Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Chapter 53 Jin｜Jiang｜Literary｜City Premiere

Anna’s guess was right. With the little kitten in the office, the boss spoke softly to them, seemingly afraid of disturbing the still-sleeping kitten.

“Have you found out?”

Xie Chen placed the little kitten on his lap, his long, handsome fingers lightly tapping the desk, and asked her in a calm tone.

“Yes, we have.”

Anna stepped forward and said a name: “It’s Huang Fang.”

“She’s worked at the company for many years, an old employee. This time she wanted to jump ship, so she took the risk and stole data to leak to her next employer.”

Huang Fang.

Xie Chen was not familiar with the name. He said flatly, “Handle it according to regulations.”

“Understood.”

Such betrayal causing company losses meant, first, facing legal consequences, and second, her actions would be publicly exposed. Other companies that didn’t want to offend the Xie family wouldn’t hire her again.

As for the company she was moving to, Anna found out—

They had set her up.

After hearing Anna’s other reports, Xie Chen told her to bring the documents that needed handling, while he held the kitten with one hand and browsed the documents with the other.

The office heating was turned up.

Unusual for this autumn weather, which was only slightly chilly, Xie Chen usually wouldn’t turn on the air conditioning so early.

The warmth would affect his alertness.

But the kitten in his arms, after shivering in the cold outside, returned to the office, and Xie Chen personally adjusted the air conditioning temperature higher.

By noon,

Baili woke up several times intermittently. Every time he woke, even if Xie Chen was busy, he would immediately put down what he was doing.

“Lili, open your mouth.”

Taking advantage of the kitten opening his eyes, Xie Chen hurried to feed him a few bites.

Though Baili just woke up without any bad temper, his expression was still dazed and stiff.

Xie Chen fed him some food, then handed over some water.

Baili shook his head, trying hard to open his eyes wide.“Meow.”

Master.

Xie Chen lowered his eyes, temporarily putting aside the food and drink, and scratched his chin.

“I’m here. Lili, are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

Baili felt lazy all over; besides not wanting to move, he didn’t actually feel uncomfortable.

Seeing he couldn’t get any answer, and Qiu He couldn’t find anything wrong either, Xie Chen’s brows furrowed tighter.

Baili stretched out his paw, patted the back of Xie Chen’s hand, yawned, and meowed, “Want to drink water.”

He felt hot all over, as if the moisture inside him was drying up from the heat.

On Xie Chen’s desk, there were two cups: one brought today for Baili to use, the other for Xie Chen himself. After the kitten drank from Xie Chen’s cup, Anna tried to subtly replace it for him.

He didn’t let her.

Baili gulped down half a cup of water, and the heat in his body dissipated a bit.

“Meow, meow meow.”

He tilted his head back and began asking about work.

“The boss is on vacation.”

Xie Chen said without blushing or skipping a beat, “You can rest all these days.”

Baili was a bit puzzled: “It’s not vacation time yet.”

“He specially gave you a holiday.”

Xie Chen was already skilled at fooling the little kitten; he casually came up with an excuse, “Because you’ve performed well, so this is an extra benefit.”

In Baili’s current state, Xie Chen naturally couldn’t let him go to work.

Until he regained his energy, the “holiday” would continue.

Baili knew the seafood shop boss was a good person but didn’t expect him to be this generous.

Having a holiday, of course, made him happy.

“Meow meow, meow!”

Lili raised his paw, his beautiful amber eyes reflecting Xie Chen’s figure: “I can stay with Master all day!”

“That’s right.”

Xie Chen lowered his head and kissed his head, “Thank you, Lili, for staying with me.”

“Not hard at all.”

Baili didn’t hide his feelings at all: “I like being with Master!”Baili, who insisted on staying with Master, didn’t stay awake for long at all. Less than twenty minutes after being fed, his head tilted, and he fell asleep again.

Xie Chen watched the little kitten who had been chatting and meowing with him just moments ago, then suddenly closed his eyes. A trace of heaviness flashed in Xie Chen’s eyes.

Time passed little by little.

Tanyi and Bailiu both called via video separately. Seeing the sleeping kitten, Tanyi didn’t think much, just assumed his younger brother was tired.

But Bailiu frowned and asked Xie Chen, who was holding his brother: “How long has Lili been sleeping?”

“One hour and eight minutes.”

Hearing this sleep duration, Bailiu thought it was still normal. He only asked how long he had slept, not how many times he had fallen asleep like this.

Their brief conversation ended. Xie Chen lifted the chubby little kitten in his arms and went to the meeting room again.

