I simply won’t sell it to you. chapter 1

The Boy Who Asked for an Exorbitant Price

After I started working, I rented a room by myself. There was often a stray cat visiting the area near my house. It was a neutered male cat with a sharp and shrill meow. It was all dirty, definitely abandoned by some heartless owner. I really felt sorry for this poor fellow and took it in. After a thorough bath, the little guy revealed its true appearance. Unexpectedly, it was quite a good – looking one with a coat of long white fur. I named it Snowy and we were together day and night from then on.

During the day, I had to go to work, so I locked Snowy at home and prepared cat food for it. At night, I took Snowy out for a walk. When we came back, we watched TV and listened to music together. Thanks to Snowy’s company, I gradually no longer felt lonely. I felt at ease and was full of energy at work.

But as time passed, Snowy didn’t seem to be happy about being locked in the house alone. Every morning when I went out, it would follow me eagerly. Sometimes it would even hold onto my trouser leg. I always had to spend a lot of effort to coax it back into the house. I thought it might be too lonely, and I felt a bit guilty. So I decided to find a companion for it. I thought that since Snowy was neutered, if I bought another cat, no matter male or female, Snowy would feel uncomfortable. So I decided to buy a puppy to be its companion.

One Saturday afternoon, I took Snowy to the pet market, planning to let it choose a puppy it got along well with.

There were quite a few dog breeds in the pet market. Snowy was quite sensible. It looked around here and there and was very picky. After wandering around for a full hour, I found that it was particularly affectionate with a little spotted dog. This little spotted dog was not a rare breed at all, just an ordinary domestic dog. But the two little guys rubbed against each other as if they were old acquaintances and got along very well. I was overjoyed and decided to buy this dog.

The owner of the little spotted dog was different from other vendors. It was a twelve – or thirteen – year – old boy named Tom. He looked clean and handsome. I stepped forward and asked him how much he wanted for the dog.

“Five hundred dollars,” Tom gave me a disdainful look and his tone was quite unfriendly, as if I had offended him.

“What!” I almost shouted, “Kid, this mutt is worth at most a few dozen dollars. You’re asking for an exorbitant price!”

But Tom didn’t even lift his head: “Five hundred dollars.”

I tried to bargain: “Two hundred and fifty dollars, okay?”

Unexpectedly, this little boy stubbornly insisted: “Five hundred dollars!”

What kind of way to do business was this! I had to take Snowy to the next vendor. Snowy was still reluctant to leave the little spotted dog. It kept looking back and whining. At this time, a middle – aged man named Jack came over and wanted to buy the dog from Tom. I slowed down and wanted to hear if the boy would still ask for such a high price. To my surprise, when I heard what he said, I almost spat out blood! Tom only asked for one hundred and fifty dollars. But Jack was much smarter than me. He said he would knock off fifty dollars and wouldn’t pay a cent more. As a result, the deal fell through. I could hardly believe my ears. For the same dog, within a short time, the price difference was three hundred and fifty dollars! Did only my money depreciate, or did I have a deep – seated feud with him in a past life that he wanted to rip me off like this! The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. But considering that I had just bargained, I didn’t go over immediately to argue. Anyway, I had no interest in buying other dogs. So I took Snowy to a stone bench a few meters away and sat there, staring at Tom intently to see what he was up to.

I waited under the tree for a whole afternoon. As other vendors were almost gone, Tom still hadn’t sold the dog. He gave all customers a unified price – one hundred and fifty dollars, not a cent less. In that case, why didn’t he sell it to me! A dog that no one wanted at one hundred and fifty dollars, and he wouldn’t sell it to me even when I offered two hundred and fifty dollars! I was so angry that I gritted my teeth. But after all, doing business is like the story of Zhou Yu beating Huang Gai – it takes two to agree.

Seeing him standing there alone, looking around hopefully, I finally couldn’t hold it back and walked straight up to him.