Pet King

The staff that Feng Xuan had appointed brought Zhang Zian to his room and handed him his room keys before taking their leave.

Zhang Zian started to survey the guest room upon entering.

Although it was a double standard room, it wasn’t all that spacious. The view out the window was quite wide, however, and drawing the curtains back would welcome the view of the Berlin streets in the deepening dusk.

The Dog Warrior film crew was not a film crew that had a large budget, so the hotel they booked was not five-stars. But, if you took into account that fact that Berlin was currently packed with people everywhere, then being able to book a hotel was already good enough––one couldn’t ask for too much.

Zhang Zian hung up the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the outside of the door, took out his phone, and pointed it at the empty space, letting the elfins out one by one.

“Ga ga!” Immediately after being let out, Richard cried out. A pillow was instantly flung to its face by Zhang Zian, muffling its voice and smacking Richard onto the bed.

“Stop crying out in such a loud manner! It’s like you’re afraid no one can hear you.” Zian gave Richard a warning.

Galaxy was a little fearful when it appeared, but after bobbing its head around, it realized that there was no one else in the room. It excitedly ran up and down the room, starting its exploration journey.

Fina let out a yawn and strolled to the window. Looking out, it asked, “So this is Germany?”

“Yup, that’s right,” Zhang Zian answered Fina’s question as he opened up his luggage and emptied it.

“It looks normal,” Fina said in a disappointed tone. “So, where is the town that was covered in 72 thousand tons of diamond?”

“About that…” Zian forced out a laugh and said, “No need to rush. We’ll head over there when we have time.”

Fina glared at him in suspicion, but just as it was about to question him, Zian quickly interrupted, “Oh right, there is something very strange that I need to discuss with all of you.”

“Meow meow meow! What is it? Did you wake up and realize that your balls were gone?” Snowy Lionet said while spitting its saliva everywhere. “Don’t worry, you don’t even have a use for them anyway!”

Zhang Zian paused. Can we still have a proper discussion?

Old Time Tea stretched itself. It observed that Zhang Zian did not seem to be joking, so it asked, “Zian, what exactly happened? Did Pi meet with an unexpected situation over there in the store?”

“Hmm, unexpected… well it is unexpected, but it has nothing to do with Pi. We lost something from the store.” Zhang Zian explained as he took the electric kettle out from its packaging, filled it up with water, and plugged it in to start boiling the water.

“What!” Fina, who was originally seated by the window looking out into the night sky, turned immediately after listening to Zian’s explanation. Its eyes sharpened and within those eyes was sheer anger, “Something was stolen from this queen’s sacred palace? Who dares to challenge the queen?”

“Now, here’s the problem. Until now, it is still not known if it’s a case of theft,” Zhang Zian said.

Snowy Lionet said impatiently, “If you want to say something, then say it. Stop mincing your words––you’re worse than a woman!”

“What is the missing item?” Old Time Tea asked.

Zhang Zian looked at everyone and said with seriousness, “It’s the Holy Cat statue placed at the shop entrance.”

“Ga? That thing’s so heavy and it’s not worth much money. Who would have the time on their hands to steal that?” Richard exclaimed out in its utter surprise.

Zhang Zian gave a general account of the whole incident.

At first, all the elfins were rowdy and constantly interrupting, but after Zian finished with his account, everyone was deep in their own thoughts.

“Zian, so you are saying that the statue disappeared into thin air?” Old Time Tea confirmed with Zian.

Zian nodded. “Yes, which is why I said that this incident is very strange. The statue just silently disappeared––even Zhan Tian was not alerted.”

“What exactly is going on? It’s just a statue. Look at all of you making such a big fuss…” Famous stated.

When Snowy gave the Holy Cat statue to Zhang Zian as an opening gift, Famous had not yet arrived at the pet shop. It only had a superficial understanding of the statue’s origin.

“That statue is no ordinary object; actually, it’s also not the real Holy Cat statue.” Zhang Zian explained to Famous, “The real cat goddess of ancient Egypt is Bastet and, to date, there are quite a number of statues and murals of Bastet being passed down, but only that statue came with a nose ring.”

“Nose ring?” Famous tried hard to recall. “I don’t recall seeing the statue with a nose ring.”

“That is because the nose ring was cut into two halves by me.” Old Time Tea pondered before saying, “Right, Zian, is the nose ring that is now in two halves still kept in the pet shop?”

As soon as this statement was uttered, Fina’s eyes opened wide. “Could it be that you still kept the nose ring?”

“How is that possible?” Zhang Zian felt wronged as he tried to explain, “Since I know that the nose ring is an item of maleficence, how could I still keep it around me? It has long been disposed of.”

“How did you dispose of it? Did you throw it away?” Fina asked.

Zhang Zian awkwardly scratched his head. “The nose ring was forged with gold and to just throw it away would be such a waste… So I took it to a jewelry store and exchanged it for cash. I made the exchange at Longfeng Jewelry Store. Fina, do you still remember that store? The purity of the gold within the nose ring was not that high, so it wasn’t worth much…”

The elfins were all speechless.

Zhang Zian quickly added, “During that visit, I asked them and they told me that the reclaimed gold would be melted down and reforged into a new gold accessory. No matter how evil the nose ring is, there should be no issues after melting it down, right? Especially when that was a very long time ago… Why would something happen now?”

“Indeed, that is true,” Old Time Tea agreed. “If the nose ring was melted down, it should no longer be a problem.”

“Wait a moment, I still don’t understand,” Famous interrupted. “How are both the statue and its nose ring evil? Isn’t it just an ordinary object?”

Zhang Zian was waiting for Famous to interrupt, so taking this opportunity, he quickly jumped into explaining Famous’s queries.

“According to what Fina said, the Holy Cat statue was actually a pseudo Holy Cat statue, or also known as the Evil Cat statue. It was a product from a part of the ancient Egyptians who were unhappy under the rule of the Pharaoh. They had secretly worshipped the statue with evil intentions. Those people had performed torturous rituals to brutally massacre a great number of cats as a form of worship to the evil cat god, and that golden nose ring could have been stained with the blood of the ancient cats.”

Zhang Zian was in charge of explaining to Famous while Fina and Old Time Tea would occasionally add in. Snowy Lionet and Richard would also interrupt the conversation from time to time, but Famous was now clear of the situation.

Even after the situation was made clear, everyone was still unable to find an explanation for the disappearance of the statue. Even if the nose ring was an item of maleficence, it had long been melted down into a pool of gold liquid and the statue itself was now simply a close to perfect replica––nothing more.

Famous gave it some thought before suggesting, “I have an idea here, but I’m not sure if it’ll work.”

“Go on,” Zhang Zian perked up immediately. “Gather everyone together so we can all brainstorm together.”

The other elfins remained silent for the moment, giving Famous their full attention.

Famous said, “If I’m not remembering wrong, Pi’s Untitled Book should have kept records of life, universe, and everything else, right? We can just get Pi to check how the statue went missing last night. What do you guys think?”