Pet King

For a joint proposal, the ideal situation was to collect signatures from people of all walks of life and different stratas of society, so as to cover a certain degree of public opinion.

Zhang Zian pondered for awhile before he decided to stop putting so much thought into it. He randomly walked around the area surrounding the pet shop to collect as many signatures as he could. Wasn’t it said that a certain western country randomly chose its survey participants from the street when they did research about people? Randomly meeting people seemed like a good choice.

“Let’s go, Vladimir. I haven’t walked around randomly on the street in a very long time.” He waved at Vladimir, signaling for it to follow him.

“It’s not bad. You’ve collected… eight people’s signatures in a short period of time.” It counted the names on the paper, and said meaningfully, “But this doesn’t mean anything.”

“Eh, I know.” Even without it reminding him, Zhang Zian knew what it said was true.

Wang Qian, Li Kun, and the rest signed because they were his shop employees; Little Celery signed because she had a pure, child’s heart, and Wang Yaning signed it because of Little Celery; Professor Wei Kang signed for him because he was familiar with him, and had asked him for favors before.

In other words, how much of them signing his petition was truly them supporting him, and how much was just them signing because he was a familiar person? It was hard to clearly differentiate it, and it was possible that it was more because of the latter.

Even if Wei Kang called for his colleagues to sign for him, that was also due to Wei Kang.

That did not represent anything, however… After all, who didn’t know a few familiar people? They were just signing their name, it was not like they were borrowing money.

The real challenge was collecting signatures from strangers. Being able to get signatures from strangers was something entirely different, and it would better reflect public opinion.

Zhang Zian took a deep breath. Although he often talked to men and women in his shop, he was not good at chatting with strangers. In fact, in his bones, he was still conscious of how others viewed him. Even when it was difficult to take over the pet store, he did not have the courage to run around on the street to attract customers or to advertise. Even if the pet store failed, he still had a way out and could roll back to work.

But the petition was not for himself, and he had no way out.

He could leave and continue to live his safe and peaceful life, but what about the small animals that were being abused? Everyone was silent, but someone had to step up and break the silence.

Vladimir stared at him from the side, seeing through his relaxed facade. It saw the nervousness that could not be hidden.

“Hello! I wrote a proposal concerning the protection of pets and small animals. I want to ask for your opinion and signature…”

Zian saw a middle-aged man passing by and ran over. Before he managed to finish his sentence, the other party waved his hand impatiently. “There’s no need. There’s no need!” Actually, the middle-aged man did not even hear what he was saying clearly; he thought he was someone giving out flyers on the side of the road. The man increased his speed and left quickly.

Zhang Zian had gotten the cold-shoulder treatment. Although he had some psychological preparation, the taste of being brutally refused in person was very uncomfortable. If he was really advertising for the pet shop that was one thing, but that was not what he was doing.

He laughed at himself mockingly, and shrugged his shoulders at Vladimir. He pretended to be relaxed and said, “What did you say that once? Failure is the mother cat of success!”

Vladimir did not laugh. In fact, there was a bit of sadness hidden in the depths of its eyes.

Zhang Zian adjusted his emotions, and squeezed out a smile he did not even use to greet customers in the pet shop. He approached a young girl walking by. “Hello! Do you like pets and small animals?” He had learned his lesson from the first time, so he did not start off the same way.

The young girl was stunned for a bit, then looked up at him and pinched her bag tighter. Instead of turning around and leaving like a middle-aged man did, she said cautiously, “They’re okay…”

Zhang Zian relaxed a little and showed her the proposal. “I have written a proposal for the protection of small animals. I want to solicit your signature in order to get the attention of the relevant departments and enact legislation on the matter. Look, can you sign your name for me? If you have any helpful comments on the content of the proposal, I will try to revise it, as long as they are reasonable.”

The young girl stared at him like she was looking at an alien, then showed an expression of disbelief. Zhang Zian felt that his smile was very stiff.

Everyone had been forced, at one time or another, to accept flyers on the street. She had been chatted up several times by strangers for micro-signals and cell phone numbers, but for the first time, she has been asked to sign a proposal by a stranger.

She began to wonder if it was some kind of new scam… She was afraid Zhang Zian would scam her into signing, then use her signature to access her credit card.

There was nothing wrong with wanting to protect oneself by being wary of people.

“This… nevermind. I’m sorry, please go and find someone else.” After two to three seconds, she returned to her senses and lowered her head, then hurriedly left.

Zhang Zian stood in the same spot for a while, and Vladimir could not see his expression from behind. It could only see his shoulders fall, as if he had no more energy.

After a short moment, he turned his head back, forced himself to smile, and said, “It’s an improvement from last time, right?”

Vladimir was quiet, and did not respond.

It was a day in the Golden Week holiday––although, it did not matter to Zhang Zian whether it was a holiday or not. For him, if he wanted it to be, any day was a holiday.

There were quite a few of pedestrians on the road. They were taking advantage of the weather before it got too hot to go out and play.

Zhang Zian chose his targets carefully. He could not choose someone too old or too young. Those that were too old typically did not care about that kind of thing, and if they were too young… he would probably be treated as a pervert.

A family of three walked towards him. It was a pair of parents that were between young and middle-aged, and their child, who was a few years old. The dad was holding a bag and carrying a water bottle, and the mother was holding the child’s hand. The child’s other hand was holding a balloon.

They were all smiling, and the balloon moved with the wind. They looked warm and happy.

“Hello! Hi, little kid! Can I ask––do you all like pets and small animals?” Zhang Zian went up to them, smiling at them and waving to greet them. He felt like his fake smile had become more and more realistic.

The man and woman looked at each other, and the mother blocked the child from Zhang Zian’s view; they were slightly suspicious of him. The dad was in charge of speaking. “Can I help you with anything?” the man asked.

Zhang Zian repeated his words again, and even let him see the proposal.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We don’t keep pets at home, and we aren’t familiar with them. We are not interested.” The man took a look at the proposal, and politely but forcefully shook his head. He then turned to his wife and said, “Let’s go.”

“If you want to understand more, I can explain it to you…” Zhang Zian unhappily chased after them a bit.

“There’s no need. Leave it. Please stay where you are.” The middle-aged man blocked the road, and glared at him in warning.

Zhang Zian was smart and stopped walking.

The child noticed Vladimir and was staring at him; he even laughed happily. Perhaps it was the child’s peculiar way of loving the new and hating the old. His little hand unwittingly relaxed, and the balloon began to float upwards.

A human’s reaction time was not fast. Before the people present reacted, they saw a blueish-grey shadow jump and fall. The newly released balloon was clamped between Vladimir’s claws. It reached out a claw and passed the balloon to the child.

The child laughed and took the balloon, trying to curry favor. He smiled at his mother. “Mom! This cat knows how to catch balloons!”

The man and woman had strange expressions on their faces; they were shocked at Vladimir’s reaction. They found it strange… That was not something a normal cat could do. The blue cat’s eyes and movements seemed a bit strange.

“Darling, let’s go.” They did not even say thank you, and they hurriedly carried the child away.

The child’s small face rested on the father’s shoulder. He opened his bright eyes and stared at Vladimir. His small hand loosened his grip again, and the balloon once again left his hand and flew up.

That time, however, there was no one to help him catch the balloon.

Vladimir turned to look at Zhang Zian and said, “Enough.”