The Dried Fish Started It

Washing alone certainly wasn't enough. Lu Linyuan wiped himself off a couple of times and tossed the towel aside. He told the servants to come up and clean the study, and to take Ruanruan out, clean her up, and bring her to the cat room.

"Once you take her to the cat room, put her in the litter box for a while. She might still need to... poop..." His voice paused before he said the last word. When he finished, he deliberately looked at Ruanruan, who stood stiffly on the sink with her head hanging low. His elegant phoenix eyes held a hint of scrutiny.

Was she embarrassed?

He had actually seen a look of mortification on a cat's face. That didn't seem quite right, though. He should say he had seen it in the cat's posture.

When Ruanruan heard that, the kind of embarrassment that made her toes curl against the floor swept over her again. She was so ashamed she didn't dare make a single meow, and she tucked in her paws, trying to make herself less noticeable.

What a disgrace to cats! Such a disgrace! She had lost all face. It was gone!

She could die crying.

Although it was no big deal for a cat to have an accident, Ruanruan had a human soul, after all. That sense of shame wouldn't fade in a moment.

How had it come to this? On her first day, she had pooped all over the boss's hand and arm and peed on his pants. What kind of human tragedy was this?

Before long, two servants came in one after the other. One cleaned the study, while the other swiftly picked up Ruanruan and took her back to the cat room.

Ruanruan was wiped from head to toe. Then the servant gently set her in the litter box, which seemed to give off a faint, fresh scent. She really was tiny, only a little bigger than a palm, and looked especially small in the large litter box.

After putting her down, the servant watched her squat there for a while, then began tidying the room.

As soon as the servant turned her attention to something else, Ruanruan wasted no time trying to work up the urge to poop. She didn't want to have another accident and get it all over the young master. He would be utterly disgusted with her, and from then on, her ladyship Ruanruan would be banished to the cold palace!

She imagined a whole Qing palace drama, even picturing herself dressed in plain robes and shoved into the cold palace, where piles of withered grass lay. She shuddered at once.

Mommy, how could the cold palace compare to a luxurious cat room? Hurry up and poop, hurry up!

To get it out, Ruanruan strained with all the strength she had used to suckle-no, even more than that. Her whole body trembled slightly with the effort, and even her tail stood straight.

After changing his clothes, Lu Linyuan sat down in his study again and opened the surveillance feed. The sight that greeted him was a half-cat that couldn't have been any smaller, squatting in the litter box. Although her expression wasn't as rich as a human's, he could still tell from her posture how hard she was straining. Even her body was trembling slightly, and the fur on her back slowly stood on end.

This cat ate a lot and pooped a lot too...

Ruanruan let out a breath. She had finally finished pooping. Holding her breath, she hurriedly used all four paws to bury it. Once she had finished, she went to the edge of the litter box and draped her two fluffy front paws over it.

"Meow-" She called out twice to summon the servant in the room.

Hearing her, the servant picked up the cleaning supplies and came over. She first wiped Ruanruan's bottom clean, then used another pet wipe to clean her whole body. After finishing the cleanup, she put Ruanruan on the floor and started clearing the poop from the litter box. Before long, it was clean again.

After being wiped from head to toe, Ruanruan felt that she smelled nice again. Even the fur at the tip of her tail seemed to unfurl. She felt quite relaxed, and her mood had improved considerably. Maybe she was so relaxed because the boss wasn't beside her. Now that she had completely emptied herself, the little one felt lazy all over. Swishing her tail and bobbing her head, she headed for her big cat bed.

Big cat bed, my big cat bed. Humming a tune to herself, she waddled over and laboriously clambered up. The momentum sent her tumbling onto her back in the soft bed. Ruanruan narrowed her eyes in comfort and stretched.

"You're certainly comfortable." Seeing this, Lu Linyuan set the tablet aside and went back to work, glancing now and then at the little one in the cat room.

Ruanruan had slept quite a while during the day and wasn't sleepy now. She hugged a little ball and played with it in the cat bed for a while, then eagerly crawled out, only for her momentum to send her splat onto the floor again.

Ruanruan was so small that the fall didn't hurt at all. She rolled over, scrambled up, and excitedly went to play on the slide.

The slide for kittens was much smaller than the other, enormous one. She clambered up in no time and, bold as could be, zipped straight down onto the soft safety mat.

"Meow!" This is so much fun!

Once wasn't enough for Ruanruan, so she climbed up to play a second time.

By the time Lu Linyuan finished his work and looked at the video feed again, Ruanruan was locked in a struggle with the automatic cat teaser.

Ruanruan wasn't really interested in the cat teaser, but she figured she could use the exercise. Humans often exercised to build up their strength and health, so there was no reason animals could get strong and healthy without exercising. Thus, she forced herself to move left and right after the teaser for a while, jumping until she was panting.

In the end, she simply lay down on the floor, mouth open and tongue hanging out, her belly rising and falling with each breath.

That should be enough exercise for today. After resting for a moment, Ruanruan had just rolled over and was about to get up when she spotted a... person? Out of the corner of her eye.

She slowly raised her head to look and discovered that it was the boss!

No, it was her noble and precious young master. The memory of peeing all over his hand and arm flashed into her mind, and Ruanruan was so ashamed that she quickly pressed her head to the floor. Her four paws moved like a little spider's, or perhaps a little crab's, as she pressed her belly to the floor and tried to scurry away.

Help! That humiliating scene is attacking me again. I really don't want to face the boss right now. I don't even dare look him in the eye.

Lu Linyuan had only just come in. Before he could even crouch down and reach out to set Ruanruan upright, the little one swiftly slid away. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought someone had pressed a speed-up button on her. In a flash, she had run into a corner to hide.

Ruanruan hid in the gap between the cat tree and the large slide, burying her head inside too. Only her little tail couldn't be tucked away.

Lu Linyuan walked straight over. The gap was actually quite spacious, and he reached in without any trouble, taking Ruanruan's little paw to pull her out.

"Come out." His tone brooked no argument.

As her little body was tugged, Ruanruan looked at Lu Linyuan with grievance on her round little face. Her big eyes seemed to want to speak but held back, and she stubbornly refused to come out.

In truth, it would have been easy for Lu Linyuan to lift her out. He wasn't pulling very hard, only gently pinching her paw pad with his fingers, trying to coax her to come out of her own accord.

Ruanruan didn't want to come out at all. Hadn't she embarrassed herself enough? So she clung to the cat tree beside her with her other paw, making it clear she wasn't coming out.

"You really won't come out?" Lu Linyuan lowered his eyes to look down at her, his tone questioning.

Ruanruan gave a meow in response: I'm not coming out today!

"Then you don't want this?" After speaking, Lu Linyuan took out a crispy little dried fish, bright and golden in color.

What little kitty could resist the temptation of dried fish?

Ruanruan's bones went soft in an instant. She threw every humiliating image to the back of her mind, and all she could think was, It's you or me, little dried fish!

"Meow!" I'm coming, I'm coming!

I want to eat it, I want to eat it!