Reborn into a Hamster for 233 Days

For the fifteenth time, Xiao Yu thought about this issue. For the sixteenth time, he lifted his left hand to examine the pink diamond ring, foolishly giggling for five minutes. For the seventeenth time, he mocked its terrible design. For the eighteenth time, he’d kissed the diamond ring Yan Jin designed himself. For the nineteenth time, he rolled around the bed. For the twentieth time, he rolled himself back into the blankets.

“Meowww.”

Faye couldn’t stand to watch Xiao Yu’s silly antics any further and whacked Xiao Yu’s exposed head.

Xiao Yu shrieked and jumped up, pulling the little kitty off his head.

“Keep doing that and I’ll send you back,” Xiao Yu threatened darkly.

Faye didn’t show any trace of fear.

Two hours ago, Xiao Yu remembered that he’d left Faye at the pet store two days ago and asked Yan Jin to help retrieve her.

When Yan Jin had carried this tyrannically arrogant kitty back, she had appeared completely well-behaved and cute. Even her screeches had changed to pleasant mewling. Naively, Xiao Yu had believed the pet store had trained her and that Faye would stay obedient and adorable.

Who would have guessed that no sooner had Yan Jin walked away than Faye revealed her true self. Grumpy that Xiao Yu had suddenly abandoned her at the pet store for so long, Faye had crazily started whacking Xiao Yu.

After her sweet display, Faye had looked a lot more intimidating with her retractable claws extended out of her previously gentle paws. Fortunately, Xiao Yu had just mustered up a defense in time to avoid being marred. In the end, Xiao Yu had to agree to all sorts of unfair conditions to placate the angry animal.

“I say, is it possible you’re a human just the same as me?”

Xiao Yu rubbed the fur under Faye’s neck, imagining what Faye’s real identity would be.

It was similar to the feeling that had caused Yan Jin to start doubting Fishy’s identity. Faye acted so much like a human. It was hard to believe a small kitten could understand Xiao Yu bargaining with Faye earlier.

But Faye responded just the same as always.

“Meoww.” I’m just a kitty; no way do I want to become a human.

The firm denial once again swayed Xiao Yu’s suspicions.

Indeed, Xiao Yu had already pestered Faye about it to such a degree. If Faye really were a human she would have admitted it by now.

After all, Faye wasn’t like Fishy who needed to hide his identity.

Xiao Yu managed to convince himself, but just in case he still warned Faye, “Faye, if you’re really a human, no matter what difficulties you have, you must tell us as soon as possible. At least for hamsters, if the human cannot return to their original form before the hamster reaches its lifespan, the human dies too. It might be true for cats as well...”

“Meow meow.” Nope nope nope.

Annoyed, Faye impatiently batted aside Xiao Yu’s hands and went to go play with the ball of yarn on the side. Clearly, Faye had no interest at all in the subject.

......

Xiao Yu encountered an unexpected issue when he went to go report to YL on Monday to sign the contract as originally planned.

It wasn’t YL’s issue though. YL currently seemed strong from the outside but internally their chairman was missing. The gossiping employees had long since learned from Shao Yue blabbing about the secret relationship between Yan Jin and their rival company’s chief designer. Every day they eagerly awaited Yan Jin’s return from his “honeymoon” with their new chief designer.

The issue was with Xiao Yu himself, or rather, Mr. Mystery.

Ever since his identity was clarified, Xiao Yu hadn’t logged onto Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both. The only time he’d used it was to contact Yan Jin. Since then, he hadn’t wanted to use it for the life of him.

In the past few days, Xiao Yu had accepted Yan Jin’s view that the Mr. Mystery behind Fish and Hamster – You Can’t have Both was himself all along. Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yu had logged on and discovered he’d forgotten someone for almost two months.

Nannan.

On top of their collapsing master-student relationship, the incomplete requests Xiao Yu had left for Nannan was already enough for Nannan to go crazy. The first month Nannan had sent messages in every which way to Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu guessed Nannan had already given up by the second month since the last message was dated March 30th. All it said was, “Master, when are you returning? I miss you a lot. crying.jpg.” Before this last one, there were hundreds of previous messages.

After seeing all of Nannan’s anguish, Xiao Yu heart had shrunk into itself from the pain.

Xiao Yu had recounted all of this to Yan Jin and mumbled to Yan Jin asking if he could report in YL after another week. For the past few days, Xiao Yu worked on cleaning up these leftover tasks while trying to convince Nannan to formally become his disciple.

After listening, Yan Jin had immediately agreed to Xiao Yu’s request without hesitation.

