Chapter 17 I'm sorry, I already have someone I like. ...
Seeing this, Lin Yang raised her hand to block Su Cheng and said sternly to the blond-haired man, "Watch your mouth!"
The girl pressed down on the boy's hand that was pointing at someone, hugged his arm and gently shook it, her voice sweet and cloying: "Honey, I love this little orange cat so much, let's take it home~"
She suddenly thought of something and lightly poked the boy's chest with her finger, "Didn't you just close that two million project? Just show them the company's financial statements."
The boy frowned, a fleeting look of embarrassment crossing his face.
"Getting a stray cat is such a hassle, this is an invasion of privacy, I'll sue you!" The boy squeezed out these words through gritted teeth, his eyes sweeping over Su Cheng and Lin Yang with a sinister look, and he grabbed the girl and started to walk towards the door.
The girl in high heels was suddenly pulled, causing her to stumble forward a few steps. The smile on her face vanished instantly. "You're hurting me!"
She was furious and, forgetting all about adopting the kitten, shook off the boy's hand and turned to leave.
The boy quickly chased after them, and the two argued as they walked, their voices growing fainter and fainter until they disappeared from Su Cheng and Lin Yang's sight.
Su Cheng shook her head, squatted down, picked up the adoption notice the boy had thrown on the ground, and sighed.
Lin Yang reached out to protect Su Cheng from the corner of the table, and pouted, "Just because you have money doesn't mean you're all that."
Su Cheng stood up, supporting herself on the table, and smiled helplessly, "His gold chain doesn't look real."
She looked at the little orange cat huddled in the cage. "I have to tell Sister Wen that we can't use the metal cage for the next event. We should use a cat carrier instead, and it would be best to add a blackout blanket so the kitten won't be scared by this kind of person."
The "Sister Wen" that Su Cheng mentioned is Wendy, the founder of the rescue station. She is gentle and intellectual, yet possesses the unique resilience of a public welfare worker.
This senior, who is ten years ahead of Su Cheng, is a kind and skilled veterinarian who has treated thousands of stray animals.
Although her initial intentions were pure, she was not very familiar with emerging social media and short video promotion methods, and also lacked experience in organizing offline adoption events.
"Shouldn't we do more pre-event promotion and design a few more fun mini-games, using merchandise as free gifts to attract people?" Lin Yang squatted in front of the cat cage, crushing freeze-dried cod with her fingertips and feeding the hardworking kittens. "It would be great if we had a sponsor willing to support us."
“It’s not that easy. Sponsors aren’t charities.” Another volunteer, Wu Xin, who was Lin Yang’s classmate, chimed in. “But live-streaming e-commerce is so popular right now, maybe we can give it a try? If we’re lucky enough to get noticed by a sponsor, we’ll get a ton of traffic!”
Su Cheng gently waved the cat toy in her hand, the feathers at the tip swaying incessantly in front of the cage.
The silver shaded square-headed bird was completely focused, its short hind legs supporting its body, one front paw resting on the edge of the cage, while the other paw waved wildly, trying to claim that tuft of playful feathers for itself.
Wu Xin's comment about "the overwhelming amount of traffic" made Su Cheng think that if she could take advantage of the popularity of her account, which had unexpectedly become popular because of Jiang Muzhou, she might be able to raise public awareness of the rescue station and allow these little stray cats to live a happy life without worrying about food and clothing.
"Senior, want to go out for hot pot tonight?" Lin Yang suddenly leaned closer to Su Cheng, her eyes crinkling with a smile. "It's that hot pot restaurant I told you about last time. I finally managed to book a table for tonight."
Fang Touke finally managed to hook the feather with his claws, wrinkled his pink little nose, and sniffed his hard-won spoils through the iron cage.
But it was too weak; with a gentle pull, Su Cheng regained control of the cat toy.
"Some other time," she replied absentmindedly.
"Is Senior rejecting hot pot, or is she rejecting me?" Lin Yang's eyes dimmed slightly.
Even if she was slow to understand, she grasped the meaning behind Lin Yang's words.
