Mr. Quin

Eager to try out the invention from his dream, Kraft had carelessly overlooked the issue of time. Only after Alice reminded him did he calm down from his excitement and let out a huge yawn.

"Then I’ll go back and catch up on some sleep…"

With his excitement gone, Kraft’s eyelids immediately drooped. He dragged himself toward his room listlessly.

"Come wake me in half an… no, an hour."

Ever since Alice came along, Kraft had abandoned that screaming chicken alarm device. Wasn’t being woken up by a soft, adorable robot girl far better? Who needed a screaming chicken anymore?

"Got it~"

Alice answered, then slipped back into the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast.

This nap passed without incident. Before Kraft even had the chance to dream of those unusual dreams, Alice woke him up.

After getting up again and finishing breakfast, Kraft took Alice out to buy some pets.

There were quite a few pet shops in Chinatown. Besides the ordinary pet stores that mainly sold cats and dogs, there was also a very traditional flower-and-bird market. Not only did it sell all kinds of birds, but insect pets like katydids and crickets as well.

However, Alice had no interest in those insects, and they could not wear scarves anyway, so Kraft still chose to visit an ordinary pet shop.

By Kraft’s usual habit, he tried to recreate everything from his dreams as faithfully as possible during the first test. Thus, his first choice was naturally a little black cat. He had even thought of a name already—he would transliterate Mr. Sakamoto’s name from the dream and call it Sakamoto.

However, once he entered the pet shop, Kraft’s attention was drawn to another creature. He imagined that face with a red scarf around its neck and found it incredibly familiar.

Had I raised this breed of dog before?

Kraft habitually scratched his hair, then asked the pet shop clerk, "Hello, does this kind of dog come in gray?"

"Sorry, little guy, Shiba Inus only come in four coat colors: red, black, sesame, and white. There isn’t a gray variety~"

The young clerk shook her head and kindly explained it to Kraft.

"White Shibas are relatively rare, and we don’t have any in stock right now. The little one in that cage is a Red Shiba. We also have Black Shibas and Sesame Shibas, but they aren’t on display outside. Would you like me to take you to see them?"

"No gray ones?"

Kraft frowned. He had seen Shiba Inus before, and there really were more of this reddish, or rather yellowish, color. He had never paid special attention to it before, but now that he associated them with a red scarf, he kept feeling that a gray Shiba would fit better.

"Forget it."

Kraft shook his head. There was no point dwelling on something he could not figure out. If there were no gray ones, he would choose a similar color.

"Please take me to see the Black Shibas," Kraft said to the clerk.

"Please follow me."

The clerk led Kraft into the back room, where cages containing pets were neatly stacked together. Their arrival startled the cats and dogs inside.

For a moment, cats wailed and dogs barked one after another.

"Shh—quiet down. Keep making a fuss, and I’ll deduct your food rations~"

The clerk skillfully soothed the noisy pets and brought Kraft to a cage.

"This is a Black Shiba. The one beside it with the more mixed-up coat color is a Sesame Shiba."

"Hmm… It’s a little different from what I imagined…"

The distribution of the Black Shiba’s fur was very different from the Red Shiba’s, and it was also far from the gray Shiba in Kraft’s memory.

"Then I’ll take the Red Shiba outside."

Kraft was not one to hem and haw. Compared to the others, the Red Shiba outside felt closer to the dog in his memory.

"Okay~"

Having made a sale, the clerk was delighted. She led Kraft back outside, put the Red Shiba into a portable cage, then gave him its pedigree certificate, a small bag of dog food, and a chew stick that she said the dog really liked.

"Alice, have you picked one yet?"

Carrying the dog cage, Kraft found Alice squatting in a corner cuddling cats. He tapped her on the head and asked.

"Ah! These little ones are just too adorable! I forgot!"

Alice crouched on the floor with three kittens of different colors in her arms, looking utterly blissful.

Sure enough, she’s completely unreliable…

Kraft sighed helplessly, looked over the nearby cats, and chose a Bombay Cat that was seventy or eighty percent similar to Mr. Sakamoto from his dream. After having the clerk put it in a cage, he bought some cat food and pet supplies, then went to the counter to pay.

"Let’s go!"

Kraft irritably tapped Alice on the head again, then handed her the cage containing the little black cat and a large bag of pet supplies. He lifted the dog cage with one hand, grabbed Alice with the other, and pulled her outside.

"Ah~~~ Let me cuddle them for another five minutes—"

Alice was dragged out of the pet shop by Kraft with a reluctant expression.

"Don’t you have a cat in your hands already? Go home and cuddle it all you want!"

"Oh! Right!"

Alice suddenly realized it. Then she held the cage before her face, gently rubbed her cheek against it, and apologized lovingly to the little black cat, "Sorry~ I actually neglected you."

"Oh, right, big brother, we need to give them names first."

After apologizing to the little black cat, Alice hurried over to Kraft’s side and reminded him.

"Mm, call him Mr. Quin."

Kraft lifted the cage in his hand and unhesitatingly spoke the name that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

"What about this little one?"

Alice raised the cat cage as she asked.

