Pi liked reading books very much. At first, it was not used to it, but Chinese had a magical power. Every word had its own special rules, and every word could be interpreted literally. Pi was gradually fascinated by it. For example, when Pi saw the word "mountain," it seemed to be able to see the mountains.
Following Zhang Zian's suggestion, Pi sat upright in front of the computer and typed for a while. Then it sat on the windowsill and looked into the distance, observing the passers-by. After a few minutes, its eyes adjusted and relaxed. Then it reclined in the hammock chair and read a book on the tablet for a while. Pi enjoyed doing this over and over again.
Perhaps because Pi was used to searching for knowledge from the complicated records in the nameless book, its reading speed was very fast. It could almost read ten lines at a glance. Not only could it read, but it could also remember and understand. Every time Zhang Zian went up to the second floor to check on Pi, he found that it was reading another book.
"Eeek!"
Pi typed and explained, "I've read the English versions of these books, so I can read them faster."
Zhang Zian nodded with relief.
The books that he imported into the tablet were all electronic versions of classical or modern masterpieces. Most of them had been translated into English and introduced to foreign countries, so it was normal that Pi had read them before.
Pi liked all kinds of books, whether they were novels, travel notes, essays, poems, popular science works, or biographies. In order to satisfy its growing appetite, Zhang Zian took out all kinds of books from his childhood from the storage room. He also borrowed some books from Wang Qian and Li Kun, and piled them next to the hammock chair so that Pi could access them at any time.
Pi treasured the physical books very much. It held them gently and turned the pages carefully, but its reading speed was still the same.
Soon, Pi finished reading all the physical books in Zhang Zian's house and those he could borrow.
In addition to the daily operation of the pet shop, Zhang Zian had another task, which was to browse online websites to see if there was any discount information on books, and buy a batch of books when there was a promotion.
"Master, it's so heavy! You always have express deliveries these days! "
Wang Qian and Li Kun walked into the shop with two heavy boxes in their arms and placed them next to Zhang Zian's chair.
"Yes, I bought some books."
Zhang Zian picked up a paper knife and opened the packaging. Inside was a set of books and periodicals. These periodicals were all from last year. The price of buying them as a package was very affordable. Anyway, Pi was not picky about release dates.
Wang Qian and Li Kun looked at the Abyssinian cat breeding manual and asked in confusion, "Master, you bought so many books, but we have never seen you read any of them..."
Zhang Zian glared at them. "Do I have to let you see me reading? Can't I buy it as a footrest? Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and go back to prepare for the make-up test! "
For the time being, he did not tell anyone about Pi coming to the pet shop, especially Wang Qian and Li Kun, the two idiots who liked to brag everywhere.
"Yes, Master!" The two of them stuck out their tongues and ran back to school.
After they left, Zhang Zian picked up the books and journals and went to the second floor.
"Pi, there's a new book."
"Jiji!"
Pi jumped down from the basket hammock chair and greeted Zhang Zian expectantly. It looked at the spines of the books, and before Zhang Zian could stack the books, it couldn't wait to take out a book and read it greedily, swimming in the treasure house of knowledge.
Seeing how happy it was, Zhang Zian was both gratified and worried.
Next to the basket hammock chair, a small mountain of books rose from the ground. The books that he had, borrowed, bought, and periodical were piled up into four mountains of different heights. The tallest one was almost as tall as a person, and the shortest one was waist-high.
Zhang Zian's speed of finding books was completely slower than Pi's reading speed. At this rate, the books would break the ceiling in a few days.
Physical books were more expensive, and they were not often discounted. It was also inconvenient to store them. Books and periodicals were fast consumables for Pi, and they did not have long-term storage value. After all, it had the all-encompassing Nameless Book. Reading Chinese books was only to understand the profoundness of Chinese.
When Pi had no books to read, it was bored, lonely, and depressed. It knew that it could not go downstairs and appear in front of the world, because it would bring trouble to Zhang Zian. Even if it went downstairs, it had nothing to do and could not communicate with other elfins. It might as well stay on the second floor and type. But typing all the time was boring, so it often sat on the windowsill and stared blankly.
Zhang Zian was very worried about Pi's state, and so was Old Time Tea, who was proficient in traditional Chinese medicine. Old Time Tea said that depression was harmful to the body. If Pi was depressed for a long time, it would get sick, especially in winter, which made people feel depressed. If Old Time Tea's words were translated into Western medicine, it would be called depression. Living alone for a long time, not communicating with the outside world, coupled with a depressed mood, could lead to depression over time.
Humans were social animals, and so were monkeys. Pi, whose behavior was similar to that of a monkey, was probably the same. But Zhang Zian could not find a group of monkeys to play with it.
Many studies showed that negative emotions could affect health, such as gastric ulcers, endocrine disorders, hair loss, and other acute and chronic diseases. He felt that he had seen a lot of short yellow hair when he was sweeping the floor recently.
Since physical books could not satisfy Pi's appetite, he decided to turn to the omnipotent Internet for help.
"Pi, do you want to try online novels?"
He suggested to Pi.
"Eeek?"
Pi was sitting on a rattan chair, reading a book. It was surprised.
Zhang Zian explained, "Online novels are a new form of reading that was created with the rise of the Internet. It's similar to the electronic version of physical books that you've read before. The difference is that online novels were created for sharing on the Internet from the very beginning."
"Eeek?"
Pi put down the book, picked up the laptop, and typed, "Are online novels interesting?"
"Some are okay, and some are not. But there are many types of online novels, and there are a lot of them. You can always find something you like." Zhang Zian answered truthfully. In fact, he had not read many online novels, so he was not very confident when he said these words.
Literary and artistic value aside, the biggest advantage of online novels was that they were large in quantity. Before he came up with a solution, he had to temporarily fill Pi's stomach so that it would not be bored and depressed.
"Eeek!"
Pi nodded, and typed, "I want to read them."
"Okay, I'll download some online reading apps for you."
Zhang Zian took the tablet and downloaded several famous online reading apps from the application store. He registered an account for Pi and taught it how to find books.
Pi happily picked up the tablet and dived into the ocean of online novels.
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