The next day was Zhang Zian's last day in the seaside town. As usual, he drove to Karl's aquarium with Famous.
"Hi! Jeff! Good morning! "
Paul, the water quality expert, was testing something. His eyes were glued to the eyepiece of the microscope. When he heard the door open and close automatically, he glanced at Zhang Zian casually. It was really just a glance. His eyes were probably less than one centimeter away from the eyepiece.
He always had endless work to do. He had to measure the specific gravity of the water once a week, as well as the nitrate and phosphate levels once a week. He also had to measure the ammonia and nitrite levels once every two weeks. If he found any abnormalities, he had to adjust them in time to determine if there was a problem with the aquarium's ecosystem or equipment failure. Otherwise, it would be a huge loss if a fish died.
There were so many aquariums in the aquarium. He had to check them in batches and randomly. He also had to record the inspection date of each aquarium in detail. It was a lot of work. Of course, Karl probably paid him a lot.
"Good morning, Paul!"
Zhang Zian put down the plastic storage box with difficulty and glanced around the shop. "Where's Karl? Is he not here? "
"He should be in the back. Go find him." Paul straightened up and recorded the data he had just observed on the computer. He noticed that the plastic storage box that Zhang Zian was holding was very heavy. It seemed to be filled with water. He kindly asked, "Do you want me to help you?"
"No, I can do it myself. Thank you." Zhang Zian looked at Paul's typical skinny body. It would probably be more of a hindrance if he asked him to help.
Just then, Karl came out from the back with a plastic bucket.
"Jeff, are you going back to Berlin today?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm leaving soon. Thank you for taking care of me these days." Zhang Zian threw the villa keys to Karl.
Paul was very surprised. "What? You're leaving already? "
"Yes. Otherwise, I won't be able to make it to the closing ceremony of the film festival." Zhang Zian smiled. "Thank you, Paul. I learned a lot from you."
"I see …" Paul lowered his head regretfully.
After spending a few days with Zhang Zian, he and Zhang Zian had become good friends. He found that Zhang Zian was very studious and could chat with him. This was a sense of recognition that he could not get from Karl or other people. That was because other people were more concerned about whether the local teams would win or lose and whether they could be promoted to the Bundesliga next season. They were not interested in complex water quality records and monitoring.
"It's okay. Let's keep in touch online. I'll come over again when I have time in the future." Zhang Zian hugged him goodbye.
"Jeff, there is something that you must come with me to take a look at!" Carl waved at Zhang Zian eagerly.
"Oh? What is it? "
His mysterious look aroused Zhang Zian's curiosity.
"You'll know when you come over and take a look. While it's still alive …" Karl did not elaborate and brought him to the staff area at the backstage of the aquarium. There was a separate aquarium tank there.
"Look, you've never seen this before, right?" Karl pointed at the aquarium tank.
Zhang Zian walked closer and observed carefully.
There was only a layer of bottom sand in the aquarium tank. A strange creature was lying weakly on the bottom sand. Its whole body was covered with a hard chitin shell. It looked like a combination of a cicada monkey and a mantis shrimp, but its body was a hundred times larger than the two.
Cicada monkeys were the larvae of cicadas. Because they could climb trees and transform into cicadas, the process was similar to a monkey climbing a tree.
The creature's shell was light purple and about a foot long. It was lying on the bottom sand as if it were dead. If it were not for its two tentacles that were still moving slightly, Zhang Zian would have really thought that it was dead.
Between its body and the bottom sand, a few pairs of appendages could be vaguely seen. Each appendage had sharp claws.
"This is … a giant centipede?" Zhang Zian asked uncertainly.
"That's right!" Karl's eyebrows were full of excitement and regret. He sighed. "It's a pity that it's dying. It won't live for long. We might be the last two people it sees."
"That's for sure, right? After all, it's a deep-sea animal. It's used to the huge pressure at the bottom of the sea. Not to mention coming to land, even in the shallow sea, it will die due to pressure loss. It's not easy for it to survive until now. "Zhang Zian understood the fate of this rare creature.
Giant centipedes generally lived at the bottom of the sea, hundreds of meters underwater. It was almost impossible for ordinary people to keep them as pets, and it was very difficult to catch them.
