Is This the Best Era?

Zhang Zian helplessly told the smug cat, "As I said, the era now is different from the past. If you want something, you have to buy it or grab it with violence. But being respectable like you, you obviously cannot grab, so the only option left is to buy." He didn’t forget to flatter a bit near the end.

Maneki-Neko was satisfied. "What you said is totally right. A respectable being like me, how could I grab normal beings’ belongings? You should be the one to buy."

"Cannot grab normal beings’ belongings? Bullshit. Who asked me to grab the diamond ring and let me tumble," Zhang Zian thought.

"But I don’t have money. I can’t afford it," he repeated.

"Money? You mean gold?" it asked, tilting its head.

"No. Gold counts, of course, but yuan is the currency in circulation," Zhang Zian explained.

"Yuan?" it was thinking. "Those pink papers?"

Zhang Zian didn’t get it. What the hell was paper? Gosh, his poor English…

He grasped his wallet, took out the only one-hundred-yuan bill inside, and put it on the chair where Maneki-Neko was sitting.

"This is yuan. It can buy pretty much everything in the world, more or less."

Maneki-Neko flipped the bill with its claw, carefully examining the back of it.

"The currency in this era looks just like this. Hum… Yuan is a good thing." It looked at the statesman on the bill and asked, "Who is he?"

"The founder and greatest leader of this country," Zhang Zian replied.

"Well, the tradition hasn’t changed a bit in hundreds of years." It accepted it with good understanding.

After seeing it flip the bill many times, Zhang Zian tried to take the bill back, worrying its sharp claw might scratch it.

Maneki-Neko held the bill with its claw, refusing to lose.

Zhang Zian was worried.

He grasped it with more strength.

It held the bill even more firmly, staring at him coldly.

"…"

He reluctantly let the bill go. Otherwise, it might have broken into pieces.

"This is my money," he stated this fact.

"All the money and fortune in the world belongs to me," the cat said arrogantly.

Zhang Zian mimicked its tone. "All the beauties in the world belong to me."

"You are daydreaming!" it responded, just like it was talking to a foreman. "Wake up and go ahead and move your bricks."

Zhang Zian was annoyed. It was okay to be despised by a human being, but being despised by a cat? How could that be?

"Don’t you like the bling bling? I had to use money to buy the diamond ring. The diamond ring you saw last time cost me forty bills of that same value. Even the cheapest one cost more than ten bills," Zhang Zian said.

It tilted its head and thought a bit. "Why don’t you hurry and buy them?"

Zhang Zian emphasized for the third time, "I said I don’t have enough money."

"How do you get enough money?" It looked down at him as he bent down to grasp the money.

Zhang Zian returned to the pet display area.

"I am a pet seller. I have to sell them to earn money."

"In other words, you are a slave dealer?" It became impatient. Cats were impatient animals, after all.

"No… I am not that high end. I am a pet dealer at most." Zhang Zian felt it tiring to explain. "These cats and dogs will be bought and taken home by those people who love them."

Maneki-Neko’s ears pricked up, and it became very serious. "Why do people buy them and take them home? Catching some mice? Or patrolling?"

"No." Zhang Zian waved his hands. "There are few mice issues in the city. We don’t need them to patrol either. Actually, they do not have to do anything, as long as they enjoy their life. People want them to be their companions in order to be free from loneliness. My job is to find the right masters for them and make them happy for life."

After hearing Zhang Zian’s words, it said to itself, "It seems that this era is not too bad after all…"

Zhang Zian replied with a bitter smile, "Yes, you are right. This is the best era for cats and dogs. People bring them home, treat them like masters, play with them, feed them, take care of them, find the best treatments for them if they are sick, feel really heartbroken if they pass away, and still remember them for years to come."

The cat looked at him out of the corner of its eyes. "Rare and strange! This era sounds pretty good; it could be the best era, as you said!"

It picked up the bill from the ground with its claw. "I reward you this money for your dedication to cats."

"What? It was initially my money!"

Zhang Zian didn’t have time to complain, hurriedly picking up the money and putting it back in his wallet, then holding the wallet tight against his chest, just like an elementary school student that had just been robbed on the street.

"In other words, if you sell a cat, not only can you earn money, but you can also make the cat’s life better, right?" asked Maneki-Neko.

"Yes, you are right. That’s what call ‘win-win’ in this world."

"But if it was that good, as you said, why does no one come to the store and buy pets?" it asked, looking around the store.

Zhang Zian shrugged his shoulders and answered helplessly, "There are not too many customers yet because the store is newly opened, small-scale, short on pets, and doesn’t yet have a reputation."

It threw another question at Zhang Zian. "Why don’t you have more cats?"

"I am the only one working in the store and I don’t have enough hands," Zhang Zian explained. "Helping these cats take a bath already reaches my limit."

As a matter of fact, cats were not scared of water, but cat hair was not waterproof. They hated the wet feeling, so seven out of ten cats didn’t like taking a bath, which made it a tough task to accomplish. Anyone who owned a cat would have the same concern.

But the good thing was that cats don’t need a bath every day. The calm and well-behaved short-haired cats, like British Shorthairs, only needed a bath once a year. They would lick themselves clean if they found their hair getting dirty. However, it was tough to deal with long-haired cats, especially the active ones. They were not like stuffed animals that could be thrown in the washing machine for cleaning, instead needing to be taken care of carefully and gently.

Zhang Zian had picked mostly cubs as they ate less, pooped less, and were easier to clean; even if a bath was needed, it would be easy to do. An adult cat that really hated baths needed two humans to help with the bath.

A lot of pet shops offered pet bathing services to the customers, mostly targeting those adult cats that hated baths. The owners gave up on trying themselves, so it would be easier to just send them to the pet store.

Although Amazing Fate Pet Shop had a room for pet baths, due to a lack of hands, Zhang Zian didn’t want to start this business. When his parents were around, they had that service, but it was still tough to handle sometimes, so he didn’t think it would be worth trying it now.

Maneki-Neko heard those words and its two eyes lit up, wondering, "The cats of this era don’t like taking baths?" It seemed very serious and curious.