Pet King

Chapter 328: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"I remember now! Your last name is Deng, right? Welcome!"

Everyone that entered his shop should be regarded as a customer. Whether Deng Jie had bought pets in his shop or not, her visit to the shop was very precious, especially when the business was in tough times, so Zhang Zian greeted her with greater enthusiasm than usual.

He looked at Wang Qian and Li Kun, gesturing them to greet the guest. Wang Qian moved a chair towards her, and Li Kun fetched a cleaning towel to wipe the chair, inviting Deng Jie to sit down and talk.

After declining the invitation for a few times, Deng Jie sat down, feeling a little bit awkward.

Zhang Zian initiated a small talk, "It’s quite cold outside, isn’t it?"

"Right, I’ve inhaled so many chilly winds!" answered Deng Jie. The small talk had made her relax a little bit, and she began to gaze at the grey parrot on Zhang Zian’s shoulder.

It was the first time that Snowy had seen such a large parrot, and fearing that it might peck or scratch at her, she kept stepping back to avoid it. She was holding her cellphone in one hand, and Richard flew over and landed on that arm parallel to the ground, staring at the live broadcast screen curiously.

The audience from the live broadcast also worried this parrot named Richard might hurt Snowy, but after a while, they found that it didn’t move around aggressively, so their fear had turned into curiosity.

So had Snowy. She focused the camera lens of her cellphone on Richard to record it closely.

A few bird enthusiasts among the audience had recognized that this was an African grey parrot, and introduced some of its characteristics to other spectators.

Seeing that things were going well with Snowy and Richard, Zhang Zian ended the greetings and got to the subject, "Ms. Deng, what brings you here in such cold weather?"

During the small talk, Deng Jie had been looking around to observe the pet shop after renovation, which was totally different than the first time she was here. In her memory, this pet shop used to be dark and old, which was reassuring to her, because it meant the things in this shop would not be ridiculously expensive or classy. Deng Jie had never gone into those splendid high-end shopping malls, with items she couldn’t afford from her first glance.

If the interior design of the Amazing Fate Pet Shop before was as delicate and beautiful as it was right now, she probably wouldn’t set foot in this place.

Besides, when she was here last time, there were only a few cats and dogs behind the display cases, but now the number of the pets were over ten times more than that time, and the kittens were chasing each other and playing around in the shop, which was very pleasing to her eyes. From these scenes, she figured that Zhang Zian’s business was getting better, and she couldn’t help but regret her decision before.

Hearing Zhang Zian’s inquiry, she sighed, "Alas! To be honest, I was defrauded. I should’ve bought a pet here even though it’s expensive."

"Oh? What happened? Please be more specific," asked Zhang Zian calmly.

Deng Jie’s narrative had clear logic; she must have prepared before. "After I left your shop, I went to a few other pet shops, but I still couldn’t make up my mind—the kittens and puppies in your shop were lively and energetic, but were pricey; while the pets in other shops were cheaper, they seemed listless. The staff there explained that the pets had just arrived in their shops and hadn’t accustomed to the environment, and that they should become energetic in a few days… I had no knowledge of pet raising, and I didn’t dare to trust their words recklessly, so I thought I should bide my time and make a decision after seeing more pets."

Zhang Zian knew that she was a customer sensitive to prices, and it was normal for her to compare among different shops.She had probably been to more than three shops...

"And then I also inquired my colleagues and neighbors to see whose pets had given birth to kittens and puppies. What a pity, either other families had reserved the newborn pets, or they were descendants of too many different breeds…" as if justifying for herself, she added hastily, "I didn’t want to settle for any pet randomly, I want to be a responsible pet owner."

Zhang Zian nodded to indicate he had understood, without making any comment. She wanted a purebred kitten or puppy other than a hybrid-bred, and didn’t want to spend too much money on it. It was a very normal mentality for people who wanted to buy quality products at low prices, but how rare would the chance be…

He had figured out the ending of her endeavor—she was penny wise and pound foolish.

