Three o’clock in the afternoon.
The sun was sinking westward, and the city had grown especially clamorous.
Hawking cries, bargaining voices, and the chirping of birds rose and fell one after another.
Many stalls preparing to open for the night had already begun setting up, pulling electrical wires and hanging colored lights—a scene of bustling activity.
Gu Xiao made his way through it all, seeing antiques and paintings, jewelry and jade, and couldn’t help feeling envious. But he also knew he had neither the eye nor the money for them.
Suppressing his unrealistic fantasies, he strode forward with a clear goal, heading toward the pet-selling area deep inside the market.
The farther in he went, the more complicated the air smelled.
The fragrance of flowers, the smell of feed, the odor of disinfectant, and the rank, musky scent of countless animals mingled together and rushed at him. All sorts of chaotic voices drilled straight into his mind.
“I’m so hungry! When is the two-legged beast going to feed us!”
“This cage is too small! I’m being squashed!”
“Newcomer! You stepped on my foot!”
……
……
After walking around and chatting with several shop owners, Gu Xiao confirmed a few things.
First, the voices he heard were indeed not hallucinations.
A hallucination was essentially the imagination’s distortion of known information. It was absolutely impossible for a person to conjure up a shop owner’s phone number and QQ number out of thin air.
Second, the animals he could hear speaking were limited in number.
The animals that could speak had an especially lively gleam in their eyes, somewhat similar to the “spirituality” described in xianxia novels.
Third, animals with spirituality would be attracted to him. Basically, as long as he got within five meters of them, they would notice him and strike up a conversation.
He quickly thought of the sparrows that had been chattering that morning, discussing a “nice smell.”
This attraction also perfectly explained why the hamster at the hospital and the big yellow dog at the gatehouse had taken the initiative to communicate with him.
Gu Xiao suddenly felt as if he had awakened some troublesome trait.
He silently prayed that the targets of this “attraction” did not include insects, or else he would be disgusted to death.
“Handsome, do you like small animals? Want to buy one?”
The male shop assistant’s voice interrupted Gu Xiao’s thoughts.
Gu Xiao glanced at the tabby cat meowing at him from the cage in front of him and shook his head slightly.
“No, I don’t have time to keep a cat.”
The male shop assistant hurriedly said, “Cats are very independent animals. They don’t need too much attention.”
It’s not that I don’t have the attention. It’s that I don’t have the money. Gu Xiao ignored the kitten’s pitiful gaze, refused firmly, and continued walking forward.
Before long, a powerful hawking cry came from the right.
“Squirrels for sale! Squirrels for sale! Adorable little squirrels, only twenty yuan each!”
Gu Xiao frowned.
Squirrels?
This was 2002. The pet industry had only just begun to develop. People kept dogs and cats mainly for practical needs like guarding the house and catching mice.
There was actually someone breeding such a niche pet as squirrels to sell?
Or perhaps…
Gu Xiao stopped and turned his head.
By the roadside, a dark-skinned middle-aged man was shouting loudly into a megaphone. At his feet were two square wire cages, each holding three squirrels.
Their bodies bore injuries to varying degrees. One of them was curled up in the corner, motionless, as if it might stop breathing at any moment.
Gu Xiao was silent for a moment, then walked over. “Hello…”
“Hello! Young handsome guy, are you looking to buy a squirrel?” The owner hurriedly put down the megaphone and revealed a flattering smile.
Almost the instant Gu Xiao approached, the originally lifeless cages stirred.
“Such a comfortable smell…”
“Save us! Save us!”
Tiny, anxious voices rushed into Gu Xiao’s mind one after another, carrying a powerful desire to survive.
The squirrels that could still move all clung to the wire mesh, their glossy black eyes fixed tightly on him.
Gu Xiao glanced at the iron cages and asked curiously,
“Squirrels should be protected wild animals of beneficial, economic, or scientific value, right? Can they be captured freely in the wild?”
The owner’s expression stiffened, and his smile grew somewhat forced.
“They’re all captive-bred.”
Gu Xiao lowered his eyes and pointed at the reddish-brown squirrel curled up in the corner.
“Then please introduce its breed. Judging by its fur color, it doesn’t look like an ordinary squirrel. Do you know when its estrus period is? What should be paid attention to when it sheds during seasonal changes?”
With every question he asked, the owner’s face darkened a little more.
