Was it the story that, in ancient times, one rich aristocrat supported many bottom-feeders, and one bottom-feeder could crow like a cock, and another one was adept at drilling holes and snatching like a dog?"
"Yes, exactly," Old Time Tea nodded happily. "But in this case, the latter phrase can be changed into ‘snatching like a cat’."
Zhang Zian was confused, "Grandpa Tea, I don't understand..."
Old Time Tea smiled, struck out its claw and pointed to Richard, who was in the birdcage: "Crowing like a cock." It moved its claw and pointed to Snowy Lionet, who was gazing affectionately at Fina’s tail: "Snatching like a cat."
Zhang Zian finally understood and pointed at his own nose, "I am the rich aristocrat?"
He should never have brought that up, there was no way could he be considered rich!
"Well..." Old Time Tea coughed a bit and then said seriously, "Well, the proverb means to derogate someone’s small tricks nowadays. But skills cannot be categorized as superior and inferior. If the bottom-feeders who could crow like a cock and snatch like a dog didn’t help Lord Mengchang when he was in danger, he would have died long time ago."
Zhang Zian understood that Old Time Tea was reminding him not to look down upon Richard and Snowy Lionet because he might need their skills someday.
"Understood, Grandpa Tea," he replied respectfully.
As the navigation elf had said before, the grading of an elf represented only the power of its belief. But just as everyone specialized in different areas, when it came to a specific area, an elf of a higher level was not necessarily stronger than the elf of a lower level. When the Apprehensive Bird appeared on the game radar, Zhang Zian indeed underestimated the bird, thinking that it was just an elf of the lowest level, and he didn’t care whether or not he caught it. But his experiences these days made him feel very lucky that he had captured the Apprehensive Bird — otherwise he couldn't do anything to help Guo Dongyue.
Old Time Tea was like a wise senior who would instruct him towards the appropriate timing.
Zhang Zian had learned that Richard was capable of languages, but what about Snowy Lionet…?
Fina was taking a nap on the highest rack of the cat tree, and its tail was swinging rhythmically with its breathing. Snowy Lionet was staring at Fina’s tail affectionately, and licked its lips from time to time, as if it was trying very hard to suppress its desire to cuddle and kiss Fina.
Zhang Zian thought that Snowy Lionet would probably be useless as long as it was with Fina. Snowy Lionet was good at stealing things, but he couldn't let it do something bad, right? Apart from snatching, what was Snowy Lionet also good at?
Forget it. He decided to not think about it, and would wait to see what would happen in the future.
If Lord Mengchang could afford to support a lot of bottom-feeders, then Zhang Zian could afford just a few pets. Even if Snowy Lionet could do nothing besides look cute and show its affection towards females, he would not treat it differently...The thing was, Snowy Lionet always treated him discriminately, calling him a jerk all day long...
"You jerk! What are you looking at? Stop looking at me, or I'll have you castrated." Snowy Lionet noticed that he was staring at it and turned around to glare at him, showing its claws to threaten him.
Zhang Zian said mystically, "Doesn't your mouth feel strange?"
"Feel strange?" Snowy Lionet pursed its lips to feel the taste on the tip of its tongue, and then the look on its face changed.
"Pfft! What is that?" Snowy Lionet felt so disgusted that its face wrinkled, "What did you do to me while I was sleep?"
"Nothing, I did nothing. Let me tell you the truth — you were licking the blanket when you were dreaming this morning."
"Bla…bla…blanket..." Snowy Lionet licked its lips, and some tiny furs were hanging on the barbs of its tongue. Judging from the smell, the furs were not those of a cat, but instead were full of the bitter taste of artificial fabric products.
"You jerk! You didn’t wake me up! I will punish you one day!" It quickly jumped down from the cat tree and buried its head into the water bowl to clean its mouth.
In the birdcage, Richard and the two red-headed lovebirds were silent.
Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake stared at Richard alertly. They figured Richard was not intimidating them, and then they started to comb each other’s feathers with their beaks.
Richard suddenly opened up its wings and used its original voice to say, "Grey, I am Grey."
Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake stared at Richard for a while. Then, they used the raucous voices that were difficult to distinguish from whom the voices belonged to and said, "Grey..."