Chapter 305: Three Forms of Unfilial Conduct
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Song Bai was not at all agitated because of Zhang Zian's obsession with money—he was indeed planning to buy a cat. And if he could also shoot some interesting things in the pet shop, his trip today would have been worth it.
Compared to the network anchoring industry that had made numerous camgirls popular, vloggers were painstakingly keeping their business running. Few people knew about what vloggers did, and what’s worse, vlogging simply couldn’t make money, and their enthusiasm was fading away gradually. Fortunately, as a vlogger, Song Bai didn’t need to worry much. Firstly, he had a stable job so that he didn’t need to solely rely on the incomes brought by vlogging; secondly, he targeted his vlog at the audience abroad, where there was still a possibility of making money—with the premise that his posts became suddenly popular.
Rather than live streaming, vlog was a form of sharing recorded videos. Compared with network anchors, vloggers were less interactive with their viewers. It’s impossible for them to perform a program or show their talents after their viewers tipped them generously; besides, their videos required additional post-editing. As implied by its name, a vlog is a video diary or blog. It had gained popularity abroad but didn’t appeal to the public in China yet—where the vloggers spent much more energy than network anchors, yet only earned insignificantly small money compared to the anchors; and only vloggers who had kept their passion had been insisting on recording videos. The situation was much better in foreign countries, where even though vloggers might not earn more than network anchors, at least they had roughly equal shares in the market.
Song Bai had been vlogging since after he graduated from university, but he hadn’t gained much popularity as of now. For every vlog posted on YouTube, on average he only attracted tens to hundreds of views. At present, he had just graduated from university, had a stable job, his family was quite wealthy, he had no girlfriend, and he didn’t intend to find one for the time being. The main reason he had been insisting on his passion of vlogging was seizing the day while he can.
The reason he suddenly wanted to buy a cat was that he had found his life too monotonous. Vlog was a video diary, and vlog viewers were attracted by someone else's interesting life—if the viewers already had simple and repeated life, why would they bother to watch his monotonous life? Of course, some psychologists had analyzed the reason why vlog was so popular, partly because people were interested in spying on others' private life.
When he revealed his idea of buying a pet in his Friends’ Moment in WeChat, Zhao Qi immediately left him a message, recommending a pet shop to him and said that the cats in the pet shop can perform stunts.
Song Bai was not particularly familiar with Zhao Qi, for they were in completely different social circles, and they knew each other just because they were colleagues, and occasionally had some brief conversations because she was curious about vlog, so he was quite surprised to hear from her.
Initially he suspected Zhao Qi was a fake customer commissioned by pet shops to persuading him into buying pets, but after inquiry in their company, he cleared his doubt. Everyone knew that Zhao Qi had completely become a cat enthusiast, which he had confirmed after having personal contact with Zhao Qi, who just kept bragging about her British Shorthair, Lan Lan, and how nice and well-behaved Lan Lan was. And she also strongly suggested that he should also buy a British Shorthair, as if it would be a big loss in his life if he didn’t get one...
Finally, she summed up with one sentence— "There are three forms of unfilial conducts, of which the worst is to have no cats."
Song Bai was speechless about her words. He thought, if Zhao Qi could transfer her enthusiasm and talent in persuading people to have cats to her sales work, she would have been the annual sales champion in their company…
In a word, Zhao Qi was the one that had persuaded him to visit this pet shop. It was not an exaggeration to state that she was pulling and dragging him over, with her determination to turn more people in the company into cat enthusiasts, which could be regarded as her revenge to her "former" bestie, who was a dog lover.
Besides, Song Bai was also very interested in stunt-performing cats, especially if the cats in this pet shop could perform stunts collectively. He wondered: if he could record such scenes where cats were doing stunts together, would his vlogs attract more views?
Since entering the pet shop, the camera in his hand had been aiming at the kittens chasing each other. He only felt that these kittens were very lively and lovely, and there was nothing special about them.
Zhang Zian said warmly, "You want to buy a cat, correct? Which kind? Do you have any preference? Or should I recommend some to you?"
Zhao Qi chimed in, "Hey! When I used to buy a cat here, I don’t remember you being so hospitable!"
Zhang Zian replied confidently, "Because at that time I was not sure whether you would buy it or not. You seemed to be a very picky customer, so why should I spend extra time on you?"
Zhao Qi thought what he said was true, but she also had the impulses to punch him!
She replied for Song Bai, "He wants a British Shorthair, just get him a British Shorthair, but it can’t be better than my Lan Lan!"
"No, I’m not buying British Shorthair." Song Bai answered awkwardly. He felt that Zhao Qi was getting increasingly obsessed with recruiting more cat enthusiasts, and it was better for him to stay away from her.
"What? You clearly said you wanted that before..." Zhao Qi murmured discontentedly.
Zhang Zian knew from his tone that he had a broad range of choices and asked, "Then which kind do you have in mind? I might not have complete breeds, but you can find most of the common breeds here."
Song Bai said a breed’s name that surprised both Zhang Zian and Zhao Qi, "I want a Dragon Li cat."
"Dragon Li cats? Aren’t they the commonly seen cheap cats? You may just go pick one on the street! Listen to me, British Shorthairs…" Zhao Qi thought Song Bai was completely insane to choose a Dragon Li over a British Shorthair!
"Stop! Dragon Li cats are not cheap cats, all right? How dare you claim yourself a cat lover not knowing such facts?" Zhang Zian waved her away and asked her to step aside, "Go away, I have business to do."
"Do you really want a Dragon Li?" After the annoying Zhao Qi had left them alone, he asked Song Bai seriously.
Song Bai had considered before coming to the shop that the main audience of his vlog was people that lived abroad, and if there was any cat breed that was relatively rare in foreign countries, it would probably be the Dragon Li cat that originated in China. As for himself, he had no preference for any cats, as long as the price was not ridiculously expensive.
"Yes, I want a Dragon Li." Song Bai nodded and confirmed, "Manager, do you have any Dragon Li cats that can perform stunts?"
"You know what? I do have one! You came just in time — I have only one Dragon Li in my shop, and someone would have bought it if you came later!" Zhang Zian excitedly rubbed his hands, "Would you like to have a look? "
Most of his words were true. There was indeed a Dragon Li for sale in his pet shop. Zhang Zian didn’t intend to purchase Dragon Li cats from the pet breeding base, because they were not quite popular among the public. People always thought Dragon Li cats were cheap, and unlike American Shorthair or British Shorthair that had fancier names, it was harder to sell Dragon Li cats. The one and only Dragon Li in his shop was a gift from Sun Yinian when Zhang Zian purchased other cats from his breeding base, and since it didn’t cost him money, Zhang Zian accepted the Dragon Li happily. He didn’t expect that someone would really be buying it today.
"Of course, I would like to take a look... But starting from now, I would like to officially start filming vlog for today. You both might appear on the camera, are you okay with that?" Song Bai raised the digital camera in his hand and asked.
As a vlogger, especially in a country where vlog was not pervasively accepted by the public, it was necessary to ask for permission before shooting. Song Bai had heard a lot of similar news in the vlogging community that some vlogger recorded videos without asking the people being filmed. As a result, people were agitated and refused to be filmed, and the occurrence of fistfights were also commonplace.
"Yes," said Zhao Qi naturally.
But Zhang Zian raised his hand to stop Song Bai, "Wait a minute."
"What now?" Zhao Qi felt Zhang Zian was extremely dilly-dallying today.
Zhang Zian went to the shelves for pet supplies, picked up a bristle comb for combing the furs of shorthair cats, combed his hair into a slick-back, and said satisfactorily, "Okay, you can shoot now."