Chapter 19 – The Little Glutton
After returning home, Meiqiu hid inside Lin Yan’s bookcase and refused to come out no matter how many times he was called.
Lu Heng didn’t even understand his own mood. He just suddenly felt like sulking.
At first, he wanted to hide under the bed, but then he remembered that he had two large boxes of his things stored there, so he didn’t dare go over.
What if Lin Yan discovered them?
Luckily, he came home early today while Lin Yan was still out. Taking the chance, he registered his own fingerprints into the door lock and connected all the smart home devices to his phone.
Mainly because Lin Yan rarely cleaned under the bed. If his clothes were stored there, they would get dusty, and that wouldn’t look good when he went to the office.
After all, he represented the image of the company. He had to pay attention to his appearance.
Lin Yan sensed that something was wrong.
Was little Meiqiu angry?
Regret flooded him. He shouldn’t have taken Meiqiu out earlier. After going out, Meiqiu had become upset.
What should he do now?
Meiqiu jumped to the very top shelf of the bookcase. That shelf held Lin Yan’s past awards and certificates, as well as his favorite vintage car models.
The shelf wasn’t completely full, so there was enough space for Meiqiu to squeeze in.
Lin Yan stretched out both arms, holding them up as if to catch the kitten.
But the top shelf was quite high. Lin Yan could barely reach the edge of the cabinet. He strained his fingers upward and managed to brush against Meiqiu’s paw.
Feeling Lin Yan’s touch, Meiqiu immediately pulled its paw back.
It lowered its head and glanced at Lin Yan from the corner of its eye.
Lin Yan met its gaze.
“Meiqiu, baby… let’s come down first, okay?”
Meiqiu stared at him for a moment, then turned its head away and refused to look at him again.
With no other choice, Lin Yan let Meiqiu stay up there for now.
He lowered his hands and glanced at the cat bowl. He had filled it with a full bowl of cat food in the morning, but Meiqiu hadn’t touched a single bite.
He didn’t know what was wrong with the little one. This was already the third brand of cat food Lin Yan had tried.
Still, Meiqiu wouldn’t eat it.
Lin Yan opened the group chat and found the post Chen Xin had shared about making homemade cat food.
After browsing through it, he decided to cook something for Meiqiu and see if it would eat.
After checking several recipes, Lin Yan realized he didn’t have any of the required ingredients at home.
So he could only go downstairs to buy them. Lin Yan changed his shoes and headed out.
The moment the door closed, it startled little Meiqiu, who poked its head out from the bookcase to watch.
Lin Yan went out.
Lu Heng: Doesn’t he even try to comfort me anymore?
Meiqiu became even more upset.
The next second, Meiqiu stood up, pushed up on its hind legs, stuck out its rear, and stretched lazily—accidentally bumping into the model displayed on the bookcase.
Meiqiu sensed it had hit something and turned around to check.
The movement created even more force. Not only did it knock over the model, but it also struck the trophy beside it.
The model and the trophy suddenly toppled over and crashed onto the floor.
Along with them fell an award photo.
Meiqiu leapt away onto the sofa, putting distance between itself and the bookcase. Then it jumped down to the floor—stepping directly on the fallen photo.
It pawed at it for a moment, then lowered its head and stared.
There were three people in the photo.
Lin Yan was on the far left. The man in the middle was someone Lu Heng recognized—Professor Tian Yu from N University, who he guessed was Lin Yan’s advisor.
The person on the far right looked about the same age as Lin Yan, probably a classmate.
“Meiqiu.”
Lin Yan returned carrying a bag of groceries. He hadn’t even put the bag down when he saw the fallen trophy and car model.
He immediately rushed over, worried Meiqiu might have been hurt by the trophy.
The moment Meiqiu saw Lin Yan come back and walk toward it, it quickly jumped onto the sofa again.
Lin Yan turned and tried to pick Meiqiu up— but he stepped on the photo.
