All My Colleagues Are Animals 42

Chapter 42

“What kind of good person interrupts a shrimp’s business?”

The mantis shrimp in her hand suddenly cursed.

“Ah?”

Ye Qingyu immediately felt apologetic.

Indeed, she shouldn’t have rashly interrupted…

Wait!

The next second, she came to her senses, and her heart suddenly stuttered.

How can this mantis shrimp speak human language?

And its voice is exactly the same as Sister Luo’s!

Could it be, similar to the mimic cameras used for filming underwater documentaries, that this mantis shrimp is actually a speaker…

With this thought, Ye Qingyu grabbed the mantis shrimp’s head, trying to find where the electronic device was installed.

“Aiya, don’t paw at me.”

The mantis shrimp’s long claws waved in resistance.

So vivid, so lifelike.

“…”

Ye Qingyu’s fingertips trembled, and a stiff, numb feeling quickly shot up her spine.

Her mind went blank, and her thoughts inadvertently drifted far away, all the way to the origin of all things.

No, the origin of all things wasn’t far enough.

About 13.7 billion years ago, a dense and hot singularity exploded, and its expansion formed this universe…

“Quick, put me back. I’m running out of oxygen, I can’t breathe…”

The little shrimp in her palm commanded weakly.

Ye Qingyu managed to come back to her senses.

She lowered her gaze, and her dazed eyes focused, finally landing on the mantis shrimp.

In a flash of inspiration, she understood—

This was not a speaker, but a real, live mantis shrimp.

More accurately, this was a live Sister Luo!

The moment she fully understood, she was as if struck by lightning. A buzzing sound rang in her ears, and she unconsciously stumbled back two steps.

She raised her hand, flung the sentient mantis shrimp, and threw it back into the tank.

With a plop, water splashed everywhere.

Sister Luo and the mantis shrimp’s identical light-blue hair.

Sister Luo often looked as if she had just come out of the water, her hair always dripping wet.

Sister Luo’s ex-girlfriend was a mantis shrimp.

And even earlier, on their first shopping trip, Sister Luo had said she was a “cold-blooded animal”…

Everything, absolutely everything, had a traceable clue.

All the strange and inexplicable things from the past were now reasonably explained in this instant, and everything fell into place.

Having studied and researched since she was little, science had long taken root in Ye Qingyu’s heart, building an indestructible tower.

But at this moment, it was teetering, and fine cracks were crazily growing and spreading on its outer walls, further loosening its interior.

Ye Qingyu’s mind was a blank slate. She fell back limply onto the sofa.

…

Luo Bian had been stressed from jumping out of the tank and was also suffering from a lack of oxygen, so her brain had naturally crashed.

Now, back in the water and breathing deeply, her consciousness slowly returned, and only then did she belatedly realize what she had done.

Her whole body stiffened.

It’s over.

After all her efforts to hide it, the secret that the little sea otter hadn’t even managed to expose, had been exposed by her!

How was she, Luo Bian, supposed to lift her shrimp head in front of the other small animals in the future?

No, wait.

The most important thing is, Ye Qingyu wasn’t scared out of her wits, was she?

She quickly clung to the wall of the tank and looked out at Ye Qingyu, only to see the young woman sitting on the sofa, her face pale, looking very frightened.

Ye Qingyu is a rare good person, and she’s Sister Rong’s precious darling. She can’t be scared half to death…

What to do, what to do!

Her mind was in a mess. Luo Bian swam around in circles, anxious.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed through her mind.

Her eyes lit up.

…

After a bout of dizziness, Ye Qingyu finally managed to recover a little.

She rubbed her brow with a complicated expression and suddenly heard a splash. She looked up and saw the mantis shrimp leap out of the tank again.

The moment it landed, it transformed into a human—the wet-haired Sister Luo.

“!”

Ye Qingyu’s eyes widened, and her heart instantly leaped into her throat.

Seeing a mantis shrimp transform into a person with her own eyes for the first time was even more direct and shocking than hearing a mantis shrimp speak.

Her body instantly froze, unable to move, a numbness coursing through her limbs.

But she saw Sister Luo’s brow furrow slightly, her expression serious and solemn, showing a certain compassion.

“…I am actually an ancient shrimp god, and I can give blessings to kind humans.”

“And you, Ye Qingyu, are the human I have chosen.”

