Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Chapter 61 Jin | Jiang | Literature | City Premiere

Bai Li climbed from the table onto Xie Chen’s lap, blinking: "Meow."

Third Brother still wanted to listen.

Tan Yi covered his ears: "No, you don’t want to."

After rushing around for various gigs for days, this time when he came back, Tan Yi just wanted to stay with his younger brother.

Night fell.

Xie Chen glanced at Tan Yi playing with Li Li on the sofa, then casually put down the thing in his hand on the table.

"Tan Yi."

He reminded softly, "Aren’t you sleepy?"

Tan Yi was a little sleepy, but seeing his precious little brother like a white fluff ball, he didn’t want to leave.

"It’s still early."

Tan Yi lied shamelessly, "Boss Xie, if you’re tired, go sleep in your room. Li Li and I can sleep in the guest room."

Xie Chen raised an eyebrow, naturally refusing.

Bai Li had been playing with Sixth Brother until now and could no longer keep his paws from rubbing his eyes.

"Meow, meow meow."

Sixth Brother, I want to sleep.

Tan Yi picked up his younger brother, wanting to take him to sleep, but Xie Chen stretched out his hand.

Next second,

Bai Li’s paw landed on Xie Chen’s big hand.

Tan Yi was heartbroken: "Li Li, won’t you keep Third Brother company?"

"I will."

Bai Li straightened his chubby body, leaned close to Tan Yi’s ear and softly meowed, "I’ll put Master to sleep first, then go keep Third Brother company."

Tan Yi looked worriedly at the little kitten whispering in his ear, thinking by midnight the kitten would definitely be snoring away, hardly remembering he even had a Third Brother.

By midnight,

Bai Li padded softly and pushed open Tan Yi’s unlocked door, but after jumping on the bed, the Third Brother who was supposed to be waiting for him had already turned into a cat, sleeping soundly and snoring.“Meow.”

Third Brother!

Bai Li called twice but didn’t wake Third Brother. He tilted his head to look at him, then simply snuggled close and closed his eyes to sleep.

The next day.

Tan Yi happily looked at the little kitten still sleeping in bed. Ignoring that the kitten hadn’t woken up yet, he directly wrapped him in his arms and started licking his fur.

“Meow, meowow.”

Bai Li protested, moving his body to avoid Third Brother’s licking.

The brothers fussed on the bed for a while until Xie Chen called them to get up from outside the door, then Tan Yi stopped.

After breakfast, Bai Li went to work as usual.

Tan Yi and Xie Chen weren’t idle either. Xie Chen was even busier, rushing through work to free up time to visit his cousin.

For two days in a row.

Bai Li’s transformation times became more fixed. By the afternoon, he would vaguely feel the change coming.

Originally, the transformation didn’t include clothes, but Bai Li was afraid of the cold, so he instinctively learned to turn his fur into clothes.

That kind of transformation consumed more of his energy but at least solved the cold problem.

His human form seemed separated from his cat form.

After transforming, he would remember memories from the transformation time but only had vague impressions of his cat memories.

The Starlight Entertainment flagship show had already started. All the contestants were young and beautiful, invited from multiple companies.

As a contestant from Starlight’s main company, Bai Li was immediately taken care of by a chubby agent who treated him like a child.

“Number one.”

“Oops, I mean number eleven,” the agent slipped up, called the wrong number. He patted Bai Li’s shoulder and lowered his voice: “This is our home turf this time. Don’t be afraid, many senior brothers and sisters are backing you up.”

Bai Li nodded vaguely, then asked, “When can I see Xie Chen?”

“Don’t rush.”

The agent smiled: “Brother Xie is a special judge. Not only can you see him, you can also talk to him.”

“Come on, I’ll take you to get familiar with the place.”

The agent was very responsible; his main job now was managing Bai Li’s schedule.

Bai Li called him very casually: “Thanks, Fat Brother.”

His nickname was Fat Fat. According to Fat Brother himself, his family was poor when he was young and he was so thin he looked like a stick.

His childhood dream was to have meat to eat and get chubby, so he gave himself the nickname Fat Fat.The venue for the show was provided by Starlight, and all the contestants had gathered to check in.

Diao Ling, from the same company as Bai Li, smiled and stepped forward to greet Fat Brother.

“So this is number eleven.”

Diao Ling’s tone was gentle: “No wonder Fat Brother personally brought number eleven. Number eleven’s talent is truly the best among all the newcomers.”

Though her words seemed to praise Bai Li, other newcomers passing by overheard and their expressions subtly changed.

Fat Brother raised his eyelids and glanced at this girl who was deliberately trying to provoke.

“All the newcomers in the company have good talent. By the way, what’s your name again? I vaguely remember you’re not exactly a newcomer anymore, so you’d better hurry up and work hard. Otherwise, the newly recruited rookies…”

Fat Brother didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone understood the implication.

Diao Ling almost couldn’t keep her expression after being snapped at.

Fat Brother just gave her a glance and led Bai Li past her to greet others.

“Li Li, don’t be alone with him from now on, got it?”

“Mm!”

The pre-launch hype for this show was very high, but the promotional focus wasn’t really on the contestants.

Special guest judge, Xie Chen. His name was the key word the production team used to grab trending searches.

