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nChapter 5: What Date is Today?

nXiao Yu stole a glance in the bathroom’s direction like a thief, fearing that Yan Jin would catch him red-handed after he finished bathing. Then he immediately realized that he was now just a small little hamster — there wouldn’t be suspicion no matter what he did.

nNobody would know that there was a soul of a human inside of this hamster’s body.

nMoreover, even if he saw Yan Jin’s personal information, he would not divulge it either – he was not that kind of person who liked to use violence to curb violence.

nWith that in mind, the last bit of guilt in Xiao Yu’s heart was overcome by his own noble character. With his shaky finger, he clicked open Yan Jin’s QQ¹.

nYan Jin had many good friends; at one glance, Xiao Yu could see a whole bunch of chat conversations. He roughly scanned through the friends that had been talking to Yan Jin recently. Those with a note were mostly YL’s such-and-such department head, managers, or secretaries. It was not that Xiao Yu had any interest in such work-related things, but at that moment, Xiao Yu desperately wanted to know if Yan Jin had done any shameful acts.

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nEspecially if Yan Jin really was the unknown party that had stolen his work.

nAbout half a year ago, YL Corporation hired a mysterious designer that never made an appearance to the outside world. This was known to every person in this line of business. Yet nobody would have known that every piece of work that this designer made was a product that had been plagiarized from Xiao Yu’s work.

nPutting that aside, no one from the outside world would have known about that. Even Xiao Yu himself couldn’t find any concrete evidence, and hence the delay in verifying the information.

nXiao Yu scrolled downwards for a while – Yan Jin had too many good friends in there – he tried searching for some keywords but there was nothing that resembled the mysterious designer’s QQ account. He couldn’t help but feel discouraged.

nEvery designer in the industry had some competitive relationship with one another, but that also meant that the contact between them was also quite close. When he first searched through YL’s existing designers, no one had any information about the secret designer, even that person’s gender was a secret. After painstakingly asking around, he found out that the mysterious designer’s contract was personally handled by Chairman Yan, and that every design draft was only seen by him before any release.

nXiao Yu used to be helpless in dealing with that aloof and remote Yan Jin. After he finally summoned enough courage to confront him, he ended up being ridiculed. If there was anything, that would probably be the biggest regret he had before his death.

nAfter entering YL’s internal workgroup chat, Xiao Yu still could not find any information on the mysterious designer after going through all the chats.

nThat seemed so illogical. Even if Yan Jin deleted the conversation between himself and the mysterious designer, there must be some discussion about it within the employee’s group chat, right?

nIf Xiao Yu remembered correctly, in the beginning even though he was the one who had won by a nose, that mysterious designer’s work also received a high degree of favorable criticism.

nAt this point, Xiao Yu randomly looked at the date.

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nIt was just a random look.

nEver since he had turned into a hamster, Xiao Yu did not care about the dates at all. More accurately, he had never once thought that there would a problem with the dates.

nBut now, there was a problem with the date.

nThe day that Xiao Yu was in the accident was the day he was returning after he had received his award. And that date was fresh in his memory – March 5th.

nYet today, was July 16th.

nDid time move forward?

nNo, it was reversed.

nThe day that he met with a mishap was March 5th, 2026. But today it was July 16th, 2025

nHad time rewound almost eight months backward?

nXiao Yu could feel shock running through his entire hamster being. He felt like he had just caught a part of the truth about something, but that moment had disappeared in a flash. When he thought about it again, he felt like everything was hard to understand again.

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nIt was now 2025, then where in that period in his memory disappear off to? He was supposedly in the car accident in 2026, did that mean that at this very moment, the human Xiao Yu was still alive?

nIf the human Xiao Yu was still alive, then what was he?

nXiao Yu’s hamster face was in deep thought as he stared blankly into space, not even realizing that Yan Jin had come out from the bathroom.

nYan Jin, who was drying his hair, glanced at the frozen hamster on the desk. His eyes had no focus, his face crumpled as if thinking about something important.

nKacha.

nXiao Yu was startled by the sound of the camera shutter, and he looked up to find Yan Jin in his bathrobe fiddling with his phone.

nFrom Xiao Yu’s position, he could still see with difficulty that Yan Jin had just taken a photo of his serious and silly face, edited it, added a catchy caption ‘A new storm is brewing again’, and sent it to his social group.

nHe was unexpectedly made into an emoticon!

nAfter he finished that whole series of actions, Yan Jin saw Xiao Yu staring straight at him as if he had done something where even God would not forgive. That little resentful and furious look rendered Yan Jin incapable of controlling the agitation in his heart. He stretched out his finger and poked Xiao Yu’s cheeks.

nXiao Yu turned and snapped his jaws.

