Chapter 20 – Persuasion to Stay
Meiqiu froze in place, not daring to move.
A kitten’s paws might not be good at typing on a keyboard, but pressing the lock button on a phone was no problem at all.
If he hadn’t felt the movement of the bed, he might have been startled by Lin Yan’s lowered head.
Thankfully, he had noticed in time.
In any case, Lu Heng stopped fiddling with the phone and didn’t dare put it back into the box either—he was afraid of making noise and waking Lin Yan.
Lu Heng jumped out from under the bed and hopped onto Lin Yan’s bed, drawn by the light streaming in through the window.
The light slipped through a gap in the curtain, landed on the wall, then quietly crept onto Lin Yan’s face.
A bright spot of light fell on him.
Lin Yan found it dazzling. Lazily, he turned his head slightly, and the light slid into the hollow of his neck.
The passing light wobbled and staggered.
It caught Lu Heng’s attention. He took a few little hops over to Lin Yan’s neck and carefully studied the patch of light, his mouth twitching from time to time.
Lu Heng himself didn’t understand why he was so fascinated by the light—he simply followed it by instinct.
Tilting his head, he stared at it.
Lin Yan felt soft fur brushing against his cheek. It tickled, and he sluggishly opened his eyes.
Meiqiu’s adorable, fluffy face was right in front of him.
He reached out and pulled Meiqiu into his arms, holding him firmly against his chest.
Lu Heng: Hey—what are you doing?
A gentle breeze stirred the curtain, closing the gap. The light was shut out.
Lu Heng could no longer see the little spot of light, and he couldn’t move either—Lin Yan was holding him tightly.
At this moment, only a blanket separated him from Lin Yan. The warmth of Lin Yan’s body seeped through the thin fabric to him.
His little paws began stepping restlessly against Lin Yan’s chest through the blanket.
That sense of safety made Lu Heng want, for a brief moment, to move even closer.
He wriggled his head and gently rubbed against Lin Yan’s chest, then settled down in his arms.
The small creature in Lin Yan’s embrace flopped down against him. His heart warmed, and he held him a bit tighter.
Still not satisfied, Lin Yan opened the blanket and tucked the kitten inside.
Before, there had at least been a blanket between them—now Meiqiu was pressed directly against Lin Yan’s skin.
Lin Yan’s chest rose and fell evenly. Lu Heng didn’t look at him; he turned his head and gazed at the ceiling.
Lu Heng could feel Lin Yan’s heartbeat—though his own was even faster.
This time, there was no dizziness, no grogginess from just waking up.
Only then did Lu Heng realize that his racing heart was not from the side effects of the medicine.
…
Lin Yan dragged his exhausted body to his workstation.
He didn’t know why, but the moment he arrived, a wave of fatigue washed over him.
Clearly, he had kissed Meiqiu several times that morning, recharged his energy, and gone to work full of vitality.
Who would have thought that the instant he stepped into the office, it would feel as if his soul had been sucked out? He slumped into his chair and kept yawning nonstop.
All he wanted was to go home, hold Meiqiu, and fall back asleep for another round.
That dream coming true was a bit difficult. Lin Yan and the others didn’t even have weekends—every day was just a straight line between work and home.
“Morning, Brother Yan” Chen Xin said as he sat down at his desk. “Did you finish that project?”
“I’ll tweak it a bit more today and it should be done,” Lin Yan replied lazily. He raised his hand, turned on the computer, and logged into WeChat.
He noticed a new friend request.
The note said: Hu Xiaoyue.
He fell into a dilemma—should he accept it or not?
In the end, Lin Yan accepted. Basic courtesy still had to be maintained. At worst, he would just explain things clearly to Hu Xiaoyue.
He didn’t want to waste such a good girl’s time.
“Brother Yan, your clothes are covered in fur,” Chen Xin said, lifting his hand and patting Lin Yan’s back.
Lin Yan turned around. The front of his clothes had small clumps of fur as well. He gave his jacket a half-hearted shake.
