Pet King
Pet King - Chapter 1064-1065: : King’s Bureau

Other stray cats were completely convinced by Vladimir’s charm, vision, and broad mind. They listened to its words. Since it decided to postpone the plan temporarily, there had to be a reason for it. Only the belligerent and warlike Big Orange, upon hearing that there was no war to fight, felt restless and helpless.

Vladimir comforted it. “Big Orange, in the future, there are going to be a lot of big and hard battles. There will be no lack of fighting. For example, the Holy Cat Statue has yet to be retrieved, and our next step is to deal with that.”

Big Orange waved its claw excitedly, expressing that the branch organization near the sea had a lot of brothers and sisters that had been harmed by a strange creature that looked like a Holy Cat Statue. It had wanted to take revenge a long time ago, and it was finally getting the chance!

It asked Vladimir to quickly say what they should do. As long as there was a battle to fight, it was all right. Whether it was against humans or other things, its fat stomach had been hungry, and it was growing impatient. It wanted to sit on the Holy Cat Statue and kill it instantly!

Before, Vladimir did not regard the statue of Holy Cat Statue as a priority. First, it didn’t look at the paper tiger as an opponent at all. Second, it adopted the method of using full solutions and not half-solutions. Since the statue of the Cat God was born of the belief of human cat abusers, as long as human beings were eliminated, the statue of the Cat God lost its source of belief, and it would defeat itself without a battle.

But now that it had started to reevaluate its scheme against humans and was not going initiate anything, it needed to come up with other methods of dealing with the Holy Cat Statue. It was “listening to what one said and watching what one did.”

Vladimir was confident, and told the stray cats to go and rest, and to tell the other stray cats about their new plan. After it was done planning, it would gather them to start the fight against the Holy Cat Statue.

The local stray cats followed its orders and left, and Vladimir then gave its old friends from the Capital some words of encouragement. It turned to leave, not wanting to disturb their rest anymore; they still needed to take time to return to the Capital. It was a long journey.

Of course, they did not use their four legs to run over––that was too dumb. Anyway, the humans had ready-made transport vehicles, so it was a waste not to use them.

Despite that, it was tiring to come all that way, and they were fearful, too, of the journey.

The stray cats were about to spread out and leave when Vladimir had a strange feeling and ordered everyone to stop moving. It suddenly turned its head, stared at the empty doorway, and said, “Who is it? Come on out!”

It thought that it was Galaxy; however, a golden paw appeared in the doorway. Fina walked in slowly, its chest puffed out, like the owner of the four seas.

It looked around the windy, windowless room, then looked at the old bottles of water and dried fish before its gaze finally landed on Vladimir.

Vladimir’s pupils instantly enlarged! “It’s you!” it said, confused and surprised.

Fina had actually personally made a move!

The stray cats trembled with fear because of the sudden appearance of Fina. Even Big Orange, who was normally arrogant, trembled like a piece of fat. The only thing that kept them from running away like ordinary stray cats was the belief that Vladimir had rooted in their hearts: There was never a savior, nor an immortal emperor!

Their beliefs were still small and fragile, fluttering like candles in the wind, and could have been extinguished at any time––but the beliefs of millions of stray cats combined were enough to form a prairie fire.

“Even though your actions are very secretive, did you really think you could hide your plans from me?” Fina said arrogantly. It lightly lifted up a front paw and stepped on a flying scrap of paper. It looked at the words written on it, then released its claw and let it fly away.

“You know about my plans already?” Vladimir asked, trying to test the waters.

Fina sighed, and asked a question in response. “Does a stray cat escape the eyes of a domestic cat when it spies on information?”

Instead, Vladimir put down a stone in his heart. It was somewhat puzzled. The action was so smooth that Fina seemed to be completely in the dark, which was very unusual.

Fina did not seem to notice anyone else; it did not consider the stray cats presence at all. “I’m here to tell you that your previous plan was too dumb.”

Vladimir did not agree. Perhaps its plan had some areas that were lacking in consideration, but it was not dumb, right?

“Then what’s your great opinion?” it asked back.

Fina said confidently, “Rather than getting rid of humans, why don’t we make humans slaves? We could make them cows and horses to serve the cat race.”