“Nan Wei... don’t worry about Nannan. I’ll connect you with him in a couple days.” Toward Xiao Yu, Yan Jin’s motto was to directly help when possible and give helpful advice when not. “As for YL, it doesn’t really matter. Come whenever you’re ready. After such a hardship, you should rest more at home. Or maybe you can go vacation overseas? I can go with you too.”

It was fortunate nobody else from YL was here to hear their serious and esteemed chairman characterize their company as “something that doesn’t matter”. Otherwise, their entire world would collapse in disillusionment.

Perhaps even the heavens couldn’t bear Yan Jin’s evilly flippant attitude, so they had the angel Xiao Yu urge him, “Although I said I can’t go, but you should still return soon. After all, it’s your family’s company, so you have a larger responsibility...”

Even today Xiao Yu still believed that YL equated to the Yan Family. Yan Jin didn’t have the heart to explain either because of Xiao Yu’s pitiful self confidence, so he could only reluctantly agree with Xiao Yu after some pestering.

“So that’s that. You must return back to work.”

Xiao Yu released a breath of air. He definitely wouldn’t tell Yan Jin the reason he was so insistent was because when logged onto [Fish and Hamster – You Can’t have Both], he’d seen [Yueyueyue] begging him three days ago, “Guru, can you please get Yan Jin to come back? If he doesn’t come back soon YL definitely will collapse (crying.jpg).”

“Right, earlier when you mentioned the issues with Nannan, do you know him?”

“When I looked into your identity I looked into his too. He’s talented.”

To save the small surprise for Xiao Yu later, Yan Jin didn’t disclose too much about Nannan. From Yan Jin’s view, Nannan was the type of person with too much time. It would only take minutes to get him to come over.

So for now, he’d keep this a secret.

Yan Jin couldn’t wait to see Xiao Yu’s expression when he saw Nan Wei. If he remembered correctly, when Nan Wei visited the Four Seasons Manor, they’d met each other.

Although, only Xiao Yu might recognize Nan Wei. Nan Wei definitely wouldn’t recognize Xiao Yu.

“You feel that Nannan is really talented too, right?” Xiao Yu was excited from Yan Jin’s praise. “Do you think it would be difficult for him to walk the path of a professional designer?”

Without considering it much, Yan Jin replied, “Not difficult at all.”

His tone gave Xiao Yu some misgivings though, so Xiao Yu asked, “Why do you think so?”

Yan Jin hesitated.

Of course he couldn’t tell Xiao Yu that Nan Wei grew up in a family with over ten billion in assets, that he had a brother that after switching professions had wrought carnage, that he had an older cousin who would grant any wish of Nan Wei’s, and that his childhood friend was a super hacker that fussed over his every move. If there were ever a day Nan Wei wanted to open an international hotel chain, he’d only need to say a word to get everything set up such that all he’d need to do would be to sign a shareholder contract.

“Since it’s someone you respect, of course I think there won’t be any issue.” Yan Jin had no choice but to hope he could cover his slip by bootlicking.

“It’s one matter for my opinion, but it’s not so simple to succeed in reality.” Creasing his eyebrows, Xiao Yu worried, “Nannan definitely isn’t that young anymore, since he’s run his online shop for so many years. If he started when he was sixteen, he’d be at least twenty-four or twenty-five by now. He definitely can’t start from the basics. I can’t carry myself as a teacher either so I can’t directly mentor him. It’ll be hard for him among the other youngsters if he were to start as an assistant designer. The most important point is that assistant designers don’t make much. Definitely it would be a lot less than he can bring in through his online shop, so his standard of living would take a hit too...”

Listening to all of Xiao Yu’s considerations gave Yan Jin a headache. Their thinking really was too different. When Yan Jin offered others a favor, he felt they should be filled with tears of gratitude and naturally settle their personal matters themselves.

“...Hey. How come you aren’t saying anything?” Xiao Yu finally realized unhappily that after his long-winded thinking, Yan Jin’s expression looked as if Xiao Yu’s voice entered through one ear and out the other.

“I’m listening.” Yan Jin moved closer to kiss Xiao Yu’s angry puffed cheeks. He whispered next to Xiao Yu’s ear, “Have you finished talking?”

“I’m done now, but you weren’t even listening properly,” Xiao Yu uncomfortably tilted his head away and grumpily complained.

“After all, no boyfriend hopes to hear about another man’s business from their lover.

“...Nonsense.”

Although Xiao Yu said this, he still ended up being tricked by Yan Jin’s very standard love words. Just as he released his pent-up breath, Xiao Yu’s lips were sealed by Yan Jin’s.

Xiao Yu happily closed his eyes and clasped his hand adorned with the diamond ring around Yan Jin’s neck. The finely cut diamond sparkled in his eyes.