Zhao Yao stared intently at the dozen and a half helpless yet extremely leery stray cats in his bas.e.m.e.nt and thought to himself as he stroked his chin, "It shouldn"t be a problem for me to raise this dozen of stray cats based on my financial ability, but the problem lies with Elizabeth. I"m not too sure what her standards of "settling down" are."
Zhao Yao suddenly remembered that the mission deadline was drawing near. "The deadline for the mission is tomorrow. It"s already 10 pm which means that we only have 25 hours left from now until tomorrow midnight."
"If we do not complete this mission, we would not be able to gain experience in 6 months."
"We have to hurry."
With this in mind, Zhao Yao couldn"t help but begun to feel more and more anxious.
He looked at Elizabeth and questioned, " So... about "settling down"... do you have any requests?"
Elizabeth lowered her head and mumbled, "Well... you could either ensure that they eat and drink enough to live healthily, or you could help them find a loving and willing owner to raise them."
"Alright, understood. I can promise you this at the very least." Zhao Yao replied as he nodded. "I will raise them back at my home first. But what"s your second condition? "
Upon hearing this, Matcha turned into a ball of fury and shrieked into Zhao Yao"s mind, "Zhao Yao, are you kidding me now? You are gonna let these smelly, reeking bunch into our house?"
A thought suddenly flashed through Zhao Yao"s mind. Cats were territorial animals and were thus very defensive of their territory. Unless they were raised together as a group, cats were usually extremely hostile towards new members that just joined the pack.
Some of them would growl incessantly; others would physically injure new members. Some might even stop eating or drinking. They would hide in a corner and refused to budge, and became increasingly gloomy.
The addition of a single new member could already lead to serious repercussions, let alone a dozen of them.
Zhao Yao replied with a rea.s.suring tone, "Relax; they will only be there temporarily. Besides, they would only take up an entire room for themselves. I will help them find their owners." He was only left with a measly 25 hours -- he had to do whatever it took to make Elizabeth agree to the terms.
Matcha remained hopping mad. "In that case, what are we gonna do with their p.o.o.p and urine? It won"t take long before the entire room stinks with their stench and their fur."
"Rest a.s.sured. We will make sure that they stay in the room and only that room." Zhao Yao looked down at the three little kittens which had been circling his legs all this time like a whirlpool. Surprisingly, one of them was a grey British Shorthair -- its unique grey fur stood out from the pack. With its perfectly rounded big eyes, it stared at Zhao Yao curiously.
British Shorthairs were considered a popular breed of cats and were priced from a few grand to tens of thousands.
Zhao Yao turned to look at Elizabeth and sighed, " Even British shorthairs and ragdolls have turned into stray cats... Your owner must have been pretty rich."
Elizabeth replied, "I left for the streets on my own. As for Mango..." She glanced into the British Shorthair"s warm-looking eyes. "She probably lost her way back while running blindly away. " As she spoke, she coughed out another mouthful of blood.
Zhao Yao frantically reacted, "Hey, this won"t do. Let"s rush you to the nearest vet right now, shall we? I"m afraid that you might lose your life anytime."
"I"m fine." She spat out another mouthful of blood when she said that. Zhao Yao became extremely worried that Elizabeth might lose her life. "Bring the stray cats to the vets first. I a.s.sume you were planning to bring them to the vet as well too, right?"
"Got it, I"ll do as you say." Zhao Yao nodded his head and went straight to flag a cab to fetch the cats to the vet. However, cab after cab went by and none of them were willing to bring along that many stray cats.
The clock continued to tick, and they had almost waited for half an hour. Zhao Yao became increasingly restless as the time left for the mission continued to shorten.
As Zhao Yao flagged down the fourth cab, he instantly lay out his offer to the cabbie. "I"ll give you a thousand if you would bring this bunch of stray cats to the vet." The cabbie agreed, needless to say, and rushed to the vet.
Three kittens, 15 adult cats, together with Elizabeth and Matcha. A total of 20 cats were being sent to Starry Starry Pet Hospital by Zhao Yao.
The nurse stared in awe as 20 purring cats were brought to the hospital and exclaimed, "Mister, what.... what is happening here? I"m sorry, but we do not take in stray cats."
Zhao Yao went straight to the point and said, "I"m not here for that purpose. I want to raise them all, and I need your help. Please give these cats a proper screening and perhaps some medication and vaccination."
"That many?" The nurse shockingly replied, "I wish I could, but we have limited manpower, and the doctor has already left work."
"Then call him back here." Zhao Yao arrogantly waved his hand. "Money isn"t a problem; I"ll make sure I pay him for overtime."
