The security guard looked puzzled at the slightly impatient woman before him. “This is a private area. No outsiders are allowed. Besides, didn’t you see the notice posted downstairs saying non-staff are not permitted on the connecting bridge?”
For the convenience of construction, the connecting bridge had been used as a passageway. These girls had probably gone onto the bridge just as the security team was arriving to close off the entrance.
The woman said, “We’re not outsiders.” She turned to look at Lin Anyuan.
Lin Anyuan now had no choice but to step forward. “Mr. Liang asked me to come.”
The security guard scratched his head. “Alright, I’ll go check with Mr. Liang. He’s inside right now!”
While the guard went to inform Liang Jianshi, the socialites began to voice their indignation on Lin Anyuan’s behalf.
“What kind of person is this? So clueless. Someone as considerate as Mr. Liang would never make a mistake like this.”
“They’re just hired hands who don’t do their jobs.”
Amid the chatter, someone came down.
It was Liang Jianshi’s assistant.
Assistant Wu appeared outwardly cheerful as he came to greet them, but inwardly, he was still reeling from the earlier sourness.
“Oh, Miss Lin, you’ve come for the last batch of flowers, right? Please follow me.”
Lin Anyuan was a bit taken aback. “Where is Brother Jianshi?”
Assistant Wu led the way, heading back toward Building C. “The chairman is occupied with important matters and can’t come out at the moment. Unless… Miss Lin has something else?”
Lin Anyuan hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.
The last conversation had been unpleasant; she had actually come hoping to mend things with Liang Jianshi. But under the current circumstances, it was hard to bring up.
Assistant Wu took Lin Anyuan and her group of puzzled friends to the flower storage area. Staff arrived promptly to help load the flowers into Lin Anyuan’s car.
While helping Lin Anyuan select flowers, Assistant Wu chatted casually. “These peonies are top quality. It’s a shame cats can get poisoned just by smelling peonies, so they can’t be placed in the terrace amusement park.”
Upon hearing this, everyone understood.
The E building terrace that Liang Jianshi had spent a fortune renovating wasn’t for Lin Anyuan; it was for his cat. Since cats couldn’t be around flowers, when Lin Anyuan had asked for them, Liang Jianshi had simply said yes.
One of the friends was stunned. “Then Mr. Liang’s cat is way too lucky!”
Assistant Wu quietly pulled out his phone and showed them the panoramic view of the amusement park he had just uploaded to the “Empty Cat” account. “Don’t spread this around. The chairman would kill me.”
Everyone crowded around, marveling at the cat’s wonderful life, nearly forgetting the mortified Lin Anyuan.
One of her friends finally noticed and tried to comfort her. “This must all be a misunderstanding.”
Lin Anyuan forced a faint smile, but inside, she was wrung tight.
There was a misunderstanding.
The E building terrace was Lin Anyuan’s favorite spot; everyone knew that. So when Liang Jianshi began renovating it, everyone assumed it was a gift for her.
Lin Anyuan had secretly thought so too. When she had come to test the waters, she had seen vibrant peonies being moved out and had expressed her fondness, asking for the flowers.
At the time, she had thought to herself: if Liang Jianshi gave them to her, perhaps there was still some affection for her after all. She had given him so much over the years; maybe she had finally melted that stubborn stone?
Then Liang Jianshi’s assistant had informed her that she could have the flowers.
Lin Anyuan had happily taken them home.
She had taken it as a sign, growing more confident about the E building terrace.
She just hadn’t connected the terrace with the peonies.
She just hadn’t realized that peonies were toxic to cats.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
After Assistant Wu left, the employees moving the peonies began whispering among themselves.
“I think Assistant Wu said that specifically for Miss Lin’s benefit.”
“Of course. Miss Lin is really overstepping. Mr. Liang is a devoted man; there’s no way he would give her a garden. Why can’t a proper lady like her just leave Mr. Liang alone…”
“Ahhh, but I really wish I could become that cat. Too lucky!”
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
White snow filled the sky.
Qilan was curled up in a treehouse in the amusement park.
The house had a fairy-tale forest witch theme. A crystal ball on the small wooden table reflected warm candlelight, spinning star-like patterns on the wooden walls. The small, enclosed space made the cat feel safe and secure.
