Chapter Forty-Five: Cufflinks (2/2)

No, it was not uniquely designed. That kind of cuff link wasn’t even considered rare – it was completely one of its kind.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Yu seemed to have an epiphany, yet the trail flashed by and became unclear once again.

Xiao Yu immediately turned his gaze towards the cuff on Yan Jin’s other sleeve.

Indeed, there was only one cufflink.

In fact, even without Xiao Yu stopping him, Yan Jin did not plan on pouring that bag of melon seeds – it was just a habitual reaction. After realizing that something was amiss, he had stopped immediately. Otherwise, with Xiao Yu’s ant-like strength, the hamster would not have obstructed Yan Jin’s tree-like sturdiness.

“I almost forgot. You can’t eat anymore.” It didn’t matter if he was in a rush to leave, Yan Jin would never forget that his hamster was overweight and forbidden from midnight snacks.

The unstable emotions from earlier had almost caused him to make such a beginner mistake.

Yan Jin promptly sealed the melon seed package and placed it further away.

While Yan Jin was doing that, he realized that something was weird about his hands. He lowered his head and saw the hamster who was hanging in mid-air still gripping tightly onto his cuffs as if Xiao Yu was doing arm exercises.

“Pfff. Pfff.”

Xiao Yu was too close to Yan Jin, and that made his nose itchy again as he sneezed nonstop.

Yan Jin’s heart instantly melted into a puddle.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be back early tonight.” Yan Jin placed Xiao Yu on the desk as he returned to sit on his chair, bending forward to assure Xiao Yu.

“Could you go back in first? Someone will come over to clean up later. It’s not safe to stay outside.”

Xiao Yu knew that Yan Jin was referring to the scheduled bi-weekly cleanup. In the past, Yan Jin would always bring Xiao Yu to the living room to hang around and only returned to their room when everything was cleaned up.

This was the first time that Yan Jin had used the cleanup as an excuse to lock him up in the cage.

“Squeak.”

“Squeaakkkk.”

Xiao Yu desperately wanted to express himself, but no matter how much he tried, he could only let out the same squeaking sound. Even the extremely gifted Yan Jin could not completely understand what his hamster was saying, yet the chairman could sense that Xiao Yu was trying to ask him to stay back.

Yan Jin sighed again and pulled open his drawer to look for something.

Then, a cold little toy was stuffed into Xiao Yu’s arms.

“I planned to give it to you tomorrow. I’ll make it up to you with that.” Yan Jin looked at the bewildered little hamster as his gaze became gentler: “Return to your cage, okay?”

Xiao Yu held the golden melon seed in his paws, feeling completely different compared to the other time when he had received the golden walnut.

“Squeakk…”

With no other choice and against Yan Jin’s stern attitude, Xiao Yu was forced to give in.

Xiao Yu walked hesitantly as he approached the cage extremely slowly. It was as if dragging out the time like that would make Yan Jin change his mind.

Too bad, no matter how slow he walked, that distance of less than a meter eventually came to an end.

The transparent panel slid upwards into place with a dull click, echoing in Xiao Yu’s heart.

Xiao Yu coldly watched as Yan Jin left. The hamster did not move an inch.

He knew that the chairman would return.

As expected, Yan Jin opened the door again and picked up the phone that was dropped on the floor. The chairman brushed off the nonexistent dust, turned towards Xiao Yu, and waved his hand as he bid goodbye.

Xiao Yu went along with the act and waved his paw back.

The room suddenly went silent. This time, Yan Jin was gone for sure.

Xiao Yu, who was as quiet as a statue, immediately started moving as if a switch had been flipped.

Step one, adjust the little house’s position. Step two, stand onto the platform. Step three, push with a spurt of energy!

The transparent panel successfully flipped open.

The whole process took less than five seconds and Xiao Yu had successfully broken out of his confinement.

Yes, Xiao Yu had never been worried about Yan Jin locking him up in the cage. Ever since he had successfully gotten out the other time, jail-breaking the cage was a small case for Xiao Yu.

The hamster was more worried about Yan Jin’s problem.

When Yan Jin came out of the dressing room, Xiao Yu had started to feel uneasy.

It was not that it was weird to see Yan Jin wear anything else aside from his everyday suit, nor was it because Yan Jin’s outfit was not Xiao Yu’s choice of style. On the contrary, Xiao Yu started to feel anxious because such fashion statements were seen way too often.

This was the first time that Xiao Yu had seen Yan Jin dress like that, yet Xiao Yu had seen this clothing style countless times.

To put it this way, such clothing style, such expression… It did not seem like Yan Jin was planning to meet his friends. It was more like he was going to meet his fuck buddy.

Back then, when Xiao Yu had mixed in as part of the community, he had seen too many such persons.

It was not that Xiao Yu had prejudice against such matters. After all, people who were in the designing social circle were generally flexible people, who fooled around while they were young and kept mum when they got older. Many people practiced what they preached. But it was also because Xiao Yu understood that knowledge and saw way too many complicated relationships in the social circle, that Xiao Yu hoped no one he knew would end up sinking into that quagmire.

Especially so when Xiao Yu had seen that cufflink.

Silver-based, using fragments of apatite as decorations.

Every designer would have some materials that they preferred to use. Some unique people would only use a few specific types and not even consider any other materials. SI’s FISH was quite famous for using all kinds of materials in his designs. He was only responsible for designing the exterior, so regardless of the material used to make the final product, they would eventually produce a similar effect.

That was why there weren’t too many people in the designing circle that knew about this.

That SI’s chief designer, FISH, had some materials that he preferred over others. Also, as opposed to most designers, he loved to use cheap materials.

For example, the inexpensive silver and the apatite that was commonly seen.