The nurse seemed a little startled, and answered, "This isn"t about the money..."
"It is about the money." Zhao Yao glanced at the clock on the wall, only to realize that it was almost 11 pm. As anxiety continued to build up in him, Zhao Yao shoved RMB500 into the nurse"s hands. "This is just a small sum. Get me the best and most expensive medical screening you have and tell the doctor that if he is willing to come, I"ll pay him RMB20000 as overtime fee."
The nurse gasped, "Are you serious?"
"I can"t be any more serious. If you don"t believe me, I"ll transfer RMB5000 right now for you."
Half an hour had pa.s.sed, and two young doctors, one male, and the other a female were seen rus.h.i.+ng into the hospital. The female doctor looked beautiful with clear, snow-white skin. It seemed as if she was a Taobao Model, instead of a veterinarian.
Beneath her white robe, she wore a pair of black stockings. Zhao Yao couldn"t help but sneak a few glances at her.
The female doctor walked in front of Zhao Yao and said, "Hi, I"m Doctor Liu, and I am the doctor of the hospital. Are you the one who called us over at this hour?"
"Mmm, yes I am." Zhao Yao nodded and continued, "I found these stray cats and I wish to raise them by myself..."
"I don"t wish to know what you are planning to do. I"m not interested." Doctor Liu brushed it off and said, "Did you say that you would give us RMB20000 as overtime fee?"
"I meant that it was RMB20000 for both of you... Forget it; I"ll give you RMB20000 each."
Upon hearing what Zhao Yao said, a brilliant smile emerged from Doctor Liu"s expressionless face. "All right, all right. Rest a.s.sured, we will begin immediately. We, Starry Starry Pet Hospital, only offer top-notch medical services in terms of technology, skills, and medication. You have come to the right place."
As she spoke, she waved her hand to the nurse. "Xiao Na, what are waiting for? Get our customer here a cup of tea."
"Right. Let"s introduce you to our member"s plan" Doctor Liu patted Zhao Yao on the shoulder and announced, "Nowadays there are very few kind-hearted people like you who want to raises that many cats, why not join us as a member? You get RMB200 for every RMB1000 spent, RMB2000 for every RMB5000 spent. With this many cats, I"m sure you would want to sterilize, vaccinate and take care of bug problems in the future right? Imagine how much you can save if you join us as a member!"
Zhao Yao seemed unimpressed, but couldn"t stop staring at the female doctor"s pair of beautiful s.e.xy legs. In the doctor"s eyes, Zhao Yao was simply a cash machine that was about to give out its money.
The two doctors began treating the cats one by one. They measured their weight, temperature and conducted blood tests on the cats. The situation was a mess, with a total of 18 purring cats being moved about everywhere. Luckily, there were two nurses on overtime s.h.i.+ft who rendered great help in stabilizing the situation.
Zhao Yao pointed at Elizabeth and said, "This cat keeps on vomiting blood, please do a proper check on her will you?"
The doctors had long ago noticed the ragdoll in Zhao Yao"s hand. Doctor Liu couldn"t help but asked, "Is it alright to have it tied up in rope?"
Zhao Yao replied, "This cat has a nasty temper, let"s just do the screening as it is."
Elizabeth"s voice drifted into Zhao Yao"s mind. "Stop, I don"t want a check. I"m perfectly fine; there"s no problem with me."
"Hey, look. You vomited blood; don"t tell me that that is fine. Just do the screening and don"t you dare die on me."
"No, I...." As she spoke, Elizabeth choked and coughed up another pool of blood. "I"m really fine."
Zhao Yao stared intently at the pool of blood on the floor and seemed to notice some chunks of minced meat. "What in the world... please don"t tell me you spat out your organs."
"Doctor, hurry and get this cat checked! Could that actually be its lungs?"
A group of medical crew hurriedly placed Elizabeth on the operating table, and as she groaned in pain, a nurse jabbed a thermometer into Elizabeth"s rear.
"Meow..."
Elizabeth"s eyes started to glow in fury, Zhao Yao instantly ordered, "Calm down, will you? Do anything rash, and I will not raise these cats anymore."
Elizabeth shot a glaring eye at Zhao Yao but eventually chose to wait patiently.
Matcha, who had been standing by Zhao Yao"s shoulder, burst out laughing upon witnessing what just happened.
A nurse happened to walk by Matcha and asked Zhao Yao, "What do we do with this cat?"
Zhao Yao grinned and replied, "Well, since we are here. Let"s just do a check on him. I seem to remember that he has yet to take his vaccination shot this year anyway. "
"ZHAO YAO!!"