Please support the translation by reading the translation and commenting on otakutl official site.
Thank you.
Everyone from Otaku Translation
[Translator’s Note: o(╥﹏╥)o My apologies, this is the corrected version of chapter 167. I normally get my Chinese text from uukanshu.com and I was wondering why it says “kc” rather than “BlackC” because I was certain it was referring to Zheng Tan (a.k.a. Charcoal) and his modeling name was BlackC, not KC. I didn’t know if it was okay to just substitute it with BlackC, because there were these what-ifs like what if it was intentional by the author and they might explain it in the upcoming chapters about why it’s ‘kc’. At the beginning, I thought it was probably because when you pronounce ‘k’, it in a way kinda sounded like ‘hei’ which is ‘black’ in Chinese. But then, it would be very unlikely, because the author would explain so (but they never did in the upcoming chapters or the previous chapters that I relooked through). I even googled up “does ‘k’ stand for black in chinese” lol, which I learned that the K in CMYK (the four colors–Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key–used for color printing and makes all sort of other colors by mixing with certain amount of each other) is technically the color black, so I thought maybe it is because of that, but then again, it can’t be this complicated lol and even if so, the author would explain so (but never did). It kept on troubling me because it made no sense. Then, finally, for goodness sake, I decided to check other sites where I can also find its Chinese text, and ta-daa mystery solved (after I wasted hours and hours haha)! It was because the text was a bit different (I think uukanshu.com changed it for copyright reasons), which of course the little changes/missing parts would make a huge difference for translators/readers. From now on, I shall use the new site I found. Feel free to reread it. I did make a few changes. Sorry again (TT-TT) ––.crimson.]Chapter 167 Why the Hell So Expensive
That black and white cat was lazing around in the eastern courtyard.
When Zheng Tan sent Youzi to school early in the morning, he saw that cat squatting on the edge of the flowerbed, facing in the direction of Building B.
Yesterday, it followed Er Mao to deal with the follow-up matters. It was estimated that when Er Mao came back, it was forcibly rejected by Er Mao. Thus, what it ended up doing was squatting at the door of the building, blocking others’ entry.
Just like when Li Yuanba was looking for an owner, it would probably do the same. Once it had its eyes set on someone, it would directly go up to them.
When it saw Zheng Tan and Youzi, it just glanced at them with half-open eyes and then continued to squint and doze off. With its ears propped up as if it was listening for something particular, it opened its eyes as soon as it heard the “click” sound of the entry access control and looked over there.
Although Zheng Tan did not understand why it was so persistent to follow Er Mao, he felt that it would not be an easy task for Er Mao to adopt a cat. Not to mention, that time when Er Mao saw Zheng Tan and his buddies squatting on a tree, Er Mao had made a remark, “Cats are a bunch of d*ckheads.” It could be seen that dude still had a deep grudge against cats.
There was no sunshine today, rather it was gloomy. It was impossible for Zheng Tan to simply stay in one place to sunbathe. So he ran outside and took a stroll around. Originally, he planned to stay outside longer, but the sky started to drizzle. He had no choice but to hurry back inside. On his way back, he saw that cat still squatting there. Its ears shook every time raindrops fell on them.
Yesterday, Zheng Tan saw the weather forecast, which forecasted today would be cloudy and tomorrow would rain lightly. However, it already started raining today. Sure enough, the weather forecast could not always be accurate. Just look at the sky, the rain was inevitable.
Whenever it was raining, Zheng Tan did not have to pick up Youzi at noon. He just waited at home for his food. This was his routine during rainy days.
After climbing up to the third floor, Zheng Tan went to Er Mao’s door to do a little eavesdropping. There was a voice talking inside. That dude was probably on the phone. If that dude had gotten up, he would go out to buy breakfast. Not to mention, it would be impossible not to notice that black and white cat squatting outside.
Forget it, whether Er Mao wanted to adopt or not was not his business. Zheng Tan could not make a decision for him. For that reason, he could not help that cat. Who made that cat set its eyes only upon that dude?
Returning home, Zheng Tan did not turn on the computer to surf the internet, which is so unlike him. Instead, he was lying at the door of the bedroom, watching the rain getting heavier and heavier outside.
There was a gurgling sound coming from diagonally below. Zheng Tan looked over there, and the b!tchy bird General was sticking its beak out of the iron net. He was drinking rainwater. However, it was not due to thirst. Based on Zheng Tan’s understanding of that nuisance, he was purely doing it for fun. After the winter season ended, Zheng Tan sensed that bird's character had gotten even worse. Not only would he sing old 80s opera, but occasionally, he would recite a few poetic phrases with immense poetic interest and "emotion". It was said that he had learned it from the children at Hope Primary School when his owner took him there. What caused a worser headache for Zheng Tan was that nuisance seemed to have learned to swear. Not sure who he learned it from, but one thing for sure was that nuisance had way too good of an insight.
