《Major Event News》 is a flagship program on Yuchuan’s local television station. Even in today’s era of booming online video platforms, its viewership hasn’t declined. Many young people in Yuchuan grew up watching this show with their parents.
Loyal viewers of the program gathered in front of their TVs on time, waiting for 《Major Event News》 to begin.
Bei Wenwen was pinned down on the sofa by her mother and sighed inwardly. She would much rather go back to watching variety shows, but… glancing at her mother’s expectant face out of the corner of her eye, Bei Wenwen sighed again. Fine, it’s just forty minutes, right? Might as well treat it like a class.
The theme music of 《Major Event News》 started playing. The host had been in charge of the program for decades. Many people felt a sense of familiarity just seeing his face.
Bei Wenwen secretly played with her phone while half-listening to what her mother was saying, occasionally responding with irrelevant comments. Suddenly, she heard her mother exclaim in surprise, “That boy is so handsome.”
A handsome guy? Knowing her mother’s taste all too well, Bei Wenwen remained unmoved. Tall and burly was what her mother called handsome. She mumbled a few perfunctory responses, only to be slapped on the thigh by her mother.
“Take a look! If you could bring someone like this home, our family’s genes would be saved.”
Bei Wenwen: “…”
She looked up, already preparing a whole string of sarcastic remarks in her head. But as soon as she clearly saw the person on the screen, she suddenly fell silent.
Wow! He really was handsome. He’s extremely handsome, so much so that he seemed a bit out of place on a down-to-earth program like 《Major Event News》.
Bei Wenwen leaned closer to her mother and asked, “What’s this about?”
Mother Bei: “This young man is really good. Remember those cat thieves from before? They stole a lot of cats. When this young boss, Xiao Pei, saw it, he immediately stepped in to stop them.”
Bei Wenwen exclaimed in surprise, “You mean the case where a lot of cats went missing in our neighborhood recently?”
Previously, many pedigree cats had gone missing in their neighborhood, including a championship Persian cat with a cabinet full of awards, worth over a hundred thousand yuan. The case had drawn significant attention as soon as it was reported. She hadn’t expected it to be solved so quickly.
Mother Bei: “I heard there were also many unwanted kittens, all taken in by the boss. The program said he runs a cat café. What’s a cat café?”
Bei Wenwen was astonished, “There’s a cat café in Yuchuan City? A cat café is a coffee shop with lots of cats. You can go there to play with cats and have desserts.”
Mother Bei couldn’t quite accept this business model: “Isn’t that dirty? With all those cats around, how can anyone eat there?”
Bei Wenwen pouted, “Then if you have a cat at home, can you not eat at home? Their kitchen probably doesn’t allow cats inside. Besides, people don’t go there just for the food. They go for the cats.”
The focus of a cat café is the cats! The food and drinks are just secondary.
Mother Bei shook her head, “Young people are always coming up with these flashy ideas.”
As they talked, the cat café owner finished recounting the entire process of discovering and stopping the theft. At the reporter’s request, he showed them the cats he had rescued.
A semi-open cat enclosure was behind the owner, with several large cats lounging around in various poses, each with its own unique beauty. As the owner turned around, the cats seemed to sense his presence and looked up at him, meowing in unison. The soft, sweet, and slightly hoarse meows blended, creating a harmonious chorus rather than a chaotic noise.
A leopard cat even stretched out its paw to wrap around the owner’s ankle as he passed by, trying to get him to drag it along, only to be helplessly picked up and cradled in his arms.
Bei Wenwen burst out laughing, “Hahaha. This cat is hilarious.”
Mother Bei also couldn’t stop giggling, “Oh my. It looks like a big furry mop. Is that a leopard cat? The cats here are all so beautiful. That Ragdoll is gorgeous, too.” She observed for a while and noticed the shop seemed quite clean, not as fur-covered as she had imagined.
