Chapter 310: Over the Great Wall
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Song Bai hesitated for a while, but he decided to trust Black Flower.
He opened the door to his bedroom, "Come in."
Black Flower walked into this room with curiosity. The room seemed a bit dark because the curtains had been drawn, but that didn’t impact it very much.
Song Bai sat into the chair in front of the desk, put on a pair of headphones and said, "I’m going to work now. Please be good."
As soon as he got home, he imported the video clips from his SD card into the computer. Seeing that the transmission had been completed, he launched Final Cut Pro and began to edit the videos he recorded today.
Some vloggers tended to show their daily lives to the audience with little to no editing to their videos, but Song Bai preferred to make his content seem more coherent, so he edited every issue of his vlog painstakingly. He became increasingly adept at editing videos, and now he was focusing on the videos and the timeline slider on the computer screen.
Black Flower walked around the room, which was completely different from the pet shop. There was no smell it was familiar with to make it feel at ease. Black Flower raised its head to look at its new owner, who was sitting in front of a computer. His upper body was slightly tilted forwards, mouth opening a little bit, eyes swiftly moving from left to right, and he would swallow saliva from time to time.
"Meow" cried out Black Flower gently.
Song Bai didn't hear it.
"Meow"
This time Song Bai heard it, and lowered his head to look at it.
"Black Flower, go play by yourself, I have things to do," answered Song Bai perfunctorily. He turned back to focus on the computer screen blinking with videos. In the dark room, the lights glowing on the screen were reflected on his face, which was changing into different colors constantly.
Black Flower found a bit lonely that its owner didn't play with it.
Back in the pet shop, Black Flower never felt lonely, for a group of kittens always kept its company. They chased and played with each other and rolled together on the ground. When their fur became dirty, they would lick each other’s fur for each other. Whenever it was tired or thirsty, Black Flower would run to drink from the water bowls prepared for them in a corner. When they needed to pee or poop, the kittens would go to the other corner where there was cat litter, and there were two young men responsible for cleaning their litter. Its life in the pet shop was so free and happy!
But the puppies were different. Black Flower thought those puppies were very sad, for they were always locked in the display cases. They would stick their tongues out and look at the kittens eagerly as the kittens were playing happily outside. They didn't even have freedom when it came to peeing or pooping. There was nothing Black Flower could help them with; besides, it didn't want those puppies to occupy their places to play.
Sometimes that special black and white kitten would join their games. It would chase the kittens or ask the kittens to find it, and it was always the winner. Black Flower felt it was fun to play with, and every other kitten seemed to like the kitten in black and white.
At only rare moments, the proud and solemn Queen of the Cats would show up in front of them and teach them some movements they must remember. Black Flower, along with the other kittens, squatted on the ground and listened carefully to the Queen’s instructions. It didn't know who the Queen was, but there was some voice inside its body that kept telling it that in front of it was the Queen, and it must obey the Queen’s orders unconditionally.
As for the owner of the pet shop... he didn’t leave much impression on Black Flower; rather, he seemed more like a servant to the Queen.
The new owner was saying something into the microphone in a language other than Chinese. It was a language that Black Flower didn't understand at all but had heard the parrot in the pet shop spoke before. The new owner seemed very busy and had no time to play, so Black Flower decided to find fun for itself.
Black Flower tilted its head and saw a strange thing in the corner of the bookshelf that it had never seen in the pet shop before.
Black Flower ran over to the shelf, gave a push to the thing, and it landed on the ground.
That was a slightly curved board with some skate wheels beneath it. With a simple push, it began to slide smoothly.
Black Flower stepped onto the board. At first, it was hard to keep its balance. Black Flower was frightened and jumped off the board.
The board changed course slightly, bumped into the wall, bounced back, and stopped on the ground.
Black Flower observed it for a while. Making sure the board would cause it no harm, it trotted closer to the board, and stretched out its paws to push the board.
The board glided backwards because of the reaction, and when the board bypassed Black Flower, it jumped onto that again. The board slowed down with Black Flower on it. This time, Black Flower stood very stably for it had learned to use its tail to keep its balance. However, the width of the room was limited, and the board was about to bump into the wall on the other side.
Black Flower jumped off the board before crashing into the wall.
Influenced by the reaction, the board changed course and was heading to the owner's feet.
Black Flower tried to stop the board but there's no time for that. It worried that the owner would get angry for he didn't want to be disturbed.
In the past, Song Bai’s English was very poor, especially when speaking. If he had gained anything after becoming a vlogger…apart from those bunches of digital devices and his proficiency in video editing, his biggest improvement would be his oral English. Although sometimes foreign audience members left comments to complain about his English, at least he was much better than he used to be.
