Pet King

Zhang Zian felt that it was very fortunate that the pair of long thick rubber gloves he found were used. Sure enough, they should not have underestimated Welder Zhao’s ability to find trouble. He managed to quietly get a yellow-tailed anchovy––that was, the blue knife snapper––back.

Over the last few years, after Finding Nemo 2 had aired, Zhang Zian had looked into the special features of Dory’s species. He had a deep impression of the fish’s beautiful appearance, which had some hidden danger.

At that time, he was a bit worried that with the movie being screened, people’s desire for the blue tang would increase rapidly. A lot of children would be proud of having a Dory in their house, and parents would be happy to satisfy their children’s wishes. But the blue tang was not as harmless as it looked. The truth was, it was actually quite dangerous.

Because Finding Nemo 1 was very popular, clownfish suddenly became popular in the international pet market, and people were fighting to buy the cute clownfish to make their children happy.

There were reports that said some mischievous children were influenced by the movie and would even follow the movie plot and flush the clownfish down the toilet, hoping that a real life Finding Nemo would occur.

The clownfish that had been flushed into the toilet would die. Such occurrences showed that mischievous children were both female and male in multiple countries.

The good thing was that even though the clownfish that had been flushed down the toilet were pitiful, they were, in the end, safe aquatic animals. If they were kept at home, they would not pose any danger. On the other hand, the blue tang was a bit different.

When Finding Nemo 2 aired, Zhang Zian felt that there was probably going to be a problem. The movie showed all the cute parts of Dory, but it did not show the dangerous qualities of this fish… Of course, that was not necessarily Disney’s fault. After all, it was a movie especially for young children to watch. It would not be suitable if it was bloody, but the seeds of danger had already quietly been planted.

As expected, after Finding Nemo 2 was screened, the blue tang increased in popularity rapidly. Its popularity had not decreased at all, so the price had increased immensely. Despite that, there was still an insufficient supply because it was very hard for humans to conduct artificial propagation for the blue tang. More than 99 percent of the blue tang in the market were captured from the wild.

99 percent was still a conservative estimate. The truth was, it could be 100 percent. The biggest difficulty was not in the courtship or the reproduction process, but in the small mouth of the blue tang. The young blue tang that had just hatched had an even smaller mouth, and they could only feed on specific, small organisms, which made it extremely difficult to raise artificially.

Not all aquariums or fish markets would inform the buyers about their purchase. They neglected to tell their customers about the danger of the fish; if customers heard about the danger, they might not buy it anymore. On the almighty Taobao, when one searched for the Paracanthurus hepatus, not a single page told customers of the danger.

Whether or not it would harm people or children when it was brought home would depend entirely on their luck.

The aquarium Welder Zhao had managed to get such a great bargain from shipped in blue tangs, and that shop’s reputation was normally quite good. If it was normal operating times, they would have definitely done their due diligence in warning customers of the danger; however, now that the shop was having trouble themselves, why would they care so much?

When Electrician Wu was describing Welder Zhao’s process of buying the goods, the employee was only concerned with receiving the money. He did not remind Welder Zhao… It was also possible that the employee did remind him, but it was too noisy there and Welder Zhao did not hear it.

Welder Zhao had always been quite arrogant and petty and felt that after watching the movie, he knew about the species of Dory. Despite only knowing a bit, he flamboyantly bought it back to keep.

Zhang Zian concluded, “This fish is the prime example of only being able to look from afar, but not being able to play with it. If you’re just admiring it, it’s a very pretty fish, but just don’t use your hands to catch it…”

After saying that, he used his gaze to signal to the three children that were quite confused.

Electrician Wu and Welder Zhao understood his meaning. Adults can stay away when they know the danger, but children don’t have self-control. They might catch it with their hands whenever they wanted to… Even if the three children were obedient and did not catch it, when other children living in the area came to play, they might catch it out of curiosity. That kind of possibility was unavoidable.

Although Dory was cute, it was only suitable in houses with no children.

No matter how much Welder Zhao liked to keep fish, he would not keep fish that would endanger his grandson and granddaughter. Even if he dared to, his family members would definitely not agree to it.

“Wu…” Welder Zhao’s eyeballs turned, and he started to think about asking his old friend for help.

Electrician Wu just rudely replied, “Get lost!”

He could guess what Welder Zhao wanted; he wanted him to continue rearing Dory, but how could he agree? His grandchildren were what he treasured most. They could not come to any harm at all.

“Then what should I do? I spent money to buy it. If I throw it away, it’ll be such a waste.” Welder Zhao helplessly spread his hands.

Electrician Wu wanted to scold him over wanting money but not his life, but in front of outsiders, that would be embarrassing. He thought about it and said, “How about this––Store Manager Zhang made a trip down. He wasted time today without getting any reward back. We can’t not express our gratitude enough… How about we give this fish to Store Manager Zhang?”

When Welder Zhao heard it, his heart ached. The blue tang was very expensive, and it had grown to such a big size. Its quality was quite good and it was quite expensive. In the aquarium he got it from, its original price was around 2000 yuan… Even when they were clearing stock, he still spent around 500 to 600 yuan. If it was not for him wanting to garner the favor of his granddaughter, he would not have been able to bear to spend so much money on a fish.

Zhang Zian waved his hands to reject. “There’s no need. How can I accept that?”

“Store Manager Zhang, there’s no need to be so polite. My house cannot rear such a fish, and neither can his house. We can only give it to people, but who should we give it to? Compared to giving it off and benefiting others, it’s better to give it to Store Manager Zhang to thank you for taking care of us two old folks. I troubled you to come out here. We also never officially thanked you for the Palytoxin incident. If it was not for you, we would not have known how to deal with it…” Electrician Wu’s attitude was firm.

Welder Wu wanted to be thick-skinned and ask for the money he spent back, but he was glared at by Electrician Wu. He forced his words back down.

Zhang Zian saw that Electrician Wu had already made up his mind, and the two old folks’ situations were not suitable for the blue tang. He did not reject anymore.

“Wu! Dory! My Dory! Grandpa, I’m begging you––don’t give my Dory away…” The young girl wiped her eyes and cried. She hugged Welder Zhao’s leg and begged him.

Welder Zhao sighed, squatted down to pat her head, then pointed at Zhang Zian. “Xuan, be good. This fish is not good to keep. It’s not suitable for us to keep it. Let’s allow this uncle to help us take care of it.”

The little girl looked at Zhang Zian, teary-eyed.

Zhang Zian smiled, squatted down, and said, “Xuan, right? How about we make an exchange. Do you want to have Nemo from Finding Nemo? I’ll use Nemo to exchange for your Dory. How’s that?”

The little girl blinked and stopped crying.