Qilan simply couldn’t accept it. On the outside, she was a kitten, but her soul was that of a young woman! Although it was debatable who would be losing out if Liang Jianshi planned to sleep holding her, Qilan still couldn’t get past that mental hurdle.
Her lake-blue eyes darted back and forth. Her little cat brain was a mess. Liang Jianshi was in the shower right now. Once he came out and caught her, she’d have no choice but to go along with it!
Qilan came up with a simple plan: find a place to hide for the night, then come out after he gave up and went to bed.
Her cat’s body was extremely small. She wobbled as she walked and got tired after just a few steps. And Liang Jianshi’s presidential suite was enormous; it took up an entire floor, with countless functional areas and rooms. For her tiny cat body, traversing the place could only be described as a “long journey.”
Qilan had planned to just find any room to hide in, but to her surprise, all the doors were locked. The sound of water from the bathroom stopped abruptly. Liang Jianshi was about to come out.
She spun around in a panic and banged her head against a door. Rubbing her head, she opened her eyes and saw that the door had opened.
Finally, she had found an unlocked dark room. Overjoyed, she slipped inside.
The unlit bedroom was pitch black. Cats had decent night vision, but because she was so low to the ground, she could barely make out that this was probably a storage room.
Crouching inside a sliding-door cabinet, Qilan began to think.
She remembered fainting on the roadside from low blood sugar. Now that she had turned into a cat, did that mean her human self was dead?
If she wasn’t dead, what had happened to her human body?
With a soft “click”, the room light turned on. The sudden brightness left the cat momentarily blinded.
Instinctively, she raised a paw to shield her eyes. At the same time the sliding door opened, she heard Liang Jianshi’s voice.
“How did you get in here?”
He gently moved her paw away from her eyes.
Caught red-handed, Qilan felt a bit embarrassed. She didn’t know how to explain, so she simply didn’t. With the mindset of “I’m a cat now, what’s the harm in being a little willful,” she decided to dodge the issue and hope to get away with it. When Liang Jianshi lifted her left front paw, she covered her eyes with her right one. After a couple of attempts, she lost interest, let out a sulky mew, and turned her head to face the wall.
Then it hit her, she was a cat now. She didn’t need to explain anything. All she had to do was tilt her head and look at the human blankly, pretending she had no idea what was going on, right?
Her movements were a little too clever, and Liang Jianshi let out a few low chuckles. He reached out, scooped her into his arms, and stood up. The sudden lift startled the cat so much that she clung to the man’s arm with all four paws.
“Round one of hide-and-seek is over. Being a brat won’t help you.” Liang Jianshi scratched the kitten’s soft chin. Qilan bit him. Her lake-blue eyes were full of embarrassment and anger, clearly saying: “You big pervert, how dare you flirt with me!”
Liang Jianshi’s hand bore the imprint of her bite, but he didn’t even frown. As if handling a fragile object, he placed Qilan on a stack of cardboard boxes nearby.
“Hide-and-seek can continue. Go hide first, and I’ll come find you later.”
Qilan was furious. She narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
“Who’s playing hide-and-seek with you? You flirt with me and then chase me away? I haven’t even settled the score for the chin scratch yet… Hey, hey, hey? Why are you taking off your clothes!”
Qilan watched helplessly as Liang Jianshi pulled off his T-shirt, completely stunned. Her internal complaints were blown away by the wind.
The dark room she had thought was a storage room was actually Liang Jianshi’s walk-in closet. In hindsight, it made sense; aside from his usual bedroom, study, living room, and this closet, all the other rooms were locked. He had turned a massive suite into a three-bedroom apartment. If she hadn’t been working here for less than half a day and didn’t know all of Liang Jianshi’s quirks, she wouldn’t have walked right into this trap!
“No looking at things you shouldn’t, no looking at things you shouldn’t.” Qilan lowered her head, not knowing where to put her eyes.
Her furry cat face couldn’t show a blush, but the tips of her ears were burning hot.
Perhaps because she kept her head down, Liang Jianshi noticed something was off. He stopped searching for clothes and lifted her cat face with two fingers, pressing her cheek with his thumb and examining her from side to side.
She had no idea what Liang Jianshi was thinking, but Qilan’s brain had already turned to mush.
“This is a crime! Liang Jianshi is forcing me to look!”
“It’s not like I wanted to see how fair his skin is, how many abs he has, how broad his shoulders are, how slim his waist is…”
Liang Jianshi’s eyes narrowed slightly as he murmured to himself in confusion, “Little one, why are your pupils so small?”
Qilan: !!!
“I’m a girl! Watch your words!”
Using human physiology as a reference, Liang Jianshi thought that when humans were frightened, their pupils contracted; the same should apply to cats. This little kitten’s eyes had shrunk to pinpricks, so she must be scared.
With that thought, Liang Jianshi gave a helpless smile and stroked the cat’s head a couple of times. “I’m just changing into a short-sleeved shirt. Don’t act as if you’ve never seen the world.”
Qilan stretched her cat’s neck forward, giving him a confused look.
“Huh? She hadn’t seen the world?”
Fine.
Since she was a cat anyway, why should she care?
She decided to just go for it. She picked the best viewing spot, neatly tucked her front paws together, sat up straight, and unabashedly admired his physique.