Vladimir was speechless.

“This is the cat’s millennium plan. For thousands of years, the royal family of the cat has been striving to achieve this goal. People think that they have domesticated our cat family, and even feel complacent about it. In fact, our cat family is domesticating them!” Fina raised one of her forepaws and pointed to Vladimir. “As the saying goes: ‘Even when beating a dog, you must see who the owner is.’ I will never allow you and the stray cats to destroy our slaves! I want to leave their lowly lives alone to create a better living environment for the cats. Otherwise, nobody will pay tribute and shovel sh*t!”

It was not clear what the humans would think if they heard what Fina said. Vladimir shook its head and said, “Don’t worry, we won’t destroy them at the moment. I feel like the time is not right yet. Human beings are declining, but their purpose has not been exhausted yet.”

“That’s good. I also do not want to see house cats and stray cats fight each other. We are the same species.” Fina slowly turned around. “Since it’s like this, I do not have any reason to stay here. This place is full of the smell of urine and poop. It’s so smelly my head is hurting.”

“Leave slowly. I won’t be sending you off,” Vladimir said, its tone even.

When Fina reached the doorway it paused. Without turning its head back, it said, “On that certain night, did Galaxy run off to find you?”

“Yes.” There was nothing Vladimir wanted to hide, and so it just told the truth.

Fina huffed. “I guessed as much… It must have left the Sacred Palace quietly to talk to you. I am not interested in what it wanted to say to you, but I shall give you a piece of advice: It’s better not to ignore what it says. I’ve said what I wanted to say, and I’ll return to my palace now.”

The gold figure swished its tail and disappeared out the doorway. The light in the room diminished slightly when it left.

The stray cats present didn’t return to their senses until Fina had been gone for more than 30 seconds. They were more tired than if they had fought a tough battle, and were about to collapse. Big Orange turned around, and with its face to the sky, it exposed its tummy and laid on the ground, panting loudly. It was like it had just gone to the gym and worked out with iron weights.

Actually, there was no need for Fina to remind it: Vladimir did not ignore Galaxy’s warning. Being weak and lacking knowledge was not what hindered survival; it was arrogance that hindered survival.

“Without food and without clothes, humans would naturally give us some!”

“Without guns and without bombs, humans would make them for us!”

“We were born here, and every bit of land is ours!”

“No matter who wants to take it from us, we will fight to our death to defend it!”

In order to break the rest of the strays from Fina’s influence, Vladimir loudly sang the songs he had heard from the television. The cats were all extremely into it. Even if they didn’t quite understand the lyrics, they were still deeply touched and inspired by the burning fire of desire and the bravery of daring to fight the world.

Right then, their sense of self started to wake too. This was the territory of strays all around the world—no longer tiny pieces of segregated land separated between each stray, causing fights between one another for rights to a trash can. Rather than dealing with endless internal conflicts, why not gather together to protect the rights of strays all around the world?

As their singing went on for a while, a few of the stray cats even tried to mimic it clumsily, following its tune. Big Orange absolutely howled through all of it, and the morale of the strays rose as their out-of-tune voices did too.

“That’s all for today. You’re dismissed!”

Vladimir was pleased with the effects of their singing and mused over the thought of starting a tradition. If two teams started singing out of nowhere, it would be a great scene.

The cats scattered, going back to where they’d come from to tell others about their new aim.

Vladimir hurried out of their secret rendezvous spot too, heading back toward the pet shop.

Wang Qian and Li Kun were helping Zhang Zian bring out all of the strays to release them in the plot of land before bringing the metal cages and trolley back to the clinic.

Fina had returned a long time ago, and she was taking a nap on the highest level of the cat tower. Since it was Golden Week, there had been a lot of people going in and out of the shop. No one would notice its brief absence since it usually took a lot—a lot—of persuasion and bribery to get it out of the pet shop.

Zhang Zian brought Aunt Liu’s American Shorthair down from the second floor, brushing its hair for the last time.

The first time it had come to the clinic, the cat had been a little malnourished, but its coat was glossy and shiny now, and its body had bulked up after numerous sessions of hide-and-seek with Galaxy. But in hide-and-seek games with Galaxy and the Abyssinian cat, it was often on the losing end due to the limitations of its mortal body, and it often lost its target in the midst of the chase since it couldn’t keep up with their tempo.

