“Vegetable market…?”
Wen Youning nodded, recalling the silver arowana that had planned to jump out of the tank tonight.
Following the @ mention in the livestream chat, she clicked into the stall owner’s livestream.
The account had a few thousand followers.
In the upper left corner, it showed that the streamer had been online for over ten hours he must have started streaming early in the morning when he went to pick up produce.
Because of what she had said during the day, the stall owner’s livestream chat was now flooded with comments like:
“The silver arowana is jumping out tonight, keep an eye on it!”
“Don’t close the stall, watch the silver arowana!”
“If you leave and come back tomorrow, that fish will be dried up by then!”
The stall owner also had an online store where he sold products via livestream, but it usually didn’t attract much attention.
Now, thanks to algorithm recommendations, Wen Youning’s audience had all been directed to his stream.
At this hour, the stall owner had already packed up the remaining vegetables and was driving home.
His chat had been urging him since the afternoon to stay at the market, but by now, he was used to ignoring it.
At a red light, he glanced at the chat and responded, “It really won’t jump out, don’t worry.
I know my fish very well I’ve raised them for so long, haven’t I?
That streamer was definitely just joking.
The market gates are already closed, and I’m almost home.
I’m not going back to check, it’s fine.”
The stall owner didn’t take it seriously.
To be precise, he didn’t believe it at all.
How could someone actually hear an animal’s thoughts?
That was just ridiculous.
And after finding out the person who said it was a streamer, he was even more convinced it was just for show.
So, even though his chat kept urging him to go back, he had no intention of turning around.
After all, he had been seeing these comments all day.
Stall owner: “Check out the shopping cart below.
If you’re interested in anything, place an order.”
With this much traffic, he hadn’t even sold a single piece of meat how frustrating!
But what if it’s true?
Yeah, yeah! Better safe than sorry! Arowanas are expensive, right?
You’ve raised it for so long.
Even without considering the purchase price, your effort alone is worth tens of thousands.
Just go back and check for our curiosity’s sake.
The stall owner sighed as he watched the flood of messages and the rapidly increasing sales.
“Fine, fine.
Since everyone is saying this, I’ll go back and take a look…
But listen, I’m just going to check if the fish is still in the tank.
Once I see it’s fine, I’m leaving.
If any new viewers come in later and miss it, I’m not going back again.”
Since the fans were being so generous with their purchases, he turned on his blinker and made a U-turn.
“I’ve had those two arowanas together in the same tank for a while now.
If they were going to jump out, they would’ve done it already.”
The stall owner held the steering wheel, looking exasperated.
People were always so quick to believe in nonsense.
By the time he drove back, all the market lights were off.
The place was remote, and even the streetlights on both sides of the road were dim.
As his car pulled up, the guard at the security booth squinted sleepily.
“Who’s there?”
The stall owner rolled down his window and called out, “It’s me, from the meat stall.
I came back to grab something.”
The old guard shuffled over in his slippers.
“Sign in on the register.”
The entry form was incredibly detailed.
The stall owner spent five or six minutes filling it out before finally saying, “Alright, done, sir.”
The guard put on his reading glasses and carefully compared the stall owner’s face to his ID photo.
Once he was sure, he pressed the remote control to open the side gate.
“Go on in.
Don’t take too long.”
There were over a hundred stalls in the market if someone stayed inside for too long and something went missing, it would be hard to explain.
“Got it, sir.”
The stall owner handed him a pack of cigarettes through the window.
“Thanks for the trouble.”
Driving into the market’s parking lot, he adjusted his phone so the camera faced the entrance.
“Alright, let’s go see that silver arowana you’re all so worried about.”
The market lights were controlled in sections, and the stall owner only knew where the switches were for his own area.
He used his phone’s flashlight as he walked in.
Luckily, the livestream had a night vision mode, so even though it was dark, the audience could see everything.
“Honestly, even though I bought the silver arowana later, my two fish get along great.
That tank is huge, and they even nudge each other when they swim.
Even if they aren’t deeply bonded, there’s no way the golden arowana would suddenly start hating the silver one.”
“And there’s even less reason for the silver arowana to want to jump out…”
Just as he finished speaking, he reached his stall and clicked on the overhead light.
The next moment, his voice abruptly cut off.
Because right before his eyes, a silver arowana leapt into the air
And fell straight down.
Thud.
The silver arowana arced gracefully in midair.
Its head hit the ground first, tail tilting as its body collapsed sideways.
Out of the water, the fish began flailing desperately.
The stall owner bent down, arms reaching forward but he hesitated.
His hand hovered in the air, fingers slightly curled, his face twitching in disbelief at what he had just witnessed.
Then, at the top of his lungs
“MY SILVER AROWANAAAA!!!”
His heart-wrenching scream echoed through the empty market.
AHHHH?! IT REALLY JUMPED!
The timing was perfect! I was still looking inside the tank for it, and it was already airborne!
Wait was this staged? Like, did they train the arowana to jump right when the light turned on? Or maybe this is played in reverse?
Sis, wouldn’t playing it in reverse be even crazier?!
Earlier, Wen Youning had said the silver arowana was planning to jump out tonight.
Now, the sun had barely set
And the fish hadn’t waited a single minute longer.
It had made its move swiftly and decisively.
