Chapter 1 Honey, it seems your cat is trying to blackmail me.
You're the one with cat syndrome.
By / Escaped Orange Cat
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"A pet therapist? Do you have any long-haired calicos here?"
What should I do if my corn snake suddenly stops eating mice?
"Are there any special services? People also want to be healed."
After graduating from Linhai University with a degree in animal behavior, Su Cheng became a pet emotional therapist, focusing on helping cats and dogs alleviate anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her job offers mainly come from pet hospitals, and she also runs a studio catering to individual pet-owning families.
However, since pet emotional therapy is a relatively new and niche industry, most of the consumers who come for consultations ask bizarre and irrelevant questions, which makes Su Cheng a little emotional.
She was holding her phone, deleting and editing in the input box, trying to figure out how to create a concise and to-the-point introduction, when a message suddenly popped up in the community's owners' group and caught her attention.
[Urgently need a cat feeder at my home. I have a big orange tabby. Generous pay. DM me if interested.]
The speaker's profile picture was of a round, long-haired tabby cat with orange and white fur, and the building number in the notes was next to Su Cheng's house.
This is like a windfall!
Su Cheng jumped out of bed and quickly clicked to add a friend, afraid that the duck she was about to eat would fly away.
After the other party accepted the friend request, Su Cheng immediately sent her a personal profile and screenshots of customer reviews accumulated over many years of part-time in-home pet feeding services.
[Professional cat owners, your cat's best friend, and your human's best helper—we look forward to your order!]
And I carefully selected an orange cat bowing emoji to send to him, just to please him.
Watching the [1801] at the top of the chat box change to [The other party is typing...], and then switch to [The other party is speaking...], Su Cheng felt like a little cabbage waiting to be picked in a farmers market, and couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
Could it be that the price is too high?
She had some doubts, since she usually charged based on distance for orders, with a starting price of 30 yuan for single-cat families within three kilometers.
But this time, the client was just a wall away from him.
Su Cheng hesitated whether to lower her offer to secure this long-term meal ticket, when suddenly a voice message popped up with a "ding".
She couldn't help but roll her eyes. Receiving voice messages at work is the most annoying thing, especially those with dialects mixed in. They can't be accurately transcribed into text, and you still have to patiently listen to them, which is a complete waste of time.
The neighbors next door made quite a fuss about moving a few days ago. Although Su Cheng noticed it, she didn't bother to inquire about the new neighbors.
But after learning that the other person was also a cat lover, the little bit of curiosity in her heart suddenly surfaced, as if gently scratched by a cat's paw.
With a sense of curiosity, she clicked on the voice message.
A cacophony of background noises erupted first, like the dull thuds of someone chiseling something hard in the distance.
The next second, a clear and pleasant male voice came from the speaker, as refreshing and pure as lime sparkling water taken out of the freezer on a hot summer day.
The man spoke at a moderate pace, first explaining that he was on a business trip out of town and couldn't come back in time, then detailing the specific locations of the pet supplies in his home, concise and to the point.
The voice message played on its own, its gentle voice making Su Cheng's ears tingle.
The voice was exceptionally pleasant to hear, and it also had an indescribable sense of familiarity.
She couldn't help but let her imagination run wild. Could it be some obscure idol, or a professional voice actor who does voice acting for games?
Thinking about this, she suddenly realized that long voice messages weren't so bad after all.
A romantic scene of meeting a handsome neighbor began to play out in her mind, and just as a series of pink bubbles were popping up, her phone suddenly vibrated, ruthlessly dragging her back to reality from her daydream.
The other party readily transferred the money and even provided the room key code.
This year's clients are becoming more and more sensible.
She composed herself and got down to business, quickly figuring out the habits of the people she was serving.
The little boy's name is "Yuanbao". He is five years old and likes to lie in a cat pancake during the day. He starts his cat snack mode on time at night.
Sure enough, nine out of ten orange cats are fat, and the other one is on its way to a midnight snack.
To match Yuanbao's biological clock, she scheduled her visit for 9 p.m.