Qilan lay across the soft checkered sofa, taking it all in, her emotions churning inside.
She couldn’t calm down.
Her pounding heart told her that some feelings were like a flood, shaking the walls she had built around herself.
Carrying a heart full of layered sweetness, Qilan closed her eyes, waiting for Liang Jianshi to come carry her back to bed, as he had promised before leaving. She wouldn’t budge an inch.
Soon, she drifted into a dream, full of him, so real she could almost smell him.
It was the scent of some kind of wood, elegant with a hint of sweetness. The first time Qilan had smelled it, she had loved it. There seemed to be some special molecule in it that could drift straight into her soul, giving her a sense of solidity and peace she had rarely known.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
When she woke in the morning, Qilan the cat was carried to the amusement park by Assistant Wu. She happily played “hamster obstacle course” all morning, occasionally popping out at an intersection to find a piece of popcorn.
When she finished exploring the first route and emerged from the big toy, feeling a bit unsatisfied, Assistant Wu was gone. In his place stood Hu Lu.
She didn’t know how long Hu Lu had been waiting for her. She had been standing outside, watching the little cat without moving, standing in high heels as if her feet never hurt.
When the cat came out, Hu Lu found a brush at the cat’s grooming station and skillfully brushed her fur. Qilan had just spotted an adorable little frog costume when Hu Lu turned around and took it down for her.
She hadn’t noticed before, but Hu Lu was surprisingly in sync with her.
After she was dressed, Hu Lu took a photo of her, then set the cat on her lap to show her the result.
“Very cute.”
“meow.” “Of course.”
“I might be leaving the hotel.”
Hu Lu said this suddenly.
Qilan was surprised but couldn’t show it. She lowered her head and played with her paws.
Not expecting a cat to understand, Hu Lu continued.
“I’m completely disappointed in this hotel. I’ve worked here long enough to have feelings for it, but my best friend never came back. What’s the point? I’ve been holding on to the memories we shared. But the hotel’s prospects are fading. I can’t see a way forward, and I can’t hold onto what I’ve built.”
Qilan didn’t understand what Hu Lu was saying at all, let alone why a low-level employee would express such grand sentiments, rambling on like a leader.
Qilan didn’t want to be her sounding board anymore. She was about to jump down when Hu Lu crouched in front of her.
She took the cat’s two front paws in her hands, looked at them for a long time, gently rubbing the little pads with her thumbs. Her voice turned bitter. “You’re Liang Jianshi’s only emotional support now. Don’t run away again. Stay with him until the end, okay?”
Qilan didn’t understand the meaning of her words. Hu Lu was worrying too much. But the look in her eyes was different from Lin Anyuan’s, more like sympathy.
After speaking, Hu Lu stared at Qilan’s paws, her gaze drifting into her own thoughts.
After a moment, she stood up, detached, and walked away without looking back.
Her figure had an indescribable desolation.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
From then on, Qilan couldn’t stop thinking about Hu Lu. When she returned to human form, she mentioned Hu Lu to Tong Tong, who had just come back.
“Hu Lu is leaving?” Tong Tong was briefly surprised by the news, but quickly seemed to understand. “The hotel general manager is really terrible. Maybe she felt she had no future here. Staff turnover is high anyway; people leave when they see no prospects. It’s nothing unusual.”
Qilan watched Tong Tong, who was looking down and sewing a button. “Are you the same?”
Tong Tong: “What?”
Qilan: “Thinking the general manager is terrible.”
Qilan noticed that Tong Tong’s expression when she said that wasn’t as casual as her words suggested.
Tong Tong suddenly laughed. “Yeah, I think so too.”
She admitted it without hesitation.
Qilan actually agreed that some of the hotel’s leaders were terrible. She could tell from her own firing that the general manager was the kind of heartless dog who deceived superiors and bullied subordinates, only caring about appearances, flattering celebrities while screwing over his own employees.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
These days, the weather in Yicheng was said to be beautiful, but Qilan couldn’t tell. Whether she was human or a cat, the places she lived were completely sealed off.
