Pet King

Early morning.

Zhang Zian woke up from his sleep due to his biological clock.

He got up to put on his clothes and saw that the Vladimir, who was sleeping on the ground, opened its eyes and closed them again, then turned around.

At present, Vladimir was experiencing the pain of adjusting its working and sleeping time, which was like the jet lag after flying. It had just come back from outside and it was still energetic.

Despite that, it decided to do its best to only go out in the daytime, because it had already fully familiarized itself with the layout nearby. It wanted to go to further––to understand Binhai City to a further extent––and it could only take Zhang Zian’s car to look around in the morning. It did not request for Zhang Zian to drive around at night to bring it around. Instead, it was adjusting its sleeping schedule.

The other elfins did not have much interest in familiarizing themselves with the layout of Binhai City––Vladimir was an exception. It was extremely interested in everything concerning Binhai City. Zhang Zian could understand, as it was trying to find the Holy Cat Statue, but he felt like there was a deeper meaning.

Zhang Zian, who had finished putting on his clothes, was walking past it quietly when it suddenly asked him in a low voice, “What time are we leaving?”

“Around one to two hours more. You can sleep for a little longer,” Zhang Zian replied in a low voice.

The sky was getting bright earlier and earlier. Normally, at that time in the winter, it was still quite dark. Now the east had shown the first rays of the morning sun slanting through the curtain. Although the light was not strong, it would still affect one’s sleep.

Vladimir squinted its eyes and turned its head to take a look. It found that there seemed to be a good spot to avoid the sunlight under Zhang Zian’s single bed, and it hurriedly rolled to it.

The other elfins started to wake up one by one.

Zhang Zian entered the washroom and used the cool water to wash his face.

Splash!

The calm water in the bathtub burst into waves, followed by a water ghost with a head of disheveled hair… No, it was Shihwa, but the disheveled hair was right.

The clear water fell like a waterfall from her dark green hair. She wiped the water off her face and stared at Zhang Zian and said, “I have something I need you to answer.”

Her tone was so serious that it made Zhang Zian a bit uncomfortable.

“If you want to ask something, just ask it,” he answered.

She pointed at his face and fiercely said, “Did the Live Broadcast Platform send me an invitation to sign a contract and you rejected it?”

Zhang Zian paused. “…Who told you that?”

Sihwa noticed his words and his expression. His face had an expression like he had just been caught committing adultery, so she knew it was true. She instantly became even angrier. “The staff of the Live Broadcast Platform sent me a short message from the station through the app. I only knew it because of that! If I didn’t see the message, were you going to hide it forever?”

Although she was angry, with her good looks, it was really like what the ancient people said: “Beautiful when angry or happy.” There were probably many guys who stayed at home a lot online that would rather spend money to be scolded by her.

“About that… Things aren’t like what you think.” Zhang Zian hurriedly started to think and defended himself, saying, “Signing a contract with the Live Broadcast Platform is something very serious, and you can’t hurriedly randomly make a decision. After you’ve signed a contract, you are practically an employee of the Live Broadcast Platform. Sometimes, the Live Broadcast Platform has events that you would need to go to.”

His meaning was very obvious: Sihwa was a mermaid… How would she take part in offline activities?

“I don’t care!” Sihwa’s two arms hit the water’s surface. She was throwing a tantrum. “I heard that after you sign the contract, the portion of the presents you get will be increased. There is even a fixed, basic salary! I want to earn money! I don’t want to stay in such a pitiful and spoiled bathroom anymore! I keep getting teased by netizens about this!”

Zhang Zian said, “They are just joking. Don’t mind it. There are often readers that tease Pi for being short and small and helpless, but look at it! It isn’t bothered by that.”

“Zhi Zhi?” Pi had also woken up. From outside the bathroom, it heard them say his name, but he did not know what they were saying.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. We just randomly mentioned you,” Zhang Zian said ambiguously and moved on.

Sihwa was not that easy to convince. “Offline activities… I can ask for time off work. I can say that my body is uncomfortable, and I won’t participate. It’s not some kind of black-hearted company! You’re saying they would never let me have a day off?”

“You can take a day off once, but could you continuously take time off work?” Zhang Zian asked.

Actually, ever since Sihwa started to broadcast, her fame was really growing rapidly. Whenever there was a hot issue, the speed of transmission on the Internet was comparable to that of locusts––especially on the live broadcasting platform dominated by the males that stay home all day. Suddenly, a super beauty like her had appeared––one that was extremely popular and didn’t have a single bad angle. She could also always talk about highly popular topics.

In the course of her live broadcasting, some people always questioned whether she went to Korea for cosmetic surgery––one of the four great magic arts in East Asia––the art of makeup, or the beauty camera––one of the four great inventions of New China.

In the short three or four years since the rise of live broadcasting, there had been more than one case of online, famous beauty anchors failing as soon as they were seen in real life. Clearly, in the live broadcasting room, beautiful women with big breasts and buttocks had become common faces and figures in offline live activities. Every time the fans were shocked and they would shout, “The f*ck! Who are you?”

There were a lot of people in China, and although there were still a large number of new audience members who had just come into contact with live broadcasting, the old audience members who had repeatedly been injured had long been wary of love. They were instinctively suspicious of all the female anchors that were too beautiful and perfect.

With all kinds of revealing cosmetics and teaching videos that exposed the fake beauty cameras circulating on the Internet, many people had already disbelieved the so-called “net beauty.”

Of course, Sihwa was also one that was under suspicion, and the best way to fight back doubts was undoubtedly to participate in offline activities. Whether it was a beautiful woman or a passerby could be seen at a glance during offline activities. If one was still beautiful offline, at least not much less than online image subtraction, it was undoubtedly a shot of cardiac stimulant in the arm for hard-core fans. It was also a way to rally more loyal fans.

But Sihwa could not possibly take part in offline activities. After all, she was a mermaid.

Facing Zhang Zian’s question, she answered thoughtlessly, “If you can ask for leave, of course you have to! If you can’t…”

She pointed at Zhang Zian’s face, “You can take my place to participate! Anyway, there are quite a lot of crossdressers these days!”

Zhang Zian was speechless.

Before he could say anything insulting, she looked at his face carefully, then shook her head in disappointment. “As expected, it’s impossible. Even if you crossdress, you would be seen through in one look. I don’t want you to sully my image!”

“Wei! You say it like my reputation is not important! Even if you want me to take your place to participate, I won’t go!” Zhang Zian was very depressed. He felt like he was being looked down on.

“Leave it. Anyway, I can think about this thing slowly. I want to sign the contract. I want to earn money!” Sihwa expressed her strong desire. Her tone changed as she said, “When are we going to the seaside again? You haven’t taken me since we’ve been back. I really want to play with the whales!”

Zhang Zian thought about it. “The seaside, ah… Let’s go today.”