Chapter 27 – Stirring of the Heart
Lin Yan went home to look for the collar. When he arrived, he saw that the door to his bedroom was open.
“Meiqiu?” Had that little guy learned how to open doors by himself again?
When there’s a solution from above, there’s always a Meiqiu below with the learning ability to get into university.
Now he could even open a door that had been locked. This cat’s intelligence absolutely could not be underestimated.
Meiqiu was nowhere to be seen inside the room. Lin Yan called out again, “Meiqiu.”
No response. What awaited him was an empty, silent room.
Actually, Lin Yan understood — it was a cat’s nature. They liked freedom and disliked being restrained.
This time he wasn’t as anxious as before, but he was still worried.
Maybe while he was out, Meiqiu had gotten bored and gone outside to play. Perhaps he had picked up that collar while fooling around and put it on himself.
But how could Meiqiu have managed to put that collar on by himself?
Or had someone else put it on him?
Holding the collar, Lin Yan decided to go out and look for Meiqiu. Maybe he would run into him downstairs in the residential area.
After leaving his apartment, he glanced at the elevator — one was already on the fifteenth floor, and the others were even higher. Not wanting to wait, he took the stairs down.
Just as he stepped out of the building lobby, he almost ran straight into President Lu.
Well… this was great. A direct collision, and Lu Heng had already seen him. He could only brace himself and greet him.
“President Lu.”
At this hour, President Lu was here.
So… did President Lu also live here?
No wonder the figure he saw on the security footage last time looked so much like him — maybe it really was him.
Lu Heng nodded. He had been in a hurry when he came over, rushing so fast that he was slightly out of breath. But the moment he saw Lin Yan, he forced his breathing under control and slowly regained his composure.
“You live here?” Lu Heng asked, even though he already knew the answer. His voice still carried a faint trace of breathlessness, which he tried hard to suppress.
“Yes.” Lin Yan forced a small smile.
Running into your big boss where you live felt just as awkward as bumping into your homeroom teacher outside school — it made you wish you could crawl into a hole and disappear.
“President Lu, do you live here too?”
Lu Heng responded with a short “Mm,” then continued, “What are you heading out to do?”
The question was a little abrupt, but he wanted to know whether Lin Yan had discovered that the kitten was missing after returning home. More importantly, he needed to know whether Lin Yan had gone to see his mother.
The collar was still around his own neck — he hadn’t taken it off in time after arriving at Lin Yan’s place, which was why all of this had happened.
“I’m returning this collar to someone.” Lin Yan held up the collar in his hand, then added, “My cat somehow went outside and picked it up and put it on himself. Now he’s run off again, and I have no idea where he is.”
From Lin Yan’s words, Lu Heng picked up on two key pieces of information:
first, Lin Yan already knew that Meiqiu was not at home;
second, he still had not gone to see his mother.
And from Lin Yan’s tone, Lu Heng could tell that Lin Yan did not seem as anxious about Meiqiu’s disappearance as before.
So what exactly was he feeling nervous about?
Was he nervous that Lin Yan wouldn’t be able to find him?
“Oh. Go on, then. Get to what you need to do.”
After saying that, Lu Heng left.
Deep down, he still hoped that Lin Yan would worry about him, that he would be as anxious as before.
A faint sense of loss settled in his heart. He stood in the lobby for a long time without moving. The property management desk was staffed by two young women, and both of them were staring at Lu Heng as if looking away for even a second would be a terrible loss.
The gloom inside him had not yet dispersed, and he didn’t know how to shake it off. Ignoring the eyes on him, he turned his head to look at Lin Yan.
And strangely, the heaviness in his heart vanished.
He saw Lin Yan squatting down, head lowered, even lying flat on the ground to peer into the grass, while softly calling out,
“Meiqiu… come home already. Don’t keep playing outside.”
That cold, empty place in his heart slowly began to warm again.
He had to admit something — this wasn’t simply a pet recognizing its owner.
He had truly come to depend on this person.
