Chapter 1317: The Pains of Growing Up

It wasn’t only the people present—the elfins were also listening to Zhang Zian’s explanation.

Everyone got different things out of the same speech. People and elfins felt differently about what they heard.

In the eyes of parents, the child grew up in a blink of an eye, not to mention the cat, which grew several times faster than a human. When a person was still stuck in the memory of a plush dumpling that they’d just brought home, the pet had indeed grown at a staggering speed…so much so that it needed sterilization.

In fact, Zhang Zian had thought all of these up on the spot. He based it off the feelings he’d witnessed between Fina and Cleopatra while in Egypt.

He looked back at the counter of a display cabinet in the corner of the store, where there was an Egyptian plaster sculpture of Cleopatra. It had been bought from the Khan el-Khalili market. He then looked at the cat tree with contemplation. Fina also looked up at the sculpture at the same time.

Zhao Qi hadn’t gotten a reliable explanation, but she didn’t need it. She no longer needed to guess, because she knew that it was Lan Lan’s way of protecting her. That was good enough.

She picked up the shopping bags and handbags that she had just placed on the ground because her hands were sore.

“Oh, yes, there is one more thing that you misunderstood,” Zhang Zian added. “You said that Lan Lan has grown up, but it has not. The British Shorthair’s puberty period is longer than most cats. Most cats need one year to reach adulthood, but the British Shorthair needs about three years. Lan Lan is still a kitten.”

“Really?” Zhao Qi was surprised and happy.

“Yes,” Zhang Zian replied. “If someone tells you that all cats mature in a year, then don’t hesitate to turn around and go. This person must be a layman or pretending to know things. He is clearly not aware of the uniqueness of each cat. Experts will laugh when they hear this.”

“Cough!” Wang Qian and Li Kun repeatedly coughed and reminded Zhang Zian not to say this. This is because they’d also said this to customers before. Wasn’t he rubbing it in again?

“That… Can I ask whether this is only observable in the British Shorthair?” Wang Yan asked curiously.

“Nope. It is the same with the Ragdoll.” Zhang Zian gestured for them to look at the playful ragdoll kittens in the store. “The ragdoll is a large domestic cat, and it takes about three years to grow up into an adult. Thus, many customers who bought the cat when it was cute did not expect the cat to become so big and heavy. So I always remind the customer that the ragdoll can weigh up to 20 kilograms when it is an adult. Do not underestimate how large it can grow.”

As college students who had just left school, Wang Yan and Zhou Jiena had no social experience at all. How heavy was 20 kilograms? They did not have a clear estimate.

It wasn’t just them. Many people had no understanding of that number.

The solution was simple. Zhang Zian gestured to Wang Qian to go to the kitchen on the second floor and bring a 20-kilogram bag of rice.

“Try it. See how heavy the twenty kilograms are,” he said.

Wang Yan and Zhou Jiena were thin girls. They tried to lift the bag of rice… They gritted their teeth and just barely moved it a little. They simply could not carry it like Wang Qian could.

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“So heavy…”

They tried to imagine a big cat that weighed 20 kilograms. They could only think of leopards and tigers.

“The ragdoll is very beautiful, but choosing it also means that it will be difficult to pick up after three years,” Zhang Zian said. “In addition to this, there is also the American Shorthair.”

“Wait a minute! Master, we have been reading. You cannot lie to us!” Wang Qian and Li Kun expressed dissatisfaction.

Li Kun said, “My family has raised an American Shorthair before. They stop growing after a year!”

Wang Qian nodded and asked, “Master, you are addicted to this, right?”

Zhao Qi’s issue had been resolved. Now it was easy for her to sit back and observe the commotion as a passerby.

Zhou Jiena and Wang Yan were somewhat shocked. The average staff would not dare to question the shopkeeper like that, would they? Like the companies that they’d just joined, they would not dare speak to the big bosses like that. They even trembled in the face of lower-ranked leaders. When they were scolded, they did not dare to breathe, much less rebut. This was the same even when they were in the right. At the beginning of their internship period, they were always instilled with the concept that “superiors and customers are always right.” Sometimes they felt like a robot that only nodded.

Observing here, the employer-employee relationship in this store was rather harmonious…

Zhang Zian calmly expressed that he didn’t know how he could make such a low-level mistake. He saved himself by saying that he’d deliberately done it to test them. Surely, Wang Qian and Li Kun were easily hooked.

“Do you think that only this kind of cat is called the American Shorthair?” He pointed to a beautiful short-haired cat running around the store.

Wang Qian and Li Kun’s brains had not processed what he’d said. They thought he was referring to American Shorthairs with different-colored coats. They said, “Even if the coats are different colors, they are still the same cat…”

“Don’t you know? The so-called ‘American Shorthair’ is actually the abbreviation of two kinds of cats. One is the ‘American Shorthair cat’ and the other is the ‘American Short-tailed cat.’” Zhang Zian revealed his answer.

“Ah? There is such a cat?” Wang Qian and Li Kun both somewhat perked up at this. This was the first time they had heard this strange name.

“Of course, even if you don’t know about it, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Zhang Zian laughed. “American Short-tailed cats are also cats with a long development period. They also take three years to fully develop into adults. Their hair length is considered to be of medium length, not short. Their tails are short. They’re considered to be an emerging cat species. They were recognized by the CFA in 2000. It is said that their short tails are the result of genetic mutation.”

“Master, you definitely did this on purpose!” Wang Qian and Li Kun reacted. Zhang Zian had deliberately used the term “American Shorthair” to confuse them and set traps. Inevitably, they became a source of teaching material and a source of acting like know-it-alls.

“Haha! Just giving you a lesson.” Zhang Zian did not deny that he was indeed intentionally using them.

Under normal circumstances, the word “American Shorthair” was the default short form of the “American short-haired cat.” The American Short-tailed cat was rarely heard of in China. To avoid misunderstanding what the speaker meant, the full name of the cat should be used.

Zhou Jiena and Wang Yan are fascinated, although they thought that cats should have long tails. They did not think that short-tailed cats were cute, and they didn’t know why such cats were so popular. However, entering this pet shop had been an eye-opener. They had heard a lot of pet knowledge that they hadn’t even known before. It seemed that entering this store to buy pets had been the right choice.