Zheng Tan was lying at the door of the room looking at the rain-drenched balcony outside. Just now, while the parrot was not paying attention, Zheng Tan looked through the surveillance camera. That black and white cat was not found in the flowerbed below, probably took shelter somewhere. In Chuhua City during this season, basically each time it rained, the temperature would rise following it. After this rain stopped, the temperature would rise up again.
Unlike Zheng Tan’s calmness, Er Mao seemed very irritated.
Not in the mood to listen to music, Er Mao took off his headphones. Instead, he looked at the rain outside in a daze. The door leading to the balcony was opened, and the wind blowing in brought the moisture from outside with it, giving one a slight coldness.
Er Mao lit a cigarette and smoked slowly. He just made a phone call and was not in a good mood. Now thinking about that black and white cat, he got more irritated.
But at this moment, outside suddenly came a slightly hoarse and cadenced voice.
"Spring rain is as precious as oil, raining all over the street ~~"
Er Mao: “...”
What the f*ck, which muthafucka was reciting poetry!
However, Er Mao did not bother to go out to see who it was. After smoking halfway, he threw the cigarette into the ashtray and went out with a folding umbrella.
Zheng Tan was lying on his stomach while looking at the rain. Then suddenly, he heard a click from a door downstairs. He went to the balcony and stretched his neck to take a look below. Although he could not see the person’s head, he knew to whom those pants belonged.
What was Er Mao doing outside?
An hour later, the rain had essentially stopped, besides a few sporadic drizzles. Many people had put away their umbrellas. Zheng Tan looked down at the concrete road in front of the building. At this time, classes had finished at the affiliated elementary school and Zheng Tan was waiting for Youzi and Jiao Wei to bring back food. Unexpectedly, he saw Er Mao first. Moreover, behind Er Mao followed the black and white cat!
The cat was a little wet, and there were black mud stains on its four legs, but it seemed to be in good spirits. More importantly, when Er Mao entered the building, it followed.
So was he ready to adopt it?
Zheng Tan was curious that Er Mao actually brought that cat inside. Didn’t he not like cats? Such a contradiction.
After Er Mao brought the cat back, he looked at the cat who was squatting on the ground eating a boxed lunch, and scratched his head in annoyance. Why did he bring this cat back? How was he supposed to raise it? He could not even look after himself, not to mention looking after a cat? Probably after a few days, the cat would become half-dead.
Sigh, harming humans and now also cats.
It was all due to impulse.
The rain-drenched carton, even the leftovers in the disposable carton were soaked in water, the few whitened fish bones slowly being washed down by the water running down the slope… Thinking back on the situation at that time, Er Mao did not know what he was thinking. When he saw the look in the eyes of the cat hiding in the cardboard box, he called out to the cat to follow him. However, it was just a test to see if it would follow. He originally thought that it would ignore him, so he will just leave it be. Never did he expect it would really follow him and even follow him all the way to his place.
The previous landlord did not say that pets are not allowed. Besides, there lived many pets in this compound, so no need to worry about having pets. Er Mao thought to himself. This cat was not as smart as the black cat upstairs to the point it made people feel uncomfortable nor was it stupid, so he did not have to worry about it too much.
If he thought it this way, it did not seem bad. Anyway, he was bored with nothing much to do, so he would raise it first to see. This cat was probably just on a whim. If it wanted to leave after a while, he would just open the door and let it go. For the time being…that would be the plan.
Now that he had decided to raise it, Er Mao still had many problems to face. Looking at the stains on the cat, he frowned.
Seriously unable to think of a good way, Er Mao decided to go upstairs to ask the people on the fifth floor to see how they usually keep cats. At this time, the little girl and the student named Jiao Wei should be there.
When Er Mao came over, Zheng Tan was eating.
When asked about the cat food, Jiao Wei did not quite understand it, so Youzi answered instead. She did not say much, just one sentence, but it was simple and clear, and directly solved Er Mao’s question.
Youzi suggested to Er Mao that he go to the “Clearly So” pet center, where they had pet experts and various related items for sale. They could even help bathe pets.
After knowing the solution to his problem, Er Mao immediately went to Mr. Guo’s place with the cat that had just eaten.
Not until he arrived at the location that he knew there was more needed to be done than he had thought. Vaccines, deworming and other issues have to be dealt with. He did not know anything so he left it all to the veterinarians and the staff here. All he had to do was to pay.
