Chapter 5 – Turning into a Cat
Lin Yan was woken by the alarm. He rolled over, reached out, and turned it off.
At the same time, his hand brushed against something fluffy.
Half-opening his eyes, he saw a small silver bundle curled up beside him.
Sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains and fell on the silver kitten, making its fur shine brilliantly. The kitten was woken by the sudden hand reaching toward it.
It lazily yawned, sticking out its tongue and licking the corner of its mouth.
Its upright pupils looked at Lin Yan in a daze.
Lin Yan opened his eyes and yawned as well.
A series of app notifications popped up on his phone. He glanced at them — the canned food he bought for Meiqiu would be delivered today. He could pick it up after work.
Meiqiu snuggled against the side of the bed. When Lin Yan lifted the blanket, Meiqiu was forced to jump down.
After washing up, Lin Yan filled Meiqiu’s bowl with food and topped off the water. He had noticed that Meiqiu barely drank during the day and only drank a little at night.
Usually, the amount of food and water was the same when he came home as when he left in the morning, but Lin Yan still checked them out of habit before going to work.
After all, he couldn’t come home at noon.
He slung his bag over his shoulder and felt something inside. It was the collar he had picked up earlier — he had almost forgotten about it.
When he took it out and glanced at Meiqiu, sure enough, the collar was no longer around Meiqiu’s neck. Maybe he really had taken it off yesterday.
He had accidentally brought it out of the house.
He fastened the collar back around Meiqiu’s neck.
“Meow.”
After saying goodbye to the kitten, the office worker headed out to work.
…
Lu Heng yawned nonstop — another day of insufficient sleep.
The secretary handed him a cup of coffee.
After delivering the coffee, the secretary reported on recent work as usual.
“In fifteen minutes, there’s an online meeting in the conference room. The board members are already waiting.”
Lu Heng propped one leg up and rubbed his temples.
“Mm, got it.”
The secretary was about to leave when Lu Heng stopped him.
“What’s the budget for the Haicheng project?”
“Two million.”
Two million should have been more than enough to complete that project. Every project in the company had a designated manager responsible for allocating the funds — money was meant to be spent where it was needed.
Once a project was divided up, each department would receive an appropriate amount of funds to use.
So how could they possibly be short even for one module?
As soon as Lu Heng had sat down, he had flipped through the project proposal on his desk. It clearly recorded the budget allocation: the technical department’s funds were transferred to the department’s account in three installments.
The last installment had not yet been released.
Lu Heng closed the proposal.
“Add another one hundred thousand to the technical department’s budget.”
“Understood,” the secretary replied.
“Don’t transfer it to the department account. Tell the project lead to come to you directly for the funds.” Lu Heng took a sip of coffee. His stomach churned uncomfortably. “Also, open the necessary permissions for Lin Yan’s account.”
“Alright.” The secretary glanced at Lu Heng’s clothes.
Following his gaze, Lu Heng looked down —there was another tuft of fur on him.
The secretary added, “There’s a package for you at the front desk. I’ll bring it up shortly.”
“Mm.”
After the secretary left, Lu Heng picked up the biscuits beside him and chewed a few bites. The discomfort in his stomach was forcibly suppressed. He straightened his collar, brushed the fur off his clothes, and stood up to head to the conference room.
…
Zhao Ming took the project proposal to the finance department.
“Brother Zhao, what wind blew you here today?” Finance director Yang Yao glanced at him.
“Director Yang, when is this payment going to be approved? The budget isn’t enough — the project’s moving way too slowly.”
Yang Yao lowered his eyes, skimmed the proposal, then closed it and continued with his own work.
“This has already been sent to the CEO’s secretary for approval.”
“Why does it need Secretary He’s approval?”
“President Lu’s decision.”
Zhao Ming was shut down and returned to his department.
As soon as he entered the office, he saw Secretary He standing by Lin Yan’s desk.
