Pet King

“Mater, you’ve been on TV over and over again recently. I bet you’ll get famous!”

“Nonsense! Master is already famous!” Wang Qian and Li Kun said, full of envy.

In the early morning, the local news was on the television. The background was the residential area where Carpenter Wang lived. Zhang Zian was interviewed seriously in front of the camera as an expert. He described the toxicity of Palytoxin, asking all aquarium owners to be very cautious when buying marine creatures. The best practice was to buy them from official stores in order to prevent similar incidents.

Next, Sheng Ke was interviewed.

The news took a long time to recap the incident, then showed a close-up picture of Palythoa corals. They warned all aquarium owners in the city that if anyone found similar corals at home, they should call the police immediately and not handle them on their own.

Wang Qian and Li Kun were right: Zhang Zian had been on the local news a lot lately, sometimes even in the provincial news. He was almost a local celebrity.

“Don’t just watch the stories!” Zhang Zian stared at them. “The live rocks we bought from the aquarium market may have these corals attached to them, too. Be careful, the two of you. If a similar incident happens to us, we’ll have to close the shop for good!”

He was not exaggerating, nor was he threatening them. In fact, the aquarium that Carpenter Wang often visited was suspended indefinitely. Nobody knew if they could ever reopen. After such an unexpected event, that aquarium owner might have to head to his hometown and get married there.

They heard that Carpenter Wang’s family was out of danger and gradually recovering. Carpenter Wang’s condition was the most serious. His hands had been inside the water, so his arms were covered in rashes. He still needed to stay in hospital for observation.

As soon as Welder Zhao got better, he could not wait to be checked out of the hospital. The doctors wanted him to stay for a few more days for observation, but he insisted on being released, claiming that he was too unlucky. He didn’t want to spend so much money on being hospitalized because of a few fish. It was definitely not worth it…

Electrician Wu thought that Welder Zhao deserved what happened to him, so he didn’t bother to visit him. Moreover, he asked other retired employees not to visit him. Even if they did visit, they should not bring gifts. He would only learn after paying a price…

As the rumors were busted in time by solid proof, the incident didn’t cause any aftermath on the internet. It died out soon. Only the retired people in that residential area had something new to talk about at tea time.

Wang Qian and Li Kun made faces, but didn’t dare to talk back.

Jiang Feifei was drawn to the story. She felt that ever since she had started working part-time in Zhang Zian’s aquarium, she had learned a lot of new knowledge that she didn’t know in the past. The work shifts were not boring at all.

They chatted while they did their routine cleaning, preparing for the new business day.

Zhang Zian returned to the second floor. He headed to his parents’ room first to check out if the marine creatures were growing well.

The corals seemed normal, especially the “Ugly Duckling Coral” that he named by himself. As it grew bigger, it turned brighter and brighter under the blue light. The blue rings on the red bottom was a rare combination, making it as pretty as the most beautiful corals.

He estimated that, in a few days, he could try to cut them, dividing them into twos, fours, eighths, and so forth… Soon, he would have a flock of Ugly Duckling Corals.

Corals might sprout or divide even if they were left alone, forming a coral bed from one single coral. Artificial cutting, however, could help them propagate faster.

Before making the real cut, it was wise to practice on cheap corals.

The sea angels, Antarctic sea anemone, and sea butterflies were all growing very well. The sea angel’s abdomen was already visibly enlarged. He was sure that it was pregnant. A school of little sea angels would be born soon.

He checked the instruments once again. The high-end instruments had automatic alerts that detected abnormalities, but being careful was always good.

After finishing his tasks, he took the saltwater samples and headed back to the living room for the daily water quality test.

Pi was still typing and wearing its glasses. It paused from time to time to refer to the Nameless Book.

“Hey! A-jeoan! Are you outside? If you are, squeak!” Sihwa shouted from the bathroom.

“Squeak, ” Zhang Zian answered her lazily, lifting his head from the microscope.

“Hey! You actually squeaked. Aren’t you afraid all cats downstairs will come up to catch the mice? Ahahaha!” Sihwa laughed hard, feeling good about herself.

“Most cats in this shop don’t catch mice. Some don’t bother, and some just can’t,” Zhang Zian answered from a distance. “They might know how to catch fish, though.”

Sihwa said, “…Come in here. I have a question.”

Zhang Zian put down his work temporarily and walked into the bathroom.

She lifted the phone so that he could see the words on the screen. “How do you pronounce this?”

Zhang Zian saw that the all of the syllables had confused her. She could not figure out why syllables like yuan, yue, and ying must be read directly, instead of pronouncing them as y-u-an, y-ue, and y-ing.

“Because this is a rule. There is no why.” He gave a crude and simple answer. “Don’t mind these minute details––just remember them.”

Sihwa learned very quickly, as she was not a baby and had been immersed in a Mandarin-speaking environment. She encountered difficulties only once in a while.

“Then why is there an apostrophe in Xi’an?” she asked again.

“Without the apostrophe, you’d pronounce it as Xian.” Zhang Zian pointed at himself and said, “And my name is actually Zi an. It’s okay to omit the space in between, but in English, it may be mispronounced.”

“Pfff. Chinese is so hard!” Sihwa was a bit discouraged.

“Quack! How about changing your change into Billy Zhang? I guarantee it will not be misunderstood!” Richard showed up at the right time and started quacking.

“No! This one will be misunderstood!” Zhang Zian complained. “Why did you fly up here again? You can’t hold your bird droppings?”

“Quack! You look down upon me! I’m telling you. When you are away, I’m the one teaching her Pinyin!” Richard shouted.

Zhang Zian was quite surprised to hear that He looked at Sihwa and asked, “Is this true?”

Sihwa nodded. “Yes! It’s true! Richard’s pronunciation is very good. Much more accurate than yours!”

Zhang Zian spoke Mandarin, but he still carried a slight local accent, especially when he spoke with customers.

Despite that, he was even less reassured. He was concerned that Richard might teach her dirty and gay things, which were inappropriate.

“Quack! Oh, right. I’m up here for something. Someone’s looking for you downstairs. You’d better go down,” Richard said.

“Fine.” Zhang Zian looked back at Sihwa and said, “You can learn by yourself and write down anything you don’t understand. We’ll discuss it after I come back up. For the stuff the parrot teaches you, don’t’ believe a single word of it!”