Translator: Vemmy again o.o Not edited~ Anyone wanna be my editor~ You’ll get to read my bad tense in advance~ Ling Mao Er pretended that someone was in front of him, made a show of studying it for a while and then gave up.
"There is only air in front of me."
Mu Mu waved his hand to call over Ling Mao Er's assistant, Ke Le.
"Imagine that he is you."
Ling Mao Er stared at Ke Le for a while before showing a disgusted expression.
"I'm too familiar with you, absolutely can't imagine it."
Ke Le fled in tears[1].
Mu Mu didn't have any other ideas and could only stand there himself.
"How about me then? Can you visualize me as the target of your affections?"
Ling Mao Er's gaze swept over Mu Mu's face, who knew if it was because he stared at this face for too long, unexpectedly, it actually looked quite pleasing to the eyes. When the not very distinctive facial features are placed on this person, every part is just right, so much so that there is no better alternative.
A bored Ling Mao Er silently picked out a few well-known male models and swapped their most handsome features with Mu Mu's, the envisioned results were all out of place.
However, compared to his appearance, Ling Mao Er missed his scent more, as soon as he remembered that kind of tingly numbing feeling all over his body, he subconsciously narrowed his eyes and licked his lips.
"A little better, however, your expression isn't falling for me, it's wanting to lay me. Suppress it a bit more."
Having been seen through, Ling Mao Er's face reddened, it actually gave a bit of the impression of an innocent youth falling in love for the first time.
Mu Mu immediately captured this scene, "Precisely this feeling, can you maintain it?"
Ling Mao Er continued to stare at Mu Mu, silently repeated a lifetime, a lifetime, a lifetime, love slowly appearing in his eyes.
"Very good." Mu Mu quickly pressed on the shutter, although Ling Mao Er was young and didn't have relationship experience, his aptitude was unexpectedly high.
Being stared at with this kind of affectionate and tender gaze, perhaps very few people could one control themselves.
The Mu Mu who almost couldn't keep a hold of himself could only speak up to remind him, "You've already found the feeling, but your specified target is in midair, adjust the location of your line of sight a bit."
Ling Mao Er's gaze turned[2] and Mu Mu caught the most perfect shot of the day.
The second cooperation came to a fulfilling end. It was still early and Mu Mu suggested treating Ling Mao Er to coffee while talking about the magazine publisher's proposed article.
Ling Mao Er acquiescently accepted.
The location Mu Mu chose was a cat cafe, as soon as Mu Mu walked through the door, a blue british shorthair[3] ran up in welcome.
"Hui Hui, it’s been a while ah." He scratched the British Shorthair's short hair to express closeness.
Ling Mao Er walked behind him with a cap to cover his face and wrinkled his brow, so it turned out to be Mu Mu's old companion, he even knew their name.
Mu Mu noticed Ling Mao Er's expression seemed discontent, immediately saying, "I'm sorry, I often come to this cafe and forgot to seek your opinion in advance. If you don't like cats, we can go to another one."
"Not at all, I don't dislike cats," Ling Mao Er emphasized, "I like cats the most." Because he himself was a cat.
Mu Mu finally relaxed, "That's good then."
He led the way and didn't see the Ling Mao Er behind him shove Hui Hui over.
The two people sat face to face, a waiter came over to take their order, "What would the two of you like to order?"
Ling Mao Er very naturally ordered, "Ginger milk[4], Spring water."
"Okay."
The waiter left, Ling Mao Er saw Mu Mu's perplexed expression and finally remembered that he had misspoken.
"Ah haha, um, sorry, I didn't even ask you for what you want to drink and acted on my own accord." Ling Mao Er laughed evasively, "I'll call him back."
Mu Mu shook his head, "No, I did indeed want to drink plain water, it was just unexpected that you knew."
"Coincidence, coincidence."
A long haired persian[5] leapt onto the table and gave a long meow, startling the two people.
The persian cat intimately rubbed its face on Mu Mu's chest and Mu Mu also smoothed its fur with a hand, "Mi Mi, you came too? Are you still losing a lot of fur?"
Ling Mao Er glared at the Persian Cat that was sticking by Mu Mu begging for caress, from across the table, he could still smell Mi Mi's scent on Mu Mu's body.
Mu Mu continued with business, "《Minus》 magazine's editor……"
A black Li Hua[6] jumped onto the sofa foot stool beside Mu Mu.
"……should have already mentioned it with you……"
A little kitten that appeared to be two to three months old meowed as it wandered around the table legs, distressed because it couldn't jump up.
