Pet King

People walked up and down the streets, but Zhang Zian felt helpless amidst all of the hustle and the crushing defeat of wanting to do something but not being able to. He had felt this before, back when he had just taken over the pet shop and people had kept walking past his store front, but not a single person had stepped inside.

Vladimir walked a few steps towards the pet shop before turning back and looking at him. “Are you not going back?”

Zhang Zian shook his head. “I want to try again—if success were easy to achieve, someone else would have done it already.”

He didn’t dare say for how long he would persist, and he might give up in the end and not be stubborn. But no matter what, it was too early to give up now. Thinking back, he guessed his patience might have been nurtured back when he had taken over the pet shop.

Vladimir observed him before opening its mouth. “I have a suggestion.”

“What’s the suggestion?” Zhang Zian perked up. The thing he needed the most right now was suggestions. Maybe the way that he’d spoken to that man earlier had been wrong. Maybe his expression, actions, and tone weren’t quite right, and he hadn’t shown his sincerity to the others.

It seemed to smile. “They aren’t paying real attention to you. They aren’t even willing to stay for a second. Maybe it’s because they don’t trust you.”

“Probably,” he admitted. If it were him, he would also be afraid and alert if a stranger approached him on the street.

“You can tell them your identity—tell them that you are a member of the Municipal Consultative Conference and you would like them to help you with a survey. You should be able to gain their trust then.”

Before Zhang Zian could answer, it continued, “There are other ways. For example, you could bring Fina’s trained cats out to dance or something. You’d definitely be able to attract a crowd then. Before they leave, you can tell them your proposal, and someone will definitely stay to listen to all of it.”

What it said would definitely work, but after Zhang Zian had given it serious thought, he still shook his head.

“It’s a good way, but I don’t think we should do it,” he said.

Vladimir was a little surprised and asked, “Oh? Why? According to what I know, Galaxy was the one that brought the first customer into your shop, wasn’t it? If so, why are you so stubborn? There’s no difference either way, right? As long as you open your mouth and ask, Fina should agree. It’s just a simple thing for her anyway.”

“I feel that these two things are different, and we can’t talk about them together. They’re completely different issues.” Zhang Zian hesitated as he mulled over his words. “I am thankful to Galaxy for bringing customers into the shop, but that was my personal issue. Zhao Qi said that she had wanted to get a cat to disgust the coworker that she didn’t like, but she had been thinking of getting a cat for a long time subconsciously… For this, we can say that we’re doing a public survey, but what purpose would it have if the survey was not sincere? I didn’t write this bill just for fun, and if no one really cares about the well-being of small animals, then even if the bill was proposed, it would never pass either… History has proved to us time and time again, and will continue to do so, that people’s approval gathered through force and bribery is just an illusion.”

Vladimir met his eyes for a short moment before nodding. “Alright, then do as you will.”

It didn’t continue walking towards the pet shop and stepped back.

Zhang Zian determinedly announced, “There are so many people that have pets and love animals online, and I don’t believe that all of them are just keyboard warriors!”

As he said that, three boys who looked like university students were laughing and chatting as they walked down the street. They looked like foreign students from Binhai City who hadn’t headed home during the awkwardly-timed Golden Week. They had made use of the break time to walk around Binhai City.

Zhang Zian went up to them, starting a new conversation. “Hello! Do you like pets and small animals?”

Maybe it was because all of them were male and were in a group, the three university students didn’t show any signs of fear or alertness, just a little surprise.

“They’re alright, I guess. I quite like them, but I’ve never had a pet,” one of them said.

“So-so for me. I can’t say I like them a lot, but I don’t hate them either,” another said.

The third person pointed at the second, saying, “I’m the same as him. I wouldn’t walk into a pet shop to buy a pet, but if you gave me one, I would consider.”

The first two people laughed and gave the third man a punch on the arm, scolding him and chuckling, “You mean you’re just poor! Did you spend all of your money on chasing girlfriends?”

“No! Stop saying rubbish! I don’t have a girlfriend!” the third person argued back, indignant.

Seeing that the atmosphere was pretty good, Zhang Zian chuckled, “Can you spare a few minutes of your time? I am doing a public survey and a proposal with regards to protecting pets and small animals, and I would love to get your opinions on it. If you think it’s not bad, it would be best if you could sign it… Of course, there’s no obligation to do anything, but I hope you can at least take a look at it.”

Then he passed his proposal over, nervous.

The third person was the first one that snatched the proposal, and the other two could only read it with their necks craned.

