Chapter 395: The Domineering Guard
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After snowing for nearly a day, the weather finally cleared up.
“Brother Store Manager! Brother Store Manager!”
With her unique voice and voice mutations, Little Celery excitedly ran into the store. She looked back and noticed the mat outside the door, went back outside to rub the mud off her soles, and ran into the shop again.
Mud was everywhere on the streets, and every passing vehicle was covered with mud spots. Probably the happiest people on this snowy day were the car wash shop owners. The situation on the sidewalk was not much better, with the young girls walking very slowly, frowning to avoid the running Little Celery, for fear of the mud from her shoes splashing on their clothes.
“What’s wrong, Little Celery?” Zhang Zian asked unhurriedly.
“Well…” She noticed that Zhang Zian was strenuously lifting a strange statue. “Wow, what is this?”
“This is a statue of the Cat Goddess.” Zhang Zian took a few steps back and bent down to push the statue, made of bronze, cautiously to the doorway into his recently refurbished shop, and was relieved. “It’s really heavy.”
Since Snowy had given him the statue of the Cat Goddess, Zhang Zian had thrown it around the corners of the store for months and didn’t remember its very existence until the store was tidied up this morning.
No matter what, it was an exquisite piece of art. Most importantly, this was a gift bought by Snowy, and he couldn’t just throw it away. Considering that selling it may not bring him much money, he decided to utilize it properly.
After much contemplation, he thought it was more appropriate to put it in front of the store, facing outside like a gatekeeper.
At the entrances to other people’s stores, a bronze bull was placed there so as to bring booming business, but strangely enough, Zhang Zian decided to place a bronze cat there instead. However, in the eyes of experts who were knowledgeable about the cat goddess, the origin of the cat statue was way more impressive than any ordinary bronze bull.
Besides, it made more sense to place a bronze cat rather than a bronze bull in front of a pet shop, didn’t it?
Little Celery crouched down, curiously looking at this vivid statue, and then raised her face and asked Zhang Zian, “Brother Store Manager, where is the Cat Goddess from?”
“It is an Egyptian cat goddess. Have you heard of it?”
“No,” she shook her head. Her two pigtails were pointing in the directions of 10 and 3 o’clock, indicating that it was Tuesday today.
“Anyway, you just need to know that it is very powerful, and as domineering as me!” Zhang Zian did not intend to explain this to her in detail — after all, things like faith and worship were too difficult for her to understand at this age.
“What?” Little Celery said with a look of admiration, “Brother Store Manager, you are amazing! You can even bring an Egyptian cat goddess to your shop!”
“No, it’s just a statue!” Zhang Zian felt awkward. “Little Celery, why didn’t you come over yesterday? Because it’s difficult to walk on a snowy day?”
“Uh-huh!” she nodded. “Yesterday morning, our teacher said in the group chat that school was closed, so we didn’t need to go, and she asked us to inform each other.”
“Tut, children nowadays are so lucky. When I was in school, even when the sky was raining knives, we still needed to go to school…” Zhang Zian angrily said. “Gosh, I’m so old now!”
“Brother Store Manager is still very young!” Little Celery said very seriously. “Younger than my mother!”
“Haha, of course! Your Brother Store Manager will be 18 years old forever!” Zhang Zian laughed, “Little Celery, why are you here today?”
“Ah! I almost forgot! Brother Store Manager, I’m here to tell you some good news!” said Little Celery. “The teacher has agreed that my program will represent our class in the performance in front of the whole school!”
“Oh? Nice!” Although he had expected this was the good news, Zhang Zian pretended to be surprised and smiled happily, “Is this the show about the fairy tale pet shop?”
“Yes, but the show name has changed to ‘Magical Pet Shop’ because our teacher said this name is more attractive,” Little Celery made lively gestures while she spoke. “Yi Le acted very strange. He suddenly approached me before the vote, and said that he wouldn’t fight against me anymore, and with several other boys, they raised their hands to support me in the voting… Brother Store Manager, do you know what happened?”
“No.” Zhang Zian shook his head, “Presumably, he probably felt that your program was more interesting. Let me tell you, boys this age change very quickly. They might like one thing today, and change their minds tomorrow…”
“Is that so?” she winked.
“That’s right! Little Celery, don’t mind them, just rehearse your show.”
Little Celery nodded, “Well, I will work hard!”
“But do not let the rehearsals affect your learning,” Zhang Zian reminded her. “Learning should always be your priority.”
For children this age, maybe playing was the most important thing, but taking into account the national conditions of China, Little Celery couldn’t be left behind at the starting line.
“I know! Brother Store Manager, I’m going to play with Xiao Ling and Er Duo!” Little Celery ran a few steps, stopped, and asked him, “Brother Store Manager… are you usually very busy?”
