Panda Plush Toy
The man was overwhelmingly domineering, not giving the ghost in front of him the slightest chance to react.
Crushed by an intense spiritual pressure, it could only tremble as it turned around and shakily offered the fruit basket with both hands.
Thinking back to how he’d taken advantage of the man’s failure to recognize him and shamelessly caused all kinds of trouble, Lu Congxing was now so terrified he didn’t dare move a muscle. He disguised himself as a lifelike panda plush toy.
But his gently rising and falling belly gave everything away.
Even He Zhouyan was briefly surprised when he lifted the cloth covering the fruit basket. He reached out and gently poked the fur. “Is this… a panda cub?”
A ghost bringing along a national treasure panda cub?
It instantly reminded him of the time he’d picked up that fox cub.
The scene was nearly identical.
If a fox cub showing up in a residential neighborhood was still somewhat plausible, then finding a panda cub in a hospital was just blatantly suspicious.
Adding that to all the strange animal-related incidents before, He Zhouyan began to have a faint suspicion.
Absurd and bold.
Yet enough to send adrenaline surging.
He Zhouyan slowly picked up the panda cub that was obediently still like a plushie and gently touched its tiny black ears.
Lu Congxing stayed limp and soft in his arms, letting him flip and poke him as he pleased.
The man, however, couldn’t resist making a teasing remark: “Very cute. I bet the kid at home will love it.”
Who “the kid” was, went without saying.
With a serious expression on his panda face, Lu Congxing quietly wondered when exactly he’d given He Zhouyan the impression that he liked stuffed animals.
But his little white tail had already perked up nervously without him noticing, completely exposing him to that beast-like gaze.
Feeling the soft, furry ball in his arms suddenly go stiff, He Zhouyan could barely maintain his gentlemanly facade.
His pupils had already narrowed into excited slits, a hint of icy-blue flashing through.
He still remembered the first time he’d been “bumped into”—it was by a puppy. Back then, he thought it had just wandered off. And every animal that “accidentally” crossed his path after that never stayed long.
He had never considered another possibility.
Yingying had, at some point, already fled in fear, leaving behind only this poor, pitiful, helpless panda cub to face the consequences.
The divine beast Bai Ze had a legendary skill recorded in ancient texts—the ability to hear the voices of all living things. But the passive skill was far too noisy, and he’d sealed it away long ago. Though now and then, he still unintentionally picked up a few snippets from animals—usually just simple thoughts.
Like “hungry” or “sleepy”—nothing as complex as human thinking.
But this was the first time He Zhouyan ever felt tempted to unseal that ability.
Completely unaware he was one breath away from blowing his cover, Lu Congxing was still desperately keeping up the fragile illusion of being a plushie. He blinked twice slowly, reasoning to himself that since pandas had dark eye circles, open or closed eyes probably looked the same anyway.
After shifting from human to cub form, his reaction was slightly dulled by the unstable period, so Lu Congxing didn’t notice that the man holding him had shifted from frantic worry to a slow, calculated calm—like a venomous snake coiling around its chosen prey, flicking its tongue to measure exactly where to strike.
To avoid alerting the other person, He Zhouyan’s hands didn’t tremble at all as he held the cub, even though his head felt like it was being stabbed with needles.
A corner of the seal in his mind had been unlocked by his spiritual energy.
Noises poured in endlessly.
This was a hospital, and the thoughts of the people inside surged like a tide, magnified to an unbearable degree.
Despairing, crying, resentful, greedy, grateful—every emotion slipped into his mind without filter.
For a moment, He Zhouyan’s killing intent flared up, but it suddenly stopped when he heard a crisp, exasperated sigh. All his agitation dissolved into a surge of joy and excitement.
It felt like sweet rain after a long drought.
The sigh didn’t stop. It turned into a grumble.
Complaining about how clumsy the man’s way of holding someone was.
He Zhouyan: …silently adjusted his posture to make it more comfortable.
The youthful voice, full of vitality, drowned out all the external noise.
He embraced the source of his sweet rain tightly.
The man’s intense gaze landed on Lu Congxing, as though it had weight and pressed against him.
Lu Congxing couldn’t help but want to flick his ears—was He Zhouyan secretly obsessed with fluffy things? He’d never shown it before.
He Zhouyan, who was being silently roasted in the boy’s thoughts, couldn’t resist reaching out to tug at the cub’s round, black ears.
Ow! I’ll bite you to death!
The sharp voice rang out in his mind, but the real-life panda cub remained still in his arms.
If anything, it had gone even softer thanks to the adjusted position.
It was like a freshly steamed black-and-white dumpling.
Lu Congxing had no idea that all his inner thoughts were being overheard. He just vaguely sensed the man’s arms tightening with barely suppressed strength.
The chest pressed against him vibrated slightly with muffled laughter.
He seems… really happy. Could something furry really make him that happy?
Lu Congxing felt like he had accidentally discovered a hidden, unspoken little kink of his guardian.
So all that cold, ascetic vibe before was just an act?
He Zhouyan, completely misunderstood, was in no rush to explain. He called for the driver and gently placed the panda cub beside him.