Zhang Zian anxiously watched their expressions change.

The proposal was short and easy to read, and they quickly finished scanning it over.

“What do you guys think?” Zhang Zian asked. “If you have any opinions, you can tell me.”

The first person snickered. “I think it’s not bad. What do you guys think?”

“I’m alright with it.” The second person shrugged their shoulders.

The third person read the proposal again, looking at Zhang Zian with curious eyes. “You wrote this?”

“Yes.” Zhang Zian nodded. Even though Vladimir had helped to edit it, he had written the bulk of it.

“Why did you decide to do it?” the third person asked.

Zhang Zian answered, “Have you never heard of it? There are a lot of cat abuse incidents happening in and around Binhai City. I think these acts are too cruel. Small animals have lives too, and we should give them the respect they deserve.”

He wasn’t afraid of them asking questions. He was more afraid of them not asking.

The first person nodded. “I’ve heard of that before, and I’ve posted it on my WeChat Moments reminding everyone to not let their cat out.”

“I gave his post a like,” the second person said.

“It must have been a hassle. You look like you plan to collect a lot of signatures.” The third person spoke up.

“It’s alright. I’m not afraid of trouble.” Zhang Zian mocked himself. “This was something that I brought on myself anyway.”

“You weren’t afraid that you would be wasting all this time?”

“My time isn’t that precious. Besides, everyone has some wasted time. We waste 60 seconds every minute,” Zhang Zian said.

The second person murmured under his breath, “Why do I feel like we’re wasting 61 seconds every minute?”

The third person gave it a thought. “Do you have a pen?”

Zhang Zian immediately passed him the pen, suppressing the euphoria in his heart.

The third person quickly wrote his name on the document.

“If you don’t mind, can you write your phone number underneath your name? Of course, it’s alright if you don’t. I just don’t want people to think that I forged all of these names.” Zhang Zian carefully requested something else from them.

“Why do all these people before us not write their phone numbers then?” The third person pointed at the previous eight signatures.

Zhang Zian answered truthfully, “Because all these are people I know personally, and I know their phone numbers too. If need be, I can always contact them for verification.”

The third person didn’t hesitate anymore, and pen tip touched paper.

“Wait!” The second person stopped him, and gave him a meaningful long look, lowering his voice as he spoke. “Are you not afraid that your personal information will be leaked?”

“For what?” the third person scoffed, uncaring. “It’s the f*cking big data century. As long as you are online, you’re giving out your personal information every second. Besides, my information has already been sold away by the Student Council, internet businesses, and delivery companies, so this is nothing.”

The other two went silent and couldn’t deny it. They heard that the immoral members of the Student Council had long since sold all of their students’ information to others, and they constantly received message ads about student loans.

As for internet businesses, the moment you secretly viewed adult websites online, you would be flooded with adult ads whenever you to go other websites, and it would be extremely awkward…

The third person generously wrote his own phone number under his name, seeing that the other two had shut up, and passed both the pen and paper back to Zhang Zian.

“Bro, truthfully, I’m not that invested in animal protection or whatever, nor do I know enough about it, but I trust that you would not scam me. I won’t do something this troublesome anyway. I’m willing to sign because there aren’t many idiots like you that are willing. People now are all too smart,” he said without holding back.

The second person snatched back the pen and paper. “You don’t know enough because you’re stupid. What’s there to not understand? I understood, and it made sense. We should be protecting small animals.”

He signed his name and left his phone number before passing the pen and paper to the first person.

“What?” The first person stared at it.

“What do you think?” The second person rushed him. “You either sign it or give your opinion. He talked so much, so you should at least return the courtesy.”

The first person took over the pen and paper. “How would you know if I planned to sign it or not? Now it looks like I’m being forced… I’m different from you guys. I genuinely like pets…”

“Stop dilly-dallying!” The third person rushed him too.

After signing, the first person passed the pen and paper back to Zhang Zian, and he sincerely suggested, “Bro, I suggest you go collect signatures in Binhai City. There are a lot of chicks there that like cats and dogs. It’s a lot better than just waiting here.”

Zhang Zian took the materials over, smiling. “I know, and I know that it’s faster that way. But I would like to collect signatures from people from all walks of life, and not just university students.”

The three boys’ smiles disappeared, and they looked at each other with respect in their eyes. They wanted to say more, but all they ended up doing was patting Zhang Zian’s shoulder and saying only one sentence: “Good luck.”

It wasn’t much, but it warmed his heart nonetheless.