Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The next day.
Early in the morning, as Zhang Zian opened the shutter door, the staff saw more than a dozen stray cats lying down in various postures. In addition, several of the cats were covered in thick bandages. They were stunned by what they saw.
“Master, these cats are…?” Wang Qian asked wonderingly.
Zhang Zian’s explanation to him was that he’d heard cats crying out last night. They’d sounded like they were injured, so he had gone out to look. He was right. He’d seen this group of stray cats. If he had simply left them there, they surely would’ve died. Thus, he had brought them into the store and performed simple first aid.
“Might there be another cat abuser?” Lu Yiyun asked uncomfortably, hugging Jasmine tightly.
“This may not be the case… They seem to have been fighting with stray dogs. They have bite marks and scratch marks on them,” Zhang Zian explained.
“Stray dogs? Fighting with stray cats? To gain territory?” Li Kun asked.
“Probably. They may be fighting for territory or perhaps food.” He was not giving random answers to their questions. Regardless of Vladimir’s theory, what was observable was that it was a competition between two groups of animals.
“Speaking of stray dogs…” Jiang Feifei interjected. “A few days ago, near our shop, I saw several large stray dogs. All of them were dirty and had saliva dripping from their mouths. They were very ferocious and scared me, so I ran off quickly.”
“When you encounter a stray dog, if they are far away from you, it is best to hurry away and find a place to hide. If the stray dogs are very close to you, you should not run. This is because when you run, stray dogs think you are weak and will chase you. Thus, you should retreat slowly and then find a place to hide,” Zhang Zian told them. In fact, this was also the law to observe when encountering other beasts in the wild.
It was estimated that Jiang Feifei’s encounter with the stray dogs had happened around the time that the stray cat had been attacked.
Lu Yiyun also said thoughtfully, “I heard this from the customers as well. Many said that the stray dogs are behaving rather savagely these days. Although no one has been injured by them recently, this is nevertheless not the way to go… Perhaps someone will act on the stray dog population soon…”
Zhang Zian knew very well what she meant. Although most people would simply ask for action to be taken online, a few would actually do something about it. The most likely scenario was the use of poisonous fumes to drug the dogs.
Modern Chinese society was a legal society, or at least trying to be one. Vilgantes like the Punisher and Batman, American heroes, were not celebrated. These only existed in cartoons and movies. These superheroes claimed to uphold justice, when in fact, they were dispensing their own version of justice. Justice should follow the law and not be decided by individuals.
In order to vent their anger, these perpetrators would not only poison stray dogs, they would also harm innocent pet dogs. Even the person providing the drugs would be indicted. After all, in this big city, everyone and everything was monitored everywhere.
In January 2019, a person in Shenzhen had been arrested on the spot for placing poison on sausages. He’d ended up having a criminal record and had his studies affected all to get back at someone he disliked. When he looked back at his own actions, he only had himself to blame.
In short, the conflict between people and dogs in the city was now intensifying. It was tantamount to playing with fire when the stray dogs chose to carry out their plans now.
Zhang Zian instructed his staff to tidy up the store. He borrowed a trolley, placed the injured stray cats into cages, and brought them to Sun Xiaomeng’s pet clinic. He then asked her to give them rabies vaccinations. He had something else to attend to and would be back later to grab them.
As for why he used a trolley and not the Wuling Hong Guang MPV, this was because he was afraid of introducing residual fleas to it.
The staff had long been accustomed to Zhang Zian’s absence from the store. At most, some of the tougher business transactions would be lost. There would be few other effects. In any case, the lost money was not their money…
While the staff cleaned, Zhang Zian inadvertently saw a familiar figure passing slowly as he went out of the store.
Wasn’t this the little fat boy who’d been hurt by caterpillars yesterday?
The boy’s bruises were not completely gone, but he had tried his best to milk sympathy for his wounds. Along the way, he made tons of noise and walked with heavy footsteps. He’d probably whined to his mom and dad about how painful it was and said he did not want to attend school. However, his parents had probably seen through his ploy and insisted otherwise. Thus, his face was as bitter as a gourd now.
“It is Little Zhuang, isn’t it? Let’s go. Don’t be late for school. If you are deliberately late, your parents will not sympathize more with your injuries anyway. They may even give you a few kicks in the butt…with shoe imprints. Haha.”
Zhang Zian strolled out of the store and deliberately cracked a joke at the boy.
Speaking of the day, it was Monday. Monday was writing day and came with a hell of a lot of reading.
Almost every student and office worker hated Monday. However, Zhang Zian, who was somewhat an idle worker in society, couldn’t care less.
The fat boy heard his voice. Zhang Zian’s words were spot on. He looked up at him and immediately recognized him.
“Yes, is your moth observation report finished? Actually, the metamorphosis of moths and that of butterflies are almost the same. You can refer to that…”
Zhang Zian looked to the side and discovered that the larva of the Swallowtail butterfly was still on the glass door of the shop next door.
“You can refer to that Swallowtail butterfly,” he said.
“Pervert transformation… Metamorphosis?”
The fat boy was shocked by this novel word. To be precise, he was shocked by the front word of “metamorphosis,” which really meant “pervert.”
“Haha.”
Just as the fat boy wanted to know the explanation of the word, Zhang Zian deliberately didn’t give him an explanation and laughed instead. He was too lazy to explain to him what metamorphosis was.
The boy wanted to know because this could be useful for his writing observation report. However, he did not want to ask Zhang Zian for it. He merely opened his eyes and stared hard at Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian had time to waste. After all, he didn’t need to go to school anyway.
“Hey! Good morning, my brother, Mr. Store Manager!”
Little Celery, who had not been around for a while, saw Zhang Zian standing by the front of the store. She exclaimed in surprise as she walked past.
“Hey, if it isn’t Little Celery! I haven’t seen you for a long time! Good morning! Come. High five!”
Zhang Zian bent over and stuck out his palm. Little Celery sprinted over and followed that with a small hop. He came over and returned a high five.
“Brother Manager, I heard from the big brothers and sisters here at the store that you went to Egypt?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Yeah, I went to Egypt.”
Zhang Zian let her wait for a while as he walked into the store to fetch her a bag of stuff. He handed it to her.
“Open it. This is a gift I brought back from Egypt.”
Little Celery hesitated for a moment because her mother had told her not to take things from strangers. However, Zhang Zian was obviously not a stranger. She gladly took the bag from him.
“Thank you, Mr. Manager! Wow! What is this? Dates?”
She opened the bag and fished out a date palm.
“Yes, authentic Egyptian date palms. Taste it and tell me if it is good or not,” Zhang Zian said.
Little Celery put a date in her mouth and chewed it. Her face was full of surprise at the taste. “It’s delicious! It’s crisp and sweet!”
The fat boy, hearing all this, cried.
