Chapter 23: The cat was excluded

After eating and drinking his fill, Xie Xiaobao wandered around the room a few times to help digest, but before long, he started feeling sleepy again.

So he simply turned back into a cat, burrowed under the covers, and continued sleeping with a soft purr.

The next morning, Xie Xiaobao was still dreaming under the covers when Lao Wang showed up at the door again.

Lao Wang had a key to Xie Xiaobao’s place.

After ringing the doorbell a few times with no response, he just let himself in.

Xie Xiaobao was in the middle of a sweet dream, his tongue still sticking out, when the pounding knock at the door startled him awake.

Outside, Lao Wang knocked and called, “Xiaobao, are you up yet? I bought you breakfast.”

Startled, Xie Xiaobao jolted upright, almost rolling straight off the bed in his panic.

Lao Wang kept knocking outside, and it took Xie Xiaobao a moment of flustered scrambling to remember to turn back into a human, hurriedly pulling on his pajamas and running to open the door.

“You’re still sleeping this late?” Lao Wang muttered as he looked at his messy hair, urging him to hurry up and get ready. “Finish up and come eat breakfast.”

Nothing had gone wrong, so Xie Xiaobao finally felt relieved, but now he looked a bit listless. “Oh.”

Dragging his feet to the bathroom to wash up, Xie Xiaobao quickly brushed his teeth and splashed his face, then wandered out looking dazed. “You’re here so early. Is there something going on?”

Lao Wang laid out the breakfast he’d brought. “Mm, let’s talk while we eat. It’s nothing major.”

Xie Xiaobao sat down, took a couple of sips of soy milk, and only after eating a soup dumpling did he start to feel awake again. “What’s up?”

Lao Wang explained that someone wanted Jubao to shoot an advertisement, handing over several printed packets of company information for him to look at. “Take a look. If you’re interested, I’ll go negotiate for you. If not, I’ll turn them down.”

Xie Xiaobao took the files, not having expected that someone would actually want his cat form to shoot an ad.

He looked over the information, finding it surprisingly interesting.

Lao Wang patiently waited for him to finish, and seeing his serious expression, couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think you’ve ever been this attentive about your own affairs.”

“That’s different,” Xie Xiaobao thought with satisfaction.

Although he’d never planned to be a star, the fact that his cat form was chosen by a company meant his looks weren’t bad at all.

Compared to his casual attitude about his human form, Xie Xiaobao cared a lot about his original form. Now that someone wanted him to film an ad, he couldn’t help but feel a little tempted.

If his original form got on TV and became a celebrity cat, wouldn’t that be a huge boost to his image?

With a hint of vanity, Xie Xiaobao imagined himself as a star cat, able to confidently talk back to Second Brother whenever he called him fat. The more he thought about it, the happier he got, and he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“What are you laughing at?” Lao Wang was baffled by his laughter. He’d read the script too, and there wasn’t anything particularly funny in it.

Xie Xiaobao snapped back to himself, coughing awkwardly. “N-no reason, I’m just looking over the materials.”

Lao Wang felt like something was off with him today, but couldn’t put his finger on it, so he just started explaining the pros and cons of the various companies.

Both cat food companies were mid-range brands. Lao Wang had looked into them and found mixed reviews—some good, some bad.

Personally, Lao Wang didn’t recommend either.

Even though it was just a pet endorsement, nowadays cat owners treated their pets like royalty. If the cat food had issues, even Xie Xiaobao could get dragged into trouble.

The pet hospital was a large one and had a good reputation, but the contact person was arrogant and demanded Jubao cooperate unconditionally for the shoot. With such insincere partners, Lao Wang naturally wasn’t interested.

After seriously listening to Lao Wang’s advice, Xie Xiaobao agreed it made sense. “So that just leaves the last one.”

As he spoke, Xie Xiaobao pulled out the last file. This proposal was thick—besides an introduction to their credentials and the pay offered, the rest focused on the situation at the animal shelter.

The shelter was a non-profit, so the payment offered was much lower than the other three, but the proposal’s author clearly understood pet owners’ empathy.

Along with photos of the shelter’s current environment, they’d included plenty of pictures of stray cats and dogs.

Even though the shelter did their best to care for them, these lost animals still looked lonely and scruffy.

Xie Xiaobao had never been exposed to this before.

He flipped through the proposal page by page, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

“I want to take this one.”

Closing the proposal, Xie Xiaobao looked a bit heavy-hearted.

Honestly, these animals weren’t very intelligent, and though they looked similar to his own kind, they weren’t really of the same species.

But seeing those photos still made him inexplicably sad.

Lao Wang had also preferred this one.

Charity ads didn’t make money, but they were great for reputation. With some good publicity through Jubao, Xie Xiaobao could gain even more popularity.

But Xie Xiaobao wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

He just wanted to do his part to help these homeless animals.

Once they’d settled on a partner, Lao Wang took charge of negotiations.

Worried that Lao Wang might push too hard on the price, Xie Xiaobao even made a point to tell him he didn’t need any ad fee when seeing him out.

Lao Wang knew his temperament well and agreed readily.

After all, they weren’t doing this ad for the money—they could make up for it in other ways.

Three days after finalizing the partner, Lao Wang brought news that the contract was settled.

The other party wasn’t in a rush to shoot the ad. If Xie Xiaobao had time, they hoped he could bring the cat to get familiar with the environment first.

They also sent over the script for the commercial.

The shoot would all take place at the shelter, and besides Jubao as the star, there would also be one cat and one dog in the ad.

Xie Xiaobao agreed right away, but there was one thing he was still worried about: how to come up with a reason for Jubao to appear alone.

As Jubao’s “owner”, it only made sense for him to accompany the shoot, but since he could only appear as Jubao, he’d have to think of a good excuse for “Xie Xiaobao” not to show up.

Xie Xiaobao pressed his front paw to his head, rubbing his cat face against the pillow, and let out a troubled meow.

This really was enough to worry a cat to death.