Chapter 16: DontWantToBeExposed.jpg
So that’s how it was. That was how the mystery designer obtained his drafts.
After so many roundabouts, Xiao Yu was finally a step closer to the truth.
Lin Zhou, that asshole.
God knows where he got his courage, but how dare he send that draft directly to Yan Jin. In the end, it was used by the competitor – throwing the helve after the hatchet.
Xiao Yu was a little disappointed. He thought that Yan Jin really was a person who would not stoop so low with such deceitful plans. However, it seemed that when a person presented an opportunity, Yan Jin would not easily let it go.
But that small disappointment was soon replaced by despise for Lin Zhou. He wasn’t even sure how Lin Zhou had thought of such an idiotic way and why he was so proud of his actions.
Truthfully, if it weren’t for that mystery designer that suddenly appeared, Lin Zhou really might have gotten his way.
Xiao Yu did not get any impressions that the company was dealing with any major issues during that time period. Therefore, Lin Zhou’s design draft did not have any problems during SI’s internal selection and no one had realized that Lin Zhou had plagiarized someone else’s draft.
Never did he expect his senior to not only be incompetent with his design standards, but also perform so brilliantly with evil methods.
After he had turned into a hamster, Xiao Yu had experienced several “did not expect”. Now, he realized that he was a real failure as a person. He thought he knew his senior for such long period of time, but in fact, he did not understand him a single bit. ‘Senior’ was just Lin Zhou’s fake image. The real Lin Zhou was a totally different character.
After Yan Jin hung up his phone, he went to the balcony to cool himself down in the cold wind and then returned to his bedroom.
History always seemed so similar – the room was pitch-black.
Chairman Yan started to wonder if he had the good habit of switching the lights off when he left the room, as he switched the lights on again.
Xiao Yu was lying on top of his tiny tomato. He glanced at Yan Jin and then lowered his head again.
Yan Jin’s instinct told him that Xiao Yu was in bad mood. In that instant, he felt like he had done something very horrible.
“Sorry Fishy, I’ll remember to leave the lights on next time.” Yan Jin made his promise as he took Xiao Yu off the tomato.
“Squeak.” Idiot, it was him who switched off the lights.
That was Xiao Yu’s little habit – whenever he encountered something that made him sad or angry, he liked to stay in the dark all by himself. The switch for the chandelier in Yan Jin’s bedroom was very close to the table, just within Xiao Yu’s reach if he stood on his tiptoes.
Yan Jin poured some melon seeds on the table – he had conveniently taken them from the living room earlier. Ever since he had become Xiao Yu’s owner, the number of times that he bought melon seeds, walnuts, and all sorts of dried fruits obviously increased. On the ground floor of this villa, you could easily see different types and flavors of melon seed packages.
Xiao Yu did not hold back. He grabbed the seeds and started gnawing, not leaving a single piece for Yan Jin. When he was on his last few, Yan Jin tried to steal then from him several times, but his efforts were all in vain. So, he had no choice but to flick Xiao Yu’s little head.
“SQUEAK!” Xiao Yu did not dodge. Although Yan Jin would never inflict pain on him, getting flicked on the head still made him frustrated to no end.
What made him angrier was that every time he attempted to bite Yan Jin, he would end up failing. Chairman Yan always seemed to be able to accurately detect his little movements and quickly moved away – he’d even return and rub him as punishment.
For example, at this moment, Yan Jin grabbed his little paws as he was rubbing them. The opponent’s tactics were way too advanced as he was unable to withdraw his paws from his fingers.
“Alright Fishy, it’s about time. You should go to sleep now.”
Yan Jin pinched Xiao Yu’s little chubby waist as he reminded him.
Normally, Xiao Yu would drag the time out before reluctantly returning to his cage. But this time around, he was very cooperative – the moment Yan Jin released his hand, Xiao Yu immediately ran back to his little nest and hid in his small house, only exposing his head. His little eyes shone like small black beads as if asking him to quickly close the cage.
Yan Jin understood intuitively. He lifted his hand to close the cage and felt weird about Xiao Yu’s unusual cooperativeness.
Chairman Yan, whose instinct was sharper than some Vongola family bosses’, narrowed his eyes as he picked up Xiao Yu’s toy tomato.
The wooden table had a few obvious scratches that hinted at the silly things a certain hamster had done.
Yan Jin broke into a smile and laughed silently.
He placed the toy tomato on top of Xiao Yu’s cage, then reached out to lock the cage as if closing the doors for his little hamster.
Dukdukduk.
Xiao Yu had already tucked his head back and pretended to ignore everything until the end – covering his ears as if he couldn’t hear anything.
Dukdukduk.
Too bad Yan Jin was a very patient person; he could spend three whole months dealing with a difficult client, and so he periodically knocked three times every five seconds for a whole two minutes.
Xiao Yu was indeed the first one to surrender. He cautiously poked half his head out from his house, and attentively waited as he was prepared to run back into his small house if Yan Jin opened the cage.
He watched as Yan Jin slowly got closer to the cage. Xiao Yu could feel cold sweat roll down his back as his entire hamster body shivered.
It was not on purpose, who would’ve known that the table was so fragile (ಥ_ಥ).
When they were less than five centimeters apart, Yan Jin said,
“Goodnight.”
The warm breath landed on the cage with a small patch of white mist. His voice was gentle and lovely like the tones of a piano in a gold, grand hall.
