Pet King

Zhang Zian didn’t bring the underwater speaker with him, so he hadn’t summoned 52 Hertz––it must have been Sihwa.

Before leaving the shop Zian had only told her that he was bringing her somewhere, but he hadn’t mentioned that they’d be going to the beach. He also tell her to summon 52 Hertz, but it was no surprise to Zian that she did. After all, Sihwa and 52 Hertz were both very lonely.

52 Hertz was extraordinarily gentle that day. Half of its body was exposed on the water’s surface as it looked directly as Sihwa with its eyes that had almost no white.

It was Sihwa’s first meeting with 52 Hertz. It was probably very surprised to see that the one who could communicate with it was a mermaid who was half human and half fish.

Sihwa didn’t hesitate to swim up to it; she wasn’t worried at all that the behemoth might hurt her by accident. She swam up to its head and intimately touched its skin, then whispered words that could not be heard by the human ear.

52 Hertz was probably talking too, but Zhang Zian didn’t have the underwater pickup device with him so he couldn’t hear what they were saying. It might have been Sihwa listening to 52 Hertz talk about its long search over the years, or it could have been Sihwa telling 52 Hertz her own story.

Zhang Zian was getting bored as he watched them, and since there was no internet in the middle of the ocean, there was nothing much he could do with his phone.

After some time, 52 Hertz’s long and flat head sank back into the water. Using her arms as a lever, Sihwa jumped out of the water with a splash and sat on it. 52 Hertz then took her around like that. Sometimes it dove into the water with Sihwa and emerged out from another spot.

Both Sihwa’s fishtail and the whale’s back were very smooth, so Sihwa would occasionally fall into the water when she lost her grip. She would then emerge from the water like a silly girl, laughing as she hugged its pectoral fins. She had even tried to sit on its nostrils, and it would spray her up in the air with its strong breath. She would somersault in the air before diving back into the sea like she was doing acrobatics.

52 Hertz was also very happy. It twisted its huge body around just like a happy, 100-ton child. It was most likely the first time since its birth that it had a companion to play with.

Zhang Zian really envied them. Although humans had two legs, they could only walk on about 30 percent of the world’s area. Even though Sihwa had only one fishtail, she could freely swim in 70 percent of the world’s area. What was there to be unsatisfied with? Moreover, all marine creatures could be her friend.

Right then, Zian’s phone rang, and it was definitely not Sihwa. The caller was a strange, foreign landline. He tried to recall, but he didn’t know anyone in the city represented by the area code. Was it a wrong number?

After hesitating for a moment, he answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hello? Is this… Mr. Zhang Zian?” The other voice belonged to a young man, and he seemed surprised to hear Zhang Zian’s voice. He immediately regained his calmness.

Strange… Who is this? How does he know my phone number and name? Zhang Zian was puzzled. Could it be that his personal information had been sold by some unscrupulous website again?

“It’s me. Who is this?” Zian asked, a hint of alertness in his voice.

“Oh! That’s great! I’ve finally gotten in touch with you. I called you several times earlier, but the operator either said, ‘The other party is not in the service area,’ or ‘The other party is currently not available…'” the young man said, “Mr. Zhang, is the signal on your end very bad? Your voice is being transmitted intermittently.”

“Well, it’s a little bad… Who is this? Do you need anything?” Zhang Zian asked again.

The young man introduced himself. “I’m a staff member from your live broadcast platform. I had wanted to contact you directly in the live broadcast room today to discuss the details on signing a contract, but you didn’t broadcast live today, so I decided to give you a call…”

Zhang Zian was speechless as he looked up at Sihwa. “Signing a contract?” he repeated.

“Yes! I would like to congratulate you. The popularity of your live broadcast has already qualified you for the contract signing standard of our platform, and you can formally become a contract anchor!” the other party said heartily.

Zhang Zian then remembered that Sihwa’s live broadcast platform had required a real name authentication, and the authentication method was through an ID card and a bank card. He had used his own personal information to help Sihwa register, and the contact number left was, of course, his… but he didn’t even consider the possibility of signing a contract at the time!

“Wait! Are you mistaken? Are you sure that you want to sign a contract with me?” He emphasized the word “me” because it seemed to him that there was something wrong.

“Oh, Mr. Zhang, you’re too modest! To be honest, I was very surprised when I heard your voice. You had registered with a male ID card, but our one of our staff members thought that you were a girl… But don’t be discouraged! We absolutely have no intention to discriminate! Cross-dressing boys are also very popular! Speaking of which, you are really very beautiful, and your mermaid cosplay was just so amazing. You were so perfect that no one even harbored thoughts of jealousy. The employees of our office, whether they were men or women, all have your photo as their wallpaper, and they occasionally fawn over it…”

The other party continued on with his words that Zhang Zian found to be disgusting.

“In fact, you’ve already reached the contract signing standard of our platform, but we have decided to review your broadcast more, so we did not send you an invitation to sign a contract with us… Because you didn’t host a broadcast today, we thought that you might not be feeling well, so we called to check on you. At the same time, we wanted to take the chance to officially issue an invitation to sign a contract with us in hopes that we can all work together and progress and benefit mutually…”

Zhang Zian’s head started to ring. He no longer felt like he was floating in the middle of the sea, but like he was riding a horse on a vast grassland, cracking his whip to drive countless alpacas around…

He used to watch Snowy broadcast live and saw that it brought in quite a lot of money, so he had also quietly tried to broadcast live, but no one even bothered to watch, let alone sign a contract with him. Who knew that his broadcast dream would be realized in such a surprising manner…

He didn’t listen to the employee’s excuse of checking to see if he was feeling unwell. He might have been able to trick little girls, but he definitely couldn’t trick Zhang Zian. They must have panicked when they saw that Sihwa did not broadcast live today, and under the impression that she was poached by other platforms, they quickly called to sign a contract.

It was impossible to sign a contract. After all, he was not a crossdresser.

“To tell you the truth, I have seen countless crossdressers in this line, their faces covered with thick layers of makeup. After removing their makeup, however, the sight of them would burn the eyes of others. Only yours seemed natural, and we can see that you do not have any makeup on at all! Forgive me for being blunt, but it’s a pity that you were born as a man!”

Zhang Zian choked in silence.