Chapter 553: Being A Bookworm For A Decade
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
There were few customers in the pet shop in the morning. After cleaning up the shop, playing hide-and-seek with Galaxy, and training Zhan Tian on the green field, Zhang Zian had been reading posts on the forum. Time always passed very fast when he surfed the internet. Nearly an hour had passed after he had browsed the posts on the first and second page of the forum.
The Spring Festival was approaching. Now was the busiest period before the Spring Festival. Students were taking the final exams. The office workers were fighting for the annual bonus, secretly planning whether they should hop to another company after the Lunar New Year. There were few pedestrians on the road. Some elderly people were happily pushing carts to buy groceries for the Lunar New Year because when the Spring Festival arrived, many businesses would close their shops. After running their shops diligently for a year, the business owners also needed to take a rest during the festival.
Zhang Zian did not need to visit friends and relatives during the Chinese New Year, so he would not need to go shopping for groceries. During the Spring Festival, his pet shop would operate as usual, and he would strive to sell more pets to children since they would receive lucky money from their parents and relatives. He looked at the time and was thinking of going upstairs to remind Pi to rest for a while. At that moment, a car stopped in front of the entrance to his shop.
This was a brand-new BMW sedan with a bright, shiny body. It seemed that it was a vehicle that was registered not long ago. Zhang Zian had never seen this car before.
Through the window glass, he saw two stylishly dressed girls sitting in the car. Normally, Zhang Zian would look at these attractive girls for a little bit longer. But since he knew these two girls, he could not do that. Speaking of the devil. He was just talking about them. He whispered to himself.
The two stylish girls were Zhao Qi and Shi Shi. Liu Sanlang was responsible for driving. In addition to the three of them, there was a medium-sized Labrador sitting in the back seat. It was the one that Liu Sanlang bought from Zhang Zian's pet shop. It's funny that this Labrador was wearing a red sweater, which made it look awkward.
Zhang Zian knew that the three of them worked for the same company, and that Liu Sanlang was courting Shi Shi on a regular basis. Why did they come to the pet shop together during this work day?
Liu Sanlang got out of the car and enthusiastically opened the car door for Shi Shi in the back seat. Shi Shi looked at her cell phone from time to time and did not get out of the car. Zhao Qi, who was sitting on the other side of the back seat, got out of the car with her own pet carrier.
Anyhow, they were Zhang Zian's acquaintances. Zhang Zian put his cell phone back into his pocket and walked out of the pet shop to greet them.
"Hey, Sanlang, is this your new car? Not bad."
Liu Sanlang carefully closed the door to the driver's seat. He smiled proudly and said, "Yes, the car was just delivered to me before New Year's Day. It only has a few hundred kilometers on it."
Zhang Zian approached and looked at the car. He was a complete amateur to the car industry and asked, "How much was this car?"
Liu Sanlang's face twitched momentarily. He quietly extended his three fingers, and said in pain, "It cost me nearly 300,000 Yuan in total. I borrowed some money and applied for a loan..."
Unlike houses, cars were not a rigid demand. Zhang Zian felt it was unworthy to borrow money to buy a car, so he asked, "Why not buy a car cheaper than this?"
"Well..." Liu Sanlang said with bitterness and whispered, "Actually, I did not intend to buy a car. After all, unlike such big cities as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, it was quite convenient to take a taxi or get a ride in Binhai City. Besides, when the air quality is poor, the city only allows vehicles on the streets with even-numbered license plates to alternate with odd-numbered vehicles. But currently, I am pursuing Shi Shi, hoping that she will become my girlfriend. It is more convenient to have a car of my own, so I can take her to many places. At first, I wanted to buy a domestic brand car, which was relatively affordable. Nowadays, the domestically produced cars are not as bad as they were before. But then I wondered if she would look down on me if I bought a domestically produced car. In the end, I firmly made up my mind and bought this imported car..."
Zhang Zian was rather speechless. He thought to himself. You have gone too far beyond your means to impress her. If your girlfriend despises you because you drive a domestically produced car, does she like you or does she like your money?
However, Zhang Zian was not that close to Liu Sanlang. Since Liu Sanlang had already bought the car, Zhang Zian was in no position to judge him. All Zhang Zian could say to Liu Sanlang was that, he should make good use of the car. Even if Liu Sanlang could not develop a romantic relationship with Shi Shi, at least he could impress another girl with this car…
Liu Sanlang whispered as if defending himself, "Shi Shi did not tell me her preference explicitly, but I noticed that she had been reading those online novels such as The Overbearing CEO Fell in Love with Me…so..."
Well, that's how it happened. Zhang Zian could somewhat understand Liu Sanlang's concern. Love was unreasonable. Liu Sanlang liked Shi Shi, who liked those types of guys that were rich and bossy. What could Liu Sanlang do? Although Liu Sanlang could not become a CEO in the foreseeable future, buying an imported car to please the girl he liked had proven his economic capabilities.
"What Overbearing CEO Fell in Love with Me?" Shi Shi, although in the car, seemed to have heard the last sentence they were talking about. She looked at her mobile phone and said, "Who would read that old-fashioned book? I was clearly reading the book called You are Better than the Billionaire CEO's!"
