Pet King

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

Zhang Zian had observed before that Fina had an incomparable control over domestic cats––but only domestic cats. The control it had over stray cats was weaker, and its control of wild cats in the cities or villages, as well as those that were second or third generation stray cats, was even weaker. When those cats saw it, they did not submit to it, but ran away in fear.

A lot of cats were originally domestic cats and were very close to people, but later on were abandoned by their owners or ran out of their homes by themselves and became stray cats. The second generation stray cats that were born when they mated with other stray cats were not as close to people, and by the third or even the fourth generation, they were practically the same as wild cats.

Because of that, hoping that Fina could order the stray cats and make them stop their actions of sending news secretly was too difficult. Furthermore, the reason Fina cared about the safety of the stray cats was because they were all part of the huge family of cat species. It could not ignore them, but the way it treated house cats and stray cats was slightly different.

If one needed to find a reason, it was probably because before it was summoned to the current time period, it had lived in the time of slavery in the Ancient Egyptian Empire. People were separated into many levels; the slaves had no human rights, much less cats. That way of doing things was very normal in its eyes, so its long-formulated ideas could not be changed in a moment and a half.

Zhang Zian rested for a short while. Richard had flown over, and Old Time Tea and Famous reported to him and had already started to branch out. He got up and also started to move.

The light that signaled the elfin’s position on his phone screen did not move. The Warding Off Evil Cat was resting.

But, deep inside his heart, he felt that something was wrong… The Warding Off Evil Cat had been very smart up to that point; it was so sly that it seemed like a fox. Why was it being careless now?

No matter what, he still needed to go and take a look to see what kind of sly idea it had now.

He kept observing the digital map in the game and slowly got closer to the middle area with the flashing light. He entered a very normal street.

The street was one that could be seen anywhere in the old town in the capital city. It was not wide but not narrow, not long but not short, not new and not old… There were no luxurious courtyards around, and there were even a few shops. On both sides of the street were offices of some government units stationed in Beijing, old bungalows, elementary schools, and kindergartens. The tallest building was no more than three or four floors.

Cars that were stopped at the side of the road took up a part of the wideness of the road, and on the pedestrian walkway were a few bicycles. The tall pagoda trees and aspen trees held up dense leaves to block the noon sunshine, and nearby residents or passersby hurriedly walked along.

No matter how he looked at it, it was a daily scene that could not be any more normal.

Richard flapped its wings and landed on his shoulders. It shrugged its shoulders in regret, indicating it did not see any trace of the Warding Off Evil Cat.

The circle of light did not move, which indicated that the Warding Off Evil Cat was hidden somewhere nearby.

Old Time Tea and Famous were hidden on the left and right of the street exit. Zhang Zian told them that if there was a need to, they could leave their invisible state in a hidden place when the pedestrians were not paying attention in order to stop the target.

Currently, he was not worried that the Warding Off Evil Cat would escape; he was only worried that it would stay still and not move in order to test their patience.

There were too many places that could hide cats on the street, but as long as the Warding Off Evil Cat did not escape, it would definitely be found––that was unless it hid on some resident’s balcony… If it did that, then there would be no way of finding it.

He slowly strolled around, concentrating on observing his surroundings. He did not even let a trash can go… If a person who did not know the situation saw him, there would be an 80 percent chance they thought he had lost a wallet nearby.

There were many beautiful, fashionable women with exquisite makeup walking in the streets of the capital. They were already dressed for the cool weather. It would be a good time for all of them to feast their eyes, but unfortunately, Zhang Zian had no time to go and look at them…

However, happiness fell from the sky and caught him off guard.

He was concentrating on searching for any trace of the Warding Off Evil Cat because the elfin seemed to be able to be seen directly without a phone, which reduced his troubles by a lot. At that moment, he was suddenly stopped by a pair of beautiful legs.

“Big brother.” A delicate voice made even his bones weak.

Raising his head to take a look, in front of him stood a young woman around 20 years old, wearing a checkered shirt and tight, ripped jeans. She wore a sun hat and was very ordinary looking, but had a very bright smile.

Zhang Zian thought that it was a girl who was taking the initiative to chat him up and felt that his charm had probably increased unconsciously. He was very happy. He planned to give her his WeChat account, but when he turned to take a look, he saw a young man, also around 20 years old, standing beside her.

The young man’s looks were also ordinary and his clothes were also around the same as the young woman. He nervously checked out their surroundings.

What made Zhang Zian feel the most shocked was that in the young girl’s arms was a baby who was roughly not even one year old yet.

Who are these two people? What kind of relationship do they have? Are they boyfriend and girlfriend? They’re probably not husband and wife because they are too young and are probably not of legal age yet…

Why did they want to stop me? Is the baby this girl’s child? Did she have a child so young? Or could it be that it is her relative’s child?

