All My Colleagues Are Animals 43

Chapter 43

Ye Qingyu stood at the entrance of the small building for a long time before finally pushing the door open.

It was already past nine o’clock; she was late today.

Her steps were unsteady as she reached the staircase. Just as she was about to go up, her feet suddenly paused.

She turned her head and looked toward the living room’s French windows, only to see that the large display tank was gone.

She figured a certain shrimp, after some painful reflection, had decided not to place her nest in such a conspicuous spot anymore.

Ye Qingyu let out a soft sigh, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

So far, she had discovered that three of her colleagues were small animals.

And as a person who was not stupid and possessed good memory and observation skills, her other colleagues naturally had countless details worthy of contemplation and scrutiny in her mind.

Hair color, eating habits, behavioral patterns, preferences… and even the original forms she had witnessed with her own eyes.

The truth was practically bursting forth.

The model employee, for once, disregarded her work hours and brainstormed at the turn of the stairs leading from the first to the second floor, taking a long while to recover.

A quarter of an hour later, Ye Qingyu finally regained her spirits, walked up the remaining few steps, and arrived at the work area.

Her colleagues’ colorful, fluffy heads came into view.

Her throat immediately felt a little tight.

More than fifty days ago, when she had first stepped into this work area, her new colleagues’ colorful, fluffy heads had amazed her, and she couldn’t help but marvel at everyone’s fashion sense.

But now, looking around, she suddenly realized that the answer had been right in front of her all along.

Ye Qingyu pursed her lips, her face still maintaining a calm and composed expression as she walked to her desk.

Her colleagues greeted her as if nothing had happened, enthusiastically asking if her trip back to her hometown had gone smoothly.

Ye Qingyu smiled gently and replied.

She sat down at her desk, and Gu Yue’s long, white-and-pink hair swayed in her peripheral vision.

With every sway, Ye Qingyu felt that she was about to faint in the next second.

She raised a hand to her forehead.

For the rest of the time, a strange silence continued to permeate the work area, with only the clattering of keyboards—

A sneaky group chat called [Shedding Fur, Not Covers] had been established three days ago.

Right now, the chat was on fire.

[Luo Bian (Cover Blown Edition):] Ye Qingyu came to work today. What’s the situation now? Does she believe I’m a god?

[Gu Yue:] She looks very calm. I think she thought it was a dream.

[Shui Zhu (Cover Blown Edition):] .

[Everyone:] ?!

[Gu Yue:] Tun-Tun, say something! Why did your group nickname change to ‘Cover Blown Edition’!!

[Shui Zhu (Cover Blown Edition):] She reversed my ship in my face.

Tun-Tun currently only shipped two CPs: Red Panda x Human, and Big Goose x Pelican.

In these, the Red Panda and the Big Goose were the aggressive tops, and the Human and the Pelican were the soft bottoms. This was an indestructible and indisputable truth in Tun-Tun’s heart.

Defending the truth, though my cover be blown, is an honor!

Everyone felt a sense of disappointment at Shui Zhu’s explanation.

One small animal blowing their cover could still be said to be an exception. If two blew their covers, wouldn’t that put all the small animals in a precarious situation!

Among them, Wu Shu was the most heartbroken and couldn’t help but point fingers.

[Wu Shu:] How could you blow your cover so easily!

[Wu Shu:] So unreliable.

[Wu Shu:] Just go ahead and expose yourselves one by one. I will definitely be able to keep my cover until the end.

An hour and a half later.

[Wu Shu (Cover Blown Edition):] What’s for lunch?

[Everyone:] ?

[Wu Shu (Cover Blown Edition):] [I’ve been good, please let me off.gif]

…

This is what happened.

After quietly slacking off at work for an hour and a half, Ye Qingyu felt much calmer.

The breakthrough from zero to one is often difficult. This paradigm-shifting qualitative change had made her take two days off to lie at home.

But from one to many was just a matter of quantity, and relatively easy.

Moreover, the sun was bright outside the window, the spring breeze was blowing, and the entire studio was filled with the clear fragrance of flowers, as peaceful and harmonious as ever.

Her colleagues were typing on their computers, either slacking off or working, no different from before.

But, she found that although her colleagues looked serious on the surface, they were all a bit sneaky.

Whenever she inadvertently looked up, wherever her gaze swept, it was as if she had touched a patch of sensitive plants—

Her colleagues’ gazes, which had been secretly directed at her, would instantly retract, and they would feign to turn to their computers.

An almost imperceptible smile curled Ye Qingyu’s lips.

After slacking off a little longer, she got up from her desk and went to get water.

The water in the dispenser was empty. Ye Qingyu placed her cup on the side and was about to lift a new barrel of water to replace it.

