All My Colleagues Are Animals 61

Chapter 61

“Wait, don’t clamp—”

Hearing this, the pelican, who was rushing out to capture the criminal, flapped its wings and managed to screech to a halt, its beak agape, looking around in confusion.

“Huh?”

Seeing the strangely shaped creature suddenly rush toward her, the woman with long, light-blue hair trembled all over, a helpless panic in her eyes.

She stumbled backward and, tripping over something, fell onto the grass with a thud.

She looked up, her gaze fixed on Luo Bian, a fragile red at the corners of her eyes.

Luo Bian, frozen in place, felt a pang in her heart.

She belatedly took a deep breath and stepped forward.

She slowly squatted down in front of the fallen woman, her gentle gaze enveloping her, and carefully extended a hand.

The woman stared at Luo Bian without a moment’s pause, her wet lashes shimmering with a starlike light under the moon.

After a moment of thought, she extended her own hand, a little clumsy, and lightly tapped Luo Bian’s palm.

Smack.

A tingling, electric sensation shot up from her slapped palm to her heart, stirring up a wave of ecstatic joy.

Luo Bian’s throat was instantly choked, and hot tears streamed down, soaking the corners of her upturned lips.

This familiar shrimp-whipping action—

“…It’s you!”

…

“Did you catch it?”

“What kind of animal is it!”

Hearing a commotion from the bamboo forest, the humans and beasts who had been lying in ambush all rushed to the scene of the capture, their eyes full of curiosity.

Then they saw the “criminal’s” long, light-blue hair and were stunned.

This is…?

More and more strangely shaped animals appeared, surrounding her, their gazes hostile.

The woman’s lashes trembled slightly, and she shrank back helplessly.

She hugged the little mangosteen doll in her arms and, almost imperceptibly, moved a little closer to Luo Bian.

Pei the Red Panda, perched on Ye the Little Tree, her eyes widened slightly.

—That little mangosteen doll looks like hers.

“This is my ex-girlfriend. She’s just transformed, so she’s probably very shy.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow. I’m taking her back first.”

Luo Bian’s voice was hoarse, and it trembled with an uncontrollable joy.

She bent down and carefully picked up her ex-girlfriend in a princess carry. Paying close attention to her footing, she walked away with steady steps.

Her cool, long, light-blue hair swayed with her movements, looking very pleased with herself in the moonlight.

Leaving behind a group of stunned humans and beasts.

“This is good news,” Pei the Red Panda said, letting out a drowsy yawn and raising a furry paw. “Dismissed. Let’s go to sleep.”

After speaking, she fell asleep on Ye the Little Tree.

…

Luo Bian carried her ex-girlfriend back to the first floor of the small building.

She pushed open the main door and turned on the lights.

After changing her shoes at the entryway, she had only taken a few steps in when her foot suddenly kicked something round.

She looked down and saw that it was the small ball that Jin Can usually played with, which was normally placed properly in the low cabinet in the living room.

Luo Bian’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and a certain premonition arose in her heart.

She continued to walk in and indeed saw that the living room was a mess—

The blanket on the sofa, which had been neatly folded, was now spread out and haphazardly thrown on the floor.

A potted plant that had been kept by the French windows had been brutally destroyed, a large patch of it now bald.

And there was a sneaky black bag lying by the leg of the coffee table. A closer look revealed a few round mangosteens inside…

So… so.

While the small animal night patrol team was lying in ambush in the courtyard, yawning in the middle of the night, her precious ex-girlfriend was happily playing in the living room of the small building.

Luo Bian looked up thoughtfully and met the innocent and beautiful eyes of the woman in her arms.

After a moment of thought, she had a sudden realization:

“You’ve been so listless lately, ignoring me, either sleeping or sleeping…”

“Could it be because you’ve been tired from transforming into a human and playing every day?”

The moment she finished, she saw the woman in her arms yawn, a belated drowsiness in her clear and dazed eyes.

Her long, thick, crow-like lashes fluttered in her sleep and finally closed peacefully.

Her head tilted to the side, and she fell asleep.

Luo Bian: “…”

So the sad tears the little shrimp had been secretly shedding lately were all just water that had gotten into her hair because it wasn’t dry.

…

Ye Qingyu carried the sweetly sleeping little red panda into the small building, preparing to go to the living room to get a bottle of water.

Her gaze swept over the messy living room, which looked as if it had been ransacked, and she let out a light breath.

Sister Luo was about to be in for a period of happy busyness.

Just as she was about to leave after getting the water, Ye Qingyu unintentionally glanced into the black bag by the coffee table and saw four round mangosteens lying inside.

Her brow immediately twitched.

The fruits in her home were all under her strict supervision. These nameless mangosteens were clearly off-the-books wild mangosteens.

If not for Luo Bian’s ex-girlfriend accidentally finding them while exploring the world, she would not have known that the red panda had been hiding a private stash of fruit behind her back.

The human pondered for a moment and, with a heart of stone, bent down to pick up the black bag, preparing to confiscate this private stash to prevent the little red panda from consuming too much sugar.

The sleeping Pei the Red Panda seemed to sense something and suddenly nuzzled the human’s neck with her fluffy head.

“Mmm, Ye the Little Tree,” she murmured in her dream.

Ye Qingyu’s heart felt a little itchy from the soft, glutinous fur.

Forget it.

