Pet King

Aunt Liu took another few steps. Zhang Zian watched as she stepped away. He suddenly raised his voice. “Oh, Aunt Liu, I think I saw an American Shorthair pretty similar to yours a few days ago near here. Don’t give up. You might just find it.”

She turned back, asking in surprise and glee, “Where?”

“Just nearby. It was on the roof, and I couldn’t see it too clearly, but I thought it looked similar to yours.” Zhang Zian pointed in a random direction. “I was still trying to decide whether I should tell you about it, but it ran off.”

“The next time you see it, make sure to tell me. I wrote my phone number on that piece of paper,” Aunt Liu anxiously reminded him.

“No problem.” Zhang Zian waved. “Take care.”

Aunt Liu was still worried and only left after nagging him a few more times.

“Who is she?” Vladimir asked.

“A neighbor.”

Zhang Zian pushed the trolley as he started moving forward, explaining his experiences with Aunt Liu. It wasn’t a long time ago that these things had happened, but it sure felt that way.

Vladimir gave it a thought. “You’re saying that the adult American Shorthair in the shop was that woman’s?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then you told her that you saw her American Shorthair nearby because…” Vladimir could guess what he was planning to do.

“I feel she had received her punishment and seemed to want to atone for her mistakes, and I think we can pass her cat back to her so she can take care of it,” Zhang Zian said. “But…I’m not sure if she would go back to her old ways…”

“So you mean…?” it asked.

“So I wanted to ask for your help, to get the strays to keep an eye on her. She lives in a two-story shop house, and that should be easy to spy on for strays, right?” He chuckled. “Cats have the brightest eyes after all. We cannot let a bad person off easily, but we can’t accuse a good person, either.”

Vladimir’s mouth moved, but no words came out.

This would certainly be an easy feat for strays. Strays were the best informants, after all. Information that humans felt would be as difficult to obtain as the passcode to the President’s home would be easily obtained by strays.

Returning to the pet shop, Zhang Zian eyed the corner of the wall on the opposite street and reminded Vladimir, “Your partners are here for you.”

Vladimir looked over to see a few strays, led by Big Orange, waiting there.

“Yes. I’ll be gone for a bit.”

It looked left and right before crossing the street and jumping onto the wall.

Big Orange pointed its front paw towards the north in its excitement, after waiting for a long time.

“Oh? The representative of the Meow Meow Branch in the capital is here? That was fast!” Vladimir perked up. “Bring me there, quick!”

It followed Big Orange, weaving through the alleyways, past the plot of land behind the pet shop, and to an old house waiting to be torn down. This had become the rendezvous spot for strays.

A few strays were lying on the ground, their faces caked with dust. A few empty cans lay before them, filled with clean water. There were a few pieces of small dried fish too. The strays were starving and parched, their energy almost completely drained. They didn’t bother eating the dried fish and lapped at the water like their lives depended on it.

Seeing Vladimir walk in, they had wanted to stand up to greet it.

“No need to stand. Just lie down. The journey has been tough for you. You have worked hard to come all the way here to Binhai City.” It made a gesture with its front paw, meaning they should rest where they were.

Gratitude shone in their eyes as they declared that it was never tiring to serve for the greater good of the cats.

They were all Vladimir’s troops from when it had been in the capital. It had followed Zhang Zian down south to Binhai City, and it had given them a few important tasks before leaving.

When they had finally regained some of their strength, Vladimir asked, “How are the tasks going?”

One of the strays’ eyes shot to Big Orange, suspicious.

“Don’t worry, these are all trusted people here. You can say what’s on your mind.” Vladimir pacified it.

The cat immediately dropped its guard and yanked on a sealed plastic bag that was tied around another cat’s neck with a rubber band.

It passed the plastic bag to Vladimir.

Vladimir held onto the plastic bag with a solemn expression, cutting it open after a moment’s thought.

Every single cat on site watched its motions with curiosity.

It picked up the bag with its claw, shaking it, and a piece of paper dropped from it, floating onto the ground.

Every single cat’s eyes were on the piece of paper. Even though it was dark, they could all clearly see the complicated and random lines of words and letters.

They couldn’t read words or letters, and they had no idea what the sentence meant. In reality, it didn’t mean anything.

Only a small amount of cats knew what it really represented.

Vladimir sank into deep thought while staring at the line of characters before tearing it into shreds.

Big Orange freaked out, its plump body agile as it pounced, looking at the shreds of paper on the ground in pity and trying to get them back to how they used to be. It pawed at the shreds, but since it didn’t know how to read numbers and letters, it was an impossible task.

They had gotten this information through such huge efforts, so why destroy it?

Big Orange made a lot of gestures, meaning, “Didn’t you say that we’re going to hit them hard, that we’re going to declare nuclear war? By the way, what’s ‘nuclear’?”

Vladimir shook its head slightly. “Don’t get agitated. The paper is already useless. I had memorized the passcode. If the paper was left the way it was, it could bring us future trouble and provide an express pass to our enemies.”

Finally understanding, Big Orange took a few embarrassed steps backward in its apology.

Vladimir’s eyes scanned the crowd. It cleared its throat. “I re-evaluated the situation, and I feel that our previous decisions were too left-winged and dangerous,” it said. “It was too rash to try and break the humans’ rule over the world in one go. But our preparations are still not enough. We don’t have Meow Meow Branch Organizations all over the country yet, and everyone’s thinking might still be too amateur. If we start now, we might not get the victory we want, so I decided to delay our plans.”

It looked at the strays that came over from the capital and forced its next few words out with difficulty. “You have worked hard. You can go back to the capital after some rest and tell the Meow Meow Branch Organization there of our next target.”

The cats from the capital sprung up with energy, listening intently for its instructions.

Vladimir was silent for a few moments before summarizing, “Other than setting up Meow Meow Branch Organizations all around the country as per our plan, our next actions can be split into a few sections. ‘To dig a great hole, to stock up on resources, to train our soldiers’…”

The last few words were already at the tip of its tongue, fighting to come up, but they were still swallowed back. Vladimir still hadn’t decided whether they should “take over the world” or “not fight with their reign.” The road they would take would eventually depend on the humans’ performance.