When lunch break came, I finally took a break from my busy schedule after half a day of year-end planning. I leaned forward on the table and clicked on my second favorite game for slacking, Spider Solitaire.
The good thing about this game was that you never get tired of playing it, and the process was short. When the boss pushes the door and comes in, you can close the window immediately. So even if the game was interrupted, it doesn’t make people feel distressed.
The game was comparable to my first favorite must-kill time mobile game “Anipop.”
I was in the middle of a fierce battle with the red heart card when Li Xiaoming opened the door and walked in. He held a pink gift box in his arms which was about half an arm’s length high, and a platinum ribbon draped over the back of his pale hands. It was trembling constantly as he walked.
I faintly heard the sound of a heavy object rolling in the box.
Li Xiaoming, my roommate, colleague, and a recognized office sweetheart— I know that the word sweetheart wasn’t appropriate for a man, but Li Xiaoming’s face was really too alluring.
Li Xiaoming was quite beautiful, beautiful almost to the point of being androgynous. He didn’t have a beard. If it weren’t for his flat chest and distinct muscles on his arms, I would’ve suspected that my cohabitant was a tall and robust girl.
What’s rare was that his beauty wasn’t aggressive by nature, so it was difficult to attract jealousy. Li Xiaoming usually got along well with others, whether male or female. My colleagues including me liked him very much.
When Li Xiaoming went downstairs to pick up the courier, he took all of his colleagues on the way.
As soon as he entered the door, I saw him holding a gift box and four or five couriers stacked on the gift box. He dashed to my desk without a red face or panting.
A colleague saw the pink gift box in his hand and joked, “Xiao Ming, another suitor came to give gifts?”
After all, Li Xiaoming receives more gifts every day than I do in a year, so everyone wasn’t surprised.
Li Xiaoming replied, “Not this time. When I went down to pick up the courier just now, I happened to meet Gan Yao on the way. He said he wanted to give Cheng–ge a surprise, so he stuffed this to me.”
“I don’t know what’s in it but it’s been rolling the whole time, it’s unruly.”
Surprise? Where did Gan Yao get the kindness to give me a gift ah?
I had doubts in my heart. As soon as I was about to open it, I heard a delicate cry.
The sound was separated by the barrier of the cardboard box. When it reached my ears, there was only a slight vibration. I subconsciously attributed the sound to an auditory hallucination.
Sure enough, your ears don’t work well as you age.
Although Gao Yan was fooling around all day and never regarded me as an elder, he wouldn’t send pets to the company to play tricks on me. I seriously think that in any case, the office also expressly prohibits pets from entering—
“Meow wu!—”
A clearer cry came out. This time, there was no way it was an auditory hallucination. My colleagues turned their heads to look at the box in my arms because of the sound.
F*ck, it can’t be a… Cat, right…?
I immediately withdrew my hand from opening the gift box, trying to find clues in the vent at the top of the box.
Li Xiaoming and a few colleagues crowded to my desk with interest. One of them said, “Wow, is it a kitten? I have ham sausage here, you can feed it.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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I pried open a gap in the lid of the box, and a soft pink nose arched out along the gap. The furry little head looked out curiously and fearfully.
What a cute kitten!
Damn, who doesn’t like cats?
Everyone tacitly ignored the rule of no pets allowed in the office.
When I listened to the lively discussions among my colleagues, I felt a little flustered.
I don’t hate small animals but now was not the time and place to open the box. When I thought of Ning Yiheng’s gloomy face, I dare not open the gift box in front of me.
It’s all due to my unreasonable boss—
As I was thinking about it, the office suddenly became quiet and the colleagues around me darted back to their stations. Only I was still holding the gift box in a daze.
When I raised my head and met Ning Yiheng’s gaze, my thoughts about the cat in the box finally came to an abrupt end.
Ning Yiheng is my boss.
Ning Yiheng didn’t make a sound when he walked. It was late when I noticed it. I didn’t even have the impression of him walking over.
