Pet King

The customers on the first floor of the pet shop waited and waited, but the earthquakes from the legends just didn’t come. After some time, they even looked forward to the appearance of a little vibration. Otherwise, wouldn’t them calling their friends and relatives have been for nothing––just a bunch of made up rumors? Just the thought of being thrown in jail for spreading rumors… Their chrysanthemum would blossom into a sunflower…

Those who were the most active earlier were more terrified now than when they thought an earthquake was approaching. They quickly called and explained to their relatives and friends that they were just joking…

The rain outside continued at its own pace, and there was no sign of it clearing anytime soon.

Not everyone headed out of the house with an umbrella, so it was not easy to catch a taxi or a ride on a rainy day. Those who were bored could only look for things to do, and so they started to talk about their pet raising experiences.

“Hey, that customer there! Yes, you!” Wang Qian ran over and stopped a customer from throwing his empty bottle of coca-cola into the trash can. He pointed at the wall where a signboard said, “Our store actively responds to the national environmental protection policy. We support garbage separation and recycling, so please throw your plastic bottles into the specific trash can for them.”

In the past, there was only one trash can by the door of the pet shop, so all kinds of trash was thrown inside. Recently, however, they added another trash can next to it. The two trash cans stood side by side. They were of the same design but were different colors. The newly added trash can had a “recycle” sign on the front, and a downward arrow on the wall that pointed to it with the words, “Please throw your plastic bottles into this trash can.”

Most young people liked to drink beverages, and it was common for them to have a bottle in their hands when they entered the store. Most customers who noticed the change would throw their empty bottles into the designated trash on their own accord. However, there were still a small number of customers who had not noticed or didn’t bother, to which Wang Qian would then give them a verbal reminder.

But occasionally there would be customers who were special. They had probably been part of their school’s basketball team for a few days, so they thought that they were possessed by LeBron or Bryant. They were fond of throwing their empty bottles into the trash can from a distance in front of the girls. Normally, they would miss the shot; it was very rare that anyone actually made it in.

When that happened, Zhan Tian would walk over and pick the empty bottle up with its mouth, then drop it into the designated trash can before it returned to its original position: the stairs leading to the second floor.

Now that was awkward.

After it happened once or twice, people seemed to stop trying to embarrass themselves.

The trash can was a suggestion made by Wang Qian. The first reason was that the original trash can was no longer sufficient with the increasing number of customers in the store; they had to empty the trash can several times in a day, and it was mostly filled with empty bottles. Secondly, with a designated trash can, it would be easier to collect the empty bottles. Otherwise, to separate them from the other trash… was really a waste of time.

For a proposal of goodwill and for the better, Zhang Zian didn’t have any reason to object, so he agreed to it immediately. Lu Yiyun helped to hand-paint the arrow and the recycle sign, which were respectively attached to the wall and the trash can itself.

Zhang Zian did that for not only the pet shop, but also the aquarium. With the designated trash can, Li Kun would also remind the customers just like Wang Qian did, but there wasn’t much customer flow as compared to the pet shop, so there were fewer empty bottles collected each day. In addition, most of the customers visiting the aquarium were calm, middle-aged and elderly people, and they themselves were not very fond of drinking beverages.

Every morning, Wang Qian and Li Kun would bring the puppies in the store to the green field for a walk; they would also bring along some cat food to feed the stray cats. They each carried a black garbage bag filled with large and small empty bottles and place them near the old grandmother’s house.

In the past, the empty bottles collected in the pet shop were randomly thrown into the designated trash cans on the street. So, instead of benefiting some random stranger, they decided they might as well go a little further and let the grandmother have more time to bring the Pomeranian out for a walk under the sun.

Good deeds were manifested through the little things in one’s daily live.

It was easy to do a good deed, and it was easy to do good deeds for a day––but what about doing good deeds for three hundred years?

If a person could do good deeds for three hundred years, he was probably just like Tang Seng, a man of ten lifetimes of goodness. He’d be favored by luck as if he had saved the world in his previous life, and all kinds of ladies send themselves into his arms, be they human or not.

According to the fairy tale, if the little mermaid that had turned into sea foam could do three hundred years of good deeds, she would be able to acquire an immortal soul and share all eternal happiness with mankind.

Blown by the gentle breeze, the drizzles of rain sprinkled into the room from the open window on the second floor.

Zhang Zian gave a final glance at the lightning that was like a silver dragon dancing between the lead-gray clouds. He then carefully closed the window and stared at the crack on the glass. He sighed, feeling a hint of pain in his heart. His wallet was going to bleed again, but oh well. Anyway, the weather was getting warmer, so he could first fix it with scotch tape. As long as it didn’t break, he could just change the glass when it was approaching winter.

“Pi, are you okay?” Zian pulled out a wet tissue and handed it to Pi.

“Zhi Zhi.” Pi’s nosebleed had already stopped. It was only a few drops of blood, and it wasn’t anything serious. It took over the paper towel and wiped its nose without a care, then wiped its hands clean and wanted to return back to the chair to continue its novel.

“Wait, Pi, take a break,” Zhang Zian dissuaded. “Take a rest in the basket hammock chair. You must be feeling sleepy, right? You fell asleep earlier, and you also don’t have to be in a hurry for your novel.”

“Zhi Zhi.” Pi nodded and obediently returned to the basket hammock chair. It pulled up the blanket and covered itself, then it closed its eyes.

Fina and Old Time Tea had also returned to normal, but their eyes were still filled with shock and suspicion. “Zian, what happened earlier?” Old Time Tea picked up his bamboo hat and put it back on.

“Grandpa Tea, I was just about to ask you that. When I went downstairs, what happened here?” Although Zhang Zian was asking Old Time Tea, he also swept his glance over at Fina.

Fina’s anger had yet to dissipate; it remained silent and did not speak. Its face was distorted with anger and unhappiness. It had never suffered like that before, taken down before even catching sight of the enemy. Most importantly, it had suffered such a defeat in front of its lowly servant. It had lost face!

Old Time Tea inhaled a breath of air and pondered before it said, “After you went downstairs, this old one had wanted to enter the bathroom to comfort Sihwa, to get her to stop crying. But suddenly, my head felt like it was being split open, and it felt like thousands of steel needles stabbing my ear. That kind of pain… even the deities would not be able to bear! Even after covering my ears, it only eased the pain a little. That is, until the thunder…”

Fina did not express any objection to Old Time Tea’s description.

“Grandpa Tea, what gave you guys a headache, and…” Zhang Zian sighed and looked at Pi, who was sleeping soundly in the basket hammock chair. “…Pi’s nosebleed, the panic of the cats and dogs downstairs, and the sudden rampant bat appearances outside the window… The culprit of all this is Sihwa’s crying!”