All My Colleagues Are Animals 8

Chapter 8

The human seemed to be murmuring something, but Pei Rong wasn’t listening. She had zoned out at an inopportune moment.

She hadn’t noticed while she was playing, but now, with her pretty human standing right in front of her, the claw marks on her fair, delicate neck were glaring, and the bite mark on her translucent, rounded earlobe was eye-catching.

This sight, of her human covered in her marks, made her feel a little tingly and satisfied.

After all, red pandas are very territorial little animals.

Pei Rong looked at the marks over and over, the corners of her lips curling into a pleased smile.

It wasn’t until the human’s gaze turned questioning that she snapped back to reality. She suppressed her smile and said with a very serious face:

“Hmm… what’s going on here?”

Ye Qingyu blinked. So Boss Pei hadn’t been listening to her at all just now.

She didn’t mind. She just said tactfully, “I don’t know. Maybe a small animal scratched me. A cat, perhaps?”

A red panda’s belly fur is black, but its heart isn’t.

Pei Rong couldn’t bring herself to frame her own calico cat, but she couldn’t expose herself either.

She tapped her chin with a fingertip, putting on an expression of deep thought. “It couldn’t be A-Shuang. I locked the work area door from the inside during lunch, so no one could get in. Besides, A-Shuang never scratches people.”

“It was probably… some other cute little animal that did it,” Pei the Red Panda said solemnly.

Ye Qingyu was slightly surprised. “Boss Pei, are there other small animals in the work area?”

Pei Rong fell silent for a moment, her peach blossom eyes flickering. “It’s hard to say. Some might have snuck in…”

Before the human could ask any more questions, she said righteously, “Don’t worry, I will investigate this matter thoroughly. I will not let certain small animals roam free outside the law.”

“Also, starting tomorrow, you’ll go to your room for your lunch break. That way, certain small animals won’t have the opportunity to strike,” Pei the Red Panda said with a hint of regret.

Ye Qingyu paused for a few seconds, then couldn’t help but smile, her eyes curving.

She was mainly just curious and wanted to give a heads-up, but she hadn’t expected Boss Pei to take it so seriously and say such cute and earnest things.

Although she can be a bit spoiled at times, Boss Pei is fundamentally kind, gentle, and fair.

A wave of warmth spread through Ye Qingyu’s heart.

Pei Rong then asked, “Ye Qingyu, do the marks bother you?”

Ye Qingyu’s heart grew even warmer.

She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

Pei the Red Panda’s eyes brightened.

Then I’ll bite her again when I get the chance.

After being given a tube of cooling, anti-itch cream by Boss Pei, Ye Qingyu returned to her seat and applied it to the mosquito bite.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock suddenly sounded on the work area door.

She got up to open it and found that, just as Boss Pei had said, it was indeed locked from the inside.

“Meow~”

The calico cat she had previously mistaken for the culprit was shut outside, its round eyes squinted as if it had just woken up.

Seeing the door open, it didn’t rush in but slowly stretched its long body, then slipped through the crack into the work area with an elegant feline gait.

Ye Qingyu looked back at the calico cat’s round back, thinking to herself that the marks on her body must have been made by a stray cat that had snuck in silently.

I really misjudged her.

…

After the lunch break ended, the colleagues lazily returned to their desks and began a new round of slacking off.

Ye Qingyu thought for a few seconds, then chose to open a web browser and start a game of Plants vs. Zombies.

In her twenty-plus years of being engrossed in studying and working, this was one of her few forms of entertainment.

She had always been focused when she did things, and she was just as dedicated to planting plants and fighting zombies, paying no mind to the world around her.

It wasn’t until an “Ah!” of amazement sounded in her ear that she came back to her senses, realizing that two fluffy heads were leaning in from either side of her, and she had no idea how long they’d been watching.

The white-and-pink head on her right bobbed excitedly. “Ye Qingyu, what’s this?”

Ye Qingyu followed Gu Yue’s finger and answered, “That’s a Chomper.”

Gu Yue’s eyes lit up. “I like Chompers.”

“It can clamp a whole person in its big mouth and swallow them,” Gu Yue marveled. “I want to do that too.”

As she spoke, her gaze swept over Ye Qingyu from top to bottom.

Ye Qingyu: “…”

A sudden chill ran down her back.

The fluffy, golden-haired head on her left, however, was looking a little sad.

This colleague’s name was Jin Can. She was very cute, with round eyes and a constant smile that made her seem optimistic and cheerful.

But right now, her ears were drooping. Pointing at the Peashooter on the screen, a dog-like whimper escaped her throat.

“My master used to buy me this plant toy. It could shoot lots and lots of little balls for me to fetch.”

Ye Qingyu’s pupils trembled.

…Master? Fetching balls?

Is this kind of private role-playing something you can just say out loud?!

Ye Qingyu’s ears turned slightly red, and she didn’t know how to comfort her heartbroken colleague.

Fortunately, Gu Yue spoke up. “Can, stop thinking about that bad woman. The next master will be better behaved.”

