Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three: Earth Day

From a certain perspective, it was quite a strange sight.

Xiao Yu had had Faye for quite some time and had always been helpless when it came to dealing with this little cat that persisted in her own ways. He could not scold her or hit her and if his tone were slightly harsh, Faye could easily ignore him for days. Even when Faye knew the fault was on her, she could just give him her pitiful and adorable gaze and easily make Xiao Yu obediently clean up her mess for her.

He was a typical textbook cat slave.

Xiao Yu initially thought that his interaction with Faye would remain that way forever. He did not expect that his days of living under Faye’s duress would come to a complete stop two weeks earlier.

Yes, it was the day when Yan Jin took Faye back.

For some reason that Xiao Yu still did not understand, Faye had been exceptionally obedient in front of Yan Jin.

Although Faye’s real image would be revealed the moment Yan Jin left, at least whenever Yan Jin was around, Xiao Yu’s status would be upgraded from cat slave to cat owner. Xiao Yu was still capable of using his powerful connections to intimidate and give orders. Thus, he quickly realized that it was possible to use Yan Jin to threaten Faye to be obedient.

And so…

“Explain yourself. What is going on? Answer me or else I’ll get Yan Jin to interrogate you personally when he’s back.”

“Meowww.” I still think he looked familiar. I don’t like him.

Faye licked her paw and said unwillingly.

“Familiar? You mean Chu Ge?” Xiao Yu thought and said, “Didn’t he just say that you were purchased by him as a gift for Fan Xiaoge? That’s probably why you felt that he looked familiar.”

“Meowww.” I don’t like him. I don’t want to see that person ever again.

Faye turned her face away proudly. It was obvious that she had no intention to continue the topic.

Xiao Yu logically speculated that it might be because Faye had been abandoned by Fan Xiaoge before, so she particularly despised Chu Ge, who gave her to that woman.

Nevertheless, all that was in the past, and Chu Ge did not expect that things would develop in that way. It was not like he had purposely landed Faye to wander the streets. Regardless of whether he was innocent or not, Faye’s actions earlier were undoubtedly suspicious. He must get the truth.

“Even if you didn’t like him, you can’t just pull tricks on him.” Xiao Yu turned Faye’s head to face him, forcing her to look him in the eye. He persuaded patiently, “I’m at fault in this too. I did not take into consideration your situation. If there’s any strangers visiting us again, I’ll put you in the room instead. Although there’s always exceptions, but with the situation today… I know that you are different from normal cats, and you have a mind of your own. But, if there’s anything you want, you can tell me, and I’ll try my best to satisfy you. No matter what, it is wrong to purposely play tricks on others. If there’s similar accidents again in the future, you must tell me and leave it to me to resolve it. Don’t do such things ever again, alright?”

Faye was clearly uninterested in such a lengthy discussion. She retracted her clawsnails and used her squishy little paw pad to tap on Xiao Yu’s hand, looking at him with an innocent face.

“Meow, meow.” Okay. Is it meal time yet?

Xiao Yu let out a sigh of defeat.

Without a choice, he could only hope that Faye had listened to his words.

“Yan Jin is coming home early to fix dinner. He should be here soon. If you’re hungry, how about you have some snacks first? I have a bag of melon seeds.”

……

After a short conversation.

Yan Jin sat back in his chair and twirled the ballpoint pen in his hand.

“Basically, that’s what happened to Fishy.”

Chu Ge nodded his head and then shook his head again. “It’s too fantasy-like. It’s simply unbelievable.”

“There’s a lot of things that you don’t know about this world,” Yan Jin said with deep meaning.

“Fine. With the truth right before my eyes, I don’t have a choice but to accept it.” Chu Ge sighed as he continued, “My thesis on materialism back then was a full mark paper.”

“Then your philosophy of idealism can also be a full mark paper now.”

“Scram,” Chu Ge said annoyedly.

As the conversation came to an end, the office slipped into a moment of silence as both men did not speak.

After leaning on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, Chu Ge’s expression turned serious as he broke the silence. “We’ve investigated the incident at the hotel thoroughly.”

“Oh, how is it?” Yan Jin put down his ballpoint pen on the desk.

“It was indeed more than one group of people. It was a smart choice not to act rashly.” Chu Ge sighed emotionally. “Only you can think that far.”

“Is it settled?”

“Do you still have to ask me? You should have received that information long ago, right?” Chu Ge rolled his eyes and his tone became more imposing, “But that person you mentioned, Lin Zhou? We haven’t found any concrete evidence, be it the proof that he tampered with your little boyfriend’s vehicle or that he hired a hitman.”

Yan Jin did not even frown as if he had guessed the outcome already.

“What do you plan to do?”

“Nothing really. We’ll wait and see,” Yan Jin answered casually.

Chu Ge clicked his tongue and with interest asked, “Are you not afraid that he will be driven to take desperate action and harm your little boyfriend?”

“For this sort of person, when their desires cannot be satisfied, they would not choose to take desperate actions. Instead, they would slowly kill themselves with assumptions.” A tinge of blood-thirst flashed through Yan Jin’s eyes as he continued, “To wish for something and get nothing in return would be the best retribution to that person. It’s too easy to ask for death. A life of living hell should be their real punishment.”

