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

  Guo Dongyue just kept staring at the Apprehensive Bird and did not disclose why he was here today. Zhang Zian couldn’t wait any longer, so he asked, “Mr. Guo, why are you here?”


  “Are you coming to be my butt buddy?” Richard quickly chimed in, with a voice just like that of Zhang Zian.

  Guo Dongyue was speechless.

  “No, no, no! I didn’t say anything!” Zhang Zian must clear up the misunderstanding, and he pointed at Richard, “It’s the bird!”


  Guo Dongyue looked at Zhang Zian in a strange way, and he spoke again after quite a while, “Why would you teach it to say something like that?”


  “No! I didn’t teach it! Someone else did!”


  “But it’s voice sounded just like yours, can anybody else teach the bird to imitate your voice?” Guo Dongyue pointed out the loophole in his explanation.

  Zhang Zian didn’t know how to reply.

  “Of course, I’m not judging your sexual orientation, which is your freedom.” Guo Dongyue moved on and stopped drilling the question as to why the bird talked that way. He took out his laptop from his briefcase and said, “I’m here today to show you the design rendering of the renovation plan, and you can ask me any questions.”


  Zhang Zian was so glad that Guo Dongyue had diverted the topic, so he quickly approached Guo’s back to see the rendering. He thought that the rendering would be professional two-dimensional pictures, but Guo Dongyue had made them into three-dimensional animations, which could present the effect more directly. The animation was designed in a first-person perspective, like following a customer into the pet shop.

  “Mr. Zhang, from my perspective, your shop is too small, and that’s why it looks so messy.” Guo Dongyue pointed at the animation on his laptop screen.

  Zhang Zian agreed with him. The Pet Shop left by his parents was not big, and the layout was quite random. Basically, he didn’t make many changes to the pet shop, but he was not as diligent as his parents were in tidying it up, so the current messy look was an unavoidable result.

  “Previously, your shop was divided into a few areas. When people came in, they saw the cashier first, and the middle area for selling pets, while the left and right sides were for storage racks and other things. Such a layout is a waste of space, especially the area around the door, it has been totally wasted. My suggestion is that you divide your shop into two areas, one in the front, and one in the back. The cashier desk and other items can be put in the smaller area near the door, while the bigger area in the back is saved for the pets, and you can use an automatic inductive glass door to separate these two areas.”


  “Okay, let’s do it.”


  Guo Dongyue’s plan happened to be what Zhang Zian desired. He was planning to hire a cashier who would be responsible for handling customers’ membership statuses and operating the pet shop’s WeChat public account, but his conversations with the elves might seem suspicious to the employee—after all, not everyone was as na?ve as Little Celery. If he was going to adopt Guo Dongyue’s plan by separating his shop into front and back areas using an automatic inductive glass door in the middle, then he wouldn’t worry so much about his secrets being heard. So, he immediately agreed with this plan.

  Guo Dongyue was quite surprised that Zhang Zian consented so quickly. He was waiting for Zhang Zian to find faults in his plan.

  “So, you have agreed with this design plan?” He wanted to confirm with Zhang Zian.

  “Yes.” Zhang Zian answered firmly, “You are recommended by Xiao Yan, and I trust her, so I believe in your expertise.”


  Zhang Zian did trust Xiao Yan, but the latter part of the above sentence was just flattery.

  “Look, Mr. Zhang. You are the boss, and I am employed by you to do the job. So, I hope you can take another look at the plan, and if you are not satisfied with anything, I will make alterations.” Guo Dongyue sincerely hoped Zhang Zian could make some sort of comment.

  It would be rude to dismiss his gesture. So, Zhang Zian watched the animation presentation a few times.

  “I am truly satisfied with your plan, and I can’t find any flaws in it,” said Zhang Zian.

  “Okay, great.” Guo Dongyue closed his laptop. “Now, let’s talk about price.”


  Zhang Zian got nervous, “Xiao Yan told me that you would give me a discount.”


  “That’s right.” Guo Dongyue nodded, “But I offer various discount rates to different friends, you know, ordinary friends, good friends, best friends…”


  “And butt buddies!” Richard chimed in at the perfect timing.

  African grey parrots just couldn’t stand boredom. Richard had been waiting for a long time to engage in their conversation, but it couldn’t find the right timing. Richard was so bored that it kept pecking its feathers in front of its own chest, and a few feathers had been pulled off. And now that it had successfully stolen the spotlight, it started to jump excitedly on the desk.

  Zhang Zian was so embarrassed that he wanted to find a place to hide and bury this b*tch bird into the ground.

  “Oh,” Zhang Zian asked, “So Xiao Yan is what kind of friend to you?”


  “She used to be my customer, and later we became good friends.” Guo Dongyue didn’t look at Zhang Zian, but kept staring at Richard with great interest.

  “So, what’s your discount rate to a good friend?” Zhang Zian asked nervously, he was afraid to hear that the price after discount would still be an amount he couldn’t afford.

  Guo Dongyue finally turned to looked at Zhang Zian, “Mr. Zhang, I have a proposal.”


  “Go ahead.”


  “Now that we have finalized the design plan, the next step is carrying out the renovation.”


  “That’s right.” Zhang Zian nodded.

  “Have you found a decoration company?”


  Zhang Zian was not sure why he cared about the decoration process so much, but he answered honestly, “Not yet, I’m going to find one within a day or two.”


  “Well, I have a proposal for you to consider.”


  “Tell me about it.” Zhang Zian looked forward to his offer.

  “I can offer you a whole package, from design to renovation, I will cover everything. And I can assure you that the decoration company that I bring will be much better than what you will find on the market.”


  Zhang Zian believed him, but money was the most critical issue. He had thought about retaining a big decoration company that could guarantee the decoration quality and use decoration materials that met environmental protection requirements. But big companies charged too much!

  “How much will it cost?” he asked cautiously.

  “Monetarily, it will cost you nothing.” Guo Dongyue knew Zhang Zian would ask such a question, and he replied immediately.

  After spending some time living with Apprehensive Bird, Zhang Zian felt that his apprehension ability had improved a lot by listening carefully to the differences in tones and stress. He found that Guo Dongyue put the stress on the word “monetarily”, which meant that Guo Dongyue didn’t want his money, but wanted something else.

  “You don’t want my money? Then what do you want from me?” he asked carefully.

  “Bromance! Bromance!” Richard quickly answered before Guo Dongyue could.

  “Shut up!” Zhang Zian turned around and stared at Richard angrily. He could tell from Richard’s exciting eyes that it was fermenting more pranks to do to him.

  Zhang Zian knew that there was no free lunch in this world. But what exactly did Guo Dongyue want from him?