007: Vroom-Vroom Cat Cat Speedster!
Tang Yu glared at him, grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa beside him, and hurled it right at his face.
“Talk properly!” he snapped. “What’s with that tone!”
The Vice President pouted and mimicked him in a sing-song voice, “What’s~ with~ that~ tone~?”
After getting his fun, he sobered up and asked, half serious, half teasing, “Tsk tsk, never seen you act this nice before. You’re telling me his education level’s that low? Look at how he types, he’s basically illiterate!”
“Don’t say that about him,” Tang Yu shot back immediately.
“And I’ve always been nice, okay? I’m a kind person, thank you very much.”
The Vice President let out a sharp laugh.
“Oh, please. You’re only soft on that orange-haired one. What’s wrong, huh? Did his shiny hair blind you or did his pretty face conquer you? The way you looked just now gave me goosebumps, so mushy it’s disgusting.”
Tang Yu folded his arms and stared at him, frowning. “What expression?”
The Vice President clapped his hands, looking deeply amused.
“The expression of someone trying his best to gross me out.”
“Get lost,” Tang Yu said with a half-laugh. “You’re talking nonsense.”
It was nonsense, mostly joking anyway. They bantered a while longer before the Vice President went back to his own office.
While he was there, Tang Yu had denied it again and again, denied that he had any special feelings toward Sang Zhao.
But once the Vice President left and no one was watching, Tang Yu naturally opened WeChat, tapped on Sang Zhao’s profile, and opened his Moments.
He was curious. What would someone like Sang Zhao even post?
The moment he entered, he found nothing. Not a single post.
Sang Zhao’s WeChat was only three days old so he’d never posted a Moment before. He didn’t even know how yet.
But Tang Yu didn’t know that.
Seeing the blank space, he suddenly worried that he’d been blocked, that Sang Zhao had deliberately hidden his Moments from him.
He stared at the white screen, throat dry, Adam’s apple moving slightly. His chest felt oddly heavy.
At his desk, Sang Zhao of course had no idea about Tang Yu’s complicated mood.
His little cat brain couldn’t process such deep human thoughts, and he didn’t understand why humans liked overthinking their emotions.
He was just very happy, sitting at his desk, sipping his cup of strawberry milk ice with utter joy.
He was as happy as a pistachio splitting open from a smile.
Excited beyond belief, he didn’t even pick up the cup properly; he left it on the desk and leaned forward to sip from the straw.
The moment the drink hit his tongue, the fresh sweetness of strawberries bloomed, balanced with rich milk. So smooth, refreshing, and perfect.
His eyes narrowed in bliss.
The back of his head tingled, and he had the irresistible urge to shake his head like a cat flicking its ears.
If he weren’t wearing shoes, he’d probably be kicking the back of his head with his hind paws.
So good!
Is this what humans drink?!
Then what had he been drinking before, water?! Compared to this, water was practically poison!
How had he gone his whole life without knowing something this delicious existed?!
He was just a poor little street cat who’d never tasted anything good. His whole world suddenly felt brighter.
With strawberry milk in his paw, working didn’t seem so miserable anymore.
He was still binding and filing documents when it hit ten o’clock, the time to order lunch. An Tihu helped him pick something: eel rice.
He’d never eaten eel before, so this was his first time.
It was called grilled kabayaki eel. Even the name sounded fancy and delicious.
Just thinking about it made him hum a little “cat song” as he worked.
An Tihu finished her own tasks, went to the breakroom for coffee, then came back and asked, “Want me to grab you a cup, Sang Zhao?”
He waved his hands. “No, no, coffee keeps me up at night.”
That was one of his hard-earned lessons from surviving in human society.
An Tihu raised a brow, smiling faintly. “Oh, still can’t handle coffee, huh… little~ little newbie.”
Then she rummaged through her cabinet and handed him a few packets of dried fish snacks.
Delighted, Sang Zhao tore one open immediately, squeezing out a strip of golden-fried yellow croaker, and crunched it down in one bite.
To anyone else, it might’ve smelled fishy. To Sang Zhao, that wasn’t fishy, it was delicious. It was a cat’s natural lure!
Crispy, savory, perfect. He finished several packs in one go.
Then he paused. Something felt… off.
Hmm. Something was weird.
He slowed down. Bit by bit.
And then the horror dawned on him.
Yesterday, An Tihu had ordered fish noodles for lunch. Today, she ordered eel rice. Now she was giving him dried fish.
…Why was it always fish?!
Was that normal?!
Had she already found out he was a cat?!
Terrified, Sang Zhao stared at her. “Sister An, you… you always give me fish.”
“Is there… some special reason?”
An Tihu turned to look at him, her expression unreadable. Her lips curved in a faint, teasing smile.
“You’re overthinking it. I just like fish.”
Sang Zhao studied her face. Couldn’t tell a thing.
“R-really?” he asked doubtfully.
Then again, who would suspect a coworker of not being human just because they liked fish?
If it were that easy to expose him, the Yao Administration Bureau might as well shut down and sell their desks for scrap metal.
So no, his identity couldn’t possibly be that easy to uncover. Right?