Chairman Yan, who was meticulous even before bedtime, used his handsome face to make a gentle expression unfitting of his image on normal days. That gaze that was full of acceptance, along with the smile made Xiao Yu think that he had seen Mozart composing a lullaby in a broken old wine cellar with the moonlight shining from above.
– -Just like a young man coaxing a baby to sleep.
He blushed.
Even though he knew that it was impossible to see any redness on a hamster’s face, Xiao Yu still let himself fall into despair as he hid himself back in the little house.
It was as if he were hiding the fact that his heart had skipped a beat in that instant because of Yan Jin.
A night without dreams.
In these two days, Xiao Yu could obviously sense that there was something wrong with Yan Jin.
Cough cough, it was not because of that ‘Goodnight’ which was so aromatic that it made him feel this way.
For example, the time that Yan Jin had to report to work was obviously moved earlier. Everyone knew that this period was crucial, as YL and SI would be competing against one another for the deal. It was considered a good thing if Yan Jin did not work overtime until midnight, so how could he come home even earlier than before? That didn’t make any sense.
Although it probably didn’t mean anything, who could have guessed Chairman Yan’s thoughts? Maybe he was the type person that felt more relaxed the more danger his company was in during crises.
But the main issue was, the moment Yan Jin got home, he would ignore Xiao Yu’s struggling as he would put him back into his cage and lock him up. Then he would move his laptop to the living room to settle his company matters, making it seem as if the reason why he came home early was just to put him back into his cage.
Last night, Xiao Yu purposefully took notice of the time – Yan Jin worked his soul off until two in the morning.
And what made him even angrier was that when Yan Jin left the house this morning, he did not open his cage!
Xiao Yu was unsure if Yan Jin had forgotten or if he purposely did not open his cage. Yan Jin was leaving much earlier than usual these few days. Even this morning – he had already left before Xiao Yu had even woken up.
Under such circumstances, it would be better to just obediently stay in the cage for the entire day. Otherwise, he’d risk himself getting exposed.
But it was a beautiful Friday.
The extent of the beauty –
He had a team battle in his game waiting for him! And he was the team leader!
As the team leader, he was abandoning his disciples just because of a strange reason like being locked in a cage and being unable to get out.
AAAAHHHHH GODDAMMIT!
If it was any other day, it would have been fine. Xiao Yu wouldn’t mind spending his entire day in the cage. But he really couldn’t do that today. Just yesterday he had made promises with his disciples. He didn’t want to be a hamster that couldn’t keep his promises.
Looking at the tall cage door, Xiao Yu clenched his teeth and shifted his small house over as he climbed onto the platform.
No matter what, he was once a human. It was impossible for him to be unable to open a small door like that. If he used his intelligence, he would succeed.
Thankfully, Xiao Yu overestimated the hamster cage design. Though it was a door, it was still just a piece of plastic. There was a small ledge at the top. In theory, it was there to prevent a hamster from reaching the ledge through the holes.
However, no matter how smart a hamster was, it should not be able to open its own cage. Even though the design was not complicated, it was generally known that it was impossible. Even Yan Jin thought so. That was why when he left earlier for work, he did not anxiously lock the cage up.
Too bad, Xiao Yu was an exception. He was not an intelligent hamster; he was a quick-witted human.
That big door was a bit heavy for him. But it was still within his range for him to push it. Xiao Yu used his teeth to hold on to the handle and he pushed upwards with all his might.
Tung.
The plastic door hit the table and made a loud noise.
Successfully opening the door was a happy event worth celebrating. But when Xiao Yu climbed out of his cage, he realized something that sent chills down his spine – he could not close the cage again.
Shit.
A single slip that caused everlasting sorrow. Xiao Yu decided to ignore it. He clenched his teeth as he climbed back to shift his little house back to its original spot.
He decided to pretend that it was Yan Jin who had forgotten to close the cage when he had left earlier.
The guilty Xiao Yu did not perform well in the team battle. Along with a few major mistakes, his disciples caringly allowed Xiao Yu to go back and rest, saying they understood that their leader would have some bad days every month…
Yep, Xiao Yu had good techniques and yet he was only willing to type to communicate and he’d never join the team voice chat. He was assumed to be a rare creature in the gaming society – a girl.
It was really the influence from some renowned television show that was based on a game that made people think that way. Regardless of Xiao Yu’s explanations, his disciples would think that it was a goddess’ reserved attitude.
In the end, Xiao Yu who was discouraged really did abandon his disciples and returned to his cage to lie down.
It was almost four in the afternoon. Yan Jin had been returning very early lately, and Xiao Yu had no choice but to prepare earlier himself.
Snugging inside his little house, Xiao Yu faced the wide-open cage, feeling extremely guilty.
What should he do? What should he do? Was he was going to get exposed?
But he even peeled walnuts for Yan Jin, and he did not even raise any suspicions before.
Maybe he hadn’t realized… yet?
Xiao Yu gave up and stopped deliberating over it. Even if he was really exposed, he couldn’t tell Yan Jin that he was SI’s chief designer, Xiao Yu. Otherwise, Yan Jin wouldn’t want him anymore.
Not wanting him was one thing, but what if Yan Jin flared up and tortured him?
Xiao Yu thought of Chairman Yan who fought against those evil forces on the business grounds, he couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine.
No, no. he must find a reason, for example….
He was a hamster spirit who had become enlightened… something like that?
