Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Feng Xuan was the center of attention and there were constantly people whispering into his ear. Obviously there were some movie companies that had seen how Dog Warrior was garnering success, and there were crew members who were familiar with both parties that could act as a go between.
They wanted Feng Xuan to direct their movies; however, Feng Xuan kept a constant, slight smile on his face. He didn’t agree, but he did not reject them, either. He was hesitant because he was already quite old, and after filming one movie, he needed sufficient rest before filming the next one. Also, he wanted to sell to the highest bidder, so he wanted to wait for the box office success of Dog Warrior.
As a special effects movie that had low funding, due to not having any big celebrities in it, Dog Warrior’s production and advertising costs was the equivalent to the money a famous celebrity would earn from filming a movie. With the current momentum of the movie, earning enough to cover the costs and earn profits would not be a problem. What was vital, however, were the box office ratings.
Zhang Zian had found some employees he was well-acquainted with to reminiscence about the past. He had specially reminded the makeup artist, Xu Junyu, that the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the mosquitoes were starting to move around. The hairless cats that she had at home would likely have a lot of red bumps from mosquito bites, but even then she should not burn mosquito repellent incense, as there were ingredients in the mosquito repellent incense that were harmful to cats.
Xu Junyu shared the photographs of her cats after she helped them put on their makeup. Every photo could be used as a sticker, and it caused the rest of the cat owners to be so amused that they laughed loudly.
After chatting for a while, Zhang Zian saw that the sky outside had started to darken. He came up with a reason that he needed to walk the dog and said his goodbyes, then left with Famous.
When he returned to his room, he released the rest of the elfins besides Sihwa and made them invisible. He did not release Sihwa because he was scared that when he was out, the hotel staff would enter the hotel room for some reason. They would see the empty part in the bathtub, and that would be troublesome… She could make her body invisible, but the dent in the water’s surface could not be hidden.
In the past, when he went to America, he had stayed in Tim and Laurin’s house, and when he went to Germany, the hotel he had stayed in was ordinary. Old Time Tea observed the exquisite and luxurious decorations in the room and could not help but be left slightly speechless.
Galaxy jogged to the window and stuck its face onto the glass to look outside.
“This is what they call a five-star hotel? It looks quite ordinary.” After Fina appeared and turned around to look at the decorations in the room, it could not help but be very disappointed. It looked at everything in disgust and commented, “The cups are made of glass, the lights are made of glass, the dishes to hold the fruit are also made of glass… There is a cheap feeling to everything. There are no gold utensils, no jeweled tassels… How is it worthy of being called a five-star hotel? You humans have such low expectations of a five-star hotel. To think that I had some expectations at first.”
“You probably have some misunderstanding of what five-stars means.” Zhang Zian could not stop himself from complaining. “Even if it’s a five-star hotel it is still a hotel, not a five-star palace!”
Fina did not pay attention to his complaints. It jumped onto the bed and surprisingly found that the mattress was very soft and elastic. It jumped on the bed a few times; it was like it had springs inside.
“Eh? This bed is very soft!” it said happily.
“Your Majesty, that’s because this servant is under the bed sheet… Step on this servant a few more times!” Snowy Lionet had unknowingly wriggled under the bedsheets and had been stepped on a few times by Fina. It had not felt pain, but instead seemed to be enjoying it a lot. Its head popped up from under the bedsheets, giving Fina a soft glance.
Fina: “…”
Even when it was not stepping on Snowy Lionet, the bed was still very soft, and Fina declared its ownership of the bed.
“From the ancient times to the present times, this bed belongs to me!” it said, unreasonably.
No one fought with it.
Fortunately, there were two beds in the standard room, and if they squeezed a bit they could still fit. Famous did not like sleeping in too soft a place; it preferred to sleep on the carpet instead.Galaxy liked to lie by the window and sleep; Pi was used to sleeping on the basket hammock chair and liked to sleep somewhere that it could be sheltered. The sofa was a pretty good option for it. Old Time Tea was able to sleep anywhere… so Zhang Zian did not have to go to the extent of sleeping on the floor.
He took some clothes out from his luggage and hung them up in his closet, then placed the laptop on the desk.
Pi looked at the time and anxiously wanted to open the computer to write his stories.
“Pi, don’t be too anxious. We rarely come out, and now that we are staying in a luxurious hotel that we did not need to pay for ourselves, why don’t we go downstairs to take a walk? You can brainstorm your plot, and it would not be too late to start writing after we come back,” Zhang Zian persuaded. “When you enter a treasure mountain, how can you return empty-handed?”
“Ga ga! Is it Babaoshan?” Richard flapped its wings and said. “After coming to the capital you have quite a lot of awareness! But don’t worry, you don’t have the qualifications to enter Babaoshan!”
Zhang Zian looked around the surroundings. There was one thing that was not good about a luxurious hotel: They did not have a feather duster for the guests.
He did not bring much on the trip, and he did not have a lot of things in his luggage. He had packed very quickly.
“Let’s go. Let’s go downstairs and take a walk around the garden––take in the capital air,” he suggested.
Fina could not really bear to leave the soft bed, but it unwillingly followed behind.
Zhang Zian led Famous, and brought the invisible elfins to the elevator. They entered the elevator with no one inside, and reached the lobby on the first floor. He asked the hotel staff about the directions to the garden before they all left the hotel lobby.