Over the two years they'd known each other, she wasn't unaware of the coincidences he deliberately orchestrated, the care he showed that she had intentionally ignored, and the numerous excuses he made to spend time with her.
Perhaps it was because he never crossed the line, or perhaps it was because she was too familiar with the bitterness of unrequited love, but she neither accepted nor rejected his kindness.
But at this moment, putting herself in others' shoes, she suddenly felt that such ambiguous and unclear relationships were unfair to everyone.
So she revealed this secret for the first time: "I'm sorry, I have someone I like."
Actually, Lin Yang is a great romantic partner. She is sunny, cheerful, serious, and responsible. I remember the hobbies she casually mentioned, and she can also provide emotional support.
But Su Cheng always felt that something was missing from him.
It seems that after liking someone like Jiang Muzhou, the brilliance of everyone else becomes dimmed.
Lin Yang sighed softly, "Is it that neighbor?"
Su Cheng looked surprised; she thought she had concealed it well.
His voice deepened, "In the group photo of volunteers at the rescue station..."
Before he could finish speaking, a series of hurried footsteps interrupted their rare heart-to-heart talk.
The blond-haired man returned, slamming his hand on the long table menacingly, startling the two men.
Su Cheng noticed that the delicate-looking girl next to the blond-haired man was not there, and became alert.
She winked at Lin Yang, signaling him to move the cat cages that were further away to the inside of the long table.
“Sir, if you need anything, you can come over here to talk.” Su Cheng stepped aside and blocked the cat cage, trying to guide the blond cat away from the cat display area. “Kittens are easily frightened, let’s find another place to talk.”
Huang Mao didn't move, but instead roughly pushed Su Cheng to the ground and reached out to lift the cat cage behind her.
Su Cheng fell heavily to the ground, watching helplessly as the iron cage crashed down on her. She had no time to react, and in terror, she closed her eyes and instinctively reached out to block it.
She was tense all over, her heart pounding in her throat.
But the expected pain did not occur.
A muffled groan reached her ears, and she felt herself being tightly embraced by a pair of strong arms. The unfamiliar scent of cedar lingered in her nostrils, but unexpectedly, it made her feel at ease.
The heavy object made a dull thud when it collided with the bone.
Then, with a loud crash, the cage fell to the ground, startling the kittens, who let out sharp cries.
"What are you doing?!" Lin Yang, who was still settling the other kittens, rushed over, pinned the yellow cat to the ground, and shouted loudly for the mall's security guards.
Wu Xin and several other volunteers rushed over upon hearing the commotion, hurriedly straightening the cat cages and calming the ruffled kittens.
In the midst of the chaos, Su Cheng slowly opened her eyes, her gaze focusing on the familiar face before her.
"Jiang... Muzhou?" She frowned in confusion, her mind blank. "How did you get here?"
Jiang Muzhou forced a smile and reached out his left hand to help her stand up.
Recalling the muffled thud from earlier, Su Cheng suddenly came to her senses and hurriedly reached out to check if his back was injured.
As soon as I touched his right arm, I felt a strange sticky sensation on my fingertips.
Jiang Muzhou's body stiffened visibly, and fine beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead.
Su Cheng slowly opened her trembling hand, her breath catching in her throat.
The palm was a glaring scarlet.
Looking down his arm, a gruesome gash stretched from his forearm to the back of his hand, the flesh turned inside out, and blood was gushing out, dripping onto the ground.
At the metal joint in the upper right corner of the cat cage, a sharp wire stands out conspicuously, its sharp edge stained with fresh blood.
Su Cheng was stunned for only a few seconds before grabbing his uninjured left hand and practically dragging him toward the road outside the mall.
The taxi screeched to a halt in front of her, and without a word, she pushed Jiang Muzhou into the back seat.
"Driver, go to the nearest hospital."
Su Cheng had no first aid knowledge, so she could only clumsily support Jiang Muzhou's injured right arm to keep it as horizontal as possible.
