Zhang Zian continued, "Whether the cat will be close with people or not depends on both congenital and acquired factors. Acquired factors are more significant than congenital ones. The congenital factors are the so-called selective breeding, however the acquired factors are more complicated and usually consist of three parts. First, the teaching and learning period, where the mother cat teaches the baby cats how to interact with humans. Of note, this is where they learn not to show their claws to humans. Second, there is a certain ‘socialization period.’ If cats can have peaceful contact with humans, they will be more friendly toward humans. The third will depend on how the owners treat their pets."
"I guarantee that there are no problems concerning genetics or education for all the pets in my shop. As long as you take good care of it, it will be close to you, I promise," he said.
Zhao Qi was moved because this British Shorthair cat was so lovely. When she stepped into the shop, she barely wanted to spend any money, but its eyes had a marvelous magic and moved her heart such that she could not give it up anymore.
"How much for the british short hair?" she asked.
"6,000," he answered.
Her eyebrows raised, as the price was a bit beyond what she had was expecting.
"How about the Siamese cat?"
"4,000, vaccinated three times already, imported."
One was cheaper, but she preferred the other. It was a hard choice.
Zhang Zian was good at observing. "You are an office lady, aren’t you, madam?"
She nodded. "Yes, I am a secretary."
He said, "My recommendation was not based on price. This Siamese cat relies on people too much; it needs company all the time and is a better choice for kids and housewives. You seem to be pretty busy with your work. After you go back home, you might need to do some extra work, spend time with a boyfriend, or do some reading, and because of that you might find the Siamese cat to be a bit… annoying. But the British Shorthair is a good choice for you, as it can play with you, if you want, or by itself, if you are busy or need some downtime."
These words directly touched her heart. Zhao Qi lived alone in her rental apartment. She currently had no boyfriend, but there would be one in the future… right? When she had a lot to do, she might continue to work at home. Add in reading, makup, skin care, and ladies’ tea time, and if the Siamese cat relied on people as much as he said, she might not have enough time to take proper care of it.
He continued, "By the way, the Siamese cat is more active and gets dirty much more easily, like a naughty boy, so it needs to take baths and be combed more frequently."
Zhang Zian didn’t know how strong her desire to buy a cat was, so he had done everything he could do, and now he just needed to be patient and wait for her decision.
Actually, there was only step for Zhao Qi to buy this British Shorthair—she needed a reason to persuade herself.
She suddenly recalled that the new b*tch assistant said something at the welcome party related to cats, but she couldn’t remember exactly what.
She sent a message to one of her work friends. "Shishi, do you remember what that b*tch assistant said about cats at her welcome party?"
After a while, her friend replied, "I remember that she said she was allergic to cats and sneezed at every place with cats. What’s up, Qiqi? Why did you have lunch alone today?"
"I’m okay, let’s talk later. Remember, keep our conversation a secret," Zhao Qi quickly replied, smiling like a witch.
Zhang Zian was listening to the side and her smile gave him chills.
"I will take this cat," she said. "Can I pay by Alipay?"
"Absolutely." He pointed to the pet supplies. "Do you want to have a look at this stuff? Since this is your first time owning a pet, you may need some essentials. Maybe you can get some from here."
"You really know how to do business."
But Zhao Qi agreed with that, as she couldn’t go home with only the cat.
She walked to the pet supply area with Zhang Zian. She found the bristle brush for short hair cats, the scissors for cat nails, and the ear wash for cleaning its ears. Nothing was expensive. She didn’t care about this amount of money after spending six thousand yuan on a cat, so she got them all.
When they talked about liquid bath soap, she asked, "Could it use my liquid soap, since it is imported...?"
"Nope." He pointed to the introduction on the bath soap and explained, "Cat and human skin have different pH levels. Cats will suffer hair loss and skin disease if they use a human’s bath soap. It doesn’t matter if it was imported from an alien country or an alien star!"
Zhao Qi was amused. Bath soap was put in the cart, obviously.
Cat litter, cat pillow, litter box, scratch board, cat tree, food bowl, identification, and a cat shovel, Zhao Qi bought them all.
Cat food and canned food, hum, she needed some as well.
And an automatic feeder, which was extremely useful for single office workers like Zhao Qi. With this, she didn’t need to worry about feeding the cat if she had to work overtime.
A lot of single people liked to put food in the bowl, which would be good for one day, but actually, it was not a good thing, since the kittens would easily overeat and harm their digestive systems.
Other than all of that, she also needed a cat bag, otherwise how would she bring the cat back home? She thought the cat would feel safer staying in a cat bag when she took it to visit friends or the vet.
Zhao Qi bought too much stuff and was now worried about how she would take everything home.
"If you can give me your phone number and address, I can deliver all these to you, but you need to pay the delivery cost," Zhang Zian suggested.
Zhao Qi stared at him. "I spent almost seven thousand here and still need me to pay the delivery cost?"
"My business is very small..." He rubbed his hands, embarrassed.
It was just a joke, since she felt closer to this young shop owner after their deal. Zhao Qi didn’t really care about the delivery fee, which was no more than a few dozen yuan.
"All right." She waved her hand. "I will pick up the cat after work. Will that be okay?" she asked.
"No problem, I can print out some beginner tips for you as well, and you can take them together then."
Next, checking out successfully, Zhang Zian handed the receipt and sales agreement to Zhao Qi, along with the immunization certification she had never asked about.
"Congratulations, this cat belongs to you now."
Zhao Qi put the receipt into her wallet, delighted. "By the way, can you give me your WeChat? That way, in case I have any questions, I can ask you."
After they connected on WeChat, Zhao Qi left. Zhang Zian waved his fist excitedly.
"The first pet was sold!"