Ch7 - Gift

The next day, Ji Qinghuai refused to look at Xie Yan and the cat lay on the sofa in a depressed mood. Xie Yan attempted to coax the cat but it was useless, even its favourite food couldn’t move it.

Xie Yan felt helpless but smiled. For many years, no matter where he went, everyone would be courteous towards him. He never expected that the first one who dared to show attitude to him would be a cat.

How about trying…a little gift?

Xie Yan entered the study and took out a wooden box from the innermost layer of the shelf. The box was very small and wasn’t noticeable unless one looked closely. When examined carefully, one would find that the carvings on the box were extremely exquisite.

The box was made from a piece of fragrant and dark agarwood, no larger than the size of a palm. Above the box stood a carving of a giant dragon. The intricate details were preserved carefully, with no signs of ageing or dust.

Xie Yan took the box back to the living room. The kitten continued to ignore him and didn’t even bother to glance at him. Xie Yan walked up to it and squatted down, “Here, a present for you.”

The kitten turned its head away. I don’t care.

Xie Yan opened the box, took out the contents and handed them to the kitten. He shook the kitten’s paw gently and the kitten heard a crisp tinkle.

Huh?

The kitten turned its head and saw the silver bell that Xie Yan was supporting on its paw.

Xie Yan thought that the cat and the bell matched very well whereas Ji Qinghuai was completely unfazed.

Mr Xie, can you do something more serious? Do you think I like bells?

Unfortunately, Xie Yan didn’t understand the kitten’s meaning and tied the bell around the kitten’s neck. Every movement that the kitten made caused the bell to shake and jingle.

Xie Yan was very satisfied and said to the kitten, “In the future, wherever you go, I’ll be able to find your location because of the ringing. There won’t be an incident where I can’t find you and you end up frozen for a long time.”

However, Ji Qinghuai didn’t think so. You only like to hear the bell ring, right?

That night, the kitten ate dinner without making a fuss and filled its belly up. After eating, it went to bed early. Xie Yan saw the cat being well-behaved and thought that it had finally been coaxed so he went to sleep at ease.

The next morning, Xie Yan got up on time according to his usual schedule, but to his surprise, the kitten had woken up earlier than him today.

The kitten glanced at him. Good morning.

“Good morning.”

After greeting the kitten, Xie Yan went to wash up and then entered the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Everything was the same as usual, but since the start of breakfast, the kitten jumped up and down beside him, causing the bell to ring often.

Xie Yan thought that the kitten liked the bell he gifted, so he didn’t really care about it. Anyway, the silver bell was meant for the little one to play so if it liked to ring it, it could do it as often as it wanted.

After breakfast, Xie Yan was preparing for his work and as soon as he turned on his computer, the little kitten came trotting over. Xie Yan was a little surprised since the kitten rarely took the initiative to approach him.

Every time he worked, the little kitten would often play by itself so how come it was willing to accompany him today?

Before he could figure it out, the kitten began to jump up and down beside him. In fact, it disturbed Xie Yan’s work slightly, but in his opinion, the kitten was just having fun with the bell.

Then…just let it play, ba.

Throughout the day, the kitten was surprisingly clingy and always followed Xie Yan step by step. No matter what he was doing, it wandered around him and the “ding ling ding ling” kept echoing in Xie Yan’s ears.

After a whole day of ringing, Xie Yan’s ears were buzzing and the jingles continued reverberating in his head. He finally realized the problem.

Xie Yan rubbed his temples and asked helplessly, “Don’t you like the bell?”

The kitten looked at him indifferently, what do you think?

The cat’s reaction evidently gave Xie Yan the answer. Xie Yan was dumbfounded and finally understood that the kitten had been deliberately moving about to exact revenge on him.

The result was that the “ding ling’ sound had been deeply imprinted in his mind and couldn’t be erased. He finally understood what being ‘scared’ meant for the first time.

In the end, Xie Yan untied the bell from the kitten’s neck and placed it before the kitten. The kitten didn’t even think before it swatted away the bell with a claw.

“…”

The bell remained intact and the kitten silently retracted its claws. It hurts a little…

Xie Yan smiled upon seeing its actions but was quickly shot a glare. Then, the kitten turned its head and ignored him.

Xie Yan shook his head helplessly. Really a difficult master to please, ah.

That night, Xie Yan, who had been brainwashed by the silver bell for a day, had a dream. In the dream, he was surrounded by countless bells and the only thing he could see were the vibrating bells. They chimed simultaneously and the deafening “ding ling ding ling” caused Xie Yan to abruptly wake up from his dream.

Xie Yan lay speechlessly on his bed for a while. What is it called when you wake up to the tinkling of bells?

After waking up, Xie Yan couldn’t go back to sleep and even after lying down for a while, he was still wide awake and restless. Instead, he got up went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of milk and drank it with his head tilted up.

He looked at the sofa where the instigator who prevented him from sleeping well was slumbering peacefully, completely ignorant of the effect he had on Xie Yan. Xie Yan looked at the sleeping cat, recalled what happened today and felt a little funny. The great and respected Mr Xie was actually bullied by a cat. If word got out, what would happen to his esteemed name?

But there’s nothing I can do with this little guy, Xie Yan unconsciously smiled.

The so-called “one thing down one thing“, that’s probably the case here.

Compared with the twists and turns of this day, their life in the next few days was particularly comfortable. Xie Yan still expended a lot of effort to take care of the kitten, finding various ways to help fight off the cold poison and making delicious food for the kitten every day.

