Pet King

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

With a wave of tremble, the Wuling Hong Guang drove up to the sidewalk and stopped in front of the pet shop.

The door opened and Zhang Zian got off the car.

The chic ladies glanced at him while they passed by, then covered their noses in disgust and kept a distance from his car.

Despite the fact that he didn’t specialize in the seafood business, he drove to the beach each day, and often took rare marine creatures, such as fish, shrimp, and crabs, back. He could not wash the containers in the car everyday, so after some time, the car inevitably smelled like fish.

Wang Qian and Li Kun greeted him, and carried the new marine creatures into the aquarium. They sorted them and put them into different quarantine tanks so that they could adapt to the new environment.

Zhang Zian walked into the shop. The cleaning job was almost done, so he didn’t have much to do. He took the underwater loudspeaker battery upstairs to charge.

He met Old Time Tea on the stairs. He hinted Old Time Tea and asked gently, “How is it?”

Old Time Tea smiled gently. “Everything is under your expectations.”

The man and the cat looked at each other and smiled.

“Quack! What are you talking about in secret? What are you hiding from me?” Richard had sharply sensed the unusual atmosphere while it flew by.

“Right. We are discussing you behind your back––specifically plucking your feather and making you into a stew,” Zhang Zian threatened. “After you become stew, the world will be quiet.”

“Quack! My meat is old and dry––it wouldn’t taste good in a stew. I suggest you pick another bird!” Richard flew away quickly.

Old Time Tea walked downstairs slowly for the television, while Zhang Zian headed upstairs to wash his hands. They carried a fishy smell after they were soaked in the sea. He could still feel some fine, sea salt granules after his hands were dry.

As soon as he entered the bathroom, he saw Sihwa hide something in a hurry.

He pretended not to see it. After turning on the tap, he asked, “Why aren’t you broadcasting today?”

Sihwa was angry and humiliated after hearing his question. “Today… I’m not in the mood today! I don’t want to broadcast!”

“Okay. It’s nice to take a day off sometimes.” Zhang Zian wiped his hands, then left the bathroom.

“Wait a moment!” Sihwa shouted behind him.

“What is it?” Zhang Zian stopped.

“Emm… This… Emm… That…” she stuttered. Her pale face turned red because she needed his help. After stammering for a long time, she took out a book from under a towel. “I can’t read. What can I do?” she asked, troubled. “I know a few Korean words, but not any Chinese words…”

She could play with the phone, as the phone functions were simple––as long as she remembered the icons. She could make guesses on others, or ask Zhang Zian if it was too hard to guess. However, reading a book full of Chinese characters was mission impossible to her.

In fact, she had learned a few Chinese words since she had arrived in China. But she had learned them mechanically; she didn’t have any formal, systemic teaching.

“You must be laughing at me, aren’t you? You absolutely are!” She pointed at his face in fury before Zhang Zian had even said anything. She was almost embarrassed to tears.

“I’m not laughing at you. It’s normal to be illiterate. Nobody is born literate.” Zhang Zian shrugged. “Otherwise, they’d be a freak.”

After hearing his words, Sihwa’s mood calmed down a little.

“Well… Is there anything you can do to make me literate?” she asked, lowering her head.

“Yes. Lend me your phone for a moment.” Zhang Zian took her phone and downloaded a few early childhood education apps from the app store. They were all basic-level, but entertaining word learning apps nonetheless; he started with Pinyin, which had real people’s voices. The apps were already quite developed, and the functions were complete.

He compared a few quickly, then left the most user-friendly one and deleted the rest.

“Here you are. Follow this. You’ll learn them soon.” He gave the phone back to her.

“Wow! So childish!” She complained as soon as she saw the interface for young kids. “Are there any long-legged Oppas or big-boobed girls teaching the lessons?”

“Save it. I’d love to learn if these teachings existed!” Zhang Zian took up her book and flipped through it. The book from Old Time Tea was not suitable.

He returned the book to Pi, then found a few fairy tale books with pictures from his childhood book collection. Each character was marked with a Pinyin illustration.

“After you learn Pinyin, you can read these books. Just learn the words while reading the stories.” He piled the books on the bathroom closet. “Oh, right––books are not waterproof. Dry your hands before you read them. These are books from my childhood. Most of them can’t even be found these days.”

“Books from your childhood?” Sihwa seemed skeptical. “Could there be… Any dirty content in them?”