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nBite you to death!

nThe bite missed as Yan Jin quickly withdrew his hand.

nThen he cheekily poked back again.

nXiao Yu slapped his paw at Yan Jin’s finger. That reaction truly shocked Yan Jin. Seeing Xiao Yu standing on both his feet and pushing his finger away with his paw – such a human reaction from a hamster with short hands and legs was so adorable it would melt any human heart.

nNot only was Yan Jin taken aback by the cuteness, he even persistently continued to tease Xiao Yu, hoping to get a more interesting reaction.

nXiao Yu wanted to calm down and think about the situation he was in, but too bad he was just a hamster who couldn’t speak his mind. He had no way to make Yan Jin get out of his sight, so he obediently stayed still and let Yan Jin poke him all over.

nThere was nothing he could do because Xiao Yu thought that Yan Jin was the type where the more you resisted, the more he bullied you.

nIndeed, seeing Xiao Yu not react accordingly, Yan Jin really stopped cautiously poking Xiao Yu. Under Xiao Yu’s ‘I knew this would happen’ gaze, he grabbed Xiao Yu in his palm and rubbed him.

nXiao Yu: Damn it! This was not in the script!

nSQUEAKKK!

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nI’m gonna get tickled to death! I’m dying!!

nAfter torturing to his heart’s content, Yan Jin finally stopped, and Xiao Yu was already panting heavily, not even uttering a single word.

nOh, there was no difference anyway. He couldn’t talk anyhow.

n“Very obedient.” Yan Jin concluded with satisfaction.

nXiao Yu, who had nothing left to live for, was put back onto the desk after being played with. He crouched at the corner of the desk, fearing for his life that Yan Jin would suddenly grab him and tease him again. Thankfully, after Yan Jin settled himself down, he started working on his work-related matters, no longer bullying Xiao Yu.

nAfter hiding at the corner of the desk for a while, Xiao Yu looked at Yan Jin who was typing away on the keyboard, not even glancing at him. He soon felt bored.

nXiao Yu carefully walked to the front of the computer, lightly pushing the screen. Yan Jin glanced at the silly-looking hamster, but he did not care about him.

nThis gave Xiao Yu a huge confidence boost; he looked at Yan Jin’s computer. Realizing that it was all agreement documents, he looked away immediately and played with the ballpoint pen that was scattered on the desk.

nWhile he played around, Xiao Yu thought about the issue regarding the time reversal. Although he was very mindful of this stupid matter earlier, Yan Jin’s interruption made Xiao Yu feel like it was not that confusing anymore.

nWalking a few steps towards the edge of the desk, Xiao Yu looked downwards and saw the spot where his cage was just moments ago, which was thrown away by Yan Jin.

nBut even if that cage was thrown away, there would still be a next one. Very soon, he would be locked back into a cage.

nFeeling sad, Xiao Yu’s mind started thinking again. Whatever, he was still a free soul right now. Every moment he could spend outside would just be that.

nXiao Yu soon returned to his happy-go-lucky behavior and ran along the edge of the desk. When he got closer to Yan Jin’s spot, Yan Jin purposefully stretched his hand and pushed him towards the center of the desk.

nXiao Yu just had to go against Yan Jin’s will; he had to run along the edge of the desk.

nIt was not like he was a real hamster, he wouldn’t fall off just like that.

nThen, Xiao Yu slipped —

nTranslator’s Note:

n1 QQ – a social media platform that’s commonly used in China. Works just like Line, Discord, Whatsapp etc.

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