Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The second day, life was as usual. Zhang Zian woke up early in the morning, and then started his daily cleaning to prepare the shop for opening.
“Black Tiger Steals Heart!”
Facing the sudden attack––Zhang Zian did not undergo Old Time Tea’s education for nothing––he was calm and unhurried. His legs were positioned in the horse stance, and he steadily stepped forward, bent down his arms, and blocked a cat’s paw from attacking his crotch.
That was “Black Tiger Steals Heart?” The f*ck… That was more like a white cat attacking his pants, right?
“Tch! I don’t know when the stinky man started protecting his crotch, but you know what that means? When dealing with enemies bigger than you, with one move, you can take over the world!” Snowy Lionet took back its claws and told Vladimir.
Vladimir nodded. “Thank you for your teachings.”
“Wait! Snowy Lionet, what are you randomly teaching?” Zhang Zian could not pretend to be oblivious. That kind of shady move could not be taught randomly. Otherwise, all the male animals on earth would be in trouble.
“Pei, pei, pei! Why do I need to explain what I’m doing to a stinky man like you?” Snowy Lionet spit out saliva, and disdainfully jumped onto the cat climbing rack.
Zhang Zian was speechless.
Although it spoke with great meaning, one couldn’t change its dirty manners, could they? Similar to the teachings from Old Time Tea, the tactics were open and upright, and even would deliberately avoid the key parts of the enemy. Regardless of winning or losing, they had to remain upright, unlike Snowy Lionet…
Zhang Zian was just about to mop the floor, so he took advantage of that to clean its saliva away.
As the shop door opened, the cool morning breeze rushed into the shop.
With the exception of Pi and Sihwa, the rest of the elfins had slowly come downstairs, and they assumed their normal positions.
Old Time Tea pulled the plug out from the heated rug. The temperature was warm today, so there was no need for additional heat. It switched on the television, and as per its habit, it began to watch the local news.
“Last night, a strange thing happened in the Yinggang village of our city. The dogs of villagers were attacked by unidentified beasts. Here’s the detailed report that our reporter brought back from the scene.” The familiar anchor of the local news station smiled before the image changed.
Zhang Zian was not watching the news originally, but upon hearing that, he thought in his heart, Isn’t the Yinggang Village the one next to the dog market? And what kind wild animal? The sea dragon brought by Sihwa finally came ashore? If that happened, I should tidy up my expensive valuables and escape!
Of course, he first had to have expensive valuables…
Richard could see his thoughts and slyly called out, “Ga ga! You have valuables, both thin and soft…”
Zhang Zian did not want to talk crap with it, so he raised the mop and tried to hit it. Richard avoided it, having been prepared beforehand.
“Ga ga! I was talking about the noodles you ate yesterday. This idi*t! What are you thinking about?” Richard flapped its wings and avoided the swings, then chased Zhang Zian.
“My noodle being thin and soft… What does that have to do with you? At least it’s still long!” Zhang Zian’s spat.
They messed around until the chicken was flying and the dog was jumping.
After Zhang Zian tried to hit Richard a few times to no avail, he decided to temporarily give up; continuing would only upset Fina. Holding his mop, he walked up to the television and watched the news with Old Time Tea.
The television showed pictures of an ordinary farmyard. A middle-aged villager wearing a duck-tongue cap gave interviews with reporters, acting somewhat reserved.
“What kind of wild animal attacked your dog?” the young female reporter asked. She placed the microphone up to the villager’s mouth.
“Maybe it was a leopard? Look at this paw print. It must have been a leopard!” the villager pointed to the ground and said.
The camera zoomed in, letting the audience see the paw print on the ground for themselves. Actually, the pawprint was not very clear, as it was very messy. After all, the villagers did not know that they had to keep the crime scene protected. There was no need for that.
“This is the paw print of a leopard?” the reporter asked.
“Isn’t that crazy? How can a cat’s paw print be so big?” the villager thought that he was being doubted and asked back angrily.
Zhang Zian carefully observed the television screen. Although there was no reference object to properly compare the print to, it was possible that a cat had such a big paw print… For example, some especially big orange tabby cat.
The villagers did not keep cats and perhaps were not clear about that.
“What about these paw prints?” the reporter pointed at the nearby paw prints that were slightly smaller and asked.
“A young leopard’s!” the villager said confidently.
The young female reporter felt that there were some strange things in the case, and just wanted to confirm. “Did you see clearly that it was a leopard?”
“Of course!” The villager nodded hard, stretched out his arms, and gestured. “What a big one! I was almost scared to death! Others saw it too! Our guess is that a group of wild leopards passed through our village last night and attacked the dogs that were watching the house. Now our families are strengthening the doors and windows to prevent the leopards from coming back…”
He described it in such a lifelike way that it was like he actually saw it, which caused the reporters that were doubting him to believe the story.
The villagers blushed and argued roughly. “By the way, the government has to compensate for our losses, right? We know that leopards are protected animals, so we let them attack our dogs. We are very aware of this. The government cannot just watch us suffer losses, right?”
The young reports coughed awkwardly, and said to the camera, “Are there leopards near Binhai City? We are really not clear, so we will need the experts to tell us. Please cut back to the broadcast room now.”
The image changed back. The host beamed and said, “Although they have suffered some economic losses, we should give some praise to the villagers’ awareness of environmental protection. We hope that this matter can be properly resolved. Up next––”
Zhang Zian was confused. Even though he thought that the pawprints were obviously a cat’s, the villager seemed so confident, causing him to doubt his own deduction. Perhaps he was still a bit lacking in knowledge… Perhaps some leopards’ paw prints were similar to those of cats…
When Vladimir heard the news, the side of its mouth trembled with the hint of a smile. It had really underestimated the villagers’ ability to change a bad circumstance into a good one…
Zhang Zian continued to clean and casually used the mop to chase Richard.
After a while, the employees came to work one by one.
Wang Qian and Li Kun were complaining that their master had no sense of uprightness. They had waited until they were finished working the day before, but he never came back. He had said that he wanted to play with the luxury car, and in the end, he returned it overnight.
Of course, Zhang Zian would not admit that it was his mistake. He could not let the two idiots drive that kind of luxury car! If anything happened, he would have to sell his shop.
They chatted as they would normally, and the morning passed quickly.
At that moment, the doors of the shop separated to the right and left, and a person that was normally a little hunchbacked shakily came in.
“Zian, I have some good news for you!” Grandma Gu from the residents’ committee happily said in a loud voice. She wore a red armband.
Richard did not miss its opportunity and called out, “Ga ga! Congrats! Is it a boy or a girl?”
