Future Pet Shop

"YIP! YIP!" Ever since taking the medicine, Bald Qiang had grown bolder. Seeing someone invade his nest, he now dared to come out and confront them head-on. He was currently baring his teeth at the woodpecker perched on his roof, his tail whipping back and forth as if he might lash out with it at any moment.

The woodpecker, however, wasn’t the least bit flustered. It remained calmly on the branch, pecking at the wood one tap at a time. This time, however, it wasn’t digging out any insects from beneath the bark. It seemed to simply enjoy pecking wood as a game.

"Come back, it’s time to eat!" ’Sigh. Back at the shop, you pecked a hole through Xiaoliu’s tree hollow. Now that we’re out, you’re causing trouble on someone else’s roof. Can’t you just behave for a second?’

Hearing Shen Yibin’s call, the woodpecker let out two defiant squawks at Bald Qiang before flapping its wings and returning to Shen Yibin’s shoulder. Seeing it leave, Bald Qiang immediately scrambled onto the roof. He hugged the spot the woodpecker had pecked and examined it for a long time. Finding no real damage, he finally took Gao Lujie and returned to Wen Yuan’s side. Once there, he chirped at the woodpecker twice more, clearly displeased that it had vandalized his house.

’Sigh, you’ve only been here a few days and you’ve already offended so many of the others. Xiaoliu and Bald Qiang are mad at you now. Are you going to provoke Hah’Er tomorrow? If that happens, I’m afraid even Maphario won’t play with you anymore.’

There’s a saying: what you fear most is what comes to pass. Sure enough, the very next morning, Hah’Er and the woodpecker got into a fight. As soon as he crawled out of bed, Shen Yibin went to make breakfast as usual. Hah’Er, meanwhile, ran to the storage room, pulled out his beloved skateboard, and waited to go for a ride in the park with Shen Yibin.

Who would have thought that in the short time it took to eat, the woodpecker would set its sights on the skateboard? Shen Yibin had told it not to peck the trees in the shop, and not to mess with Bald Qiang’s nest in the pond. ’Well, I have to find *some* wood to peck, don’t I?’ As it happened, the skateboard Shen Yibin had bought was made of wood. The moment Hah’Er brought it out, its fine wood grain caught the woodpecker’s eye. While Hah’Er was upstairs eating breakfast, the woodpecker immediately flew down, landed on the skateboard, and began pecking furiously. TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!

"Hmph!" Hah’Er instinctively turned and looked down through the gaps in the railing. The sight made him furious. Hah’Er cherished that skateboard. Every time he finished playing with it, he would carefully wipe it clean with a cloth and store it in the storage room. Seeing the woodpecker daring to damage it now—how could he possibly stand it! Without a second thought, he grabbed a few cherries from the fruit bowl and threw them.

Hah’Er had been throwing fruit at Shen Yibin every day for a while now, so his aim was already quite good. Caught off guard, the woodpecker was hit by several cherries in a row. Fortunately, Hah’Er knew his own strength and didn’t grab any of the apples. Otherwise, the woodpecker would probably be knocked out, and Shen Yibin’s stored-up medicine would have to be used again.

"Alright, alright, stop it! Stop fighting!" ’Can’t you guys just give me a break?’ Shen Yibin’s head was starting to throb again. He quickly got up to comfort Hah’Er, then ran downstairs to check if the woodpecker was hurt. Luckily, the cherries were light. Other than some cherry pulp and juice staining its feathers, everything was fine.

"You just ate some mealworms, so you can’t be hungry, right? Why do you have to peck wood?" Shen Yibin asked, grabbing a tissue and wiping its feathers. ’Can’t you just be a quiet, handsome... bird?’ ’Er, it seems both birds the Future Pet Shop has sent over so far have had busy mouths. Cheeky’s was all about being a chatterbox, while this woodpecker’s is all about ’if I don’t peck wood for a day, I just don’t feel right’.’

"KIK! KIK!" The woodpecker stood on Shen Yibin’s arm and let out two innocent cries, as if to say, ’As a woodpecker, pecking wood is my instinct. you can’t ask me to go against my nature.’

"Alright, I get it. I’ll go get you a few pieces of wood in a bit, and you can peck them all you want," Shen Yibin said, resigned. There was nothing he could do. You really couldn’t ask an animal to go against its instincts. Forbidding a woodpecker from pecking wood was probably as impossible as stopping Hah’Er from eating bamboo or preventing Xiaoliu from drinking.

’If you have to give hamsters something to grind their teeth on and dogs a chew stick, then it’s only normal to get a woodpecker some wood to peck.’ Shen Yibin planned to buy a few blocks of wood after his workout. ’Wait, I might not have to buy any. I remember seeing some unearthed tree roots at the construction site. I wonder if those would work? I’ll go grab a few later and see.’

"KIK! KIK!" The woodpecker seemed to understand Shen Yibin. It left Hah’Er’s skateboard alone and, with a flutter of its wings, flew back to its nest to wait. Shen Yibin wiped the wood shavings off the skateboard and went back upstairs to finish his meal. He didn’t notice, however, that the peck marks on the skateboard were anything but ordinary.

"It’s okay, your skateboard isn’t broken. You can still use it later," Shen Yibin said, coming upstairs and patting Hah’Er’s head to comfort him. But Hah’Er had lost his appetite. He finished his porridge in a few quick gulps, climbed down from his chair, and slid down the stair railing. He then spent a long time hugging his skateboard and inspecting it.

"Let’s go, time for our workout!" After breakfast, he took the little critters out for some exercise. When they got back, Shen Yibin dropped Wen Yuan, Bald Qiang, and the others off at the construction site to continue their work. Then he found the discarded tree roots and, with Wen Yuan’s help, laboriously loaded them onto the vehicle. "I’ll take these back first. I’ll have Xia Shixuan come pick you guys up this afternoon."

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Shen." After thanking him, Wen Yuan took Bald Qiang and the others to get back to work. Shen Yibin hauled the tree roots back to the shop.

He called over a few of the girls to help him carry the heavy roots into the shop. They placed them in a corner by the pond, against the wall. A woodpecker’s pecking is quite loud, so putting it farther away would minimize the disturbance to customers.

"Alright! How do these roots look?" Shen Yibin beckoned the woodpecker down from its nest and pointed at the roots. "From now on, you just peck these. Don’t touch any of the other wood in the shop!" ’Sigh. First, I had the Bald Qiang couple, who would rush over and gnaw on any tree they saw. Now I have this woodpecker. It’s a real miracle the trees in this shop have survived this long.’

And so, the sound of TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP echoed from the corner all day long. When it was time to make dinner, Shen Yibin walked over, intending to tell the woodpecker to stop. But when he got closer and took a look, he was utterly stunned. ’What in the world...?’