840 A Night Trip (1/2)
It was a super busy day!
Customers were walking in and out of the aquarium and the pet shop until eight that night. Most of them came for Famous, of course, but as long as they were drawn by the pets and bought something, then it was profit.
Zhang Zian had been running between the two shops and wished he could clone himself. Luckily, the two shops were close to each other. Otherwise, his legs would break.
It was almost nine at night. Zhang Zian had to put up the ”Closed” sign and asked the late customers to go home and come back the next day. He promised them that they could still get the discounted price the next day.
The group sat in the pet shop in all sorts of poses, eating a late dinner in small groups of two or three. Zhang Zian was in a group of three, while Jiang Feifei formed a group of two with Lu Yiyun.
To celebrate the day, Zhang Zian had ordered extra barbecue and cold beer, offering them as much to eat and drink as they wanted.
The barbecue was generously seasoned, hot, and spicy. After a big bite and a sip of ice cold beer, it felt like heaven.
As the weather was getting warmer, and the guys were young, drinking ice cold beer would not give them diarrhea. When Zhang Zian was in Germany, he had seen Germans drinking cold beer on the coldest days of winter.
Jiang Feifei could tolerate some alcohol, but Lu Yiyun would not take a sip. She enjoyed the barbecue, though. Wang Qian and Li Kun were stuffing their stomachs as if they had not eaten anything for ages. Soon their faces turned red, and they started bragging.
The two girls discussed the anecdotes at the shop that day. After hearing that a rabid cat had almost started some big trouble, Jiang Feifei was astonished.
”Master, let's fill up your glass!” Li Kun saw that Wang Qian and himself were drinking one glass after another, while Zhang Zian hadn't drank at all. He thought it was inappropriate, so he quickly raised the beer bottle, wanting to fill Zhang Zian's glass.
”No, thanks. I have to run an errand tonight. You can drink as much as you want. I'm good with soft drinks.” Zhang Zian declined, covering his glass with his palm.
Li Kun paused with the beer bottle in his hand. ”It's getting so late. What errand could you possibly have?”
”Shall… Shall we do it for you?” Wang Qian asked, slurring.
”Nothing special. I need to drive somewhere. Just now, the fishermen told me that they caught a few rare fish in their boat and kept them for me. They asked if I would be interested. I don't have other things to do, anyway, so I'll go and take a look in case someone else buys them first.” Zhang Zian made up some bullsh*t and chased Snowy Lionet away, who wanted to mooch some food.
He had already used that excuse in the past, so Wang Qian, Li Kun, and the two girls all believed him and thought that there were fishermen waiting for him at the beach.
After the big meal, they cleaned up the leftovers, took some rest, then left.
Wang Qian, Li Kun, and Jiang Feifei were all living in Binhai University students' residences and could go back together. They sent Lu Yiyun home first, then headed back to campus together.
Normally, after the workers had left, Zhang Zian and the elfins would close the shutter door and rest at the end of the day.
”Do you know what I envy most about you humans?” Fina asked after a yawn. ”I envy that you can put so much spice in your food.”
The barbecued meat for Fina and the others was barely seasoned, with nothing more than bay leaves in it. They started drooling after they saw how appetizing the human food was. The other cats didn't do anything other than drool, while Snowy Lionet took action and tried to steal some.
”Actually, too much spice is not healthy, even for humans. Tasteless, healthy food is the safest,” Zhang Zian said. ”We know too much grease and salt is bad for our health, but we can't control our mouths!”
”Hehe, you should enjoy life as much as you can. It's okay to indulge yourself every once in awhile. But Zian, you said you are heading out soon. What for?” Old Time Tea asked, smiling.
Zhang Zian had been keeping part of the stray cat story from the elfins, especially Old Time Tea and Famous. They had released the cats and dogs from Love Lovely Pets, and caused a spike of stray cats in Binhai City. They had good intentions, of course––the cats and dogs were starving at Love Lovely Pets Breeding Base, and had been injected with toxic drugs. Their actions had saved most of the cats and dogs, and they had helped them find new homes. Even if a only small percentage of those cats and dogs ended up as strays, they could not be blamed for it. Nobody could have foreseen such consequence, after all.
If doing the right thing always led to accusations, then who would do the right thing?
Therefore, Zhang Zian told them, ”I'm planning to look for the Holy Cat statue according to the clues from Snowy.”
”At this hour? Why not go in the day?” Old Time Tea didn't quite agree. The night was not as safe as the day.
”I have other business during the day,” Zhang Zian responded.
In fact, there was another reason: He believed that the cat abusers were more likely to be active at night––that way, they could avoid eye-witnesses during daylight.
He wanted to persuade the cat abusers to stop their meaningless action as much as he could. If they wanted to blow off steam, they could find better ways, such as playing FPS games, learning boxing, Taekwondo, or other combat games. What was the point of abusing cats?
Even rabbits could bite after repeated provoking. The stray cats might fight back if they got cornered. A scratch or a bite could really hurt.