As he had expected, Deng Jie continued her narrative, "Later, I heard someone recommend me visiting the dog market if I wanted to buy pets. The pets there are the offspring of home-raised pets, which are relatively cheaper with good conditions…"

"Wait a minute." Zhang Zian interrupted her. He thought for a moment and asked, "Dog market? You mean the dog market in Nancheng District?"

He had heard Guo Dongyue and Sun Xiaomeng mention before that there was a large-scale dog market in Nancheng District, which was the major distribution center for pet trading in Binhai City. Guo Dongyue went there to buy parrots, but didn’t find the red-headed lovebirds that he needed. Hearing Deng Jie mention dog market right now, his interest in that was reviving.

"Yes, the one in the south side." Deng Jie nodded as confirmation; "There is only one dog market in Binhai City."

"Oh. Please continue."

Deng Jie said, "After hearing the recommendation, I discussed it with my husband, but he said that it was better I didn’t go there for there were many swindlers there, and that if I really wanted to buy a pet, an expensive one could make me more reassured…" She sighed again, "But I went to the dog market anyway, and I was deceived so miserably!"

On the other hand, Richard's dirty jokes were creating a sensation among the audience of the live broadcast, and the people who had gotten its jokes were laughing very hard. But Snowy’s face turned crimson from embarrassment, and she finally turned Richard away after objections put forward by some female audience members.

Richard shouted very unpleasantly, "I can go elsewhere anyway!" It stared at the camera lens and ridiculed the audience, "None of you are qualified to be my rival!" And then it flew back onto Zhang Zian’s shoulder.

Richard’s performance in front of the audience was very impressive, but hadn’t reached a level that would made them suspicious. All its dirty jokes were commonly heard, and it didn’t display any ability to have a logical conversation with the audience. So, even though the audience was envious of such a talking parrot, they wouldn’t suspect its identity.

Hearing Deng Jie was talking about the dog market, Snowy approached closer curiously while holding up her cellphone to continue the live broadcast. As a vigorous and curious person, she was familiar with the city, and of course she had heard of the dog market before — she just had never been there because she thought it wasn’t distinctive enough, and she didn’t understand a thing about the pet industry.

Zhang Zian asked, "How were you deceived in the dog market? Some merchant sold a pet of poor conditions to you?"

"Poor conditions?" Deng Jie drudged up a bitter smile and said in a self-mocking manner, "I would rather it was a pet of poor conditions. At least I could take it as a lesson for my extravagant hope of buying a good pet at low cost. The problem is... alas! It’s a long story!"

She bit her teeth, clenching her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and her pupils were sparkling with violent rage, like she was going to lunge over and bite somebody.

"No worries, take your time," said Zhang Zian calmly.

He now knew that Deng Jie was deceived severely in the dog market when buying a pet.

In fact, looking at the statistics, including online and onsite transactions, in China, at least hundreds of thousands of people were deceived when buying pets every year, involving a total amount of billions of RMB. In particular, on a very large website for pet trading, among every ten sellers, there would be five swindlers and four agents for these swindlers. Deng Jie was just another unfortunate victim of the frauds, but no one could maintain calm when they themselves became the victims.

Deng Jie took a few deep breaths, and didn’t continue speaking until she had calmed herself down, "In fact, at the beginning, I remained alert, thinking that I was going to look around instead of really buying one. After looking around for a while, and seeing that it was getting late, I was about to go home to make dinner. But then I saw a stand surrounded by many people, and I went there out of curiosity. The owner of that stand was selling Japanese Shiba Inus, and there were six yellow puppies in the display cases. I thought it was very expensive, but the owner said that they were the babies of the Shiba Inu in his home, and he couldn’t afford to raise so many puppies, so he was selling them for only 3,000 RMB each!"

Zhang Zian couldn’t help laughing, "3,000 RMB for a Japanese Shiba Inu? You definitely fell into a trap! Let me tell you, do you know why Shiba Inus are expensive? Because they are rare! Shiba Inus have weak reproduction abilities, normally, a purebred Shiba Inu will give birth to no more than three puppies in one litter. When he said that his dog had given birth to six puppies in one litter, you should have known that it probably wasn’t a Shiba Inu, well, at least not a purebred one!"

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