Zhang Zian would normally dismiss the topic with a smile. But today, he glanced at the phone of Shi Shi and found that she was also using the app of Qidian to read web novels.
"You are reading books on Qidian?" he asked curiously.
"Of course! I am a senior VIP on Qidian and I have been a bookworm of the web novels for a decade!" Shi Shi got out of the car very proudly and the Labrador followed her and got out of the car too.
"Wow!" Zhang Zian looked at her with admiration.
He learned from the Wang Haige Forum that the readers on Qidian were classified hierarchically. Those who read few books and spent little money on the website were ordinary members. As the users read more books and spent more money, they would become the senior members, and then the primary VIPs, and the top ranking title would be the senior VIPs. On the Zhihu Forum, the most pretentious forum in China, there was a discussion thread called "How did I feel when I became a senior VIP at Qidian", and as the comments in that discussion thread described, the status of the senior VIP at Qidian was as fancy as the King of Diamonds at QQ.
"Humph!" Shi Shi felt so proud that her chin was almost lifted to the sky.
"She really is a senior VIP at Qidian, but I have to remind you, that she gained that status by reading all kinds of romantic novels involving the overbearing CEOs..." Zhao Qi came to them with the air box in her hand. Her cat, Lan Lan was gazing at Zhang Zian in the air box.
"Qi Qi! You betrayed me again!" Shi Shi was so angry that she blushed, "Are you still my good friend or not?"
"Was I not talking about the fact?" Zhao Qi continued. "Let me figure it out. Suppose that your claim of being a bookworm for a decade is true. You are 25 years old this year, which means that you have been reading those romantic novels involving the overbearing CEO's from the age of 15! I do hope that a bossy CEO would appear from nowhere and make you his girlfriend so that you would not waste your time daydreaming anymore. Of course, it would be the best if that CEO would love you at the beginning and abandon you in the end. Otherwise, I would not be able to remain calm..."
"My…my birthday has not arrived this year. I am currently 24 years old, all right?!" Shi Shi was very unruly in front of Liu Sanlang, but in the face of her bestie Zhao Qi, she would never truly lose her temper.
"Besides, I only read those romantic novels about the overbearing CEO's occasionally. I read ordinary novels most of the time, and I also read the foreign novels in paperback…" Lacking confidence, Shi Shi justified herself to Zhang Zian.
"Come on, stop the pretense!" Zhao Qi scorned. "The so-called foreign novels in paperback that you read are Fifty Shades of Grey, aren't they? They are nothing more than the darker versions of those novels about the overbearing CEO's written in English!"
"Hey! Qi Qi, you said too much!" Shi Shi was upset.
Zhang Zian did not care about the genres that Shi Shi liked. What he cared about was the preference of the readers on Qidian. And as a bookworm for a decade on Qidian, Shi Shi should have some understanding of the preferences of the readers of web novels. So, he tentatively asked, "Shi Shi, as a reader, are you interested in reading a web novel about a pet shop?"
"What? Pet shop?" Shi Shi stared at Zhang Zian incredulously like she was looking at a fool. "Are you crazy? Who will read a web novel about a pet shop? What's to write about a pet shop? Cleaning the feces of pets all day long? If people want to raise cats or dogs, they need to cleanse the feces of their pets. Why would they read about the situations in a pet shop? Am I right, Xiao La?"
Xiao La barked a few times, as if responding to her.
Although what you said makes sense, why am I so unhappy? Zhang Zian said to himself.
"Because restricted by some objective conditions, some people who want to raise dogs or cats can't raise pets in real life. If I remember correctly, this Labrador is not yours, it was bought by Sanlang." Zhang Zian pointed out this fact.
Yes, he remembered that Liu Sanlang bought this Labrador to attract Shi Shi's attention, and Liu Sanlang really succeeded because Shi Shi quite liked the puppy. But the apartment Shi Shi rented did not allow her to raise pets.
Due to the limitations of certain conditions and the doubts that they could take care of the pets till death set them apart, a lot of people had chosen to watch cats or dogs on the internet by appreciating the photos and videos of cats and dogs uploaded by others on forums and Weibo every day. Zhang Zian was in favor of the cautious attitude of these people. Watching cats or dogs on the internet was far better than those people who bought pets recklessly and sent away or deserted the pets when they realized that they were unfit to raise pets. Could those people who appreciated pets on the internet turn into pet novel readers? Even if only one of ten thousandths of those people became readers, that would be enough.
"Well..." Shi Shi stuttered suddenly, but then she said stubbornly, "What you said may be true, but how can you let these people who raise pets on the internet know about this novel?"
Zhang Zian admitted that she was right. This was the most crucial issue.
"Yes, which novel is this? Tell me the title. As a bookworm for a decade, I can identify whether there is a future for this novel." Shi Shi boasted boldly.
Zhao Qi also asked curiously, "Zhang Zian, are you writing a novel about a pet shop?"
"No, I'm not." Zhang Zian replied. That's not a lie. It was Pi who was writing a novel.
"Actually, I think you can write a novel. Anyway, you have nothing to do in your pet shop, right?!" said Zhao Qi, "What if it becomes a popular novel?"
Zhang Zian quickly waved his hands to change the topic, "Forget it, I know myself, I don't have what it takes to become a writer… By the way, why are you here?"