Pet King

In front of the artificial forest next to the landfill, Vladimir and Little White came face to face again.

“The spring breeze of reform blew in and shook my comrade Little White’s spirit!”

“Don’t call me your friend! ”

Staff members from the waste recycling station were loading piles of empty plastic bottles and cans. Since there were so many, they had been working for more than an hour or two.

“I say, friend, do you smoke? Are these your pets? It looks like they’re fighting…” The person in charge came to Zhang Zian and handed him a cigarette set.

“The cat is, but not the dog. Maybe it’s a stray dog from nearby. You know there are many of them in the landfill.” Zhang Zian refused the cigarette.

The man didn’t care about cats and dogs and just used it as a conversation starter. He proceeded to change the topic and said, “Oh, did you collect all these empty bottles by yourself?”

“Haha, of course I didn’t. I bought them from nearby scavengers. I don’t earn enough income on my own,” Zhang Zian casually gave a suitable reason.

“Oh, that explains it…” Suddenly, the man’s enthusiasm towards exploration subsided since they were both in the scrap industry. He knew that the scrap collectors were also human beings and would be very calculative over the purchase price of half a kg of empty bottles; he wanted the difference in money the scrap collectors made. The payment could not be directly proportional to the harvest. Otherwise, why wouldn’t anyone else have used this method?

Those folks had nothing to do all day. To increase the purchase price per half a kilogram, one would’ve had to ride a tricycle for more than ten kilometers to a higher level waste recycling center.

He thought carefully about why Zhang Zian dared to do this. He was either stupid, had a hidden strategy, or both. He forcibly recovered the waste products at a low price from the scavengers and earned the difference. If that was the case, he didn’t think it was a very effective strategy. Besides, there were better ways to make money. Who would’ve wanted to do this?

After a few laughs, he went back and encouraged his workers to work as fast as possible.

Although Zhang Zian didn’t know what he was thinking, he could’ve somehow guessed what was happening.

On the other side of the artificial forest, stray dogs were enjoying dog food and drumsticks. When they felt thirsty, they went to the ditch to drink water.

There were few people in the vast salt and alkali land between the two cities. The artificial forest was planted to act as a wind and sand barrier. After the trees matured, they no longer needed to be taken care of. As long as no one cut down the trees, no one bothered to take care of them.

Stray dogs peacefully and happily lived and worked here. As long as they didn’t cause any trouble, there were no problems for the time being. If they managed to save enough money to sell waste products, they could’ve considered setting up a stray animal rescue center here.

Even if they were eager to work, they needed to avoid the sun at noon during the summer or they would’ve been prone to heatstroke.

In July, the weather in Binhai city was stiflingly humid.

Following the insect disaster, the leaves that were almost completely eaten away began to grow again, but they couldn’t grow as dense as before.

Every time Zhang Zian came to sort out the waste purchase, Vladimir followed him whilst fighting with Little White.

Since the insect disaster ended, the fragile peace agreement between the stray cat and dog had lost its foundation. However, no one outright mentioned this for now. The cats needed to recuperate, whilst the dogs needed to be fed.

Although they were talking, they were bound to clash if they were around each other for too long. They couldn’t help but insult and attack one another if they didn’t agree with each other.

Because of the abundant food supply, Little White further consolidated his authority amongst the stray dogs and began gathering support from his capable and powerful generals. This further optimized the organizational structure of the stray dogs and made them more disciplined. Ordinary stray dogs would’ve reported to their superiors if they had any problems. If necessary, the superiors then reported to Little White. That way, he didn’t have to deal with everything on his own.

All this was done to have an advantage over the stray cats.

Whoosh!

Zhang Zian suddenly turned around.

There was nothing behind him.

Lately, he had been slightly uneasy after some people had said that they saw butterflies behind him that randomly disappeared, but he never saw them for himself. Whenever the opportunity arose, he would suddenly turn around but always found nothing behind him.

Famous was still haunted by nightmares. Zhuang Xiaodie did whatever she wanted in his Imagined World. She always took out a lot of money and spent it freely, even once running to meet Wu Ning. She seemed like a lady from a noble family who moved to Binhai City and became famous almost instantly.

Regarding the mysterious butterfly fairy that was giving him a headache, he could only close one eye and keep the other open whilst pretending nothing happened.

The other elves still lived the same life. Along with complaining about the stuffy summer in Binhai City, the only difference was that they were homebound and too lazy to go out.