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Welcome home.
Su Cheng pushed open the security door of her new neighbor's house. The electronic voice greeted her politely, completely unaware that a complete stranger had entered the house.
Before coming, she couldn't help but browse through her WeChat Moments, trying to piece together a portrait of her new neighbor from the clues.
The other party set their profile to "visible only for the last month," and the few updates they posted were all nine-grid photos comparable to professional pet photography. Yuanbao wore various bow collars, sometimes lazily lying on the cat tree, sometimes obediently squatting in its cat bed, perfectly embodying the daily life of the most endearing "internet celebrity cat" on social media.
Looks like someone who's willing to spend money.
Su Cheng deftly put on her shoe covers and meticulously followed the standard procedure for in-home services.
Most pet-owning families install surveillance cameras at home, and Su Cheng also records videos for future reference to protect the rights of both parties.
The camera pans smoothly across the entryway, where the room still retains the previous owner's decor. The wallpaper edges are slightly yellowed, and there are a few small cracks in the ceiling, clearly indicating that the owner had just moved in and hadn't had time for a major renovation.
As she fumbled for the switch and pressed it, the moment the living room lights came on, the sight before her eyes stunned Su Cheng into a daze.
A brand new Ralph Lauren geometric rug is laid in the center of the living room.
A three-tiered Nordic-style wooden cat tree stands on the carpet, with natural sisal rope wrapped around the pillars and a large woven hammock hanging in the middle, echoing the transparent planet cup at the top.
The walls are covered with decorative paintings of cat paw prints and exquisite photos of gold ingots, and various cat bowls are neatly arranged in the corner.
The off-white leather sofa sat alone in the corner, with a few orange cat hairs still clinging to the fluffy cushions, as if the cat had mercifully ceded this space to the two-legged creature for temporary shelter.
Another day of envying kittens.
She stared at the luxurious furnishings throughout the room, unable to resist looking around, eager to catch a glimpse of Young Master Yuanbao's true face.
The room was filled with the sounds of cats meowing, but none of them were actually meows.
Su Cheng strained her voice, her words broken and intermittent, like an old-fashioned telegraph machine with a malfunctioning connection, struggling to establish a connection with the enemy station.
However, it is clear that she overestimated her language skills.
Kitten, you've successfully piqued my interest.
She had no choice but to resort to her trump card.
When the expensive imported cat food hits the ceramic bowl with a crisp, crackling sound, a chubby little paw finally peeks out from under the sofa.
To win a kitten's heart, you must first win its stomach.
Yuanbao couldn't resist the temptation of the food after all, and rubbed his fluffy head against Su Cheng's fair legs as a sign of friendliness.
Setting her phone aside, Su Cheng rummaged through the snack cabinet and pulled out a bag of freeze-dried salmon, carefully tearing it into thin strips and sprinkling it on Yuanbao's cat food as a topping.
Yuanbao smacked his midnight snack with gusto, making satisfied snoring sounds in his throat.
"Hello, trucks are not allowed to park here."
Su Cheng finally couldn't resist reaching out to her customers. She pressed the well-fed Yuanbao to the ground, rubbed him repeatedly, and took a couple of breaths before instantly feeling energized.
She stood in front of the sink, deftly washing the other cat bowls.
The sound of running tap water mingled with the increasingly heavy rain outside the window.
It wasn't too hot in Linhai at the end of June.
In previous years, she would have been burning the midnight oil in the library, cramming for the final exam week.
Now that she has finally entered society, she finds herself missing the simple life she once had, when she was oblivious to the world around her and focused solely on her studies.
With a loud boom, a muffled thunderclap resounded.
Startled by the sudden clap of thunder, Su Cheng's hand trembled, and she almost dropped the cat bowl with nine cartoon ponies printed on it into the pool.
She patted her chest, still shaken. Although she didn't know the exact price of this luxury brand collaboration, the iconic pony on the bowl alone was enough to make her wince. If it really broke, her Alipay bill for next month would probably vanish without a trace, just like those playful pony patterns on the bowl.
