After leaving the pet shop, Song Bai and Zhao Qi parted ways. Zhao Qi went to pick up her clothes at the dry cleaner’s, while Song Bai called a taxi to take him home.
"Can you drive faster please?" said Song Bai to the taxi driver. He wanted to get back to his home as soon as possible so that he could start editing his video clips, as if he was a child who just got a new set of building blocks and couldn't wait to let his imagination fly.
Through the rear mirror, the taxi driver noticed the cat carrier Song Bai was holding, and he chuckled, "What did you buy? A cat or a dog?"
"A cat." Song Bai was stunned, "But how did you know I bought a pet?"
"Because I saw you walk out from the pet shop. It's quite famous around this neighborhood," said the taxi driver, "I mainly drive around this area and I've seen many passengers come here to buy pets—but recently, few passengers have gone there. I wonder if the owner's business is running into difficulties?"
"It just finished renovation, and probably will reopen for business soon." Song Bai repeated what he had heard from Zhao Qi.
"Oh, no wonder." It seemed that the taxi driver was putting an end to this topic.
Song Bai paused for a moment and asked tentatively, "Excuse me... Have you ever seen any foreigners come here to buy pets?"
"Foreigners?" recollected the taxi driver. "No, though some passengers were foreigners. What's the matter?"
"Oh, so you can speak English?" asked Song Bai.
"English... No...I’ve forgotten the English I learned back in high school," smiled the taxi driver awkwardly. "Besides, the passengers are not absolute foreigners."
Song Bai was perplexed, "What do you mean they are not ‘absolute foreigners’? Are you saying they are of mixed-races? Or are they overseas Chinese?"
"What I mean is those passengers are the foreign students studying in Binhai University, and they can speak Chinese more or less. When I said hello to them in English, they asked me to speak Chinese and help them practice their Chinese." the taxi driver smiled and clarified the misunderstanding.
"Oh, I see... So, have you ever given rides to passengers that were headed to the Amazing Fate Pet Shop?" asked Song Bai. Then he added, "Whether they were absolute foreigners or not..."
"No, never, why?" said the taxi driver.
"Nothing, I just have a feeling that maybe there will be foreigners visiting the pet shop one day." Song Bai had a hunch that the reputation of Amazing Fate Pet Shop would spread overseas. Even if it was not through his vlogs, someone else might help the cause; and when that time came, foreigners would rush to Zhang Zian’s pet shop.
"Really?" The taxi driver clearly didn't believe in him. He thought Song Bai was just joking and he smiled cheerfully, "If that’s the case, then I should learn English as soon as possible to attract more business!"
Song Bai nodded, "I think you should start learning it right away."
"Are you serious?!" asked the taxi driver with astonishment.
Song Bai simply smiled, "Why not? Skills will never be burdens."
"That's true..." the taxi driver seemed to have been convinced and murmured softly.
Song Bai’s home was not very far, and soon the taxi had stopped at the entrance of the resident district. After paying the fare, he lifted the cat carrier and got out. "Thank you, mister, remember to practice English when you have time."
The taxi driver waved his hand and drove his car away. Had he accepted Song Bai’s advice? No one knew.
Song Bai was living in a very small apartment that he rented. There was only one bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, one kitchen and one balcony in the apartment, but was enough space for a bachelor.
He opened the cat carrier, held up the black Dragon-Li and put it on the ground.
The black Dragon-Li showed no fear of the strange environme
nt. Instead, it was curiously looking around. It raised its head and looked at Song Bai as if knowing that he was the owner of this place.
Song Bai smiled and waved at it, "Go play anywhere you like, except my bedroom."
"Right, you need to have a name." He touched his chin and thought for a moment. " Black Dragon-Li... How about Black Flower?"
The black Dragon Li replied with a "meow", and it seemed like it was fine with its new name. And then it trotted to explore the living room and the balcony.
Song Bai put the equipment in his backpack in the living room, changed into comfortable clothes, washed his face, put the clothes that he just took off into the washing machine and began to enjoy the relaxation.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Package delivery, is anyone home?"
"Coming."
Song Bai quickly went over to open the door.
The courier, who was holding a large package, stuck out his head from behind and asked, "Are you Song Bai?"
"Yes. I should pay the shipping fee, right?" Song Bai knew that inside the package were the pet supplies sent by Zhang Zian…
"Correct, please sign here."
The courier put down the package. Song Bai paid the shipping fee and signed as confirmation of receiving the package.
"Thank you." Song Bai watched the courier as he left.
From the package, Song Bai first scrambled out the cat litter and cat litter box. He looked at the instructions for novice cat raisers printed by Zhang Zian to arrange the cat litter box. He went to find Black Flower and pointed to the box, "Here, you need to pee and poop here. Okay?"
Black Flower bowed to sniff the cat litter and stretched out its paws to touch the cat litter. It was the same cat litter used in Zhang Zian's pet shop, so Black Flower understood this was its toilet.
Song Bai gently stroked the fur on Black Flower’s back where its dark mackerel patterns were rising up and down rhythmically. It raised its eyes and looked at him in confusion and then continued playing with the cat litter. This kitten seemed to be fond of touching things, whether it was camera lens or cat litter. It was as curious as he was.
"Stay here, okay? I will play with you later when I finish my work," he said to it gently.
Song Bai stood up and headed to his bedroom. Just when he was about to close the door, he saw a black shadow was retreating from the door in panic. Black Flower had been following him, trying to look in the bedroom, and was almost nipped by the door. Song Bai was startled by it. He had been used to living by himself and hadn’t built up the habits a cat owner should have.
"What... You want to come in here too?" Song Bai was hesitant. He turned around and looked at his bedroom.
On his desk and shelf, there were several cameras, such as Canon G7xm2, Sony Rx100m4, and Panasonic 1x10 which he brought out for shooting. In addition, there were two computers. One was a Mac Pro for video editing and rendering, and another was a laptop for study and entertainment, alongside with two sets of keyboards and mouses. Besides the keyboards stood a condenser microphone of Rode. On top of the shelf was a Joby octopus tripod PTZ, and a NAS for data backup. Apart from those, spare devices, spare batteries, USB drives, and SD cards were scattered all over on his desk. All of these were essential equipment for vloggers.
If other geeks came to his messy bedroom, they would have felt they were in heaven.
This was a typical room of a vlogger. Vloggers didn't care if they would become famous, but they must collect as much equipment as possible. Sometimes they even bought several products that had the same functions.
Song Bai lived by himself, and generally no one would enter his bedroom except him. That’s why he could put his equipment wherever he wanted. Each digital device was very expensive, and he didn't want Black Flower to come in in the first place, worrying that it might be a troublemaker.
Black Flower was squatting at the door. It raised its head to look at him and peek into the bedroom from time to time, as if saying, "What's inside? Anything fun? Why can’t I go in?"
Song Bai stood at the door to prevent it from going into the bedroom. He pointed outside, "Go play outside for a while, okay?"
Black Flower tilted its head, meowed softly, and stretched one front paw to touch the door. It's clear yellow-green eyes were filled with confusion. It didn't understand what it had done to make ts owner turn it away.
Gazed at by its innocent eyes, Song Bai felt really guilty, and he gave up his defense.
"Alright, come in. But you must behave. Don't touch anything, or I won't let you come in again," Song Bai squatted down and warned it seriously.
Black Flower meowed as its reply. It approached Song Bai, pushed his leg, and couldn't wait to go into the bedroom.