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

  Zhang Zian wanted to get more sleep, but his circadian clock woke him up at the exact hour, as usual.

  He had all sorts of weird dreams that night, as if he hadn’t slept at all, and woke up in the a blink of eye.

  His head was aching, and he really wanted to sleep in a little bit longer. But he couldn’t today, because he had so many things to do. At the very least, he needed to open up the shutter door before Lu Yiyun arrived to work. Otherwise, she would freeze outside waiting.

  As he was getting dressed, he looked over at the desk. To his surprise, he didn’t see Pi getting up early to type. Usually, it woke up before everybody else did. It was good for it to get up late every once in a while and catch up on some sleep.

  He finished getting dressed, left the bedroom, and went to the storage room.

  Xiao La was laying in there dejectedly. It stood up from the floor immediately after seeing him coming in, as if it wanted to bark, but it ended up just licking its lips. The lesson it learned these days made it realize that as soon as it barked, it would be ignored and kept in solitary.

  Zhang Zian took Xiao La downstairs, turned on the light, and let it roam around. He started working while observing its actions.

  Xiao La stared at the kittens who had just woken up. Then, it walked a few steps away from Zhang Zian, yawned, and laid down in an open spot.

  Soon, Lu Yiyun pushed the door open, letting in some cold air.

  Xiao La was familiar with this girl, and immediately ran happily towards her. It stood up, grabbed at her long winter jacket with its two front paws, and stuck out its tongue as a warm greeting. It reacted the same way as it did each time Liu Sanlang had visitors over at his house.

  After entering the warm and humid room from the cold outside, Lu Yiyun’s glasses became foggy and she couldn’t see anything. Something suddenly jumped towards her, making her fall back and hit the door. She screamed out of fear and raised up her arms. Her heart was almost beating out of her chest! Jasmine bumped around in her backpack, meowing unhappily.

  Xiao La thought that she was playing by kissing, hugging, and raising high, the way that Shi Shi used to play with it. It became even more excited. If it were taller, it would certainly be licking her face.

  “Xiao La, come back!” Zhang Zian yelled.

  It turned its head and looked at him, but didn’t move. It was still leaning on Lu Yiyun’s winter jacket.

  As the fog on her glasses went away, she finally saw that it was only Xiao La in front of her, and her hearbeat returned back to normal.

  Besides from barking and stealing human food from under the table, untrained dogs also liked jumping on people. It wasn’t a big deal with small dogs. But when fully grown medium or large dogs jumped, it could be problematic and dangerous.

  Xiao La wasn’t fully grown yet, but already weighted 20 kilos. With a thrust from running, it was enough to get a small child or an elderly person onto the floor. If there wasn’t a glass door behind her, Lu Yiyun could have fallen on the ground in surprise.

  It would have been bad if it jumped on an elderly person. They had brittle bones, and it would have cost Zhang Zian a fortune to compensate their fall.

  Lu Yiyin was about to pat Xiao La’s head and ask it to play somewhere else. Zhang Zian stopped her in time and yelled, “Ignore it!”


  “Huh?”


  Zhang Zian’s voice was loud. Her hands stopped where they were in the air.

  “Ignore it, and do whatever you were planning to do, as if you never saw it.” Zhang Zian eased his tone. “If you pat its head, you’re encouraging it to jump on people. It would be annoying if it developed bad habits.”


  “Oh.” Lu Yiyun understood now. She was used to indulging her own pet Jasmine, but she didn’t realize that dogs were different from cats.

  She acted as if she didn’t notice. She turned her body to get away from Xiao La’s front paws, sat in the chair behind the cashier’s desk, and took out Jasmine from her backpack.

  Xiao La eagerly followed her, but Lu Yiyun just kept cleaning the desk and monitor, as if she didn’t notice it at all.

  It circled around her, but didn’t get any attention from her. It whimpered in disappointment, then sadly laid down in its previous spot.

  After a while, Wang Qian and Li Kun arrived. After finishing the cleaning duties for Zhang Zian, they took the puppies to the green field to run freely, as was the routine. Zhang Zian asked them to take Zhan Tian and Xiao La with them. He was the one who usually did this, but today he had a full schedule and couldn’t spare the time.

  As they spoke, two vans stopped in front of the shop. Renovation workers in hard hats and blue uniforms started to come out of the vehicles.

  “Are you Mr. Zhang?” asked the leading worker.

  Zhang Zian greeted them outside. “Yes, I’m Zhang, Mr. Guo’s friend. Did he refer you here? Come this way, please.”


  The workers were referred by Guo Dong Yue, who wanted to come there in person, but Zhang Zian had politely turned him down. He didn’t intend to turn the shoe store into a really fancy place, and it only needed basic renovation. Inviting Guo Dong Yue over would be overkill. His initial plan was to do some basic maintenance, reinforcement, soundproofing, and insulation. The second floor could be separated into a breeding and delivery room. As for the first floor, he didn’t have a plan for it yet. He would leave it empty for now.

  Zhang Zian led them into the shoe store, explained his ideas in detail, and listened to their professional advice. They reached an agreement as the conversation progressed.

  While they were speaking, he casually look around and saw a small figure running past the store with a huge bookbag.

  Isn’t that Little Celery? Why is she running that quickly?

  Little Celery should have been on her winter holiday by now. However, she was planning an experiment about raising hamsters during the break with Wang Yaning and some other students. An experiment report would need to be submitted to her school before the end of the holiday, so that the school could decide accordingly which animals to keep in the new semester.

  She hurried off towards school, and didn’t notice Zhang Zian standing in the shoe store. He was busy talking to the renovation workers, and didn’t have time to stop and greet her.

  Did she have to meet her teacher, or she was having issues with the hamsters?

  He could only guess.

  When Zhang Zian gave Little Celery the hamsters, he intentionally didn’t instruct her how to take care of them. It was good practice for kids to let them discover and take care of issues on their own. It seemed like she had already encountered problems and he hoped that she could handle it well.

  After he finished discussing with the workers, Little Celery was already out of sight.

  Zhang Zian didn’t have anymore time to think about her. He grabbed a taxi, went straight to the bank for a loan, and then headed to the city’s Real Estate Bureau. He’d made an appointment with Xie Tao and wanted to complete the transfer soon, so that he would have one less thing to worry about. Xie Tao wanted to get the money faster as well, and buy a new house during the Spring Festival, while the housing market was low.