All My Colleagues Are Animals 41p1

Chapter 41 p1

The team-building event of two days and one night ended without any major incidents.

On Sunday evening, the bus drove smoothly back to the city, dropping off the humans and beasts at their respective homes.

Last night had been too exhausting, and when Ye Qingyu returned home, she felt a rare bit of fatigue.

After a shower, she lazily slipped into her bedcovers, turned off the lights, and prepared to sleep.

Drip-drip—

A few crisp sounds suddenly came from the window.

Immediately after, a fierce wind, carrying a dense and urgent rain, struck the windowpane. The long-brewing storm had arrived.

Thankfully, there was no thunder, otherwise her beautiful boss would have been scared again.

With this thought, Ye Qingyu comfortably closed her eyes, grabbed the plush toy to hug, and rubbed its fluffy head.

The moment before she fell asleep.

The jade-green eyes of the large, herbivorous beast from the jungle flashed in her mind, followed by the appearance of Wu Shu’s same-colored eyes.

Her eyelashes trembled, and she suddenly opened her eyes.

***

Monday

Another workday.

As Ye Qingyu left her home, Pei the Little Able Cat was also groggily getting out of bed.

She brushed her teeth and washed her face, her eyes still heavy with sleep, and inadvertently noticed that the nails on both her hands were short, as if they had just been trimmed and filed.

Clearly the handiwork of her precious human.

“…”

Pei the Little Able Cat froze for a half-moment, not remembering at all when they had been cut.

Have I already gotten used to being a red panda with unsharpened paws?

She thought, a little melancholic.

Just as the sullen Pei the Little Able Cat was coming down from the third floor, the animals of the studio were gathered in the first-floor living room, chattering nervously and excitedly.

Seeing Pei Rong come down, the little beasts quickly said, “Sister Rong! We got a call on the rescue hotline!”

Before the “Small Animal Survival Guide” was published, the studio had specially purchased a new phone and SIM card to serve as a dedicated rescue line.

And since the magazine’s release, this was the first time the phone had rung.

Pei the Little Able Cat’s ears instantly perked up. Forgetting to mourn her lost claws, she walked quickly toward the living room. “Answer it.”

Everyone gathered around, and after answering the call, they put it on speaker.

A young girl’s soft, sweet voice soon came from the other end. “Hello, is this the ‘Small Animal Survival Guide’?”

Pei the Little Able Cat cleared her throat. “Yes, it is.”

“I… I’m a sea otter. I’ve been looking for my mom, but I can’t find her.”

The young girl said in a small, quiet voice, which was a little wet. “Last night, there was a heavy rainstorm, and my house was completely destroyed. I don’t know where to go now…”

The young girl said dejectedly, “I saw in the magazine that you help small animals, so I tried calling you for help.”

The rainstorm last night had been extremely fierce, as if it were going to submerge the entire B-City.

She didn’t know how this little sea otter had gotten through it.

Pei the Little Able Cat’s brow furrowed slightly. She was suddenly reminded of the time she had been homeless, drenched into a wet little red panda dumpling.

“Where are you now? We’ll come pick you up,” she said.

The little sea otter’s eyes lit up. She lifted her head and gestured seriously. “I’m under a cloud.”

Feeling a brief silence on the other end of the line, she anxiously rubbed her cheeks. “A cloud, and there’s a bird flying past the cloud.”

“Don’t worry,” Pei Rong soothed the person on the other end. “Ask a female human on the roadside.”

After a while, they finally figured out the little sea otter’s location and specific situation.

Coincidentally, that place was not far from Fluffy Road, so everyone immediately prepared to take the tricycle to pick up the otter.

And so, just as Ye Qingyu arrived at the company entrance, she saw her colleagues all sitting on the tricycle together, looking as if they were about to head out in a hurry.

Pei the Little Able Cat saw her human at a glance and crooked a finger. “Quick, get on.”

Ye Qingyu reacted quickly, nimbly getting on the vehicle and taking a seat next to her beautiful boss.

“Boss Pei, what are we doing?” she asked curiously.

“We just got a rescue call,” Pei the Little Able Cat said.

Ye Qingyu’s spirits lifted.

Are we going to rescue a small animal!

Luo Bian floored it, and the tricycle weaved through the streets like an agile beast.

Ten minutes later, they followed the address provided by the little sea otter and arrived at a dilapidated alley.

At the end of the alley stood a cute young girl of about sixteen or seventeen, with long brown hair.

She blinked her watery eyes, her whole body soaking wet, water still dripping from the hem of her clothes. She had been completely drenched by the storm.

A tattered, damp dog bed was piled at her feet, perhaps destroyed by the sudden rain, or perhaps it was already broken.

The scene made Ye Qingyu’s heart tighten. She remembered this young girl—

On the first day of the “Small Animal Survival Guide”‘s release, when she and her beautiful boss had gone to the mall bookstore to investigate, it was this young girl who had taken the first free magazine and had sat on the side, reading it with great interest.

And even more… she was even more familiar than that.

The moment the young girl looked up, Ye Qingyu’s memories flooded back, and she suddenly remembered a news story she had seen last month—

A soaking wet girl had single-handedly broken into a movie press conference, shouting for her mother as she was being carried away by security.

The girl in the news seemed to be this young girl.

“We’re from the ‘Small Animal Survival Guide.’ You just called for help, right?” Pei the Little Able Cat confirmed.

The little sea otter nodded. She stood alone by her destroyed “house,” facing a group of strange humans and beasts, showing no fear at all.

