Pet King

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

After realizing that the middle-aged woman was, indeed, about to call the police, the girl who owned the stand was too frightened to stand.

“I’m sorry! Please don’t call the police!” she begged bitterly. “I’m still attending university. If the police arrest me, I’ll be expelled from the university…”

The bystanders were not being unreasonable. They rebuked her out of righteous anger. As they saw what was happening to the vendor girl, however, they felt sympathy towards her. They knew that it would be serious if she was arrested and they started to persuade the middle-aged woman. “Lady, look, she’s feeling sorry. Just forgive her this time.”

“That’s right! She’s too young to know it all. Everybody makes mistakes. Just let her go this time.”

“She has learned her lesson and will surely not do it next time.”

The vendor girl grabbed her purse with shaky hands and took out a few bills out of it. “This is the money that your child bought the snail with. I’ll refund you the full amount. Could you please not call the police?”

The middle-aged woman didn’t take the money. She waved her phone and insisted on calling the police.

“Money? I’m not short of a few dozen dollars! Can I buy my son’s life with a few dozen dollars? If I let her go this time, she might harm someone else next time! Can you buy a life with money?” she yelled furiously.

The bystanders didn’t know what to do anymore. They sighed and stopped talking.

As a matter of fact, the vendor girl was selling dangerous creatures and almost killed a child. It was fine to let her learn a lesson. The middle-aged woman had the right to call the police.

Except that, as soon as she called the police, the vendor girl’s life would have been ruined.

The other vendors watched from a distance, and none of them planned to come over to intervene.

The child of the middle-aged woman was clueless. He glanced around at the adults around him, unsure of what was going on exactly.

The vendor girl could not hold back her tears anymore. She covered her face and burst into tears.

Snowy was furious in the beginning, as she thought that the vendor girl was an unethical peddler ripping off her customers. However, after hearing the story for a while alongside Zhang Zian, she fell into a dilemma––the vendor girl did do something wrong, but was the punishment too heavy? She had apologized with sincerity, after all.

The fans’ opinions in the broadcast were divided. One group thought they should let her go as long as she learned from her mistake. The middle-aged woman was making too big a fuss out about it. The other group thought that it was not a minor mistake. If they were to walk in the middle-aged woman’s shoes, how could she easily let go of the person who almost killed her son?

After seeing that the middle-aged woman had already entered the police number and was ready to dial, she quickly walked over and said, “Excuse me for the interruption! May I ask what’s going on here?”

The middle-aged woman saw that Snowy was around the same age as the vendor girl. She thought that she might be her classmate or friend that had just arrived to help her out. Then her face turned.

However, after a more careful look, she realized that Snowy dressed and talked completely differently from the vendor girl. She didn’t seem to be protecting the vendor girl, just judging from the way she talked. Moreover, Snowy’s smile had always been super friendly. The woman eased up her tone and said, “What’s going on? Go ask her and see if she’s not too embarrassed to tell you.”

Her tone was still not friendly, but she was trying to control herself.

Snowy turned to the vendor girl, handed over some tissues, and asked gently, “Please don’t cry. Wipe your tears first.”

The vendor girl blinked her tearful eyes and looked at Snowy and Zhang Zian. She seemed to have heard Zhang Zian talking about a beach harvest. He seemed to be a business insider. Besides, Snowy’s action to prevent the middle-aged woman from calling the police was reassuring.

She finally stopped sobbing and took the tissue to wipe her tears and nose. Her eyes were already red.

After a few deep breaths, she whimpered and explained to them what had happened.

Well, her last name was Jiang. Her name was Jiang Feifei. She came from a different city and was in Binhai to attend university. Her family was poor, so she had been working part-time tutoring people when she didn’t have class.

Jiang Feifei came from inland and had never seen the ocean before coming to Binhai City. From the moment she had arrived, she’d been in love with the sea. She often visited the beach about once a week when she had no class or tutoring to do.

On a random occasion, she walked around the aquarium market while passing by with classmates. She found out that some people were selling sea creatures outside the market building, such as starfish, sea urchins, crabs, octopuses, small fish, etc. The business seemed good.

She had seen such creatures at the beach, and an idea came to her mind––she had nothing to do at the beach, anyway, so why not pick up some creatures and sell them at the aquarium market for some extra money?

The idea grew bigger ever since it had popped into her mind. She tried a few times, and the creatures she harvested were quite popular. The rarer the creatures, the more popular they were.

She had no idea about the market, and she had made up the prices on impulse. The creatures were harvested without cost, and she didn’t need to pay rent or utility fees for her stand outside the market building. Whatever money she made was pure profit. Why not make some money while having some fun?

Sometimes she had to run for class, but the creatures were not sold out yet. She ended up selling them for very low prices, almost as gifts.

While doing so, she had widened her horizon and learned a lot about sea creatures. She had a general idea about what creatures were popular and what were not.

Even so, she was still able to find one or two novel creatures that she had never seen before each time she visited the beach.

Jiang Feifei’s harvesting and selling had been going well and nothing had gone wrong. She never realized that some of the creatures she harvested might be dangerous until today.

It was still winter vacation, and school had not yet started. She didn’t have any tutoring lessons today. In the morning, while her roommates were still sleeping, she had already packed up her backpack and headed to the beach. She packed some plastic containers and a waterproof canvas in her backpack in advance.

She stayed at the beach from morning until noon and had harvested a lot of creatures. She came to her aquarium market stand as usual.

Business was slow, but she was not in a hurry. She took out her textbooks and sat on the waterproof canvas. She responded to the customers’ questions when there were any and read her book when no customers were around.

Time passed by slowly. While she was reading, a little boy came to her stand and fixed his eyes on the sea creatures in the plastic containers.

As the Spring Festival had just finished, kids still had some red packet money in their hands. They were generous when it came to spending money, unlike the adults who counted every cent. They were a major group of customers.

The boy asked her a few questions. “What’s this fish? What’s that crab?”

She knew the creatures, but not their official names. Some of them were new to her, and she had to tell him that she didn’t know, either.

The boy picked a few small fish, shrimp, and a beautiful sea snail. He paid her generously, without any bargaining.

The sea snail was the problem. The boy returned home and met an adult relative, who was frightened after seeing the snail in his hand. He told his mother that it was an extremely venomous cone snail!

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