Listening to Long Xian’s explanation, Zhang Zian more or less understood the reason for her actions.
Pet’s Home Breeding Base, operated by Sun Xiaomeng’s father, had always been affected by the low prices of Love Lovely Pets, and business results were very depressing. When she heard that Love Lovely Pets might be involved in illegal activities, out of a little selfishness, she took Sheng Ke’s side and requested for Zhang Zian to think of something and investigate if there was any inside story to see if there were any truths to them being involved.
After the mass breakout from Love Lovely Pets—although Zhang Zian did not admit to any responsibilities regarding this incident—almost everyone who knew him were suspicious about his involvement, but there wasn’t any evidence to prove it. He had a sufficient alibi the night the incident occurred, for he had remained within Li’s Snack Bar without stepping out even once during the entire incident.
Earlier that morning, a call came in reporting an escaped cat from Love Lovely Pets that seemed to be suffering from severe physical abuse. Sun Xiaomeng felt a sense of self-accusation due to the circumstances; she felt as though she was partly responsible for the effects of the incident.
Does the incident actually have any relation to her, though? Yes, but it wasn’t her fault. If Love Lovely Pets were to operate within legal means, no one would be able to dig out any problems.
After thinking it through, Zhang Zian decided to keep this incident to himself and to not let Old Time Tea and Famous know about it for now. He was worried that they, too, would blame themselves, since it was the two of them who personally let the pets out of Love Lovely Pets. If either of them—be it Famous, who yearns to be an angel, or the heroic Old Time Tea—were to find out about this incident, they would definitely be sad and furious.
Did Old Time Tea and Famous make a mistake? Most of the escaped animals were taken home and adopted; this is already a big victory. Even though a small number were recaptured by Love Lovely Pets and others became stray cats and dogs roaming the streets, it was not right to deny the act of justice done by Old Time Tea and Famous.
Furthermore, cat abuse has existed since the ancient times. Early in the middle ages, domestic cats would be brutally massacred during witch hunts, and in the present modern era, those mentally unwell and perverse sometimes abused cats. Similar incidents are numerous; those exposed by the media are only the tip of the iceberg—playful, naughty, little kids who threw stones at cats, or stories of residents in a neighborhood that would drug the stray cat’s food with poison because they find them to be too noisy. All of these stories are nothing new.
Even if the Love Lovely Pets incident did not happen, these people would still find ways to abuse other stray cats, right?
Despite all that, it is also true that the large number of pets escaping from Love Lovely Pets gave those abusers an easier time to locate a target to abuse—this was also an undeniable fact…
Zhang Zian let out a sigh after thinking through all of that. Binhai City was too big to rely on an individual’s strength to locate a cat abuser—it was impossible, even if it was Old Time Tea or Famous searching. He can only hope that this cat abusing incident was an isolated, individual occurrence.
“Okay, I get it. I’ll be heading off first, so don’t forget to remind Sun Xiaomeng about my stuff when she’s back,” Zhang Zian said, bidding farewell to Long Xian.
“Okay,” Long Xian said expectantly. “Be careful of your steps, Store Manager Zhang, and remember to bring some souvenirs on your way back. It’s best if you can bring along a few autographed celebrity pictures!”
Zhang Zian left the pet clinic, hailed a cab, and headed straight to the German Consulate to process his visa.
Zian had recently left the country and returned from America without overstaying his visit past his lawful status. Similarly to that trip, he would be traveling in a group to Germany, too.
The visa application process went smoothly at the Consulate. Other than the long period spent in the queue, not much happened and Zian got his visa without trouble.
Zian bustled about all day and didn’t return to the store until evening.
“Mister Store Manager,” Lu Yiyun called out to Zian right by the store entrance. She handed him a document and said, “Long Xian just sent this over.”
Zhang Zian took a look at the document—it was the Airline Veterinary Health Certificate that he wanted. With this, Famous would be able to board the plane.
After letting Wang Qian, Li Kun, and Lu Yiyun get off from work, Zian pulled down the shutter doors and clapped his hands to attract the attention of the elfins. He then raised his voice and said, “Two days from now, both Famous and I will be heading to Germany to participate in the Berlin Film Festival. Do you all want to go together? You can all come along and take a look.”
“Germany? Where is that? Is that place warm?” Fina opened its eyes and asked. Fina napped and slept the whole day, leaving it with excess energy to spare in the evening.
“It’s very far in the west, but the latitude over there is much higher compared to Binhai City, so… it shouldn’t be considered warm, I guess? It would probably be two or three degrees lower than Binhai City,” Zhang Zian made a conservative estimate. Binhai City has already shown signs of rising temperature, but in Germany, which had a higher latitude, it was still snowing. It is said that the female celebrities attending the Berlin Film Festival each year were all dressed up for the red carpet. They were all both beautiful and frozen.
“Not going!” Fina rejected Zian’s idea with no hesitation.
“Don’t be in a rush to reject the idea. You have to know that all the celebrities attending the Film Festival will be covered in diamonds and jewelry; the rings on their fingers will have diamonds the size of a duck egg. The gold chain on their necks would be as thick as a finger!” Zhang Zian gestured as he spoke.
“Is that true?” Fina’s eyes sparkled the moment it heard what Zian said, and its interest was immediately piqued. “This queen does not care for gold chains that are as thick as a finger. The diamonds, though—are they really comparable with duck eggs?”
“Of course they are,” Zhang Zian confidently pledged. “It is said that the world’s biggest diamond is in Germany. It is about 155 carats! There’s also a small town in Germany that is covered in 72,000 tons of diamond!”
Fina’s mouth opened wide with shock. “A 155-carat big diamond? A town covered in 72,000 tons of diamond? Do you know the consequences of lying to the queen?”
“Castrate him! Castrate him!” Snowy Lionet bared her fangs and brandished her claws, making threatening gestures as she chanted.
“It’s true!” To express his sincerity, Zhang Zian raised his hand and vowed, “If there are any lies in my words, I will lose my wallet when I leave the store!”
If Zian had made a vow involving lightning strikes or anything of the sort, Fina would definitely not believe him. When Zian actually made a vow to lose his wallet, however, she believed him a little.
Although it was true that Zhang Zian did not lie, he had left out some crucial information—the so-called big diamond is actually synthetic. The town covered in 72,000 tons of diamond is true, too, but they were microscopic diamonds formed by a collision of an asteroid in the region. They have a diameter of only 0.2 millimeters, and you would need a microscope to clearly see them…
“If that is the case, this queen will have to make her way down to take a look. It is unthinkable that this queen here has such a large amount of treasure stranded in a foreign land—it must be reclaimed as soon as possible.” Fina constantly nodded.
At least Fina was fooled by Zian, but as for the consequences when it discovered that there were no diamonds… that could only be left to the heavens.
Wherever Fina went, Snowy Lionet followed without question, so there was no need to ask for its opinion.
No questions were needed for Old Time Tea, either, as it wanted to explore this brand new world in order to experience and witness more. There were also new movies for Old Time Tea to watch over there.
Famous was the main reason and the superstar for the Germany trip. Everyone else could be left out from the trip, but not Famous.
Richard, on the other hand—even if Zian were to refuse to bring it along, it would shamelessly tag along anyway.
“Zhi Zhi.”
Listening in to their conversation, Pi walked down from the second floor, pointing to its own chest as it shook its head.
“Pi, you’re not coming along?” Zhang Zian asked.
Pi made a typing gesture with both its hands, saying that it will remain in the store to continue updating its novel.