Pet King

Although Little Celery was supposed to be good to have added help, three pairs of hands were always faster than two. When his mother finished making breakfast and went downstairs to help, she found that there was nothing left to do.

“Little Celery, did you have breakfast? Wash your hands and have breakfast with us.” His mother smiled and invited her.

“Good morning, Auntie! No worries. I have had breakfast already!” Little Celery responded politely, ran to the pet bath, and washed her hands. She ran to see her hamsters and lop-eared rabbit friends and felt very much at ease today. She did not have to feel afraid that she would be affecting the business of the pet shop with her presence.

Zhang Zian and his father also packed up their cleaning tools, washed their hands, got their steamed buns and homemade soy milk, and started eating their breakfast.

“Child, you already work outside till you are exhausted. It is rare that you get a few days to rest. Why can’t you just do nothing?” his mother nagged as she ate.

“It’s nothing. Anyway, I am awake. In any case, the both of you don’t even have a rest day, do you?” Zhang Zian gulped down his soy milk and stuffed his mouth with the buns. He called out to Little Celery, “Little Celery, would you like a cup of soy milk since you had breakfast already?”

“No! I am not thirsty!” Little Celery responded. “Thank you, big brother!”

The mother shook her head. “We are different. We are used to it. Do you want to go back to sleep after you have finished eating? It is still early.”

“No! No! I am not sleepy. I can’t sleep,” Zhang Zian muttered as he downed two glasses of soy milk.

His father gave a look to his mother, meaning, “It must be that although this kid appears rather unwilling, because the girl on the blind date is pretty, he is looking forward to it!”

His mother also grinned and laughed a little. If this was a success, it would be great. Perhaps she would see a grandson around this time next year…

Zhang Zian pretended not to see them exchanging glances with each other.

Little Celery stared at the hamsters and lop-eared rabbits and was sometimes attracted by the family’s laughter. Ever since she’d met uncle and auntie, she had never seen them so happy. This was such a happy family.

She had seen enough of the animals today. Not only had she looked at them with her eyes, she had also gotten to feed the hamsters and lop-eared rabbits by herself. She stayed in the store for almost an hour before she left, beaming with satisfaction.

The appointment with the girl was set for ten o’clock. However, just after eight o’clock, his parents urged him to set off quickly. They said that today, the roads were not easy to travel on and it would be easy to get stuck along the way. Besides, he had a mountain to climb, so he should seek to arrive earlier. He should not keep the girl waiting.

However, just as he took a step out of the store, he was pulled back by his mother. She combed his hair and patted his shoulders, satisfied, before letting him go.

He glanced at the pig bristle comb in his mother’s hand that they used on short-haired cats. He was left rather speechless.

After leaving the house, he took the bus.

The traffic on 11th was indeed somewhat slow-moving. However, most of the vehicles were heading for the train station and the airport, and there were not many driving to the suburbs.

He sat in a seat near the window, and his sights slowly but surely fell on the scenery and pedestrians outside the window as the bus traveled.

When a person was alone, the sense of something missing was once again felt. It made him somewhat annoyed. Had this blind date not been set up by Auntie Liu, he might have wanted to head outside alone, go to a cinema, and watch a movie. After that, he would go home, lie that the blind date failed, and claim the other party did not fancy him. Then, with that, his job would be done…

However, Auntie Liu was a headstrong woman. Once she found out that he’d deliberately stood the girl up, she would definitely harass him to no end. She would appear at his door and ask him to plead guilty in front of his parents. If that happened, he would have disgraced his parents. He had better honestly and purposefully go on the date.

About half an hour or so later, the outline of Mt. Hidden Fog appeared before them.

It was not a very high mountain, but the top of the mountain was always hazy, hence the name.

The bus stopped at the foot of the mountain. This was the terminal stop. It would turn around here.

Zhang Zian looked up at the top of the mountain and sighed. He really hadn’t expected to be climbing the mountain on his first day of being home.

However, there was no other way to do this. Since he had to, he might as well see it as a form of exercise. As he climbed the mountain, there were many grandfathers and grandmothers in training clothes climbing with him as well. Obviously, mountain climbing was a daily pastime for some.

The mountain road was made up of countless steps. It seemed never-ending.

Zhang Zian took a break for a while, as his body, which sat in the office often, could not keep up with this physical activity. From time to time, he had to give way to aunties and uncles behind him who had caught up. They laughed hard, smiled and cheered him on with, “Little chap, keep it up!” He was a little embarrassed.

As for this girl, whom he had never met, was she a sportswoman? Otherwise, why choose the top of the mountain as the meeting place? He had never heard of any young men and women in Binhai City who’d chosen this to be their first meeting place…

Could it be…a test?

He had heard that some girls nowadays liked to have some strange methods to test boys. Some tested for the physical strength, perseverance, or sincerity of the boy… He hoped that he would not meet such a girl on this date. He would not be able to take it. After all, his work sapped a huge portion of his energy already.

So he proceeded, stopping once in a while to catch his breath. In his mind, he was thinking of all sorts of random things. Suddenly, the road ahead turned back. He saw that the stone steps came to an end. He’d finally reached the top of the mountain.

The top of the mountain was foggy, and an elegantly designed and upscale restaurant loomed in the fog. It eclipsed the other buildings, such as the canteen, on the top of the mountain.

“Teahouse in Hidden Fog…”

He muttered the name on the plaque.

“I haven’t climbed this mountain for a few years. Someone actually built a tea house here… Can it make a profit?” he muttered.

The aunties and uncles he’d met along the way were all holding their own bottles. They would definitely not enter the teahouse. After they reached the top of the mountain, they would chat with the people they know and then go back down. There were also some old men who were addicted to playing Chinese chess, and so they’d brought up a set, set it up, and played a few games with their old friends.

He looked at the time. It was not yet ten o’clock.

He would wait for a while.

He hoped that the girl would not be too late.

After ten minutes, the sweat on his body evaporated, and when his body temperature slowly dropped, a short-haired girl with a porcelain face and fair skin suddenly appeared on the mountain road.

She wore a bright red jacket and hiking shoes. She carried a backpack with a bottle of mineral water on the side. There was something about her and how she carried herself that told people she was not a courier delivering things.

Was she the one?

Zhang Zian looked behind her, but no one else followed her. She seemed to be alone.

He would be a little thick-skinned and go forward to ask her.

He was about to step forward and ask, but then he noticed that she was holding up her mobile phone and smiling at it. “Everyone… I, Little Snow, did not let everyone down! I have finally climbed to the top of the mountain… Ah, so tired!”

She leaned back against a large stone. Although she was a girl, her physical strength was better than that of Zhang Zian.

“Wow! Is this the Teahouse in Hidden Fog? It looks very good! What do you guys think?”

She asked this question to the phone. Her attention was on the teahouse itself, and she did not look at Zhang Zian.

It seemed that it was not her.