A thought struck Ye Qingyu.

So they’re lesbians.

Jin Can sniffled, her sad puppy-dog eyes looking at Ye Qingyu.

“Ye Qingyu, where can I play this game?”

“I’m going to raise a lot of bald little men and have them eat all the plants that shoot little balls.”

Ye Qingyu looked up at those teary puppy-dog eyes, heartbroken from a failed relationship, and said gently, “The little men are zombies, and the ones that shoot little balls are Peashooters. I’ll send you the game link.”

“Send it to me too,” Gu Yue said enthusiastically. “I want to learn from the Chompers.”

Ye Qingyu first added Jin Can on WeChat. Her profile picture was a Golden Retriever with a wide, cute smile.

The picture was very much like Jin Can herself; even her hair color was identical to its fur.

Gu Yue’s profile picture, on the other hand, was a wide-open pink beak, as if it wanted to clamp everything in the world.

Ye Qingyu, who was afraid of birds, broke out in a cold sweat and didn’t dare look at it a second time.

Gu Yue pulled Ye Qingyu into a WeChat group called 【Fluffy Road Detective Agency (Spring Shedding Edition)】 and said:

“This is the group where we usually gossip. You can send the link in here.”

Ye Qingyu scanned the dozen or so group members and, not seeing the boss’s profile picture, sent the link.

A short while later, a scene of a horde of zombies furiously devouring Peashooters appeared on Jin Can’s screen, while Gu Yue’s screen was filled with zombie-clamping Chompers.

Ye Qingyu felt a faint pang of guilt for leading her colleagues astray into slacking off.

This guilt peaked when Boss Pei suddenly appeared in the work area.

“Ye Qingyu.”

Boss Pei’s peach blossom eyes were a little droopy, clearly in another one of her moods.

Ye Qingyu met her gaze, and her heart skipped a beat, followed by a wave of self-reproach.

Although today’s slacking off was personally approved by Boss Pei, she’s clearly so gentle and kind, and so considerate to me. How could I lead my colleagues to neglect their duties?

But then she saw Pei Rong continue sullenly:

“My Sunflower suddenly stopped producing sun. Come take a look for me.”

Ye Qingyu: “…”

…

Ye Qingyu had never imagined that the first time she slacked off in her life, she would end up slacking off in her boss’s office.

Right now, she had pulled up a chair and was sitting beside her boss, trying to figure out why the woman’s Sunflower had gone on strike.

Taking the mouse, she clicked a few times on the game interface. There was no reaction; it seemed to be frozen.

She took a closer look and realized that this wasn’t the version of the game she had sent in the group, but some kind of pirated copy.

She saw that on the lawn, besides the Sunflowers, all the other plants were neatly arranged rows of Apple-shooters that shot apples and… mangosteen-shaped bombs?

There were also all sorts of strange pop-up ads.

Ye Qingyu couldn’t help but ask, “Boss Pei, where did you start playing this game?”

She had thought Pei Rong had a burner account in the group and had clicked the link.

“I clicked the link in the group.”

Pei Rong said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “It’s just that the game you sent didn’t have apples or mangosteens. The developer didn’t consider the preferences of red pandas at all.”

She frowned. “So I found a similar one.”

“…”

Ye Qingyu couldn’t help but smile.

So Boss Pei also likes red pandas this much.

After a gentle and detailed explanation from the human, Pei the Red Panda, through her own unique understanding, came to a conclusion:

This game with apples and mangosteens was specifically designed to trick red pandas.

But she didn’t really care about that anymore.

Right now, her attention was completely focused on Ye Qingyu.

The young woman was sitting so close to her, her head tilted as she spoke earnestly. Her beautiful eyes reflected the gentle evening sunlight, and the bite mark on her ear had faded to a dark pink.

This is my human.

The moment she had this thought, a desire to mark her territory began to surge.

It was a red panda’s instinct.

Pei Rong unconsciously licked the tips of her sharp canines.

Ye Qingyu was completely unaware of this, still seriously telling Boss Pei not to click on unofficial web pages, as it could easily give the computer a virus.

Boss Pei looked like she was nodding obediently.

The movement carried with it a clear, elegant scent of bamboo leaves.

Ye Qingyu paused slightly. Only then did she realize just how close they were.

The light fragrance from the woman’s body had become richer, and the glistening light in her bright peach blossom eyes was even clearer and more captivating.

It was spring, and the air pulsed with a vibrant, free energy. Now, being so close, that energy filled the space between them, thick and potent.

Ye Qingyu’s heart began to beat inexplicably faster, her breathing growing tight. She tore her gaze away from her beautiful boss’s peach blossom eyes. “Then I’ll be going now, Boss Pei?”

It was just about time to get off work anyway.

Pei the Red Panda’s ears twitched.

Other people get to be with their pets from morning till night, but she, raising a human, has to guard an empty tree alone at night.

She lowered her eyes and pinched the soft cuff of Ye Qingyu’s sweatshirt with her fingertips. “See you tomorrow, Ye Qingyu.”