Chapter 579: Serval
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gao Zhuo complained incessantly about the Serval he raised at home.
One morning, after he got up, he poured a bowl of dog food in the kitchen. Usually, after it smelled the odor, the Pomeranian would quickly come to eat the food. But that day, when he had finished breakfast, the Pomeranian did not appear.
He looked for the Pomeranian everywhere in the villa and shouted its name, but no matter how hard he shouted, the Pomeranian did not respond.
His villa was very large, which contained many rooms and a basement. He had been searching in the villa for over ten minutes, but still he couldn't find the Pomeranian.
He was somewhat puzzled and thought that the Pomeranian must have sneaked out of the villa when he didn't notice. But then he found another problem. The Serval had disappeared, too.
Since the Serval started screaming and urinating recklessly, Gao Zhuo had tied it to a leash at night to keep everyone safe. But when he went to the cat room, he found that the nylon rope had snapped, and the Serval was gone.
He looked at the nylon rope and saw that the cut line was rough. It seemed that the rope was not cut off by a sharp knife but was snapped by biting.
Since the rope was broken and the Pomeranian was missing, Gao Zhuo had an ominous hunch. He ran outside to call in the security guard and the two of them searched for the cats together.
When they arrived at the rooftop, they found a string of dark red blood stains on the floor.
The security guard also felt that something bad had happened, and he discussed with Gao Zhuo whether they should call the police.
At that moment, they heard a sound behind them. When they turned around, they found that the Serval was walking towards them, with the corpse of the Pomeranian in its mouth. And then the Serval placed the dog's body at the foot of Gao Zhuo like it was showing off its achievement…
Gao Zhuo and the security guard were so scared that they almost fainted and fell to the ground. Fortunately, the Serval did not become aggressive to them. After placing down the body of the Pomeranian, it squatted down quietly and yawned lazily, while its teeth were still stained with blood.
This Pomeranian was raised by Gao Zhuo's mother for several years. Luckily, she was not at home on that day. Otherwise, if she saw such a scene, Gao Zhuo worried that she couldn't stand the shock.
After Gao Zhuo calmed down, he told the security guard to dispose of the body of Pomeranian. He must not tell his mother how her dog had died. He would tell her that the Pomeranian got lost. On the other hand, he quickly found an iron chain to curb the Serval cat.
How should he deal with this Serval? He didn't know what to do, and he quickly went to discuss with his several good friends. His good friends were basically from wealthy families and they had come up with bad ideas. Some people said that Gao Zhuo should release the Serval, some said that the Serval should be strangled to death, while others said that it was normal that a cat fought a dog, and he could just maintain the status quo. They also said that if Gao Zhuo had recorded their fighting process and uploaded the video to Weibo, perhaps the video could become popular…
It was definitely unacceptable to remain the status quo. And since Gao Zhuo had been raising the Serval for such a long time, he was reluctant to strangle it to death. Releasing the Serval was a viable option, but he had not figured out where the Serval should be released to.
Since he could not decide for the time being, Gao Zhuo had to keep raising the Serval. However, there was a new problem that followed. As a wild animal, the Serval had a strong body odor. Previously, the Serval took a bath every once in a while. However, after that incident, no one, who knew what had happened, dared to bathe it, for fear that the Serval might bite them if it lost its temper.
Currently, the Serval was confined by an iron chain at Gao Zhuo's home every day. Because it had not bathed for a long time, it reeked, and its temper was getting more violent.
At this point, Gao Zhuo said to Zhang Zian, "Manager Zhang, I heard that no matter how wild a cat is, when it comes to your shop, it will become as obedient as a large-sized doll. Can you please help it take a bath? It is so smelly… I have visited several pet shops in Binhai City, and all those pet shops owners said that they were unable to wash it, and they unanimously recommended your place."
Damn it! Zhang Zian said to himself. I knew this would happen! What the ancients said were correct. People of the same trade were enemies!
Those pet shop owners did not praise Zhang Zian sincerely. They just wanted to see him embarrass himself!
"You mean…you have brought your Serval here?" Zhang Zian asked.
"Yes, of course. It is in my car. Wait a minute." Gao Zhuo called on Lin Qi and they ran outside the shop and carefully took a large wooden box out of the car trunk.
As it was bumpy on the road, a shrilling cat meowing was heard from the wooden box.
The customers who were selecting pets in the shop were startled and they cast bewildered and dreaded looks at the wooden box.
Not only the customers, but also the kittens in the store were frightened and huddled into the corner. The sensitive Abyssinian cats jumped to the top of the container and looked down anxiously.
Fina, who was napping, sat up abruptly. It was very familiar with this kind of cry. Fina had heard this kind of cry repeatedly on the African continent two thousand years ago, and it knew that this animal was a very tough opponent. With all of its body hair standing on end, and its ears erect, Fina glared at the wooden box sternly.
Wang Qian and Li Kun, who were sitting side by side and playing mobile games together, and Lu Yiyun, who was helping a customer check out, were all scared by this scream. As their hands trembled, Wang Qian and Li Kun made a mistake in the game and they were lambasted by their teammates. Because her mind was swayed by the cry, Lu Yiyun pressed an extra zero on the keyboard of the computer at the checkout counter. Fortunately, she did not click the OK button.
Zhang Zian just asked the question casually. Before he had time to stop Gao Zhuo, he had moved the wooden box inside the shop.