But the fur was really stuck on there. After shaking for a long time, it was still there.
“Do long-haired cats really shed this badly?”
“We lose hair too—let alone a cat,” Chen Xin said, pulling out a lint roller from his drawer and handing it to him.
Just as Lin Yan was about to start cleaning, Sun Ning walked over.
“Lin Yan, I sent you a file earlier. Take care of it.”
“I don’t have time,” Lin Yan replied calmly, tugging at his clothes.
“This was assigned by Director Zhao. Go tell him yourself,” Sun Ning said, tossing that line over his shoulder as he walked away.
Lin Yan dropped the lint roller. The fur wasn’t gone, and now he felt irritated.
The moment Zhao Ming was mentioned, an inexplicable anger rose in his chest. Lin Yan had no idea what that man actually did—he didn’t even understand Lin Yan’s field, yet he kept giving blind instructions.
That was why the work kept getting delayed. Otherwise, it would have been finished long ago.
Wang Hao noticed Lin Yan’s mood. He called over Yang Yang and grabbed Lin Yan.
“Come on, let’s go make some coffee.”
“I already had some this morning.”
Wang Hao insisted, pushing him along.
“Come on. Can anyone get through a workday without three or four cups?”
Lin Yan didn’t resist and followed Wang Hao and Yang Yang to the break room.
Once they reached the hallway, the two finally revealed their true intentions.
“Brother Yan, hurry up—tell us what happened after the blind date.”
Lin Yan knew it. There was no way they had dragged him out just because he was in a bad mood.
They wanted gossip.
Lin Yan wasn’t someone who liked talking about these things, so he only gave a simple summary and mentioned that the girl had added him on WeChat that morning.
“So, did you accept the friend request?” Wang Hao asked, slinging an arm around Lin Yan’s shoulder and leaning in.
Yang Yang asked the same question from the other side.
“I did.”
“Then why do you keep saying you’re not interested?”
“I can’t embarrass a girl. She was the one who added me, after all.”
“Got any photos?” Yang Yang asked.
Lin Yan shook his head.
In the break room, Lu Heng walked over to the coffee machine, intending to make himself a cup of coffee. He had finished handling the paperwork in the office and signed several documents, but an uneasy restlessness lingered in his chest. He couldn’t sit still and wanted to get up and walk around.
When he arrived, two employees were in the break room, laughing and chatting about some gossip. The moment Lu Heng stepped in, both of them fell silent.
The two who had been talking animatedly lost their smiles at once. They looked at Lu Heng and stiffly greeted him, “President Lu.”
Lu Heng nodded, found a cup, and began working on his coffee, his eyes fixed on the dark liquid being extracted from the machine.
After that brief greeting, the two employees quickly slipped away under his watch.
“President Lu suddenly appearing in the break room is terrifying,” one of the employees whispered as they left.
The break room was at the end of the hallway, so they had quite a walk back to their office. One of them kept glancing back.
“President Lu is really serious… but honestly, he’s so handsome. If I weren’t a little afraid of him, I’d probably stare at him for a while longer.”
Once they were gone, only Lu Heng remained.
The coffee machine let out a soft ding. Lu Heng continued his motions, but his eyes drifted toward the milk on the counter.
These past few mornings, he had noticed that before leaving, Lin Yan would brew himself a cup of coffee at home, add half a bottle of milk, stir it, and then drink it.
Lu Heng had always drunk his coffee black. He liked things in their original form—once something was mixed with other flavors, it was no longer itself.
But after a moment of thought, he decided he might as well try that flavor too.
He picked up the milk, poured some into the coffee he had just brewed, and stirred it a few times with a spoon.
He raised the cup and took a sip.
The richness of the coffee blended into the smoothness of the milk, and the sensation on his tongue reached straight to his heart.
With that one small, unusual attempt, Lu Heng discovered a new experience.
He walked over to the glass window. His reflection appeared on the surface, the earlier exhaustion already faded, a faint smile forming at the corner of his lips.
