Pet King

Zhang Zian hadn’t expected him to be staring at a caterpillar.

The average person was afraid of caterpillars, weren’t they? At least, most girls were probably like this. Even guys may not want to look at it for too long. After all, it was somewhat disgusting.

“You are watching caterpillars?” he asked.

The fat boy nodded and didn’t say anything, as if he was unwilling to talk to Zhang Zian.

“You are interested in this fat bug?” Zhang Zian deliberately changed the question.

The fat boy shot him a stern look. “Don’t say that! Don’t call a fatty ‘fat’ in front of it!”

“Well then, are you interested in this not-thin caterpillar?”

“You are the one who is interested in caterpillars! So disgusting! Who would be interested?” The fat boy was annoyed at him. “Our silly teacher gave us observation homework for us to monitor the process of caterpillars becoming moths. We then have to write an observation report. Do you really think I would be here in my free time?”

Compared to observing the cycle of the moon or counting hundreds of millions of rice grains, this was rather normal. After all, the process of caterpillars turning into moths had several stages—eggs, larvae, pupa, and finally adults. The morphological differences were very marked between stages, and the process of change was amazing. Not only could the exercise improve children’s observation skills, it could also increase their interest in the world around them.

This was obviously a long-term observation and could not be completed in a short time. The length of time would be different according to the different types of larvae, but it would take at least a month. That was, of course, unless the parents interfered.

It was not a good thing for parents to do homework for their children, especially this kind of homework that was meaningful for quality education. However, those who understood the meaning of the work would not do so. Besides, the fat boy’s father fully supported the work and insisted that he complete the assignment all by himself.

This caterpillar here was considered to be good-looking in the caterpillar family. First of all, it was not very fat, and it could only be regarded as being a reasonable caterpillar size. Secondly, it was very green, ancient green. The color was rather translucent, much like a piece of jade. Finally, and most importantly, it had no disgusting long hair. The hairs were, at most, very short or invisible.

A pair of sesame-sized black eyes grew on the sides of its head. The head was large, while its body was slim and smaller. Its size was rather animated and cute.

“Hmph! My horrible dad took my mobile phone away. If he hadn’t, I could take some photos,” the fat boy said as he took out a pen and paper. He tried to write down a description of the caterpillar he was looking at

However, the boy’s language was rather poor. After a long time, he only wrote a few words: “This is a green caterpillar.”

He felt embarrassed about it and tried to cover it with his hands, for fear that Zhang Zian would laugh at him.

These few words were inadequate as a work of observation. His teacher would probably read to the class what he’d written, and the whole class would laugh at it. He couldn’t afford to lose face in such a situation.

Yet this was all that he could think of writing. He couldn’t think of anything else to add. He could only blame himself for choosing to game rather than pay attention in language class.

He held firmly to his work and looked sternly back at Zhang Zian. “Why don’t you leave? Did your lousy shop ran out of business to do?”

Zhang Zian ignored the boy and did not look at him. Instead, he said seriously, “This caterpillar is a good-looking caterpillar in the caterpillar family. First of all, it is not very fat…”

He spoke about his observations calmly.

Initially, the fat boy could not react to what he said. He thought Zhang Zian was crazy. Why had he started talking to himself? After a while, he suddenly thought, “Isn’t this suitable as an observation record? It’s just perfect!” Anyway, he couldn’t think of these descriptions by himself anyway.

“Wait a minute! Wait a little longer! I haven’t written it down!” He rushed to write it all down. Unfortunately, he didn’t pay attention to the beginning, and he could only start halfway through whatever Zhang Zian had said.

He was already writing at his fastest speed, but even this was not enough to keep up with Zhang Zian’s normal speaking speed. He also could not write a few words and had to replace them with pinyin. He had written even more words incorrectly.

“What is ancient green? Is that black?”

“How do you write ‘jade’ in Chinese?”

As he wrote, he also swore. He did not seem to be apologetic about his behavior and attitude. He neither apologized nor thanked Zhang Zian, though Zhang Zian was seemingly helping him.

Zhang Zian did not flinch. He would answer all questions asked. He explained things to the fat boy and replied to his queries about green or black or why the Chinese word for jade was written as it was. He also corrected the words that the boy wrote incorrectly.

After Zhang Zian stopped talking, the fat boy looked up and asked, “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Zhang Zian replied. After all, that was all he knew. Nevertheless, it was much more than what the fat boy could come up with.

“Oh, it’s too little. Come up with more.” The fat boy was still not satisfied. Scratching his head, he suddenly remembered something and asked, “Can I eat this worm?”

Zhang Zian didn’t reply at first.

“No?” The fat boy saw that he was hesitating and did not answer.

“Probably…yes,” Zhang Zian replied reluctantly.

“What does it taste like?” he asked.

Zhang Zian gave a thumbs up. “Chicken. Very crispy!”

The fat boy was suspicious. He licked his lips. How could this soft thing be crispy?

He added another sentence at the end of his work: “This caterpillar can be eaten and taste like chicken.”

He finally finished it. He counted the number of words he wrote and said triumphantly, “About one hundred eighty words. It’s okay, I guess! If I write a bit more, maybe I can get a high score and make my dad get me a new phone!”

The more he thought, the happier he got. He smiled wide and showed his teeth. It was as if he saw his teacher reading his work and commending it, thereby allowing him to attract the hatred of fellow male students and the admiration of beautiful female students.

“You are quite good.” The fat boy didn’t know how to thank him. Instead, he glared at Zhang Zian. “Is there no business at your store, so you came over to watch the bugs here?”

Zhang Zian shrugged and said nothing.

“Right. Since you are so good, what kind of moth will this caterpillar morph into?” he asked, pointing to the caterpillar.

“The Swallowtail Butterfly,” Zhang Zian replied calmly.

The fat boy was stunned. He thought he’d heard wrongly. “What?”

“Swallowtail Butterfly.” Zhang Zian repeated the name.

The fat boy’s eyes widened. “But the teacher makes us record stuff about moths.”

Zhang Zian nodded. “I know. I did this on purpose.”

Revenge successful! It felt so good!