Pet King

After hearing Zhang Zian’s explanation, everybody finally understood how the bobbit worm ended up there.

Electrician Wu blamed Welder Zhao repeatedly, complaining that he was too fixated on saving money. It would not have happened if he had bought a commercial eco-bio-block from an aquarium… Now that his beloved little grandson was almost bitten, what would he do?

In fact, everybody knew that even if Electrician Wu’s grandson did stick his arm into the tank to grab the clam worm, he might not have been bitten by the bobbit worm. The bobbit worm was not stupid. A kid’s arm was much thicker than a clam worm and was not on its menu for now. But since Electrician Wu was venting in rage, nobody said anything to make things worse.

It was Welder Zhao’s mistake, so he had to suck it up.

To make amends, he grabbed a bottle of disinfectant immediately from the kitchen, wanting to pour it into the tank to kill the bobbit worm.

Zhang Zian stopped him from being impulsive. There was too much water in the tank. Even if a crate of disinfectant was poured in, it might not be enough for a lethal dose. Besides, bobbit worm was an extremely tough arthropod. Disinfectant might not kill it.

Wang Qian sighed. “Crispy and chicken-flavored… Too bad that Bear Grylls is not here.”

“Even Bear Grylls may not eat this thing!” Li Kun complained.

Wang Qian didn’t agree. “Maybe Bear Grylls would be interested in taking a challenge.”

Zhang Zian asked, “Master Zhao, did you just say that you have water hose at home? May I borrow it? Please also get a container, such as a basin or a bucket.”

“Okay. Just a moment.” Welder Zhao had already lost himself by now. He would do anything he was told.

He ran into the kitchen and searched loudly for a while. He came back with a full armor: a bucket in his hand, a basin under his arm, and a water hose on his shoulder.

“Are these enough?” he asked.

“Fine, no problem.” Zhang Zian nodded, then looked at the frightened and helpless children and smiled. “Kids, I’ll demonstrate a simple scientific phenomenon. It’s called siphonage.”

If there were another adult around, such as Welder Zhao’s daughter-in-law, she would certainly ask the kids to stay in another room so they would not be frightened or get injured. But as Welder Zhao was a crude man, and Electrician Wu was consumed with anger, nobody thought about keeping the kids away for the moment.

The kids stood by the wall and didn’t know what to do. Without receiving instructions, they didn’t know whether to stay or to leave. They were more or less scared, and even the naughtiest kid became quiet.

Zhang Zian noticed their fear. To prevent them from developing psychological trauma, he decided to use the event and to divert their attention with a scientific experiment.

Most girls their age would probably not be interested in science experiments, but the kids were all naughty boys, full of curiosity to the world. They were even tempted to crawl into a dog hole to explore if they encountered one…

As he expected, after hearing about the science experiment, they all grew very interested and crowded over eagerly.

Zhang Zian stuck one end of the hose into the aquarium tank, put a bucket on the ground, then stuck the other end of the hose into the bucket.

The tank was placed on a wooden support that Welder Zhao had made himself. The tank’s bottom was over half a meter above ground.

After watching Zian, the grown-ups knew what Zhang Zian was up to, but the kids didn’t.

He winked at the grown-ups and instructed, “You can stay busy. Find all the thermos you have and start boiling water now. The more the better. Soon we’ll drown this sucker!”

Welder Zhao and Electrician Wu suddenly woke up from their dreams and turned back into the kitchen. They turned on the gas stove as well as the electric water boiler, boiling one kettle after another, then poured the water into the thermos.

Zhang Zian bent down and took the other end of the hose to show to the kids. “Do you think that the water will automatically flow from the tank into the bucket?”

The kids saw the higher end of the hose was stuck at the bottom of the tank, the middle part was bent like a hill along the tank’s wall, and the lower end was stuck into the bucket. They all shook their heads.

“Absolutely not. The middle part is so high. The water can’t flow up there!”

“Right. Water always flows from the higher to the lower. Uncle, you can’t do it like this. You have to lay the hose flat!”

“But there’s no way to lay it flat… Unless we fill up the tank first?”

They yapped one after another.

Wang Qian and Li Kun shook their heads, thinking that their Master had been having a good time posing in front of elementary school students…

Zhang Zian’s face twitched after hearing them call him uncle––maybe because Sihwa had always called him uncle––and emphasized, “Do you think that I look like an uncle? I’m an older brother, okay?”

The elementary school students were speechless.

Zhang Zian said, “You don’t think it will happen? Just watch me.”

As he spoke, he bent down and sucked the lower end of the tube. The water flew from the higher end, passed the highest point, then ran straight down. Then he moved his mouth away, and placed the tube’s lower end into the bucket.

Something interesting happened. Despite that he had stopped suctioning, the saltwater flew out of the tank ceaselessly along the tube.

The kids were all stunned. Someone even tucked the tube, yet it was unaffected. Water continued to flow out of the tank.

