Chapter 50: Kittens Doing Stunts
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Zhang Zian looked at the Persian cat that Boss Afei was pointing at and said, "10,000 yuan."
"What?" Boss Afei stood up. "Are you trying to rob money from the customers? That price is absolutely outrageous!"
Zhang Zian was not bothered by his words and suggested, "Then you can buy it from someone else."
Boss Afei was surprised for a moment, and then he laughed. "Brother, please don’t trick smart people here. Why is your store’s cats more expensive than a CFA-certified shop’s? Who do you think you are?"
Zhang Zian knew right away that this person just wanted to bargain the price down, so he decided not to argue with him. But after seeing the rest of the people all waiting for his answer, he started explaining, "CFA-certified stores are not necessary selling CFA-certified cats. But if any CFA certification is needed, it could be easily done by applying for it online and just paying the fee. By the way, a CFA-certified Persian cat is not cheap…"
Boss Afei seemed to totally disagree. "Anyway, other stores’ cats are better than yours."
Zhang Zian did not want to argue with him and calmly answered, "The word 'good' has a wide range of meanings. If you think 'good' refers to pedigree and appearance, then I have nothing to say. You can buy the cat from other stores, and I will have no opinion on it."
"May I ask, Mr. Manager, what is CFA certification?" Jiang Qianxue raised her hand and asked Zhang Zian curiously, like a little girl.
Wang Qian and Li Kun said aloud in unison, "Do not call him ‘Mister.’ Call him ‘Master’!"
"Shut up, you two!" Zhang Zian said angrily.
"CFA is an abbreviation for Cat Fanciers’ Association, which is headquartered in the United States and organizes cat shows around the world every year," explained Zhang Zian seriously. "It is a community organization, but it sounds better as it is from the USA."
"Bullsh*t!" Boss Afei sneered. "The person who was not able eat the grapes thought they were sour."
Zhang Zian said, "You can continue to say so."
An audience named "Future Online Games" sent a "crab" sign and messaged, "My family has a CFA-certified cat. Miss Jiang, can you help me ask the manager whether anything is wrong with CFA-certified cats?
Jiang Qianxue asked Zhang Zian, "Mr. Manager, my audience would like to know whether anything is wrong with CFA-certified cats?"
Zhang Zian put down the book. "Nothing is wrong. If you pay special attention to pedigree and appearance, then there is no problem buying a CFA-certified cat, but CFA-certified cats can be good and bad, so please be careful when you identify them... Anyway, it was my personal opinion of only buying the cats categorized as pets instead of showcase ones."
"What is that?" Jiang Qianxue didn’t not understand the difference between regular pets and showcase ones, nor did her audience, so she tried to ask Zhang Zian further questions to find out.
Zhang Zian continued, "CFA sets the standard, so we all desperately meet that standard. The so-called standard is the cat’s appearance. In order to maintain and repeatedly strengthen the appearance, inbreeding is inevitable. As for the side effects of inbreeding, if you do not know, please go back to your middle-school biology books..."
"Mr. Manager, among all your pets, are there any similar problems?" asked Jiang Qianxue.
"I only sell those pets which were selected by me personally from the breeding base. The breeding base has a large number of pets, unlike smaller pets’ houses which focuses on a few. Although the breeding base does not have the best quality pets, which I admit, one thing I can guarantee is that the pets there are healthy."
While he was speaking, Fina's ears pricked up, listening very seriously, and its tail, with its dark-gold ring patterns, shook slightly.
Jiang Qianxue patted her head. "Thank you, Mr. Manager, for teaching me some new knowledge!"
"Learning knowledge with Miss Jiang!" some of the audience posted online.
Zhang Zian nodded modestly. "It was just my personal opinion. Please don’t be angry with me if your audience has pets’ houses."
After he finished talking, he looked at the two British Shorthairs playing with each other. Their eyes were quite different, not as round as the one’s sold to Zhao Qi. According to the CFA standards, they were not considered as good as Zhao Qi’s cat.
"I only sell purebred cats and purebred dogs, but I do not think the mixed strings are very poor quality, although I will not survive if I decide to do so. No one wanted to come to a pet shop to buy non-purebred pets? If anyone wants to get one, they can easily pick one up on the street." He laughed.
Zhang Zian concluded his explanation, "The CFA standard is mainly to judge the appearance of a cat, suitable for those who focus more on a cat’s look, but whether the cat is smart, healthy, loving, or obedient, it will be difficult to tell from the CFA’s shows. Usually there are so many people at the shows that most cats are scared to move. If you mistakenly believe that to be 'obedience,' you are absolutely wrong."
"Nonsense! CFA at least has its specific standard. How about you? Smart, healthy, loving, and obedient, these are all hard-to-judge characteristics. Who knows if it is true! But anyway, there is no reason at all to sell at such a high price!" Boss Afei said angrily, and he put his hands into his pocket.
At this time, the audiences online who were quietly listening could not hold back anymore...
"Is it any of your business how much the owner wants to sell his pets?"
"You are so greedy and cheap. You are worse than my mom. If you don’t like the price, go somewhere else. No one is forcing you to buy anything!"
Zhang Zian responded to Boss Afei, "Who says I don’t have standards here?"
Boss Afei laughed hard. "Would you like to give these cats IQ tests?"
"I don’t need those tests." Zhang Zian sat up, putting down his book and clapping his hands three times.
After hearing Zhang Zian’s claps, the cats stopped playing, and even the British Shorthair that was so enjoying the guest girl’s rubbing got away from her hands right away. They all stared straight up at Zhang Zian.
Even people who knew nothing about cats could tell some strange things were happening. It seemed like someone issued a "get to work" command and the kittens changed from play mode to work mode in an instant.
Zhang Zian snapped his fingers, and the kittens immediately ran around in a figure eight.
After they finishing running, the kittens went back to their original positions. Zhang Zian snapped his fingers again, and the kittens immediately did the run one more time and then uniformly went back to their starting points.
"What do you think of my cats? They can understand and follow my orders, which at least proves them to be smart and obedient, right? If they have problems in their physical coordination and strength, they will not run as stably or accurately as this, so we could say that they are absolutely healthy. But whether they are close to humans or not, you have to see with your own eyes."
He then clapped his hands twice. The kittens got his signals and went from work mode back to play mode, chasing each other around the feet of several guests.
Thanks to Fina, Zhang Zian had successfully used the signals and commands to control the kittens. It seemed that Fina had some kind of mysterious and powerful energies, such that no cats dared to disobey it.
Zhang Zian went back to his couch and continued reading.
"Wow, that was amazing! "
"Were those some kind of movie special effects?"
"I am going to cover my face. Compared with those cats, mine seems too stupid..."
"10,000 yuan for a cat who knows how to do stunts is really reasonable!"
"That is insanely cheap!"
"I am on my way to the store. Miss Jiang, Can you ask the manager to save an American Shorthair cat for me!"