He glanced over and went straight into his own office.
He put one hand on his hip, tugged at his tie, and slowly exhaled.
“Secretary He.” Lin Yan was about to stand up.
He Lingchen was Lu Heng’s secretary. Though young, he was a graduate of a prestigious university, with both undergraduate and master’s degrees. He had originally worked at the overseas branch, and when Lu Heng was transferred to headquarters, he brought He Lingchen back with him.
He had followed Lu Heng for many years and knew his work and lifestyle habits inside out.
After hearing this, many ambitious people in the company tried to curry favor with Secretary He — Zhao Ming included.
Although He Lingchen had spent many years abroad, he saw these things clearly and never involved himself in them.
But with so many people approaching him, a single sentence from him was enough to end anyone’s improper ambitions:
“Focus on your own work and don’t entertain crooked thoughts. President Lu will naturally value you.”
Since Zhao Ming had never truly caught Lu Heng’s attention, he eventually stopped wasting energy on such matters.
As long as no one in his department outperformed him, he would remain the boss here.
At least, that’s what Zhao Ming believed.
“Engineer Lin, no need to stand. Please continue working.”
He Lingchen was carrying a cardboard box.
“I came to inform you about the project funds. The CEO has transferred the budget under my authority. If you need anything, just contact me directly.”
“That’s wonderful. Thank you, Secretary He. And thank President Lu for me.”
Lin Yan had been on the verge of collapse, staring at rows of code until he was dizzy. He had just closed his eyes to steady himself when Secretary He arrived with this great news.
“And one more thing — I’ve upgraded the permissions on your account. I’ve closed the old one, so just use your personal account from now on.”
Another piece of good news.
Lin Yan immediately broke into a wide smile, grabbing Secretary He’s hand and thanking him repeatedly, almost knocking over the box in He Lingchen’s arms.
“Hey— careful.”
He Lingchen noticed a tuft of fur on Lin Yan’s clothes — short, silver-gray fur. The color was especially eye-catching against Lin Yan’s black T-shirt.
Why did it look exactly like the fur on President Lu’s suit?
Maybe they kept the same breed of cat.
After obtaining both the permissions and the budget, Lin Yan sped up his work. In no time, he had nearly completed everything required for the project.
This was always Lin Yan’s working style: he preferred to combine all the elements first, generate a rough framework, and then refine it in detail later.
This habit relied heavily on algorithms and data.
Once he had the general structure done, Lin Yan leaned back in his chair, satisfied as he looked at the dataset he had generated, and sent it to Zhao Ming for review.
Their company had this rule: even if you were the project lead, you still had to send the files to your department director first. Only after the director’s approval could the documents be forwarded to Secretary He’s email.
Lin Yan was just about to take a break.
Then his phone suddenly rang.
“Hello?”
“May I ask if you are Mr. Lin Yan?”
“Yes, speaking.”
“One of your packages was delivered to our shop by mistake. Do you have time to come and pick it up?”
“Is it far?”
“Not at all. Our shop is in the building next to your company — the cat café on the second floor. Would you be able to come over and get it?”
“Sure.”
Lin Yan checked the time. It was exactly lunchtime. He got up and headed out.
“Hey, let’s go eat at the cafeteria,” Yang Yang called out.
“You guys go first. I need to pick up a package across the street.”
When Lin Yan arrived at the cat café and explained the situation, the staff went inside to retrieve the package.
“Sorry about that. We restock this canned food often, so the delivery guy is used to bringing it straight here,” the clerk explained apologetically.
“It’s fine. It’s not your fault,” Lin Yan said with a smile.
Lin Yan had visited this cat café before. Back then, he would only peek in through the door. He had really wanted to adopt a cat at the time, but never had the chance.
Now that he was here again, he looked around at the cats inside. Maybe it was the “new parent filter,” but he felt that none of them looked as good as Meiqiu.