As this uncontrollable thought surfaced, the corners of his lips were drawn upward without him realizing it. He could feel a certain warmth in his chest growing steadily, dangerously close to burning hot.
Lu Heng smiled.
When he turned his head, he noticed the two girls from the property office staring at him.
His sudden glance made them flustered. They immediately turned away — one looking at the ceiling, the other pretending to be busy with something.
Then he left, heading toward a corner with no people and no security cameras.
After he was gone, the two girls suppressed their excitement.
“Did he just smile at me?”
“He was obviously smiling at me.”
…
“Xiao He, what are you busy with?”
He Lingchen was focused on the report in his hands and didn’t even realize someone had come to stand beside him.
At this hour — lunch time — almost no one ever came to the CEO’s office area. That was why he often handled paperwork here at this time: it was quiet and no one disturbed him.
So he never expected anyone to come looking for him now.
When he finally looked up and saw a face that closely resembled President Lu’s, he immediately realized who it was.
“Madam,” He Lingchen stood up at once to greet her. “You’re here.”
Ding Yue glanced around the office suite.
Inside was Lu Heng’s private office. He had replaced the original glass partitions with solid walls, completely isolating himself from the outside.
Leaving Secretary He outside to deal with everything for her, Ding Yue said, “Mhm. I just want to take a look at Lu Heng’s usual work environment.”
“President Lu, he—”
Before he could finish, he was interrupted.
“I’m here to see someone else. Just stopping by to look at where he works.”
With that, Ding Yue pushed the door open and entered the office.
Secretary He, of course, had no reason to stop a mother from visiting her son’s workplace. After Madam Lu went inside, he closed the outer door and said, “Madam, I’ll be right outside. Call me if you need anything.”
Ding Yue carefully examined the office.
It was clean and orderly. The books on the shelves were lined up neatly, and the size of the books on each shelf was almost perfectly uniform.
She reached out and ran her hand along the wooden surface of the bookshelf. There wasn’t even a trace of dust.
She hadn’t expected her son to have maintained this habit so obsessively.
The room felt slightly smaller than before — as if a section had been partitioned off — but there was no visible door.
Her gaze swept the room. Without saying a word, she walked behind Lu Heng’s desk. Behind the chair stood an entire wall of walnut wood. Simple, unadorned, no excessive patterns — very much his style.
But as her eyes followed the wall, she noticed that the walnut panel on the far right had a grain different from the others.
Seen this way, the overall design lacked cohesion.
That didn’t match Lu Heng’s personality at all. For someone who pursued perfection, he would never tolerate such an imperfection in a place he stayed in every day.
Ding Yue walked over and touched the wall. She knocked on the panel, then knocked harder.
The reply was a hollow echo.
It was empty inside.
She pushed with more force.
Behind the concealed partition was a space filled entirely with cat supplies — a cat bed, bags of cat food, and stacks of canned cat food.
She could understand keeping a cat.
But deliberately partitioning off part of his workplace just to keep a cat… that wasn’t normal.
Unease quietly rose in her chest.
Lu Heng wouldn’t also… would he?
…
After searching while lying on the ground for five full minutes, Lin Yan finally found Meiqiu at the farthest spot from his building.
“Hey, you little rascal. Why did you run out here to play again?”
“Meow.”
Lin Yan carried Meiqiu back home.
When they passed through the lobby, the two girls at the front desk stared at the cat. It looked… strangely familiar.
Huh?
Wasn’t this the cat that had passed through here just five minutes ago — and now it had already been caught and brought back?
Lin Yan sat by the entrance, legs crossed, holding Meiqiu in place and forcing him to stay by his feet.
“Baby, could you stop running outside? It’s great that you always manage to come back, but what if one day you don’t?”
Meiqiu sat up straight, as if he were listening seriously to Lin Yan’s words. Then he tilted his head, looking as though he were carefully thinking them over.
“What if a bad person drags you away? Then I won’t be able to find you.”
After finishing his little lecture, Lin Yan went out to keep his appointment.