029: Is This Acting Cute?
Sang Zhao took promises very seriously.If he said he’d do something, he’d find a way to make it happen.
And since the Samoyed knew this about him, the moment Sang Zhao agreed, the dog stopped crying and immediately went back to grinning like an idiot.
Just a second ago he was Samo-woo, now he’d swept away the emo and returned to being Samo-yay.
Even though Sang Zhao hadn’t solved anything yet, the kid was already lost in beautiful daydreams.
“They said the summer camp is in a resort! There’s a huge water park, a really nice hotel, it’s close to the sea, there’s an outdoor pool and an indoor pool, and sooo many things!”
The more he said, the more excited he got.
“During the day we can play in the water and swim, and in the evening everyone does activities with the foreign teachers! They’re all my best friends, we’ll all play together! It’s great, it’s amazing, thank you, cat!”
Sang Zhao muttered, “You can only have one best friend. Otherwise why’s it called best. What do you mean everyone is your best friend?”
Cats didn’t really understand dogs’ enthusiasm, but dogs’ enthusiasm was… well, enthusiastic.
The Samoyed cheered, “But Ye Ye wants to be friends with everyone! And Ye Ye likes cat-cat the most!”
Sang Zhao let out a soft laugh, his face looking annoyed but his mouth clearly curled up.
He hung up, walked back to his desk, sat down, and took a moment to organize his thoughts.
Alright. Deep breath. Cheer yourself on.
Then he got up and went to the president’s office to find Tang Yu.
Tang Yu was reviewing a bid proposal. When he saw Sang Zhao knock and walk in, he looked up in surprise.
Tang Yu: “What’s wrong?” He asked that, but honestly? He felt a little spark of joy.
Hehe. We just separated and now he’s back to look for me. Does that mean he wants to be around me? Yeah, he absolutely had that thought.
Sang Zhao sat on the leather chair in front of him and told him the whole story about the dog at home and all the trouble.
The more he talked, the more annoyed he got.
He truly felt he was the world’s most aggrieved cat.
Unbelievable. Was there a second cat on earth being grabbed by a dog, pitied by a dog, bullied into submission by a dog until the dog cried and rolled around??
Nope. Just him. Just really him, the long-suffering oversized orange cat.
Sang Zhao clenched his teeth while complaining to Tang Yu:
“He insists on going! You can’t persuade him at all! He cried like I’d ripped all his dog fur out!”
“I’ve never seen anyone so insistent. He just has to go! Absolutely has to! That dog child!”
Tang Yu couldn’t help laughing softly, trying to soothe him.
“Hey, don’t scold him like that. Calm down a little.”
Sang Zhao swallowed the next insult.
Huh? Scold him?
No, no he wasn’t scolding! “Dog child” was factual, not an insult.
He sighed, sat back in the chair, covered his face, and groaned.
“He insists on going… he kept pestering me. He cried and cried. Just wants to go out and play, that’s it, won’t even do his homework.”
Then he looked up, truly aggrieved, and murmured at Tang Yu, “He bullied me.”
Tang Yu had understood from the very beginning what Sang Zhao was getting at.
Sang Zhao wanted to go.
He liked going places with Tang Yu, and honestly, the Samoyed wasn’t a bad kid at all.
So even before Sang Zhao finished, Tang Yu had already started feeling tempted. He kept sitting there, pretending to be calm and professional, but his eyes were bright and fixed on Sang Zhao, trying very hard to send hints.
Sang Zhao cautiously probed, “So this camp… the parents have to speak a foreign language. English alone isn’t enough, they need a second language.”
“You might not know, but his family circumstances… well, his parents don’t have that kind of education. Second language? They barely know the word party in English…”
Sang Zhao looked at Tang Yu like a hopeful little cat staring at a ball of yarn, shooting little pika-pika pitiful sparkles from his gaze.
He scratched his head shyly, smiling:
“So I thought of you! Gege, you’re really amazing, right? Spanish counts as a second language, doesn’t it?”
Tang Yu had already predicted this.
Now that the invitation was spoken aloud, his surface stayed rational and stern, but inside he was absolutely screaming with joy.
He cleared his throat and began his Very Knowledgeable Lecture.
“Summer camps like this put a lot of responsibility on the parents.” He really sounded experienced.
“There are many group activities you have to participate in. The organizers and teachers mostly assist, but the parents do the main tasks.”
“And since this is a language camp, they’ll probably create a full-immersion environment. Everyone may need to communicate entirely in the target language…”
As he talked, Sang Zhao began to drift.
Then he snapped back and stared at Tang Yu like he was staring at salvation.
His voice went soft, really soft.
If he usually meowed, now he was going miiimiiiii.
He pressed his palms together in front of his nose, looking up at Tang Yu with pleading eyes:
“So everything’s relying on youuuu, gege-gege-gege, you’re the best!”
Tang Yu still pretended to be serious, clearing his throat.
“So… we’d be the parents, then?”
Sang Zhao had been sitting opposite the desk, but after seeing the tiny smile tugging at Tang Yu’s mouth, he immediately recognized it.
Hmph! His previous owner used to give that exact same fake-serious face whenever he wanted to be begged to give extra snacks.
Sang Zhao got up, walked around the desk, and crouched next to Tang Yu.
Then he wrapped both arms around Tang Yu’s arm.
He lifted his face, his eyes tilted upward at a devastating forty-five-degree angle, and lightly shook Tang Yu’s arm.
“Since he’s already called you jie-fu and jiu-ma, please help me out, gege.”
Tang Yu’s whole face flushed.
