Chapter 288: Coughing
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Why did Zhang Zian dare to agree to Sun Xiaomeng’s request? Firstly, with the limitations set by the game system, even if Richard wanted to leave, it couldn’t leave randomly when the timing hadn’t come. Secondly, he always believed that forced love didn’t last. Elves had their own wills and dignities, to stay or to go were their own decisions—just like he once asked Old Time Tea whether it wanted to leave, and just like Snowy Lionet decided to leave its previous owner—no one can force them to make their decisions.
Sun Xiaomeng followed him and went through the first floor. She noticed that these decoration workers brought by Guo Dongyue were extremely qualified. They paid special attention to dust prevention and reducing construction noise during their work, so the construction environment was not as bad as she imagined.
Zhang Zian set up a curtain on the landing on the stairs, which can more or less block the dust.
“Your place is so cold, the temperature here is almost the same with that of outside, aren’t you cold?” asked Sun Xiaomeng crossing her arms. She had found the problem last time she’s here, she just forgot to talk about it. When she dropped by last time, she just felt the pet shop dry and cold, but a lot of water was required for the construction, and the shop was damp and cold today.
Zhang Zian teased her, “I’m not cold anyway. You are too weak, aren’t you?”
He may have felt cold under his previous constitution, but after practicing Wing Chun Kung Fu with Old Time Tea, his physique got increasingly better. Though he still had a long way to go before reaching the level of completing shielding from harsh weathers as described in Wuxia novels, at least he was more cold-resistant than ordinary people.
Sun Xiaomeng shook her head, reminding him like she reminded Wu Yue before, “The weather forecast shows that tomorrow will see strong wind and decreased temperature. Be careful not to catch a cold.”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.” said Zhang Zian totally unconcerned.
They lifted open the curtain and went into the hallway on the second floor, all the doors of the rooms there were shut, and Zhang Zian pointed to the living room, “Richard is here.”
When the living room door was pushed open, they saw that Richard was standing on the windowsill looking in the distance.
“Good afternoon, Richard,” Sun Xiaomeng greeted it.
Richard turned its head, and she could not see what it was like at the moment as it was standing in a backlit spot.
“Good afternoon, doctor. You changed your clothes today.”
Sun Xiaomeng lowered her head, “Oh, you mean my white coat? It was cold outside today, and I would catch a cold if I only put it as my outerwear. Richard likes white coats?”
Richard looked out the window again, “No, doctor, it’s not white coat that I like.”
Zhang Zian quietly sat on the sofa without speaking.
Sun Xiaomeng was bewildered, Richard’s attitude seemed a bit aloof today, was it because she hadn’t come to visit it in the past few days, so it was angry with her?
She slowly walked towards it, since Richard didn’t object, she stood beside it, looking outside as Richard did.
Richard was looking at the parcel of green field behind the pet shop, since it’s late autumn, the green field was covered by a yellowish color with lots of plants gone withered, only the evergreen pines and cypresses still appeared green. A few sparrows landed on the benches in the green field, competing to peck at the grass seeds and dried wild berries brought by the wind.
“Does Richard like birds?” She asked.
Richard nodded. “I’m a bird, doctor.”
“I am a bird, so isn’t it normal for me to like birds?” Sun Xiaomeng comprehended it this way.
“It sucks to be locked in the house, right? With the noise, dust, and the cats …… do you want to go out and play, changing the environment?” She asked tentatively.
As Richard was trying to answer, suddenly a wildcat erupted from the hay near the bench like a streak of lightning, pinning an unfortunate sparrow under its paw and the other sparrows were screaming in panic and flew away. The wildcat lowered its head, and when it raised its head again, only a pool of blood and a few feathers were seen on the bench. The wildcat licked its lips, staring coldly at another groups of sparrows on the wall, jumped back to the grass and disappeared. The simple-minded sparrows forgot the horrifying scene soon.
Sun Xiaomeng thought to herself, why did the coincidence occur at this timing?
“Doctor, you …” Richard’s face seemed like it was laughing, as if it was trying to comfort her, but its words were interrupted by a series of coughing, “Cough, cough, cough, cough…”
Its coughing sounded a little bit like that of a child, but was shorter and sharper, with its chest moving up and down rapidly. Each time it coughed, its cluster of red tail feathers would be swinging up and down.
It’s not easy to distinguish a parrot’s coughing and sneezing, Zhang Zian didn’t have much experience in raising parrots, and it’s the first time he heard such sounds, he froze for a moment and asked, “Is it coughing or sneezing?”
Of course, he was asking the only veterinarian there.
Sun Xiaomeng frowned, and said quite certainly, “It’s coughing, not sneezing.”
“Is it all right?” Zhang Zian stood up from the couch.
“Richard, are you OK?” Sun Xiaomeng leaned close to Richard and asked with concern.
“I’m fine, doctor, just … you know, too much dust,” Richard stopped coughing and said like nothing happened.
Sun Xiaomeng turned to ask Zhang Zian, “Has Richard coughed before?”
“Hm…… probably no …” Zhang Zian said uncertainly. These days he had been so busy communicating with the construction team about the matters of renovation that he had no time to think about other things. And Richard did not like anyone bother it when it was training the two red-headed lovebirds, unless Richard asked him to help out. So he really didn’t know whether it had coughed before, today was the first time he heard it.
“I’m fine, doctor, don’t worry, just choke by the dust.” Richard’s voice was no different from usual, it can articulate the words, and its voice was neither hoarse nor with nasal tone.
Sun Xiaomeng was not contented with Zhang Zian’s perfunctory answer, but Richard was right, there was too much dust because of the renovation, she was also choked by the dust and coughed a few times when she walked past the first floor.
“Your room is too cold.” She mentioned the issue again, “Can’t you make it warmer?”
Zhang Zian really didn’t feel cold, but he remembered that on one morning several days ago, Richard was complaining about the coldness. He thought Richard was just joking around as usual, so he didn’t mind its complaint. As a matter of fact, its place of origin was Africa, and it neither had long fur nor clothes to keep it warm, indeed Richard was the least cold-resistant resident of his pet shop.
“Okay, I’ll go to the supermarket to buy electric heaters later.” he said.
A few days ago, he tried to plug in the electric heater left by his parents last winter, but it didn’t work anymore. He had been thinking about buying a few new electric heaters for each room, but he was so busy these days, and forgot about it.
“No, no later, go buy them now.” Sun Xiaomeng complained, “You might stand the coldness with your muscles, your pets can’t.”
Zhang Zian thought she was right. Why not ask his free labor to help him?
He called Wang Qian and Li Kun and told them to go to the supermarket to buy electric heaters, which were of famous brands and had superb heating performance. Prices would not be a problem, he told them, for the heaters can be used for many years, and he would reimburse them when they came back.
When Zhang Zian was making the phone call, Sun Xiaomeng asked Richard again, “Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine, doctor,” Richard insisted.
When Zhang Zian hung up the phone, and Sun Xiaomeng also wanted to say something, her own cell phone also rang.
“Hello?” She answered the phone.
“Sister Xiaomeng, a client’s dogleg has fracture … no, no, I didn’t mean that, I mean the client’s dog’s leg has been fractured. It’s urgent, please hurry and come back.” Long Xian said anxiously on the other said of the phone, with a male client’s loud complaint in the background, “What did you just say?!”
“OK, tell the client that I’ll go back right away.” Sun Xiaomeng knew that Long Xian was still inexperienced, and would lose her composure when something unexpected happened. Long Xian still had to long way to go before she could take care of the clinic on her own.
