The room was shrouded in heavy night, with the moonlight illuminating only a small patch. The cat café owner, who looked young on the outside, sat on the armrest, legs slightly bent, and one hand supporting himself. He leaned forward with interest as he watched Zhu Heng prostrate before him.
As soon as Zhu Heng entered, Pei Shiyi woke up. But since he was having fun playing with coins, he didn’t intervene.
Pei Shiyi sat steadily on the armrest, as if he hadn’t seen the terrified expression on Zhu Heng’s face. He smiled and said, “This kind of thing doesn’t fly in the new society. Get up quickly.”
Zhu Heng trembled in the dark. He vaguely sensed that something was wrong. The urgent task was to placate the cat café owner. So, he swallowed his saliva, got up, and took a pocket watch from his bosom, slowly starting to swing it.
“Watch it, watch it… You didn’t see anything, nothing happened—”
The ticking of the watch’s hands was rhythmic and clear, strangely hypnotic.
Pei Shiyi narrowed his eyes. This watch was interesting, exuding a very peculiar aura. Although the hypnotic effect didn’t work on him, it should be enough for ordinary people.
Suddenly, a shrill scream from Zhen Zhizhang came from the first floor.
Zhu Heng cursed inwardly that Zhen Zhizhang was an idiot. He moved the pocket watch even more gently, whispering, “You lay in bed all night, sleeping until dawn…”
The cats: “…”
Pei Shiyi rested a hand against his jaw and said softly, “This must be what humans call ‘covering one’s ears while stealing a bell’, huh.”
Zhu Heng’s heart jolted. Hypnosis had no effect. Could it be that this person wasn’t ordinary?
Since that was the case, a flash of ruthlessness passed through Zhu Heng’s eyes. Then it would be physical hypnosis!
He sprang up abruptly, taking two steps at a time up to the second floor, forming his hand into a blade. He was ready to strike Pei Shiyi unconscious.
Yun Chao, crouched in place, reached out a paw and hooked Zhu Heng’s pant leg. Zhu Heng immediately lost his balance and went crashing in front of Pei Shiyi, hitting his forehead on the stairs, dazed and dizzy, unable to get up for a long while.
Yun Chao flicked his tail. “What now? Call the police?”
“Let Bo Jin come back during the day. Leave this to the little cops, so we don’t scare anyone.”
Pei Shiyi clicked his tongue and stood, motioning for Dan Huang to coax the little kittens back.
Dan Huang tilted his head. “Not interrogating?”
Pei Shiyi raised an eyebrow. “Sweetie, there’s still a bureau director’s family here. Conducting vigilante justice in front of Little Song Gao… isn’t that a bit too blatant?”
Zhu Heng’s head had probably taken quite a hit. Even if he tried asking, he wouldn’t get any answers. To figure out what was on the other person’s mind, he would need to resort to unusual methods.
Pei Shiyi still remembered his own “unstable period”. Using spiritual power on people might unpredictably affect how they judged him. Better to avoid it.
Bureau director’s family, Little Song Gao: “…”
He quietly turned his head, thinking his boss was so improper, always finding time to mock the bureau director and tease him at the same time.
Dan Huang nodded, coaxing the little ones back to continue sleeping. Before leaving, he shot Zhu Heng a sharp glare.
At this moment, Zhu Heng looked painfully ridiculous. Pei Shiyi looked away and stepped around him, heading downstairs.
Tong Qian was still crouched downstairs. Zhu Heng’s companion was now sprawled on the floor, unable to get up. He is bruised and battered, muttering nonsense, clearly incoherent.
Pei Shiyi hadn’t even descended the stairs yet when he saw the blood-stained carpet and chunks of meat spreading a strange odor everywhere. Blood was splattered about, and several low tables had been pushed out of place.
In Pei Shiyi’s eyes, it was chaos in capital letters.
One of the “house-destroying culprits”, Tong Qian: “…”
I’m going to die.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Pei Shiyi said, his face darkening, teeth gritting. “Vigilante justice is inappropriate.”
Tong Qian: “Meow?”
……
Early the next morning, Bo Jin pushed open the door of the cat café in the dim light. He hadn’t even stepped inside when he heard muffled sobbing. He paused, slowly circled the counter, and looked toward the source of the sound—
He saw someone crouched on the floor with their back to him. The rush of water accompanied by hiccupping sobs echoed throughout the café. The five little furballs of the household were curled up on the nearby climbing frame, looking down at the person from above.
The cat café owner sat on a redwood chair, legs crossed. His elbow rested on the armrest, eyes cast downward as he stared at the person. Hearing the door open, he merely flicked his gaze at Bo Jin, then lowered it again and impatiently said to the person, “Hurry up.”
The person hiccupped through a sob, their nose congested as they said, “O-okay, okay, boss.”
Bo Jin: “…”
What on earth had happened this night while he was gone?
Bo Jin: “You look highly suspicious of oppressing innocent humans.”
He walked over to Pei Shiyi in two steps, scrutinizing the face of the person crouched on the floor. Their face was bruised and swollen, features distorted, and unrecognizable. They hiccupped constantly while rubbing a piece of… very familiar carpet.
