Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Chapter 40 — First Release on Jinjiang Literature City

Under the overpass, the little kitten who had fainted in the corner with a cloth bag on its back lay on its back, one paw covering its face, as if sound asleep.

The hotel manager searched every corner but couldn’t find the cat, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and go look for Tan Yi.

Tan Yi liked cats, the manager thought. If they couldn’t find that kitten, he would just compensate Tan Yi with another one.

But he wasn’t sure whether Tan Yi would want a new kitten.

Backstage at the recording of the show, the manager paced back and forth, wanting to rush over and call Tan Yi, but didn’t want to disrupt the recording.

The variety show had great traffic; Tan Yi couldn’t afford to mess it up.

No one knew how much time had passed.

Near the overpass, the dim streetlights turned on.

“Old man, come over quickly.”

An old hunched woman, picking up scraps, happened to find the little kitten lying in the corner under the overpass.

The old woman was a bit nearsighted and couldn’t tell if the kitten was alive or dead.

The old man she called over limped on one leg, walking with a cane.

He slowly moved over and, after a signal from his wife, went forward to check on the kitten.

“It has a heartbeat. It’s alive.”

“Someone must have abandoned it here, right? Old man, let’s take it home. It’s still small; we can just feed it a bit more.”

The old woman softened, seeing the tiny kitten, unable to bear leaving it behind.

“Alright, as you say.”

The limping old man listened well to his wife. When he picked up the kitten, he noticed the cloth bag tied to it.

He opened the bag and—wow—it was full of money.

“Cuifen, look at this. Why does this cat have so much money on it?”

The old man held the kitten in his arms and showed the money to the old woman.

The old woman looked at the money, then at the kitten, not knowing what was going on.

By now it was late, and with so much money in hand, the old woman felt uneasy.

“Old man, let’s go home first. Tomorrow morning, when it’s bright, we’ll go to the police station and turn in this money.”"Okay."

The elderly couple’s home was nearby, coincidentally the very place Bai Li had recently been to.

He had wandered around the area for a long time, but because he was lost, he didn’t realize he was actually close to the place he had visited before.

"Cuifen, we need to be careful with this money. We can’t let Er Gang see it."

"I know. Sigh, that Er Gang kid... we also can’t let him see this kitten. Last time, I saw him kicking a stray cat by the roadside."

Held carefully by the old man, Bai Li didn’t catch a word of what they were saying.

Not long after,

Back in the old residential area just now, the elderly couple covered the cat with a cloth to keep it from being seen.

Their home was shabby, small, and rundown, but inside it was very tidy.

The old woman entered a room plastered with newspapers, turned on a dim light, and the cramped space felt even smaller.

"Put the cat here."

The old woman found some clean old clothes and asked the old man to settle the kitten.

They carefully hid the money they found on the kitten in a metal box, then placed the box under the bed.

"You cook something; I’ll sort out the stuff we picked up outside."

"I’ll make some porridge and fry some potatoes."

"Add a little extra rice; we’ll feed the kitten later."

"I remember."

Lying on the bed waiting to be fed, Bai Li didn’t know if he was truly hungry. Though still half-asleep, his stomach rumbled several times.

The limping old man cooking porridge smiled at the growling sounds on his wrinkled face.

This kitten really was a glutton.

In the dim room, the rice cooker began working. The old man cut potatoes and occasionally glanced at the kitten.

The atmosphere was warm and quiet.

After Bai Li had fainted for a long time and was finally between waking and sleeping, a noisy clamor came to his ears.

"Dad, Mom, I’m back."

"Er Gang, have you eaten? Go wash your face here, I’ll go call your dad."

The old woman’s first reaction to seeing her tall, burly son was not joy but panic.

She hurriedly wanted to go inside and told her husband to quickly hide the kitten and the money—they must not be found by their son.

But their son, with a fierce expression, pushed her aside impatiently and strode into the house.“Dad, give me some money. Chage and Huzi got into some trouble, I need to lend them a little.”

The limping old man cooking porridge felt a tightness in his chest hearing this.

“I have no money. Your mother’s blood pressure medicine is almost finished, and we haven’t got money to buy more. Er Gang, you’re already thirty; you should seriously find a job. You can’t keep messing around outside every day.”

“Nonsense.” Er Gang said irritably, “You both will still depend on me to bury you in the future. If you don’t support me now, then whether I’ll bury you or not is uncertain.”