He could have put Baili on the bed in the lounge to sleep alone.

But the meeting would last a long time, and if Baili woke up midway, he feared he wouldn’t know right away. To be safe, it was better to bring him along wherever he went.

The meeting room’s temperature was moderate. Xie Chen used a soft blanket to wrap the kitten and placed him on his lap so he would lie more comfortably.

“Boss.”

During the meeting, the department heads and others deliberately lowered their voices, discussing work-related matters.

When talking about endorsers, someone handed over an investment analysis report.

“The Fruit Channel’s talent show is quite popular this time. We can cooperate with them; the champion can sign an advertising endorsement contract with us for new products.”

Xie Chen glanced at it but said, “No need.”

He said calmly, “Let Tanyi handle the endorsements we’re currently discussing.”

The people in the advertising department were a bit stunned.

“All these brand endorsements, all for Tanyi?”

Tanyi had already taken one high-end endorsement under the Xie Group. If he got more endorsements, the outside world would inevitably think Tanyi was Xie Group’s exclusive endorser.

It would also make people believe Tanyi had a deep relationship with Xie Group.

“Give them to him.”

Xie Chen repeated again.

With the Lin family backing him, Tanyi’s development would only improve. Xie Chen had his own reasons for giving endorsements to Tanyi.

No one could change Xie Chen’s decision.

The meeting ended, and the related personnel hurried off to continue their work.Baili nestled in Xie Chen’s arms, drifting through one brief dream after another.

And the scenes in the dreams left him feeling confused.

He remembered never having successfully transformed before, but in the dream, he had transformed once as a child.

At that time, he seemed only seven or eight years old. He didn’t look in a mirror to see what he looked like after transforming, so he didn’t know if he was good-looking.

But he thought he probably was.

Because in the dream, he heard another child in front of him say—

“When you grow up, come find me to get married.”

Then...

His human form disappeared.

The mountain of the monsters was piled with many stones. He lay on the stones, gazing longingly down the mountain, seemingly waiting for something.

Those dreams felt fleeting and blurry. Baili only finally escaped the endless dreams at night.

“Master.”

After ten o’clock at night, outside was pitch black. Baili woke up, his paws tugging on Xie Chen’s big hand, his beautiful amber eyes filled with tears, wet and unbelievably clear.

“I’ve slept enough.”

The kitten who had slept all day was finally no longer sleepy at all.

Xie Chen raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t want to sleep anymore?”

“No.”

Baili answered honestly, “I want to play.”

Hearing this, Xie Chen thought for a few seconds, then got up to get the cat toy stick that Xie Bo had bought. The cat toy stick was made with feathers and bells, and when shaken, it made a crisp jingling sound.

Baili sat on the blanket. When he saw the toy stick, his eyes suddenly lit up.

“Meow!”

Want to play!

Xie Chen had watched videos before and knew that kittens all liked playing with cat toys. Xie Bo had even specially prepared various styles of them.

Baili’s front paws pounced on the bed, and his back paws stood up slightly, ready to spring.

Xie Chen found it amusing and waved the toy stick back and forth in front of the little kitten.

“Meow aow!!!”

Baili let out a sharp meow and leapt into the air.Next second—

Tap.

After missing the leap, Baili buried his head into the piled-up blanket.

Xie Chen laughed and picked up the kitten, continuing to play with him.

They played for a full half hour. Seeing the increasingly energetic little kitten, Xie Chen couldn’t help but ask, “Baili, how long do you want to play tonight?”

Baili tilted his head back and loudly meowed, “I want to play for a very long, long time!”

That “very long” really was quite long.

The feathers on the cat toy stick were almost completely scratched off by Baili’s paws. The little kitten chased the toy stick nonstop.

The man and cat played until midnight.

Baili lay sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling, exhausted.

Xie Chen scratched his soft belly and asked, “Had enough playing?”

Actually, Baili wasn’t done playing, but he knew that Master was about to sleep.

So he grabbed Xie Chen’s big hand and meowed, “Sleep.”

He had to coax Master to sleep!

With him around, Xie Chen’s sleep quality was always good.

All nightmares and insomnia no longer troubled him.

Soon,

Xie Chen’s steady breathing filled the room. After Xie Chen fell asleep, Baili carefully took the cat toy stick in his mouth and left the room.

The villa was very large.

Baili didn’t want to disturb Xie Bo or Master, so he deliberately walked far away.

In the yard outside, Baili played by himself.

After all the feathers on the toy stick were scratched off, Baili was done for the night and went back to accompany Xie Chen.