The carpet he had washed himself.
Bo Jin: “…Where did you get this free labor from? Oppressing humans will extend your supervision period.”
Pei Shiyi sneered. “Free labor? He dirtied my carpet. Shouldn’t he clean it?” It wasn’t just that one piece. The remaining carpets had already been washed and were drying outside. He didn’t intend to use them. But while he could forgo the item, anything dirty had to be cleaned.
“The cameraman is tied up upstairs. Director Bo, please take him away later.”
Bo Jin immediately understood. “They came to the café last night? What were they doing?”
Pei Shiyi said coldly, “Stealing cats. What were you doing last night? Didn’t you handle these two obviously problematic people?”
Director Bo, caught off guard, rubbed his forehead.
Several of the café’s carpets had been washed, but the new carpets hadn’t been laid yet. Some areas of the floor had carpets, some didn’t. It was patchy and ugly. Anyone with OCD would go mad at the sight. No wonder this rare bird was so particular about cleanliness.
After all, being the last phoenix in heaven and on earth, a bit of cleanliness obsession was normal…
Weighing between playing dead and smoothing the fur, Bo Jin chose the latter. “Yesterday, the bureau had an emergency. I thought that with you at the café, nothing would go wrong, so I let it slide. That was my oversight.”
Those words were soothing to hear.
Sure enough, Pei Shiyi’s expression improved. He stood to fetch a new carpet.
Bo Jin was a bit surprised. He was actually easy to appease.
As soon as Pei Shiyi left, the sobs of the person washing the carpet immediately grew several times louder.
Bo Jin lowered his gaze over the man’s face and suddenly said, “You only dirtied the carpet?”
The man, perhaps thinking Bo Jin was about to hand out “justice” on his behalf, became agitated. “Yes! I just accidentally dirtied the carpet. I didn’t even have time to do anything else! Look at my face, it’s all from the cats! Sob sob, this gentleman…”
Bo Jin’s patience obviously wasn’t meant for him. Without listening to a word, he walked off, leaving only one instruction: “Wash all the carpets.”
The man: “…Why?!”
Unfortunately, no one answered him. During the day, the cats strictly adhered to the principle of “I’m just an innocent, adorable fluff”, saying nothing, lazily shaking their fur, dozing slowly in the sunlight.
The man, who hadn’t slept all night, hiccupped as he picked up all the carpets.
…
Under Zhou Yan’s management, the cat café’s official account on Bishui Station had already gained over thirty thousand followers. Videos featuring the “bad guy” had been played over two million times, and Tong Qian had become a famous cat on Bishui Station.
The second video introducing the Xian Chan Cat Café had already exceeded one hundred thousand views. Zhou Yan was collecting material for the third video.
He selfishly wanted to film more sugar-coated content and make it interesting, ideally creating another star like Tong Qian to go viral. After all, cats were just too sweet. He really could do it!
Although Fondant was clingy, she was still very scared of being chased and filmed by an obsessed fan. The little thing, frightened, snuggled into Yun Chao’s embrace. But Yun Chao was no delicate little girl. Get annoyed by the filming, and she would snap.
Zhou Yan got whipped in the face by Yun Chao’s tail, holding up his phone as he watched the two furballs squeeze and shuffle away, his expression full of grievance.
He let out a long sigh. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the boss’s friend and hurried over. “Mr. Bo.”
Bo Jin’s eyes drooped. “What is it?”
Zhou Yan quickly asked, “Do you know where the boss is?”
Bo Jin said, “Second floor. Why?”
That morning, he and Pei Shiyi had replaced all the cat café’s carpets and thrown them to the man who called himself Zhen Zhizhang for washing. The carpets were thin, but heavy when wet. Zhen Zhizhang had been scrubbing all morning and still wasn’t done, while Pei Shiyi, that ancestral figure, was supervising from upstairs.
Zhou Yan said, “I want to film Fondant, but Big Boss Yun Chao is scary. I was thinking, why not have the boss do it instead?”
He had observed for a few days. Yun Chao’s good temper only extended to soft, fluffy girls and the boss. Even if the boss’s friend was handsome, the big boss would mostly ignore him, and too much touching would still earn a scowl.
Bo Jin, who had just been smacked by Yun Chao’s tail that morning, said, “I’ll go call him.”
Up on the second-floor balcony, carpets hung dripping wet. Cameraman Zhu Heng and Zhen Zhizhang were each wringing out a carpet. The balcony was soaked.
Bo Jin asked, “Why not use a washing machine?” Could someone with such a cleanliness obsession tolerate all this water on the floor?
Pei Shiyi actually could. He said coldly, “Isn’t that perfect? Let them mop the floor, too.”
Bo Jin: “…”
A downright tyrannical bird.
Author’s note:
Pei Shiyi: Go wash the carpets.
Bo Jin: Wash all the carpets.
Pei Shiyi: Mop the floor, too.
Bo Jin: …
Too fierce, too fierce.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152