Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Sihwa was waiting on the second floor, and she had grown impatient. Zhang Zian finally put her in his phone, brought Vladimir along, and headed towards the beach.
Vladimir had never gone to the beach before, and on the way there, it was leaping between seats, excitedly observing everything.
Zhang Zian purposefully drove slowly, introducing it to the nearby places that were more famous, and places that the locals liked.
The weather was quite good. It was slightly cloudy, and the temperature and humidity were just right. Since it was the weekend, along the way they saw many families driving to Binhai City and the surrounding parks and attractions.
Not long after they left, they reached the beach.
“Wa! So this is the sea!” Vladimir exclaimed when it saw the sea from a distance away. Its eyes were wide.
“Is it your first time seeing the sea?” Zhang Zian stopped the car at his usual place and asked.
“The largest sea I have ever seen was Shicha Lake!” It stared at the sea, eyes unmoving. It was excited to get out of the car.
Zhang Zian paused. “…Shicha lake is not considered a sea, right?”
When he opened the car door, it jumped up and down onto the nearby reef rocks. It faced the sea breeze, took a deep breath of slightly salty air, and chanted aloud, “More than thousands of years past, Wei Wu used his whip. There is a legacy of the Tateishi in the east. The bleak autumn wind is here again, and it has changed to the human realm!”
Zhang Zian let it continue its poetic mood. After all, it was the first time it had seen the real sea, and it definitely had a lot of emotions about it. He pulled out the assault boat from the car trunk and pumped air into it, checking if there was any place that was leaking. That was normal; he had to do every time he went out to sea. It was something he could not afford to mess up.
While he was checking it, he noticed that the frequency of people and cars at the Sea Wall was higher than normal; pedestrians and vehicles were usually scarce. There were also fully armed riders who bowed their backs like shrimp and sped by on handsome motorcycles. Sure enough, it was such good weather that everyone came outside.
He wondered if there would be anyone out on their boats. He needed to pay more attention to make sure no one else would see Sihwa. However, the sea was so wide that the probability of meeting other people out at sea was quite low.
After he was done checking everything, he called for Vladimir to get on the boat, and he got in the boat himself. He used an oar to push the assault boat off the shore, and then switched on the propeller when they were a little deeper.
“Wah!” Vladimir stood at the front of the ship and excitedly let the sea breeze mess up its blueish grey hair. The bubbles from the waves flew up and landed on its face. It rubbed them away, not bothered at all.
“Why did I not see any fishing boats?” it noticed that it was empty nearby, and it turned its head back to ask.
“Because there are no more fish in the area near the shore. If you want to fish, you must go further in. Also, fishing is illegal right now. There has to be a time to let the marine animals rest. During the time where fishing is restricted, you aren’t allowed to go out to sea to fish,” Zhang Zian explained.
“Really?” Vladimir felt a little sad upon hearing the words, but it instantly started to recite, “Outside the coastal city fishing boats, there is a vast ocean and I cannot see a thing. Which side should I look at?”
Reaching the deep waters, Zhang Zian switched off the motor and stopped the boat slowly. He took out some binoculars to observe the surroundings, and after confirming that there were no other boats or people nearby, he started the game and let Sihwa out.
Splash! She fell into the sea. Her tail moved about to push her head and her neck out of the water. The salty taste in her mouth and the waves made her instantly understand that she was in the ocean.
“Ah- Zian. Come in and play with me!” She happily swam around the assault boat and waved at him.
Zhang Zian put his hand into the water to test, then shook his head and said, “No. You can just play yourself. The water is quite cold, and I don’t want to fall sick. Furthermore, I didn’t bring my swimming trunks.”
The most important thing was that if he went into the water, who would keep watch for any boats coming towards them?
He had heard that when Wang Qian and Li Kun took the boat out to play, they had gone in the water and swam about. They were really silly fellows sleeping on a cold brick bed, and they were totally relying on their vigor.
It was easy to enter the water, but after getting out, the sea breeze would blow and it would be cold. That was how one fell ill.
“Eh? Where did this cat come from?” Sihwa pointed at Vladimir, who was at the front of the boat.
“Hello! I’m Vladimir. I’m a newcomer.” Vladimir waved its claws.
Vladimir had a slovenly personality and it did not care about trivial matters. Plus, it did not need to eat, and of course, it did not need to go to the bathroom. Basically, it had no need to enter the bathroom, so it had not interacted with Sihwa at all.
Sihwa looked at it suspiciously. “Aren’t you scared of water? I heard all cats are scared of water. Even Fina doesn’t really like water.”
Vladimir smiled. “Because the rest of the cats are scared of water, I need to be scared of water? This logic doesn’t make sense! A true Meow-Meow Doctrine Believer is not scared of anything. They can go to the nine skies to pluck the moon, and down the five seas to catch turtles! What is there to be scared of?”
