Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian brought a chair over and gestured for Electrician Wu to sit down. Electrician Wu wasn’t young anymore, and there would be trouble if he were to have a panic attack. Zhang Zian didn’t want to have an ambulance visit the pet shop again.
However, Electrician Wu’s body was still in good condition, and in terms of mental health, he felt younger than people the same age as him; however, that was due to his stability in life, his open-minded nature, and his spiritual sustenance.
Electrician Wu took a moment to catch his breath and said, “Actually, it isn’t an urgent matter. I was just anxious because I was afraid that you would disappear again. I visited your shop about two or three times a few days ago, but you weren’t around… I rushed down today in a hurry, afraid that you would head out again…”
Zhang Zian was surprised and thought to himself, He’s been here two or three times to look for me? But no one said anything about this.
Zian had gone to the capital a few days prior, and after his return, he had been busy taking Famous to a series of media activities organized by Binhai City––which included leaving its paw prints on the Star Avenue in Binhai Studio. It was normal for Electrician Wu to miss him, as Zian had been heading out early in the morning and returning late at night.
Zian had notified the staff members ahead of time that if someone were to look for him specifically, they needed to take down the visitor’s details. That way, when Zian returned at night, he would be able to call the visitor back depending on the situation. There hadn’t been any records of Electrician Wu stopping by over the last few days.
Electrician Wu observed Zian’s facial expression and noticed that Zhang Zian gave Lu Yiyun a questioning look. He quickly added, “Oh. During my visits, all your staff members were very busy, and there were a lot of customers in the store. I just took a look around and left without coming in because I didn’t want to bother you guys or affect the business.”
Zhang Zian nodded and expressed that he understood. “So, your reason for coming here…”
“Cough! It’s all because of Welder Zhao, that old child… I’m almost like his father now, worrying about him all day!” Electrician Wu said as he sighed and slapped his own thigh.
In fact, when Electrician Wu came in through the door, Zhang Zian had already guessed about 70 percent to 80 percent of the reason he was there. After all, Electrician Wu was a steady old man. Although he was as ordinary as one could be, he stood out by being a very steady person. He didn’t cause trouble, and wouldn’t do anything stupid just because he had nothing to do. Such people generally did not encounter anything particularly urgent.
Electrician Wu’s longtime friend, Welder Zhao, was a classic example of someone who had various methods of inviting trouble. He continuously went to great lengths to save money, yet he had extremely bad luck. For example, the reef rocks that he brought back from the sea had a bobbit worm in them. After that, he had planned to ask Carpenter Wang for a few fish while he cleared his tank, but he got infected with Palytoxin. He wanted to save money on fish, but he got charged for the hospital bills instead… No one knew how he survived until the age of retirement.
From listening to Electrician Wu’s tone, Zhang Zian wondered if Welder Zhao got into trouble again after he had just been discharged from the hospital only a few days ago…
With all that said, Electrician Wu felt very embarrassed for this longtime friend. His retirement salary was not very large, and an ordinary family wouldn’t spend so much money on fish alone. Welder Zhao was always trying to save money, only to lose more money in the end.
Electrician Wu thought about leaving Welder Zhao alone––letting him suffer alone so he would learn how to be honest after learning a lesson the hard way––but he just couldn’t harden his heart. Especially after the last time, the Palytoxin incident had scared Electrician Wu so bad. He feared that Welder Zhao had implicated other people because of his own foolish actions.
According to Electrician Wu, after Carpenter Wang caused the Palytoxin incident, he became the target of criticism for the whole community. Everyone was gossiping and criticizing him until he no longer had the face to remain in the community. After being discharged from the hospital, he didn’t even return home, but directly escaped to his relative’s place to recover. He was probably intending to sell his old house and never return to Binhai City.
Welder Zhao was discharged much earlier, and without Carpenter Wang to lead him along, he was quiet for a few days. Having been reprimanded by his family members, Welder Zhao claimed that he would change his ways and no longer touch dangerous things in the future… However, when his family asked him to not raise saltwater fish ever again, he didn’t agree to it. But after taking into consideration that raising fish was Welder Zhao’s only hobby––and it wasn’t a bad hobby like drinking, prostitution, or gambling––they no longer tried to force him to stop.
Carpenter Wang had previously added Welder Zhao into a local marine fish culture group. There weren’t many people in the group, and for most of their chats, they mainly bragged about things; they would only occasionally exchange information about marine animals. For example, they had information about which aquarium had a new batch of fish. From there, they would call on everyone to organize a group purchase so they would be able to ask for a discounted price from the shop owner.
Once, Welder Zhao had seen people in the group talk excitedly about a local aquarium that was having a clearance sale. It wasn’t because the boss was running away with his mistress, but because the store was jointly sealed by the industrial and commercial taxation public security departments. The store was the shop that had accidentally sold the Palythoa Corals to Carpenter Wang, so it was under investigation for buying and selling dangerous goods.
The shop was already destined for doom, so the owner and staff of the shop were secretly selling off their products for a low price during the middle of the night; they were trying to recover as much as they could before they lost everything.
After the people in the group caught wind of the information, they all hurried down at night to snatch some good buys. There were aquarium tanks, aquarium equipment, and aquarium creatures––they got everything they could, and after they got back, they started posting all the discounted prices. The prices were really ridiculously low; they were about one-third of the usual market price. Plus, the quality of the equipment and aquarium creatures were very good. Welder Zhao was very envious from hearing about it.
Welder Zhao looked at the heated discussion in the group and the photos that were taken by members of the group, then he looked at his own fish tank that only had a few fish in it. The more he thought about it, the more unfair he felt it was… Why were they the only ones getting to enjoy it? Was he just supposed to watch all of them?
That kind of mentality was very common, unless it was a person of great wealth. Otherwise, few people in their middle and old age would be able to avoid it. Not to mention the great discount… Even if eggs in the supermarket were to suddenly go on sale, it would attract a bunch of old ladies to queue up from the early morning just to get them…
Welder Zhao made the calculations himself and confirmed that it was the best opportunity to buy high-end aquarium creatures for a low price, and although that kind of opportunity did happen occasionally, it was very rare. If he were to miss out on the opportunity, he might never have one again! If he didn’t go, all the products would have already been snatched by the others, or the store might have been completely sealed up by the joint law enforcement agencies. If any of that were to happen, he would definitely regret it for the rest of his life!
Of course, to say that he hadn’t learned any lessons from his past experience was an accusation. After all, he was not the kind to just forget about a lesson learned.
He had learned his lessons, but he felt that the danger had stemmed from the live rocks and corals, so he decided to only buy fish. He would not touch live rocks and corals no matter how cheap they were. So after getting the fish, he would come back and build a fish tank with only fish. That would definitely be okay… right? It was not a violation of his promise to his family.
He made a decision to take an indirect approach, so he casually lied to his family, and right after dinner, he told them that he was heading down to Electrician Wu’s home and might be returning late. He told his family to go to sleep and not to wait for him, then he snuck out to pick some cheap fish.