He’d been talking normally and now suddenly Sang Zhao was clinging to him?!
Even his fingertips trembled.
He muttered, “Your whole family calls people weird things.”
The kid called him brother-in-law and auntie.
The adult here called him boss Tang Zong and then gege.
One big chaotic mess of titles.
But complaining aside, he didn’t push Sang Zhao away. He even shifted so Sang Zhao could hold his arm more comfortably.
Tang Yu’s voice went a little high, nearly giddy.
“So… should we go now?”
Sang Zhao hurriedly corrected, “No no, it’s this weekend. Friday too, technically, but…”
He deliberately left the details vague, forcing the big boss to guess.
“He said it’s fine if we only go after I get off work Friday. He doesn’t mind missing a day.”
Tang Yu froze.
Absolutely not. That would be ridiculous!
He immediately declared, “I’ll give you Friday off.”
Sang Zhao let go, stood up, and took a deep breath to hold back the giggles.
YES!! Victory!! And Ye Ye’s victory too!
“Thank you, gege! You’re the best boss ever!”
Time off? Easy.
Tang Yu wasn’t even busy recently.
And as for Sang Zhao… well, his biggest daily contribution to the company was showing up for lunch.
One day off didn’t affect anything.
Why take away a third-grader’s rare joy?
Why reduce his time with Sang Zhao?
Nope. Day off granted. Immediately.
Sang Zhao was delighted. He realized Ye Ye was extremely useful… for securing vacation days.
Parent-teacher meeting? One day off.
Summer camp? One day off.
Surely more chances would come.
While he was dreaming about all the future holidays, Tang Yu was dreaming about warm family outings.
“For water camps, we should prepare swimwear, floaties, extra clothes. Kids get excited easily, their stomachs get upset, they might throw up, so we need some medicine…”
He muttered while grabbing a sheet of A4 paper and drafting a whole mind map.
Sang Zhao was stunned.
Tang Yu continued, “What about you? Did you go to summer camp before?”
“No. Never,” Sang Zhao said honestly.
Actually forget going, he didn’t even know the word summer camp existed until today.
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of it.”
He sighed. “Kids these days are really lucky.”
He should’ve been a kid too… why’d he become a 1.9-meter orange-haired adult working a nine-to-five?
Heaven did not favor cats.
Tang Yu lowered his eyes.
He assumed Sang Zhao simply hadn’t had those opportunities before.
Warmly, gently, he told him, “Then this won’t just be Ye Ye’s summer camp. Let’s make it your summer camp too, alright?”
…He really was kind. So gentle… so soft.
Sang Zhao stood there, fidgeting with his fingers.
After a moment, he glanced around the room, deliberately avoiding Tang Yu’s warm gaze.
He really was the sweetest corn bean. Sang Zhao thought.
—
Having secured both time off and the boss himself, Sang Zhao happily went back to his desk.
He plopped down, hummed a little cat tune, and sent the Samoyed a triumphant sticker.
Ye Ye replied instantly then began spamming ahhhhhh and wowwowwow nonstop.
Then came a cascade of voice messages: four seconds, seven seconds, ten seconds, over a dozen in total.
Sang Zhao converted them to text.
Perfect.
He recognized every character.
It was four words, repeated over and over:
【Thank you, cat-cat.】
Sang Zhao huffed softly.
Wait, he should thank him!
Four little words weren’t enough.
When he got home, he was absolutely going to extort the dog and clean out all the frozen pizza in Ye Ye’s freezer.
That night, kindhearted Corn Bean even sent him a WeChat message.
A picture.
A milky-white children’s wiggle-car.
The kind with a silly steering wheel, no power, moved only by a child wiggling their butt to scoot forward.
Tang Yu had found it in storage while preparing supplies.
He didn’t know where it came from, but he sent the picture to Sang Zhao with a voice message:
“Ye Ye can play with it.”
Sang Zhao: …Huh? Who’s Ye Ye?
Oh. The Samoyed.
Sang Zhao was called… simply Sang Zhao, but the Samoyed got “Xiao Ye,” “Ye Ye,” “my kid,” “the child.”
Wow. Biased corn bean.
He wasn’t raising a cat… he was raising a dog…
Sang Zhao pressed the voice button and sharply questioned:
“You call him Xiao Ye. So what do you call me? Don’t I get a special name too?”
Then, staring at the phone screen, he couldn’t help remembering how He Sangchi used to call him baby.
Back then, he had been cherished.
He only needed to wiggle his paw or roll like a plump drumstick, and he’d get endless praise and affection.
Now he worked hard for his tiny salary, worried about rent, and sometimes skipped meals.
Nobody called him baby anymore.
Nobody called him good boy, good cat, or little darling.
He hesitated, cheeks warming, then shyly sent a voice message:
“Can you… call me baby?”
At that moment, Tang Yu was literally sitting on the children’s wiggle-car.
He listened to the voice message at maximum volume. Then replayed it. Five, six times.
Then he bent forward until his forehead pressed against the little steering wheel.
His heart pounded wildly, his face flushed all the way down his neck.
Help!
This was absolutely… absolutely… Sang Zhao acting cute at him, right?!
In an instant, Tang Yu’s mind went blank and exploded with overlapping thoughts.
Why was Sang Zhao being cute at him??
Right…
They were going to the summer camp with the kid.
Shouldn’t he buy something meaningful for it?
Wait no that’s not the point!
Why was Sang Zhao acting cute at him???
D-did Sang Zhao… like him?
Tang Yu pressed the back of his hand against his burning cheek.
He dared to guess…
Maybe… maybe Sang Zhao really does like him?
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