As everyone knows, given Xie Chen’s current status, it’s basically unlikely to get him to attend events in the entertainment industry.

He didn’t lack money or fame; no offer was good enough to satisfy him.

If it weren’t for Xie Mao speaking to him, Xie Chen’s presence wouldn’t have appeared on camera at all.

In the evening.

The judges each had their own separate area, and Xie Chen was being interviewed by a group of reporters.

The reporters’ eyes were full of excitement. After so many years, they finally got to interview Xie Chen in person!

Although there were others on the judges’ panel, like Tan Yi,

in the eyes of the reporters, Xie Chen was the most important.

The interview began.

A reporter first asked a few light questions to warm up, such as: “Brother Xie, what made you suddenly willing to join this show?”

Xie Chen sat on the chair, legs slightly bent, looking at the questioner.

“Because I think this show is pretty good.”

The reporters smiled but didn’t point out the unspoken reason they all understood—The show was organized by Xie Chen’s cousin. If he was willing to come, did the reason need to be explained?

“Brother Xie, I heard your album is about to be released?”

“Mm, by the end of the year.”

After a few questions, it was the turn of a fairly pretty female reporter to ask.

“Brother Xie, I want to ask about your current relationship status.”

The female reporter’s cheeks flushed a bit; she spoke in a playful tone: “You still have many female fans, and I’m here on their behalf to verify—do you have a lady at home now?”

Xie Chen listened to the question, narrowed his eyes, the corner of his lips curling slightly with a lazy vibe.

He replied calmly, “No one else at home besides me. Mm, no relationship either.”

The female reporter’s smile became even more genuine after the answer.

Taking the chance, she continued: “So, Brother Xie, do you have plans to start a relationship soon?”

“No.”

This time, Xie Chen answered with just one word, then glanced at the next questioner, who tactfully took over.

The entire round of interviews ended, and the reporters were all satisfied as they watched Xie Chen leave.

“All right, Brother Xie will definitely dominate the trending searches next. Let’s send someone to stake out and get some material.”

After going back, some reporters rushed to write their pieces while arranging their team.

All the judges brought their own traffic, especially Xie Chen, who was basically one of the top three trending figures.

Compared to the judges, the contestants were relatively low-key.

The production team hadn’t started promoting the contestants yet because they couldn’t put all their cards on the table at once.

Nightfall.

Bai Li, transformed back into a cat, felt more exhausted than before.

Xie Chen held the cat, glanced at Weibo, and sure enough, his interview video was occupying second place on the trending list.

First place was a major scientific achievement.

Xie Chen’s old fans understood these kinds of research topics that benefit humanity—they never competed for those trending spots.

When Xie Chen’s topic was about to surge on the trending list, some big fans would consciously go brush the originally top trending topics.

Xie Chen didn’t click to read the comments under the trending topic.

He just made sure to bring some heat for his cousin, then put his phone on the bedside table and looked down to admire his own snowy white little kitten.

The little kitten’s white fur was soft. Pinching its pink paw pads felt addictive.

Xie Chen had never thought he would be so obsessed with something before.But at this moment.

Looking at the little kitten no bigger than his palm, he felt completely willing to be obsessed with petting the kitten.

No one could resist such a little kitten who gave off the signal of "I’m very touchable" all over its body.

He leaned in, kissed the kitten’s paw, then kissed its furry head.

“Lili, good night.”

Bai Li leaned against his chest, turned over in his sleep, and even placed a paw on him, purring softly in comfort.

The next morning when he woke up,

Xie Chen saw him sleeping soundly and didn’t hurry to wake him but got up and went to the kitchen.

Usually, breakfast was made by Uncle Xie, but Uncle Xie hadn’t been feeling well these past two days, so Xie Chen took over the breakfast duties.

He didn’t like hiring live-in helpers, so besides regular hourly workers, the big villa had almost no one else.

The kitchen had all kinds of ingredients.

Xie Chen cooked porridge and made a deluxe cat meal just for Bai Li, while for himself and Uncle Xie, he made simple scrambled eggs and a vegetable dish.

While cooking the eggs, he cut a chili pepper on the side. The chili was newly bought by Uncle Xie—unassuming in appearance but quite spicy in flavor.

After finishing breakfast, Xie Chen washed his hands, told Uncle Xie to start eating, then went back to the bedroom to call the sleepy kitten.

Back in the bedroom,

Bai Li lay on his back with all four paws in the air, showing his white belly, eyes still closed.

“Lili.”

Xie Chen bent down and called softly.

Bai Li was sleeping deeply and didn’t respond at all. Since he wasn’t resting on a pillow, his little head tilted far back. From Xie Chen’s angle, he could clearly see the tiny pink tip of his tongue sticking out.

Cats sometimes stick out a little tip of their tongue in deep sleep when feeling hot or for other reasons.

The kitten was so small that the tongue tip was even smaller than a pinky nail.

Xie Chen’s hands itched to touch it, and he couldn’t resist, reaching out to touch it.

Within less than three seconds of the touch,

The kitten who couldn’t be woken up before exploded off the bed like a little cannonball.

“Meow!!!”

The round little kitten reflexively rolled away a good distance from Xie Chen, looking at him tearfully as if accusing him.

Early in the morning, the kitten wasn’t woken up gently but was cruelly awakened by spiciness!