"Ummmm…" With the name Mr. Quin already chosen, Sakamoto, which Kraft had thought of earlier, no longer seemed quite suitable. "How about Mr. Bain?"

"But… she’s a girl."

"Uh… Then call her Bea."

Kraft hurriedly took out Quin’s pedigree certificate. After checking the sex marked on it, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a male dog.

Then there was no need to change his name. Kraft’s compulsive tendencies had been saved.

Kraft and Alice brought Mr. Quin and Miss Bea to Kraft’s private workshop. After tossing the two pets to Alice to look after, Kraft plunged straight into the studio.

Unlike when he had made Alice, Kraft could neither understand nor make sense of any of the techniques used to create the Talking Scarf. So he did not try any funny business and obediently followed Dr. Dongyun’s steps from the dream, mechanically recreating it.

Since it was not difficult to make and required no thought from Kraft, the scarves were completed quickly. By the time Alice had prepared lunch, Kraft had finished both scarves.

"Can they really talk?"

Alice stared expectantly at Quin and Bea, who were still completely unaware of what was happening.

"They probably can…"

Kraft was not actually very confident. Compared with Alice, a robot, scarves that made animals speak seemed more like mystical items than scientific creations. So far, none of the mystical creations Kraft had replicated had succeeded.

"Let’s just try it. They’re only scarves, after all. They won’t hurt them."

As Kraft spoke, he handed one scarf to Alice, then the two of them tied the scarves around the pets’ necks.

"C-Can you talk now, Bea?"

After tying the scarf around the little black cat, Alice immediately asked impatiently.

Bea the little black cat first scratched at the scarf around her neck with a paw, then vigorously shook her head twice.

"You tied it too tight, meow, idiot!"

A slightly shrill female voice came from Bea’s mouth.

"Ah, s-sorry! I’ll loosen it right away!"

Alice flusteredly adjusted Bea’s scarf.

"Is this better?"

"Mm, much more comfortable~"

Bea stretched lazily, swishing her tail as she spoke. Her originally sharp voice had become languid as well.

"Whoa!"

Quin, who had been staring blankly as Alice and Bea communicated, suddenly jumped up.

"You can talk!"

Then, belatedly realizing something, he jumped again.

"Whoa! I can talk too!"

"Uh… Why does this dog seem kind of stupid…"

Kraft rubbed his nose and quickly took out his phone to search.

"Dog intelligence rankings… Shiba Inu… outside the top seventy-nine… They’re actually dumber than the three dumb sled dogs…"

"Slander! This is blatant slander!"

Quin pressed his nose against Kraft’s phone screen, wrinkled his snout, and bared his gleaming white fangs.

"Hahaha, stupid dog."

After hearing Kraft read that out, Bea could not help bursting into laughter.

"You want to fight?!"

Quin immediately turned his furious gaze toward Bea.

"You’re not allowed to bully Bea! She’s a girl!"

Alice immediately rushed over to support Bea.

"Big brother! They’re bullying me!"

Quin found himself a backer so quickly that he really did not seem like a breed ranked seventy-ninth in intelligence.

Looking at the dog frantically wagging his tail at him, Kraft’s mouth twitched. Still, he had chosen this dog himself. Since Quin had come begging him for help, he ought to lend a hand.

Kraft tapped his phone a few more times.

"Bombay Cat intelligence… one of the three dumbest cat breeds…"

Kraft’s mouth twitched again. His talent for choosing pets was really something else. He had randomly picked two animals with worrying intelligence.

"What?! That’s impossible! I’m very smart!"

Bea was not having it this time. Screaming, she pounced at the phone in Kraft’s hand.

"Stop messing around!"

Kraft quickly lifted his hand, avoiding Bea’s pounce.

"Hahahahaha! Didn’t expect that, did you? You’re even stupider than me!"

Quin stuck out his tongue and laughed gleefully at Bea’s misfortune, only for Bea to turn around and smack him across the nose with a paw.

"You actually dared to ambush me! You beast!"

Naturally, Quin was unwilling to let the attack slide. He turned and bit at Bea.

"Take this! RUA!"

"Ahhh! No fighting! Stop fighting already!"

Alice clumsily tried to break up the fight.

I have a feeling… things will be very lively at home from now on…

Kraft’s mouth twitched wildly as he watched the cat-and-dog chaos before him.

I made the protagonist a transmigrator largely because of this dog. Back when I was looking for various inventions for the protagonist, the first time I saw Mr. Sakamoto’s scarf, I thought of Mr. Quin. The daily-life plot of this novel will basically be handled by this "slice-of-life" trio of one person, one cat, and one dog.

As for the joke involving Mr. Quin and Great Qin language, not understanding it should not affect the reading experience, so I will not explain it in detail. Those interested can look it up on Baidu themselves, or check a meme encyclopedia or something.

Also, regarding Shiba Inus and Bombay Cats, I decided on the breeds first and only then looked up their intelligence. I did not deliberately choose two "idiots."

Besides, that online ranking may be more authoritative for dogs, but the one for cats seems rather questionable, so it is really just for fun.