He didn’t know why, but at night he had so much energy. If he didn’t release it all, his body felt stifled and uncomfortable.

During the day, Baili would nap again.

Even though he napped, being held by Xie Chen made him feel fine.

A few more days passed.

Zhou Zhi’s dance party was about to start, and Baili had already found the entrance ticket early on.“Master!”

Baili happily held up the ticket and meowed to Xie Chen, “Zhou Zhi’s dance is especially beautiful!”

Not only was the dance beautiful, but Zhou Zhi was also super nice.

Baili learned a lot of cat dances from her!

Before giving the extra ticket to Yaya, Baili was still thinking about giving it to his brothers, to see whether Sixth Brother or Third Brother wanted to go.

But now he only had one ticket left. Sixth Brother was stuck in the lab, Third Brother was busy with various appointments, so the brothers wouldn’t come—only he and Master could go.

Before going, Baili even had Xie Chen pass by Yaya’s house.

He and Yaya had agreed to go to the dance together.

Yaya rode in a car driven by her family’s driver. She was wearing a pink dress today. Her already pretty face was carefully made up, like a little princess.

Xie Chen’s car was in front; Yaya’s car was behind.

In the car,

Baili told Xie Chen about Yaya again.

Xie Chen didn’t say much in response, but afterward, he recommended a top expert in bionic prosthetics to Yaya’s parents.

Baili didn’t know about the things Xie Chen did.

At this moment, he sat on Xie Chen’s lap, whispering in his ear, meowing little words.

Xie Chen wasn’t someone who often chatted with others, but he listened carefully to Baili’s spontaneous, playful topics and gave timely, cooperative responses.

After more than twenty minutes in the car, Baili finally arrived at the destination.

“Meow, meow meow!”

This place was huge!

The former queen of the dance floor was making a comeback, so naturally, she wouldn’t just pick any place to dance.

This venue covered two hundred square meters, decorated luxuriously and with great aesthetic sense.

Anyone who could dance here wasn’t an ordinary dancer.

When Baili entered, he was even personally escorted backstage.

“Miss Zhou said, if a pure white little kitten comes today, please take them backstage.”

Thanks to Baili, Yaya got backstage access.

Xie Chen...

Xie Chen wasn’t able to make it.

When Zhou Zhi gave the tickets, she only gave two. The people picking up Baili naturally strictly followed the two-ticket rule.Baili glanced at Yaya, then at Master.

It was really hard to choose.

Yaya saw Xie Chen holding Baili and willingly let the two of them go backstage.

But with such a push, Baili found it even harder to decide.

Xie Chen didn’t care much about the chance to go backstage. He only generally admired Zhou Zhi and wasn’t interested in meeting her in person backstage.

In the end, Baili trotted ahead, with Yaya following him. The two of them—one person and one cat—were led backstage.

Backstage, Zhou Zhi was getting her makeup done.

The space here was large, with a wardrobe, a resting room, a makeup room, and even a room for the backup dancers—all were available.

Seeing Baili come over, a smile appeared in Zhou Zhi’s eyes.

“Baili.”

She opened her arms to Baili, “Come here, let me touch you.”

Baili ran over in a few steps. Zhou Zhi patted his head and talked to him.

Yaya, seeing her beloved goddess up close, was so excited her hands trembled.

Baili introduced Yaya to Zhou Zhi.

Regarding this girl who loved dancing but had lost her right leg, Zhou Zhi truly felt sympathy.

“In the future, whenever you want to watch my dance, I will always save a seat for you,” Zhou Zhi promised Yaya.

There were many people backstage.

This dance party included Zhou Zhi’s solo dance, but also a group dance.

“Baili, Yaya, I’m ready.”

Zhou Zhi, finished with her makeup, stood up and showed her look once more to Baili and Yaya.

After showing, she bent down and softly said to the little kitten who was staring at her without blinking,

“Baili, if you could turn into a human, I would definitely take you to dance on stage with me.”

Baili tilted his head, suddenly feeling this sentence was very familiar.

If, if he became human…

“Sister, it’s time to go on stage.”

Someone hurried over and informed her.

Holding up her dress, Zhou Zhi fluttered toward the stage like a graceful butterfly.

Baili and Yaya were led to the best seats in front of the stage.But halfway there,

Baili suddenly stopped.

“Meow, meow meow.”

Yaya, you go ahead first.

After meowing, Baili turned around and ran forward in a wobbly way.

Yaya was stunned for a moment, and by the time she reacted, she could no longer see the little kitten.

“I’m going to find him,” Yaya said.

“But the show is about to start. Little girl, you go on ahead. I’ll help you find him.”