Pet King

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

While Welder Zhao was scooping out the fish, the three children stood around and watched. They were all very eager to try, so they were waiting to take Welder Zhao’s place. When Welder Zhao was about to scoop up the blue fish, the little girl covered her mouth in worry, seemingly afraid that the fish would jump out and fall to the floor.

“Grandpa! Grandpa! Be careful! Slow down a little! Don’t let Dory get hurt!” She stared nervously at Welder Zhao’s hand.

Welder Zhao’s palm was large and rough, and there were tiny scars on them that were caused by burns. At a glance, his hands looked ugly and contrasted sharply with the little girl’s delicate hands.

However, although they were an ugly pair of hands, they were extremely stable from years of welding metals together.

“Don’t worry. Although grandpa’s hands are coarse, they do delicate work!” Welder Zhao laughed. His voice was soft, so it was clear that he doted on the little girl.

Listening to their conversation, Zhang Zian also noticed this blue fish. The first feeling he had was that the fish was familiar––very familiar. He didn’t have such a fish in his shop, but he had seen it somewhere.

The fish was about 20 centimeters long from head to tail, and was spindle-shaped. It was mainly blue in color, while half of its pectoral fin and most of its caudal fin were a brilliant yellow. Black, plate-like stripes started from its eye and went along its back and through its entire body. The dorsal fin had alternating thin stripes of blue and reddish brown at the end of it.

Its eyes were round, black, and hidden in the black, plate-like stripes. They weren’t easy to find at first glance. Its small mouth kept sucking in and spitting out sea water; it looked silly, but also really cute at the same time.

Dory? That name… Zian suddenly remembered that he had not seen the fish in real life, but he had seen it in a movie that he had watched previously.

It was Dory, who played the supporting role in Finding Nemo 1 and the leading role in Finding Nemo 2!

The little girl must have also seen the Disney classic animated film, so she gave the same name to the fish that looked almost identical to the main character of the film.

Welder Zhao scooped Dory up, and Dory struggled fiercely, unwilling to be taken so easily. In an attempt to prevent it from jumping out, Welder Zhao went to cover the fishnet with his left hand.

“Master Zhao! Don’t do it. It’s dangerous!” Zhang Zian hurriedly shouted to stop him. He was worried that Welder Zhao would get injured, so he rushed forward to pull on Welder Zhao’s left hand.

Welder Zhao was surprised and his hands shook. Dory then took the opportunity to jump back into the big fish tank.

“Store Manager Zhang, is that fish poisonous?” Electrician Wu was worried. When he saw Zhang Zian take action, without saying anything, he immediately pulled the three children further away to avoid any injury or poisoning.

“Store Manager Zhang, what’s the matter? If I had heart issues, I would definitely suffer from a heart attack with you making such a fuss…” Welder Zhao muttered unhappily.

“Were you the one who bought this fish?” Zhang Zian asked as he pointed to Dory.

Welder Zhao smiled smugly. “Yeah. Although I don’t recognize the other fish, I know this one. I used to take my granddaughter to the movies, so while I was in the shop, I recognized this fish at a glance. I thought of getting it as a gift for my granddaughter, who would be very happy to receive it! Am I right, Xiao Xuan?”

“Yeah!” The little girl named Xiao Xuan nodded hard and said, “Thank you, Grandpa!”

“Xiao Xuan is such a good child!” Welder Zhao’s face beamed.

“Hold on a moment! Store Manager Zhang, is this fish dangerous?” Electrician Wu couldn’t stand them anymore, so he interrupted Welder Zhao and his granddaughter’s moment of happiness.

Zhang Zian nodded. “This fish does have a certain degree of danger––especially if you touch it directly with your hands.”

“What? That can’t be right…” Welder Zhao gave him a look that said, “Don’t lie to me just because I didn’t study much.” He said, “If this fish is dangerous, why would a company as big as Disney make it their main character?”

“This has nothing to do with Disney. Didn’t Disney also made a lion their protagonist? Can you say that a lion isn’t dangerous?” Zhang Zian asked him.

Welder Zhao was stumped.

Zhang Zian continued, “People know that lions are dangerous, and there is basically no one who would keep lions, except for those rich tycoons in the Middle East. But fish can be raised by everyone, and once a dangerous fish is raised, the unlucky ones are the owners. Do you know what kind of fish this is?”

“What else is there that I don’t know? It’s called a ‘royal blue tang’ in the movie, right?” Welder Zhao smiled confidently and said, “When Finding Nemo 2 was released, I brought my granddaughter to watch it several times!”

It seems that, although Welder Zhao is stingy, he was willing to spend money on his granddaughter. Many old people were like this. They were extremely frugal when it was just themselves––they were reluctant to eat well and dress well––but they were generous when it came to the children of the younger generation.

Electrician Wu gestured to Zhang Zian to ask if the answer was correct.