Sihwa was very confused. She could only somewhat understand its words. She pointed at its claws and said, “I’m not clear about going up to the nine skies to pluck the moon, but your claws don’t look like they can go down the five seas to catch turtles! If you enter the five seas, you could be eaten by turtles.”
Vladimir laughed loudly. “What you said is right. I really cannot go down the five seas to catch turtles, but perhaps other cats can. All cats under the sky are family, and I don’t need to do everything by myself.”
Sihwa’s brain was quite simple, and she was insistently picking on its words and not letting go. “Anyway, the sea belongs to the fish. No cat can go down the five seas to catch turtles!”
“Actually, that’s not accurate,” Zhang Zian interjected. “It’s true that most cats are afraid of water and hate getting wet, but as far as I know, there is a kind of cat that likes water. It feeds on fish almost every day.”
“Ah? Such a cat exists?” Sihwa was shocked, but at the same time, she was glad that Fina was not the kind of cat Zhang Zian was talking about.
Actually, Vladimir was also very curious. What it said about going down the five seas to catch turtles was just rhetoric. It did not think that there were really cats that went into the water to catch fish.
Zhang Zian said, “That kind of cat is a very rare Turkish Van cat. It is said that it only lives near the Van Lake in eastern Turkey. It fishes in the lake for its livelihood. There are fewer than 100 cats left. It is even nicknamed the ‘swimming cat’ because of its proficiency in swimming. When people talk about high-priced cats, they often think of cats such as the Serval cat, Ashera cat, and Savannah cats. Rich people also take pride in raising these cats, but in fact, the price of these cats is far less than that of the Van Cats, which are a Turkish national treasure. Van cats cost millions of dollars and are priceless. The Turkish government does not allow anyone to take them out of the country. The only one that can match the price of Van cats is probably the legendary primitive Egyptian cat.”
It was quite coincidental, but the Van Lake in Eastern Turkey was close to Egypt. It was only separated by a small part of the Mediterranean Sea, and he had considered as to whether he should take the opportunity during the Egypt expedition to pay for a trip down to Turkey to see the world’s most expensive cat. However, it would be very hard to see one even if he went down there.
Something that rare and expensive was not always a good thing. The Van Cat’s population had become so low that it was dangerous. There were not even 100 of them left.
Biologically, there was a ‘minimum viable population.’ Generally speaking, an independent species needed at least 1,000 of its kind to survive and reproduce in the long run. Even if it survived in the short run, it needed at least 50. If it was below that number, it meant that it was on the verge of extinction.
As an endangered animal, Turkey was far less protective than China was in its protection of the pandas, so the Van Cat population crisis had not been effectively alleviated. In a few years, it was possible that there would no longer be a cat that liked to fish in the water anywhere in the world.
Vladimir shook its head. “Cats are all equal. Why are they separated by expensive ones and cheap ones? All cats, or at least all the cats in the same country, or all the cats in the same society, should have the same government and social status.”
Zhang Zian smiled and said, “Indeed, cats cannot be classified their worth. No matter if the Van cat or the most common local cat have equally valuable lives, the so-called price is imposed by people. After all, modern society is a thoroughly commercial society… Even people have hidden prices! Some people earn more money and make great contributions to society, and so he is worth money. On the contrary, some people earn less money and contribute very little to society, so they’re not worth money… It sounds cruel, but that’s the way it is. There’s no need to pretend to be peaceful.”
Sihwa heaved a sigh of relief. “Fortunately, I am the only mermaid in the world… Hello! What’s that look in your eyes? Does it mean that if there’s another mermaid, I’m the worthless one?” She pointed at Zhang Zian in anger.
He shrugged, feeling very wronged. “I didn’t say anything!”
“Your expression says that!” she said angrily.
“If you want to condemn somebody, don’t worry about the pretext!” Zhang Zian refused to admit anything.
As Vladimir gazed towards where the sea and sky met, he murmured, “Sometime in my life, I must build a world without exploitation, oppression, money, and equality between cats and cats!”
Zhang Zian’s heart was moved. He felt like Fina probably would not agree with that kind of world. In Fina’s understanding, cats and cats were separated by different levels, much like how humans were separated into three, six, and nine levels. If that happened, would Fina and Vladimir start to fight because of differences in belief?
The two of them were so strong-willed, there was no need to hope that they would accept the other’s opinions and change.
Fina had unparalleled command over domestic cats, and Vladimir seemed to be combining stray cats with wild cats, which was half the battle in terms of strength.
However, the good thing was that, even if that kind of world existed, it would probably only happen in the future. It could be that it would not come about while he was alive. After all, even between humans, there was no perfect equality. How would equality between cats come so easily? There was no need to worry about it then.
At least for that day, it was better to put such things aside and enjoy the sea breeze and sunlight!
