As the cat café’s online fame grew, more people visited, drawn by the cats’ distinct personalities, which sparked curiosity.
For instance, there was Dan Huang, the manager, who greeted and saw off guests. Yin Zhou is shy and timid. Song Gao is calm and gentle… and a certain big shot who clearly favored girls over boys.
“She really won’t let me pet her.”
The man, having been swatted by Yun Chao’s tail, awkwardly withdrew his hand.
Yun Chao leaped onto the table, curling her tail around her front paws. With her heterochromatic eyes cold and aloof, she glanced down at the man from her elevated position.
Pure white with heterochromatic eyes, her fur collar so long it nearly brushed her paws. This was the finest specimen of a Lion Cat. Even the Linqing Breeding Center, which had revived the breeding of Lion Cats, rarely produced such a beautiful cat.
Moreover, Yun Chao lived up to her name, like clouds and tides, ethereal and noble. Her presence was almost overwhelming. When she adopted a silent posture, she resembled a jade-and-snow statue, a breathtaking beauty.
The man scratched his slightly balding head. “I really feel like she’s mocking me.”
Regulars nearby: “Be confident and change ‘like’ to ‘is’.”
Both Song Gao and Yun Chao were quiet and rarely meowed. But Song Gao’s quiet was like still water, undisturbed and serene, while Yun Chao’s was the cold, profound silence of a frozen lake.
Yun Chao couldn’t be bothered with the men staring at her. She jumped onto a high climbing frame and settled down, her fluffy, snow-white tail dangling, making the customers’ eyes gleam with envy.
A girl gathered her courage and gently touched the tip of Yun Chao’s tail. Yun Chao opened one azure-blue eye. She gave a lazy glance and showed no intention of pulling her tail back.
Fondant was off duty today, crouching on the stair landing between the second and third floors. She turned to Dan Huang beside her and asked, “Meow?”
Yun Chao really dislikes men. Does the manager know why?
Dan Huang tilted his head in thought. “Meow.”
Actually, I’m not too sure either. It probably has something to do with the environment Yun Chao grew up in.
Fondant’s sea-blue eyes sparkled with obvious curiosity. Tong Qian, who had been dozing off on the handrail, couldn’t help but perk up his ears to listen carefully.
As a little one often bullied by the big shot, he was genuinely curious why she had such a strong dislike for males. He might cause trouble, but Xia Zhi was mischievous, too. Why did she only swat him and not discipline Xia Zhi?
Well, it was because Xia Zhi was a little girl.
Dan Huang seemed a bit troubled. “Meow.”
Actually, I don’t really know either. Yun Chao is a tribute cat. I only met her when she was transported from Linqing to the capital. Although we exchanged a few letters in between, compared to her centuries of experience, they didn’t amount to much.
They were just a small comfort in the long years.
Fondant didn’t quite understand what a tribute cat was.
“A tribute cat is a cat offered as tribute to the royal family from various regions. Besides the Linqing Lion Cat, the Sichuan Jianzhou Cat is also a tribute cat.”
Pei Shiyi sat down beside Fondant, his long legs stretching over several steps to find a comfortable position.
Fondant snuggled into his arms, her eyes shining brightly. “Meow!”
Yun Chao is so amazing!
Pei Shiyi smiled faintly.
Fondant tilted her little head and looked toward Yun Chao. “Meow.”
But why does she dislike boys?
Tong Qian said sorrowfully, “Meow.”
No, she doesn’t dislike boys, but she really dislikes adult males.
Wait, that’s not right. She clearly likes the boss!
The three big cats fell into deep thought together. Yes, why was that?
Dan Huang: “Meow?”
Does the boss know?
Pei Shiyi rested his chin on his hand and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Why does Yun Chao dislike boys?
Yun Chao sat by the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor, moonlight and neon lights spreading across the carpet like brocade.
In terms of age, she was younger than Dan Huang. Over the course of more than two hundred years, aside from the cat café, the place she had stayed the longest was the Forbidden City.
Within those towering palace walls, there had once been a beautiful consort who was one of the most important people to Yun Chao—Consort Luo. She was Yun Chao’s only owner. Compared to “owner” or “boss”, the café owner felt more like a teacher or mentor.
