Chapter Forty-Three: Ending on Bad Terms (2/2)

……

In the evening, Yan Jin came home after work and realized that something was very strange – the cute and adorable hamster who had always been very obedient had suddenly decided to ignore him.

When he left home this morning, the hamster was still obediently stretching out his little paw and waving goodbye to him. So why was he suddenly ignoring him?

Yes, his hamster would wave his little paw at him when he leaves for work and give him a flying kiss when he comes home. If he was lucky, he would even receive some peeled melon seeds or cracked walnuts.

Yan Jin did not feel that there was anything wrong about that. In fact, he flaunted around his overly-intelligent hamster on all forms of social media every single day. Every time he did that, he would receive a lot of positive feedback.

Yan Jin attempted to use melon seeds to attract his hamster’s attention while he thought about whether he had done anything wrong recently.

Could it be because I was too busy with the company and I haven’t spent enough time with him?

Could it be because the exercises were too much and there wasn’t enough food?

Could it be… he had done something bad and was trying to bluff his way through?

Yan Jin squinted his eyes and pinched the hamster’s cheeks with his agile fingers.

Nothing came out.

The wrong guess resulted in even more avoidance. The hamster who wouldn’t go back to his cage if he wasn’t going to bed, ended up dashing back into his cage. The whole hamster body was stuffed into the little house as he refused to come out.

Yan Jin couldn’t understand.

“Fishy, what’s wrong? You’re not happy?”

Yan Jin put down his twenty-centimeter thick documents and focused on attracting Fishy’s attention.

“There’s extra food for today. If you come out, I’ll give you some snacks, okay?” No reaction.

Food temptation, failed.

“If you don’t come out, I’ll be angry.” No reaction +1.

Intimidation, failed.

“Come out and play for a while, okay? There’s no need to run the wheel this week, okay?” The little house seemed to move a bit, but very quickly, there was no movement again.

Bribery, failed.

After trying out countless methods with no success, Yan Jin had no choice but to give in: “Okay then, you have a good rest. I’ll go settle my work.”

Xiao Yu’s ears twitched when he heard the word ‘work’.

Although Xiao Yu wanted to continue sulking at Yan Jin, he was very curious – his work must be about the Autumn Release Conference.

After persisting for a while, Xiao Yu could not hold back after all. And so, the hamster peeped out from the house.

A little pinkish nose poked out from the little house first. The tip of his nose twitched as if sensing for any possible danger. A few seconds later, the round, grey-colored furball showed himself as he made a sprint towards the edge of the cage.

Dammit, that idiot Yan Jin went so far as to close his cage door.

“Squeakkk!”

Xiao Yu’s loud screech, plus the sound of claws scratching the plastic door, successfully alerted Yan Jin, who was working diligently.

“Fishy?”

The second that Yan Jin opened the cage, Xiao Yu fell entirely into his palm.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Xiao Yu swayed his body parts above his tummy and it looked like he was shaking his head very vigorously.

The truth was, that was exactly what he wanted to express.

That comical image gave Yan Jin an urge to record it on video. Too bad his phone wasn’t beside him.

“Not sleeping yet? Accompany me while I work then.”

Xiao Yu was settled onto the desk and Yan Jin even considerately moved the running wheel over: “If you’re bored, you could play with this.”

“Squeak.” I’m not bored. Scram. Mention that wheel again, and I’ll whack you to death.

Yan Jin helplessly put the running wheel back in its original spot. Then, he use his ballpoint pen to tap on Xiao Yu’s little head: “For a hamster, don’t you think that your mental activity is kind of overly complex?”

“Squeak.” No such thing.

Just like how Yan Jin thought that Xiao Yu’s actions were normal, the hamster was also immune to the fact that the chairman could always guess his thoughts correctly. The idiom ‘A person on the spot is baffled, the onlooker sees it clear’ was probably referring to such a situation.

After fooling around for a while, Yan Jin’s focus returned to his documents.

Yan Jin rarely brought company work home. He would rather work overtime late into the night at his company, and not return home early. But that was routine long before Xiao Yu had come into this home.

Ever since this residence had the addition of this pretentious and fragile little creature, Yan Jin almost never came home later than 10 p.m.

That was because Xiao Yu’s bed time was at 10:30 p.m., and Chairman Yan would always want to snap a before-sleep photo of his little hamster.

For that reason, Yan Jin even purchased some mini sleeping cap and mini nightgown related products, although he rarely succeeded in making Xiao Yu wear them.

If Xiao Yu really wasn’t cooperative, then he would have to forgo the before-sleep photo. However, saying goodnight was a must. Something like –

“Goodnight Fishy, see you tomorrow.”

The drawback to coming home early was that he would have documents that he couldn’t finish going through and work that had not been completed yet.

Yan Jin was a little nearsighted. He would wear contact lenses at the most important events and take them off when he got home. But most of the time, there wasn’t a need to see things too clearly at home, which was why he would put on a pair of black-framed spectacles when he needed to do something that required his attention.

Just like this situation right now.

The plain, modest spectacles briefly obstructed those pair of slightly cold-blooded eyes. It made Yan Jin’s overall appearance look docile. It might be because they were at home. Yan Jin was in a relaxed mood as his constant oppressive presence was nowhere to be seen. Regardless of whether he was any different from how he looked like at work as he held that sharp ballpoint pen in his hand, it still failed to make him look like that formidable and ice-cold chairman.

He looked more like an exam student in one of those idol dramas.

Xiao Yu almost laughed at his own imagination.