There wasn’t much that could’ve been done about this. The summer in Binhai city would’ve remained the same. Typhoons could’ve passed through the city in unluckier years, and they could only grit their teeth and endure them.

Finally, the staff counted all the empty bottles and cans and calculated the money for Zhang Zian. They transferred him the money and drove away.

“How much did you earn today?”

Little White stopped talking to Vladimir for a while and ran over to ask.

Zhang Zian showed Little White the transfer record on his cellphone.

“What?! Damn it! ”

Little White jumped up and barked excitedly, “This is the wrong amount! I calculated it for myself! It should be more than that! ”

“I know it’s about 10% less than the actual amount,” Zhang Zian nodded and looked at the back of the car.

“If you knew, then why didn’t you say so?” Little White asked in anger.

“Those people deliberately withheld a part of the amount when they counted it. Maybe they thought it was so much that I wouldn’t notice them withholding some of it,” he said.

Little White furiously said, “Barking Hell! How dare they embezzle military funds! They should be dragged out and shot! ”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. When the water is clear, there will be no fish. They also have to collect some benefits. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be willing to work hard when the bottles are dirty and smelly in summer,” he explained.

Little White refused to accept it. These empty bottles and cans are picked up by stray dogs one by one in the heat of the summer. How could he have let them get away with it?

“Do you know where they live? How dare they provoke someone with authority over this land! I will make them suffer! ”

Little White was full of anger as he spoke; maybe he had been around stray dogs for too long,

“Well, I know where they live, but it’s a long way from here. It’s in a northern suburb in Binhai City, way on the other side of the city…” Zhang Jian said this to persuade him to leave the issue alone. It wouldn’t be easy to run there on such a hot day; they could have a heatstroke.

“No! My brothers need me, I can’t let them down! ” Little White shook his head obstinately.

“How about you let me drive you there? It’s too far,” he suggested.

Little White looked back at Vladimir. Riding in the same car as his rival was going to be immense torture.

Zhang Zian saw that there was still conflict between the two. He thought of another way and proposed, “or you can temporarily enter my mobile phone. I can still take you there, but you may not leave the pet store immediately.”

Little White replied, “Why? I went there before. You were still in a deep sleep at the time, and I had no problems going in or out….”

“Don’t bring that up anymore! “Zhang Zian interrupted him with an awkward cough. It was better to speak less about his darker past. “This time it’s different. It’s very complicated to explain, but just imagine that there is an invisible fence around the pet shop… ”

Vladimir angrily interrupted his explanation, clenched his fist, and said, ” This act of reversing history is destined to fail! Only a dog with such rotten and backward thinking like you would be subject to the law of the dynasty!”

Little White said with disdain, “Listen, was this stupid cat not trapped? Then if this stupid cat could escape, I can too.”

The two of them openly fought anywhere they went, and this situation was no exception.

Zhang Zian reminded Little White to think carefully. If he couldn’t leave, he would be trapped in the pet shop for a while. He wouldn’t be able to take care of the stray dogs, either.

Little White didn’t care; the leadership of the stray dogs has been established and the dogs were disciplined. As long as there was no interruption of the food supply, that wasn’t a big problem.

Unable to get past his stubbornness, Zhang Zian no longer argued with him. He picked up the cellphone, aimed at Little White, started the game and pressed the “capture” button.

Little White disappeared from the spot.

[Game Tip]: “Capture! Recovery dog!

Zhang Zian: “Huh? That’s strange. Why is it called recovery dog? ”

Vladimir sneered, “This stupid dog is just talking rubbish!”

Zhang Zian entered the virtual pet pen and saw Little White squatting in it.

He clicked on its body and detailed data from the game popped up.

[Game Tip]: Pet attributes

[General name]:Recovery Dog

[Rarity]: Epic/legendary

[Features]: I am a King’s old dog. I followed the immortals to come to earth!

[Origin]: Not unlocked

[Real name]: Not unlocked

Zhang Zian was speechless.

When he realized what was going on, he slapped his forehead and muttered, “I see, this must be Murong Fu’s dog! He kept thinking about restoring Dayan all day and ended up in ruins! I don’t know how the ending is different in this new version. I’ll read it when I have time. If I can guess its real name based on this, then maybe I can increase my familiarity with it! ”

Vladimir stared at him, at a loss for words. Who was he talking to?