He lowered his gaze. Below the building, cars passed one after another. Lu Heng watched them absentmindedly, his thoughts drifting far away.
After turning into a cat, Lu Heng’s reactions and thinking ability had both slowed. Only now did he realize—belatedly—that Lin Yan had taken him to the cat café yesterday because he intended to return him.
But he… didn’t have an owner at all.
What if Lin Yan really tried to give him back?
Just then, the sound of male voices rising and falling outside the break room reached Lu Heng’s ears. It was a voice he knew well—the voice that woke him up every morning.
Lu Heng turned his head.
Lin Yan walked in with two or three others.
Seeing the boss standing there, all of them froze. Wang Hao quickly lowered the arm he had been draping over Lin Yan’s shoulder.
There was nothing inappropriate about it, but with the boss staring at them, Wang Hao couldn’t help feeling that Lu Heng’s gaze was fixed on his hand, so he awkwardly pulled it away.
“President Lu.”
They all greeted him in unison.
Lu Heng nodded as usual. Then he lowered his head, raised the cup, and drank the last sip of coffee.
He placed the cup on the quartz countertop with a crisp sound and wiped the corner of his mouth with a tissue.
After straightening his clothes, he left the break room.
Back in his office, Lu Heng called for Secretary He.
“President Lu, you were looking for me?”
Lu Heng gave a quiet hum, continued working on the documents for a moment, then looked up, his gaze resting on the corner of the desk.
“Has the Haicheng project been completed?”
“Not yet, President Lu,” Secretary He replied. “The department directors haven’t submitted their final reports.”
Lu Heng thought for a moment.
“Have Lin Yan come to my office.”
A few minutes later, Lin Yan arrived at the door. He let out a breath and knocked firmly.
“Come in.”
After receiving the response, Lin Yan pushed the door open and stepped inside.
This was his first time in the CEO’s office.
He had never set foot in this place before.
It was also the first time Lin Yan had seen President Lu at work. Normally, President Lu only called the department directors to meetings and had them relay instructions afterward.
Lin Yan didn’t know why the CEO had summoned him alone. He felt a little nervous, lightly pinching the corner of his clothes.
“President Lu, you wanted to see me?”
Lin Yan’s voice sounded different from usual. Lu Heng knew exactly how it was different.
When Lin Yan called him baby, his voice sounded as if it were coated in honeyed fruit—sweet enough to kill.
That just-now “President Lu” carried no warmth at all, pushing the distance between them even farther.
Lu Heng’s lowered eyelashes lifted slightly. He didn’t look at Lin Yan. His thin lips moved.
“How is the project progressing?”
Lin Yan answered honestly. Judging by how concerned President Lu seemed about this project—calling him in personally to ask about it—it looked like he would be working overtime today.
Lu Heng raised his eyes and looked at Lin Yan, then noticed several cat hairs sticking up on his clothes. He couldn’t help asking, “Do you have a cat?”
“Ah… yes.”
Lin Yan had thought President Lu called him in for something important. That question left him confused.
After a moment’s thought, he wondered if the boss was just trying to build rapport with employees…
to shorten the distance between them.
But then he felt that wasn’t right either. With President Lu’s strict, rule-obsessed personality, who would care whether he kept a cat?
Could it be that the boss thought the cat was affecting his work?
“I found it downstairs. Lately… I’ve been trying to contact its owner,” Lin Yan explained, a little awkwardly.
Lu Heng interrupted him.
“If you like it, keep it.”
“…Ah.”
That answer made Lin Yan feel his earlier explanation had been completely unnecessary.
Lu Heng raised his head and saw Lin Yan nod heavily. Then he added, “Don’t misunderstand. I just don’t want my employees to be distracted by other matters.”
Author’s Note:
Lu Heng: Why is my wife so cold in real life?
Lin Yan when calling Meiqiu: “Baby.”
Lin Yan when facing Lu Heng, standing properly: “President Lu.”