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

  Zhang Zian opened the shutter door and went back to his pet shop with Zhan Tian.

  The elves had woken up. Lying on the cat tree, Fina unpleasantly asked the empty-handed Zhang Zian, “Where is my breakfast? Did you just go out and feed yourself?”


  “Wait a minute. I went out too early and the breakfast at the restaurant hadn’t been prepared yet.” To avoid listening to its nagging, Zhang Zian did not take off his coat, but picked up his big broomstick and shovel and went out again to clear the snow and ice in front of the store.

  Today, Wang Qian and Li Kun would not come over, so all the cleaning work would be done alone by Zhang Zian. It was customary for a pet shop, even if it was closed for holidays, to replace the cat litter, clean the dog feces, and disinfect the indoor environment as usual. When all these heavy chores were finished, why not simply open the door to make money?

  The traffic on the sidewalk at the entrance to his shop was quite heavy. During the day, the snow was stepped on so much that it had slightly melted, but then the melted snow would be frozen by night. In many cases, it wasn’t enough to simply sweep the snow with the broomstick. Zhang Zian also had to use the shovel to smash and crush the ice.

  Zhang Zian had worked hard to clean the ice and snow, not because he wanted to be a model citizen, but because he would not be able to afford the compensation in case an elderly person slipped and fell in front of his shop.

  Just then, a slender figure passed by him and went into his pet shop where there currently were no customers.

  A customer has arrived so early on the first day of the New Year? Is it a good start? Zhang Zian wondered.

  However, before he had time to be happy about it, that silhouette had pushed the door and left the shop. In total, that person had only spent less than ten seconds in his shop. Zhang Zian saw that a girl wearing a white short down jacket and a pair of blue jeans was quickly headed to the north.

  Probably she had taken the wrong way?

  He did not mind, because it was normal for people to find the wrong place occasionally. He continued shoveling the snow and removing the ice.

  After a while, he carried his big broomstick and shovel and returned to his shop. Then he cleared away the cat litter and dog feces as usual. He was about to take the excrements outside so that the sanitation workers could help throw them away. When he passed through the cashier desk, he seemed to notice something out of the corner of his eye, so he returned to the desk.

  Behind the computer screen at the cashier desk, a piece of paper was attached there. He peeled it off and saw that it was a notice about a lost dog, which was exactly the same as the notice he saw on the pole.

  In that case, the girl who just entered the shop was the owner of the dog? But why did she post the notice in my pet shop? Is she so desperate that she thinks that I have stolen her dog and will resell it to my customers?

  Zhang Zian carried the garbage bags out of his shop and piled them at the designated garbage-collection place. Just then, a car horn blared, and Sun Xiaomeng parked her car at the roadside.

  “Hey! Happy New Year!” Zhang Zian raised his hand to say hello.

  Sun Xiaomeng rolled down her car window. She was not looking at his face, but was staring at the paper in his hand. “Happy New Year! What is that about?”


  “This? It’s a notice about a lost dog posted by someone. It’s posted in my pet shop! How ridiculous is that?” Zhang Zian held the paper for her to see.

  Sun Xiaomeng took over the paper and frowned. “It hasn’t been found yet.”


  From her tone, it seemed that Sun Xiaomeng had known about this matter. Out of curiosity, Zhang Zian asked, “The notice has also been posted in your pet clinic?”


  Sun Xiaomeng pointed to the phone number on the notice and said, “She is a regular client in my clinic. She often takes her dog to my clinic for vaccination and physical examination etc. … The sterilization operation of Tuan Tuan is also performed in my clinic. I feel bad to see her looking around desperately for her dog.”


  “Oh, no wonder you know this matter.”


  It turned out that the owner of the lost dog was an acquaintance of Sun Xiaomeng. Zhang Zian understood why the girl would post the notice in Sun Xiaomeng’s pet clinic.

  “Recently, it seems like a lot of dogs are lost. Among those dogs that come to my clinic for regular medical examinations, two or three dogs are lost.” She handed the notice back to Zhang Zian.

  “That many?” Zhang Zian was deeply surprised. Her clinic was quite small, but there were two or three dogs that had been lost in such a short time. The number of lost dogs might be big if the trend had been expanded to the nearby urban areas.

  He thought for a moment, and reiterated Aunt Li’s words to her about dog trapping, and asked, “Do you think it’s possible? But I’ve heard that few dogs have been trapped and stolen in the city.”


  Sun Xiaomeng seriously contemplated for a moment, and answered, “There are very few dog-trappers in the city. But you see, it is not long before the Spring Festival, and many people need money at this time of the year, so perhaps they have generated the crooked idea of profiting from dog trapping. Under the cold weather, a lot of people wear masks when they go out, and these dog-trappers will be fine even if the surveillance cameras capture their images, so it’s natural for someone to take the risk. These stolen dogs were worth a fortune, whether they were sold to dog meat restaurants or for resale in the market.”


