Chapter 13: Favorability Mission
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Zhan Zian said to himself, "Bullsh*t, who said I didn’t have any customers!"
"Come on, don’t argue any more. Obviously there aren’t any customers here!"
Waiting for customers to come was a very common problem for new businesses. If it was a restaurant, there would always be someone dropping by to give it a try, but for a pet shop… If someone didn’t want to buy a pet, they would pass by without stopping.
She glanced at Zhang Zian’s recliner and couldn’t stop laughing. "You are quite a lazy guy. If a customer comes in and sees you sitting on your recliner, they will definitely turn around and leave!"
Zhang Zian shrugged his shoulders. "They come for the pets, not for me. By the way, the shop’s grand opening is today. Are you not planning to give me some gifts or a red envelope[1]?" He shamelessly reached out his hand to her.
Sun Xiaomeng was left speechless; she had never seen such a greedy person, asking for a red envelope just a few days after they’d met.
Zhang Zian put his hand down. "Ugh, I guess you don’t have any gifts for me. Ok, there is another choice for you, just a dozen buns and one cup of soy milk… And the buns should be from Yan’s at the end of street, vegetarian, with some vinegar, please."
Sun Xiaomeng glared at him, feeling funny and mad, then turned around and left the shop. Just for a while though, and then she came back.
"Take it!"
With a white flash, a bag of steaming buns was dropped right into his arm. He heard her muttering, "Meat buns are for feeding dogs!"
She had not only bought buns for him, but had also gotten half a dozen for herself. She then enjoyed her buns, sitting on the chair behind the cashier. Of course, she ate in a more sophisticated way, drinking soy milk through a straw, not like Zhang Zian, who was directly drinking from the cup.
After she finished eating, she wanted to throw out the garbage. While looking for a trash can, she found Galaxy hiding behind the lobular purple sandalwood pot.
"En? What is this cat?" She was stunned.
As a vet, her major was learning how to treat cats and dogs, as they were the most common pets. Plus, she had grown up with cats and dogs, since her family had a breeding base, so she was pretty good at recognizing cats. Although there were many varieties of black and white cats, the cat behind the pot’s colors were too clear to be real, almost like they were painted on. She could not tell what type it was.
"Ugh… Have you never seen this type before?"
Zhang Zian made a face like the badasses in cartoons.
Sun Xiaomeng ignored him and tried to hold Galaxy after putting the soymilk cup aside, but the cat, frightened, ran away to the pet supply area and hid behind the pet toys, looking at her timidly.
Sun Xiaomeng’s feelings were badly hurt.
Zhang Zian jumped from the recliner, ran in front of her, and blocked her. "Sorry, the cat is very timid, so don’t scare it," Zhang Zian said.
"Scare it… Do I look like a monster?" Sun Xiaomeng glared angrily.
After a while, she finally calmed down. "Is this your cat?"
"This store is mine, so of course the kitten is mine as well… Could it have been yours?"
"Don’t you know you need a punch to the face?" she said, grinding her teeth.
"Aha! You finally figured that out. When I played video games with my college friends, they always assigned me to be the warrior, saying I was born with a face to be mocked."
"Humph… I will come back later!" She angrily turned away.
"Hey! Remember to bring chicken buns next time! With some red pepper!" he shouted after her.
After she was far away, Zhang Zian waved at Galaxy. "She is gone, don’t worry."
"Meow… Don’t touch me..."
"Take it easy, I won’t touch you or let anyone else touch you!" he promised seriously.
Galaxy didn’t come to him, but blinked its silver eyes at him expectantly.
"What? Do you want anything?" he asked.
"Meow… How about... hide and seek?"
Zhang Zian looked calm on the surface but was very emotional inside, "Favorability mission! Finally! It seems that this kitten loves to play hide and seek! "
"Aha, no problem! Everyone called me ‘The King of Hide and Seek’ when I was a kid… all right, who will be the seeker?"
"Meow… Galaxy does not like seeker..."
"Okay… that means I am the seeker..."
Zhang Zian turned his body on the recliner and faced down. "I will count to 100, hurry and hide!"
"Meow… Don’t count too fast… Don’t peek..."
"Okay, okay, I got it. Hide yourself and don’t let me find you too easily!"
Then he closed his eyes and began to count, "One… Two… Three..."
"98… 99… 100… Are you ready? I’m coming!"
He got up from the recliner after waiting for a few more seconds, rubbed his eyes, and looked towards the cat tree where the Lucky Cat had been, but nothing was there.
"So easy! Just like playing games with a kid, right? To improve the favorability level, I have to play to lose, letting the kitten win," Zhang Zian thought.
"Let me improve the favorability level dramatically today without wasting any time!"
He hung a cat necklace from pet supplies, which had a bell on it, on the handle inside the door. If any customers entered the store, it would ring.
He had thought searching for a cat in the two-floor building would be easy, as the space was quite limited, but he soon realized that he was wrong.
He started from ground floor first.
The unused showcases and cages had all been moved to empty rooms on the second floor, so the ground floor was empty; it could be easily seen with a single glance. After searching the space under the cashier’s counter and the pets’ bathing room, there shouldn’t be any other hiding spots.
"I am coming upstairs now!"
He shouted out so Galaxy could prepare, and then he slowly walked upstairs.
There were five rooms on the second floor: his and his parents’ bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, and the storage room. The Lucky Cat would not be able to enter the storage room or his parents’ bedroom, as they were locked.
What he wanted now was to subtly lose the game to Galaxy.
"All right, I will start from the kitchen!" he shouted loudly to remind Galaxy to sneak downstairs while he entered the kitchen.
After searching for a while in the kitchen, he found nothing.
"I know, you must be in the living room!"
In the living room, there was only a Sofa, a TV set, and a TV cabinet. There was no Lucky Cat.
The last place was his bedroom.
"I am going to my bedroom now!"
He was a bit nervous, as he hadn’t seen the cat sneak through the corridor, which meant the cat was still upstairs.
But the game couldn’t be stopped, losing obviously might annoy it.
He entered his bedroom, but… nothing was there. Where was Galaxy?
Translator's Thoughts
Nyoi_Bo_Studio Nyoi_Bo_Studio
[1] Red Envelope: In Chinese and other East Asian societies, a red envelope, red packet, lai see (Cantonese), âng-pau (Hokkien) or hóngbāo (Mandarin) is a monetary gift which is given during holidays or special occasions such as weddings, graduation or the birth of a baby.