Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Zhang Zian was debating whether or not to yell at these two idiots to wake them up, but he also worried. What if they actually got some girls after they had come to this realization? He would definitely be so regretful that he’d want to slap himself! Then, the cat bell on the door rang.

  “Aiya, it’s Aunt Liu!” Zhang Zian recognized her after a moment of shock.

  “Zian, long time no see,” Aunt Liu greeted with a smile as she held an adult American shorthair. Aunt Liu was a neighbor on the same street, and ran a dry cleaning laundromat about two hundred meters north of Amazing Fate Pet Shop. She counted as an acquaintance.

  Aunt Liu was about fifty years old, and her curly perm couldn’t hide the fact that her hair was thinning gradually day by day. But her eyes were still as shrewd as ever.

  Before his parents’ car accident, his mother, in the hospital, had asked Zhang Zian to sell the pets for cheap before they starved to death. Zhang Zian didn’t want to disobey his mother during her last moments, and he really couldn’t be at two places at once; he couldn’t take care of his mother while taking care of the pets. Thus, he used a whole morning’s time to sell the pets at half price to the neighbors nearby and people on the street. The American shorthair that Aunt Liu was holding was sold at half price during that time. If all the painstaking efforts that were put into the shop were counted, one may as well say that it was a loss.

  “Aunt Liu, what kind of wind blew you here? Hurry and come sit,” Zhang Zian greeted. Wang Qian and Li Kun did not know who had come, and silently stood to the side. He said to take a seat, but in fact, there were only three chairs in the shop. One was Zhang Zian’s deck chair, and another was taken over by Fina—it was originally prepared for customers, but if it were given to a customer to sit in under Fina’s eyes, it would probably produce a bloody scene. The last chair was the chair behind the counter. It was the only one that aunt Liu could be offered to sit in. Aunt Liu glanced at it and waved her hand, “No sitting, I can’t stay for long.”


  She took a few steps into the shop, looked around, and pitifully smacked her lips. “Reopening this shop must’ve been hard for you…ay! Your mother and father were really good people. Are there any neighbors on this street that don’t point their thumbs up the moment they talk about your parents? They all say that they were the role model couple…in the end, this kind of thing happened, and they died at such a young age. Who knows what god they had wronged to leave you all by yourself. I, Aunt Liu, my heart aches when I see this…” She wiped the corner of her eye after she had finished talking.

  “Zian, we are all street neighbors. If you have any problems, don’t be modest; come find Uncle Liu and Aunt Liu! As long as you open your mouth aunt and uncle can do it, we will definitely help you to our full extent, and we definitely won’t be careless! If you are not courteous with Aunt Liu, it will mean that you disrespect me!”


  If it weren’t for the past event of giving Dragon-Li cat a bath, Zhang Zian probably would’ve really believed it. But if he remembered correctly, among the people who argued and wanted his parents to compensate for clothes at that time were only Aunt Liu and her husband. Aunt Liu and her husband had always been very calculating—they split one penny to spend as two cents. Their clothes from head to toe added together were obviously not even worth one hundred dollars, but they had to insist that their clothes were bought for two thousand dollars from a big mall.

  Zhang Zian’s parents had always been honest people that restrained themselves and were easygoing with others. The one time they were really wronged, they could only keep their grievances to themselves in the face of Aunt Liu’s claim, and compensated two thousand dollars to solve the problem.

  If the event of having bought the American shorthair cat at a low price was added as well, then Aunt Liu had already earned a lot of money from Zhang Zian’s family.

  Aunt Liu didn’t even show her face at his parents’ funeral. Her dry cleaner was opened as it would normally open; she did not even want to miss one day’s opportunity to make money.

  The moment Aunt Liu had stepped through the door, Zhang Zian’s heart was in distaste. On the other hand, Wang Qian and Li Kun were touched by Aunt Liu’s seemingly honest words, and were nodding their heads constantly.

  Zhang Zian plainly replied, “The dead can’t be raised back to life. The past is already the past; there is no need to mention it again. I am already grateful for you, Aunt Liu; you have this kind of regard. But I don’t have anything that is in need of help. I am living fine by myself right now. Business has improved, and other than not having a girlfriend, everything is pretty good…ay, right!” He pretended to have just thought of it and patted his head. “Aunt Liu, your daughter has almost graduated from college, right? What’s her name? Little Jin, right? I remember that she was pretty beautiful. Let us meet each other one day. We might even be suitable…then, Aunt Liu, we would be relatives in the future. As one family, let’s not talk as strangers…ay, I have a hard time with naming things; what should I name my future children…?”


  Wang Qian and Li Kun were dumbstruck, and thought in unison, “F*ck! Master really is a master! He changed topics so f*cking smoothly and naturally! He probably had already had his eyes set on the lass when she was young…”


  Aunt Liu’s face suddenly grew white with anger, the flesh on her cheeks trembled, and she cursed in her heart. Her daughter indeed had almost graduated college, and she had also been looking around to find a suitable partner for her daughter. There were a lot of leftover men and women nowadays, and she was afraid that once careless, her daughter would be leftover. But no matter what, she would turn her nose up on Zhang Zian, because she felt that running a pet shop was not a real job, and that there was no guarantee for the future.

  Zhang Zian laughed, “Aunt Liu, I’m joking with you. A common saying says that a smile gives ten years of youth. Aunt Liu, you laugh too little; you keep a straight face the whole day. I think that you should laugh more in the future.”


  Aunt Liu was just about to put to good use her ability to shout abuse up the street like a shrew, and to curse Zhang Zian until he couldn’t hold his head up, but was stifled by his casual and light comment, and could only force a smile.

  “This child, your mouth has grown after going out and mixing these few years. I remember in the past that you were a pretty honest kid.”


  Zhang Zian said in his heart, “Bullsh*t, my parents were taken advantage of by you guys because they were too honest!”


  He also added a smile, “People have to grow up. Let’s not talk about this. Aunt Liu, did you come for something today? Or did you just casually come to take a look?”


  Before Aunt Liu replied, she took a look at Wang Qian and Li Kun’s faces and asked, “Who are these two people?”


  Zhang Zian rushed to reply before they could say something stupid. “They are from the university nearby. A classmate among them wanted to buy a pet and entrusted them to come here to take a look.”


  “Oh.” Aunt Liu nodded and continued to ask puzzled, “Raising pets are allowed in the university?”


  Li Kun’s was a little more quick-witted, and knew that there was a deep meaning behind master’s words. Thus, he replied, “It’s raised at home.”


  Aunt Liu made an “oh” sound again, and said, “You guys came here first, you guys buy first, I will wait a while.”


  Li Kun said, “No need, you go first, we are not in a hurry.”


  Aunt Liu then said, “It’s like this, Zian. I saw that there’s a sign in front of your shop saying that cats could be given baths. I remember that your mother and father did not have this service in the past.”


  Zhang Zian laughed to himself; it really was “never go to the temple for nothing”![1] He thought, “I’ve already been back for so many days, and you didn’t come yesterday. I just hung the cat bath sign out a few days ago, and you promptly brought the cat over…turns out that you have come to take advantage of our family again! If I let you walk away having taken advantage of us, I will write my name “Zhang” upside down!

  Footnotes:

  [1] A Chinese phrase that describes how a person never goes to someone’s place except on business or for help.