Or perhaps her younger brother or sister? After all, these days, there are some old couples that choose to have a second baby. The first child and the second can have more than ten years of age difference between them… even twenty years is possible.

A series of questions flashed in Zhang Zian’s head, but he did not ask them. Instead, he only asked the question that was the most normal under the current situation: “Is there a problem?”

“This, big brother…” the young woman smiled and said in embarrassment, “My husband and I brought our child to the capital to play, but we had our wallet stolen and now we can’t get home. Could you lend us some money to eat?”

Zhang Zian’s heart fell.

To be honest, their situation was very common in every city in China, especially in the vicinity of the railway station. It could not be excluded that some people had real temporary difficulties and needed help urgently, but it was undeniable that most of them were swindlers who used people’s kindness to cheat others out of their money.

When those swindlers asked for money, they would normally choose people who looked very honest and young, like university couples. The would make use of the weakness of the university students because they were not thick-skinned. They would continue to bother them, pretending to be pitiful to ask for money.

A lot of people upon meeting that kind of situation would be on high alert, knowing that there was a high chance they were a swindler. Sometimes, however, they could not hold up against them, and would take out money because they were soft-hearted. There were also some boys who wanted to show how generous and kind they were in front of their girlfriends and would easily hand out money.

The truth was, there were definitely quite a lot of people who would take out money. Otherwise, it was not possible to have such a large cheating industry.

That method of swindling people had existed for 20 to 30 years. It had not yet disappeared, but had instead become more innovative.

With the increase of people’s vigilance, they would choose to use elderly people to dress up as pitiful, disabled people with incomplete limbs. Or, they would dress up as the couple in front of him had. They would make use of ignorant babies to get sympathy…

Zhang Zian did not have the ability to read minds. He did not know whether the young man and woman in front of him were swindlers; they could really be a couple that was in genuine trouble and needed money to eat.

The young man added, “Older brother, it is rare that we go out. The two of us do not have enough experience out in society and we accidentally lost our wallets. We are very hungry now…”

He stopped for a while, lowering his head to look at the baby. He raised his finger to wipe at the corner of his eyes and said, “We aren’t shameless people, either. If it was not for the fact that we had no other choice, we would be unable to lower ourselves and ask you for help… It’s all right if us adults do not eat two meals, and it’s all right if we are hungry for two to three days, but children cannot stand being hungry…”

If it were a young, female university student who had heard that, they would immediately be so touched and try to help them, but Zhang Zian was not moved. He looked at the faces of the young man and woman and the infant.

The young woman sighed. “Yes, big brother. Children cannot stand being hungry. We haven’t eaten a single thing since this morning and even the adults are so hungry we cannot stand it, much less our child…”

Before she finished speaking, the baby in her arms started to cry loudly. Its face turned red, but the sound of their crying was weak, as if they were really so hungry that they had no more energy.

Most ordinary people under such a circumstance, no matter how hard-hearted they were, could not stand a child crying. Most of the time they would just take out money, and then comfort themselves, telling themselves that the other party was probably not swindlers.

Zhang Zian still did not say anything, however. The expression on his face was very calm. He said, “Sorry, but I left my house in a rush today. I did not bring any money with me.”

“It’s not a problem. I see that big brother brought a phone… A phone transfer is also all right. WeChat or Alipay are both all right,” the young man instantly continued, bringing his phone out and preparing to let Zhang Zian scan the QR code.

“Oh, then how much money do you need?” Zhang Zian nodded.

The young man and woman looked at each other and the woman said, “20 to 30 is not too little, 40 to 50 is not too much. If you see that we are pitiful, you can give us a little more… After we finish eating, we still need to buy train tickets home.”

“Big brother, don’t worry. We aren’t begging for money from you; we are borrowing money from you,” the young man affirmed. “However much money you transfer to us, we will instantly return to you when we reach home––not a cent less! We can also become friends!”

The young woman did not wait for Zhang Zian to agree before she smiled and said, “Thank you, big brother. When I saw how handsome you were, I knew that your heart must be good. We were hesitating for a long time before we were thick-skinned enough to stop you for some money. We felt like you were definitely a good person.”

Zhang Zian gave a dry cough. He smiled and said, “Actually, I’ve recently been quite tight on… money. It’s not that I can’t lend it to you, but it’s true that my heart is very good. I can bring you to the police station and help you report to the police. Let’s go and find policemen uncles to help. What do you both think? Look, there’s a sign next to us that says ‘If you have trouble, find the police,’ right?” He pointed at the notice board on the wall.

The young man and woman’s facial expressions instantly changed.

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