“Are you planning to return it to that woman now?” Vladimir asked.

“Yes.” Zhang Zian looked up to answer it. “It’s been here for long enough. It’s time for it to go home.”

“Meow! Bye-bye! Come back when you’re free to play with us!”

Galaxy came rushing over out of nowhere, raising a paw to say goodbye.

The cat still wasn’t aware of what was happening. It observed its surroundings, confused.

“We’re leaving. Say bye-bye to everyone!”

Zhang Zian picked up the American Shorthair, raising one of its front paws and waving it back and forth at Galaxy and the other elfins.

When he brought it past Fina’s cat tower, Fina scoffed, eyes opening into narrow slits. “Where are you bringing my subject?”

Zhang Zian had already thought of a way to deal with this situation and answered calmly. “Its previous owner had already been punished and had shown genuine signs of remorse and change, so I felt it would be appropriate to send it back to enjoy the dedicated offerings of one human.”

This answer pleased Fina. “Hm, you make sense. If one of my subjects ever gets hurt again, I will hold you responsible!”

Zhang Zian shrugged, guessing he just had to take up that responsibility now.

He carried the American Shorthair out, finding a short wall and standing on his tip-toes to put it there.

“Be good and stay here.”

He picked up the proposal then, looking for Aunt Liu’s name and calling her phone number.

“Hello? Is this Aunt Liu? It’s Zhang Zian. I saw another stray that looks like your American Shorthair. Do you want to come over and take a look? Be quick—it might just run off! My location? I’m at…”

He told Aunt Liu his location before moving into the shade of the wall, ready to prevent people from taking the American Shorthair away while he waited for Aunt Liu to show up.

Vladimir followed him, watching silently.

Not too long later, Aunt Liu ran out just wearing house clothes and slippers, anxiously searching around while she rushed through the streets, looking for any signs of her cat.

“Ah! Don’t move! Don’t move! I’ll carry you down!” She instantly recognized that the American Shorthair sitting on the wall was her own.

The wall was a little tall, and she couldn’t reach the top of it no matter how much she tiptoed and stretched her arms out.

Zhang Zian was still hesitating as to whether he should help out, but he was worried that the American Shorthair wouldn’t leave with Aunt Liu the moment he did and follow him back to the pet shop instead. That would ruin all of their hard work.

Right then, the American Shorthair seemed to recognize Aunt Liu, clambering for a moment before leaping down right into a full-body hug.

“Ah! My poor baby! Where have you been all this time? I’ve been searching for you for so long!” Aunt Liu nagged constantly, but the relief was evident on her face, as though a heavy weight had been taken off her heart.

She inspected it for a bit, pleased to find that the American Shorthair wasn’t injured or sick, and it wasn’t too dirty either. “Let’s go home. I just brought fish back from the market, and I’m steaming it right now on the stove. You’re getting a treat today!”

She just kept on talking as she carried the American Shorthair back home.

“Alright, the show’s over. We can go home… With such a busy afternoon, even I’m hungry. I want to eat steamed fish too…”

Zhang Zian walked out from the shadows, stretching his back and mentioning it to Vladimir.

Vladimir regarded him with a half-smile, its next few words holding more meaning beneath the surface. “Did you know? You just saved the world!”

“Saved the world?”

Zhang Zian stopped and laughed.

This wasn’t some Hollywood movie. What “saving the world” was it talking about?

“Alright, since I saved the world, do I get any benefits?” he teased. “For example, being reincarnated as a tall, handsome, and rich man? I don’t need to be super rich—just as much as Principal Wang would do. But I have to at least be more handsome than he is.”

Vladimir shook its head in regret. “Pity, it’s impossible to be reincarnated. The most precious things bestowed upon humans and cats are our lives, and they are given to us only once.”

Its eyes lit up with the fire of desire, and it clenched its paw tightly as it declared determinedly, “Cats should live their lives like this. When looking back to the past, they must not regret the wasted years and youth and not be ashamed of their busy periods. In the end, they should be able to say: My entire life, and all of my energy, was given to the most noble mission on this world—fighting for the rights and freedom of strays!”