Chapter 10 – Meow Still Has To Learn To Grow Up

“Ai.” Bai Youlian rubbed Lin Jiabao’s head and said, “If there is anything you don’t want to do, just bravely say that you don’t want to do it.”

When Ouyang Chen heard this, he found it hard to express any sort of disagreement.

After a long time, it was easy for others to notice that Lin Jiabao didn’t reject people, especially those who looked stronger. He was too afraid to do so.

This was his character’s flaw, it could also be related to his family background.

The system was just a bunch of code, it couldn’t possibly teach all the human values to Lin Jiabao perfectly. Lin Jiabao only understood half of what Bai Youlian said but he didn’t know how to say no and when to say it. He didn’t have a clue. He could only go home and wait to ask his mummy.

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Today was Friday so the time they were permitted from school was earlier than the other days. The number of customers at the cafe would be a lot too and Song Jie would return to the cafe later than usual. The store only had Lin Lan, who couldn’t escape from the work. Lin Jiabao hurried to the store and glanced at the empty seat by the French windows.

Didn’t know why but he felt a little disappointed.

As it was almost the weekend, customers who came at night were a guarantee and Lin Jiabao was busy till night. Going home alone was dangerous; therefore, 1028 would usually wait in front of the store and walk home with Lin Jiabao. 

It had dressed as a cat waiter and its outfit made the little girls scream ‘cute’. If it wasn’t against the cafe’s rules, 1028 probably would have become an internet celebrity.

Initially, Lin Jiabao wanted to consult 1028 about his problems, but he was too busy to do so. He could only sigh and continue to be busy.

“Ding dong——”

The bell that was hung on the front door rang. Ouyang Feng looked around the place and walked to the front desk. Lin Lan was too busy keeping accounts that she didn’t even look up.

“Welcome.”

Ouyang Feng raised his eyebrow. “Your business isn’t bad?” 

Lin Lan’s pen stopped and realised that the person before her was an old friend. “Is your company going bankrupt? How do you have so much free time to come here everyday?”

“Whether it’s going bankrupt or not, ask your brother and you’ll know.” Ouyang Feng turned around and was ready to walk to his usual seat by the window. “Oh yes, a blue mountain1.”

“Tsk.” Lin Lan stopped Lin Jiabao who was still making coffee and said, “One blue mountain, Baobao. Bring it to that young master over there.”

Lin Jiabao realised that the seat by the french window wasn’t empty anymore and couldn’t stop a smile from blooming on his face.

Suddenly, 1028 stepped on Lin Jiabao’s foot and asked, ‘Smiling so happily, is that person the understanding big brother you spoke about?’

“Yup, mummy!”

‘Heh…’ 1028 scoffed and asked exasperatedly, ‘Do you know who he is?’

“Yi?”

‘The male lead, didn’t you see him last time when you were eating?!’

“Ai, ai, ai???”

Lin Jiabao – as if his tail was stepped on – lost concentration and nearly spilled the coffee. He quickly pulled himself together and went to serve the coffee to the customer before coming back to prepare the rest.

“Really? I felt that they looked really alike but I also felt that it wasn’t really possible.”

1028 sighed, ‘What can your cat brain remember? Later when you go to pass him the coffee, I’ll go and meet him.’

Lin Jiabao got the coffee ready with trembling hands and took a deep breath before passing the coffee over to Ouyang Feng. He asked, “Brother, do you want to hold a kitty today? I’ll carry one over for you.”

“You go and do your thing. Just carry any one over.”

Success, Lin Jiabao used his eyes to signal 1028 that it could go over.

1028 jumped onto the table, stretching and laying down by Ouyang Feng’s arm. Ouyang Feng didn’t care what cat laid near him, he was too focused on the document in his hand and occasionally reached out to stroke the cat. However, Ouyang Feng’s technique of stroking cats was slightly better and so 1028 didn’t find it comfortable. It changed its position, getting a better view of the documents in Ouyang Feng’s hand.

The document was in a foreign language. The system could understand what it said but it was useless. It was just a cat, not some undercover spy from another company.

Ever since 1028 jumped to the male lead’s side, Lin Jiabao’s heart started racing. His main concern was about his mummy. Will the halo-wearing2 male lead find something off about his mummy? He should go over in a while to check on them.

Suddenly, Ouyang Feng put his papers down and beckoned Lin Jiabao to come with his hand. Lin Jiabao came over, still holding plates in his hands and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Is this cat being raised by you?”

“Yi, yi.”

The mouths of Lin Jiabao and 1028 were left wide open, wondering how Ouyang Feng knew?

Ouyang Feng pinched Lin Jiabao’s face and said, “I won’t eat your home’s cat. What are you so worried about?”

Okay, maybe his thoughts were too obvious and he was caught. _(:3_|)_

At dinner time, the cafe didn’t allow outside food so the number of people who came in were less but there were still people who came in to stroke the cats. Ouyang Feng answered a phone call and rubbed his temple before excusing himself to go outside. The seat was reserved as he would come back later. Lin Jiabao agreed obediently before having his face pinched by Ouyang Feng again.

The cafe was so busy until now; Lin Jiabao and Lin Lan could finally take a little break to eat some bread. After they finished the bread, they still needed to tend to customers. Only around dinner time did Song Jie come back with supper.

“I’m so sorry, you had to work until so late today.” Lin Lan added two more slices of ham to Lin Jiabao’s bread.

Lin Jiabao took over the ham sandwich and shook his head. “It’s fine, there are no classes tomorrow.”

“I’ll go to the back to get some water, this bread is a little dry.”

He ate half the bread before the man sitting at a table behind him screamed, “Ah, you damn cat!!”

Lin Jiabao hurriedly put the bread down and ran there, only to see a man holding his left arm, with an obvious scratch wound on it. The man, in a fit of rage, wanted to toss the cat away but was quickly stopped by Lin Jiabao. Lin Jiabao took the cat into his embrace. This made the man feel even more upset and he pushed Lin Jiabao.

Lin Jiabao being pushed wasn’t important but his head was going to knock into the corner of the table!!

1028 puffed up and shouted, ‘Meow!!!’

Lin Jiabao shut his eyes tightly and hugged the cat in his embrace. The pain didn’t come even after a while but instead he fell into a warm embrace.

“It’s alright.”

“Meow?”

Lin Jiabao weakly opened his eyes and realised that the person behind him was Ouyang Feng, who just returned. Ouyang Feng’s expression looked extremely ugly. He held Lin Jiabao and looked him over. When he checked that he wasn’t injured, he relaxed.

“Did you not know that harming people with evil intentions can get you behind the bars for a few years? I can put you in jail for your whole life.”

The man was frightened by Ouyang Feng’s words but he didn’t want to give up. He was merely a paper tiger3. “You… You people are letting out cats to bite people, is that okay?”

At this moment, Lin Jiabao suddenly opened his mouth and shouted, “That’s, that’s not right!”

Everyone turned to look at him and he resisted the urge to shrink into Ouyang Feng’s embrace. He hugged the cat in his arms and said, “You first pulled on Tangerine’s tongue and when Tangerine wanted to walk away, you stepped on Tangerine’s tail. Tangerine obviously didn’t want to pay attention to you but you went to pull it back. When it finally couldn’t take it, it wanted to bite you to scare you. In the end, you stepped on his tail again and so he bit you!”

When Lin Jiabao was embracing the cat, Tangerine had told him what had happened. This made Lin Jiabao feel both afraid and angry, he wanted to turn back into his original cat form to scratch the man up so badly.