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

  In the beginning, the quoted price that the sales clerk at Love Lovely Pet gave Zhang Zian was very favorable. Compared to the offer from Pets’ Home, every pet was cheaper by a few hundred. At the time, Zhang Zian was just purchasing for the first time, and the amount of purchase was pitifully small as well. One could imagine that super customers like Stars with the ability to bargain could certainly enjoy bigger discounts. His parents had said before that no matter how inexpensive the pets were at the breeding bases that did not allow inspections of their breeding farms, they should not be purchased—those pets had problems. Zhang Zian pondered. He knew the results now, but was still uncertain of the reasons that had caused them. Unless he had personally gone to check out Love Lovely Pet, everything was an assumption.

  The driver counted the number of pets, and matched the number with the quantity stated on the delivery note, then waved his hand and said, “All right, hurry and leave, don’t hang around in this area. It’s quite an eyesore.”


  Jealousy! This must be him being jealous of his handsomeness!

  Zhang Zian didn’t want to keep pestering with this kind of trash, so he turned around and walked towards the inside of Pets’ Home.

  The road suddenly became broader before his eyes after going all the way through a number of bungalows and two story buildings. He finally arrived at the core of the region—the breeding ground. It was his third time coming here.

  The boss of the breeding ground, Sun Yinian, was in a fierce debate with a woman about something, and was even waving his arms to increase his imposing manner. In addition, there was also a person who looked like an assistant standing on the side with a folder tucked under his armpit. More precisely speaking, it was a one-sided conversation for Sun Yinian. The woman on the opposite side was like a rock and did not move. Near them, hundreds of small iron cages were lined up with a pet in every one of them, with the equivalent of cats and dogs as the main pets. It was as if they were prepared and chosen to be ready to send out and load onto the truck at the entrance. Sun Yinian’s spit flew everywhere. “Money manager! I can’t accept this price that you offer! It is just too low! I can’t recover my costs if you are like this!”


  Qian Fang wore a gray, fitted professional outfit, her facial lines were cold and sharp, and she gave people a very smart and competent feeling. “Boss Sun, this is not the first time we have made a deal.” Qian Fang’s tone was very calm. “You should know that the price of goods fluctuates in accordance with the market. It’s an economic downturn currently, and housing prices are constantly rising as well. People have less and less money, and if we want to sell pets, we can only cut the prices, or else we won’t be able to sell them out. Stars is such a big business, and there are a large number of staff members to support at each branch, so we have to control costs from all aspects. I hope you understand.”


  “Motherf*cking bullsh*t!” Sun Yinian couldn’t help but to burst out a foul mouth on the spot. “You guys made a deal at the start that the price would be based on this. Now you want to change it just because you say so? You guys have a lot of staff members to support? I still have a big family here to raise!”


  “That was only a verbal agreement, but circumstances have changed now, and we have no way either,” Qian Fan replied.

  “Bullsh*t! I think you guys had wanted to secure me at the start, but now you want to kill the donkey the moment it leaves the millstone? [1]” Sun Yinian cursed. “Do you guys still have any conscience? Do you guys talk about integrity? Your words are like farts and change every day! Verbal agreement? I talked about signing an agreement at the time, and you guys were very unwilling, so that’s why it wasn’t signed! Now you say that verbal agreements don’t count? F*ck you!”


  Qian Fang took out her handkerchief, wiped off the spit that was splattered onto her face, and was still unmoved. “Boss Sun, please calm down. Emotional agitation won’t solve anything. We all muddle along in the industry, so let’s speak frankly. Pets are living things, and each pet is unique, right?” Sun Yinian was sulking and did not reply, but Zhang Zian nodded his head in agreement to this statement. Qian Fang continued, “Since they are living things, then the prices are unsteady, of course. Two Persian cats, with one’s condition being lower than the other, could have a price difference of hundreds of thousands, right?” Zhang Zian still nodded—this statement was correct.

  The price of living things should be flexible; it could not be fixed. A restaurant labeled their garlic flavored shredded meat to be ten dollars, so it should be ten dollars for any customer who orders a serving of garlic flavored shredded meat. Even if the chef came down with Parkinson’s disease, and the hand holding the tasting spoon always shaked, and caused the serving sizes to be different for each plate, it should still be ten dollars for each plate. It can’t be eleven dollars for one plate, and then nine dollars for another plate. The customers would definitely complain if that were the case, and the bureau of commodity price would definitely seek trouble for you.

  But it wasn’t the same for pets. Their ages were different, their conditions were not the same, and so the prices should be different. A pet being perfect in all aspects should be labeled at a whopping price. It being worth this price was the same as a beauty contest champion in terms of the human race. It wasn’t that Sun Yinian was foolish at the start, but it really wasn’t easy to sign an agreement for living things. Every pet was different, so how could the agreement be signed? It was impossible to have a unified price.

  Qian Fang saw that Sun Yinian had no objections, changed her tone, and threw out the trump card. “When we came for the first time, we told you, ‘We have to be like this in the future; the price shouldn’t be changed’. This was our verbal agreement. But can you say that this batch is in the exact same condition as the first batch was?” Sun Yinian gaped, and was tongue-tied.

  The issue was on the statement of, “We have to be like this in the future”. Pets don’t emerge from the industrial line. It was not possible for every batch to be the same. Thus, this statement was a trap from the very beginning. Sun Yinian had fallen for the trick at the time. Zhang Zian reflected that if it were himself, he would not necessarily fall for the trick.

  Qian Fang readily said, “Since you want to talk about integrity, then it’s better to ask yourself: is this batch of pets the exact same as the first batch? If the pets are not the same, then we don’t need to provide the same price, right?”


  The words that this woman said could not be counted as wrong, but it made a person feel extremely uncomfortable upon hearing them.

  Sun Yinian desperately wanted to clutch onto a life-saving straw, and said with a trembling voice, “Then how come you guys didn’t say anything about the previous batches? Why did you guys pay for it happily and quickly?” Qian Fang laughed and said, “The pressure of our sales were small before. We decided that we preferred to suffer on our own, but…I’ll tell you a secret in advance. Stars is preparing to appear on the market, so the head office requested that accounts of each branch must be clear and beautiful with no deficits, so it is very difficult for us to do as well. Please understand.”


  Zhang Zian scratched his head. This woman was very powerful—she could make herself the victim with just a few sentences, and Sun Yinian seemed to be the party that was selling and buying by force. If he had to deal with this woman in the future, he must be very careful. Sun Yinian stomped fiercely, “What the f*ck does you guys going on the market have to do with me! I can’t get even a cent of benefit! No matter what you continue to say, I won’t sell at this price!”


  Qian Fang shook her head, “You can’t talk like that. When we have succeeded financially on the market, and after our capital is sufficient, the quoted price that we give to a supplier like you would also rise. These difficulties are only temporary at the moment, so please try to overcome them. Let us pull through together.”


  Feed on fancies! Feeding on fancies again!

  They were all tricks!

  Footnotes:

  [1] A Chinese saying that meant to get rid of somebody.