“I’ll get it.”

A pair of hands suddenly reached out from her side.

Ye Qingyu turned her head and, caught off guard, met Wu Shu’s jade-green eyes.

Her breath hitched.

Even though she had mentally prepared herself, the human’s innate fear of predatory beasts still uncontrollably surged up.

But, in the next second—

—images of the black panther gnawing on grass, its mouth covered in mud and grass clippings, devastating the surrounding turf into a bald patch, and of her dazed eyes in the morning with a blade of grass in her mouth, all flooded her mind.

And so, although that pair of jade-green eyes still held a wild and primal danger, Ye Qingyu suddenly felt that she was not so scary anymore.

She even felt a little like laughing.

“…”

Wu Shu blinked her eyes, her tone cool. “What are you laughing at?”

This fragile human, if she knew she was actually a majestic black panther, she would surely cry in fear.

Ye Qingyu shook her head. “Nothing.”

Wu Shu frowned suspiciously.

She lifted the barrel of water without any effort and inverted it onto the dispenser, revealing the firm and powerful lines of her arms.

After doing this, Wu Shu’s heart stirred.

She had unintentionally revealed such impressive strength, such perfect muscle lines. It must have made her look like a ferocious and elegant beast.

Could it easily arouse the human’s suspicion?

She had boasted to everyone that she would keep her cover until the very end.

She absolutely could not be careless!

And so, Wu Shu suddenly stumbled, panted heavily, wiped away non-existent sweat, and said to the human weakly, “This water is a bit heavy. You can get it next time.”

“Mmm.”

The human nodded with great understanding. “That’s true. After all, if you only eat grass, you might not have much strength.”

“?”

A sharp, dangerous light suddenly shot out from Wu Shu’s eyes, and her whole being bristled.

She ground her back teeth, and a growl of dissatisfaction, characteristic of a large feline, rumbled in her throat.

“I have no strength?”

“With one swipe of my paw, you’d be as fragile as paper!”

The proud black panther could not tolerate being looked down upon by a fragile human and vowed to defend her prestige. “And, I don’t just eat grass. I eat a lot of meat!”

It was just that last time, after getting drunk, she had gnawed on a bellyful of grass and had found that the grass had a damn sweet taste.

The human blinked her eyes and, going with the flow, said, “Okay, I understand.”

She unhurriedly picked up her water cup, filled it, and leisurely returned to her seat.

The bristling panther stood where she was, dazed, an agitated cowlick still floating above her head.

“…”

Dammit.

The human used a basic attack, and she used her ultimate.

***

At this point, the nature of the matter had already changed.

After three of them had blown their covers in succession, the [Shedding Fur, Not Covers] group chat was still on fire, but the rules of the group had already been invisibly transformed—

Whoever exposed themselves first lost. The one who kept their cover until the end was the king of beasts.

There were no prizes in this game. The competition was purely out of the strong desire to win among the little beasts.

The shrimp, capybara, and panther who had been eliminated first were already a tier below the other beasts.

For this reason, Gu Yue had even changed her profile picture.

The wide-open pink beak that seemed to want to clamp everything in the world had been changed to a worldly lotus flower.

And Jin Can had put away her collar and had recently been muttering, “Being a person is so tiring. It would be great if I were really a little dog.”

She would then add, “But unfortunately, I’m not!”

Nian Qiu had set up a “fear of birds” persona for herself and had posted a large sign at her desk: [Birds or me, me or birds.]

The little sea otter also quickly integrated into the big sister beasts’ game.

She held the new smartphone that Sister Rong had bought for her and, with some clumsiness, set her WeChat nickname to: Not a Sea Otter (Looking for Mom Edition).

And as the boss of the entire studio, a certain red panda with the surname Pei was naturally exceptionally intelligent.

She avoided the brunt of it and hid on the scholar tree all day, gnawing on fruit, not coming to work at all.

And so, at lunchtime, Ye Qingyu, who usually had lunch with her beautiful boss, waited and waited, but did not see her at all.

She opened her phone, clicked on the pinned chat, and saw that Boss Pei’s WeChat status was even set to “Do Not Disturb.”

Her gaze shifted slightly and landed on the remark [Pei the Red Panda]. Ye Qingyu’s gaze froze.

She had been modeling her beautiful boss after a red panda for so long that she had already changed her WeChat and phone contacts to [Pei the Red Panda].

Usually, whenever she saw it, she just thought it was cute.

But now, when she intentionally or unintentionally glanced at it, her spine would instantly tingle, and a long, rippling itch that was on the verge of bursting would silently course through her chest.