The stall owner lunged forward, quickly wetting his hands with the tank water to cool them down.
Then, he grabbed the silver arowana off the ground and threw it back into the tank.
He didn’t even have time to wipe off the dirt clinging to the fish’s body he was too scared that a second’s delay would mean its death.
His face was still filled with shock.
A lingering sense of fear gripped his heart.
If he hadn’t listened to the chat and come back to check, by the time he arrived at the stall tomorrow morning, the silver arowana’s corpse would have been dried up.
Even goldfish, which are quite hardy, can’t survive too long out of water let alone silver arowanas, which are fragile ornamental fish.
The stall owner’s heart pounded.
Reading animal thoughts… could that actually be real?
After all, these two fish had always gotten along so well.
Who could have guessed that one of them would suddenly want to jump out of the tank?
Even if someone had made a wild guess, there was no way they could have predicted something this absurd let alone been correct about it!
The streamer had said it would jump out at night, and sure enough, it had jumped the moment it got dark.
The timing was spot on!
Huh?
This ridiculous ability… was actually real?
No way, this can’t be happening…
The stall owner stood frozen, completely shaken.
Crap, I need to start thinking smarter.
Standing on a chair next to the fish tank, he stared at the water’s shimmering surface under the light, lost in thought.
The silver arowana, now back in the tank, wasn’t very lively, but it wouldn’t stop muttering.
‘Didn’t even manage to die.
Annoying.’
‘Why are you still staring? What are you looking at?!’
‘Wanna fight?!’
The silver arowana’s thoughts were growing more irritated.
Wen Youning sent a message in the chat: “Get off the chair and step away from the tank.”
Stall owner: “Huh? What?”
Before he could react, a white blur flashed in the corner of his eye.
The next second smack!
A sharp pain struck his left cheek, and his head snapped to the side.
The phone in his hand, which was livestreaming, flew out of his grip.
Everything happened too fast.
The silver arowana had flicked its tail, splashing water all over his face.
Only now did the stall owner slowly raise his hand to touch his stinging, water-covered cheek.
The silver arowana, having landed its hit, casually swam back to the bottom of the tank.
Thud.
The phone hit the floor, snapping the stall owner out of his daze.
“…”
Did I just…
Get smacked by a fish?!
Did a fish just slap me across the face???
Is that even possible?
Before the phone flew away, the livestream had perfectly captured this historic moment of a silver arowana attacking a human.
OH MY GOD That impact! His brain must be buzzing!
Technology has advanced so much.
Now we even have first-person POVs of being slapped by a fish.
HAHAHAHA, that was a solid hit!
Wen-jie even warned you in the chat! Your reaction was way too slow.
Staring at the fish tank, the stall owner clenched his jaw in frustration but there was nothing he could do about it.
Deciding to ignore the fish for now, his mind was filled with the words Wen Youning had sent in the chat.
The message seemed to be burned into his memory.
At this point, he completely believed that the streamer could really hear animals’ thoughts!
Jumping down from the chair, he quickly grabbed his phone, opened Wen Youning’s livestream, and without a word, sent several of the most expensive gifts.
If she hadn’t warned him about the silver arowana jumping out, he would never have guessed something like this could happen.
By the time he arrived in the morning, the fish would have been dried to a crisp.
Wen Youning was also watching his stream.
Since the audience couldn’t see what he was doing on his phone, she only realized what he was up to when the gifts started popping up on her screen.
Stall owner: [Thank you for saving my silver arowana!]
[I completely believe you now.
You can really read animals’ minds.
The world is vast, and I was too narrow-minded.]
Even after sending that message, he felt it wasn’t enough so he kept sending more gifts.
The entire chat was flooded with notifications of him gifting.
If the silver arowana’s first leap had been coincidental, then the second incident where the fish literally slapped him was undeniable.
It was real.
Some skeptics might suspect that this was scripted or staged, but as the person who personally experienced it all, he knew the truth better than anyone.
If this was acting, wouldn’t I know?!
He had doubted her before, and now he felt ashamed.
If he had believed her from the start, tonight’s chaotic rescue wouldn’t have been necessary.
The moment he had heard Wen Youning’s warning, he could have simply separated the two fish and there would have been no problem.
Wen Youning took a sip of water and tapped her keyboard: “As long as it’s safe now, that’s what matters.
Separate the tanks as soon as possible.
The silver arowana really doesn’t like the golden one.
If you wait any longer, something else will happen.”
Just as she sent the message, a request to join the livestream popped up on her screen.
“Hm?”
Wen Youning raised an eyebrow and clicked to accept.
“Is there another problem?”
“Not really, I just wanted to say thanks in person.”
The stall owner scratched his head, then turned the camera back to the fish tank.
“I saw your stream title it says you can heal pets, too.
I wanted to ask… is my silver arowana okay?”
After all the chaos tonight, the silver arowana didn’t look too good.
Back in the water, it wasn’t swimming around normally.
Instead, it was sinking toward the bottom.
Stall owner: “Look, it’s barely moving.
It looks really down.
What’s it thinking?”
The silver arowana’s eyes remained completely still, only its whiskers drifting with the water flow.
‘It’s back again.’
‘Annoying.’
‘Blub, blub… peel off my scales. Blub… not worth living.’
‘I’m going to drown myself.’