Chapter 13: What’s wrong with being stingy (2/2)
Xiao Yu looked at the two bags of seeds and joyfully hopped to the crab meat flavored one. He tapped on the package.
Squeak.
This one, this one.
Yan Jin pulled open the bag of crab meat flavored seeds and poured some onto the table.
Xiao Yu happily ran over to peel those melon seeds. Although there were quite a bit of melon seeds in the hamster food packaging, most of the content consisted of grains and beans. Xiao Yu had to search for his favorite melon seeds and dried fruit pieces for a long time before he found them.
To be able to eat so many melon seeds in one go — of course it was wonderful.
Xiao Yu began peeling the seeds.
One after another.
Xiao Yu was unsure if it was a side effect of becoming a hamster, but he could feel the emptiness in his heart slowly filling up as he watched the small pile of seeds grow.
One after another.
Xiao Yu was like a real hamster, slowly storing up his provisions. When he was done peeling his last melon seed, he placed it on top of the small hilltop.
A small hilltop.
Where’s… the small mountain?
Xiao Yu was dazed for two to three seconds. Then a thought went through his mind, making him look up in disbelief.
He saw a big hand that belonged to a human, grab the seeds that he had painstakingly peeled and dump them into his own mouth.
Everything was like a slow-motion film. Xiao Yu clearly saw how Yan Jin ate away the fruits of his hard labor in one go.
Crunch-crunch.
There was the sound of chewing.
Every strand of gray fur on Xiao Yu’s body stood up in anger.
“SQUEAKKKK!!!” YAN JIN GO TO HELL!!!
Xiao Yu wished he could crush Yan Jin into ashes. The latter had also expected his reaction. Yan Jin picked up his fountain pen and positioned the smooth end of the pen on the hamster’s white stomach that was prepared to charge at him.
“Why are you so stingy?” Yan Jin did not feel guilty at all and even thought of taking a picture of the hamster to send it to his friends. “I only ate a few of your melon seeds.”
“SQUEAK!” What’s wrong with being stingy? I am stingy!
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness! Not just the melon seeds, or the drafts that Lin Zhou stole — everything that everyone owed him, he would not forgive nor forget!
Xiao Yu was crazy with anger – he went around the fountain pen aiming to land a bite on Yan Jin, but he was once again stopped by the latter.
“Fishy, you got to offer something in return for freeloading for so many days.” Yan Jin spoke with seriousness, “It’s just peeling some melon seeds, and I’m the one who bought them.”
Pui, there’s no such saying!
Xiao Yu continued speaking for a while to voice his protest, but Yan Jin completely ignored it. Instead, he pushed another pile of melon seeds to Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu turned on his back, refusing to do free labor.
Yan Jin was all smiles as he promised, “I won’t steal them this time.”
Really? Xiao Yu turned his head back and looked at Yan Jin’s evil face suspiciously.
“I swear.” Yan Jin raised his hand to swear.
Xiao Yu mentally thought to himself – this time he would not leave them outside. Once he was done peeling them, he’d put them in his cheek pouch. He’ll watch how Yan Jin try and steal it again.
In actuality, Xiao Yu had worried too much; Yan Jin was still a man of his word. As Xiao Yu peeled the seeds, Yan Jin also joined in to help. Sometimes, he would even pass some seeds to Xiao Yu and the latter would generously accept all of them. The human and hamster spent their entire afternoon with that pile of melon seeds.
When it was nighttime, Xiao Yu realized that the water bottle that he usually used had a few pieces of dried chrysanthemum flower added in, making his heart feel strange.
It was a known fact that eating too many melon seeds would cause a person to be heaty3, but he did not really care that much when he was a human. Little did he expect that his quality of life would improve now that he had become a hamster.
He recalled that the second morning when he first arrived at the villa, there were a few pieces of dried chrysanthemum flower in his water bottle as well. It was probably because Yan Jin thought that the outdoor temperature was getting higher and hence prepared it for him. At that time, he thought that it was the helper who had done it for him.
The melon seed incident passed just like that. But there was an incident later that led to a very long series of events.
At that time, Yan Jin was making some phone calls on his phone and Xiao Yu did not dare to mess with his iPad with Yan Jin around. As he got out of his cage, he aimlessly played on the desk. He was quite grateful to Yan Jin, who did not lock the cage to allow easy access for him. He even noticed that Yan Jin had changed the floor mat below the desk to one of those colorful jigsaw plastic mats that were meant for children and had covered it with an extremely thick, fluffy floor mat.
Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel touched. He didn’t think he would be that stupid to fall a second time, but Yan Jin’s preparation for the worst made him feel like he was being cared for.
However, Yan Jin did indeed feel that this humanized hamster would surely fall a second time, which was why he especially changed the floor mat.
What a beautiful misunderstanding.
Translator Note:
[1] 宁欺白须公，莫欺少年穷，终须有日龙穿凤，唔信一世裤穿窿 – this is a Cantonese proverb that basically says ‘You would rather bully an old man but never look down on a poor young man’ because a young person may work hard and be successful one day.
[2] 颜瑾Yan Jin has the same pronunciation as 严谨 (Yan-Jin) which means ‘strict’.
[3] Heaty is a Chinese Traditional Medicinal term to describe a person’s body that has too much internal heat(?). Things that cause a body to become heaty can be rambutan, durians, melon seeds etc. So to counter the heat, we drink ‘cooling’ drinks like chrysanthemum tea etc.