Tim and Lauren heard Zhang Zian calling "Richard", but they didn't know who he was calling. Following the sound, they looked up to the second floor, only to see a large mass of gray shadow flying over with a squawk and landing precisely on his shoulder. They took a closer look and found that it was a very smart looking African grey parrot.
Richard folded its wings close to its body, rolled its small black eyes and said, "What do you want from me?"
Zhang Zian gestured to the two foreigners standing in front of him, "Help me listen to what they're talking about."
Tim and Lauren were stunned. Although they didn't understand what the grey parrot was saying, it was obviously talking to the young owner in Chinese. The rhythmic voice of the parrot was definitely not fake. They ran a cattery, so they knew nothing about parrots. Even so, they were still deeply surprised.
Richard looked up, "Quack? It's two foreigners. No wonder you want to help me! What language are they speaking? "
"English." Zhang Zian defended himself, "Actually, I can understand them, but they speak so fast that I can't keep up."
Richard stared at him with contempt, "If you don't understand, then you don't understand. Stop pretending! Let them say it again. I want to hear it. "
Zhang Zian smiled at them apologetically and said in English, "Sorry, please say it again?"
"Er..." Lauren came back from the surprise and repeated what she had just said. But this time, she unconsciously said it a little slower. Zhang Zian could understand more without Richard's help. He stepped forward and shook hands with the two of them.
When he got closer, he found that Lauren was actually not petite. She was taller than most Chinese women, but she looked petite standing next to her husband. As for Tim, the bigger he was... The closer he got, the more pressure Zhang Zian felt. After shaking hands with him, he quickly stepped back to a safe distance.
"They saw the video of the kitten dancing, so they came to visit," Richard explained concisely.
Come to visit... Zhang Zian looked at their big and small bags. Did they have to make such a big fuss just to visit?
He was not a fool. He knew that the visit was just out of politeness — one would not visit a temple without a reason. Moreover, he had come from Los Angeles across the ocean. It was not as simple as just a visit.
Just as Zhang Zian was thinking about how to reply, he heard Richard reply in English, "Quack! I'm Richard Jefferson, and this is Jeff Richardson. Nice to meet you! "
"F * ck you!" Zhang Zian bent his fingers and was about to flick it. "Why did you even change my surname!"
Richard nimbly dodged, "Alright, alright, I really don't know what to do with you. Sorry, that was a slip of the tongue! Let me reintroduce myself. I'm Richard Jephson, and this is Jeff Zhang. Nice to meet you! Call me Richard, and call him Jeff. "The first part of the sentence was in Chinese, and the second part was in English.
Jeff Zhang was more like it. Zhang Zian didn't care about the title anymore.
Tim and Lauren were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped. The parrot was speaking standard BBC English, with perfect pronunciation and an elegant accent. If they had not seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed that it was a parrot that was speaking! What shocked them the most was that the parrot could speak both Chinese and English. That was amazing!
Zhang Zian sighed as soon as he saw their expressions. It was better to keep a low profile. He said to them in English, "Sorry, I have to leave for a while." Then he took Richard to the second floor.
"What's wrong? I was just about to show off my skills! "Richard grumbled.
"Yes, you will be taken away and cut into pieces after you show off your skills." Zhang Zian stared at it. "What if these two are CIA, FBI, KGB, or SCP in disguise?"
Richard said, "I'm not sure about the first three, but you must be thinking too much about the last one!"
"Anyway, we have to keep a low profile," Zhang Zian said firmly.
"Actually, you just want to act cool so that I don't have to, right?" However, Richard had already seen through everything.
Zhang Zian bent his fingers and made a threatening gesture. "You motherf * cker! You said you would help me find a girlfriend, but now I haven't even seen her. How dare you bargain with me! "
"Well, I am in the wrong for accepting an epic mission. I will help you act cool for a while," Richard said helplessly. "What do you want me to do?"
Zhang Zian had made up his mind. He said, "You can stand on my shoulder after you become invisible. When you want to speak, you can pinch my shoulder with your claws. I will open my mouth and it will sound like I am the one talking."
Richard thought for a while. "Okay, but what should I say?"
"Improvise. Mainly ask them what they want and what they want. Try to get the most benefits. If you don't take advantage of them, you will suffer losses. "
Richard said, "Okay, but what accent should I use to speak?"
"What accent?" Zhang Zian asked, puzzled.
"There are different accents in English. Which accent do you want me to use?"
Zhang Zian hadn't thought of this problem. "Whatever... What accent do they have?"
Tim and Lauren were wandering on the first floor of the shop. Their eyes frequently fell on Fina, and they whispered a few words in English from time to time, discussing the species of the golden cat.
Richard listened for a while and said, "Although they were speaking American English, the woman had a rustic Australian accent, and the man would occasionally say one or two Texan words."
"Texas dialect?" Zhang Zian was stunned. "So the man is from Shandong?"
"Texas, you idiot!" Richard complained. "Does your Shandong man look like this?"
"... I don't understand. You do what you want." Zhang Zian waved his hand at it and let it handle the matter. He read the game's built-in instructions. "Dr. Irene Pepper's lovebird, invisible!"
Richard went into invisible mode, and Zhang Zian took it downstairs.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I suddenly had something to deal with." Richard pinched Zhang Zian's shoulder with its claws and imitated his tone.
Zhang Zian grimaced in pain. F * ck, I didn't ask you to pinch me so hard! This is definitely revenge. I'll settle the score with you later!
He muttered in his heart as he opened his mouth and mouthed.
Tim and Lauren looked at each other in surprise. They didn't seem to notice that the shop owner was speaking with a London accent.
Richard chose the London accent as Zhang Zian's pronunciation because it knew that many Americans liked, or even were obsessed with, the London accent. They mocked themselves that American English was poor English. Using the London accent was in line with Zhang Zian's purpose of not being pretentious.
"We need to apologize for taking up your time without an appointment," Lauren said apologetically. "We watched the video of the kittens dancing in your shop on YouTube, and we couldn't hold back our excitement. However, we couldn't find your contact information, so we had to pay you a visit. Before we came, we were worried about the language barrier, but your English is better than we expected... "
Richard pinched Zhang Zian with its claws and said without thinking, "Quack... Well, in fact, I lived in the UK for several years, during which I received a PhD in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge."
Tim and Lauren were speechless. Even a PhD from the University of Cambridge came to open a pet shop. Was the competition in the pet industry in China so fierce?
Zhang Zian was either lip-syncing or smiling. His cheeks were sore from smiling. His oral English was not good, but his hearing was not bad. He could understand part of the conversation. He knew that Richard was playing tricks again. It was too pretentious!
"It's my honor to have you two come all the way here. Please sit down and talk." Richard pinched Zhang Zian again.
Zhang Zian understood "sit down", so he raised his hand to show them the chairs for customers to rest in the shop. This was the bar chair that Guo Dongyue brought over when she was renovating the shop. Before, there was only a broken four-legged steel chair in the shop.
He stared at Tim's butt anxiously, praying to God that the new chair wouldn't collapse.
Fortunately, the chair just creaked, and barely held up.
However, Richard seemed to have misunderstood something and let out a few low snickers.
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