Chapter 71: Bathe
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After she had paid, Lu Yi Yun immediately picked up the cat as if she was afraid of losing it. But she felt that it was a bit strange; Jasmine seemed to be particularly good today. She obediently stayed in her arms after entering the shop, and didn’t even make any movements to look around. What was going on? Zhang Zian put the three new red tickets into his wallet, pulled the bathroom door open, and said, "Come in."
The bathroom on the first floor of Amazing Fate Pet Shop was designed by Zhang Zian’s parents and constructed by other people. They had planned to open services for bathing pets, and although it did not work out in the end, there was no issue on this bathroom’s design. The bathroom wasn’t too big; it was one meter and a half wide, two meters tall, and appeared a bit cramped.
The center was an aisle, and there was a bath counter similar to a kitchen counter on each side. At each bath counter, there were three sinks in the proper order of small, medium, and large, respectively, in correspondence to small pets, medium-sized pets, and large pets. There was also a shower spray above each sink. The sinks looked like ordinary stainless steel kitchen sinks, but their inner walls were marked with scales. What was somewhat extraordinary was that the bottoms of the sinks were lined with rubber padding. There were a lot of non-slip particles on the pad to prevent the pets from slipping and falling when they were bathing in the sink.
In theory, there were a total of six large and small sinks, so six pets of different sizes could bathe at the same time. But this type of ideal situation could not possibly appear. Bathing one pet alone was already troublesome enough; bathing six pets together would be earth shaking.
The bathroom used transparent glass that was single-handedly separated from the corner of the first floor. After Zhang Zian took Lu Yi Yun in, he closed the door to maintain the temperature. He could give her instructions just by standing outside. Zhang Zian pointed to a medium-sized sink, "Just right there then. First, plug the bottom of the sink, then turn on the shower spray, and fill it up with five centimeters of water—there’s a scale on the inner wall, you see it right? It would be fine to just immerse the cat’s paws." Lu Yi Yun did as he said and inserted the plug.
At this time, Wang Qian couldn’t help but open his mouth, "Master! She is just a mere mortal, how could she be compared to master with your indestructible ability? How about having her put on some rubber gloves first? Don’t I see gloves hanging on the walls of this bathroom…" Wang Qian raised a Nulla luctus felis at home, and although his parents were taking care of it, he knew a lot of cats that would begin to toss around in chaos the moment they entered the bathroom, not to mention when bathing. He thought, "According to master’s ability, he would not forget this point. Also, there were obviously spare rubber gloves hanging there; why didn’t master say anything?"
Aunt Liu and Lu Yi Yun were shocked when they heard it. What the heck was indestructible ability? Besides, was there anyone who wasn’t a mortal in this room?
Although Zhang Zian was thick-skinned, he still blushed a bit at this time. He was really anxious to plug those two idiots’ mouths with the rubber gloves. Lu Yi Yun lifted her head up slightly, and also saw the line of rubber gloves hanging on the bathroom wall. "Mr. Manager, do I need to wear gloves?" she asked. She had unconsciously learned to address Zhang Zian as "Mr. Manager", just like how Snowy had in her live broadcasts.
"No need," Zhang Zian replied straightforwardly, "Cats are animals with a strong concept of domain, including house cats. They will use urine to divide domain. I also have a super fierce cat in my shop, her. This is her domain." He pointed at Fina. "All animals bully the weak and fear the strong. Upon entering someone’s domain, one must clamp one’s tail if one can’t defeat the other person. This is the general law of the animal world. No matter how rebellious a cat is that comes to my shop, it must weigh its ability to see whether it can defeat her."
"Oh," Lu Yi Yun nodded as if she understood. She noticed that Fina’s stature was very robust, and her eyes were sharp. She was like a small leopard, and appeared very fierce. Compared to Fina, her Jasmine was just like a small white rabbit in front of a lion. "Then can I start?" she asked Zhang Zian. "Yes," Zhang Zian replied affirmatively.
Thus she stretched her hand out towards the shower spray valve.
Whoosh! The water turned on, countless streams of water spurted out from the shower’s pores and splashed into the sink. The shower spray was connected to a hot water faucet, with the temperature set to forty-three degrees. The body temperature of cats was thirty-eight point six degrees, which was a little higher than the human body temperature, so the temperature for the bath water must be higher than their body temperature. Of course, the temperature couldn’t be too high; cats did not have the refined interest of soaking in hot water baths.
The screams of people and cats that Wang Qian had imagined did not occur. There was only the sound of the steady flow of water. He took a closer look; the cat was still perfectly lying on the counter next to the sink, and there were not any bizarre movements. He patted his head and thought, "F*ck, the advanced animal-taming skills were so godly that it even changed the nature of the cat."
Lu Yi Yun stared at the lines on the scale. When the water hit five centimeters, she turned off the valve according to Zhang Zian’s instructions. "Now, put the cat into the sink, lift its chin up slightly with your left hand, and open the shower spray to rinse it. Just pay attention to one point, and don’t wash its face when you are bathing it. There is nothing else other than that. Very simple," Zhang Zian said. Lu Yi Yun put Jasmine into the sink. Other than having felt its body tremble briefly when its paws first entered the water, it was continuously obedient. It was better behaved than usual; it was well-behaved like a fake cat.
She held on to Jasmine’s chin according to the instructions, and opened the valve of the shower, carefully avoiding its face. The water soaked its long fur, and all that soaked fur clung onto its body. Its body shrunk rapidly like a rubber ball that was leaking air. The cuteness was not there anymore, and it looked a bit ridiculous.
The shower spray was fixed, and faced the center to the sink. As long as the pets don’t move around, their heads and butts won’t get washed.
"See the sponge next to the sink? Dip the sponge into the water, and wash all the parts that did not get rinsed."
She used the soaked sponge to wet the fur on Jasmine’s chest, butt, inner legs, knees, and tail.
"Next, turn off the shower spray. There’s body wash on the shelf. Squeeze some onto the sponge, and rub out some foam. Then scrub it like you’re giving yourself a bath. Make your movements swift to prevent it from catching a cold.
The body wash on the sponge produced a large amount of foam; Jasmine’s entire body was covered in foam, apart from her face and paws. Lu Yi Yun gently stroked its fur—it was both supple and smooth, like high quality silk. Bubbles also floated on top of the water on the surface of the sink. The water became no longer clear; considerable filth and half-strands of fur floated up and down. She had not expected that Jasmine, who usually appeared to be pretty clean, would actually be this dirty already. This was despite her combing Jasmine’s fur every day. "God knows how long it had been since its former owner had given it a bath, perhaps never," she wondered. She felt that it was really good that she could bring Jasmine to bathe!