The kitten also knew good and bad and hadn’t made any more trouble after the bell incident.

Like this, half a month passed quietly. The kitten stared at the teacup on the table and watched it rising from the table. The teacup circled the living room and finally descended steadily to its original place.

The kitten experimented with other things and confirmed that his spiritual power had recovered about seventy to eighty percent. However, Ji Qinghuai was still a little unhappy.

It was almost lunchtime and Xie Yan was busy cooking lunch in the kitchen. The kitten returned everything it had moved to its original place and after thinking for a while, it slowly walked to the kitchen entrance.

Unfortunately, the door of the kitchen was closed and he couldn’t enter. If he used his spiritual power to open it, it would arouse suspicion, so he had to give up. Thus, the kitten stood by the door, waiting for Xie Yan to come out.

As soon as Xie Yan opened the door, he saw the cat waiting at the door and was stunned. When it saw the door open, the kitten immediately looked up. For some reason, Xie Yan suddenly felt that the kitten appeared slightly pitiful.

“Are you hungry?”

The kitten ignored him and turned away.

Xie Yan: “?”

In the afternoon, Xie Yan switched on his notebook and prepared to work as usual. The kitten looked at him and finally walked over, plopping itself next to Xie Yan.

Xie Yan stopped typing and turned to look at it. The kitten sat quietly, I won’t make trouble this time, just focus on your work.

Understanding what it meant, Xie Yan turned his eyes back to the computer screen and resumed his work. The afternoon passed by quickly and the setting sun bathed the balcony in an orange afterglow. The sky gradually darkened and night fell.

After dinner, Xie Yan bathed the kitten with the grapefruit flavoured shower gel. Engrossed in washing the kitten, he didn’t notice the kitten’s strange behaviour and went to bed after taking a shower himself.

“Good night.”

After saying that, he turned off the light in the living room. The kitten watched him as his footsteps receded and heard the sound of the door being shut. Good night.

The little cat quietly sat on the sofa for a while. Suddenly, the originally bald cat quickly grew its fluffy and tidy fur until it returned to its confident and dazzling silver appearance.

The kitten lowered its head. I should go now.

His family had probably gone crazy searching for him for half a month.

Just as the kitten was about to jump off the sofa, its paw touched something and a crisp ‘tinkle’ rang in its ear. The cat looked down and saw the silver bell that was gifted by Xie Yan.

The kitten stared at the bell, opened its mouth and picked it up. I’ll take you back as a memento.

The kitten jumped to the ground and headed straight to the balcony. The window on the balcony opened automatically, but the kitten was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, it turned around to look at the living room. Xie Yan, thank you for your care this past half month. I’ve noted your kindness and if there is a chance in the future, I will repay you.

The kitten leapt onto the window easily. Goodbye.

Then it jumped down from the window and disappeared into the night.

The next morning, Xie Yan woke up and washed up as usual before going to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. When he passed by the living room, he habitually looked at the sofa but the cat was missing. He was worried that the kitten would again freeze so he hurriedly searched for it but even after circling the house several times, there were no traces of the kitten. There were also no traces of water or ice on the ground.

Then, he noticed the open window on his balcony. He remembered clearly that the windows on the balcony were all closed before he went to sleep.

Could it be that…

Xie Yan remembered the bell that he gave to the kitten. When he was searching the house just now, During the search just now, apart from the cat, he also noticed that the bell had disappeared.

Recalling the kitten’s odd actions yesterday, he finally understood what had happened. He sighed softly. It was so heartless that it left without saying goodbye.

Just like that, his good mood for the day abruptly dissipated. At this time, there was a knock on the door. When he opened the door, a young man stood at the door with a smile on his face.

“Good morning, Mr Xie.” It was Xu Luo.

“Morning.” Xie Yan turned around and sat on the sofa first. Xu Luo took a pair of slippers and put them on. He was at ease with Xie Yan and directly sat next to him, “Where is the cat?”

“It ran away.”

“Eh?” Xu Luo thought he had misheard, “…ran away?”

“Mhm.”

Xu Luo looked around a few times and did not see the cat, “So I took time out of my busy schedule to run here only to find that your cat is gone?”

Xie Yan pursed his lips, he also didn’t expect the kitten to run away at this time. He had been keeping an eye on the kitten’s cold poison and although it didn’t relapse these days, he still hoped to cure it. Today, Xu Luo happened to be free so he wanted him to come over and take a look at the kitten, only to find that the kitten had disappeared.

Xu Luo spoke, “The fact that you could raise a cat for a few days proved that it wasn’t afraid of you, what on earth did you do to make the cat run away?”

Xie Yan wasn’t in a mood to joke with Xu Luo, he said seriously, “We have to find it.”

“You like the cat so much?”

“No,” Xie Yan answered.

“Then why are you looking for it? If you want to raise one, I can get another one for you.”

Xie Yan shook his head, “It might have taken the silver bell with it.”

Hearing this, Xu Luo was stunned, “Silver bell?”

“Is it…that one?”

Xie Yan nodded. Xu Luo looked at him and slowly leaned on the sofa, “Mr Xie, you are so generous.”

Xie Yan propped up his glasses. He just hoped that he wouldn’t get into any trouble because of the bell.

My bio teacher: Sunlight uses energy-

The class: ???

Another~

Bio teacher: I’ll bring you guys to the autotroph

Me to my friend: Isn’t autotroph a category??

So sorry for the late release everyone For those who aren’t in CG’s discord, I was busy with school and had to push back the release. Thanks for being patient~