He had just finished narrating for the video in English. Just when he was about to add subtitles, he felt something slightly hit his ankle.
He lowered his head. Turned out it was his skateboard.
Why was his skateboard here?
"Meow," whispered Black Flower.
It looked around restlessly, trying to find excuses for what it had done.
"Was it you?" asked Song Bai, "Were you playing with the skateboard?"
"Meow..."
Song Bai thought for a moment and pushed the skateboard towards Black Flower. He adjusted the course, so the board wouldn’t rush directly towards Black Flower.
Black Flower stared at the skateboard, and when the board approached it, it jumped onto the board agilely.
The skateboard kept sliding with Black Flower on it, but the wall was waiting in front of them.
"Watch out..." shouted Song Bai, and then he saw Black Flower jumped off the skateboard before crashing into the wall.
Song Bai was really surprised by Black Flower’s cleverness and agility.
Many vloggers liked skateboards to explore their cities and hunt for all kinds of interesting things for their videos, and so did Song Bai. He was too old to be a skateboarder, so he hadn't played with his skateboard for a long time. Since the moment Black Flower tried to touch his camera lens, Song Bai had the feeling that they would hit it off, and now finding its unexpected talent of skateboarding, he was really delighted.
He walked over to it, squatted down and touched its little head, "Black Flower, sorry for not keeping you company. Please wait a little while, and then we'll go out for skateboarding, okay?"
Black Flower narrowed its eyes and meowed gently.
"Come here," Song Bai tried to hold it.
Black Flower didn’t escape or struggle, it just let him hold it.
Song Bai brought it back to his chair and put it on his lap. He pointed to the screen, "Look, you are among the dancing kittens. Have you found yourself?"
The videos in which the kittens were dancing together appeared so clear that every fur of the kittens could be seen, because the videos were recorded in 4K resolution. Black Flower was in the center among those kittens, dancing to the music beats.
Black Flower was looking at the screen quietly; it didn’t seem to have recognized itself on the screen.
"I’m telling you, vlogging isn’t just for fun, though my parents have been criticizing me for wasting my time," said Song Bai while operating his mouse. He had never confided to anybody about these things, but he found this kitten very congenial, so he decided to temporarily be himself in front of it.
"Vloggers can make money, you know," said Song Bai seriously. "One day, if my videos become popular, YouTube will insert advertisements to my channel, and how much money I can make totally depends on the views of my videos. It is sad that if there were over 100,000 people subscribed to my channel, the income I would make could completely support me for my life. When that time comes, I will have more time to play with you. We can go skateboarding in every street and alley, shoot videos of all kinds of people, cuisine, interesting things...I can even buy more pets to keep you company. Don't you like how that sounds?"
"Meow!" Black Flower stretched out its paw to push at his shoulder as if it was not satisfied with the last item he mentioned.
"Ha-ha. All right. No other kittens. Only you," smiled Song Bai.
Black Flower raised its head to gaze at him as if asking, "Do you really mean it?"
"Of course." Song Bai touched its head with his left hand, "I don't think other kittens will be as congenial to me as you are."
The videos had been edited into one final version. He reviewed from beginning to the end and didn't find any flaws. He set the cover picture as the one where Black Flower was stretching its paw to touch the camera lens, and was ready to upload the video.
He found a ladder to cross over the Great Firewall to log into YouTube. This ‘ladder’ was his VIP membership purchased at a VPN software, yet the upload speed was still very slow.
For uploading the video, he needed to think of a name for this issue of vlog.
"What should we call it? Black Flower, any advice?" he raised Black Flower up in the air and looked into its eyes.
"Ha-ha, just kidding, I’ve already thought of the name."
Song Bai put down Black Flower on his laps and tapped a string of English words on his keyboard.
Over the Great Wall.
There were a few implications of this name.
First of all, he had to climb over the Great Firewall to log into YouTube.
Secondly, he decided to do what the Great Wall Club failed to do. He was going to surpass the Great Wall Club and reintroduce Dragon-Li cats to audiences all over the world.
When everything was ready, Song Bai clicked the upload button.
"Come, Black Flower, let's go outside for skateboarding! I might not be tall, but I’m really good at this." Song Bai put down Black Flower, tucked the skateboard under his arm, put on the safety helmet that he hadn't worn for a long time, and fixated a GoPro action camera on his helmet.
He had generated the idea of his next issue of vlog already – skateboarding with a kitten.
After he and Black Flower left the apartment, his bedroom became quiet again. Only the computer screen was still on, with the upload progress bar climbing gradually to the finish line.