Chapter 37: That Spider Has Lost the Will to Live
Fresh out of the shower, Chen Mingjie glanced at the giant spider lying flat on the floor, trying to crane its neck to look at him. With a loud “Hmph,” Chen Mingjie headed upstairs to bed without looking back. Seeing that Chen Mingjie was ignoring him, the giant spider continued to lie there in dejection, letting out sad, mournful sounds.
“Well? Get up here! Do you want to freeze to death?” Chen Mingjie suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs and shouted down.
“Hiss!” Overjoyed, the giant spider immediately scrambled up. However, in its excitement while climbing the stairs, its legs got tangled up. It nearly rolled back down, saving itself—and its dignity as a spider—only by bracing against the steps with its other legs just in time.
“Hiss!” The giant spider covered its face with its two front legs. It had truly embarrassed itself right in front of Mingjie!
“…” Watching the spider’s clumsy display, Chen Mingjie looked on with deadpan exasperation. Is this thing even a real spider?
Back in the room, the giant spider saw a folding cot set up next to the large bed and immediately looked at Chen Mingjie with pitiful eyes.
“As punishment, you are sleeping there tonight. You are not allowed in my bed!” Hmph, did you think you were off the hook? Let me tell you, don’t even think about getting in this bed for the next few days!
“Blanket!” Chen Mingjie pretended not to see the spider’s pleading look for forgiveness. He tossed one of the quilts onto the cot and climbed into his own bed. “Lights out!”
Seeing that the situation was past the point of no return, the giant spider aggrievedly crawled onto the folding cot. Fortunately, it was mostly his legs that took up space; his body wasn’t too wide, so he barely fit. Once settled, the giant spider extended a long leg and switched off the light.
…
The next day, 10:00 AM.
Waking up with a hangover, Jing Ran felt his head spinning. He raised a hand to rub his temples, but as he did, he realized something was wrong.
His hand! No, wait… it was a leg!
Jing Ran was shaken to his core. He nervously checked himself, only to discover that he had indeed reverted to his original form.
Hiss! Jing Ran felt like he was going to have a breakdown. How did he turn back into his primal form? Did Mingjie find out? He must be disgusted with him now because Mingjie hated spiders.
“What are you doing?”
Chen Mingjie woke up at the same time Jing Ran did. He watched as the giant spider spasmed, snapping its legs tight against its body and burying its head almost into the floor.
The giant spider froze instantly, terrified to turn around. What do I do? Should I just deny everything until the bitter end?
“Jing Ran?” Chen Mingjie felt his temper rising early in the morning. He raised his voice, and Jing Ran—knowing him well—knew that tone meant Chen Mingjie was on the verge of exploding.
Jing Ran slowly turned his head, wearing an expression that said he wouldn’t fight back even if he got beaten up.
“Do you remember what happened yesterday?” Chen Mingjie asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Hiss…” I don’t remember… Jing Ran shook his head honestly. He had zero recollection of the previous night.
“Great!” Seeing him shake his head, Chen Mingjie’s anger instantly hit the boiling point, though he forcibly tamped it down. He was afraid that if he lost control, breakfast would be roasted spider!
“Can you change back into a human?” Chen Mingjie suppressed his rage, forcing himself to speak calmly.
“Mingjie…” Jing Ran quickly shifted back into his naked human form.
“Why did you hide it for so long?” Seeing Jing Ran’s familiar face, Chen Mingjie couldn’t bring himself to be harsh. That face looked too obedient; he felt bad bullying him.
“Because you don’t like spiders…” Jing Ran murmured, hanging his head low.
“Just because I don’t like them, you decided not to tell me? Do you know how terrifying yesterday was?” It was true that Chen Mingjie didn’t like spiders, but if it was Jing Ran, did he really think he couldn’t accept it? Besides, there was a specific reason he hated spiders.
“That spider that hid in my schoolbag back in the day—that was you, wasn’t it?”
Aside from their appearance not being to his taste, there was another reason for his arachnophobia. One day when they were children, he had opened his schoolbag only to find a spider the size of a palm. He had fainted on the spot and had hated spiders ever since.
“Yes.” Jing Ran bowed his head even lower. If there were a hole in the ground, he would have crawled into it long ago.
“Hmph!” Chen Mingjie wore a look that said ‘I knew it was you.’ He had finally found the culprit for that childhood trauma!
“I’m sorry!” Aside from apologizing, Jing Ran was truly at a loss. He wasn’t a smooth talker and didn’t know how to coax people; otherwise, he wouldn’t have spent so many years silently crushing on Chen Mingjie.
“Say it a hundred more times and I’ll forgive you!” Seeing Jing Ran apologizing with such a humble attitude, Chen Mingjie lost all his anger.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry…” Jing Ran actually started to say “I’m sorry” a hundred times as requested.
“Alright, alright, I forgive you.” Before Jing Ran even reached ten, Chen Mingjie burrowed back under the covers, planning to go back to sleep. “Go make breakfast. I want ba… porridge!”
His butt still hurt; porridge was the only option.
“Okay.” Ecstatic at being forgiven, Jing Ran rushed off to prepare breakfast.