  Zhang Zian gazed toward the pedestrians. Just as Sun Xiaomeng said, at least five out of ten pedestrians wore masks. It would be very strange to wear masks in the summer, but not in the winter, especially nowadays that many people wore masks to prevent fog and haze.

  “I think it is more profitable to return the dogs to their owners.” He pointed to the 10,000 Yuan reward written on the notice and laughed.

  “The dog-trappers will not be so stupid to take the risk to return the dogs. Who knows if they will receive the reward or get brutally beaten up?”


  Joking aside, Zhang Zian also knew that no one would do such silly things.

  “It’s New Year’s Day today. Your clinic is still open for business?” he asked.

  She said with regret, “I have been intending to rest for today … You should be free today, right? The girl who posted this notice should be waiting for me in the clinic, and she would like to ask me for advice. Why not come together with me? You have plenty of clever ideas related to pets. Consider it doing a good deed by helping her out.”


  Zhang Zian said, “Do I look like I have much free time?”


  “You do!” She answered concisely.

  It’s true that Zhang Zian had nothing much to do today. Besides, he was quite curious about the lost dogs. So, he pulled down the shutter door, locked it and sat in the passenger seat. Then he went to the pet clinic with Sun Xiaomeng.

  The girl in the white down jacket and blue jeans was indeed waiting in front of the clinic. Hands in her pocket, she kept looking around, perhaps was waiting for the arrival of Sun Xiaomeng, or was hoping to see her own dog.

  “Sister Xiaomeng!”


  The girl quickly approached Sun Xiaomeng as she got out of the car. Then the girl noticed Zhang Zian who also got out. She felt this man seemed a bit familiar to her.

  While fumbling the key to open the door, Sun Xiaomeng introduced them. “This is Ning Lan, my client and my friend. This is Zhang Xian. You just went to his pet shop to post the notice. Did you not see him?”


  Ning Lan remembered now. She was perplexed when the pet shop was open but there was no staff inside. She had mistaken Zhang Zian as a street cleaner worker then.

  “I’m sorry, I barely slept last night, and my brain is messy. I did not notice you at your shop,” she said regretfully to Zhang Zian.

  Zhang Zian knew that what she said was true when he noticed the obvious dark circles around her eyes. She must have been exhausted while searching for her dog.

  “It’s all right. I was shoveling the snow, and you had no idea that I was the owner of the shop… but I want to ask you why you posted a notice about your lost dog in my pet shop?” He asked curiously.

  “Well…” She was very embarrassed. She glanced at Sun Xiaomeng, and stuttered, “I think, in case someone has picked up my dog, it ??may have been sold to a pet shop… I also went to post notices in other pet shops, but the owners there didn’t allow me to. And there was no one in your shop, so I wanted to see if my dog was there. I know my behavior was inappropriate, so I ran away quickly after attaching a notice in your shop.”


  “I remember your dog is three years old, and none of the dogs in my shop have reached that age,” said Zhang Zian to prove innocence for himself.

  Sun Xiaomeng pushed open the clinic door. “It’s freezing outside. Let’s get in and talk.”


  Ning Lan and Zhang Zian followed her into the clinic one after another, and he immediately saw an identical notice posted at the checkout counter.

  The nurse, Long Xian was not around. She was probably on a vacation.

  Sun Xiaomeng invited them into her office, turned on the electric heater, took off her coat, and said to Ning Lan, “Tell him all the details about your dog. He is quite resourceful in this regard, and he might be able to help. Don’t think he is merely a pet shop owner. He has even helped the Captain of Criminal Police Unit of our city solve a case.”


  Zhang Zian pondered for a long time, but still, he couldn’t figure out if Sun Xiaomeng had praised him or derided him.

  Ning Lan suddenly looked up to him, and hope was rekindled in her heart. Since her dog, Tuan Tuan, was lost, her parents had been sighing and crying all day long. She was worried that her parents might get sick if they couldn’t get over the grief. She had been frantically searching around for a few days, but she had no clue at all.

  She cleared her throat and described the whole incident from the beginning.

  Ning Lan’s parents were retired lecturers from Binhai University. Ning Lan herself was a graduate student at Binhai University. Instead of living at the dormitory, she lived at her home. She took Tuan Tuan out for a walk every day in the morning and at dusk around the Family Housing Facility of Binhai University and nothing had ever happened before. Tuan Tuan was a hybrid Samoyed that was fond of people. Be it the elderly or the children, Tuan Tuan would never bite or bark at them. The elderly and the children in the Family Housing Facility liked the dog very much. Later, she stopped tying a leash to Tuan Tuan, because she felt sorry for Tuan Tuan being pulled by a leash.

  That day, she walked her dog as usual. Winter vacation had begun. She was walking around with Tuan Tuan while discussing on WeChat with her classmates about the holiday plans and arrangements. Then a stray cat bypassed them. Excited, Tuan Tuan chased after the stray cat. Ning Lan stressed that Tuan Tuan was purely doing it for fun and absolutely had no intention to hurt the stray cat.