"……their special edition of the magazine involves the photoshoot of a model and an animal, you are among tho……"
The British Shorthair named Hui Hui from before also came over, all the cats in the cat cafe gathered by Mu Mu's side, the people nearby all looked at their table with envious gazes.
Mu Mu awkwardly laughed, "Sorry about this ah."
With a stern and expressionless face, Ling Mao Er remained silent; Mu Mu felt that his attitude was a bit weird.
He pushed the Mi Mi that was blocking between them a little to the side, "Because I've collaborated with you before, the editor-in-chief felt that having us work together again would be more convenient, so I will be responsible for your photoshoot, what do you think?"
Mu Mu waited a bit after asking but Ling Mao Er didn't show any acknowledgement, looking carefully, he noticed that the latter was clashing gazes with the Hui Hui beside him, it was as if there were bursts of electric currents in the air.
"……Mao Er?"
"En?"
"Your opinion is……"
"Oh," Ling Mao Er remembered the rejection from the other day and replied, "let me think about it."
"Ah?"
"Alright, I've finished considering it, I don't have any objections."
Mu Mu, "……"
"Hello, the ginger milk and spring water you ordered."
When the waiter brought the drinks over, he was also shocked by the spectacular sight.
"Would the two of you like me to drive the cats away?" Even if it's a cat cafe, there are still some guests that do not like being surrounded by cats when they enjoy their food or drink.
Ling Mao Er: Yes.
Mu Mu spoke, "No it's fine, thank you."
Ling Mao Er: Hmph = =#
"Please take your time (eating)."
Mu Mu's phone rang, "Please excuse me, may I take this call?"
Ling Mao Er gestured for him to go ahead and Mu Mu left.
Ling Mao Er wandered alone to the front desk, "Could you give me a piece of lemon?"
The girl at the counter raised her head, saw the exquisite face under the cap and, with hearts in her eyes, brought out a large plate of cut lemons.
"Please help yourself." The girl shyly spoke.
Ling Mao Er took a piece and returned to where he was sitting before, there were still a few cats there that refused to leave, waiting for Mu Mu to return.
Ling Mao Er harshly used the lemon juice to spray the cats' face, the cats that got sprayed fled in all directions, in an instant, there were no more traces of cats in the area around the table.
He contentedly threw the used lemon into the garbage, thinking to himself: you think I can't deal with you? A group of minxes[7].
Ling Mao Er was a bit too pleased with himself[8], smelled his hands in a lapse of attention and immediately wrinkled his entire face.
Ou[9]~~smells so bad~~~
Citrus fruits and what not are the worst!
Mu Mu returned to find that not a single cat was left, even Ling Mao Er was gone.
As he was flabbergasted, Ling Mao Er came out of the washroom, flicking the water off his hands as he walked.
"I've made you wait." Mu Mu apologized.
"Not at all ah." Having chased off his love rivals(?), Ling Mao Er was refreshed, his attitude was a full 180 degree change in comparison to before.
Mu Mu: ……Sure enough, his personality changes unpredictably.
Ling Mao Er took off his cap and the young women at the nearby tables began to whisper.
"Wah, so handsome, is he a celebrity?"
"Never seen him before, he might be a model."
"Should we go and get an autograph?" "You don't even know who they are, how are you going to get an autograph?"
Ling Mao Er pretended to not hear and asked Mu Mu, "Is there anything else?"
"The cat shelter provided some photos of cats, let's pick your partner in advance so that it's more convenient for them to prepare."
"Oh."
Mu Mu opened the email sent to him by the editor-in-chief on his phone, the first picture was a British Short hair with a beautiful blue-grey coat.
"How about a British Shorthair? Dignified and stead, noble in temperament."
"Dull and grey, doesn't stand out. Those who don't know would think it's part of the backdrop."
"How about Persian then? This Persian's eyes are heterochromic, very striking."
"With fur long enough to cover its face, no matter how fantastic (its eyes are), it's useless."
"Garfield[10]?"
"Face too big."
"Scottish Fold[11]?"
"Immature."
"This Ragdoll[12] is quite beautiful."
Ling Mao Er had long been a hater of Ragdolls due to the issue of 《Kitty Magazine》's cover, "Believing itself to be a pure-blood prince but is actually a bunch of cat species strung together, bloodline couldn't possibly be more mixed."
Mu Mu, "……"
"Do you actually like cats?"
"Of course."
"It feels like you have enmity towards cats."
