Chapter 513: Funny Games
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The very next morning, Zhang Zian woke up, drew the window curtains, and looked outside at the good weather. It was sunny, and the strong winds from yesterday had stopped. It was a nice day for him to go on a walk.
Last night after Little Celery and Wang Yaning left, Famous had another idea—to let Zhan Tian pull the sleigh with it. This would look much better.
Zhang Zian thought this was a good idea. Dogs had a profound understanding of humanity, and for such a traumatized dog like Zhan Tian, nothing could be healthier for it than applause and cheers. People supporting it would significantly help with rebuilding its confidence.
The only problem was if he would be able to train Zhan Tian enough in these next few days, so that it would listen to all of his orders. After all, Zhan Tian wasn’t an elfin.
After he finished the cleaning routine in the morning, Uncle Li delivered breakfast for the elves. Inside the insulated box were barbecue skewers and fried steak for Famous. Zhang Zian put the fried steak into Famous’ food bowl, and then fetched a half empty bottle of Great Wall dry red wine. He poured Famous a glass of his own.
Famous watched the red liquid flow into its cup. Its extremely keen sense of smell made it realize that the quality of this wine was no match for the red wine from its imagined landscape. Still, it licked its tongue into the cup and sipped the wine eagerly.
Fina opened its eyes slightly and saw Zhang Zian putting on a jacket. It asked unhappily, “Where are you going?”
Zhang Zian pointed to the back of his shop. “The weather is nice today, so I’m planning on bringing Zhan Tian to the green field for training. Did you want to come with us and lay in the sun?”
“I’m already able to lay in the sun from the shop, so why would I want to go out?” Fina asked.
“Because the air outside feels fresh. It’s even better than the air in here.” Zhang Zian advised, “It’s boring to stay inside for such a long time. You should go out for a walk, or you’ll start getting fatter from doing nothing but eating and sleeping in the store. “
“What are you talking about?” Fina was furious. “I’m not getting fatter!”
Old Time Tea was shocked by Zhang Zian’s dangerous remarks, so it quickly chimed in, “The morning time is the best time of the day, and I think it’d be nice for us to go out on a walk. It’ll help us digest our breakfast.”
Fina respected Old Time Tea so it just shut its mouth and angrily stared at Zhang Zian. Besides, Galaxy was also looking forward to playing hide and seek in the field.
As for Snow Lionet, it had always followed in Fina’s footsteps, and it would follow it wherever it went.
Needless to say, Richard, who loved energetic outings, would be joining them as well.
After Lu Yiyun came into work, Zhang Zian told her to give him a call if anything happened, and that he would be back in a matter of minutes to take care of it. Then, he took Zhan Tian and the elves, and exited the pet shop from the back door, heading to the green field.
The field looked desolate. The branches and leaves from the pine and cypress trees were covered in ice and snow. The dead grass wilted on the ground. The wild cats that had been wandering around in the fall were gone. Wang Qian and Li Kun walked all the puppies from the pet shop in this field almost everyday, except when the weather was bad.
Before leaving, Zhang Zian had dug out an old baseball and a pair of baseball gloves from the storage room. When he was a child, his father would take him to the park to play with himl. When he was a naïve and stupid teenager, he made a goal to throw a sinking fastball—of course he had never succeeded. Playing baseball well required both talent and intense training, and he had neither.
But today, the baseball was not for himself, but to train Zhan Tian.
He spread a waterproof tarp over the stone bench so Fina and Snowy Lionet weren’t cold lying down. Old Time Tea jumped to the top of the wall to see if there were any people nearby.
“Zhan Tian.” Zhang Zian took off Zhan Tian’s leash and squatted down. He placed the baseball down in front of it. “Would you like to play fetch with me?”
Zhan Tian stared at the baseball, came closer, and carefully sniffed it. Zhang Zian could tell that it was curious.
“I’ll throw it, can you bring it back to me?” He tossed the baseball in his hand, caught it, tossed it, and caught it again. Zhan Tian nodded along with his movements.
Zhan Zian’s goal for this game was to rebuild Zhan Tian’s trust and reliance on people.
“Okay, I’m going to throw it now.” He stretched his wrists out before he made his throw.
When he threw the ball for the first time, he moved slowly so that Zhan Tian could see clearly what he what he was doing. He only threw the ball a short distance, so it didn’t roll too far away.
The baseball flew in a beautiful arc across the blue sky. After it landed on the ground, it bounced a few times and rolled forward.
Zhan Tian was still watching the baseball, hesitant to move.
Famous barked at Zhan Tian twice. Trying to set an example from its own actions, Famous ran over to pick up the ball and then brought it back to Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian didn’t give up or act impatient. He threw the ball again.
This time, the front leg of Zhan Tian stepped forward a bit, but then it moved it back.
Famous also had a great deal of patience. Again, it demonstrated for Zhan Tian how to retrieve the ball.
When the baseball was thrown for the third time, Zhan Tian finally trotted forward, fetched the ball, and brought it back to Zhang Zian.
“Good boy, Zhan Tian!” Zhang Zian gently rubbed its head and pulled out some beef jerky from his pocket. He put the beef jerky in his palm and fed it to Zhan Tian.
He purposely didn’t feed Zhan Tian breakfast before training it this morning.
Zhan Tian quickly stuck out its tongue and put the beef jerky in its mouth. Now that it understood how the reward system worked, it looked at Zhang Zian expectantly.
After that, Zhang Zian continued throwing the ball, and each time the distance would get longer and more challenging than the time before. Sometimes the ball landed underneath the stone bench, and sometimes it fell far away in the grass. Zhan Tian learned to overcome certain obstacles before retrieving the ball.
Every time Zhan Tian returned with the baseball, it would receive praise from Zhang Zian and more of the delicious beef jerky. It became more and more lively and involved in the game.
Zhang Zian was generous with his praise to Zhan Tian. In the police dog nursing home, he once watched Xiao Yuhong trained Luo Luo, and he was actively imitating her tone and actions. Just like Luo Luo, Zhan Tian had also received basic police dog training, and it was so clever that it had adapted to Zhang Zian’s training methods in no time. No wonder it had once been the best candidate in the dog SWAT team.
Little Celery’s school anniversary celebration was right around the corner. Zhang Zian had to train Zhan Tian perfectly before it could pull the sleigh alongside Famous in Little Celery’s performance. Galaxy looked around and didn’t see the wild cats who played hide and seek with it before, and it felt a little disappointed.
“Galaxy, do you want to play hide and seek?”
Galaxy looked back. It was Famous who asked it the question.
“Meow! I do!” Galaxy said happily.
Famous asked, “Alright, who’s going to be the one hiding?”
Famous had been looking forward to this day for a while. It should have played hide and seek with Galaxy a long time ago.
