Pet King
Pet King - Chapter 1063: A New Path

Aunt Liu took another few steps. Zhang Zian watched as she stepped away. He suddenly raised his voice. 鈥淥h, Aunt Liu, I think I saw an American Shorthair pretty similar to yours a few days ago near here. Don鈥檛 give up. You might just find it.鈥?/p>

She turned back, asking in surprise and glee, 鈥淲here?鈥?/p>

鈥淛ust nearby. It was on the roof, and I couldn鈥檛 see it too clearly, but I thought it looked similar to yours.鈥?Zhang Zian pointed in a random direction. 鈥淚 was still trying to decide whether I should tell you about it, but it ran off.鈥?/p>

鈥淭he next time you see it, make sure to tell me. I wrote my phone number on that piece of paper,鈥?Aunt Liu anxiously reminded him.

鈥淣o problem.鈥?Zhang Zian waved. 鈥淭ake care.鈥?/p>

Aunt Liu was still worried and only left after nagging him a few more times.

鈥淲ho is she?鈥?Vladimir asked.

鈥淎 neighbor.鈥?/p>

Zhang Zian pushed the trolley as he started moving forward, explaining his experiences with Aunt Liu. It wasn鈥檛 a long time ago that these things had happened, but it sure felt that way.

Vladimir gave it a thought. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e saying that the adult American Shorthair in the shop was that woman鈥檚?鈥?/p>

鈥淵es, that鈥檚 right.鈥?/p>

鈥淭hen you told her that you saw her American Shorthair nearby because鈥︹€?Vladimir could guess what he was planning to do.

鈥淚 feel she had received her punishment and seemed to want to atone for her mistakes, and I think we can pass her cat back to her so she can take care of it,鈥?Zhang Zian said. 鈥淏ut鈥鈥檓 not sure if she would go back to her old ways鈥︹€?/p>

鈥淪o you mean鈥?鈥?it asked.

鈥淪o I wanted to ask for your help, to get the strays to keep an eye on her. She lives in a two-story shop house, and that should be easy to spy on for strays, right?鈥?He chuckled. 鈥淐ats have the brightest eyes after all. We cannot let a bad person off easily, but we can鈥檛 accuse a good person, either.鈥?/p>

Vladimir鈥檚 mouth moved, but no words came out.

This would certainly be an easy feat for strays. Strays were the best informants, after all. Information that humans felt would be as difficult to obtain as the passcode to the President鈥檚 home would be easily obtained by strays.

Returning to the pet shop, Zhang Zian eyed the corner of the wall on the opposite street and reminded Vladimir, 鈥淵our partners are here for you.鈥?/p>

Vladimir looked over to see a few strays, led by Big Orange, waiting there.

鈥淵es. I鈥檒l be gone for a bit.鈥?/p>

It looked left and right before crossing the street and jumping onto the wall.

Big Orange pointed its front paw towards the north in its excitement, after waiting for a long time.

鈥淥h? The representative of the Meow Meow Branch in the capital is here? That was fast!鈥?Vladimir perked up. 鈥淏ring me there, quick!鈥?/p>

It followed Big Orange, weaving through the alleyways, past the plot of land behind the pet shop, and to an old house waiting to be torn down. This had become the rendezvous spot for strays.

A few strays were lying on the ground, their faces caked with dust. A few empty cans lay before them, filled with clean water. There were a few pieces of small dried fish too. The strays were starving and parched, their energy almost completely drained. They didn鈥檛 bother eating the dried fish and lapped at the water like their lives depended on it.

Seeing Vladimir walk in, they had wanted to stand up to greet it.

鈥淣o need to stand. Just lie down. The journey has been tough for you. You have worked hard to come all the way here to Binhai City.鈥?It made a gesture with its front paw, meaning they should rest where they were.

Gratitude shone in their eyes as they declared that it was never tiring to serve for the greater good of the cats.

They were all Vladimir鈥檚 troops from when it had been in the capital. It had followed Zhang Zian down south to Binhai City, and it had given them a few important tasks before leaving.

When they had finally regained some of their strength, Vladimir asked, 鈥淗ow are the tasks going?鈥?/p>

One of the strays鈥?eyes shot to Big Orange, suspicious.

鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, these are all trusted people here. You can say what鈥檚 on your mind.鈥?Vladimir pacified it.

The cat immediately dropped its guard and yanked on a sealed plastic bag that was tied around another cat鈥檚 neck with a rubber band.

It passed the plastic bag to Vladimir.

Vladimir held onto the plastic bag with a solemn expression, cutting it open after a moment鈥檚 thought.

Every single cat on site watched its motions with curiosity.

It picked up the bag with its claw, shaking it, and a piece of paper dropped from it, floating onto the ground.

Every single cat鈥檚 eyes were on the piece of paper. Even though it was dark, they could all clearly see the complicated and random lines of words and letters.

They couldn鈥檛 read words or letters, and they had no idea what the sentence meant. In reality, it didn鈥檛 mean anything.

Only a small amount of cats knew what it really represented.

Vladimir sank into deep thought while staring at the line of characters before tearing it into shreds.

Big Orange freaked out, its plump body agile as it pounced, looking at the shreds of paper on the ground in pity and trying to get them back to how they used to be. It pawed at the shreds, but since it didn鈥檛 know how to read numbers and letters, it was an impossible task.

They had gotten this information through such huge efforts, so why destroy it?

Big Orange made a lot of gestures, meaning, 鈥淒idn鈥檛 you say that we鈥檙e going to hit them hard, that we鈥檙e going to declare nuclear war? By the way, what鈥檚 鈥榥uclear鈥?鈥?/p>

Vladimir shook its head slightly. 鈥淒on鈥檛 get agitated. The paper is already useless. I had memorized the passcode. If the paper was left the way it was, it could bring us future trouble and provide an express pass to our enemies.鈥?/p>

Finally understanding, Big Orange took a few embarrassed steps backward in its apology.

Vladimir鈥檚 eyes scanned the crowd. It cleared its throat. 鈥淚 re-evaluated the situation, and I feel that our previous decisions were too left-winged and dangerous,鈥?it said. 鈥淚t was too rash to try and break the humans鈥?rule over the world in one go. But our preparations are still not enough. We don鈥檛 have Meow Meow Branch Organizations all over the country yet, and everyone鈥檚 thinking might still be too amateur. If we start now, we might not get the victory we want, so I decided to delay our plans.鈥?/p>

It looked at the strays that came over from the capital and forced its next few words out with difficulty. 鈥淵ou have worked hard. You can go back to the capital after some rest and tell the Meow Meow Branch Organization there of our next target.鈥?/p>

The cats from the capital sprung up with energy, listening intently for its instructions.

Vladimir was silent for a few moments before summarizing, 鈥淥ther than setting up Meow Meow Branch Organizations all around the country as per our plan, our next actions can be split into a few sections. 鈥楾o dig a great hole, to stock up on resources, to train our soldiers鈥欌€︹€?/p>

The last few words were already at the tip of its tongue, fighting to come up, but they were still swallowed back. Vladimir still hadn鈥檛 decided whether they should 鈥渢ake over the world鈥?or 鈥渘ot fight with their reign.鈥?The road they would take would eventually depend on the humans鈥?performance.