Lowering his head, Lin Yan stared at the picture for a moment before picking it up. Instead of putting it back, he slipped it into a drawer.
As for the car model, it had fallen from such a height that several corners were chipped. Lin Yan couldn’t help feeling a little heartbroken.
He frowned. He had saved up for a whole month while he was still a student just to buy that model.
But aside from the money he had spent on it, Lin Yan didn’t feel much else.
After working for these past few years, he had come to understand many things. Those items were merely hobbies—and hobbies that burned money like that held no real meaning.
Still, he placed the model in an inconspicuous corner of the table.
Then he turned around.
Meiqiu sprang back onto the bookcase in one smooth leap.
Lin Yan crouched down and picked up the trophy. Thankfully it was made of alloy—if it had been glass, Meiqiu might have been injured.
He placed the trophy on the TV cabinet.
Lin Yan didn’t scold Meiqiu. He was just relieved that Meiqiu hadn’t been hurt.
Then he went into the kitchen.
Before long, a fragrant aroma drifted out of the kitchen, slowly filling the entire apartment.
Lu Heng’s stomach was instantly triggered by the smell and began to growl loudly.
But Lu Heng swore he absolutely would not eat a single bite of Lin Yan’s food—he was afraid he’d be dragged off to repay some kind of debt.
It wasn’t like he was so desperate that he couldn’t find anything to eat.
After all, he still had options. If worst came to worst, he could always eat the cat food he disliked and treat it like compressed rations just to fill his stomach.
Who would’ve thought that the flag he raised so firmly one second would be slapped down the next.
When Lin Yan came out carrying the plates, Lu Heng felt his feet move forward on their own. He had never run that quickly in his life.
As he drew closer to the smell, he leapt onto the table in a single bound.
Lin Yan hadn’t cooked at home in a long time. Tonight was originally meant to be for Meiqiu, but he went ahead and made himself a single serving too.
They used the same ingredients.
The only difference was the preparation—human food had oil and seasoning, while the cat’s portion was simply boiled in plain water.
Lin Yan went to get the chopsticks. When he turned around, he saw Meiqiu already eating the meal he had prepared for it.
The little cat was genuinely honest.
Watching Meiqiu devour the food with eager gulps, Lin Yan immediately felt a sense of accomplishment.
He then decided that he would cook for Meiqiu every day from now on.
After all the tossing and turning that night, Lin Yan felt exhausted.
He had originally planned to work overtime, but after thinking it over, he decided to rest first and continue tomorrow.
Only with good sleep could he be in the right state of mind to work properly the next day.
After mentally reassuring himself, Lin Yan collapsed onto the bed and soon fell asleep.
Meiqiu saw everything.
He’s already this tired after just cooking me one meal?
Lu Heng had originally wanted to remind Lin Yan to hurry up and finish the project so he could submit it and get his bonus.
Now this was great—another few days of delay.
Sigh.
Lu Heng was on edge. After eating one of his meals today, he had no idea whether Lin Yan would send him back to the cat café tomorrow.
Forget it.
Suddenly, Lu Heng remembered something—he seemed to have smashed Lin Yan’s car model.
Thinking about that, Lu Heng couldn’t fall asleep anymore. In the end, he climbed under the bed and rummaged through the box to pull out his spare phone, searching for the model Lin Yan had bought.
Unlocking the phone with a cat paw and fingerprint recognition was fast enough, but typing was truly exhausting.
Next time he turned back into a human, he would definitely enlarge the keyboard.
After struggling for quite a while, Lu Heng finally found the exact model Lin Yan had purchased.
The bad news was—it was already discontinued.
And it was a model from several years ago.
There was no way to buy it anymore.
Maybe he could use a 3D printer instead.
Lin Yan slept hazily, but he vaguely felt something at the foot of the bed, like a mouse. Propping himself up, he dragged his body forward, braced himself with one hand, and looked down.
There was a faint glow under the bed.
Lin Yan took one look— and it instantly went pitch black.