"Really?" Ling Mao Er rubbed his nose, "It’s a misperception, let's look at the next picture."
The next picture was an American Shorthair[13] with grey tiger stripes and was quite handsome.
"This one then, I like this cat."
Having finally decided on a cat, the two people discussed the details of the next shoot and Mu Mu expressed that he needed to return home.
"Sorry about this, allow me to treat you to a meal another day."
"It’s fine."You treat me to food every day anyways.
"I saw your assistant leave first earlier, I'll send you home."
"Okay."
Mu Mu dropped Ling Mao Er off outside of Unit 8, "See you later."
"See you later." Ling Mao Er waved at him and Mu Mu started the car. As he turned the corner, he saw through the rearview mirror, Ling Mao Er standing in place watching him leave.
Ling Mao Er waited for Mu Mu's car to disappear from his sight before changing into cat form to dash towards Mu Mu's house.
Having determined that Mu Mu would take some time parking in the underground parking lot, Ling Mao Er needed to hurry in order to arrive home before him.
In order to allow the Siamese to come and go as it pleased, Mu Mu especially left the hallway window open a sliver, just enough for a cat to squeeze through. Ling Mao Er had just opened the window and jumped into the room when the elevator in the hallway rang.
The door opened and the Siamese sauntered over, producing the hoarse meow unique to the Siamese cats, as if it was welcoming Mu Mu home.
"Meow——"
Mu Mu picked it up as usual, "You didn't go play outside today? Or did you just return?"
"Meow——"
"I returned late, do you want fish sausage? Or do you want canned food." (T/n: "I returned late" is spoken in an apologetic tone, like "It was me that was late")
"Meow——"
A human and a cat echoed each other[14], as if they could understand each other's meaning, this kind of mutual understanding could only exist between them.
Mu Mu fed the cat and himself before sitting before the computer again to edit photos.
The photos are exported according to time and the first photo was the unexpected snapshot that Mu Mu had taken: a youth with a clean gaze standing under the shade of the trees, early morning's sunlight sprinkled down, through the gaps between the leaves, leaving mottled shadows on the side of the youth's face.
Mu Mu was very fond of this photograph he had taken incidentally and imported it into his phone after making some simple changes, this was a treatment that only works he was extremely pleased with received.
Ling Mao Er took advantage of when Mu Mu was transferring the photos to look through his album: all species of trees, flowers, stray cats, etc. were all saved in the same folder; this kind of undifferentiated treatment made Ling Mao Er feel that he was treated with sufficient importance.
It reached out a paw pad to randomly press on the phone screen, Mu Mu immediately stopped it, "Don't delete it."
He snatched over the cellphone to discover that the Siamese had accidentally set the picture from before as his background and didn't know if he should be angry or amused.
"Be obedient if you want to come up, if you move again, I'll drive you off."
The Siamese finally obediently stopped moving.
Mu Mu arranged the rest of Ling Mao Er's photos in rows, the most stunning one was the shoot for love at first sight: the photos with Ling Mao Er staring directly at the lens, without any expression or action but gave people the feeling that the model's eyes were filled with emotion.
This kind of Ling Mao Er stirred Mu Mu's emotions, he was suddenly filled with new inspiration for the next photoshoot.
[1]泪奔 – slang meaning to get emotional but actually translates word by word to "to leave in tears" so.
[2] 眼波一转 – I may be wrong but this feeling of this phrase is a bit….seductive in nature. It wasn't properly expressed in the translation ^^;
[3]蓝色英短- Blue british shorthair, more of a silvery colour
[4]姜汁牛奶 – may refer to ginger milk or ginger milk tea but I personally think ginger milk pudding looks like it'd taste better. I hate ginger though.
Ginger Milk Recipe
Ginger Milk pudding
[5]长毛波斯 – Long Haired Persian
[6]黑狸 – Black Chinese Li Hua, also known as the Dragon Li. A native domestic cat breed of China.
[7]一群小妖精 – Because he feels they're trying to seduce his Mu Mu, he's calling them….broads?
[8]得意忘形 – so pleased with oneself that they lose their sense of measure.
[9]呕 – Sound of vomiting
[10] 加菲 – Garfield, exotic shorthair I think.
[11] 折耳 – Scottish Fold
[12] 布偶 – Ragdoll
[13]美短 – American Shorthair
[14]一唱一和 – It means to echo each other, to harmoniously converse.
Ah I’m so sleepy, I’ll edit….later. Laptop dying again.