you a demonstration, and you’ll understand.”
Zhang Zian looked at it seriously. Not only him, but the rest of the elfins in the shop sent curious looks over. Even Fina opened its eyes slightly and stared at the interactions between Vladimir and the black cat.
Vladimir took a few steps back to the shop entrance. It straightened its chest, raised its head, and sat upright. The black cat did the same. There was roughly two to three meters of distance between them.
It cleared its throat, raised its right front paw, raised the soles of its feet above its head, and said, “The King of Heaven meows!”
Pu! Zhang Zian almost choked on his own saliva!
“Where did you hear that sentence?” he asked, speechless.
Vladimir had yet to reply. On the other hand, it was Old Time Tea who peeked out from behind the television, chuckling as it explained, “I watched The Taking of Tiger Mountain with it last night.”
The f*ck. It’s using things it learned on the spot!
The black cat also did not really understand what Vladimir said. It was stunned and did not know what to do.
Vladimir patiently taught it. “Don’t be anxious! Come, follow what I did just now.”
The black cat raised its right front paw, raised the soles of its feet above its head, and said, “Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow!”
Vladimir also raised its right front paw, raised the soles of its feet above its head, and replied, “The demon kitten of Pagoda Town!”
It paused. “Do you understand now? This is the secret signal. After meeting up, one cat will say the first sentence, and the other cat will say the second half. Only when it matches can the other party can be trusted,” it explained.
“Come, again. This time, I’ll speak first.” It raised its paw and said, “The King of Heaven meows!”
“Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow!” the black cat raised its paw and replied.
“Yeah, not bad. This time, you go first.” Vladimir put down its paw and signaled.
The black cat raised its paw. “Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow!”
Vladimir raised its paw. “The demon kitten of Pagoda Town!”
Zhang Zian did not know what kind of expression he had at that moment. The good thing was that Vladimir did not make the secret signal too complicated. If there were a few more sentences, they would have to say, “Why is your face so black?” to which the response would be, “Spiritual renewal!” From there, they would have to say, “Why is it blue again?” to which the response would be, “To prevent the cold, the wax pain!” If that was the case, he would never be able to watch The Taking of Tiger Mountain with a straight face again…
After repeatedly practicing a few times, Vladimir waved its paw in satisfaction and said, “All right, spread this signal to the other stray cats. In the future, when everyone meets, you must first do the secret signal.”
The black cat meowed, followed its orders, and left.
