Pet King

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

Zhang Zian saw the cracks on the glass and could not respond for a moment. In his head, he thought, Why did this glass, that was originally okay, suddenly start to crack? Could it be that just now, unknowingly, his tiger body shook and his overbearing atmosphere leaked out?

Pa… Pa…

The cracks started to spread at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye––in front of the eyes of the two cats and the one human. Originally, it only existed in a corner, but it started to act like a small dragon. It spread and extended, and the piece of glass very quickly became full of the glittering and translucent cracks. The strange part, however, was that the glass did not break––at least not for now.

“Ah? What’s going on? What’s with the cats in your shop?” the customers below asked, their voices high.

“This… We are not sure, either…” Wang Qian and Lu Yiyun answered, dazed.

Zhang Zian took large steps, quickly rushing down the stairs. What he saw was that the shop’s cats and dogs were in a constant state of anxiety, as if a great calamity was at hand. Some kittens were so scared that they were curled up in a corner shivering, and there were also kittens leaning against the automatic glass doors, as if they wanted to run outside the shop. Puppies in the display cabinets were desperately pawing at the glass, and there were many different barks rising one after another.

The customers, upon seeing the situation, were all shocked and stunned like wooden chickens.

It was unknown who said it, but someone said, “F*ck! There’s not going to be an earthquake, right?”

Animals were more sensitive than humans, especially some animals that could hear the high-frequency sound waves from the faults in seismic zones deep in the earth’s crust. The speed of sound waves traveling in the earth’s crust was extremely fast, so the animals would often have out of the ordinary behaviors right before an earthquake occurred––chickens would fly all over the place, dogs would be barking, rats would be moving throughout the house, etc.

In history, there had been more than one such occurrence. When humans saw that the animals were all behaving weirdly, they were made aware that it could be that an earthquake was coming. It allowed them to quickly escape to a safe area, and it hence prevented a huge loss of lives.

China was a country where earthquakes happened quite often, and a lot of people present, whether female or male, old or young, had heard of similar rumors before. Upon hearing those words, everyone in the shop acted like they had instantly woken up from a dream. Their expressions changed greatly, and they no longer cared about buying pets or anything else. They threw down everything in their hands and ran out of the shop like they were crazy; they were very scared that if they were too slow, they would be buried under rubble when the house collapsed.

In a short while, the whole shop was practically empty.

Wang Qian and Lu Yiyun were not sure what to do with their hands and legs; they were standing dumbly in their original spots, not sure as to whether they should follow the customers and run outside.

The customers had all run onto the open air streets, but they still did not dare to relax. They all used their phones to call people, wanting to tell their family and friends to quickly evacuate their houses. There were still a few old customers that were gesturing wildly to Wang Qian, Lu Yiyun, and Zhang Zian, telling them to come out quickly.

Zhang Zian thought, F*ck, something big is going to happen!

He quickly ran out of the shop. “Don’t panic everyone! Everyone calm down a bit! Don’t panic! And don’t spread rumors. If the rumors are transmitted 500 times, you might go to jail!” he shouted loudly.

Sadly, not many people listened to him, and the phone calls they needed to make, they still made.

“Store manager! Quickly get your staff to come out! It’s already at this juncture. Don’t value your money over lives!”

“What rumors? I only trust my own eyes!”

“Exactly! Isn’t it said that when animals act strangely, they’re signaling that an earthquake is going to happen? See for yourself how the animals in your shop are acting! I can’t talk anymore. I need to continue calling people… Aish, my dad refuses to pick up; he’s probably playing cards again. This is really worrying me!”

“No no! It’s that the cats and the dogs in the shop have eaten something bad and gotten sick…” Zhang Zian was just doing his best to convince people when he saw Li Kun run out of the aquarium like he was flying.

“Mas… Master! The fish in the shop… The fish in the shop keep trying to jump outside! Quickly come and take a look! Is it an electric leakage or something else?” Li Kun incoherently said, his face panicked.

Zhang Zian did not bother saying any more and instantly rushed into the aquarium with big strides.

In the dark, indoor aquarium, there were already many customers looking, shocked, at the sizzling array of fish tanks. They could see that all the different kinds of fish and prawns in the fish tank were jumping upwards like crazy, flopping and flopping like they were dumplings on a skillet. If it was not for the jump proof netting stopping them, it was possible that all the fish would jump out of the tank and become dried fish.

On seeing the situation, Li Kun thought one of the components had an electric leakage. However, that did not make sense, because all the equipment in the fish tanks were functioning at safe voltages. Even if there was an electric leakage, it would not be that exaggerated!

Even in coral tanks with no fish, there were ripples on the water’s surface for no apparent reason. It was as if the sea water in the fish tanks was vibrating.

Zhang Zian’s heart tightened; he was very scared that the expensive fish tanks would become full of cracks like the glass window. The fish tank glass itself was thicker, however, and they were built to hold over hundred kilograms of seawater. They were much stronger than the glass of the window, and there was temporarily no danger of cracking… At least for the time being.

Since Jiang Feifei had started working at the aquarium, she had learned many things, but she had never even heard about such a weird situation before.

Some customers heard the noise from outside, and said doubtfully, “Why is it so noisy outside? Did a car knock someone down?”

“Go, go! Let’s go and see what’s going on outside.”

Jiang Feifei, upon seeing Zhang Zian, opened her mouth and wanted to ask a question, but she was cut off by a wave of his hand. He had no time now to answer 10,000 “Why’s?”

“Aiyo! This… these bats, what’s going on with them? Why did they run out in the day time?”

“F*ck! Now there’s no mistake… It’s an earthquake. An earthquake is definitely coming!”

There was an even louder sound outside.

Zhang Zian rushed out of the aquarium and returned back to the street. He followed people’s gazes and raised his head to look towards where everyone else was looking.

Suddenly, a group of bats fluttered in indiscriminate directions and randomly flew and hit objects like headless flies, knocking themselves unconscious on street lamp poles and billboards. They fell to the ground one by one, unconscious.

Zhang Zian suddenly thought about it: bats inhibited the green space behind the store. Thanks to them, there were a lot of trees and grass in the green space. Recently, cats had been giving out feces and urinating a lot, but there were few mosquitoes and flies, and thus he was very fond of bats.

However, what made people confused was that bats were nocturnal animals that came out at night. Why did they fly out in the daytime? It was as if they had lost their ability to recognize direction…

Bats used ultrasounds to find their way and avoid obstacles. Their hearing range was as high as 200,000 Hertz, ten times higher than that of a human. So, had they been disturbed by ultrasounds?

The customers gathered on the street. Upon seeing the situation, no one had any more doubts at all. If it was only the cats and dogs that were displaying abnormal behavior then it was all right, but even the bats had abnormal behavior. If it was not an earthquake, then what other reasonable explanation was there?

Zhang Zian was scared that the situation would be blown out of proportions. He raised his volume and shouted, “Everyone, calm down! Things are not like what you are imagining! You must all know that animals could be acting strangely for a multitude of reasons. This might not be an earthquake!”

“What reasons are you talking about?” someone asked loudly.

Everyone else did not trust what he said. Instead, they doubted his words.

Fortunately, he was not the relevant department. Otherwise, the more he tried to dispel the rumors, the more people would believe that it was true…

Zhang Zian knew that he needed to immediately stop the strange phenomenon. Otherwise, there would be hell to pay!

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