Soon, the bucket was full. Wang Qian had been waiting with a basin. Li Kun took the bucket to the toilet to empty it, then brought it back. They alternated like so.

There was a lot of water in the tank and it would take some time to empty. Zhang Zian used the opportunity and explained, “When you watch the weather forecast, you often hear the word ‘atmospheric pressure.’ There is pressure in the air. Air is light, but the atmosphere is thick. It weighs heavily on each of us. There is pressure in water, too. The deeper the water, the higher the pressure…”

He tried to explain the principles of siphonage as briefly as possible, which made his mouth dry. He had not touched physics for a long time, and might not have gotten all the details right. But he made the basic principles clear.

The kids only understood part of it. They tried it themselves with some thin tubes and it worked.

They might not have understood the principles, but at least they remembered the interesting phenomenon.

After Zhang Zian had finished explaining, the tank was almost empty. Even the bottom sand was almost emptied. The clam worms wriggled their bodies and were without a hiding place. A few small fish flopped their tails in the remaining water.

The bobbit worm was still hiding under a rock and was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it had sensed there was something unusual––a premonition that something bad was going to happen.

It was no longer possible to drain the remaining thin layer of water. Zhang Zian scooped the small fish out with a net and placed them into a bucket. It was just like the quote––”When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer…”

“Fine. Go out and play now––but don’t just play. Don’t forget the principles I just taught you! It took me a lot of words, and a lot of brain cells!” Zhang Zian waved his hands to send the kids away.

The kids argued for a while, then started planning whose house would be the next victim. They ran away like a swarm of bees.

Electrician Wu and Welder Zhao boiled kettle after kettle of water. They filled all the thermos they could find at home, and even borrowed a few from the neighbor.

As soon as Zhang Zian commanded, everybody, including Jiang Feifei, was rolling up their sleeves, getting ready for a big fight against the bobbit worm.

Everyone took a thermos or boiling kettle in their hands. They gathered around the fish tank and poured boiling water toward the rocks.

Hot mist rose immediately from the tank.

Everyone put down their empty containers, then took another full one and continued to pour boiling water over the rocks.

The poor clam worms were soon cooked. They floated on top of the water in the tank bottom.

Zhang Zian reminded everyone, “Be alert! That bobbit worm might come out anytime. Don’t freak out and drop the thermos in the tank…”

As he spoke, a dark brown shadow rolled out of the rock. Apparently, the heat was killing it and it could not hide any longer.

Jiang Feifei yelled out of instinct. Luckily, she managed to hold the thermos firmly in her hands.

Everybody turned pale––the bobbit worm was much longer than they had expected.

The tank was a 1.5-meter tank. Zhang Zian had estimated that the worm was half a meter long, but in fact, before it had fully stretched out its body, it was longer than half of the tank.

It circled around the tank again and again, emitting heat all over its body. The nasty mouth parts opened and closed. It moved its countless feet, trying to climb up the tank wall and escape.

Yet, wherever it escaped, boiling water was pouring down on it. Even when it climbed up the tank wall, it got washed down.

As more and more hot water was poured into the tank, the super tough arthropod was moving more and more slowly. After being washed down the tank wall one last time, it stopped moving and floated on the water’s surface with its belly up.

As the saying went, “A centipede continues to wriggle after its death.”

They feared that it might be faking its death, or that it was not completely dead yet.

They poured a few more kettles of boiling water on it. After seeing that it had stopped moving, they were finally relieved, and wiped off the sweat from their foreheads after all the excitement, anxiety, fear, and disgust.

As soon as Wang Qian and Li Kun had put down their thermos, they took out the phones and started filming, ready to show off on WeChat Moments.

Welder Zhao stared at the rocks with concern and asked, “Could there be more inside? Should I throw these rocks away?”

“There’s no need. The rocks are safe. With so much boiling water, except for some microbes, the other creatures have all been killed,” Zhang Zian said affirmatively.

“Really?” Welder Zhao was not fully relieved.

Zhang Zian borrowed his gloves and moved the steaming rocks away one by one.

After the last rock was moved, the remains of a few small fish were found underneath, already nibbled to pieces.

“No wonder your small fish were disappearing one after another and the dead fish were never found…” Electrician Wu shook his head and sighed. He pointed at Welder Zhao and said, “You, be more careful! You have a good pension. Are you really short of a few bucks?”

Welder Zhao nodded with some lingering fear. “Wu, you are right. I won’t do this again in the future… Now that the water is drained, how about if I buy some sea salt and learn to prepare artificial seawater? Store owner, can you give us a discount if we both buy some?”

Everybody was speechless.

Wang Qian pointed at the dead bobbit worm and asked, “What do we do with this worm?”

“It’s already cooked. Bring it home and make a dish. I bet it tastes like spicy crawfish!” Li Kun answered.