Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Aish! Am I seeing the wrong thing? All of you look at it! The cats and dogs in the shop seem to have returned to normal!”
Some people’s eyes were sharp. They pointed towards the inside of the faraway shop, but they still did not dare to take the risk to rush in to see.
“Really? I’ll go take a look…”
“I’m telling you to be more careful…”
There were people with big c*cks… No, it was brave young people carefully running towards the doorway of the shop and stretching out their necks to look inside. The pets had returned to normal. The kittens were close to each other, rolling around and playing. The puppies stood in their display cabinets; they were in great spirits as they looked at the pedestrians in anticipation, waiting for those with affinity to take them away.
“Eh? Oh, it’s true! The pets are really back to normal!” the people who were inspecting the shop said in surprise.
Someone stubbornly retorted, “That doesn’t mean anything. On the contrary, it might mean that the earthquake is coming soon!”
In fact, using common sense, what that person said could be true.
The reason why animals were able to give a certain amount of warning before an earthquake happened was because animals were generally considered to have a more sensitive sense of ultrasound and infrasound. Before the seismic waves reached the ground, they would hear the rupture and displacement of seismic zones deep in the earth’s crust in advance. When the seismic zones were completely split open and the sound ended, the abnormal behavior of animals would end. That did not mean, however, that the danger was over. On the contrary, it might mean that the seismic waves would soon reach the ground level.
However, the current situation had nothing to do with the conventional logic.
Most people were hesitating, unable to decide what they should do. For the sake of caution, they stayed where they were, but hung up and put down their cell phones one by one. Several others simply shut down their phones, and quietly distanced themselves from those who were still insisting on making calls, so as to not be struck by lightning or to get in trouble because of what they were doing…
“Look at the bats on the floor there! They seem to have woken up!” someone said, pointing towards the bats.
The bats that had been randomly flying and hitting things were like a blind man who had regained his ability to see the light. They managed to recover their normal navigation abilities, nimbly flapping their wings and avoiding obstacles. They became a dark and dense mess sweeping over the roof of the pet shop as they flew towards the green space at the back of the shop.
The bats that had unluckily knocked themselves unconscious began to slowly wake up, but since bats were used to taking off from hanging upside down on branches or below the eaves of the house, trying to take off from the ground was not that easy. They used their joints to lean on the ground, staggering to find a suitable position and angle, and then tried to fly again, looking very pitiful.
If it was a flock of cute birds, the onlookers would surely come forward to help them lovingly… Even though most of the people knew that bats were good animals, their ugly appearance and sharp teeth made them unwilling to go up and help. Furthermore, it was said that the teeth of the bats were not clean, and they could spread rabies. They did not want to be bitten for no reason and have to go and be vaccinated.
Wang Qian saw the situation and said, “Do you see it now? Master said it was not an earthquake, but all of you refused to believe it. These animals have abnormal behavior because the pressure is low before it rains. The reason why rats move around the house, besides for when an earthquake is about to happen, it could also be that it is going to rain!”
“But cats and dogs are not rats. Would they act like that when the pressure is low?” someone questioned.
The pitiful bit of ink in Wang Qian’s stomach had all been taken out already, and for a moment, he could not answer.
Just at that moment, Zhang Zian pushed open the second floor window and told the people below, “It’s not only the low pressure. The air is also very humid and very statically charged… It could be that, not far from here, it is raining. The sounds of thunder traveled over––we can’t hear it, but animals can. The pets in my shop are all around three months old… They have never heard thunder, so they are acting very panicky.”
The explanation was definitely not perfect, but it was grudgingly accepted by the people.
More customers were swayed because, although Zhang Zian was a single dog and a miser, he had always been very knowledgeable about pets. He remained in his safe position on the second floor of the pet shop, but it seemed that he did not think of the abnormal behavior of the animals as something big. His daring to do that meant that he definitely had a considerable degree of assuredness.
There was another dazzling flash of lightning.
Boom…
There was another earth shaking roll of thunder. The sound lingered and continued without stopping for three seconds.
The thunder was even louder than the first one, practically exploding next to the people’s ears. It caused people’s eardrums to shake.
“Whether all of you are going in or not, I’m just going to go in already.” Wang Qian had finished his job and gladly ran back into the shop. He sat down and poured himself a cup of tea, then crossed his legs leisurely.
Lu Yiyun had not left the pet shop. She was at ease, but she vaguely felt that Zhang Zian could be fooling people again… It hadn’t just been the three-month-old kittens. Even her Jasmine had been running around randomly in the shop like crazy, which had never happened before.
Some people started to move.
Several young girls that had come to the shop in a group had left the umbrellas they brought in the shop when they were escaping. If it rained, their carefully applied makeup would be ruined, and their light clothes would become transparent after getting wet. Comparing the two possibilities, they decisively chose to enter the shop to avoid the rain and protect their makeup.
However, they were also not dumb. After they entered the shop and took their umbrellas, they occupied the spot near the doorway. If anything happened, they could escape the store again in plenty of time.
When one person did it, another person would follow. It followed the same principle that if the sky fell down, the taller people would take the brunt of it. More customers entered the shop, picking up what they had thrown away, and also stood near the doorway.
Other people thought about it. When they had fled, they were all out of it, and the things they brought, like their bags and umbrellas, were all thrown in the shop. They could not really throw them away––that would be quite a heartache. They had to at least pick them up then talk about it. Otherwise, was that not benefitting Zhang Zian for no reason?
People returned to the shop one after another, and around half of the people immediately returned home as soon as they picked their things up. The other half decided to temporarily stay behind, but they were still were not entirely at ease. They looked to see the sky from time to time, then whispered to each other, probably to guess whether an earthquake would happen or not.
Of course, there was no earthquake.
Zhang Zian finally let out a breath of relief from the second floor. Things were really close to getting out of hand.
Drip…
Drip drip…
Hua…
Hua hua…
A gust of strong wind blew up the dust that had been gathering for a long time on the ground, rolling up the plastic bags and waste papers and causing them to fly to the sky.
The rain started out of nowhere. At first it was a few drops of rain, but in the blink of an eye, the rain grew very heavy.
The sky was filled with dark clouds, and the lightning was lithely darting through the dark clouds. It appeared suddenly and disappeared just as suddenly. The low rumbling of thunder could be heard without end.
Looking at the rain, it did not seem like it would be stopping anytime soon.
Zhang Zian quietly looked at the fine rain streaks and could not help but think of an old legend.
It was said that if the weather had both lightning and thunder, then when a fish finally leapt through the Dragon Door, lightning from the skies would strike the fish’s tail and the fish would transform into a dragon. From then on, it would freely travel the skies and the seas. The legend had a specific famous phrase attached to it called “Burning Tail.”
Perhaps… it could even transform into a human.