Seeing the shocking wounds, her nose tingled, and tears silently streamed down her cheeks.
This was the first time Jiang Muzhou had seen her cry. He straightened up, helplessly raised his left hand, and gently covered her cold hand with his. "It's just a minor injury, it's nothing serious."
"This is considered a minor injury?" Hearing this, Su Cheng's tears flowed even more freely. "And you call yourself a top student? How could you be so stupid as to use your body to block it!"
She freed one hand and hastily wiped her tears from her face.
The receding greenery shattered into floating duckweed in her eyes, and she felt something gnawing at her heart, causing a dull ache.
"I don't want you to get hurt." He raised his hand to cup her face, his thumb stroking away the tear tracks under her eyes.
He could clearly feel her flinch, her eyelashes fluttering rapidly like the wings of a startled butterfly, and the tears clinging to the tips of her eyelashes falling straight down, sliding from his fingertips all the way to his wrist.
There was a soft spot in my heart that felt like it was being moistened at that moment.
The warm fingertips paused briefly, then tightened their grip slightly to wipe away the moisture from the corners of her eyes. "The fans are still waiting for 'Mu Yi Cheng Zhou' to give us some sweet moments."
Seeing that he still had the leisure to joke, Su Cheng sniffed and stopped crying.
The driver was driving very fast, but fortunately, after the doctor's examination, it was only a superficial injury and the tendons were not damaged, which relieved Su Cheng's anxiety.
When Wendy arrived, Su Cheng was pacing back and forth outside the wound cleaning and suturing room, anxiously staring at the closed door.
She was supposed to be in charge of the adoption event, but she rescued a pregnant cat whose abdomen was entangled in wire that morning and had to perform an induced labor on the cat immediately.
She only learned of the unexpected situation when she arrived at the shopping mall after her surgery.
Wendy patted Su Cheng's shoulder apologetically, "Su, I'm so sorry, I didn't expect it would cause your boyfriend to get hurt."
"Sister Wen, what brings you here?" Su Cheng closed her reddened eyes and pulled Wendy to sit down on a bench. "It's that blond guy who suddenly went crazy. What does it have to do with you?"
"And..." she paused briefly, her voice trailing off, "he's not my boyfriend."
Wendy belatedly opened her mouth, then slapped her forehead, "Oh dear, it's all Lin Yang's fault, he's been talking nonsense all the time."
“Let’s not hold these offline adoption events next time.” She gently held Su Cheng’s hand and shook her head helplessly. “Not only will it easily scare the animals, but it will also cause you… your friend to get hurt.”
“That won’t do. If we don’t hold adoption events, where will the furry kids find new homes? We can’t just keep them crammed into the shelter, can we?” Su Cheng grasped Wendy’s hand. Her thumb and forefinger were covered with a thin layer of calluses, marks left from years of holding a scalpel.
Wendy leaned back on the bench and sighed deeply.
"Sister Wen, I have an idea." Su Cheng looked at Wendy, whose eyes were like grapes after the rain, with a layer of mist on the surface, yet reflecting a glimmer of light in the sunlight.
"My friend's documentary about Decepticons is really popular now, and many netizens are paying attention to stray animal rescue. We can strike while the iron is hot and make short videos about Huajuan, Fangnaoke, and the others. We can also do live broadcasts when we kidnap kittens. Once we have accumulated a certain number of followers, we can better organize offline adoption events."
“Those metal cages can no longer be used; they should be replaced with cat carriers. Ideally, each kitten should have a caretaker. We can also refer to the practices of other rescue stations and first verify the information of adopters outside the facility. Only those who pass the verification can enter the facility to interact with the kittens.”
Su Cheng blinked. "If you trust me, let me give it a try first."
The sparkle in her eyes reminded Wendy of a newborn fawn in the forest, fearless and full of youthful vigor.
Wendy nodded, a warm feeling welling up inside her.
"Oh, right, this is for you." Wendy suddenly remembered something and took out a light pink insulated bag from the side. "Xiaolin said this should have been left behind by your friend."
A note from the author:
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