Saying that, he started rummaging through boxes right in front of the old man.

When he found the kitten on the bed, he made a sound of surprise.

“Where did this cat come from?”

“Someone else’s.”

The old woman who came in holding her waist didn’t dare say they found it, only that it belonged to someone else: “I’ll return it to its owner tomorrow.”

“Bullshit.”

Er Gang didn’t believe her and roughly grabbed the kitten from the bed by the legs and swung it in the air.

Bai Li: “...”

Just waking up, Bai Li opened his eyes drowsily: “Meow.”

Where is this?

Hearing the meow, Er Gang swung him even more violently.

The old woman couldn’t watch anymore and raised her hand to take the kitten back: “Er Gang, put the cat down.”

Er Gang refused.

This kitten looked good, much better than the stray cats he’d seen on the street before...

“Meow!”

Bai Li, shaken fully awake, realized the person holding him was no good, and flailed.

“Mom, I’ll take care of the cat, you two just continue eating.”

Looking at the thin porridge and dry potatoes in the pot, he lost his appetite.

Bai Li stretched his paw to scratch the back of the man’s hand holding him; he didn’t want to be taken to be raised!

“Meow-ow!”

Put me down!

Bai Li fiercely meowed and scratched, but it had no effect on the man.

He seemed to know the cat’s weak spot well — holding the soft skin on the back of the cat’s neck made escape impossible.Bai Li’s demon core had been overdrawn once and couldn’t be triggered a second time.

He could only use pleading eyes to look at the old woman and old man in the room.

The two elders wanted to save him, and the old man even raised his cane angrily, pointing it at his son.

“Er Gang! You absolutely can’t be cruel!”

Er Gang showed no obedience to the elders’ words; he grabbed the cat and strode out.

Bai Li struggled but couldn’t break free, furious enough to try to bite, but he couldn’t reach Er Gang’s hand.

By the time the little kitten was carried away, the old couple, unable to catch up, had red eyes from anger.

“What are we going to do? Old man, does Er Gang mean to harm that kitten?”

“Sigh, maybe we shouldn’t have picked up the cat.”

“It’s not that we shouldn’t have picked up the cat; it’s that we shouldn’t have picked up this kid back then.”

Er Gang wasn’t the elders’ biological son; he was an orphan they picked up from the garbage heap years ago. At first, he was okay, but as he grew, he became uncontrollable.

One elder was disabled, the other ill; aside from providing food and a bit of tuition money for the kid, they had nothing else they could do.

The kid was disappointing, dropped out of school shortly after starting, wandered aimlessly every day, uneducated and lazy without any job.

Whenever the old couple talked about him, they felt frustrated.

Because of their limited mobility, they couldn’t catch up to save the cat. Bai Li, grabbed by the scruff, could only let the man carry him away.

Outside, the sky had already turned completely dark. Bai Li thought back to the call he made to Xie Chen before he fainted.

He looked down at his paws, feeling a bit depressed. The master must be worried about him.

Before fainting, he should have hidden himself more thoroughly.

That way, when he woke up, he could continue calling Third Brother.

The little kitten, unable to free himself for now, was carried away, not knowing where he was being taken.

After the show ended, Tan Yi heard from the manager about the lost cat and felt like he’d been struck by lightning.

“Li Li, lost???“

Tan Yi couldn’t believe it, looking at the manager. After the manager nodded in confirmation, he shook so much with anger his hands trembled: “Why didn’t you tell me then?!”

“Why wasn’t I notified the first moment Li Li was lost?!”

“Tan Ge, you were recording the show, it’s a very important program, I really—”

The manager’s excuses, Tan Yi didn’t want to hear another word.

He slammed the door and strode outside.

How could this program, which was so important to the manager, compare to his Li Li!Even if he lost his job, he couldn’t lose his Li Li.

Thinking about the hardships Li Li endured before he found him, at this moment, Tan Yi felt as if a piece of his heart had been gouged out.

The pain was so intense that even breathing felt suffocating.

As the night deepened, Tan Yi, who originally had a banquet to attend, abandoned the plan, transformed into a blue-and-white short-haired cat, and began searching for his younger brother.

As for why he didn’t contact by phone, of course, he tried, but no one answered.

“Meow.”

Li Li.

The blue-and-white cat used the most primitive method, trying bit by bit to search for his brother’s figure; the meowing echoed through the cool night.

Outside the airport.