Just as she calmed down, Su Cheng suddenly felt an itch on her ankle and noticed a furry thing next to her.
Freeze-dried crumbs still clung to her whiskers, Yuanbao's back arched high, her tail whipping across her ankles like a soft whip, her eyes warily fixed on the window, clearly quite frightened by the rumble of thunder.
Su Cheng placed the cat bowls on the counter, dried her hands with a towel, and then slowly squatted down.
She kept her eyes level with Yuanbao, palms facing upwards, patiently waiting for it to approach on its own.
Yuanbao's tail tip twitched hesitantly, its tense back relaxed slightly, and after a moment of hesitation, it couldn't resist and gently pressed its wet nose against the back of her hand.
This is a gesture by which a cat shows trust.
She gently ran her fingertips through Yuanbao's soft fur, from his brow to his forehead and then to the back of his neck.
After Yuanbao relaxed as much as possible, Su Cheng used freeze-dried food to lead the way, guiding it step by step to jump onto the cat tree and lie down.
The dense raindrops pattered against the windowpane, making a crisp sound; it must have been a summer thunderstorm.
Su Cheng secretly rejoiced that she hadn't accepted any of those long-distance home delivery orders tonight.
Her typical job of feeding cats at their homes includes cleaning the cat bowls, feeding and watering them, playing with them, and cleaning the litter box.
Considering that Yuanbao has just been frightened, it is not appropriate to stimulate its senses with toys at this moment. After cleaning the litter box, we can call it a day.
She skillfully scooped the litter clumps into the trash bag, and when she saw a few that weren't completely covered, she turned to Yuanbao and said, "Little Yuanbao, you failed the test. Next time, make sure you bury them properly!"
After cleaning up the litter clumps, she turned around and took out a brand new bag of cat litter from the storage cabinet.
Just as I was about to pour the contents into the litter box, I caught a glimpse of a fresh, moist little ball emerging from it.
Suspicious eyes locked onto Yuanbao, the suspected cat.
It remained in its original position, but suddenly stood upright, its ears perked up alertly, and its eyes fixed on the ceiling.
She looked up in surprise. A small patch of water had appeared on the ceiling, and water droplets were slowly gathering on the cracked wall, teetering on the verge of falling.
A drop of cool water grazed Su Cheng's nose and landed squarely in the cat litter in front of her.
To prevent the litter box from being damaged, Su Cheng had to move it to a safe spot in the corner and find a clean plastic basin to catch the leaking water.
She took her phone off the shelf, stood on tiptoe, zoomed in on the leaking part of the ceiling, and reported the terrible situation to her new neighbor, praying that the flood wouldn't be a disaster when they returned.
Just as Su Cheng took off her shoe covers and was about to leave, a ball of orange lightning darted out of the shadows, its soft paws grabbing her trouser leg, and its furry head rubbing against her calf.
"Are you reluctant to let me go?"
Su Cheng gently scratched Yuanbao's chin, and it rolled around on the ground, its round belly rising and falling with its breath, like a bright, alluring temptation.
In our line of work, the biggest taboo is falling in love with a customer.
But we'll see each other again eventually, and those who are close by have an advantage; there's plenty of time.
Squeezing the soft, pink paw pads, Su Cheng reluctantly said goodbye to Yuanbao.
A flash of white light appeared outside the window, followed by a clap of thunder.
Yuanbao instantly bristled, scrambling and crawling onto Su Cheng's waist and refusing to let go. Its round, green eyes looked at her pitifully, and the whole cat curled up into a ball, trembling.
Su Cheng frowned slightly. Her professional instincts allowed her to detect Yuanbao's stress response. It was clearly quite frightened by the sudden thunderstorm and dared not let her leave.
She cradled Yuanbao's trembling back and skillfully used her fingertips to gently draw soothing circles behind its ears.
Left with no other option, she took a picture of the scene and sent it to her new neighbor.
[Honey, it seems your cat is trying to scam me.]
A note from the author:
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