Pet King

There was nothing Zhang Zian could do about the female customer and her weird request. He couldn’t just sell her a random pet, so he planned to convince her to adopt one.

He led her to the door and pointed to Li’s snack bar that was just opposite of his shop; it wasn’t too far away. The Li couple had already opened for business, and their business was quite good, too––there were one or two people waiting in line at the door.

“The shop there provides adoption services. All the cats in the store were abandoned by their former owners, and there’s no problem with their health––they’re all vaccinated. If you don’t have a specific breed that you’re looking for, it’s a good choice to adopt one from there,” Zhang Zian said, introducing the place to her. “If you want to adopt a dog, I can introduce you to another place.”

When she heard about adopting a pet, she did not show any signs of rejection. Instead, she nodded happily, “So we can do this, too? So I can just get a cat by going there?”

“Well, not just like that. You’ll need to fill out a form and report to the store every day for a month to take care of the cat as a volunteer. Only once you have passed the test can you adopt the cat you like… They do this to prevent those who are not sincere from adopting a cat.”

“Ah? So it’s like that…” She hesitated, seemingly bothered with all the trouble, but she also didn’t know how to turn down the offer. She looked troubled as she lightly scratched her cheek.

Judging from her age, there was a great chance that she was not a student. For people who worked, it was a very difficult test for them because they worked throughout the day and were still required to do one month of voluntary work. The working people were usually not lacking in budget, however, so they often leaned towards spending money to buy a cat.

Early in the morning, the streets were filled with the fragrance of the morning snacks. Although Zhonghua Road was not famous for its street snacks, there were many traditional and modern snacks there from all over the country. In the morning, whether it was a breakfast shop or a roadside stall, it all was busy with business. Tofu beancurd, tea eggs, steamed soup dumplings, buttered crisp cake, eight treasure rice, soup dumplings, steamed dumplings… all kinds of fragrances mixed together, whetting one’s appetite.

Zhang Zian was getting a little hungry. It was also almost the time when Fina would start demanding its breakfast, so Zian planned to send the lady off then head out to buy food.

Woof!

An unusually small, brown figure from inside the shop ran to the door. It seemed to have been attracted by the fragrance of the food that made its way into the shop.

Zhang Zian looked down to see that it was the mini poodle, the one that Famous and Old Time Tea had brought back from the Love Lovely Pets Breeding Base.

Almost two months had passed, and its size had grown slightly, but it was still much smaller than other poodles of the same age. Its slightly unkempt brown hair was dotted with its round black eyes and nose. If it was not for the spirited look in its eyes, and for it being very lively and active, it was easy to mistake it for a fluffy doll.

Several customers had expressed their interest in it and asked Zhang Zian and the other staff members about the price, but Zhang Zian had concerns about selling it. One, he was concerned if the other party was really interested in it, or if they just wanted to buy it as a breeding dog to breed teacup poodles. The second concern was that a special mini dog like the poodle was more troublesome to take care of. People had to be careful every time it was fed to not overfeed it, and they had to pay careful attention to make sure it did not choke and die. The last reason was that it was still too small to leave its mother at the time…

Therefore, it had been staying in the shop with its mother, being taken care of by the staff members, and enjoying more privileges than the other puppies, since it was not locked in a display case.

Maybe during its stay in Love Lovely Pets, the experience of being mistreated and starved had left it terrified of people. Aside from Zhang Zian and the other staff members who fed it, the mini poodle rarely took the initiative to approach strangers. When there were a lot of people in the store, Zhang Zian would take it upstairs, for fear that a customer would step on it.

It ran to the door, sniffing hard, and looked around to search for the source of the enticing fragrances.

Although it had a small appetite, it was full of enthusiasm for food. On one hand, it was a dog’s nature, and on the other, it was because of the experience it had of being starved. Because of that, it was necessary to be careful when feeding it, lest it ate too much.

Woof! Woof!

Its mother barked twice from inside the shop, as if telling it not to run too far and to go back inside.

In the morning, people were coming and going on the streets, rushing to work or school. Those that were running late were very easy to spot––their hair would be standing up, their face covered in oil, breakfast in their mouth as they ran to catch their bus.

With the poodle’s small size, it was easy to kick or step on it outside the shop, and its frail, internal organs were not able to withstand such an impact. The death of many teacup poodles was because they weren’t noticed on the sofa, or they were unable to run away because of their poor athletic ability. As a result, they were killed because they were sat on by their owner or a guest of the house…

Zhang Zian also waved towards the inside of the shop and gestured for the poodle to go back in. He also looked down and smiled. “Go back in! Breakfast will be ready in a while.”

It had reached the age where it could leave its mother, and sometimes it didn’t listen to its mother’s words. But looking at Zian, it recognized him as the one who fed it, so it turned around and scurried back inside with its four small and short legs. But it didn’t go far.

The mini poodle suddenly stopped and turned around. It wasn’t looking at Zhang Zian; instead, it was staring at the female customer.

The lady was still staring at the snack bar, hesitating about whether or not she should adopt a pet or simply spend some money to buy one. She thought of her own affairs and couldn’t help but feel a little confused.

Zhang Zian was about to explain to her further the benefits and necessity of adopting instead of buying. He did not notice the mini poodle’s movement––he thought that it had already run back inside the shop.

Woof! Woof! Woof! The continuous barks of the mini poodle broke through the silence of the morning.

Earlier, both the mini poodle and its mother had barked a few times, but it hadn’t been loud. But now, it was barking as loud as it could––its voice was high and sharp. Often, the smaller the size of the dog, the louder their voice was. Since they couldn’t scare off their threat with their body size, they could only rely on their voice.

Zhang Zian was shocked. He subconsciously turned around and looked at it.

The lady woke up from her thoughts. Also surprised, she turned around. “Aiya, what a small dog…”

Wang Qian and Li Yiyun were also attracted by the poodle’s barking. No one knew why it suddenly started to bark.

It had been trained very well by Zhang Zian in the pet shop, so it knew that it couldn’t attract the attention of its owner with its voice; therefore, it usually didn’t bark. Even if it had barked, it wasn’t too loud––it had never barked like that before.

Even the passing pedestrians outside the shop were attracted.

“Stop barking! Don’t bark!” Zhang Zian raised an arm and did a down gesture, indicating for it to stop barking.

It had obviously heard Zhang Zian’s instructions. It looked at Zian and remained quiet for a moment, but after only two or three seconds, it started barking again as it stared at the lady. The more it barked, the more agitated it became. Its body tensed up as if it was facing a great threat.

Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!