Ning Yiheng folded his arms around his chest, glanced across the Spider Solitaire on my screen, and then looked at the incessant wriggling gift box in my arms.
It’s over.
I didn’t have time to close the game window at all— The cat was much more serious than slacking. I didn’t have time to think. I turned the cat’s head abruptly and quickly stuffed the kitten back into the box.
I hugged the gift box tightly, trying to suppress the movement in the gift box, but the kitten inside didn’t understand my painstaking effort. It kept hammering my chest through a layer of cardboard, meowing and meowing, while emitting an unnoticeable, pounding sound.
Li Xiaoming stopped by to deliver something. He cast a sympathetic look at me and greeted Ning Yiheng before running away. “Good afternoon, boss ah. I’ll go to the bathroom.”
Li Xiaoming had just put his hand on the doorknob when he spoke, and the next moment there was no shadow. Slipping away faster than lightning.
Ning Yiheng stared at me whose eyes were dodging because of guilt.
His eyes swept, there was no joy and anger in his words, “Is it your birthday?”
—Wasn’t boss’s focus, wrong ah?
But having said that, I just noticed that there was a delicate little card in the bow that was on the lid of the box with Gan Yao’s crooked dog-like handwriting on it: Happy birthday, Little Uncle!
Me: …
Today is December 24, and it has been six months since my birthday.
There are two ways in front of me: First, use the favorable condition by letting the boss solve the cat matter with a kind lie for the sake of my birthday. The price is that I have to have today’s birthday every year in this company; Second, tell the truth. But I can’t fully explain Gan Yao’s intention at all. The follow-up will be very troublesome, and the cost was to challenge the boss’s current tolerance.
Weighing the pros and cons, I faced my boss directly. I hook up a nonchalant smile and nodded, “Yes, boss, today is my birthday.”
Haha, did you hear that? Thank you, Gan Yao.
Ning Yiheng was stunned and said, “Oh, happy birthday to you then.”
My colleagues saw that the situation had eased, and they all turned their heads to greet me. “Happy birthday, Xiao Cheng!”
I was so embarrassed that my toes curled. “… Haha, thank you, everyone.”
In a moment of relaxation, a furry paw suddenly pried open the gap in the gift box, followed by a less than palm size, round cat head that squeezed out. It meowed and its round eyes stared straight at me.
They all say that cats are liquids, I now have a deep understanding.
With such a narrow gap, the cat was able to get out of the box effortlessly. It was unruly in the box and even more lawless when it came out. It moved so fast that it caught the clothes on my chest with one claw and crawled on me quickly.
My reaction was always half a beat slower. I couldn’t even touch the tip of its tail— It quickly climbed to my shoulder and jumped on top of my head.
A colleague pointed to my head and said, “Xiao Cheng! It’s on your head!”
It didn’t extend its claws. Its soft meat pad moved restlessly in my hair, and its blown tail repeatedly swept into my nostrils.
I said, “I know! I’m catching—”
I couldn’t care so much anymore. I resisted the desire to sneeze and raised my hand to grab it. It was afraid of my hand and immediately bounced on top of my head— It was so strong that it kicked my head back and I almost plunged into the computer screen.
I immediately stabilized the display screen and looked up. I saw that the cat had jumped on Ning Yiheng’s shoulder, who was closest to me.
I seemed to hear the sound of my heart breaking in half.
My brain crashed in an instant. I froze in my seat and didn’t dare to move.
When Ning Yiheng encountered an emergency, his face didn’t change at all. He steadily and ruthlessly started by grabbing the back of the kitten’s neck.
He really was worthy to be my boss, he easily did what I couldn’t do.
The kitten refused to cooperate, twisting its head repeatedly to bite the back of Ning Yiheng’s hand. Its claws didn’t give up and firmly hooked the fabric on Ning Yiheng’s shoulder.
