All My Colleagues Are Animals 86p1

Chapter 86 – Part 1

A rainy night.

A family of four sat around a table and ate a sweet dinner.

Finally tasting the fruit platter that Ye Qingyu had carefully prepared, Pei the Little Able Cat was content, her fork a blur.

Full of fruit and food, her belly was round.

She leaned back lazily in her chair and, with her right hand, sneakily reached for Ye Qingyu’s left hand, and under the table, their fingers interlocked.

Her hand swayed contentedly, and her eyes were pleased.

Ms. Ye, who had just returned from washing her hands, unintentionally saw this detail and curled her lips slightly.

After dinner, the rain outside finally subsided a little.

The family of four cleaned up the dining table together, and the dishwasher began to work diligently.

The lights in the dining room were turned off, and “Tom and Jerry” began to play on the TV in the living room.

A “tree” and a red panda were sitting on the half of the sofa that had no red panda paw prints, engrossed.

Xiao Yu, on the other hand, stood by the French window and gently placed a hand on Ye Zhao’s shoulder.

She said, a little troubled:

“How come the rain hasn’t stopped yet? It seems I can’t leave.”

Ye Zhao’s eyes curved almost imperceptibly, and she continued to look out the window, not speaking.

After a long wait with no response, Xiao Yu blinked her eyes.

When she spoke again, her tone was a little more pitiful.

The woman who was decisive and ruthless outside, and was seen by the people in her circle as a demon, was now like a drenched little puppy:

“Looking at the tide-like water on the ground, leaving alone on a dark night is truly a lonely wandering…”

“…Alright.”

Ye Zhao couldn’t bear to listen anymore and couldn’t help but smile. “You left a clean set of pajamas and underwear at my place last time. You can just wear those.”

Xiao Yu was slightly surprised. “Did I? How nice that I left them.”

Ye Zhao said with a half-smile, “I saw you sneakily stuff them.”

Xiao Yu said honestly, “Oh.”

…

When Ye Zhao came out of her bedroom after a shower, she saw Ye Qingyu standing by the French window, looking up at the sky.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Ye Qingyu turned her head.

She said to Ms. Ye, “Mom, the moon is very round tonight.”

Ye Zhao walked over a few steps and followed her gaze to the sky.

The rain had stopped.

The dark clouds had completely dispersed, and the deep blue sky was clear.

A bright, white, round moon hung high, its brilliance gentle, and it was surrounded by a cluster of stars.

Ye Qingyu chuckled lightly. “I suddenly remembered, when we were little, we would always predict the weather by looking up at the night sky. If the moon was bright and the stars were twinkling, the next day would often be a sunny day.”

Ye Zhao also laughed along. “Yes.”

Years had passed, but the sky was as it had always been.

For some reason, Ye Zhao’s eyes suddenly grew moist.

She turned her head to look at her daughter’s face, which had shed its youthful tenderness and inexperience, becoming instead a beauty as distant and serene as spring mountains.

She raised a hand and gently stroked Ye Qingyu’s long hair.

These past few years, she had watched the amnesiac Yu Bao fall into an invisible abyss, resisting social interaction, and desperately studying and working, leaving no room to breathe.

As a mother who had lost her daughter, she had also had a similar traumatic reaction. Countless times, she had tried to pull herself and Yu Bao out of the abyss, but it had always been in vain.

And Rong Bao, as a dazed little beast, wandering alone in human society, would have had it even harder.

Fortunately, just like the brilliant starry sky after a fierce storm, the deeply in love human and beast, after all their hardships, had finally had a happy reunion.

The mother and daughter stood side by side by the French window and, at the same time, felt a hard-won, and therefore particularly deep, happiness.

Remembering her two daughters’ hands, tightly interlocked under the dining table, Ye Zhao asked softly:

“Are you and Jiejie completely together now?”

So intimate and clingy, and they had already met each other’s parents. They should have a title by now, and not be in a kept relationship, right?

Ms. Ye thought with full confidence.

Ye Qingyu’s breath hitched.

This question was so sharp it pierced her heart.

“…No.”

The usually quick-witted and intelligent Ye Qingyu lowered her lashes, for once showing a certain self-consciousness.

“She has never said that she likes me. No matter how close we are, she has never mentioned confirming our relationship. So…”

Ms. Ye pondered for a moment and calmly threw out a rather trendy term. “Sex before love?”

“…”

Ye Qingyu’s eyes widened slightly.

“Mom, how do you know that term?”

Ye Zhao said with an air of composure, “I learned it from the ‘Small Animal Survival Guide’.”

“The small animal story in the second issue was ‘Having Sex Before Love with My Swan Superior.’ It was quite interesting.”

Ye Qingyu had a sudden realization. “So that’s how it is.”

As expected of the magazine her little red panda had founded, both humans and beasts could learn something.

Ye Zhao returned to the previous topic and gently reminded:

“Rong Bao is a red panda. Her way of thinking will naturally be different from a human’s. She may not have the concept of expressing and confirming a relationship.”

“You said that she is extremely afraid of thunder and has never dared to take a taxi. But tonight, with the lightning and thunder and the fierce storm, she did not hesitate to decide to take a taxi alone to come and get you.”

“When my car arrived at the courtyard gate, she was standing in the rain, trembling, but she did not shrink back at all.”

Ye Qingyu’s breath was ragged.

Of course she understood the little red panda’s sincere, cute, and brave heart.

But she had tried her best to restrain herself from forcing a relationship, hoping that the dazed and innocent little red panda would, in a state of freedom, without being rushed or induced, come to understand love, and then willingly run to her.

This was her only adherence to pure love.

“I’ve finished tidying up.”

Pei the Little Able Cat’s voice came from behind.

Ye Qingyu felt a soft hand presumptuously squeeze into her own.