If a little red panda doesn’t have her own private stash of fruit, she’ll have two less points of confidence when she speaks when she’s out and about.

As for controlling her sugar intake, there are always more solutions than difficulties.

Her fingertips slowly released the bag, and she turned and left.

***

Luo Bian carefully placed her ex-girlfriend on the sofa in the room.

She took out her phone, opened the studio’s WeChat group, and sent a message.

[Luo Bian (Wife Has Transformed Edition):] I’m so sorry. My ex-girlfriend is not very skilled in her human form and made a bit of a mess in the living room. I’ll come and clean it up tomorrow morning.

After sending it, she even added a polite, bowing shrimp emoji.

The small animals who were familiar with the shrimp knew that, compared to apology, this message contained more of an uncontrollable smugness.

Putting away her phone, Luo Bian’s gaze inadvertently moved down and landed on her ex-girlfriend’s bare feet.

Her brow immediately furrowed.

She gently held her slender ankle and lifted it, and indeed saw that the tender white sole was covered in scratches from rough little stones, deep and shallow, the dark red bloodstains quite glaring.

Upon further inspection, she also found several deep purple bruises on her knees and arms.

Luo Bian took a deep breath and stood up to get the first aid kit.

For a mantis shrimp that had been born in the water, transforming into a human was actually a calamity.

—In a situation where the methods of movement and breathing were completely different, and the living environment had also undergone a drastic change, how was a shrimp with a blank slate of knowledge supposed to survive?

Back then, after being forced ashore, she had stumbled and struggled, had nearly lost her life several times, and had gone through countless hardships before she had finally adapted to human society.

Fortunately, her ex-girlfriend had only just transformed now, and she was there to carefully protect and guide her.

After gently treating her wounds, Luo Bian also brought a hot towel to wipe her face and hands, and even took out a hairdryer that she hadn’t used in a thousand years to dry the woman’s slightly damp, long hair.

After all this meticulous work, her vision suddenly flashed.

The figure on the sofa suddenly disappeared, and a small, curled-up mantis shrimp fell in its place.

“…”

Luo Bian’s eyelashes trembled.

Wasted effort was her fate.

She, without any temper, picked up the sleeping mantis shrimp and placed it in the tank on the side.

Then she propped up her chin and, through the tank, poked the ex-girlfriend who was sleeping in a corner, and began to amuse herself.

“What should I call you in the future?”

“How about you choose a name for yourself after you’ve learned to speak and write?”

Luo Bian’s name had been chosen by herself from a dictionary.

—The character “汴 (Biàn)” was a shrimp with water, and the character itself meant tolerance and prosperity, which she was quite satisfied with.

She didn’t know what her ex-girlfriend would be called in the future.

The room was quiet. Luo Bian was lost in her own thoughts, imagining a clear and within-reach future, her spirits high.

Since she couldn’t sleep, she simply bought an e-book of “The Language Journey of a Genius Baby” online and sat in front of the tank, studying hard, learning how to teach a newborn human to speak and write.

First, she had to teach her ex-girlfriend to call her name.

—Bian Bian.

The little shrimp was thinking sweetly and happily, but after saying it out loud a few times, she suddenly froze slightly.

Hiss… no, no. I have to call her Bian Bao.

***

Having been in ambush and fighting with the small animals last night, staying up until the early morning, Ye Qingyu rarely slept until the afternoon.

She blinked her sleepy eyes, for a moment staring at the ceiling in a daze.

This long-lost staying up late to work overtime.

And yet, she had been completely willing.

She moved her body and belatedly realized that her arms were empty. Ye Qingyu’s nerves immediately tensed.

She sat up, hugging the covers, and found that her furred boss was no longer in bed.

She woke up so early?

After quickly tidying up the room, Ye Qingyu walked down the stairs and saw Pei the Red Panda standing by the living room coffee table.

Her back was to her, and she was sneakily picking up a black bag.

Sensing the human’s movement downstairs, Pei the Red Panda suddenly froze, in a dilemma of whether to advance or retreat.

Ye Qingyu blinked her eyes lightly and put her phone in her pocket.

“Mmm… I think I forgot my phone.”

After speaking, not too loudly and not too softly, she immediately turned around and walked quickly upstairs.

Pei the Red Panda breathed a sigh of relief, took her private stash of fruit, and hid it in the storage room.

She counted carefully. A total of four mangosteens.

She licked the tip of her canines with satisfaction.

…

“Ma’am, are you buying these three books?”

Ye Zhao pulled her gaze back from her phone screen, where a certain calendar reminder was floating.

“Yes, thank you.”

She watched the staff member’s movements as she wrapped the books, her gaze gradually unfocusing.

In twenty days, it would be a full ten years.

Every time that day approached, she would toss and turn at night, unable to sleep. She could only force herself to read some words, trying to find some peace of mind.

Although it was often in vain.

“That will be one hundred and eighty yuan. I’ll scan your code,” the staff member said.

“Mhm.”

After paying, Ye Zhao was about to leave the bookstore with her bag when her eyes were suddenly attracted by a cute, bright yellow cover on the side.

She turned her head and saw that it was a magazine called “Small Animal Survival Guide.”

On the cover of the magazine was also the back of a fluffy red panda.

Ye Zhao looked for a couple of seconds, then casually picked up a copy and handed it to the staff member.

“I’ll take this one too. Thank you.”