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

  When Zhang Zian returned to Binhai City to take over the pet shop, he set two small goals. The first was to gain a foothold in the pet industry. The second was to save some money and renovate the shop. Fortunately, these two small goals had been achieved.

  Now he wanted to set a third small target, which was to introduce more pets to his shop, especially those rare pets that ordinary people barely could see, and to let his pet shop be known by more people.

  The Amazing Fate Pet Shop was no longer a barely known shop. Its fame had gradually spread, even had travelled far away across the sea, and reached Japan and the United States. Increasingly more people had been aware that there was such a distinctive pet shop in Binhai City.

  He could have chosen to maintain the status quo. He could make a living by continuously operating the shop in the current way.

  However, many customers attracted to his pet shop by its reputation went home disappointed, because the shop did not have the pets they wanted, making Zhang Zian feel that he had lost millions of dollars!

  Therefore, Zhang Zian drew lessons from these painful experiences and decided to expand his business.

  Of course, he had to take risks for the expansion. Even if he lost money in his business, Zhang Zian thought that it would not be a big deal for him to become an office worker at a company again.

  He could either rent a property or take over the ownership of a shop transferred by its previous owner. Each option had its own advantages and disadvantages. The only criterion here was that the new branch had to be closer to the main store. Since both the house prices and rental fees were at a low level around the Spring Festival, Zhang Zian did not want to delay anymore.

  The middle-aged and elderly women of the neighborhood committee wandered about the streets to collect protection fees (Wrong, they were collecting management fees) all day long…They should be better informed of the news about the real estate around this neighborhood. Besides, they usually gathered at the neighborhood committee to gossip, so they were always the first ones to learn about any signs of trouble in the streets. So, Zhang Zian inquired Grandma Gu about the situations.

  At first, Grandma Gu did not believe that Zhang Zian could expand his business. Having lived in this street for her whole life, she had previously witnessed how Zhang Zian’s parents operated the pet shop diligently day after day. In the end, after paying off the mortgage, they did not make much money. Now, Zhang Zian was planning to expand after taking over his parents’ shop for less than six months? Was he trying to run before he could walk?

  “Forget it, Zian. You went to college at another city for a few years, now that you have finally returned to your hometown, you should conduct your business step by step instead of pursuing your foolish ideas. Listen to me, just operate your small shop in a down-to-earth manner, save some money to buy a car. Within a few years, I will introduce you to a girl that you absolutely will be satisfied with, you will get married and live well with her, and then your wife will give birth to a pretty girl or a big fat boy. If you could also win the title of the May Day Model Worker of Dongcheng District, your life would have been worth it…” Grandma Gu admonished him sincerely.

  Grandma Gu babbled self-righteously without stop. Zhang Zian was dumbfounded and did not know what to say.

  From the perspective of the older generation, what Grandma Gu said was correct. And many young people were indeed in pursuit of a steady lifestyle with their spouses and children.

  But Zhang Zian did not think so. He expanded his business not entirely for making money. He had seen many rare and bizarre pets from such books like the Illustrated Handbooks of Rare Pets, and he often felt that it was not particularly enjoyable to simply look at them on books. If he could introduce these pets into his shop, even if they were not for sale but merely for display, they could bring great satisfaction to him.

  “There are three forms of unfilial conducts, of which the worst is to have no children. Zian, you are getting older. After the Spring Festival this year, you will be one year older, but you don’t even have a girlfriend. I am so concerned about you…”


  As the boss of the neighborhood committee, Grandma Gu was particularly talkative, and her voice was loud. Zhang Zian quickly prevented her from continuing the subject. He smiled, “Grandma Gu, I have something to attend to. Could you please tell me if there’s any shop for rental or transfer nearby?”


  “Alas! Kid, why are you so disobedient? My words are for your own good…” Grandma Gu shook her head sadly and sighed, “When it comes to transfer… Hey, it seems that the owner of the store next to your shop is transferring his property. Perhaps you can go ask him? But I still advise you that you should think twice before doing something…”


  Zhang Zian was startled. The store next to his? Zhang Zian also knew the owner of that store, but he had never heard that the owner was going to transfer his store.

  “Grandma Gu, are you sure? I live next door. How come I have never heard about Xie Tao transferring his store?” he asked skeptically.

  “Hey! You don’t believe me? Would I lie to you?” Grandma Gu said unhappily. “I went to your shop to collect the sanitation fees and management fees for this quarter a few days ago, and I went to Xie Tao’s shop on the way. But he refused the pay the fees, saying that he was planning to transfer his store, and that I should collect the fees from whoever would buy his shop…Don’t you think his words were infuriating? You see, Zian, the business owners of the whole street had paid the fees, except for Xie Tao. How could he be so stubborn? How am I going to persuade the others to pay the fees in the future?”


  “Got it. Thanks, Grandma Gu!”


  Before Grandma Gu finished her words, Zhang Zian dashed away.

  People around Grandma Gu’s age always liked to admonish the young people with the attitude of mentors. Apparently, the seniors believed that the salt they had eaten were worth more than the meals the young people had eaten, and that the young people were going to get burnt if they ignored the advice of the elderly. However, the elderly had no idea that they had fallen behind the times. The typical example was that the neighborhood committee only accepted cash as the payment method for sanitation fees.

  Grandma Gu’s words were indeed for Zhang Zian’s sake, but the thoughts of the older generation could only be safeguarding his heritage without being enterprising. In this ever-changing era, many things were like sailing a boat against the current; if the boat did not forge ahead, it would be driven back. If Grandma Gu were to decide, she would definitely not go to all that trouble to introduce the automatic dog washing machines like Zhang Zian would do. For Zhang Zian, it was a now or never opportunity to buy those machines.