A fluffy, reddish-brown head squeezed into the gap between their shoulders and nuzzled them.

“What are you two looking at?”

Ye Zhao raised a hand and turned the red panda’s accidentally folded-in pajama collar right, and said gently:

“We’re looking at the starry sky.”

“Speaking of which, we have a glass room at home specially for looking at the starry sky. Do you want to go and see it together?”

Pei the Little Able Cat’s peach blossom eyes lit up slightly. “Yes.”

And so, after Xiao Yu had finished her shower, the family of four, in their pajamas, went to the starry sky room in the garden.

The walls and roof of the starry sky room were all made of clear and bright glass. Being inside, the vast starry sky was in full view.

The air conditioner was turned to a low temperature, and the large tatami bed in the center of the room looked extremely soft.

Pei Rong transformed into a red panda and, comfortably and freely, did a somersault on it.

In the end, she lay on her side, her fluffy head pillowed on Ye Qingyu’s chest, her back lying on Ms. Ye’s body, and her large tail hanging freely on Little Mom’s side.

She had meticulously spread herself out into a fluffy pancake of equal favor.

The night sky was brilliant, and the moonlight was like water.

The family of four basked in it, and for a time, they were all contentedly silent.

The little red panda suddenly raised her paw. “A shooting star.”

Ye Zhao followed her gaze. “Do you want to make a wish?”

Pei the Little Able Cat said seriously, “Mhm, making a wish on a shooting star is very effective.”

Hearing this, Ye Qingyu, as if sensing something, asked in a gentle voice, “Did your wish from before come true?”

Pei the Little Able Cat answered, “I used to wish that I would definitely find my home.”

Although it had been a full ten years, but…

“I found it,” she said with satisfaction.

Ye Qingyu’s heart felt sore.

She lowered her eyes and saw the little red panda’s ears, and in the moonlight, their snow-white fur was particularly soft and glutinous.

She said softly, “A shooting star is very effective, but mainly because our Neng Bao is amazing.”

This sentence hit Pei the Little Able Cat right in the heart.

She licked the tip of her teeth with restraint, and the urge to tell a story suddenly surged like a tide.

What is she, Pei Rong?

She is a little red panda who would immediately complain if she suffered the slightest grievance, and would proudly lift her fluffy head if she was even a little bit pleased.

The many amazing things in her past, she had not yet had the chance to show off to her younger sister, mother, and little mom. Now, her fur was suddenly itchy.

In the comfortable and warm starry sky room, lying in the tolerant embrace of her family, the warmth in her heart dispelled her reticence about her past experiences.

She raised her paw with pleasure. “I, a little panda, was far more amazing in the past than you can imagine.”

Ms. Ye pinched her paw and played along.

“Hm? Honey, tell me about it.”

***

A red panda was once the happiest red panda in the world.

She had been spoiled by her mother and younger sister since she was little. The biggest setback in her life was abstaining from sugar, followed by accidentally falling off a rocking horse.

For the former, she would be coaxed in every way.

For the latter, she would be picked up with a heartache and her bottom would be patted, and she would continue to be coaxed in every way.

She was very smart and could understand human language, and perhaps she could have learned to speak human language long ago.

But because a light “ying” would make her mother and younger sister immediately understand her meaning, the lazy little red panda had been slow to try to speak.

The first time she had really spoken was when she was separated from her human.

That day, the bad people had haphazardly thrown her into a sack.

Her home had always been fragrant, but the sack was stuffy, dirty, and smelly.

The clean little red panda had curled into a ball in discomfort and had cried in fear for a long while.

But a long time had passed, and she had realized that there would be no mother or Yu Bao to coax her, and she had gradually stopped crying.

She just quietly hugged her large tail, her whole body trembling with fear.

The sack swayed back and forth, and her stomach was also uncomfortable.

A long time later, the day broke.

The little red panda was thrown out of the sack and locked in the back of a large truck.

Having been in the sack for a long time, the little red panda’s limbs were numb, and it took a long while for her to recover.

When she finally opened her eyes, she saw that next to her were piles of animal fur, all bloody.

“Ying!”

Her ears immediately flattened into airplane ears, and in her fright, she stood up straight, her two furry paws held high, and her whole body convulsed with fear.

A red panda is naturally timid and easily stressed, and it is common for them to die of fright.

That day, she had been so scared she had been on the verge of death, and for a time, she couldn’t even breathe. In the end, she had limply fainted.

She didn’t know how long had passed.

When she woke up in a daze, the little red panda habitually wanted to lick her furry paws.

But she had licked the delicate back of a human’s hand.

…

For these experiences, Pei the Little Able Cat skillfully summarized them, and portrayed herself as a ferocious beast:

“I suddenly understood the way during transportation and transformed into a human. In the middle of the night, when the men in black opened the back of the truck to check, they were greatly startled by my human form.”

“Later, the men in black hastily threw me on the roadside and quickly drove away.”

It was also laughable.

Everyone in “Green Bird” was involved in killing and profiting from it, yet they were quite superstitious and felt that they could not offend immortals.

Seeing the red panda transform into a human, the foolish of them thought it was a sign of punishment from the heavens and quickly let her go.

“Bad people get their just deserts.”

Pei the Little Able Cat recalled, “Later, I heard from the people in the town that that transport truck had had an accident that night. The people and the truck had overturned into a very deep river, and it had taken a long time to salvage them.”

The three were silent for a moment.

Ye Qingyu lowered her head and kissed the red panda’s ear. “A town?”

“Mhm.”

Being kissed, the red panda’s ears moved contentedly. “The place where the men in black had dropped me off was just near a small town. A kind woman was passing by and picked me up.”

Hearing this, Ms. Ye’s clenched heart relaxed a little.

“A kind woman?”

Pei the Little Able Cat nodded.