Her dorm was at the end of a remote hallway with no windows. Liang Jianshi’s suite, perched in the clouds, also had its curtains drawn tight. Qilan had never understood why he did that from the start, and she still didn’t.
Waking in the darkness, the cat began searching everywhere for Liang Jianshi.
She wandered through the amusement park’s maze until she was dizzy. When she finally got out, Liang Jianshi was nowhere to be found in the living room.
She couldn’t help feeling a bit dejected.
With a soft “click”, a door to the right opened. Liang Jianshi stepped out.
Qilan’s mood instantly brightened. Her blue cat eyes curved with joy. She huffed and puffed, dashing over with sparks flying, and leaped onto him.
Liang Jianshi, barely having seen the figure in front of him, instinctively reached out and caught his now eighteen-pound beauty.
Qilan’s paws hooked onto Liang Jianshi’s chest, her big tail swaying side to side, her eyes unable to hide her delight.
Cats could smile. When they did, they’d curve their mouths into an arc, showing two tiny, sharp teeth, their eyes squinting into slits. Even the coldest iceberg would melt.
Liang Jianshi had never seen the cat show him such an adorable expression. He held her out in front of him to look a little longer, then, very satisfied, rubbed her chin. The cat let out a crisp mew, nuzzled her head against his neck, gazed at him with shining eyes, and wagged her tail even more happily.
Hidden inside her cat shell, Qilan unabashedly admired Liang Jianshi’s handsome features.
He was good-looking, that was a fact, but now Qilan found him more and more attractive every time she looked at him.
Before, when Liang Jianshi walked while holding her, Qilan would bury her head in his shoulder in fear. Now, her gaze was glued to his face, not moving an inch.
Besides Liang Jianshi, nothing in the world could hold her attention.
When Liang Jianshi worked, Qilan sprawled on the desk watching him. When he went to get water, Qilan followed and looked up at him. When he read on the sofa, Qilan lay on his lap, belly up, carefully tracing his features… wherever Liang Jianshi went, the cat followed.
Whenever Liang Jianshi looked down, he would meet her eyes.
How could he keep reading under such circumstances? He put his book down, laughing helplessly. “Don’t you recognize me anymore? You keep staring at me like that.”
He lifted her head with his large hand, stroking from her forehead to her chin. The cat hooked her paws in front of her, rolling back and forth on his lap. As he petted her, she rubbed her face against his warm palm, as if acting coy.
“meow~” Her meow even curled at the end.
“I’m looking at you because you’re handsome!”
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
When Dr. Lu came for his regular house call, Qilan, who used to be independent, couldn’t stay still in his hands and kept chasing after Liang Jianshi. It was heartbreaking for Dr. Lu.
“It’s over. I’ve lost the cat’s affection.”
Liang Jianshi turned around and picked up Qilan, who had run up to him again. “What?”
Qilan, perched on his shoulder like a little child, looked back curiously at Dr. Lu.
Dr. Lu adjusted his imaginary glasses. “What I mean is, you’ve succeeded in making your cat fall in love with you.”
Caught off guard by this sudden revelation, Qilan’s heart skipped a beat. She panicked.
“It’s just like with humans. When you like someone, you want to follow them, cling to them, look at them, be near them, smell their scent, and hear their voice. When you interact with them, every part of you comes alive. It’s the same with cats. Look at Lanlan, she keeps following you…”
Qilan meowed frantically, trying to stop Dr. Lu from continuing, or to get Liang Jianshi to leave before he heard any more.
Finally, unable to control the situation, she decided to jump down and find a hole to bury herself in.
She was about to spring from his arms when Liang Jianshi held her back.
He lowered his head, his deep eyes fixed on Qilan.
“So, is he right?” A smile played in his eyes, his voice tickling her heart. “Miss, have you fallen for me?”
At that moment, Qilan’s brain crashed.
Without thinking, her little pink tongue darted out and licked the tip of his nose.
Both the human and the cat froze.
Dr. Lu: “Damn!”
“I was the fool all along!”
Qilan, whose mouth had just been a little dry, so she licked it, somehow ending up licking Liang Jianshi’s nose instead: “Ahhhhh! I don’t know what to do!”