Chapter 488 - 487: IF Storyline: Did the Big Boss Vie for Favor Today? 56

Chapter 488: Chapter 487: IF Storyline: Did the Big Boss Vie for Favor Today? 56

It had been a few days since Shi Lan last visited the cat cafe. To thank her best friend for keeping an eye on things, she had specially queued up to buy her favorite coffee and afternoon tea desserts.

The cat cafe’s signature scent was as strong as ever. It was tolerable for humans—thanks to her best friend and the staff’s meticulous cleaning, the cat smell wasn’t too heavy. But for Mu Tangfeng, now a cat himself, he could smell a whole jumble of chaotic scents.

So much so that the moment Shi Lan let him out of the cat carrier, he immediately dove right back in, his eyes urging her to leave at once.

He hated this place.

Shi Lan didn’t look at him. She first turned her attention to another cat—a Golden British Shorthair. This was Fufu, one of Ping’an’s friends at the cafe, and a female.

Fufu walked over to Shi Lan affectionately. Shi Lan picked her up and gave her a gentle petting, then set her down, letting her go play with her good friend.

Fufu padded toward Ping’an. Mu Tangfeng watched the other cat approach—the same cat Shi Lan had just been so intimate with. Suppressing a strange, sour feeling in his heart, he brought a paw down directly on Fufu’s head and let out a long, drawn-out cry to drive her away.

’Scram, scram, scramscramscramscram...’

If Mu Tangfeng could talk, he’d be spouting a whole series of curses that would need to be bleeped out.

Fufu took the hit and let out a small, pitiful ’meow.’ She hesitated, her paw hovering in the air, but she didn’t stay upset for long. Still wanting to be close with her friend, she tried to rub up against Ping’an.

Hiding in the carrier was no use. Afraid she would follow him in, Mu Tangfeng quickly scrambled out through the opening and leaped straight into Shi Lan’s arms.

Shi Lan caught him in one smooth motion and stroked Ping’an’s head soothingly. Looking down at the utterly bewildered Fufu, she said softly, "It’s okay, Fufu. Ping’an’s just in a bad mood today. You two can play next time."

As she spoke, she also scratched Fufu’s chin. Fufu purred in comfort and rolled onto the ground, exposing her round little belly. Shi Lan couldn’t resist giving the soft tummy a rub.

Just as the human and cat were sharing this intimate moment, Mu Tangfeng placed a paw on her arm, his emerald-green eyes filled with indignant fury.

Chen Xinyi, who had just come over to get the coffee Shi Lan bought, saw the look on Ping’an’s face and suddenly burst out laughing. "Hey, Lanlan, Ping’an is jealous!"

"You’re a cat owner now. You need to be a little more considerate in front of Ping’an."

"Huh?"

Shi Lan stared blankly, her mouth agape. She reluctantly pulled her hand back and said to her best friend, "Alright, fine. Maybe he’s just in a bad mood today. He’s usually never like this at the cafe."

She couldn’t help but smile at that. She gently squeezed Ping’an’s fluffy black paw. "Be good, Ping’an. Mommy loves you the most."

Mu Tangfeng’s face grew hot, and he shyly pulled his paw back from her grasp.

’Seriously,’ he thought. ’This woman has no shame, always whispering sweet nothings to me, going on about ’love, love, love’ at the drop of a hat.’

’But she shouldn’t think she can capture my heart. I would never have fallen for her as a human, and it’s even more impossible now that I’m a cat.’

’There’s a line between humans and cats.’

Mu Tangfeng turned his head away haughtily, but he remained snuggled in her arms.

She carried a pleasant scent that happened to mask the other nauseating odors in the cat cafe. Besides, he was afraid that if he went back into the carrier, the other cat would just come after him again.

Shi Lan chatted with her friend at the cafe for a while, telling her about how Ping’an had run off earlier. While they talked, she went online and ordered a custom cat tag.

That way, if Ping’an ever ran off again, a kind person might be able to contact her. It would also show that he wasn’t a stray.

Speaking of strays, that brought to mind the event Yan Huoshui had started. She wondered when it would finally end.