  Since he was not related to Grandma Gu, Zhang Zian did not bother to listen to her nagging or explain to her about anything. He trotted away from the neighborhood committee.

  The south side of the Amazing Fate Pet Shop was next to a shoe store. The history of the shoe store was even longer than that of the Amazing Fate Pet Shop. It seemed that the shoe store had been operating since the 1980s. If it could continue operating for another decade, it would become an old-established shop that had been existing for half a century. Rounding the years, it could even be considered as a century-old shop. Zhang Zian had never imagined that the shoe store would be transferred.

  Lu Yiyun saw that Zhang Zian had returned from the neighborhood committee, but he didn’t enter the pet shop. Instead, he went to the store next door. Lu Yiyun blinked puzzledly, because Zhang Zian rarely visited his neighbors.

  Zhang Zian arrived at the entrance to the shoe store, which he was so familiar with. When he was a child, the new shoes of his whole family members were basically bought from this store on the Spring Festival and other festivals, so his family usually got along well with the owner of the shoe store. The shoes of that store were of mediocre quality. His parents bought shoes from this store mainly to help their neighbor’s business, and that it would be easier for them to replace their shoes if any quality issues occurred.

  The dark red sign was written with the golden characters—”Zhonghua Road Shoe Store”. The old shop front had not changed for at least over a decade. The layout of the shoe store was almost the same as that of the Amazing Fate Pet Shop, but the area of the shoe store was larger. The first floor was for conducting business, while the second floor was for the residential and warehouse purposes.

  Because the glass of the French door had not been rubbed for a long time, it looked very dirty. Like a natural protection color, the glass prevented Zhang Zian from seeing anything in the store from the outside. However, because the door was not locked, the owner should be inside the store.

  Zhang Zian carefully looked around the entrance and didn’t see any “transfer” sign. So, he had to push open the door to see what was happening.

  “Welcome, feel free to look around.”


  There was no customer in the shop. Only a man, who was the owner of the shop, turned his back to the door and squatted on the floor to organize some shoe boxes.

  The man called Xie Tao was a few years older than Zhang Zian. They had known each other from an early age, and Xie Tao could be seen as an elder brother to Zhang Zian.

  There were many types of shoes in the store’s shelves, ranging from the slippers that were worth a few Yuan to the shoes from the famous domestic brands that were worth hundreds of Yuan. But the shoes were a bit old-fashioned, and most of them were the popular styles of last year or even two years ago.

  “Brother, it’s me.”


  Xie Tao turned his head, “Hey! Aren’t you Zian? Come in quickly. What’s the matter?”


  Zhang Zian smiled and didn’t know how to speak. It would be easier if the seller was a stranger, but how could Zhang Zian ask an acquaintance directly whether he was selling his store?

  “Tao, you have rarely opened your door for business recently, have you?” Zhang Zian found an excuse to begin the small talk.

  Since he returned to Binhai City to take over his parents’ pet shop, the pet shop would operate as usual regardless of the weather conditions and whether there were customers in the shop. On the contrary, the shoe store next to his pet shop was closed frequently.

  “The business has not been good, and I cannot make money from operating my store. Nowadays, everyone is shopping shoes online.” Xie Tao patted the dust on his hands, stood up, kicked a shoe box aside, and smiled helplessly. “And my mind is not here. By the way, I got married a while ago.”


  “Tao, how could you not tell me about such a big event? Did you regard me as an outsider? I would love to attend your wedding banquet if I received the news.” Zhang Zian said with regret.

  Xie Tao scratched his head and said hesitantly, “My wedding banquet was held on a day after you returned to the city. I wanted to invite you, but… After discussion, we decided not to disturb you.”


  Zhang Zian froze for a moment before he realized what Xie Tao meant. The day when Xie Tao had his wedding was just the time during which Zhang Zian was preparing the funerals for his parents, so Zhang Zian was not invited. Xie Tao had expected that Zhang Zian certainly did not have the mood to attend his wedding. Even if Xie Tao invited him, Zhang Zian would not attend. So, Xie Tao did not inform Zhang Zian and just left him alone.

  Zhang Zian nodded to indicate that he had understood Xie Tao’s intention. “At least let me offer you a present to celebrate your wedding. Where is your wife from?”


  “You don’t need to do that.” Xie Tao shook his head. “She comes from another city and we got married because she had been pregnant back then. This is very popular nowadays, right? Having a shotgun marriage? After the wedding banquet, we went on our honeymoon trip. Later, our child was born, and my wife spent a month at her mother’s house after the childbirth for physical recuperation. I felt so tired commuting between two cities. And since I couldn’t make much money from the shoe store, I simply rested for a while. When I reopened the store, I found that the business in the store was even worse because a lot of regular customers had disappeared.”


  Zhang Zian empathized with Xie Tao. In the past, the business of the pet shop had been tepid under the management of his parents, but at least they could maintain the operation normally. Afterwards, his parents ran into accidents and the shop was closed. However, when the pet shop was reopened, the regular customers had gone…though there were few regular customers to the pet shop, the influence caused by shutting down the business was tangible.

  At the same time, Zhang Zian also knew why this shoe store was always closed. As it turned out, Xie Tao’s spouse was from another city and they had gone through a series of important events of their life such as te honeymoon and childbirth. It seemed that the rumor he heard from Grandma Gu about the transfer of the shoe store may not be groundless.