Chapter One Hundred and Forty: The Smitten Scoundrel Who Forgot His Friends (1/2)
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘targeted’ and ‘troublemaker’? The last time I saw you was in the hospital…”
Xiao Yu felt completely lost by Chu Ge’s words. To be precise, he didn’t even understand the meaning of the individual phrases.
I-Interrogation?
Chu Ge cast his mind back and suddenly realized, “Ah right, you blacked out from the alcohol. Think back to the Saturday before the last, on the day before the Qingming Festival.”
Xiao Yu took out his phone to check his calendar. Today was Monday the twentieth, the second week of Yan Jin’s return to work. Last Monday was the day Xiao Yu should have reported in to YL but ended up postponing it because of his leftover tasks as Mr. Mystery.
As for the Saturday before the last…
“Ah, it’s the day of my class reunion.” Xiao Yu’s eyes widened in surprise. “You came to my class reunion? Are you also from F University?”
“No, I’m… the person Yan Jin arranged for to pick you up.” After thinking about it, Chu Ge chose not to broach the overly complicated events. He still wasn’t entirely sure of Xiao Yu’s identity; there could be problems if he revealed too much, so he hastily attributed everything to Yan Jin. “When I got there, you were already unconscious from the alcohol. Then, I dropped you off at Yan Jin’s place.”
“Ah, so you were the one who saved me!” Xiao Yu understood and fearfully said, “Good thing you came in time. My Senior spiked my drink and I blacked out. If you hadn’t come to save me, who knows what could have happened.”
The recent peaceful days had cleansed all of Xiao Yu’s worries after returning back to his human form, as if he’d gone back to his carefree life as a pet. However, the issue with Lin Zhou still pricked at his heart, causing him to panic.
“That Senior of yours…” Chu Ge paused and didn’t continue. He shouldn’t say too much, especially since the matter had yet to be entirely resolved.
“Yeah?” Xiao Yu pressed.
“Never mind. When I saw you lying on the sofa, I dragged you out.”
Chu Ge evaded the topic and ended the conversation.
The two of them fell into silence afterwards.
Chu Ge shifted uncomfortably. Grabbing his phone inside his pocket, he tried to come up with an excuse to leave so he could message Yan Jin.
The atmosphere felt extremely strange. Not only had their conversation not settled Chu Ge’s doubts, Chu Ge fearfully jumped to all kinds of conclusions as he connected the dots to the ring on Xiao Yu’s finger…
What is Yan Jin playing at? At least he should have said something beforehand.
Chu Ge grumbled internally, unconsciously scrunching his eyebrows.
“Well…”
Xiao Yu unexpectedly broke the silence first, awkwardly asking, “Then you probably don’t know that I’m Fishy right?”
“I know your name.” Chu Ge said without thinking. (T/N: Reminder that “Fishy” sounds like “Xiao Yu”)
“I don’t mean my name, Xiao Yu. I’m Fishy. That Fishy.”
One moment went by without a reaction from Chu Ge. Then two.
He stared strangely at Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu awkwardly but honestly stared right back.
They looked at each other for a few more seconds. Xiao Yu helplessly emphasized, “Fishy, not Xiao Yu.” But Chu Ge still didn’t understand. His vacant look only lacked the three black question marks on his forehead from comics.
“They’re homophones,” Xiao Yu supplied.
“…Ah?” Chu Ge was still confused.
“Just as I said, they’re homophones…”
“Eh?” Chu Ge still didn’t get it.
“Ahh how should I explain? It’s me, it’s me!” Xiao Yu had no other choice. He faced down his shame to spell everything out clearly. “I’m the hamster Yan Jin raised. My cage was even bought by you.”
Chu Ge released the phone he’d been holding in his pocket, but he didn’t take his hands out.
From his overwhelming shock, he couldn’t do anything other than react in surprise.
The comically awkward silence persisted for another thirty seconds. In the end, the silence was broken by an utterly shocked “What the fuck?!”
Perhaps because of the higher pitch that Xiao Yu interpreted as doubt, Xiao Yu hurriedly added, “I’m really Fishy. After drinking alcohol, I can change back to a hamster – wait, it’ll take an hour though…”
“Nonono.” Chu Ge reached his hands out to stop Xiao Yu from getting alcohol and retracted them back to massage his temples.
Chu Ge wondered if he’d overdosed on Formalin and was hearing things.
His face seemed comically broken.
“In the beginning I thought it was like a fantasy novel too, but after I accepted it, it’s not so bad. If I don’t drink alcohol I’m just the same as a regular person,” Xiao Yu said lightly.
It’s not so easy to accept!
Ever since Chu Ge discovered the hamster could type words, his long-held world view of materialism had begun to collapse. Now, those views seemed to be a scene growing ever more distant.
“*Sigh*, it’s all Yan Jin’s fault for not telling you. I’m calling him right now to scold him.” Xiao Yu could sympathize greatly with Chu Ge’s plight, shifting all the blame to Yan Jin.
“Nonono, waitwaitwait.”
Chu Ge stopped Xiao Yu again. From his angle he couldn’t quite see Xiao Yu’s phone screen, but he could see that Xiao Yu’s finger was already pressed down. If he were a moment slower, the call would have gone out.
Chu Ge could practically see what would have happened after.
In summary, he couldn’t allow Xiao Yu to notify Yan Jin.
“I’ve been… traveling the past two weeks.” Chu Ge wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. “Probably Yan Jin didn’t want to disturb me from the goodness of his heart, so he didn’t tell me.”
“Oh, so it’s like that. No wonder.” Xiao Yu easily believed Chu Ge. “We only just formalized our relationship. Probably if you hadn’t visited today, Yan Jin would have told you everything in a few more days.”
“It would have been good, pretty good to know earlier.”
Chu Ge’s vision blurred and his mind still felt disconnected. Nevertheless, he still tried to find out more. “Speaking of which, didn’t I ask you before whether you were able to turn into a human? Didn’t you tell me you couldn’t? Did something else happen that I’m not aware of?”