Chen Xinyi shook her head in confusion. "I don’t get why Teacher Yan started this event, either. The first-place prize is three million, you know."

"I know, right?"

Shi Lan feigned confusion, then sighed after a moment. "I guess it did accomplish some good. A lot of stray cats found homes. Still, I wonder how many of the participants are genuine animal lovers. I just hope the number of strays doesn’t increase after this event is over."

Many people were just in it for the grand prize, driven by greed. Shi Lan could only hope that no abusers would try to force cats to perform the eye-rolling trick.

She was getting worried, but then her friend glanced at her phone and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, it looks like it’s over."

"They announced it ten minutes ago. First prize went to the contestant with the most fan support. It’s already trending."

Hearing this, Shi Lan took out her own phone to check.

Mu Tangfeng curiously craned his neck to see. He didn’t usually watch these kinds of videos; back then, he had been busy with cram school and preparing for college entrance exams, so he hadn’t paid any attention to what was being discussed online.

Shi Lan opened the video of the first-place winner. The cat in the video looked surprisingly similar to her Benefactor from before—it was also a white cat. Its eye-roll wasn’t very convincing, but its amber eyes and the cute way it squinted in pleasure when petted, its pupils tilting upwards, had made it very popular with fans.

In the comments, many people felt the win wasn’t entirely legitimate, but plenty of others were praising the cat’s cuteness, insisting the title was well-deserved.

In any case, the winner Yan Huoshui announced was this vlogger.

However, he also gave out 100-yuan participation awards to many contestants, even if their cats’ eye-rolls were completely off the mark. He had, at least, honored his promise.

Some people online even estimated that he had spent at least fifty million yuan on the event.

Many people didn’t understand what he was trying to achieve, but his follower count had swelled by over ten million. He was getting more endorsements and commanding higher fees. His agent, Zhang Chen, hadn’t understood either and had even tried to stop him at first. But seeing the results, he finally felt at ease.

From a long-term perspective, while he had spent a lot of money, his value as an artist had skyrocketed. He could earn much more, and now he had this massive online following. For a celebrity, it was a win no matter how you looked at it.

Moreover, the "little ancestor" had been surprisingly diligent lately, even writing a new song titled "Benefactor." Pre-orders alone had already brought in tens of millions. A figure like that made him arguably the most influential singer in the entire entertainment industry—or music world, for that matter—of the last five years.

Looking at the cat Yan Huoshui was now keeping at home, Zhang Chen felt the urge to bow to it three times a day.

’The master wasn’t lying. It really was a feline benefactor!’

Mu Tangfeng watched the video with Shi Lan for a bit and now understood that the event was about finding an "eye-rolling cat."

He immediately thought of his own cat, Onyx. His Onyx had been so smart. It used to roll its eyes at him all the time, whenever and wherever it wanted. When they first met, it had even cried at how ugly it was—that was the first time he had ever seen a cat weep.

’But Mu Tangfeng never expected that *this* was what won first place?’

’The eye-roll wasn’t even convincing. If it had been his old Onyx, it would have taken first place in a heartbeat.’

Mu Tangfeng had always assumed it was easy for cats to roll their eyes, but looking at this first-place winner, he figured it probably wasn’t so simple after all.

’Besides, why was Yan Huoshui specifically looking for an eye-rolling *stray* cat?’

They both moved in elite circles. The Mu Family and the Yan Family weren’t close, and there was an age gap of over ten years between Mu Tangfeng and Yan Huoshui, but they had crossed paths before at a polo club.

Back then, Yan Huoshui had been teaching a lesson to a few arrogant upstarts who had provoked him. He had utterly crushed them in a game of polo, leaving them wailing for their mothers and fathers.

Mu Tangfeng was only a few years old at the time. His mother, afraid he would be led astray by such a scene, had the butler quickly take him to another section of the club.

In short, Mu Tangfeng had never really interacted with Yan Huoshui, but he didn’t strike him as the kind of person who had the time or inclination for such idle pursuits.

Thinking about what had happened to Onyx, he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

’If a human like me could end up in a cat’s body,’ he mused, ’couldn’t the soul of the Cat Demon that was in Onyx have ended up in another cat’s body, too?’