…
“Awooo?” The little white fur ball opened his eyes. His large, misty blue eyes looked up at the ceiling in confusion.
Hearing no response from his Papa, the white ball slowly turned his head and saw that his Papa was still asleep.
Awooo, Papa isn’t awake yet. Seeing that Lin Xia was still sleeping, the cub conscientiously decided not to disturb him and obediently lay down next to him to watch him sleep.
It was rare for Papa to wake up later than him; Papa must be very tired. The white ball felt a pang of distress for him. But Papa was so good-looking. The more the cub looked, the more he loved his Papa.
“Awooo!” Brother Ziyu is calling!
The ringtone the white ball had recorded for himself rang out, and he hurried over to answer it. Since the phone had been placed on the vanity table before bed, the white ball made a steady leap and landed right on top of it.
“Hello? Brother Lin, is the shop opening today?” Wang Ziyu asked. He had arrived at the pet shop promptly at 9:00 AM, but Lin Xia hadn’t opened the door. Assuming Lin Xia was running late, he had let himself in. But when 10:00 AM rolled around and Lin Xia still hadn’t arrived or sent a message, Wang Ziyu decided to call and check.
“Awooo!” Brother Ziyu, Papa is still sleeping! the white ball answered.
“Oh, it’s An An. Where’s Brother Lin?” Wang Ziyu couldn’t understand what the cub was saying, but as long as the call connected, it was fine.
“Awooo!” Wait a moment, Brother Ziyu. An An will wake Papa up! The cub glanced at his sleeping father and, realizing Wang Ziyu couldn’t understand him, decided to wake Lin Xia.
“Awooo!” The white ball bounded back onto the bed.
“Awooo!” Papa, wake up! First, he called out to Lin Xia, but Lin Xia was sleeping too deeply and didn’t react.
Seeing that Lin Xia wasn’t waking up, the cub started kissing him. Lin Xia felt an itch on his face, and when he touched it, it was a bit wet.
“Mmh?” Lin Xia woke up, blinking blankly before his eyes focused on a fuzzy tiger face.
“Awooo!” Good morning, Papa! The white ball lay on Lin Xia’s chest, his tail wagging happily.
“Good morning, baby!” Lin Xia raised his hand to stroke the cub’s head. Seeing the little one so cheerful swept away all his exhaustion.
“Awooo!” Brother Ziyu called! The cub jumped off Lin Xia, picked up the phone in his mouth, and brought it over.
“Thank you, baby.” Lin Xia couldn’t resist petting the cute white ball again.
“Hello? Ziyu?” Lin Xia answered the phone.
“Brother Lin, are we opening today?” Wang Ziyu had been listening to silence on the other end for quite a while and thought something might have happened.
“Yes, we are. Why?” Lin Xia still hadn’t realized he had overslept.
“Brother Lin, it’s ten o’clock!” Hearing his tone, Wang Ziyu knew he had just woken up. He hadn’t expected the usually punctual Brother Lin to oversleep.
“It’s ten?” Lin Xia checked the time and realized it was indeed late. No wonder Wang Ziyu had called. “Is it busy at the store?”
“Not very,” Wang Ziyu replied.
“I’ll be right there. You haven’t had breakfast, right? What do you want? I’ll bring it.” Lin Xia made a quick decision; he wouldn’t cook breakfast but would buy it on the way.
“I ate. Li Hao bought some for me, so you don’t need to bring any.” usually, Wang Ziyu ate the breakfast Lin Xia brought, but since Lin Xia hadn’t shown up, Li Hao, afraid Wang Ziyu would go hungry, had gone out to buy some for him.
“Okay.” Lin Xia hung up, got out of bed, changed clothes, helped the white ball wash up, and headed out. He bought breakfast at a shop to eat once he got to the store.
While eating, Lin Xia called Chen Mingjie to see how he was doing.
Judging by Chen Mingjie’s voice, he seemed to be in a pretty good mood—slurping down porridge while someone waited on him hand and foot.
After finishing breakfast, Lin Xia started working. The white ball played by himself; as a tiger cub, he was quite capable of entertaining himself without needing supervision.
Lin Xia first checked on the condition of the cats and dogs, recording everything in detail.
“Woof!” Da Mao saw Lin Xia and happily nuzzled his palm. After finishing Da Mao’s check-up, Lin Xia noticed the dog seemed a bit down.
“Sister Jin and Ming Ming are busy. They’ll come to take you home in a little while,” Lin Xia said, hugging Da Mao’s head to comfort him. Lin Xia could guess exactly why Da Mao was depressed: Jin Juan and her family hadn’t visited since the day they dropped him off. But Lin Xia knew they were genuinely busy with affairs.
“Woof…” Da Mao hadn’t seen his owners in a long time, so naturally, he was in low spirits, even though he was treated very well at the pet shop.
“Don’t be sad. Who knows? Maybe they’ll come today.” Lin Xia was only trying to comfort Da Mao, but to his surprise, Jin Juan actually arrived with Ming Ming shortly after.
Author’s Note: The white fur ball has such a cute way of waking people up.
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