Chapter 356: Entering the Venue
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Fina yawned and jumped out of the car with a flagging interest, casting a casual look at Zhang Zian as if to say, What do you want from me?
These old friends of Tim had been operating catteries from a few years to over a decade. When it came to judging the conditions of a cat, their recognition abilities were way more accurate than Zhang Zian’s. From their first glance at Fina, from the color of its eyes, its facial features and posture, they had recognized this was a rare Egyptian Mau, except by CFA standards, it probably was not a purebred one.
What surprised them was that this Egyptian Mau was quite unruly, with sharp, fierce eyes and an aura warning that strangers must not approach it. One should know that the cats partic.i.p.ating in the CFA compet.i.tion were all specially selected. Not only were they all in excellent conditions, but more importantly, they were extremely gentle, so gentle that even if strangers - say referees – held them up, rubbed them and pinched them, they would not resist or scratch them with their paws. Otherwise, no matter how excellent their conditions were, they would be disqualified.
This Egyptian Mau apparently was not willing to let anyone touch it easily. Its eyes had conveyed the message clearly—Want to touch me? I dare you!
If this was the case, let alone the champions.h.i.+p race, even if it was in the compet.i.tion for house cats, it wouldn’t be the winner. Because even in the match for house cats, there were referees who would touch it, pinch it, show a cat teaser in front of it to check whether it was healthy and gentle.
While they were watching Fina, Zhang Zian looked at the other contestants pa.s.sing by. The contestants were carrying cat cages containing a wide range of cats, most of them purebred blue blood cats. Occasionally there were hybrid cats to be put in the compet.i.tion for house cats. As Tim"s old friends expected, all the partic.i.p.ating cats were very gentle, lying quietly in their cat cages, so the horrors the cats displayed when seeing Fina were not perceived by the owners.
When Zhang Zian was performing mindful breathing in the front lawn of Tim’s house, there was no wind, and still now, there was no wind. The odor of Fina could not pa.s.s very far, and only the cats who had pa.s.sed by them were affected.
Simon, Vincent, Jack, and Carl glanced at each other and shook their heads lightly. This cat had a serious personality problem. They were afraid that it wouldn’t even win in the compet.i.tion for house cats.
Just when they were trying to subtly remind Zhang Zian of this, they heard the stadium broadcast reminding partic.i.p.ants to enter the venue quickly, for the game was about to begin. Unlike Zhang Zian, who was carefree, the four of them were ambitious to win every champions.h.i.+p for each breed of cat, and their cats had been brought in to the venue by their family or a.s.sistants in advance, but they had to be present when the game started so that their own cats would feel more at ease.
"We"re going in. Jeff, it’s nice to meet you. Say h.e.l.lo to that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Tim and lovely Lauren for us, and tell them we"ll be at their Thanksgiving party on time," they said to Zhang Zian, shook hands with him again and patted him on the shoulder enthusiastically.
"Ok, I"ll tell them," said Richard.
"You should also go in as soon as possible. Although the requirements for the compet.i.tion for house cats are not strict, you still have to register," they reminded him before entering the stadium.
"Well, folks, you can go in first. I"ll accompany him to registration." Out of his friends.h.i.+p with Tim, Vincent stayed alone.
"Hurry up! If you cannot win a single champions.h.i.+p this time, don’t use this as an excuse!" the other three said in a joking manner.
"F**k off!" Vincent laughed and cussed at them.
With Vincent’s help, Zhang Zian and Fina easily got the relevant issues of registration done. Vincent took him to the booth and left. Jane and the videographer also went into the venue successfully, filming Zhang Zian all the way.
Sitting in the booth, Zhang Zian curiously looked at the situation of the stadium. Fina was also very curious. Since she had been summoned from history, she had never seen so many cats.
"What? Why is my cat acting strange?"
Hearing that someone was talking next to him, Zhang Zian turned around and saw a kind old Caucasian lady with reading gla.s.ses, curly silver hair, simple clothes, and a walking stick in her hand looking at the cat she brought in puzzlement.
Zhang Zian was surprised when he saw her cat, because he had never seen such a cat before.
Growing up in a pet shop since childhood, Zhang Zian thought he had seen a lot of cats, except such extremely rare breeds as the Egyptian Mau. He had seen most cat breeds. But apparently, the cat in front of him was an exception.
This was a slender, elegant cat with a delicate wedge-shaped face, towering triangular ears and charming, almond-shaped eyes that slightly turned upward. Though its body was slender, it was rather muscular with long limbs and a long, strong tail.
In terms of body size, it highly resembled Fina, and was also similar to the statue of the Cat G.o.ddess in Zhang Zian"s shop.
However, its eyes were amber in color. Except for its whitish chin, its whole body was covered with short chocolate fur, and there were M-shaped lines on its forehead. These notable features had distinguished it from the Egyptian Mau.
It was horrifyingly watching Fina. Its body was gripping the display table of the booth tightly, and didn’t dare to move a bit.
Fina also noticed this. Because it thought this cat was somewhat similar to itself, not only by appearance, but also by demeanor, temperament and some inexplicable odor, Fina also looked at it with great interest.
Zhang Zian coughed, putting his fist in front of his mouth, and whispered to Richard, "Ask what is going on."
"Hi, do you need help?" Richard raised its volume due to the loud noises in the stadium.
The old lady probably had poor hearing. She didn’t realize the man was talking to her until Richard asked the second time.
"Hi, h.e.l.lo, young man." She kindly said h.e.l.lo.
"Call me Jeff. I’ve noticed that you seem to be having trouble? Do you need help?" asked Richard.
She extended her hands, trembling and full of wrinkles. "Oh, that is so nice of you! My name is Catherine, but you can call me Cathy."
Zhang Zian stood up, leaned over and shook hands with her.
"Cathy, what happened to your cat? What went wrong?" asked Richard.
"I don’t know what happened either..." Cathy stroked her cat in puzzlement, "My Wendy has always been a very lively, naughty kitten. I need to press it firmly so that it won’t run off the stand ... I do not know why, but since moments ago, it became like this, lying on its tummy motionlessly. I was worried that it got sick suddenly... but this morning, I measured its temperature, and everything was normal... "
Zhang Zian understood what was going on. Her cat did not get sick, it was simply scared by Fina. He walked over with confidence, "Can I see it?"
"Of course, please," said Cathy, wondering if the dark-haired young man was a veterinarian. If so, that would be great.
Zhang Zian picked up Wendy, observed it from other angles, and then squeezed his eyes to Fina, meaning to say, Stop scaring it! Look what you have done to it?!
It wasn’t just Wendy. The cats in the other booths around Fina were showing varying degrees of abnormalities, throwing their owners into perplexment as they became anxious and discussed tactics with one another. These were the booths for house cats, and most of the cat owners were just ordinary cat lovers rather than professional breeders, so they were helpless upon encountering such abnormalities. Wendy’s booth was closest to Fina, so it was impacted most severely.
Fina scorned him contemptuously, meaning, Are you good at anything apart from showing off in front of the elderly and children?
Zhang Zian indicated, Winning favors and respect from the elderly and children has always been my ultimate goal in my life.
Nevertheless, Fina still released some kind of signal. It snorted softly at a frequency inaudible to humans’ ears.
Wendy and the nearby cats acted as if they had been granted with amnesty.
Zhang Zian could feel the tight muscles of its whole body suddenly relax.
He put it back on the stand. It no longer lied down. It had restored its stance, but still bowed its head to Fina.