But her body was thin, her lips pale. She looked tired and hungry.

“Jiejie, I remember you,” she said, her round eyes lighting up as she glanced at Ye Qingyu and Pei Rong. “I saw you at the bookstore entrance that day.”

Pei the Little Able Cat also had an impression.

She curled her lips into a smile and bent down to extend a hand to the little sea otter. “Get on the vehicle first.”

The little sea otter was like a walking wet towel. After getting on the tricycle, water streamed from her body, and a dark patch soon pooled on the floor of the vehicle.

Ye Qingyu’s heart clenched. “Quick, dry yourself off. You’ll catch a cold like this.”

Her hand immediately went into her pocket and took out a pack of tissues she had prepared for wiping her beautiful boss’s tears and the fruit juice from the corners of her mouth at a moment’s notice.

But it was clearly not enough.

Fortunately, her colleagues had brought a large, clean bath towel in advance.

The little sea otter took the bath towel to dry herself off and thanked them gratefully.

Then she said seriously to Ye Qingyu, “Thank you, Jiejie. Don’t worry, I won’t be cold if I just rub my face a lot.”

Ye Qingyu blinked. “Huh?”

The little sea otter was stunned and also blinked. “Didn’t your mother teach you to rub your face?”

Ye Qingyu’s ears twitched slightly, and she said frankly, “No.”

A hint of pity immediately appeared in the little sea otter’s eyes.

So this is a big sister beast who has no mother to love her.

Sea otters all love to rub their faces, and for this reason, they have charmed a whole legion of people on the internet.

But this is because their cheek glands secrete oil. If they use their paws to spread it along the fur on their cheeks, they can keep their body fur soft and smooth, which serves to clean, waterproof, and keep them warm.

After wiping herself with the soft bath towel for a while, the little sea otter went from a wet towel to a non-dripping wet towel.

“Grrr—”

Her stomach began to growl loudly.

The company had just had a two-day team-building event, so there wasn’t much food in the kitchen. Fortunately, the scallops in the tank were still fresh.

Just now, when they were leaving, Pei the Little Able Cat had remembered to bring some for the little sea otter.

After the little sea otter had dried herself off, she handed her a bag of scallops. “Fill your stomach.”

Ye Qingyu was slightly stunned.

Seafood sashimi in the morning?

But the young girl’s eyes lit up. She was clearly very happy. She took it and said, “Thank you, Jiejie.”

“But, do you have a rock?”

A few minutes later, the little sea otter placed a large rock she had picked up from the roadside on her stomach and, holding a scallop in both hands, smashed it against the rock.

Her face was scrunched up with effort as she smashed it.

This scene suddenly reminded Ye Qingyu of sea otters.

When they eat, they usually float on their backs on the surface of the sea, place a rock on their stomachs, and smash hard food against it to get the soft meat inside.

This young girl must have been wandering alone looking for her mother since she was very young. In her difficult struggle for survival, she had haphazardly learned some of the ways of a small beast. It was truly heartbreaking.

She didn’t know how her mother could have borne to abandon such a cute daughter.

“Jiejie, you can learn from me.”

The little sea otter cracked open a scallop and suddenly turned her head to look straight at her.

Ye Qingyu blinked her eyes.

“Learn what?”

“Learn to eat like this,” the little sea otter said, pointing to the rock on her stomach. She said seriously, “Your mother must not have taught you this either, right?”

Ye Qingyu: “…No.”

Ms. Ye Zhao indeed had not.

The little sea otter said, “It’s okay. I can teach you.”

This big sister beast has no mother to love her. She’s really so pitiful.

The little sea otter was willing to teach her everything her mother had taught her.

Ye Qingyu’s brow furrowed slightly.

This young girl who has been braving society alone must have suffered a lot to have been broken like this.

The human and the otter pitied each other, and their conversation left everyone stunned.

They wanted to interject, but couldn’t find a way to break in.

…

Arriving at the studio, Pei the Little Able Cat first took the little sea otter to take a shower.

Standing in the third-floor bathroom, the little sea otter was a little at a loss. “What’s this? I usually just wash my fur by the river.”

“It’s just that, recently, I suddenly don’t know how to turn back into a sea otter,” the little sea otter said dejectedly.

“It’s okay,” Pei the Little Able Cat said in a gentle voice. “When you’re newly transformed, it’s normal to be clumsy with the switching.”

Pei the Little Able Cat, back when she was struggling in human society, had often longed to encounter a warm and welcoming small animal organization.

In her fantasy, it would be full of beasts who could transform into humans just like her, who could teach her basic common sense and give her a little bit of apple.

Unfortunately, there was none.

But it didn’t matter. Now, she had built one herself.

Pei the Little Able Cat patiently taught the little sea otter how to take a shower, her usual spoiled demeanor with her human gone, replaced by a mature and reliable air.

“Thank you, Jiejie! I’ve got it!” the little sea otter said.

Pei the Little Able Cat’s heart relaxed slightly. She walked out of the bathroom and closed the door.

She suddenly felt dazed.

How did she learn to shower in the human way back then?

It seems… it seems…

As long as she lay in the bathtub, a human’s hand would gently scrub her fur, cover her whole body with fragrant, white bubbles, and even style her furry ears.

“Making Neng Bao all clean and fragrant,” that person had said with a laugh.

No, that’s not right.

Before Ye Qingyu, she had never had a human at all.

Her brain throbbed. Pei the Little Able Cat stood there in a daze for a long while before she managed to come back to her senses.

…