The little shrimp had recently been binge-watching a fantasy mini-series online, in which the fox was an ancient immortal who could also transform into a human. The netizens all loved it and no one said they were scared.

It seemed humans liked small animal gods.

In addition, when she was surfing the web, she had also often seen netizens use “even a gold miner can’t dig up such a powerful god” to express their admiration.

It seemed humans were quite drawn to the idea of “gods.”

So, if she called herself a shrimp god, Ye Qingyu should be able to accept it well.

But she saw the human on the sofa’s face turn deathly pale, and the bit of rosy color that had just returned was now gone without a trace.

Luo Bian scratched her head, puzzled.

She was about to walk toward Ye Qingyu, but Ye Qingyu, frozen like a statue, her pupils constricting, waved her hand at her. “Shrimp god, please stay where you are!”

Luo Bian blinked.

The next second, Ye Qingyu quickly got up from the sofa and rushed to the small building’s door as if fleeing.

With a click, the sound of the door closing sounded.

The human was very well-mannered. Even at such a critical moment, she still closed the door gently.

***

On her fiftieth day of work at the new studio, Ye Qingyu, using the excuse of going back to her hometown, took her first leave of absence.

At this moment, she was lying on her bedroom bed, helplessly hugging her red panda plush toy.

She couldn’t tell which was more absurd: that her colleague was actually a sentient mantis shrimp, or that her colleague was an ancient shrimp god.

She didn’t even dare to think further down that path—

If the truth was the former, that small animals in the world could become sentient, then could the “people” she had met actually all be small animals?

This kind of thing was like a domino effect. Just a light push on the first one, and the entire set would collapse one by one, a single move affecting the whole game.

Colleagues, boss…

The large, fluffy tail in the blanket last time…

Red panda…

Red panda.

Those three words beat against her chest, and Ye Qingyu’s heart pounded. Her fingertips clutched the covers, and her blood seemed to boil with a certain excitement, on the verge of igniting.

Stop.

She managed to rein in her thoughts, trying not to think about a certain person.

She first started to ponder about herself—

Am I a person?

Could Ms. Ye Zhao actually be an animal, like a puppy or something?

Ye Qingyu decisively took out her phone and called Ms. Ye Zhao.

The other end picked up quickly. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“Mom, are you actually a puppy?”

Ye Qingyu’s gaze was dazed as she stared at the ceiling.

“What puppy?”

Ye Zhao reacted quickly and said calmly, “If it were me, I would definitely be the ‘older sister’.”

It was one thing for her daughter to play “older sister and puppy” with her sugar mama, but to even guess it about her own mother.

Please. If she, Ye Zhao, were to play, she would definitely be the “older sister” and find a little puppy for herself.

“So you’re not a puppy?” Ye Qingyu murmured.

“Of course not,” Ye Zhao teased. “You’re the little puppy.”

Being so eager and good to that pretty older sister.

Ye Qingyu’s eyelashes trembled.

So I really am a little puppy?!

So I’m not Ms. Ye Zhao’s biological child, but a little puppy cub she picked up from the side of a trash can and raised to adulthood?

“No wonder,” she murmured.

No wonder her mother used to say that she had her, this child, all on her own.

“Then where did you pick me up?” Ye Qingyu was in a mess. “What breed of dog am I?”

Ye Zhao: “…You’re a person! I carried you for ten months and gave birth to you myself!”

Ye Zhao was worried. “Honey, did you and that little Sister Rong break up?”

Her mental state seemed a little off.

“Don’t be sad. We have money, looks, and brains. It’s no problem to find another eighteen ‘older sisters’.”

She comforted, “Or you could discuss it with her. You be the ‘older sister,’ she be the ‘puppy.’ You could switch it up for a change.”

Ye Qingyu: “…”

After a long chat, the mother and daughter’s trains of thought finally, and with great difficulty, met.

Ye Qingyu’s self-perception changed from a puppy back to a person, and she confirmed that everyone was basically a person.

Ms. Ye Zhao was open-minded and had seen a lot, and she had never encountered a sentient small animal.

So Sister Luo was just a rare exception?

Or was she really a god?

Or was she having another hallucination?

She rubbed her slightly aching forehead and said to her mother:

“I didn’t break up with her, and I haven’t suffered any setback. I’m just a little tired. I’ll be fine after some sleep.”

