Best at Putting the CEO Through the Wringer

The long table was wiped clean every day, yet when Lu Linyuan saw Ruanruan polish off all the cat food that had fallen onto it in just a few bites, he still found it somewhat hard to accept.

He repeated to himself, She's a cat. This is normal. She's not a person, and there's nothing wrong with her eating off the table.

He watched Ruanruan finish the food on the table and return to her plate. Only then did he start wiping the table, cleaning away every trace of saliva she had left behind.

"Good. It's right not to waste food." He forced himself to find a virtue to praise Ruanruan for.

"Meow-" Of course! Ruanruan nearly raised her head in pride, but with delicious food still in front of her, she would eat first.

"If you hadn't eaten so wildly in the first place, you wouldn't have had to lick it off the table, would you?" Lu Linyuan was more or less talking to himself. He didn't think a cat could understand him, so he didn't make eye contact with Ruanruan as he spoke.

Hearing that, Ruanruan thought to herself, Sometimes you really don't need to worry about the details. I'm just a little kitten. When I'm bigger, when I'm bigger, I won't be like this anymore!

She had been a little too eager just now and lunged too far forward without controlling her strength. That one move had sent cat food spraying out around the plate. Since it was wet food, it had scattered in soggy clumps, leaving traces of food all around her mouth too. She looked every bit like a little dirty cat.

Anyone who had never gone hungry wouldn't understand her.

Just now, she had felt that waiting even one more second was torture.

Ruanruan finally ate her fill and licked even the plate clean. If Lu Linyuan hadn't grown a little impatient and picked her up to wipe her mouth, she could have gone on licking for a while longer.

After eating, Ruanruan wanted to go back to her own bed to sleep. She felt too constrained sleeping with the boss, always worrying that she would disturb his sleep. She had already disturbed him twice, hadn't she? If there was a third time, it would be the death of her.

Thinking this, she twisted her head around, unwilling to leave. One look at her posture and expression was enough to tell that she wanted to go back to her cat bed.

Lu Linyuan scratched her under the chin and said evenly, "You're comfortable now, and everything that needed taking care of has been taken care of. Can you sleep properly?"

"Meow!" Yes!

"But you've already made me too awake to sleep..." He was a little uneasy about leaving Ruanruan, who had been frightened during the day, in the cat room, so he took her straight back to the bedroom. "Keep me company a little longer."

Well, there. The boss wanted her company himself; she hadn't volunteered.

If his sleep was disturbed, he had asked for it himself.

With that thought, Ruanruan stopped struggling to return to her own bed. She yawned and stretched. She was a little sleepy, so she would go back and sleep, and probably wouldn't disturb the boss again.

Sure enough, she slept soundly, so deeply that she was dead to the feline world. She didn't even know when Lu Linyuan got up at six thirty to exercise.

Ruanruan was asleep when Lu Linyuan returned from exercising, still asleep when he finished showering, and asleep yet again after he ate breakfast.

In the end, Lu Linyuan picked her up before leaving, planning to take her to the company.

Hadn't he said she had to keep him company morning and night for the next few days?

The assistant had learned long ago that the CEO was bringing a cat to the company and had prepared a litter box, kitten food, goat milk, toys, a cat tree, and a scratching board. There was no need to tell him in advance what to buy; he had demonstrated to perfection a qualified CEO's special assistant's ability to draw inferences from one example.

Perhaps because Ruanruan had a tendency to need to pee urgently anytime and anywhere, Lu Linyuan kept worrying that the little creature would wake up in the car and need the toilet. He even wondered, She's not going to pee in her sleep in a bit, is she...? This is the first time I've worn this suit... He pondered such questions all the way to the company, but the cat was still asleep.

As they entered the CEO's private elevator, his special assistant Xiao Zhang said ingratiatingly beside him, "This cat is so well-behaved. She hasn't woken up once on the way here. You can tell at a glance she's the obedient, low-maintenance type." No sooner had he finished speaking than the usually aloof and reserved CEO gave him a calm sideways glance that made his heart flutter for no apparent reason.

Had he said something wrong?

Lu Linyuan didn't answer him, but thought of how Ruanruan had put him through the wringer in the middle of the night.

Before Lu Linyuan even reached his office, the company receptionist had already spread the news.

"Oh my god, the CEO came to the company carrying a cat today!"

"Really? I don't believe it. It doesn't sound like the CEO's style."

"Your eyes must be playing tricks on you. How could our CEO possibly bring a cat to the company?"

It was no wonder they didn't believe it. Was it normal for a CEO who never smiled, demanded rigor, and treated his subordinates so strictly that a single glance from him could make their knees knock to suddenly bring a cat to work?

Clearly, it wasn't normal. Most likely, the receptionist was joking. But had she gotten so bold that she even dared to joke about the CEO now?

The receptionist was so angry when she saw the messages that she jerked backward, then sent a blurry photo she had taken of his back to the employees' private group chat.

"You still don't believe me? Didn't you see Special Assistant Zhang carrying a cat carrier? It's only a picture of his back, but look at the CEO. Can't you see his arms are raised? He's holding a cat!"

Before long, an employee who might have seen Lu Linyuan carrying the cat popped up in the chat. "Yes, I can vouch for it. The CEO really did carry a very, very, very adorable golden shaded cat in today. Judging by her looks, she's definitely the expensive kind. She's so cute, boo-hoo-hoo, I love her so much. For a moment, I even thought the CEO looked more amiable holding the kitty... like he wasn't quite so scary anymore."

"I saw them too. Usually I think the CEO is dazzlingly handsome, but at that moment all I noticed was the kitten in his arms. She was so cute, I loved her so much. She seemed to be sleeping with her paws around the CEO's arm, her tail hanging down. I wanted so badly to rush over and pet her."

"The CEO really brought a cat!"

"Of course he did. Actually, I was working overtime at the company yesterday and saw Special Assistant Zhang have people carry quite a few cat supplies into the CEO's office, a cat tree and a scratching board and things like that."

"The CEO has a cat!"

"The CEO has a cat, and I have a cat. Round it up and we're both members of the cat cult. I suddenly feel so much closer to him!"

"Cat expert Xiao Wang requests permission to enter the fray. If there's anything about cats that the CEO doesn't know, he can come ask me. Ahahahaha."

After Lu Linyuan brought Ruanruan to his office, he first placed her in the big transparent cat bed on the cat tree. She couldn't roll out of this transparent bed no matter how much she rolled around. Once she was in it, he covered her with a thin little blanket. The air conditioning at the company was even stronger than at home, and he was afraid she would catch cold without a blanket. After that, he turned to wash his hands.

But he had only just washed and dried his hands and sat down in his office chair when Ruanruan began whimpering in her bed, apparently very uncomfortable. Lu Linyuan looked toward the bed, paused for a moment, then got up again and walked over to pull back the blanket and check on her.

Ruanruan's brow was furrowed, and she seemed to be sleeping very restlessly, her paws tense. Seeing this, Lu Linyuan hesitated for a moment, then reached out to rub her head and stroke her belly, soothing her.

After a few strokes, Ruanruan's brow smoothed out, and she continued sleeping soundly, her body relaxed.

Lu Linyuan turned to wash his hands, then dried them and sat down.

"Meow-mew~"

He looked over. The cat was tossing and turning again, still wearing an extremely uncomfortable expression.

Lu Linyuan raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking rather helpless.

In the end, our CEO resigned himself to his fate and stood up, walking toward the cat bed-