On the screen, the cat café owner gestured for the camera to pan down toward the cat bed. “This is the cat I rescued.”
Inside an oversized open cat bed, a long-haired cat lay on its side, while kittens were submerged in a sea of fur, playfully pouncing around. Sometimes they bumped into other kittens, then lifted their heads and meowed. Some kittens slept beside the big cat with all four paws in the air, their pink little paws twitching occasionally.
If she hadn’t been told this was a rescued cat, Bei Wenwen might have thought it was a litter of kittens from some high-quality cattery.
The big cat lifted its head and let out a soft meow toward the camera. Suddenly, more than a dozen fluffy little kitten heads popped up from the sea of fur, all meowing in unison, “Meow—”
Bei Wenwen exclaimed, “I! Am! In!”
Mother Bei asked, “In for what?”
Bei Wenwen threw herself onto her mom, “Mom! Let’s go to this cat café this weekend!”
After a moment of hesitation, Mother Bei replied, “Well, alright then. It’s not far anyway.”
Right, it’s not far. Why not go check it out?
Most people who grew curious about the cat café told themselves the same thing and made plans to visit with friends the next day.
Meanwhile, in a household somewhere in Yuchuan, the lady of the house was cleaning while occasionally glancing at the TV. She was mainly watching the people, but when the light swept across the screen, she froze—
That Ragdoll looked so familiar! It looked exactly like the one she had lost!
She quickly put down what she was doing and leaned closer to the TV, noticing a small white patch behind the Ragdoll’s ear, shaped like a heart. It’s just like her cat!
She stared blankly for a moment before suddenly picking up the phone excitedly, “Hey, Nini, the cat you gave me has been found! I’ll get it back right away.”
Her friend’s displeased voice came from the other end, “I just gave birth, and we can’t have pets at home. When I gave you the cat, you promised to take good care of it. How could you lose it so soon? It’s a living being, too. You have to be responsible for it.”
The woman explained, “It wasn’t me who lost it. It was him… Last time he came back with friends for dinner, he saw Fondant. When you gave it to me, you said Fondant was purebred, so he told his friends the same. But then his friends said it was a mixed breed, and he felt embarrassed, so he threw it out without even discussing it with me.”
The woman added awkwardly, “Should I try to get it back?”
The other end snorted and hung up.
…
Perhaps Pei Shiyi’s face really did play a role, as the segment he recorded was barely edited. Of course, the more likely reason was that this episode of 《Major Event News》 didn’t have much else to talk about, so the cat café lucked out.
Pei Shiyi never expected that the airing of a single show could bring such a huge influx of customers to the cat café.
Yuchuan was a prosperous ancient capital where most people maintained a leisurely pace. Sundays were the city’s most joyful and carefree days, as families with free time would almost always go out to gather. Now, on a Sunday at 5:30 p.m., both floors of the cat café were already nearly at full capacity. Reluctantly, the café had to close its doors to new customers and posted an apology notice on its official page.
The last to enter the cat café were a mother and her son. The boy had just turned ten, barely meeting the café’s age requirement. The woman walked in somewhat hesitantly, approached the counter, and ordered a glass of plain milk.
There were no completely empty tables left in the café. A chubby orange cat trotted over, catching the boy’s attention. He followed the cat to a wicker chair in the corner.
Just as the woman was about to tell her son to sit down, the boy exclaimed, “Mom! A cat!”
On the wicker chair lay a large, snow-white cat, its silky fur gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight. Awakened by the noise, the white cat stood up. It took two slow steps on the chair, looked up at the woman for a moment, then gracefully leaped onto the armrest, making room.
While the woman was still processing the scene, the boy had already climbed onto the wicker chair. The white cat didn’t leave but instead jumped back down and lazily settled beside the boy.
The boy grabbed the leather strap around the white cat’s neck, pulling it so tightly that it dug into the soft fur. “Yun Chao!” he called out.