Xie Chen, who had just gotten into the car, watched the red dot on the tracking device moving continuously, his heart tightening.

He knew Li Li had fainted and couldn’t move.

Even if Li Li woke up later, he would definitely call him first, not keep moving around like this.

“Drive a bit faster.”

Although he had just arrived in S City, the versatile secretary Anna had already arranged people in advance. As soon as he got off the plane, someone was waiting outside to pick him up.

“Okay.”

The driver was naturally someone from the Xie family. Hearing Xie Chen’s instructions, he sped toward the location Xie Chen mentioned.

While they were rushing to find Li Li, two heated trending topics surged on Weibo.

#Tan Yi Throws a Tantrum on Set, Bullies Extras#

#Tan Yi Allows His Cat to Attack People During Filming#

These two trending topics not only targeted Tan Yi but also the kitten in the photos scratching people.

Especially under the trending topic about the cat attacking people, the comments were filled with malice.

[Although this cat looks cute, maliciously injuring people is really too much. If the owner can’t properly control the cat, euthanasia is recommended.]

[You really get what you deserve; the kind of owner determines the kind of cat. Tan Yi punishes extras on set, and his cat directly scratches extras [disgusted].]

[This is just so infuriating, so infuriating, so infuriating—how could Tan Yi be such a person!]

Those harsh comments were pushed to the top, undoubtedly to deliberately stir up trouble.

The manager who couldn’t find Tan Yi turned pale after seeing the trending topics.

The company kept calling him frantically.“There are paid trolls involved.”

“This matter has been twisted! Tan Yi was actually framed by two extras, and the kitten was protecting him!”

The manager was explaining to the company and discussing how to resolve it.

But somehow, the company suddenly became ambiguous in their attitude.

The manager was both angry and anxious, almost losing his temper and cursing.

On the increasingly crooked path, the long-held Li Li was finally thrown down by someone upon arrival at a messy old apartment building.

“We’re here.”

Er Gang closed the door tightly, making sure the kitten couldn’t escape, then went to boil some water.

Li Li was thrown roughly and even rolled twice on the floor.

“Meow?”

He sat on the cold floor, his beautiful amber eyes showing a bit of panic.

What is this person boiling water for?!

Are they going to stew the cat?!

Li Li panicked and ran wildly around the room, trying to hide himself.

Meanwhile, Er Gang, who had a bowl of instant noodles ready to cook, freed one hand to make a phone call.

“Aren’t you buying a cat? Come over, name your price.”

“Looks great, pure white, perfect as a gift—you won’t lose face.”

After ending the call, Er Gang searched the room for the little kitten.

Finally, he found it under the bed.

The chubby little kitten was hiding in the center under the bed, covering his head with a paw as if that would prevent anyone from seeing him.

Er Gang snorted.

“You’re lucky I happened to know someone wanting to buy a cat. Tsk, if you had fallen into my hands, you’d be screaming your throat raw tonight.”

Before he finished speaking, someone knocked on the door.

Er Gang was stunned: “How come they’re here so fast?”

He’d just hung up a few minutes ago—could they have been nearby all along?

Filled with suspicion, Er Gang stood up, casually placed the noodles on the table, and went to open the door.

The little kitten hiding under the bed suddenly twitched his nose, then his beautiful amber eyes suddenly widened. A few seconds later, he dashed out like a whirlwind.

“Meow!!!”It’s Master!

The red-painted door opened, and Er Gang smiled as he said, “Why come so quickly? That kitten isn’t for sale under two thousand…”

His laughter abruptly stopped.

Er Gang stared blankly at the unfamiliar man before him. The man wore an expensive-looking suit, very handsome, but his cold, stern expression was intimidating. Without speaking, just looking at him made Er Gang feel weak in the legs.

“You, you are?”

Er Gang had never seen anyone who made him feel so pressured. He felt the man looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen him.

“I’m here to pick up my cat.”

Xie Chen, who had left a meeting and rushed here for several hours, looked coldly at the man in front of him and said this sentence.

Er Gang’s palms were sweating. He forced a smile: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your cat? Why come here to pick it up from me?”

“I still have things to do, you—”

Before he finished, a snowy white figure darted quickly from behind.

“Meow meow!”

Master.

Li Li meowed urgently. His round body had just reached the man when he was scooped up directly by a pair of large hands.

“Good boy, don’t be afraid.”

Xie Chen lowered his eyes. As expected, the meowing little kitten was scared and his eyes filled with tears.