Zhang Zian nodded. “Yes, this fish is indeed called the royal blue tang in the movie.”

“Look, Wu, you never believe me… I really know a lot about fish!” Welder Zhao was proud. He patted his chest and began to boast.

Zhang Zian didn’t let him be proud for too long. He continued, “But do you know its other name?”

“Other name?” Welder Zhao looked around, but he couldn’t think of any other name that the fish had.

Zhang Zian took out the long rubber gloves that he had prepared earlier from his pocket and explained while putting them on, “It’s also known as ‘Paracanthurus.’ It doesn’t sound as nice, so the movie went with the name royal blue tang––a name that sounded noble and domineering.”

“Para… can… thurus?” Electrician Wu repeated the name several times before he got it right. He wasn’t sure how to spell it.

“If you think this name is hard to say, then it has a nickname that’s very easy to say and remember: Surgeonfish, which means that its spines are as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel. If you grasp it directly with your hand, it will cause serious cuts or stab wounds.” Zhang Zian had already put on the rubber gloves, so he slowly continued as he looked at Welder Zhao, “And it’s also poisonous.”

There’s a saying in Gu Long’s novel, “A person’s name may be wrong, but his nickname is never wrong.”

This sentence was also suitable for the Paracanthurus, which was the surgeonfish.

Welder Zhao and Electrician Wu’s faces changed at the same time. The word “poison” left them with some trauma. Welder Zhao, in particular, recalled that he was about to use his hands to grab hold of Dory, and he couldn’t help but shudder. He was terrified and quietly put his hands behind his back, clenching them tightly.

“Let me borrow that.” Zhang Zian took the fishnet that Welder Zhao had just used and repeated what Welder Zhao did to scoop Dory out; the only difference was that Zian had a pair of thick rubber gloves on.

After Dory was scooped out of the water, it struggled intensely. Zhang Zian threw the fish net aside and grabbed it with his two hands.

“Look at its caudal peduncle here.” Zian gestured for them to get closer and not to hide so far away.

Electrician Wui and Welder Zhao carefully approached him. The three children had wanted to watch too, but they were stopped by Electrician Wu. The little girl was still muttering for them to not hurt Dory.

After they got closer, they fixed their eyes on where Zhang Zian was pointing with his thumb.

The royal blue tang, or the surgeonfish, was a very timid fish. It generally didn’t take the initiative to attack other fish or people, and when it encountered any trouble, it would always try to hide. But at that moment, Dory had nowhere to hide and it felt that its life was greatly threatened, so, with the contraction of its tail ligament, two extremely sharp spines came unsheathed like a saber. The two barbs were usually hidden in the caudal fin, so it wasn’t visible at all.

China aquarists often referred to the fish as a “hanged blue,” which was actually a homonym of “blue knife snapper” in Chinese.

Ordinary aquarists only knew that they were blue, but they didn’t know what “knife” and “snapper” meant, so they referred to it as the hanged blue…

The “knife” referred to its spine, while “snapper” referred to its species classification––the Acanthurus Family.

Electrician Wu picked up the drawing block paper that his grandson had been drawing on from the table and pressed it down on the barb. He didn’t use much force, but the barb easily pierced through the thick paper and revealed its sharp end. There was also a colorless and transparent liquid that soaked the paper, but it wasn’t water; it was more viscous than water.

“What you see is its spine. It’s named ‘surgeonfish’ because of these two spines. Although these two spines aren’t big, when you grab the fish with your bare hands, the spines follow the tail as it struggles left and right, and the two spines will rapidly tear your skin. That would form a severe cut with serious blood loss, and the viscous liquid is the venom of the epidermal cells near the fishtail. Its venom, although I haven’t heard of any precedent cases of death caused by its poison, has no specific antidote for it.”

It was already very painful if pierced into one’s skin, but the strength of a fish with a body length of 20 centimeters could not be underestimated. The spine would stir in the wound, tearing blood vessels, nerves, and muscles, which would further aggravate the wound. That would cause serious trouble.

Zhang Zian informed those present of the danger of the fish, then he loosened his grip and threw Dory back into the tank. Otherwise, it was going to be life-threatening for it.

The moment when he loosened his grip, Dory struggled more violently when it felt that the clamping force on its body had lessened. A spike sliced across Zhang Zian’s palm before it slammed back into the water with a splash.

People who kept snakes and played with snakes were often bitten by snakes the moment they loosened their grip, instead of being bitten in the process of handling them. It was basically the same thing.

Zhang Zian looked down at the palm of his hand and let both Electrician Wu and Welder Zhao take a look, too. A deep line appeared in the lower part of Zian’s palm; it had almost penetrated the rubber gloves.

Electrician Wui and Welder Zhao took in a breath of cold air. Fortunately, Zian had worn a pair of thick rubber gloves. If he hadn’t…

The consequences were simply unimaginable!

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