The woman leaned in to look and gently corrected him, “It’s Yun Chao, as in ‘tide’ or ‘moisture’.”
The white cat, Yun Chao, glanced at the woman, then turned its head away, freeing itself from the boy’s rough grip to avoid choking. This was why she wasn’t particularly fond of human boys. At this age, many of them hadn’t yet learned the gentle grace but were brimming with boundless energy and curiosity.
The woman sat down on the floor, as there was a thin rug. It was summer anyway.
Though seated, she kept looking around, as if she had come to the cat café for a different purpose, unlike the other customers who were simply there to enjoy the cats. She seemed to be searching for someone.
Finally, a Ragdoll cat came running over, holding a cat teaser in its mouth. Ignoring the attempts of nearby customers to get its attention, its sea-blue eyes were fixed on the wicker chair. It happily pawed at the chair and placed the teaser in front of the white cat.
The large white cat named Yun Chao showed no interest in the teaser. Instead, it lowered its head to lick the Ragdoll cat, then picked up the teaser and jumped off the wicker chair. The Ragdoll immediately pounced, playfully biting at the swaying toy.
The customers whispered and laughed, “Haha. Fondant is so clingy with Yun Chao.”
“I just bet my boyfriend that Fondant would come looking for Yun Chao within ten minutes, and it hasn’t even been eight minutes yet.”
“Yun Chao really dotes on her.”
“Little fairies should definitely play with other little fairies.”
Fondant!
This Ragdoll was also named Fondant! Or perhaps this was actually their own Fondant?
Just as the woman was about to approach the Ragdoll, her son grabbed the cat’s ear roughly. “Mom! It’s also called Fondant and looks just like this. This is our cat!”
The boy’s grip was harsh. Fondant let out a pained cry. Though she had been pampered since coming to the cat café, she wasn’t overly delicate, only crying out when the pain became too much to bear.
Before Yun Chao could react, an impatient customer had already pried the boy’s hand away and said to the woman, “If you bring your child in here, you need to keep him under control! The cats in this café are for you to look at and pet, not for you to hit!”
The woman apologized repeatedly, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just that this cat looks exactly like the one we lost, so my son got a little too excited…”
Fondant stared at her blankly, slowly twitching her little nose as her eyes gradually widened. She moved closer to the woman.
The woman exclaimed excitedly, “It really is our cat! She still recognizes me!”
The other customers around them grew puzzled. Wasn’t Fondant the café owner’s cat? How could she belong to someone else who had lost her? And judging by Fondant’s reaction, she really did seem to recognize the woman.
Yun Chao jumped down from the wicker chair, gently licked Fondant’s ear where it had been tugged, and warily pushed Fondant away from the woman. She had rescued this kitten from a group of stray cats and had never asked about the family that had abandoned Fondant. Now, this family had actually found their way to the café? What were they here for?
What did they think Fondant was? Something they could discard and then just pick up again whenever they felt like it? Since when was anything in the world that easy?
Yun Chao shielded Fondant behind her, avoiding the woman’s attempt to pet her, and suddenly let out a sharp cry. It’s a sound she rarely made during business hours. The cats upstairs and downstairs, who had been playing and having fun, all lifted their heads at once.
Pei Shiyi pressed down Tong Qian, who was about to leap up. He walked around several tables to stand before Yun Chao. He picked up Fondant, who was inexplicably dazed. As he bent down, he allowed Yun Chao to jump onto his shoulder.
Pei Shiyi smiled and said, “Hello, ma’am. Is there something I can help you with?”
The woman looked a bit flustered and explained, “I saw Fondant on TV yesterday, so I wanted to come and ask if you could return the cat to us?”
Yun Chao’s fur immediately bristled.
The surrounding customers couldn’t help but start murmuring among themselves.
Amidst the many puzzled gazes, Pei Shiyi raised an eyebrow. Was he really being asked to “return” his little princess to a family with a history of abandonment?
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152