After hanging up, she was dazed for a while before she realized.

How could she say “I didn’t break up with her”? They weren’t even dating in the first place.

Now the misunderstanding was even bigger.

Ye Qingyu let out a resigned sigh and, hugging her red panda doll, fell into a muddled sleep.

***

After her leave, Ye Qingyu returned to work.

Every time she had come to work before, she had been full of anticipation and joy.

Today, standing at the entrance of the small building, she felt a little apprehensive.

During her leave, she had surfed the internet extensively and had also spent a long time at the largest library in B-City, looking up a lot of information.

She had not found any records of sentient small animals.

Of course, myths and legends were as vast as the sea.

After standing at the entrance of the small building for a long time, Ye Qingyu ultimately chose not to push the door open but to walk toward the backyard.

She had a feeling that the magical scholar tree might hold some answers.

Walking along the stone path outside the small building, she arrived at the backyard. The first thing that caught her eye was the magnificent, large swimming pool.

Her steps paused.

She saw a brown capybara in the swimming pool. It was comfortably soaking in a corner, crunching on a raw carrot.

“…”

Ye Qingyu’s breath tightened, and she was immediately reminded of her long-haired, brown-haired colleague, Shui Zhu.

Her zen-like nature.

The orange on her head.

The way she gnawed on a raw carrot.

In a flash, countless other details connected in this instant.

Could it be that this one is an ancient capybara god?

Ye Qingyu’s brow twitched slightly. She tentatively called out her colleague’s name to the capybara. “Shui Zhu?”

Crunch, crunch.

The capybara was as still as a mountain, continuing to focus on eating its raw carrot.

It had a zen-like appearance of not hearing, not seeing, everything having nothing to do with it. If it was dead, it was dead; if it wasn’t, it was still alive.

Ever since Luo Bian had been exposed, the entire studio had held an emergency meeting.

After an intense discussion, the small animals had decided to continue to hide it if they could, otherwise, with the human’s fear of birds, she might quit.

And at that time, Pei the Little Able Cat had repeatedly warned Gu Yue, Nian Qiu, and the little sea otter, feeling that these three were the most likely to have a slip-up.

Shui Zhu was the most worry-free beast.

Sure enough, Shui Zhu’s calm and unruffled demeanor made the human let go of her suspicions.

She should have successfully bluffed her way through and been taken by the human as a new pet raised by Sister Rong.

The human walked away.

Shui Zhu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She was, after all, the most stable and reliable existence in the entire studio.

But in the next second, she saw the human suddenly stop and turn back, a puzzled look on her face.

“I always felt there was something strange about that big goose and pelican story last time. The pelican should clearly be the S.”

For a certain author with unique tastes, having their ship reversed was even more painful than having their flesh cut.

Moreover, it was being thrown in their face by a reader who had reversed their ship!

A capybara also has a temper.

“That’s not…”

That’s not right. The pelican is the M, it has to be the M!!!

Shui Zhu’s ears twitched. Her carrot-gnawing movements paused, and in her anger, she opened her mouth to retort, and the carrot fell into the swimming pool with a plop.

Fortunately, she managed to react in the next second and froze.

But the excited words had already rushed to her lips, and the first three words had inadvertently spilled out.

“…”

The capybara and the human stared at each other in silence, and the entire backyard fell into a dead silence.

On the scholar tree not far away.

Between the intertwined branches, a pair of snow-white, fluffy, bow-tie-shaped ears were perked up high.

After a moment, the large ears suddenly trembled and visibly drooped.

…

Even if the sky fell, one had to go to work on time. This was perhaps the mark of a model employee.

Seeing that it was almost nine o’clock, Ye Qingyu rushed toward the small building.

She stood at the entrance, her finger on the fingerprint lock.

After the shock just now, her hands were sweaty, and her first two attempts failed to be recognized.

Ye Qingyu pursed her lips and fiddled with the electronic fingerprint lock for a moment. She inadvertently brushed against the rotatable cover at the top and only then discovered that this lock also had a facial recognition function.

And perhaps due to a system glitch, the last recognized content was still on the screen:

8:55, beast face recognition passed.

The recognition image was a large black panther face. It looked as if it hadn’t woken up yet, its sharp, jade-green eyes looking a little dazed and silly, and there was even a blade of grass in its mouth.

Ye Qingyu was stunned.