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

  Another day.

  Another seemingly calm day.

  Early in the morning, Zhang Zian, as usual, simply cleaned up the shop, and opened the business at the usual time.

  Usually there were no customers this early, so he poured some mineral water into Fina’s dish, and gave Old Time Tea a pot of brewed tea. Then he planned to buy himself some breakfast across the street.

  He put on his coat, went to the door, unlocked the lock and pushed the door open. When he walked out, he saw a few young people sitting on the sidewalk; they seemed to be waiting for someone.

  These young people didn’t give off a good impression. He counted that there were about seven people, wearing uniformed motorcycle leather jackets.

  Hearing the sound of Zhang Zian opening the door, they all looked back at the same time.

  Zhang Zian wanted to laugh a little as each person’s hair was dyed a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

  What was this? Making a movie? Looking at the seven heads with different hair colors, they were probably the “Rainbow Warriors”, like in the children’s film…?

  But he could not laugh, as these seven people’s eyes were very fierce, and in order to emphasize their ferociousness, they also wore heavy eye shadow and several nose rings, lip piercings and earrings.

  Under their feet, empty beer cans were scattered around and each was holding a new can in his hand, drinking.

  Zhang Zian wanted to say that the sanitation workers just finished cleaning the street, and that they should respect their work.

  But he could not say anything.

  These people stood up and invariably threw away half of the beer cans, flattened them, and flooded the street full of beer foam.

  Zhang Zian’s eyes passed over them, looking for the breakfast vendor across the street. For some unknown reason, the couple that ran the breakfast booth every day unpredictably had not shown up.

  Other shops did not open so early.

  Those seven people put their hands into their pockets, walked towards Zhang Zian and circled around him.

  There was a man wearing a suit and glasses and carrying a briefcase who was looking down at his phone whilst walking towards them and Zhang Zian.

  The purple haired one sitting on the edge immediately snapped loudly, “Four-eyed dog! I am talking to you! You got four eyes and you didn’t look at the road? Do you want me to give you a few more eyes?”


  The man was so scared that he dropped his phone, and looking at this situation, he knew it was bad, so he bent over to pick up the phone and stumbled to run away back to the original road. While running, he looked back to see if there was anyone chasing him.

  The other pedestrians tried to stay at a far distance, and detoured.

  It seemed that even the vehicles passing by tried to accelerate.

  Zhang Zian’s stare was very intense and he could feel the color fading from his face.

  These people were obviously not coming to buy pets.

  What should he do? Close the glass door and return to the store?

  It was too late. Even if it had been closed, if they really wanted to smash the windows, they could easily break through. If he escaped for one day, he couldn’t hide forever… Should this shop be closed down?

  He decided to ask them clearly at least.

  “Gentlemen, this is a pet shop,” he said. “We do not sell anything else.”


  “I know, I know,” said the blond in the middle. “We are looking for a pet shop.”


  “Oh, really? Want to buy a pet?” Zhang Zian quietly asked.

  They all laughed very loudly and exaggerated.

  “Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding!” The blond said with a grin, “We do not raise pets, only women.”


  “I do not have a woman here,” Zhang Zian responded.

  The blond nodded. “I know, but we need money to raise a woman. You understand that, right? The reason we came today is to borrow money from you, but please rest assured that we certainly will pay it back.

  Zhang Zian felt a cold sweat in his palms, but he still maintained a trace of a smile, and said, “Sorry, the business is not so good. I don’t have money to give to you.”


  “No money? Haha! You are not really honest. You sell a pet for a few thousand? You must be lying when you say that you don’t have money. You must look down upon me, right?” The blond threatened him.

  “The money for purchasing the pets was borrowed, so I paid them back as soon as I sold the pets,” responded Zhang Zian.

  The blond stared at him, “Mr. Boss, This is nonsense: You can borrow money from someone, but we can’t borrow money from you? Please help these brothers here, okay?”


  Zhang Zian didn’t know why he felt really disgusted with the Blond’s heavy made-up face. Even if Chen Tai Tong was in front of him now, he would not feel the same way. He had the urge to beat him up, hard.

  Zhang Zian took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and said with some laughs, “I’m sorry that I have a small business and have difficulty in turning money around.”


  The blond scratched at his one-foot-high hair and said embarrassedly, “Mr. Boss, you would let us down? My brothers, they’re all waiting for dinners and girls; if they are not fed, I cannot guarantee what will happen next…”


  The other six then all pulled a variety of slovenly postures, staring at Zhang Zian and surrounding the store with a semicircle.

  Zhang Zian kept silent.

  The blond smiled. “Mr. Boss, your face looks very pale. So let’s do it this way. I promise that my brothers will not harass you. You say you have no money, right?”


  Zhang Zian looked at him, still silent.

  The blond then turned and said to the others, “Please understand that the boss doesn’t have money now, so just wait here till he sells some pets. Then he will have money.”


  The gang said, “Yes”, and immediately three of them squatted down, took out cigarettes, lit them and puffed away.

  They were squatting on the sidewalk, not bothering anyone. But because there were seven such guys squatting here, Zhang Zian didn’t think he could continue the business today.

  They could afford wasting time here, but Zhang Zian could not afford it.

  What worried him more was that it would soon be time for Little Celery to go to school, and he did not want her to see these people.

  Little Celery was coming soon, and so would Sun Xiaomeng.

  Zhang Zian really did not know what to do. Even if he called the police, who said that anyone could not borrow money? Who said anyone could not squat on the sidewalk?

  At this time, Old Time Tea’s voice came from inside the shop, “My little friend, since these friends have difficulties, you may just lend some money to them.”


  To ordinary people, the voice from Old Time Tea was just a cat’s meowing.

  Zhang Zian was stunned. Didn’t Old Time Tea know the situation?

  But he had no other way. Little Celery was going to come soon, and his heart was not without a trace of hope – maybe it really was only this time, and after that they would not come anymore…?

  “How much do you want?” he asked.

  The blond jumped up at once, smiled and said, “Great, Boss! We got seven here, so we need at least over ten thousand, right?”


  Zhang Zian quietly returned to the shop and took out ten thousand from the small safe box under the cash register, which was almost the only cash left in the shop. After all, very few people now chose to pay cash.

  He walked out of the shop and handed the money over to him. “Only this time.”


  He didn’t know whether it was useful to say that, but he had to say it.

  The blond nodded, counted the money, and gave a thumbs up, “Awesome! Brothers, let’s go!”