When Liang Jianshi turned to look at her, Qilan tilted her head in feigned innocence, “I’m just a little kitten. I don’t understand anything.”
“The bolder you are, the more you get.” When Liang Jianshi picked her up, Qilan shamelessly touched his chest with her front paw.
Wow!
Being a cat was great.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Maybe it was because she had been a stray for too long, but in such a comfortable environment, Qilan felt more tired than usual. After Liang Jianshi changed his clothes, he didn’t go straight to bed; he received documents from his secretary and busied himself at his desk.
Qilan stared at the ant-like English text and was successfully hypnotized.
At some point, she felt someone touching her, but the touch was soothing. She relaxed and enjoyed it. Something stirred in her consciousness; her paws seemed to be kneading uncontrollably.
Because the kitten was too small to bathe properly, and she had been a stray with bacteria, Liang Jianshi used wet wipes from the pet hospital to clean her.
When he wiped her pink paw pads, he couldn’t resist giving them a squeeze. Then the kitten seemed to flip a switch and started kneading on him.
At first, Liang Jianshi was startled. But this was a cat he had taken in, so he let her do as she pleased.
In the dead of night, on the soft bed, Liang Jianshi lay flat on his back, staring blankly at the ceiling. The weightless kitten was sprawled on its stomach. His cotton shirt was pushed up slightly, and the kitten kneaded and nibbled at his abs, leaving behind reddish marks.
He probably never imagined that before he could bond with the cat, the cat would bond with him first.
Having finally gotten a proper meal, Qilan was blissful. Even in her dreams, she was feasting until she woke up with a dry mouth.
Outside, it was already light. Sunbeams streamed into the room. Right in front of Qilan was Liang Jianshi’s sleeping face. His chin was right before her eyes, wet and glistening, and her little pink tongue was still half-hanging out. That explained why she was so thirsty.
If she had to guess, the ice cream she had been licking in her dream was actually Liang Jianshi’s chin.
But what puzzled her even more was, had Liang Jianshi really let her lick him all night?
Qilan shifted, rolling to the side to think. The tiny movement woke Liang Jianshi.
His eyes were still heavy with sleep as they met the cat’s round ones. “Thirsty?”
Qilan’s mouth opened slightly. How did he know?
Liang Jianshi was a man of action. Seeing no response, he got up and left. He soon returned with a syringe filled with water.
Qilan was dumbfounded.
It was just water. Was all this fuss really necessary? Couldn’t she just learn to lap it up herself?
Even so, when Liang Jianshi held the back of her head and let cool water trickle into her mouth, and all she had to do was move her mouth to get what she needed, she figured, why did she need so much independence as a little kitten? If Liang Jianshi insisted on making her a spoiled, pampered cat who only had to open her mouth for food and drink, that wasn’t such a bad thing.
After Qilan finished drinking, Liang Jianshi started his morning routine. Qilan yawned and followed him inside, curious about what the richest man’s morning preparations looked like.
Her soft fur accidentally brushed against his ankle. While brushing his teeth, Liang Jianshi freed up one hand, bent down, and brought the palm-sized cat up in front of him. Looking at the mirror, the cat in the reflection had adorable eyes, her head tilted as she unabashedly watched him. Liang Jianshi’s eyes curved into a smile, and he quietly smiled back at the cat. A beautiful morning had begun.
Qilan licked her paw. Liang Jianshi always looked so impeccably dressed outside; she had assumed he had a professional team fussing over him every morning. But it turned out his mornings were simple. He handled everything himself; he even did his own hair.
Coming out of the bathroom, he walked over to a shelf. The man’s shoulder was exactly level with one of the compartments, and Qilan hopped over.
Liang Jianshi flipped through a book in his hand and glanced at Qilan with amusement. “Playing antique cat on the shelf today? Not watching me change anymore?”
Qilan’s pupils shrank again.
“Does this guy know what he’s saying?!”
Was he provoking her?
Then she wouldn’t hold back.
She let out a fierce little mew at Liang Jianshi’s retreating figure. Liang Jianshi came back, looking at her helplessly. “You climbed up there yourself.”
“Mew!” “It’s because you’re so tall.”
“You’re too small. You don’t have the skills of a big cat. If I weren’t here, who would save you?”
After giving Qilan this earnest lecture, he scooped her up with practiced ease and placed her on his shoulder. Instinctively, Qilan wrapped her little paws around his neck.
Unlike yesterday, she didn’t struggle. From this prime viewing spot, she shamelessly enjoyed the view. So what if she was a perverted cat? What bad intentions could a cat have?
She didn’t just look, she even touched!
People were the kind of creatures who, once they took the first step, found it hard to stop.
Feeling a tickle on his abdomen, Liang Jianshi paused and glanced at her.
Qilan lifted her head: “meow,” “You go ahead and change; I’ll do my touching. No problem.”
Liang Jianshi buttoned the last button of his shirt, but the cat’s paw was still fiddling with the fabric at his waist. He caught the mischievous paw.
“For the sake of fairness, shouldn’t I get to experience it too?”
His low, slow tone made her cat ears twitch. Liang Jianshi’s eyes drew close, gazing at Qilan as his thumb gently squeezed her paw pad. A jolt shot up to her crown. Qilan’s brain instantly short-circuited.
Liang Jianshi… was he thinking about petting her?!