The tug-of-war between human and cat didn’t last for two seconds, only hearing a tear. The cat’s claw tore Ning Yiheng’s clothes. The scratches penetrated half of Ning Yiheng’s shoulder, tearing the clothes into rags.
The cat was carried by him and slipped into mid-air, fluttering around with thread between its claws.
I was already broken into two halves and my heart was broken again. I was broken into four pieces.
Ning Yiheng threw the cat into the box, and closed the lid tightly with one hand, moving in one fell swoop.
And my eyes couldn’t move away from his torn suit.
“Don’t move the box, let it get used to it for a while.” Ning Yiheng looked at me calmly, “Cheng Huai Xiu, come to my office.”
Ning Yiheng was quite a taciturn person. He seldom talks to his subordinates about things that have nothing to do with work.
Before entering the workplace, I read a lot of management novels such as how to curry favor with the boss, how to fight sinister colleagues wisely… But the content of the novel has never been reflected in reality and I have never seen anyone succeed in fawning Ning Yiheng.
Ning Yiheng was just an inexhaustible ice cube with a don’t-approach-look to everyone. Not to mention bootlicking, it’s an overwhelming favor to be able to have small talks with him.
So neither my colleagues nor I are willing to communicate with him.
Of course, the “Happy birthday” just now doesn’t count. That was probably the social words he had to say because of my embarrassing behavior.
I followed behind Ning Yiheng, looking at the scratches on the apparently valuable suit; my heart ached.
I haven’t worked for a few years and I haven’t saved much, so this accident really added to the already poor family’s woes.
Ning Yiheng’s office was next door. We just walked a few steps, but I seemed to have been suffering for a year. He pushed the door into the room, unbuttoned his suit coat, and put it on the back of his chair.
Ning Yiheng was wearing a shirt inside. He pulled out the chair and sat down, adjusting the watch and buttons on his wrist.
I swallowed nervously as my eyes wandered from the curve of Ning Yiheng’s well-defined arm muscles to his calm expression.
Ning Yiheng raised his eyes at me and said, “Sit down first ba.”
How dare I sit down at this time with peace of mind? So I said, “Boss, I’ll just stand.”
Ning Yiheng didn’t continue to ask me to sit down, so I plucked up the courage to say, “Boss, I’m sorry! I will definitely compensate you!”
“En?” Ning Yiheng was stunned, then reacted and said, “Are you talking about the suit? Oh, this doesn’t matter, you don’t have to pay for it.”
I can’t help muttering in my heart, was boss such an easy-to-talk-with person? But after all, I don’t communicate well with him, and so far I’ve seen his cold surface— Perhaps the person has a deeply hidden good temper.
Even so, I didn’t dare to slacken. I nervously waited for Ning Yiheng’s next words.
Ning Yiheng’s eyes turned to the computer screen on the desk that wasn’t turned on, and asked nonchalantly, “I usually see you and Li Xiaoming from your department walking together after work.”
“You have a good relationship with him, huh?”
Jie Jie: Hi! New translator here at CG~ I decided to move this novel here! I bring with you a really funny novel that gave me a good laugh when I read it. I hope you liked it! 
Such a 💪 kitten,ah. 😂
To be fair to our MC, that is a terrible pick up line 🤣
Thanks for the chapter ! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for the translation!
Woah, that’s a big start! I feel bad for our CHX, so many things happening at once, haha >< This novel looks interesting and fun~ Can’t wait to read more! ヾ(o≧∀≦o)ﾉﾞ Thank You for sharing this title with us! (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡
The poor kitten 😭😭
What was that person thinking gifting a live animal
Ah! Thank you so much for your work on this translation.
One chapter in and I’m already in love. I can tell this is just the light hearted read I was in need of.
Knowing that the boss already likes him, it is interesting reading their interactions and seeing how he is perceiving all of it vs how it is probably intended.
Looking forward to seeing how long it takes him to figure it out!