There were three employees in the shop. When Lin Yan came in, two of them were frowning in worry.
“What should we do? One of the cats is missing.”
“Was it the silver one?”
“I thought it was the white one.”
After confirming his information, Lin Yan took his package, thanked them, and left, humming to himself.
Not long after, he went to the food street on the other side of the company and bought a jianbing. Before he had taken more than a few bites, Zhao Ming sent him a message.
Director Zhao: [The file.]
Director Zhao: [Xiao Lin did a good job, but some parts need improvement. Keep revising.]
Director Zhao: [Please modify according to the annotations.]
After those consecutive messages, even the jianbing in Lin Yan’s mouth no longer tasted good. He quickly finished a few bites and hurried back to the office to continue revising.
…
Lu Heng had just finished an extremely long meeting — nearly eight hours — and was on the verge of hypoglycemia.
Suddenly, he found himself missing that can of cat food.
His stomach was growling, and the directors on the other side of the screen were still arguing endlessly over the same issue. Lu Heng finally lost his patience.
“Enough.”
The moment he spoke, everyone on the other end fell silent.
Lu Heng propped his head with one hand and looked at the people on the screen. The company’s restructuring and development were not trivial matters, and they certainly couldn’t be decided in a single meeting.
“This issue still needs further discussion. Everyone, get back to work.”
His fingers moved as he prepared to end the meeting. Most of the participants had already logged off.
One video window, however, still hadn’t closed. Lu Heng raised his eyes and looked.
“Son, how are you doing?”
An elegant face filled the screen. Her hair was neatly tied up, clean and graceful, her presence refined and dignified.
Her brows and eyes resembled Lu Heng’s. Though there was a hint of sharpness, it appeared far gentler on her face than on his.
“Mom.” Lu Heng straightened up.
“These old geezers…” Ding Yue shook her head.
After Lu Heng’s father passed away, the company had been handed over to him. By then, Lu Heng had already spent many years managing the overseas branch, while his father mainly oversaw the domestic headquarters.
The headquarters couldn’t go a single day without a leader, so after handling his father’s funeral arrangements, Lu Heng immediately returned to take charge.
His mother remained abroad to manage the foreign branches on his behalf.
“I’m fine, Mom.”
Lu Heng had always been quiet since childhood — he never spoke more than necessary, only what mattered.
Ding Yue was used to her son’s reserved personality, but a mother always worried about her child. Even while separated by oceans, she would often ask Secretary He about Lu Heng’s condition.
Recently, after checking in with Secretary He, she was surprised to hear that Lu Heng had started keeping a cat. This sudden change made the old mother extremely pleased.
With an animal’s companionship, maybe her son’s personality would soften a little. And if it softened, then perhaps a daughter-in-law wouldn’t be so far off.
For some reason, Ding Yue firmly believed the two were connected.
“Alright, I’ll be returning to the country in a few days. I’ve prepared lots of things for you.”
“Okay. Which day?” Lu Heng asked. He needed to plan ahead — just in case his mother happened to see him turn into a cat.
“The exact date isn’t set yet. We’ll talk when I’m back. I can only stay for a few days — I mainly want to see you.”
“Mm.”
Lu Heng’s silence was something Ding Yue had long grown used to. For a long time, she couldn’t understand how someone as outgoing and cheerful as herself had given birth to such a taciturn son.
After the meeting ended, Lu Heng returned to his office, exhausted.
A box of reheated food had already been placed on his desk. In order to maintain basic bodily function, Lu Heng forced himself to finish the meal.
Beside it was the package that Secretary He had brought in.
After eating, Lu Heng opened the package. There was no sender information on it — only his address.
When he saw what was inside, cold sweat immediately broke out across his back. His vision went black, and he braced himself against the desk.
Then nausea surged violently.
He flung his arm, and the contents of the box scattered across the floor.
In the next instant, Lu Heng’s body began to change rapidly.
Once again, he became a small cat.