When Yun Chao was sent to the palace, she was kept in the cat quarters, originally just an ordinary tribute cat meant to chase away mice. But one day, she caught the eye of Consort Luo, who was still a noble lady at the time, and was taken in as a companion.
Consort Luo was a woman deeply neglected in the palace. Before becoming pregnant, she cared for Yun Chao like a daughter. Yun Chao once believed those warm, tranquil days would last until Consort Luo’s passing, and she would accompany her to the afterlife.
Through a cat’s eyes, Yun Chao witnessed the women of the inner palace struggling to survive amidst endless competition for favor, while the foolish emperor trampled over their youth like flowers.
That was Yun Chao’s earliest impression of “males”.
But in the second year after Yun Chao came to Consort Luo’s side, Consort Luo became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, a prince who was only half an hour younger than the crown prince.
After that, life seemed like a shattered mirror, impossible to piece back together or reflect the past in its entirety.
Consort Luo died, perishing in the treacherous palace intrigue of the succession struggle.
Yun Chao couldn’t accompany Consort Luo to her final rest. Instead, she exhausted all her efforts to protect the young prince from overt and covert dangers.
Yun Chao watched as the prince that Consort Luo had deeply loved grew to resemble the old emperor more and more. He forgot his hatred for the old emperor, resorting to any means to climb higher, marrying and taking concubines for so-called blessings and prosperity. In his rear courtyard, more and more girls grew as numb as Consort Luo had been. And so, on the night the new emperor ascended the throne, the most beautiful cat in the entire palace vanished.
Yun Chao left, carrying Consort Luo’s wish to see the vastness of the world. She encountered more people, yet still couldn’t see boys as adorable as girls. But the churning hatred in her heart had settled. She finally learned to distinguish individuals from the collective, calmly observing different people.
She just never expected to end up staying in a small cat café. Its two floors seemed stuffed with cotton, making her too lazy to move once she stepped inside, wanting only to rest to her heart’s content.
Light footsteps descended from upstairs.
Pei Shiyi sat beside Yun Chao. “What are you thinking about?”
Yun Chao got up and nestled into his arms. “Thinking about Fondant.”
Pei Shiyi gently stroked Yun Chao’s soft fur. “Hmm? What about Fondant?”
“I’m thinking about what to do if she stays this foolish forever. She rarely considers the consequences of her actions.”
This was a question Yun Chao often pondered. What if Fondant never outgrew this overly sweet naivety? She tried to correct it, but always lost to Fondant’s innocent gaze.
Pei Shiyi lowered his head, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Can’t my clever little girl see through it? Or should we say, ‘Those involved are often blind’?”
Yun Chao looked puzzled.
Pei Shiyi tapped Yun Chao’s forehead. “It’s not that she doesn’t understand what price she’ll pay for her actions, but that even knowing it, she’s willing to do it.”
Though abandoned by her original owner for her bloodline, she remained grateful for the year of care she received, so even upon meeting again, she wouldn’t shrink away.
Instead of avoiding it, she chose to face it directly.
Pei Shiyi thought for a moment and said, “She’s definitely not what you’d call smooth or tactful, but she’s actually a very clever little cat.”
Yun Chao listened to his heartbeat and replied, “Mm.”
Although it was common knowledge in the cat café that Yun Chao disliked most male creatures, this still sparked curiosity among a group of cats, mainly those from the branch store.
These cats hadn’t spent much time with Yun Chao, and their strongest impression of her was her preference for females over males.
As it happened, with the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, Pei Huang, adhering to the idea that “young couples need space to be alone”, brought all the cats from the main store to the branch store to spend the night.
Pei Huang urged Yuan Jing to go to the supermarket to buy more novel ingredients, so they left Guan Zizai to watch the house and went out together. After all, there was a barrier outside the cat café. So, even if Bo Jin came, he’d have to wait outside without Pei Shiyi.
As soon as the two adults left, the cats with awakened intelligence quickly gathered, sprawling in a heap around the snacks and toys scattered across the carpet.