She seemed casual enough, returning to her seat, pulling another jar from her drawer. Then she came back over, raising a brow with a little smile.
“Of course that’s all it is. What else could it be?”
She held out the jar toward him. “So, want some fish floss?”
Sang Zhao stared at the golden shreds of fish floss and, once again, gave in to temptation. “Yes!”
Just then, the same kind coworker who’d warned him about the boss earlier wandered over. “Hey, Sister An, can I have some too?”
“Go ahead,” An Tihu said.
The girl pinched a bit of fish floss and started nibbling while chatting. “Sister An, what did the boss call you for earlier? New project?”
An Tihu frowned slightly and shook her head.
“No. He asked if I was under too much pressure, if I wanted to take my annual leave.” She looked puzzled.
“I don’t get what he’s thinking.” She gestured at her face. “Do I look stressed to you?”
The girl gasped. “No way! You look amazing lately! Your skin’s glowing, it’s brighter than before!”
An Tihu beamed. “I switched to a new face cream. My friend makes it herself. Don’t scoff! It really works. I’ll bring you some to try.”
While they chatted, Sang Zhao munched quietly beside them.
He knew the truth and carried it like a noble secret.
Of course, Tang Yu had asked if she was under stress since he’d seen her running upside down with an umbrella!
Even remembering that scene was enough to scare both man and cat alike.
He figured Tang Yu probably still had psychological trauma from it—but out of concern, he’d asked gently instead.
Sang Zhao thought hard.
…So that’s how humans relieve stress, huh?
He looked down at his own hands.
If he wanted to truly blend into human society, did that mean he also had to walk on his hands and hold an umbrella with his feet?
But his paw pads were pink, soft little strawberry paws! There was no way he was putting those on the dirty ground.
Forget it, he thought solemnly, chewing another mouthful of fish floss.
When noon came, the food delivery arrived.
He tried the eel rice, it was divine. The skin was slightly chewy, glazed like caramel; the meat melted like butter the moment it touched his tongue.
Paired with rice, it released an extra sweetness. Every bite was heavenly.
He held his lunchbox reverently, eating even the last grain of rice.
By afternoon, there was nothing interesting left to do. He slogged through his filing, turned in the finished folders to An Tihu, and that was that.
He grabbed some snacks from the breakroom’s treat area, sat back at his desk, and waited for quitting time while fighting sleepiness.
But even after work, he wasn’t really done.
He couldn’t go straight home to nap since he still had evening classes at the Yao Administration Bureau.
After class, he freeloaded dinner there, and only then dragged his exhausted body back to his apartment.
As soon as he got home, he looked around, whimpered softly, then instantly changed back into a cat.
He pulled out his precious little blanket and started kneading it for stress relief, purring nonstop.
“Ugh, working is so tiring,” he muttered in cat-speak.
The blanket smelled faintly of his old home, his mother’s scent. He burrowed into it, ready for the sweetest sleep.
Tomorrow was the weekend, but even then, he couldn’t rest. He still had class.
The little cat grumbled, meowing curses under his breath.
Why so many classes?!
Couldn’t they just let a cat sleep all day and be a useless little pastry?
Still, weekends were special!
When he headed to class that weekend, he took the subway and then, near the Bureau, switched to a different kind of transportation.
He was riding a vehicle.
Director Li was on duty that day. The office phone rang, and she picked up.
“Hello, Action Department.”
It was the guard room.
There was a long pause on the other end before the guard spoke cautiously:
“Director Li, you’d better come down here. That guy your department took in a few days ago, he’s here for class.”
Li Zhuren frowned. “So? Let him in. It’s not his first time.”
Did he really need her to come guide him upstairs? He wasn’t that bad with directions.
The guard hesitated, voice lowering.
“He’s… riding a ‘motorcycle.’”
Li Zhuren blinked. “...A motorcycle? Ah. A motorcycle.”
A bad feeling hit her immediately. She bolted from her office and ran downstairs.
When she saw Sang Zhao, she nearly fainted.
The guard had been polite calling it a “motorcycle.”
Because what she saw was not a motorbike at all...
It was a black leopard.
Sang Zhao was riding a black leopard, sitting upright as it trotted elegantly to a stop before her.
The leopard’s sleek black coat gleamed in the sunlight like liquid onyx; Sang Zhao’s orange fur shimmered gold in return.
But Li Zhuren had no time to admire the sight.
She stormed up, grabbed Sang Zhao by the collar with one hand and the leopard’s mane with the other.
First she yelled at the leopard: “How many times have I told you, stop offering yourself as a mount!”
Then she yelled at Sang Zhao: “I told you to act human! Is this your idea of acting human?! What is this?!”
She pointed straight at the leopard. “Well?! What is this?!”
It was, in fact, one of his classmates from the Bureau’s smartphone app course, but that was not what Sang Zhao said.
He looked perfectly serious. “This is a cat-torcycle.”
Li Zhuren: “...Excuse me?”
Sang Zhao stood firm, if not exactly confident. “Yeah! We might not be as mechanical as motorcycles, but surely the world can allow cat-torcycles to exist!”
Li Zhuren took two steps back, clutching her chest.
“I swear, I want to die.”
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