They could occasionally be seen in deep-sea aquariums in Japan. The people of Japan also had an unusual love for these creatures. Figurines, dolls, key chains, and the like in the shape of giant worms sold very well, probably because they thought that these creatures were very cute.
"Yes." Karl nodded. "That's why I was anxious to call you over to see it for the last time. A living giant centipede is very rare. When it's dead, I'll ask someone to make it into a specimen and put it in front of the shop. "
"Where did it come from?" Zhang Zian asked. "Was it caught by fishermen?"
Karl shook his head. "It's strange. My friend picked it up when he was walking by the beach yesterday. Does it sound strange? This kind of creature lives in the deep sea. It knows that it will die if it floats to the surface, but it violates its survival instinct. It seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere. My friend also knows a little about the aquarium. At first glance, he thought it was a deep-sea louse from Japan. Those creatures are not valuable, but it's strange to see them appear on the German coast. Later, he took a closer look and recognized it as a giant centipede. He called me to inform me, and I drove it back. "
Zhang Zian knew that this was most likely a vision caused by the appearance of the mermaid.
"By the way, I also have a gift for you."
He motioned for Karl to return to the outer room with him.
"What is it? Don't tell me it's a Berlin Bear doll. I'm too old for that kind of gift, "Karl said half-jokingly." I also have a signed photo of Famous. "
Zhang Zian also smiled, opened the lid of the storage box, pointed to the creature in the water, and said, "It's this."
The moment Karl saw the giant centipede, he was stunned. He couldn't believe his eyes.
"Oh my God! This … Is this a giant centipede? "He said with a trembling voice." You brought it here in a storage box? "
"Because I didn't have anything else to use." Zhang Zian was also very helpless. "I can't just buy an aquarium just to store this thing, right?"
Karl was indeed a person who knew his stuff. He knew all kinds of strange creatures like the back of his hand. He recognized the giant centipede at a glance and knew that it was a new species discovered by scientists.
He looked left and right around the storage box like it was a treasure. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew how dangerous this creature was, he really wanted to hold it in his hands.
In comparison, the rarity of the giant centipede was far from it.
Paul heard the conversation between the two of them and came over from the water quality testing platform. He was also shocked when he saw this strange and rare creature.
"This giant centipede is a gift for me?" Karl suddenly realized. "You want to give it to me? You should know how rare this creature is, right? There probably isn't any aquarium in the world that has them! "
"Yes, it's to thank you and Reina for taking care of me. You like this kind of creature, don't you?" Zhang Zian laughed. "We Chinese are very particular about reciprocity. I can't accept your care for nothing. Otherwise, people will laugh at me."
His tone changed, and he said half-jokingly, "Besides, how am I going to bring this guy back to China? I'm afraid I'll be stopped by customs, right? I'll have to spend more time talking to them, and there might even be some trouble. "
"But … How did you get this giant centipede?" Karl believed him and asked in surprise. "As far as I know, they live in Antarctica, right?"
"I don't know how it came to Germany, which is thousands of miles away. Coincidentally, I also picked it up yesterday when I was walking by the sea." Zhang Zian shrugged. "It's probably similar to what happened to your friend, but I'm lucky. The giant centipede doesn't live in deep waters, so I won't die when I come ashore."
Karl thanked him profusely and immediately urged Paul to vacate the best aquarium tank in the shop, set up the cooling equipment, and simulate the water quality of the Antarctic waters in the aquarium tank. He had to treat this new customer with the best conditions.
He was very confident that if he used this giant centipede as a sign, it would definitely attract more customers to come and see.
According to his experience, rare pets didn't have to be sold. In fact, it might be better to leave them in the shop as a display, and it could promote the sales of the surrounding products.
To some extent, Zhang Zian felt the same way. Some customers who came to his shop were attracted by the rare chocolate-colored Abyssinian cats, but in the end, they fell in love with cats of other species, or bought imported cat food and cat products …
Taking this opportunity, he expressed his thoughts, hoping that Karl could help him import a batch of high-quality German aquarium equipment.
Karl had always been a big customer of the local aquarium equipment manufacturers. If he could get the equipment at a discounted price, he promised Zhang Zian that he would immediately arrange for the equipment to be shipped to China.
After settling the matter, Zhang Zian reluctantly said goodbye to them, started the car, and started the road to Berlin.
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