Fondant had been playing with the newly arrived electric mouse, while the other cats started a tea party.
Du Shui cautiously glanced toward the staircase, making sure Yun Chao wasn’t coming up, and whispered to Dan Huang, “That Yun Chao from your store hardly pays any attention to me or Guan Zizai.” On the other hand, she was quite friendly to You Ling and Catherine. The little female cats were all well-liked by Yun Chao.
Tong Qian crunched on dried meat: “Our manager, crunch crunch, knew her even before, crunch crunch, but she still ignores him. Everyone, eat up. This dried meat tastes great.”
Tong Qian placed a pile of dried meat in front of Yin Zhou: “Don’t be shy.”
Yin Zhou: “…”
Mao Yuan Long purred as he chewed on the dried meat: “Why is that?”
Dan Huang had already finished a bag of cat treats. To maintain his weight and avoid gaining more, he licked his lips and didn’t open a second bag: “I rarely exchanged letters with Yun Chao back then, mostly because our spiritual power was too weak, and sending a letter was difficult. Yun Chao was apparently given as a gift to a concubine. After that concubine died, Yun Chao seemed to have a better life for a while, and the letters she sent increased. I heard from Yun Chao that it was ultimately the concubine’s prince. But after the prince ascended the throne, Yun Chao left.”
Guan Zizai was puzzled: “Why?”
Under normal circumstances, Yun Chao should have stayed in the palace, watching over that child until the end of his life, right?
Dan Huang shook his head and suddenly asked curiously, “Fondant, how did you meet Yunchao?”
Fondant was pushing a ball around and tilted her head upon hearing the question: “Meow.”
“Let me think…”
“We met in spring. It was still very cold at the end of March. What was I doing? Oh, I remember. I was trying to save a drowning kitten.”
“That kitten was too small. It might have been abandoned by its mother, who couldn’t care for it anymore. Thirsty and hungry, it went to the lake to drink water but ended up falling in.”
Fondant didn’t like water, especially touching it when it was cold.
Besides, she hadn’t eaten in a long time. Going into the water in such cold weather, she might not have been able to climb back out.
But… if such a small, abandoned creature didn’t even get a chance to survive, wouldn’t that be just as pitiful as her own situation?
Fondant jumped into the water, retrieved the barely breathing kitten, and brought it ashore, but the little cat had already stopped breathing. Fondant tried her best to shake off the water from her fur, but she was too hungry and cold to move.
Then she felt a warmth drawing near. Struggling to lift her head, she met a pair of mismatched eyes, one of each color.
Fondant let out a faint meow: “Meow.”
So hungry.
Those eyes, too beautiful to approach, held an unexpectedly gentle gaze.
And then?
Fondant couldn’t quite remember. All she knew was that when she woke up, she was given a bowl of delicious-smelling cat food. Yun Chao, who was so elegant and refined she didn’t look like a stray cat at all, gave a slight nod to the human girl in front of her and allowed her to pet her for a long time.
In Fondant’s eyes, Yun Chao was the most beautiful being in the world, just like their owner.
The dried meat in Tong Qian’s mouth dropped: “Sounds like a hero saving a beauty.”
Guan Zizai: “Amitabha, may the departed rest in peace. Fondant and Miss Yun Chao are both gentle bodhisattvas.”
Mao Yuan Long was even more confused: “Isn’t that very gentle? Why do you favor females over males?”
“I don’t favor females over males,” Yun Chao, who had appeared at the top of the second-floor staircase at some point, said. “What misunderstanding do you have about me?”
Except for the overjoyed Fondant, all the other cats raised the fur on the back of their necks. Yin Zhou leaped up in shock, too ashamed to lift his head.
Being caught gossiping behind someone’s back was just too embarrassing.
Yun Chao sat gracefully at the top of the staircase, allowing Fondant to rub against her. “I like all of you.”
All the cats were stunned.
Tong Qian felt like she was dreaming. Would Yun Chao ever say something like that? Was this a fake Yun Chao?
Yun Chao lowered her eyes slightly. “That’s pretty much what I meant.”
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wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1