  Zhang Zian remembered the process when he went to capture Richard at Binhai University. There were indeed many stray cats near the campus, and these stray cats were not afraid of people at all because the students and staff always fed them.

  Ning Lan said that Tuan Tuan had also pursued cats before, but it had never succeeded in catching them because cats were too sneaky and flexible. When Tuan Tuan lost track of its target, it would either run back to her or stay still and wait for her to find it. She was halfway through typing a message when Tuan Tuan began to chase that stray cat, so she called it absentmindedly and let it come back. She sent the message and saw that Tuan Tuan, who had already lost track of the stray cat, was waiting for her to come over to the corner of a building.

  Ning Lan walked towards the building slowly and looked down at her phone from time to time, waiting for the responses from her classmates.

  Ning Lan recalled that Tuan Tuan was supposed to be waiting for her around the corner, but after a moment, it seemed to be attracted by something so it then turned to look and then walked around to the other side of the corner.

  Ning Lan called it twice at that time, yet still she did not think something bad would happen. But she quickened her steps anyway. However, when she reached the corner, Tuan Tuan had disappeared without leaving behind a trace.

  She was a little bit nervous, but she thought Tuan Tuan might just have hidden behind the garbage bin or have entered the corridor of the building. After she had searched that area repeatedly and still couldn’t find Tuan Tuan, she became completely freaked out.

  She searched for Tuan Tuan for half an hour. The sky was getting darker. Ning Lan called home, hoping that Tuan Tuan had returned home itself. Her mother answered the phone and said that Tuan Tuan was not home yet.

  “Is Tuan Tuan not with you?” asked her mother with surprise.

  “I should have remained calm.” Ning Lan sighed while covering her face, “I should have told my parents that Tuan Tuan will stay at my friend’s home for a few days. At least they won’t be so sad if I tell them in this way.”


  Sun Xiaomeng patted her shoulder to comfort her. “Tuan Tuan may not necessarily have encountered something bad. It’s no use to regret now. Please tell us the rest of the incident.”


  Ning Lan wiped her eyes and continued with her nasal tone.

  After learning that Tuan Tuan was lost, her parents who had rarely scolded her reprimanded her severely and asked her why she had to play with her phone while walking the dog. She knew her behavior was unjustifiable, and her parents were angry at the time, so she didn’t dare to talk back. After scolding her, her parents put on clothes, took flashlights, and went out to help her find Tuan Tuan.

  It was very cold that day, and they kept searching for Tuan Tuan until eight o’clock in the evening. They had searched every corner around the Family Housing Facility. Their faces were pale, and their throats were hoarse. But still, they couldn’t find Tuan Tuan.

  It was not until then that the idea that Tuan Tuan may never be found occurred to them for the first time.

  Her parents finally agreed to return home for the time being after Ning Lan persuaded them repeatedly. Her parents were the retired teaching staff at Binhai University, so they had many acquaintances in the Family Housing Facility. They kept making phone calls to their acquaintances to ask them to help find Tuan Tuan. As for Ning Lan, she issued posts on Weibo, WeChat Moment, and printed out the notice about her lost dog, and began to post the notice everywhere the next morning.

  Her parents stayed at home to wait for phone calls. Occasionally, someone called and reported that they had seen a dog similar to Tuan Tuan. But after detailed description, her parents realized that it was not Tuan Tuan. Suffering from disappointment time and again, her mother who had already had a heart condition needed to rest in bed due to physical discomfort.

  Two days had passed and there was still no news of Tuan Tuan. The probability of finding it was getting lower and lower. Ning Lan had blamed herself for her negligence numerous times, and she had tried to tell her parents that if Tuan Tuan could not be found in the end, she would buy another dog for them. But they refused, all they wanted was Tuan Tuan. In fact, even if she bought another dog, she was still concerned about the safety of Tuan Tuan.

  “Have you watched the surveillance videos from the security guards?” Zhang Zian interjected.

  “I have, but the Family Housing Facility is in a relatively old district. Although some surveillance cameras have been installed recently, there are a lot of blind angles.” Ning Lan explained.

  She finished telling about the incident and started to sob.

  Sun Xiaomeng comforted Ning Lan, took out her cell phone and said, “Guys, look at these.”


  Zhang Zian and Ning Lan came over to look at her phone. On the screen, there was a text message sent last night from one of Sun Xiaomeng’s customers whose surname was Li. The content of the message was: Dr. Sun, my dog Furry is lost. From the surveillance footage, it seems that someone has stolen my Furry. If you encounter a dog that look like my Furry, be sure to contact me as soon as possible.

  And then there was another message sent by a customer whose surname was Qian. This message was sent around 6 o’clock this morning, which was less than two hours ago. The message read: Dr. Sun, my dog Kiddo is lost and I’m looking for it. I have to cancel my appointment this morning, sorry for any inconvenience.

  Zhang Zian gasped. It seemed like a gang of dog-trappers were stealing dogs in the neighboring areas…