Zhang Zian shrugged and asked, “Look at me, do you think I look like a busy person?”
“No, you look like you have much spare time,” Little Celery responded honestly.
Although this was the truth, Zhang Zian was still very sad!
“Why do you ask?” he said.
“Well…” Little Celery was a bit shy, “The school-founding celebration, would you like to come and see it?”
“Celebration…” Zhang Zian thought for a moment, “I would love to see Little Celery perform, but… is it true that only parents are allowed in the school?”
“You can go in on the celebration day!” She looked at him expectantly.
“Well, no problem then! I will not miss your show,” Zhang Zian laughed.
With Lu Yiyun helping him, he could leave the shop for half a day.
Just at that moment, Lu Yiyun arrived.
“Good morning, Mr. Store Manager.” Lu Yiyun greeted him, and noticed the statue of the Cat Goddess squatting proudly near the cashier’s desk, “Um? What is this…”
“A statue of the Cat Goddess.” Zhang Zian felt a bit of a headache. What if everyone that came in the shop asks the same question? Should I write a note next to it?
“Oh.” Lu Yiyun stopped asking. She intended to search about it online later.
She dropped her drawing board from her shoulders and connected it to the computer as she did yesterday.
“Mr. Store Manager, about updating the WeChat public account…”
“What about it?”
When it came to the public account, Zhang Zian’s headache worsened. Although he had opened a public account, he really didn’t know what to publish on it. Yesterday he had intended to discuss it with Lu Yiyun, but was interrupted by Adams’s sudden visit.
She said swiftly, “How about I draw a few Abyssinian cats?”
“Ah?” Zhang Zian was startled, “Go on.”
Encouraged by him, she said bravely, “After going home last night, I thought that since few people in China know about the Abyssinian cat, I intend to draw the cats and tell everyone that this shop will introduce this rare cat breed in a few days. What do you think?”
“Well… this is a good idea!” Zhang Zian thought for a moment when she touched her chin.
The eight Abyssinian cats were purebred and in excellent condition. Any one of them was good enough to serve as a breeding cat, except that they were all the chocolate color unrecognized by the CFA.
He did not intend to sell them, but it was always good to promote them, and Cathy would have liked to make her cats known to more people.
“Just do it,” he decided.
“But I do not know what they are like…” Lu Yiyun spoke haltingly.
Yesterday after Adams left, Lu Yiyun asked Zhang Zian about his trip to America curiously, and he told her everything that had happened at the CFA competition without reservation. After she went back to her rental house that night, she tossed and turned restlessly in bed. She was impressed and touched by Adams’s professionalism, Cathy’s persistence, and Zhang Zian’s sadness, and she suddenly had a very strong desire to share what she had heard with others in the form of pictures.
In the middle of the night, she walked out of bed, turned on the computer, picked up the digitizer tablet, and tried to draw the things in her heart.
However, she soon encountered obstacles that prevented her from drawing. She didn’t know what the cat named Wendy looked like.
Lu Yiyun knew the appearances of Zhang Zian and Fina, and through the photo in the photo frame also got to know Cathy’s look, but she hadn’t encountered Wendy, who was playing such an important role.
However, due to her shyness, she did not intend to tell Zhang Zian about her thoughts at the time being. Instead, she wanted to draw the pictures privately. Therefore, she asked about Wendy’s look obscurely, with the pretense of updating the WeChat public account.
“Oh, right, wait here.” Zhang Zian made a trip upstairs and fetched the photos of the eight cats Adams left behind for her.
“Which is Wendy?” she asked.
“The most beautiful one,” Zhang Zian pointed at it.
“Ah… it is really beautiful, like an elegant fairy!” Lu Yiyun stared intently at Wendy’s photo, her fingers gently sliding along the curves of its body.
She looked up to see the statue of the Cat Goddess. It seemed that Wendy resembled this statue a lot, but Fina looked almost identical to the statue.
“I will draw it as soon as possible and return the photos to you.” She took over the pictures carefully.
Seeing that she liked the photos so much, Zhang Zian generously said, “You can keep them if you’d like — the cats will arrive in a few days anyway.”
“Brother Store Manager…” Little Celery ran out and saw Lu Yiyun sitting behind the cashier desk. She asked in surprise, “Big Sister, who are you?”
Lu Yiyun was not afraid of children. She smiled and waved her hands, “Hello, I am the new cashier here, and my name is Lu Yiyun.”
“Hello, Sister Yiyun!” said Little Celery. “Brother Store Manager, Sister Yiyun, I have to go to school now, bye!”
“Bye! Don’t run too fast on the road, and watch out for cars,” Zhang Zian reminded her.
When Little Celery left, he thought of a serious problem. He forgot to ask on which day the celebration of her school was!
