Pet King

Grandma Gu pushed her spectacles up her nose, looking at Richard as she spoke. “Wow! This bird sure knows how to speak!”

“Gah gah! I’m a big bird! He’s the small bird!” Richard pointed at Zhang Zian with a wing.

Zhang Zian didn’t have the time nor the energy to give Richard a good dressing-down, and he asked Wang Qian to quickly bring over a chair for Grandma Gu to take a seat. What if she lost her footing and fell in his shop?

Grandma Gu still looked the same, wearing a sheepskin vest over a thick button down, a red armband on her arm, black pants, and a file clamped under her armpit, the picture of productivity.

“Grandma Gu, what brought you to our shop? There’s nothing exciting happening, and I remembered I’d paid all of my maintenance and management fees last month.” The moment Zhang Zian saw Grandma Gu, he naturally thought of all kinds of fees or fines that she might have been there for.

“No, I’m here to congratulate you today.” She gleefully opened her file, picking out a document. “Previously, didn’t I nominate you for our city’s model worker? You’re a hardworking child, you kept showing up on TV to accept interviews, and didn’t your dog win that, what was it, Berlin International Film Festival? You brought glory to our country, so you naturally won! Here, the documents are all done!”

Zhang Zian was surprised at first, before he remembered that Grandma Gu had brought this up previously. But he hadn’t expected to actually get the prize. He couldn’t help but feel it was unbelievable.

“Grandma, you didn’t get something wrong, right? Didn’t you nearly nominate me for the Women’s Pacesetter Program?” He made sure to confirm, worried that Grandma Gu had had a moment of folly. If he had gone on stage as a member of the Women’s Pacesetter Program, that would have been embarrassing…

“Ugh! What rubbish are you saying? I definitely didn’t get it wrong!” Grandma Gu grumbled. “If you don’t believe me, just look at all these documents. They’re all approved.”

Zhang Zian took the documents, perusing them for a while, and he did find his own name on them. But the list was very long—almost two to three hundred names long. Thank goodness it was arranged in alphabetical order, or it would have been quite difficult to find one name.

“So many winners?”

Even though he was glad that he had won the prize, it was just a little disappointing. If this many people had won the prize, then it wasn’t really a valuable prize to win, was it?

Grandma Gu immediately explained, “Lad, you don’t understand. We only pick winners once every three years. All these names you see are people that had made ground-breaking contributions to Binhai City’s economy and society. They’re all workers, farmers, researchers, managers, engineers, and other workers of our society.”

Oh, once every three years. Then that wasn’t too bad…

Zhang Zian understood that he was categorized under “Other Workers.” But he didn’t fit in all the other previous categories anyway.

“After the list was confirmed, I wanted to tell you right away,” Grandma Gu added. “But the name list had to be on display for a week, and only after there was no disagreement on it could it be official. I was afraid that you would be let down afterward, so I only came to you immediately after the week was over.”

“Then… This… Do I have any…?” Zhang Zian wanted to ask, but he was a little ashamed to.

Grandma Gu slapped her own thigh. “You wanted to ask whether there’s a monetary reward, right? I’m here to send you some money!”

Zhang Zian immediately perked up at hearing that, as though someone had given him a shot of adrenaline. Who wouldn’t be excited about money literally falling from the sky? Was there anything happier than this?

“Master, you have to treat us to a great meal tonight!” Wang Qian and Li Kun immediately called out, wanting in on the good news. They wanted a proper good meal today, and not just any fast food.

“Don’t worry! I will!” Zhang Zian patted his chest. “You choose the place!”

Grandma Gu whipped out her wallet from her pocket, picking out four notes and passing it to Zhang Zian. One fifty dollars, three ten dollars. “Here, the subsidy as the model citizen. 80 dollars every month, this is this month’s.”

Zhang Zian said nothing.

He stared at the few notes as though he didn’t know what they were.

Grandma Gu waved the few notes around, wanting him to take them. “It’s not much, but I didn’t take any of it! That’s what the country set. For the country-wide role model, it’s 150 dollars a month. 100 dollars for the state-level role models, and 80 for city-level state role models. These are tax-free too.”

Well, they wouldn’t have been enough to hit the taxable levels anyway!

Wang Qian and Li Kun stuck out their tongues. Looked like their dinner would be rice with chilli and preserved vegetables tonight…

Zhang Zian wasn’t lacking these 80 dollars, but he couldn’t help but feel upset. It was already the year 8012, so shouldn’t their subsidies have caught up with the times?

What could they do with 80 dollars a month now? Was it even enough to buy two kilograms of raw beef?

For those that could win this prize, even if it was only at the city level, they probably all didn’t need these 80 dollars a month. It would have been better to just not give it at all and make it a purely reputation based prize…

Maybe in the more poverty-stricken west side, these 80 dollars might be useful, but in the cities just by the sea in the east side, the thieves might not even want these 80 dollars.

Zhang Zian gave it a thought before deciding to just use it at least for the greater good. He pushed the money back. “Grandma Gu, I’ve decided to donate this to our neighborhood committee. Buy some ice cream when it’s hot out and a few bags of tea if it’s cold. Consider it my gratitude for all you have done.”

Grandma Gu stared at him through the lenses of her spectacles for a while. “Alright, then I thank you on behalf of the whole neighborhood committee.”

She put the 80 dollars back in her wallet.

Even the spectating employees were a little disappointed. Not towards Grandma Gu, but because of the fact that some things should start to change.

Zhang Zian thought that Grandma Gu had finished all that she wanted to say, but she didn’t look like she was about to leave. She took out another document from her file.

“Actually, this was just the first thing. The second is actually a bigger, better thing.” She smiled as though keeping a secret.

Zhang Zian and the employees no longer had any expectations for “good things.”

He forced a smile, asking politely, “What is it?”

“Due to your exemplary actions recently, the neighborhood committee, city government and city security council have all agreed to appoint you as one of the members of the Municipal Consultative Conference.” Grandma Gu kept her smile as she announced it.

Neither Zhang Zian nor his employees understood what was going on.

Grandma Gu gave him the document, and he took it on instinct.

“Zian, you’ve made it! To be nominated as a member of the Municipal Consultative Conference means that you have the authority and responsibility to be a part of the governing process.” Grandma Gu stood up, patting his shoulder, her hands awfully heavy. “You have to grasp this opportunity tightly and make lives for the common folk better.”