This wooden box was nearly one meter long, about half a meter wide and almost half a meter high.
"Manager Zhang, the cat is inside. I am worried that it is not very good if too many people see it, so I put it in a box." Gao Zhuo said while panting.
Zhang Zian said to himself. Luckily, you still have some common sense, otherwise some customers may have called the police.
The customers were very interested in the meowing sounds in the wooden box. They pretended that they were selecting pets, but in fact, they were looking at the wooden box and secretly wondering what kind of cat…or feline was in the box.
Since there were too many people in his pet shop, Zhang Zian figured that if the box was opened here and if some customers called the police, it would be very embarrassing. So, he winked at Gao Zhuo and Lin Qi and asked them to move the box to the shoe store next door.
Zhang Zian had seen a picture of a Serval before, but he had never seen one in real life. He was very curious and intended to take a good look at Gao Zhuo's Serval. As for how to bathe this Serval, Zhang Zian would decide whether to undertake this task after he had seen it. After all, he had not promised Gao Zhuo that he would bathe it.
Gao Zhuo and Lin Qi looked at each other and felt that Zhang Zian was unbelievable. Why should they take the Serval to the shoe store? To put small shoes on it?
Xie Tao and the movers worked so quickly that basically everything of Xie Tao's had been removed from the shoe store. Although the transfer procedure had not yet been completed, the keys to the shoe store had been left to Zhang Zian.
"Come in." He unlocked the door and let Lin Qi and Gao Zhuo come inside the store with the wooden box.
On the first floor of the shoe store, there were only several empty rows of shelves and many empty shoe boxes. On the ground, there were piles of hard paper balls that were used to fixate the shapes of shoes. There was still some faint smell of shoe polish.
"Manager Zhang, this store... is yours?" Lin Qi and Gao Zhuo put down the wooden box and looked at the messy interior of the store.
"Uh-huh. It was just transferred to me. I'm going to expand my business." Zhang Zian answered truthfully.
"You should have done so long time ago!" Lin Qi patted on his thigh. "When I came to your pet shop to pick up my Ashera cat last time, I thought your shop was too small and was not good enough for you, a cat trainer. This store looks a lot bigger than yours, but I think that you should get a bigger one. I think a store with the area of about a thousand square meters would be enough."
"A thousand square meters? Am I going to open a supermarket? If I don't have enough money, will you pay for me?" Zhang Zian said snappily.
Lin Qi came from a wealthy family, but he was not rich enough to give money to others to buy a house. He smiled and didn't bring up the subject anymore.
Several nosey customers gathered outside the shoe store, trying to see what was inside the wooden box. Just when Zhang Zian was about to close the door, he saw Fina had arrived at the shoe store with stern expression on its face.
Since Fina was here, of course, Snowy Lionet was here, too. It kept meowing while walking behind Fina's tail with its short legs.
When Fina and Snowy Lionet had entered the store, Zhang Zian closed the door and locked it.
The glass of the French door of the shoe store was so dirty that the customers couldn't see anything from the outside through the glass.
Before Zhang Zian said anything, Gao Zhuo had opened the wooden box. There was an iron cage inside the wooden box, and a nearly fully-grown Serval was standing restlessly in the iron cage.
The body of the Serval was a pale yellow with irregular black spots. At first glance, it looked like a cheetah, but it was much smaller than a cheetah, and its tail was not as thick and strong as that of a cheetah. Tightening its small face that was out of proportion to its body size, the Serval was gazing at Fina while its iconic big ears were swaying vigilantly like radars to capture the talking sounds of Zhang Zian and other people. There was an area with black skin and white spots, like a patch of adhesive plaster, behind each of its ear.
An important reason that house cats looked cute was because they had big faces and big eyes. But the Serval's face was so small, almost the size of the palm of a child, and its eyes were not so round and charming as the eyes of the house cats.
"Awoo!"
Annoyed by Fina's gaze, the Serval opened its mouth and screamed, revealing its bright red tongue and its sharp fangs. Comparing to house cats, the Serval's voice was closer to the voices of wild felines.
"Meow!"
In the face of its old rival on the African continent, Fina also shouted back. But apparently, Fina's volume was not as loud as that of the Serval, who had natural advantages over Fina.
Frightened, Lin Qi said, "Good heavens! Its teeth are terrifyingly sharp!"
"Don't you underestimate the Serval. Its bite force is 17 kilograms, which is equivalent to half that of the cheetah. Since its bite force is concentrated on its fangs, it's common that the Serval can bite and snap the thin nylon topes. In contrast, human beings have a bite force of 45 kilograms, but the bite force is from the back teeth of human beings. As measured by the pressure per unit area, the bite force of human beings is far inferior to that of the Serval." Zhang Zian introduced.
Lin Qi stuck out his tongue, "With one bite, the Serval could leave four bloody holes on its opponent. No wonder it could kill the Pomeranian."
Zhang Zian sneered, "Killing a Pomeranian is a piece of cake for the Serval. The wild Serval cats in Africa can catch birds on the trees, capture fish in the water, and can dig holes to trap mice. Even the large and medium-sized mammals such as antelopes are in their menus."
"They are so fierce!" Lin Qi said. And then he looked at Gao Zhuo with admiration. How daring of you to keep such a wild beast at home?
Gao Zhuo shrugged helplessly. He had made terrible mistakes by not knowing the features of the Serval.