Pet King

Zhang Zian had been busy over the last few days dealing with the media that was trying to interview him. The reason why Zhang Zian went to the seaside every day was to deal with his official work––to play Sihwa’s recording of her song––and after that, he would look for any rare animals that had been washed up shore. After hurriedly walking around, he would return back home. Depending on the day, the shop would sometimes be rushed and busy upon his return, while other times he would instantly have to go back to dealing with the media.

That day, he had no plans with the media––at least they had no plans in the morning––so he brought Sihwa to the seaside to play for a while. It was not wasting much effort as much as it it was just using more time.

When he brought the elfins to the capital, even Pi had tagged along and had gone to see many famous sights in the capital. Although Sihwa had gone over there with them, due to the restrictions of her condition, he could not bring her over to sightsee with them. He did feel guilty about it, so that was why he brought her to the seaside to play. She could consider it as compensation.

The last time they had gone out, Vladimir had expressed its interest in the assault boat in the car trunk. It had never been to the seaside, so he took the opportunity to bring it over as well. He just did not know whether it had motion sickness on the boat or not.

On agreeing to Sihwa’s requests, he went downstairs, and started his daily clean-up to prepare for the shop’s opening.

He was surprised to see that Fina had woken up early and had come down earlier than other elfins. It was normally very lazy and would be the last one to come downstairs.

What made him more surprised was that it was not taking a nap.

“What are you doing?” he asked, feeling troubled.

Fina was squatting on the display case, looking serious, and staring at the three Abyssinian cats. The Samoan puppies in the display cabinet cheekily scratched on the top of the cabinet with their paws, but they were ignored by Fina.

Snowy Lionet wanted to climb onto the cabinet to sit next to Fina, but its legs were too short. It had tried a few times but it could not leap up after trying multiple times.

“Can’t you see?” Fina gave him a look.

“Clearly not, that’s why I asked.” Zhang Zian did not know what kind of strange thing it was going to do; he just hoped that it would not start to randomly order him around.

“I announced when we were in the capital that I want to build an Honorable Cat Guards Of The Three Armies! Did you think that I was joking? I always do what I say, and I decided to start practicing today,” it said, puffing out its chest.

Zhang Zian: “…”

I don’t know if God had heard Fina’s words in the New Year. Was it really going to make this year the Year of the Cat? Vladimir was going to have a Meow Meow Branch Organization, and Fina was going to have an Honorable Cat Guards Of The Three Armies. Maybe God should consider the feelings of the mice and dogs!

“Why are you stunned?” Fina stared at him unhappily.

Zhang Zian pointed at his nose. “You want to come up with a three cats honor guard, but what does that have to do with me? I’m not a cat.”

“Even if you are a cat, you’d just be a useless cat. I wouldn’t choose you to join the three cats honor guard!” Fina gave a cold hmph.

“Meow, meow, meow! If you are a cat, I would have sterilized you forever a long time ago!” Snowy Lionet gave up on climbing up with Fina. Instead, it started to wave its claws and show its teeth, trying to scare him.

Fina continued, “I saw the flag raising ceremony at the parade square. The honor guard of the three armies was stepping on time to the music and I felt that it was very impressive, so I want the three cats honor guard to also walk on time to the music.”

Oh, so it just wants me to play music. Zhang Zian finally understood his standing.

Before then, when he was doing the exercise broadcast, he had a small Bluetooth speaker––the kind that a TF card could be inserted into. He found the speaker and started to play the accompaniment music for Fina.

“Forward, forward, forward! Our troop is facing the sun! Our feet are stepping on the ground of the motherland! Carrying the hopes of the people! We are an invincible force!”

Although there were no lyrics, the beat of the pure music edition was still strong, and the drum was clear.

Fina was finally satisfied; it was the same music it had heard when watching the honor guard of the three armies.

“Onward!” It waved its paws at the three Abyssinian cats and signaled for them to walk forward in sync.

However, they actually did not fully understand Fina’s intentions. Although they followed orders to walk forward, they weren’t in sync at all. Their 12 legs were all moving at different times, which made Fina very disappointed. It was entirely different from what it had seen in the parade square, where the steps were neat and coordinated.

“Stop! Again!” Fina said, annoyed. “It needs to be neat, understand? Neat! You all dance very well, so why is it that walking is so hard?”

The three cats walked back and forth a few times, but in the end, they were still very far from Fina’s expectations.

“Actually, them not being able to walk well is normal. Do you think that orderly walking is easy? Randomly walking has always been natural for humans and animals, so forcing neatness is going against their nature,” Zhang Zian said from the side, his voice full of goodwill. “Those soldiers that are in charge of the flag, the main part of their daily training is walking––to walk as neatly as if they were linked by a string. Everyone that’s done it has practiced for at least three years. If you want to imitate that, you can’t complete that in a short while.”

“Do you think my cat citizens are as dumb as mere humans?” Fina stared at him unhappily. “Again!”

Zhang Zian was speechless. He felt like this year was not going that well; the frequency of him being looked at in disdain had increased.

Why was it like that? He wanted to hold firmly in his hand a chain of pet shops and pet food shops! When was it that he fell to this state?

Galaxy meowed as it chased the American Shorthair and ran by.

Zhang Zian noticed from the side of his vision that Famous was yawning and walking down the stairs. He said in a high voice, “Famous, quickly call Pi to come down to play hide-and-seek!”

“Meow! Hide-and-seek!” Galaxy happily stopped chasing the other cat.

Famous was recalling his dream. Upon hearing Zhang Zian’s words, it was very shocked. It was so scared that it hurriedly ran back to the second floor! No matter how Zhang Zian called, it hid on the second floor, refusing to come down.

“Ze! How cowardly! Right, Galaxy? Hide-and-seek is a true man’s game!” Zhang Zian proudly said.

“Meow!” Galaxy did not understand.

“We haven’t played hide-and-seek in such a long time. Let’s play to our hearts’ content today! I’ll let all of you know that I’m the King of Hide-and-seek!” He threw his broom down and gave a fierce look that told everyone around to surrender. Besides Galaxy, no one noticed, and that made him very hurt. He felt like he had pretended to be great for no reason…

At that moment, Vladimir yawned and unsteadily walked downstairs.

It had also heard the music Zhang Zian was playing, and saw how Fina was training the three Abyssinian cats. It had watched from the side for a while before it suggested to Fina, “You can yell one-two-one. When you yell one, you can have them move their left leg, and when you yell two, you can have them move their right leg.”

“Will that work?” Fina asked doubtfully.

“Of course!” Vladimir was very confident.