In the capital where every inch of land was worth an inch of gold, it was already extremely extravagant and luxurious for a hotel to have such a large garden. When Zhang Zian reached the garden, he was shocked to realize that there was no one there at all. Obviously, there were more fun things in the hotel attracting the guests, like the gym, the billiard room, the sauna, the indoor swimming pool, and so on.
Actually, if it was only Zhang Zian alone, he would have been more willing to go to the gym or the indoor pool to look at girls, but the elfins were definitely not interested in those things.
“Meow. Zian, shall we play hide-and-seek?” Galaxy excitedly suggested, seeing that there was no one around. Even though it would never be bored of playing hide-and-seek in the pet shop, it was very happy to come to a new place to play, as well.
“All right. It’s been a long since I’ve exercised my joints. Today, I’ll let you witness the product of my hard work and training. Stealth Cloak!” Zhang Zian was very confident.
“Meow! Zian is boasting!” However, Galaxy had seen through his lies a long time ago.
When Zhang Zian turned his head back, he saw that Famous and Pi had instantly escaped. Pi had jumped a few times and climbed to the top of the tree, hugging the tree while trembling lightly, and Famous had even used the short distance teleportation skill that was only supposed to be used to escape from danger. Could it be that its crisis prediction ability had taken effect?
“Tsk! Two cowards!” He twitched his lips disdainfully, “Galaxy, how about we have a competition to determine the winner and the loser?”
“Meow!”
“All right, go and hide well. Don’t let me find you too easily. I like games with a challenge!” Zhang Zian closed his eyes.
“Meow. Zian don’t you dare peek! Don’t cheat!” Galaxy said seriously, probably knowing that Zhang Zian often liked to secretly peek when he counted.
“I never peek! It’s not like it’s a girl who’s bathing. What’s there to look at?” Zhang Zian refused to admit it.
“Meow!” Galaxy disappeared in a blink of an eye; the “me” had sounded from close by while the “ow” came from a distance away.
The evening wind was not cold and not hot; it was very comfortable.
Fina found a long chair, and Snowy Lionet helped to clean the dust off the chair by blowing it off diligently before Fina sat down comfortably.
Richard was having a much tougher time. The bird species was blind at night, which made it blind despite its eyes being wide open. Even though there were street lamps all around and it could still see a little bit, it was still like a headless fly, flying around randomly and hitting things.
Old Time Tea leisurely jumped onto the cover of the pavilion and narrowed its eyes, looking around.
Zhang Zian closed his eyes and counted, “One, two, three, four…”
Galaxy had hidden itself a long time ago and was quietly waiting for him to find it.
Zhang Zian counted to 100, then opened his eyes and started to sweep the area, not letting go of anywhere that could hide a cat.
However, Galaxy’s hide-and-seek skills were very good; it was not that easy to find it.
When he was lowering his head to look, he heard a soft sound from Old Time Tea, who was sitting on the roof of the pavilion.
“Old Time Tea, what is it? Did Galaxy hide there?” he thought that Old Time Tea wanted to cheat, and he instantly looked very happy.
“No. Zian look over there.” Old Time Tea raised its claw to point at the corner of the garden.
Zhang Zian squinted his eyes, trying his best to look over to where Old Time Tea was pointing at. He did not have the night vision of cats, and he could not see very well, so all he could see was that something seemed to be moving in the darkness.
“Old Time Tea, what is that?” he asked. “I can’t see clearly.”
“It seems to be a stray cat,” Old Time Tea murmured in a low voice. “But this cat seems a bit weird.”
“Oh? Weird in what way? Does it have three or five legs?” Zhang Zian thought that he had met a cat that had been born strangely, and his curiosity was peaked. He wanted to go closer to take a look.
“It’s not that… The weirdness I’m talking about is not referring to a physical strangeness… Zian there is no need for you to go over. It has already run off.” Old Time Tea shook its head softly. “It could be that I’m thinking too much, but I kept feeling like that stray cat was very weird. It was quite different from the stray cats in Binhai City.”
“What part of it was different?” Zhang Zian felt even more troubled. Since it was not a physical difference, what other part of it could be different?
Old Time Tea took in a breath of cold air. Its voice was deep as it said, “Since we came here, its gaze did not leave us. It seemed to be… observing us. I saw that its behavior was a bit weird, so I took extra notice.”
Zhang Zian was stunned and speechless. “Old Time Tea, are you sure?”
“I know it’s a bit strange, but in my opinion, it does seem so…” The tone of Old Time Tea was not 100 percent sure. After all, that was a little too strange.
“Old Time Tea, are you sure that it was an ordinary stray cat? Could it be that it was an elfin or something?” Zhang Zian suggested.
“That’s not possible.” Old Time Tea shook its head again. “I’m sure that it is just an ordinary stray cat… How about I chase after it to see see? It just left not long ago, so perhaps I can catch up.”
Zhang Zian pondered for a while, but was worried about Old Time Tea’s safety. “There’s no need, Old Time Tea. If it’s not you overthinking things, and it was actually spying on us, then it will definitely appear again. We should just wait at ease for the fatigued to come to us.”
Old Time Tea thought about it, then nodded happily and said, “What Zian said is reasonable. You have the air of a great general.”
“Old Time Tea, don’t be absurd. How could I have the air of a great general… I should go and find Galaxy.” Zhang Zian suppressed the suspicion in his heart, and grudgingly smiled.