In a great mood, he kept stroking the incredibly soft fur from time to time.
From the rearview mirror, the driver, Xiao Li, glanced at the scene and couldn’t help but ask, “President He, is this a gift for your little brother?”
He regretted it the moment he spoke. In his three years as He Zhouyan’s driver and assistant, this was the first time he’d dared to pry into his boss’s personal life.
Ever since He Zhouyan brought Lu Congxing to the office for a tour, the entire industry knew that President He had a little brother he treasured deeply.
Many business partners who had no way to win He Zhouyan’s favor tried to get information about the boy from Xiao Li. Though he’d never said a word, his curiosity was greater than anyone’s.
Prepared to be scolded, Xiao Li was surprised by a soft chuckle instead.
The man in the back seat smiled with a slight curve to his lips, tapping the cub’s little black ear. “It’s a gift.”
A little gift that had thrown itself into his arms.
Xiao Li was shocked but seized the chance to keep chatting. “This plush toy looks way too realistic. If I didn’t know pandas are protected to the point of prison time, I’d think this one was real!”
Ah, the power of money. This had to be some kind of handcrafted luxury plush. He could only admire it.
He Zhouyan shifted his hand down and pinched the cub’s soft paw pad. With a completely serious expression, he said, “Mm, it really does feel real.”
Each time he squeezed it, the boy’s gritted-teeth curses echoed in his mind—and He Zhouyan found endless amusement in it.
Once they got home, he placed the cub on the most prominent spot on the table.
Like a hunter who had found the prey’s weakness, slowly luring him step by step into a carefully laid trap.
He Zhouyan took out his phone and, putting on an act, sent a few messages to the boy urging him to come home. The angle was just right—placed on the table so that the little panda cub could see the chat screen as soon as he looked up.
As expected, the boy’s voice soon rang out, tinged with guilt.
He Zhouyan, looking as calm as ever, walked into the kitchen and began cooking with the ingredients he took from the fridge.
The sound of chopping and cooking soon drifted from the kitchen to the dining table.
Lu Congxing nudged the phone on the table a couple of times, stealing glances at the man in the kitchen—glance, nudge, glance, nudge.
Finally, as if trying to fool himself, he used his round little body to completely cover the phone.
Ever since he turned into a panda cub, all his spiritual energy had vanished. He couldn’t even access anything in his Qiankun space, so he had no choice but to borrow He Zhouyan’s phone to log into his account.
If he were his normal self, Lu Congxing would’ve realized right away that his cover was blown. But with his IQ now matching that of a naive baby panda, he still thought he was being totally sneaky.
He sent a few messages to He Zhouyan, then, while the man wasn’t looking, kicked the phone back to its original spot.
Pleased with himself, he gave his fluffy white tail a triumphant wag.
Despite all the commotion, the man in the kitchen remained unbothered, focusing on cooking with great care.
When He Zhouyan came out carrying the dishes, Lu Congxing almost lifted his head at the smell of the food. Fortunately, he remembered just in time that he was supposed to be pretending to be a plush toy, so he stayed perfectly still.
Though in his heart, he was silently and pitifully complaining:
That beef smells so good…
A flicker of amusement passed through He Zhouyan’s eyes as he casually pushed the plate of stir-fried beef in his direction.
Listening to the cub’s crisp, childlike inner monologue, He Zhouyan felt like a tiny paw was softly scratching at his heart.
As soon as he picked up his phone, he saw several new messages:
[I’ll be back late tonight.]
[Don’t wait for me.]
[Don’t worry.]
He glanced at the obedient “plush toy” on the table and slowly lowered his gaze.
“What a shame… all this food gone to waste.”
He gently stroked the little panda on the table. “And what a shame about you, too.”
That cryptic remark almost made Lu Congxing bristle on the spot.
He’d absorbed enough of Bai Ze’s spiritual energy, and he could return to his human form at any time with the remaining spiritual energy. He planned to find an opportunity to sneak away—just like last time—transform back, and return in human form. Whether the man grew suspicious or not was no longer within his scope of concern.
Unfortunately, it seemed like He Zhouyan was determined to go against him today—even insisting on dragging him into the bathroom for a shower.
Lu Congxing was completely dumbfounded. In that moment, he truly felt like a mute, unresponsive, clueless doll.
As the white mist slowly rose before his eyes, it felt like his mind was fogging up too—growing hazy and tinged with something ambiguous and suggestive.
But He Zhouyan wasn’t done yet. He turned on the bathroom’s exhaust fan, and the mist cleared away by half, revealing the contours of the man’s muscles outlined sharply beneath his wet, clinging clothes.
Startled, Lu Congxing forgot all about pretending to be a doll. He instinctively lifted his little paws to cover his eyes—only to peek through his fingers and see the man lift his wrist to unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt.
Steam slid from his jaw down to his collarbone, and everything began to unfold naturally from there—the entire row of buttons undone, exposing clearly defined abs.
Click.
The sound of a belt buckle being unfastened echoed clearly in the bathroom, where only the sound of running water remained.