“These are all fairy tales, okay?” Zhang Zian said with frustration. “What kind of person do you think I am? These are the books I read at the age of five or six. What kind of dirty content can there be?”

“Fairy tale books? I’m not interested… too childish.” She shook her hands. “Let’s get something dirty!”

Did this fish get contaminated by that bird? What was in her head all day?

“You are wrong. In fact, fairy tales are not necessarily childish,” Zhang Zian said. “Even adults could interpret content differently sometimes.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” Sihwa grew slightly interested.

Zhang Zian thought about it, then made an example she could understand. “In fairy tales, you often read stories of Cinderella meeting the prince…”

“I know this! It happens a lot in Korean dramas, too!” Sihwa suddenly turned excited, as if she finally found someone with the same interests as her.

“Yes, right. That’s why people often call Korean dramas ‘fairy tales for adults.'” Zhang Zian suddenly changed his tone. “But have you ever given thought to the fact that, in the end of fairy tales and Korean dramas, the story stops where Cinderella marries the prince?”

She nodded in agreement.

“What about the story after?” Zhang Zian continued to ask.

“What story after? It’s over!” She didn’t understand.

“I mean, two people from completely different worlds… Are they really happy after marriage? The prince and Cinderella had completely different educations, family backgrounds, and growing experiences. After marrying the prince, Cinderella must have faced a truckload of royal relatives. Did they really respect and accept her? Did love really defeat all the challenges? Even if it did for a while, what happens after the passion dies out?”

Zhang Zian’s series of questions made Sihwa astonished.

“The boring, everyday life of the world after marriage is never mentioned in fairy tales, nor in Korean dramas. They always end with the line that Cinderella and the prince lived happily ever after. Although they didn’t mention this, you can try to imagine, then tell your audience about your thoughts in the live broadcast. Isn’t this great?”

Sihwa was drawn in gradually. In the past, she had never used her brain to watch dramas. She either laughed or cried as the story went along. She had never thought about the questions Zhang Zian had brought up.

“Would the audience like to hear this?” she asked.

“Of course,” Zhang Zian said in certainty. “You can also try to make up sequels to fairy tales and tell everyone. You have such lovely voice. I’m sure people will like it.”

“Really? I have lovely voice?” Her confidence was already shaken from one blow after another. She was no longer as arrogant as before.

“It’s absolutely lovely. I’m not joking. If you don’t believe me, ask the other elfins,” he said, suddenly feeling that his words might have been too mean in the past.

“Oh… okay. But don’t lie to me…” she mumbled gently as she picked up the fairy tale books.

“What are these?” She browsed through the covers one by one.

“They are all classic fairy tales written by great writers all over the world, such as fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Aesop’s Fables, One Thousand and One Nights, Zhang Yuanjie’s Fairy Tale Collection, etc. They’ll last quite a while,” Zhang Zian said, introducing them one by one.

“Oh.” Her eyes glided through the colorful and entertaining covers. She saw a prince with a sword on a white horse, a grey wolf wearing a pajama hat, a little girl with a match stick in a snowy night, a tin man with big belly, a little duckling staring at the sky, a fox with a broken tail, an ugly toad, a mouse driving a tank… She also saw a little mermaid sitting on a rock, overlooking the sea.

For some reason, the figure seemed so lonely.

Under an unrecognizable impulse, she opened up one of the books, even though she didn’t know a single character in it.

“I can’t read it…” she said in disappointment.

“It’s fine. You’ll understand it once you learn the characters.” Zhang Zian encouraged her. “Be patient! These fairy tales may seem childish, but in fact, you can find non-childish stuff in it. As long as you read them with your whole heart, you’ll surely discover something different… Then, you can share your thoughts boldly with your broadcast audience.”

“Okay. Let me try.” Sihwa looked at the fairy tale covers again. She was more eager to learn now than ever before.

She wanted to be able to read the fairy tales. She wanted to do what Zhang Zian described––to write sequels for the finished fairy tales. She was the only one who could do it, and who was qualified to do it.

She picked up her phone and entered the child education app, imitating the mouth and sound movements against the image on the screen.

“A… A… Bo… Bo… Ci… Ci… De… De…” she read off while peeping at Zhang Zian’s facial expressions; she wanted to confirm that he was not laughing at her. She then continued reading boldly.

“It’s fine. You can read loudly. Raise your head and straighten your back. Read every word boldly,” Zhang Zian encouraged her.

“A… A… Bo… Bo… Ci… Ci… De… De…” she read even louder, like a baby learning to talk.

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