Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
They had endured a busy day.
The day before, Zhang Zian and Famous followed the crew to deal with the various media interviews. It was like they were on a merry-go-round, but thankfully, when they passed the Berlin International Film Festival venue, there was a sense of having sailed the seven seas. It was nicely coordinated, as the crew had finished the task of promoting the movie.
Now, the crew members were not relaxed at all, and there were even people who had stayed up all night, refreshing the box office numbers over and over again. From midnight forward, Dog Warrior had officially started to show in movie theaters across the country. Most movies aired for around 20 days, but if the box office numbers were not good, that number would decrease; if it was good, that number would increase. The longer the movie aired, the more money that would be made––that would also mean the influence of the movie would increase.
Zhang Zian also hoped that Dog Warrior would air longer, but he would not stay up all night because of it. Both he and Famous had confidence.
The sky outside was still dark, but he woke up early and woke up the elfins.
“Wake up! Wake up! Otherwise, we won’t be able to make it!” He clapped his hands as he rushed them.
“Shut up! I haven’t slept enough yet!” Fina complained angrily, then hid its head under the covers again.
Zhang Zian took the life-threatening risk of pulling away the covers, and then quickly ran far away, switching on the light as well.
Snowy Lionet, who was lying on the covers and sleeping, rolled onto the carpet like a ball.
Because he had already given them prior notice the night before, they woke up one by one despite their lack of sleep; only Fina was still muttering and throwing a tantrum due to being woken up.
Zhang Zian himself did not want to wake up so early, but he had no choice. If they did not wake up early, they would miss the flag raising ceremony in the parade square. Since they were at the capital, how could they miss the flag raising ceremony?
From that day on, crew members had, to a certain degree, freedom to move around on their own. The less important members had already left the capital the night before to join new filming groups. Zhang Zian had already told the staff that he was going to bring Famous and the elfins to explore the famous tourist spots in the capital, and the first stop would be the flag raising ceremony in the parade square.
To see the flag raising ceremony, they had to wake up early and leave before the sky brightened since the flag was to rise with the sun.
“It’s just the raising of a flag. What is there to see?” Fina was full of anger and was complaining fiercely. “If you want to see it, you can set up a flagpole in front of the sacred palace and flag raise as much as you want! If you want to, you can even hang yourself on it!”
“This is different.” For safety reasons, Zhang Zian held tightly onto the blanket in his hand, to prevent Fina from harming people out of anger. “You must know, a lot of people from other regions, and even those from other countries, rush over specially to experience the flag raising ceremony in the most famous parade square in the world. To stand in the rising sun and be covered in the spring breeze, raising their heads to see the national flag slowly rising up… That kind of solemn and respectful feeling is something that cannot be experienced every day.”
He wasted a lot of saliva, and emphasized that that sort of experience was one that people would only see a few times in their lives. They only needed to wake up early that one day, anyway; there was no need to wake up early from then on. Fina was still barely convinced to move.
The rest of the elfins were not that lazy. The others had a bit of curiosity. Why was it that an ordinary flag raising ceremony could attract so many people from faraway places?
The only one who could not go and see was Sihwa. She had quite wanted to go and see it, but it was a pity that she could not, so she threw a tantrum in the bathtub. She finally reduced her temper when Zhang Zian sent her a video of the actual event. Following that, she urged Zhang Zian to buy a car that came with a massage bathtub so that she could randomly come with them whenever she wanted. Afterall, four wheels were more convenient than two legs.
After hurriedly clearing up, Zhang Zian put Sihwa back in his phone, and took the other elfins and headed out. When on the escalator, whether it was a human or an elfin, they were all yawning; afterall, they did wake up too early.
The good thing about waking up early was that there were very few people. The lobby of the hotel on the first floor was very quiet, and there were only a few guards and hotel staff. Now that the staff knew what sort of background Famous had, if it was not for the strict rules in the hotel, they really would have asked for a photo with it.
Above their head, the sky was still full of stars, and the fresh and cold morning breeze made them full of spirit.
When Zhang Zian reached the parking lot and found the large size SUV he had rented, he had the elfins sit inside while he climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Zian.” Old Time Tea reached out his paw from behind, lightly patting his shoulder. He signaled that he should look towards the side.
He did not make any big reactions or sounds; he only turned his head slightly, seeing a yellow and white stray cat sitting on the courtyard wall. Its bright, piercing eyes were staring at his car.
“Is that the cat?” his lips moved slightly as he lowered his voice and asked.
“If I am not remembering incorrectly, then this was the one I saw the other day,” Old Time Tea answered, very sure of his answer.
“I want to see. What kind of cat species dares to act so suspicious in front of me?” Fina, who had originally planned on taking a nap on the road, instantly sat up and started to look around.
“Ignore it. It’s just a normal stray cat. If it has the ability to, then it can continue to monitor us. I don’t believe that it can catch up to a car.”
Zhang Zian was scared that it would cause trouble. Afterall, if an elfin wanted to be aggressive, it would stop being invisible. There are surveillance cameras everywhere near the five-star hotel, so if a cat appeared out of nowhere on camera, then it would definitely cause a lot of interest.
“We should take note of the time and go and see the flag raising ceremony.” He put on his seatbelt and started the car. He used the rearview mirror to stare at the cat until it disappeared from his sight. It was still sitting on the corner of the wall, not moving.
He did not know why, but he let out a breath of relief. What would he have done if that cat really chased his car?
There was another good thing about waking up early: There were no traffic jams.
Zhang Zian had only come to the capital once or twice a very long time ago, and he was not familiar with the layout. The hotel he had stayed in was quite far from the city center, and he could only use the GPS to drive towards the city center.
The elfins pressed their faces against the car windows, curiously assessing the thousand-year-old city in the early morning. The old streets were next to the modern office buildings, causing a stark contrast.
“Ga ga! There are so many people!” Richard called out.
Even though the sky had not brightened yet, there were already quite a lot of pedestrians on the road. Both those who had woken up early and those who had yet to reach home were hurriedly walking, showcasing the fast-paced life of a world-famous big city.
“Zian.” Old Time Tea patted Zhang Zian’s shoulder again. “Look over there.”
Zhang Zian quickly glanced over at the direction Old Time Tea was pointing at, and was instantly startled. The whole car started to shake and he almost lost control of the car. Thankfully, he was not driving too fast.
They were driving past a lane in Chaoyang District and a cat was squatting on one of the greyish green courtyard walls. It seemed to be a stray cat.
Even though the cat was definitely a different one from the one at the hotel parking lot, its gaze was very similar. Its eyes were closely watching the car, moving along with it as if it was spying on them.
What was very coincidental was that, below the wall, was an old lady wearing a red armband. She looked with a similar gaze at their SUV that was slowly driving past.
