247 Lessons Learned from Previous Mistakes (1/2)

Chapter 247: Lessons Learned from Previous Mistakes

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Their carpool driver on the way back to the pet shop was a middle-aged man who looked rather calm. He was not as talkative as Jamie. He would answer their questions, but would not say anything else or initiate conversations. It's clear that he just wanted to drive quietly.

Guo Dongyue put the bird cage between his legs, closed his eyes and didn't make a sound. He opened his eyes occasionally to observe the status of the two red-headed lovebirds. He could tell that the lovebirds had not accustomed to the bumpy ride, for they were not as calm as they were when in the Phoenix House.

”Can you drive slower please?” Guo Dongyue reminded the driver.

”Meow meow! Drive faster!” Snowy Lionet was playing the same tricks it used earlier when they headed to the Phoenix House. It took advantage of the inertia when the car turned corners and tried to lean on Fina. Fina just used its claws to push away Snowy Lionet impatiently.

Zhang Zian was about to take a nap when his phone rang. It was a text message sent from Wei Kang.

[Wei Kang]: I have taught so many students, and many of them are older than you. I can see that you have concerns. I don't know what you are worrying about. Perhaps you might think that I want to take this opportunity to become famous, but I really just want to make some contributions to the academic community. If you agree to provide the genes of the original Egyptian cat, I assure that the first authorship of the essay will be yours.

Zhang Zian did not reply the message right away; instead, he was thinking quietly.

He remembered a piece of scientific news he had read before.

In 1999, Doctor L. Lee Grismer published an essay about Chinese cave geckos. It was a rare species of gecko that inhabited Pingxiang, Guangxi Province, China. The scientist believed that by publishing that essay, the local government would pay attention to them and adopt better measures to protect these geckos.

Unexpectedly, after Grismer's essay was published, these geckos with peculiar looks became popular rare treasures. The price of one Chinese cave gecko had been raised to USD $2,000 by international buyers. And in 1999, USD $2,000 could buy a lot of things in China.

Driven by tremendous profits, the people's craze for Chinese cave geckos was unstoppable. Researchers soon found that the habitats of the geckos as mentioned in the essay ”looked like they had been bombed, and every rock had been rummaged searching for geckos”. Nowadays in Pingxiang, Guangxi Province, it was really hard to spot a Chinese cave gecko because of their excessive capture in the past.

Zhang Zian thought about the man on the Wang Haige who wore a wind coat and pretended to know it all. That guy sold rare pets for profits. He also remembered the rich female mentioned by Guo Dongyue. She spent large amounts of money just to build a glass garden house for an intelligent grey parrot... Whether it was in China or overseas, rich people were rather frenetic about rare animals.

Considering the tragic lesson learned from the Chinese cave geckos, if Wei Kang really wrote something like ”an original Egyptian cat has been found in Binhai City, and it can help determine the evolution process of house cats” in his essay, what would happen?

The consequences would be unimaginable.

But for sure, the doorsteps of the Amazing Fate Pet Shop would be trampled, and his entire shop would be crowded by ordinary people and government officials. To hold Fina in their possession, people would promise him large amounts of money, or government officials would demand he hand Fina over to the country and give him a certificate for his merits... What was worse was that some wicked people might think of horrible means to clear obstacles in order to get Fina.

Right now, a few netizens had suspected that Fina might be an original Egyptian cat, but they were just guessing, and they would probably forget about it after a while... However, If Wei Kang, a professor of Binhai University published an essay, the resulting situations would be uncontrollable.

Zhang Zian wanted to make his contributions to science, with the premise that his life would not be disturbed, and his safety would not be jeopardized. Obviously, if Wei Kang's essay was published, his quiet and tranquil life would be gone for good.