The four characters “Pei the Red Panda” were like an obvious fact, like a truth that had long since surfaced.

But she didn’t dare to think too much about it.

She dared to guess that Jin Can was a puppy, and even that she was the pitiful Golden Retriever from the rescue column of the “Small Animal Survival Guide.”

She dared to guess that the new little girl was a sea otter, looking for her sea otter mother who had transformed into a human and come ashore.

She also dared to guess that Nian Qiu was the little fluffy bird that had scared her into fainting three times and lying in the hospital for a day.

She even dared to guess that Gu Yue was a pelican, even though this colleague was sitting right next to her, making her feel on the verge of fainting…

But she did not dare to guess too much about the matter of her beautiful boss possibly being a red panda.

Because her heart couldn’t take it.

Just touching on that thought for a moment, and she would feel her blood surge, the tips of her ears turn red, and her chest feel as if it were being scratched by a red panda’s soft fur.

“Hoo…”

Ye Qingyu covered her hot cheeks.

She was eager to explore, to see Pei Rong’s true face.

But she was also worried that if that day really came, she would be so charmed that she would bleed from her seven orifices, smoke would come out of her head, and she would faint on the spot.

But, more important than all this…

She first needed to catch that woman who was clearly avoiding her.

They hadn’t seen each other for so long.

***

3 PM.

While everyone was in the second-floor work area, a little beast snuck to the first-floor kitchen, wanting to get some fruit to eat on the scholar tree.

She had already finished the ones she had prepared in the morning.

Pei the Red Panda tiptoed, carefully making sure no one was around, before she relaxed a little and yawned.

She had just woken up from her nap and her eyes were still sleepy, her long, reddish-brown curls a little messy.

She had already taken half a step into the kitchen—

Rustle.

A sound suddenly came from the kitchen, and Pei the Red Panda’s ears immediately perked up.

The next second, Ye Qingyu’s figure unexpectedly appeared in her line of sight.

Pei the Red Panda trembled all over and subconsciously turned to run.

“Boss Pei.”

The human’s clear, gentle voice came from behind her.

The two words struck Pei the Red Panda’s ears, and her heart immediately began to pound like thunder.

…If I run now, it’ll look too suspicious.

Taking a deep breath, Pei the Red Panda slowly turned around and said nonchalantly, “What is it?”

Ye Qingyu pursed her lips and looked at her beautiful boss, whom she hadn’t seen in several days.

Her gaze swept over her long, reddish-brown curls, then down to the sharp canine teeth of a small beast.

A sudden itch in her chest, accompanied by a soft, swelling heat.

It was so unbearable that for a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

After a few seconds of silence, she managed to recover a little and continued, “Why have you been avoiding me lately? We haven’t seen each other in several days.”

Her tone was a little innocent and aggrieved.

As she spoke, she walked toward the woman.

Pei the Red Panda’s chest tightened. Amidst the clamoring alarm bells in her heart, she subconsciously backed away until she could back away no further, and her back hit the wall.

“…I haven’t been avoiding you.”

Pei the Red Panda lifted her chin and said proudly.

But a crimson flush uncontrollably appeared at the corners of her peach blossom eyes.

Ye Qingyu stared at her without a moment’s pause.

She looked like a fluffy little red panda that had been accidentally caught by a human, with no way to escape, huddled in a corner, cute and helpless.

She continued to stare at her.

She looked at her eyebrows, her peach blossom eyes, her nose, her pink lips, and then down, at her pitiful, helpless, and intertwined hands.

After not seeing her for a few days, her nails had grown out again.

“Your nails have grown again.”

The human’s eyes were clear and deep.

“You won’t be cutting my claws again!”

Pei the Red Panda’s peach blossom eyes narrowed. She hid her hands behind her back and said sullenly.

Claws.

The word that Pei the Red Panda had blurted out without noticing, rolled over and over in the human’s heart.

Ye Qingyu’s throat moved.

“…”

Pei the Red Panda bit her lip. She felt that Ye Qingyu’s eyes were like a turbulent vortex in the deep sea, about to tear her, a little panda, apart and swallow her whole.

A particularly dangerous feeling was pumped throughout her body by her pounding heart, and her whole body tensed up, a certain dampness seeping out between her legs.

The instinct carved into a red panda’s bones also began to roar, making her unable to help but want to raise her hands in “surrender.”

The movement had just begun when she suddenly realized something and managed to hold it back.

She held it back until her peach blossom eyes were flooded with a moist sheen, brimming with tears, like the first birth of spring water.

And the human unhurriedly took out a tissue and, as always, patiently and meticulously wiped her tears.

“Your eyes are all red from holding it back,” she said in a hoarse voice.