A staff member holding a registration record book asked, “Name?”
“Wang Ming.” Er Mao was boredly playing with his phone and did not look up.
The lady in charge of registration looked at Er Mao strangely. “Your cat also has a surname?”
“Ah? You mean the cat’s name?”
“Of course, sir. Didn’t you already sign your name just now?”
“The cat’s name…” Er Mao was silent for two seconds. Thinking of the black pattern like grains of rice on the cat’s nose, he said, “Black Rice. Its name is Black Rice.”
“Its age?” The lady asked again.
“I don’t know. I just adopted it today.” Er Mao shrugged.
The lady in charge of the registration revealed two dimples, “Sir, you are so warmhearted!”
Er Mao: “…haha.” It was the first time someone said he was warmhearted, but why did he feel so awkward?
The lady was very enthusiastic. Of course, while answering Er Mao’s questions, she also did not forget to promote her pet center’s things, such as the cat climbing trees, cat scratching boards, cat toys, cat food, etc.
Er Mao took the booklet of goods sold here handed over by the lady, flipped through it, and went to see the real thing after he took a fancy to it. The place he rented was only so big, so there was no need to buy anything quite large. Whichever was simple would be what he would go with. However, cat food had to be bought, so then he did not have to worry about it. Furthermore, he did not have the ability to make cat food in the kitchen.
Turning page after page, Er Mao suddenly stopped his gaze at an advertisement on the cat food introduction. He seemed uncertain, so he looked closely at it and then landed his eyes on the small print next to it.
“BlackC?”
With a smile on her face, the lady began to introduce: “This is a cat star in our pet center. The cat model hired by our boss with a high salary has appeared in many pet magazines. Oh, it even appeared among some of the online forums, and even has many BC fans.” [1]
BC Fans? Cat model?! Pooh! You thought I cannot recognize you now that you got a high-end foreign English name?! This was obviously the rascal upstairs!
Although Er Mao had always said that he hated cats, his ability to recognize cats was excellent. Even if he was not sure at first glance, after looking at the next few pictures, Er Mao had already equated the cat in the picture with the one upstairs.
His mouth twitched. After he turned a few more pages, he found that the categories of cat food with the black cat in its advertising picture was more than twice as expensive as other categories of cat food! Some even were multiple times more expensive.
This amount of money was really nothing to Er Mao, but Er Mao just could not help but wonder why the hell the categories of advertising by this black cat were so expensive?!
Er Mao pointed to the serious cat face on the advertisement picture and asked the lady about his doubts.
The lady answered very professionally, “Because these categories are very quality-assured, and will soon be exported abroad.”
Exported? Stop kidding!
Er Mao did not believe it at all.
However, looking at the prices of the cat food with advertising images of BlackC on the back of the booklet, Er Mao rubbed his chin. It seemed the rascal was very valuable!
“Do you guys deliver?”
“Large items or items that reach a certain amount of cost can be delivered to your door. Our pet center will absolutely assure you the best service.”
She directly changed to the formal “you” when speaking to him.
Anyway, he was not lacking money, so he chose several cat food advertised by the “big shot” upstairs, as well as the cat litter and cat scratching board that he saw in the front.
“Are these enough?”
“Of course!” The lady smiled even more. If they sell successfully, though there would be no commission, reward points would be recorded for them. They would then get bonuses when their salary was settled every month.
“Do you want to try it first?” The lady asked.
“No, if my cat doesn’t want to eat it, I’ll toss it to BlackC and let it eat it all up in front of me!” Er Mao snorted. Dare it not eat the cat food which it made advertisements for?!
The lady simply thought that Er Mao was joking, asked a few questions and filled out a list for Er Mao to check, handed it to the picker packer, and then went on to register the next customer.
Er Mao sat there bored, but then he saw several advertisements for cat food on the shelf next to him, one of which had the head of that black cat. He took out that specific advertisement, folded it and put it in his pocket. This was all evidence.
[1] BC is the abbreviation for BlackC, which is Zheng Tan’s (a.k.a. Charcoal’s) modeling name. Reminder of how Papa Jiao came up with that alias for Charcoal: the ‘Black’ basically refers to the fur color of our ML and the ‘C’ stands for the element ‘carbon’ in the periodic table of elements. Thus, BlackC indirectly refers to charcoal, which is Zheng Tan’s cat name. (Expected from our Papa Jiao haha :D)
How to find a list of chapters
Please find the chapter label next to your favorite translator's name, and click the label.
No comments:
Post a Comment