“Moreover, Fishy will never be harmed ever again.” Yan Jin said confidently.

Chu Ge turned his head away as he could not bring himself to look at the chairman. “You’re getting too used to speaking like a villain.”

“So long as I achieve my goals, it doesn’t matter if I’m the villain or the hero.”

“Fine, fine, fine. You’re the best. Then how are you going to explain that to your little boyfriend?” Chu Ge was still curious about this problem, “Shouldn’t you let your temper get the best of you for your beloved, avenge for him, and chop that scumbag into pieces to feed stray dogs?”

“…… Can you watch lesser television dramas?”

“Dafuq, then tell me, what you are planning to do?”

“There’s no need to do all these unnecessary things.” Yan Jin’s gaze turned softer as he continued. “Fishy is not the kind of person who would hold grudges. Once he realized that he cannot contact that person via phone or through his QQ, he would eventually give up very quickly. Fishy is too kind. It’s obvious that he is not suitable for these dark secrets.”

Chu Ge was fed with so many lovey-dovey acts happening without warning, making his breathing uneven.

He thought internally – that’s not called kind, that’s stupidity.

However, seeing how Chairman Yan was quickly wrapped in a pink aura, Chu Ge kept those thoughts in his heart without daring to say them.

……

Wednesday was Earth Day. It was a day designated to support the world’s environmental protection.

This was the first time Xiao Yu had ever squarely faced this event that he had never heard of during the past twenty-six years of his life.

It was not that Xiao Yu did not like the environment, but he had resigned himself as being a normal, industrious, and conscientious citizen of the earth. He had not cared about anything else during his schooling days as he had spent every single day worrying about what would he do if he did not get good grades and could not progress further. With much difficulty, he finally got into a university, but he had to worry about his erratic future. As his teacher was not a holiday person, he did not care about celebrating the holidays then as well. And as he started working, he was so busy that his time was turned upside down. He spent every day fulfilling the requirements needed by his superiors and the client – he wondered how much hair he lose because of his worries – that except for major holidays, Xiao Yu had not paid attention to any other holiday events so far.

The reason why Xiao Yu cared about this time’s Earth’s Day was not because he was bored and had nothing to do at home, flipping through the calendar and found out. Instead, it was because…

YL was on half-day leave this afternoon.

A world-class jewelry group releasing their employees for a half-day of vacation just because of some very unrelated holiday like Earth Day?

Xiao Yu simply could not understand what the connection between these two matters was. He did not even know where he should start to ridicule. Especially when Yan Jin had spoken out sternly with a sense of justice, “To support minimal carbon environmental protection welfare, all electricity within our company will be cut off completely this afternoon. Anyone who is unwilling to take this paid leave will have to find their own light source.”.

This news was released by Yan Jin in YL’s employee chat group in the early morning. Xiao Yu had already been invited into the chat group by Yan Jin, so he could see this notification.

After Xiao Yu had seen that puzzling notice, he really, really wanted to say something in the group chat.

But soon after, he thought otherwise.

XXX: Notice received! I’m packing up already! Support environmental protection, it all starts from me!

XXX: Roger that, I support the company’s decision!

XXX: Roger, thumbs up for our company!

As Xiao Yu read these somewhat questionable replies, his urge to mock this decision subsided.

If he phrased his words too harshly, it would seem like he was against environmental protection. If he said it too lightly, it would not matter. Holiday it is then.

Support environmental protection. Yup, that’s great.

While he waited for Yan Jin to come home, Xiao Yu had already found a logical explanation as to why YL had made this decision. Wasn’t there a saying by some great person that compared to earning profits, an entrepreneur should focus more on social responsibility?

As a jewelry design company, they may not have done as much charity as those welfare groups. However, promoting and supporting the concept of environmental protection was also one way to contribute to society.

As for Xiao Yu’s previous workplace, which was SI, why had they not done anything similar in the past? Xiao Yu concluded the answer to be the difference in willingness to bear social responsibility between SI’s leader and Yan Jin.

No wonder SI could not win YL all that time. Look at how resolute he was.

When Yan Jin arrived home, he was quite puzzled when he saw Xiao Yu look at him with a face full of admiration.

“What happened?” Yan Jin asked with uncertainty.

“Nothing, nothing. You’re back so early today.”

“Oh, today is Earth Day…”

Xiao Yu was amazed with how natural Yan Jin’s attitude was. Look at how resolute he was. Even when he had made such a major decision, he still took it calmly. It was as if the concept of supporting minimal carbon environmental protection was a habit of his. It was as if this was just a normal thing to do. It was as if he did not even care how much of a loss YL would incur in that half a day.

Without a doubt, Yan Jin was a real entrepreneur

No wonder those magazines had been flattering about Yan Jin. They were right about their flattery. Even he would admire him.

“… Just nice, it gave me a reason to take a day off. I promised you a few days back that I would buy those hamster products back, but I didn’t have time at all. So I picked today.”

After Yan Jin finished his entire sentence, he realized that Xiao Yu’s expression was slightly stiff.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing.”