“If you’re not buying, then get lost!”
The owner suddenly flew into a rage, the flesh on his face trembling. “Keep yapping, and I’ll beat you up!”
His booming voice shook the squirrels in the cage until they trembled.
The originally noisy market fell briefly silent. The nearby merchants and customers all looked over at the sound.
Gu Xiao showed no reaction. Even his gaze did not waver in the slightest.
“I know that in matters like this, if the people don’t report it, the authorities won’t investigate. I’m also not interested in being a sage.”
His gaze swept over the cage. “But the one in the corner is already on its last legs. You won’t be able to sell it if you keep it. Why bother?”
“Bullshit!”
The owner’s spit flew everywhere. “It has all four limbs intact! How is it dying? I can tell you’re just here to cause trouble!”
Seeing that the other party had completely lost his temper, Gu Xiao knew that reasoning with him was useless.
He said calmly,
“My dad works at the Forestry Bureau. Whether there are problems with your market’s business licenses and domestication and breeding permits, you know better than I do. I’m a student. I have plenty of time to waste with you.”
The owner was like a rooster whose neck had been seized. His cursing stopped abruptly, and he froze in place.
Having spent many years rooted in the marketplace, reading people’s expressions was practically instinctive.
The boy before him was far too calm, and his appearance was far too refined.
That stillness emanating from his bones was definitely not something an ordinary family could raise. Especially those eyes—so indifferent that they made his scalp prickle.
“What… what exactly do you want!” The owner’s imposing manner was visibly weakened, leaving only a stubborn mouth.
“I’m not here to smash your rice bowl.”
Gu Xiao pointed at the cage. “There’s something wrong with this squirrel’s body, and you obviously can’t treat it. Come with me to the zoo. They have a proper animal rescue station there.”
He added, “Don’t worry. It won’t cost you a cent.”
The owner’s face turned green from being cornered, and he wished he could slap him across the face.
But looking at the other party’s calm eyes and tall, one-meter-eighty frame, he chickened out again and suppressed his anger.
“I don’t have time to run around everywhere. Take it and treat it yourself. Bring it back to me tomorrow.”
Gu Xiao automatically ignored the second half of his sentence.
Opening the iron cage, Gu Xiao carefully placed the squirrel curled up in the corner into his palm, politely nodded to the shop owner, and turned to leave.
……
……
Zoo rescue station.
The light of the incubator shone softly. Gu Hui moved gently as he placed the dying little squirrel inside.
“How is it?” Gu Xiao asked curiously from the side.
Gu Hui adjusted the incubator’s temperature, his expression revealing a hint of gravity.
“It ate too many rotten, spoiled vegetable leaves. Its stomach and intestines are badly damaged. I just fed it medicine and clean water, but the next twenty-four hours will still be very dangerous. It depends on whether it can pull through.”
“That serious?”
“It’s too young, only four months old, and it isn’t a local species either. If you hadn’t brought it here in time, it definitely wouldn’t have made it through tonight.”
At this point, Gu Hui glanced at his son.
In the past, he absolutely would not have done something like this.
Gu Xiao ignored his cheap old man’s complicated gaze and said, “Not a local species?”
Gu Hui walked to the sink and washed his hands as he explained,
“This is a red squirrel. Its scientific name is the Eurasian red squirrel. They’re mainly distributed across the northern part of the Eurasian continent. There may still be some in the deep forests of our country’s northeast, but their numbers are scarce. In the capital region, it’s almost impossible for them to exist in the wild.”
After saying that, his tone carried a trace of indignation. “That flower-and-bird shop owner has no small problem on his hands.”
Gu Xiao had expected as much. At present, the country’s supervision in this area really was not very good.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.”
He stretched lazily, rose, and walked toward the door.
“Wait.”
Gu Hui called out, his eyes somewhat evasive.
“Although red squirrels are cold-resistant, they don’t tolerate heat, and the zoo doesn’t have an enclosure suitable for it…”
In other words, it could only be kept at home.
Gu Xiao was silent for a moment. He glanced at the ball of fur curled up in the incubator and sighed.
“If it survives, I’ll raise it.”
Gu Hui’s eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. “Good, good… Do you want to give it a name?”
Gu Xiao thought for a moment, then said, “Xiao Jiu.”
No matter the era, no matter the land, living a little longer was always a good thing.