The little white-eyed wolf Xie Xiaobao hid on Xie Yan’s shoulder, his tail dangling down along the smooth, pristine fabric of the suit, sweeping back and forth.
Xie Yan glanced at him, then lifted him down and held him in the crook of his arm.
Xie Xiaobao rubbed against his hand, letting out a pleading meow.
“I’ll deal with you when we get home.” Xie Yan said expressionlessly as he pinched the back of his neck.
“Meow.”
Xie Xiaobao tucked in his neck, clutching Xie Yan’s arm with both paws and rubbing hard.
Xie Yan looked at the fur stuck on his suit, reached out, and pressed him down.
“Don’t move around, it’s all fur.”
Xie Xiaobao glanced at the black suit where the fur stood out clearly.
Feeling guilty, he tentatively patted the fur and obediently lay still, not daring to move.
Xie Yan drove him home.
The first thing he did upon arrival was to change clothes himself.
“You’re still staying in your old room. Your clothes are all there. I’ll change first.”
Xie Xiaobao twitched his ears in response and wagged his tail as he headed to his room.
Xie Yan had reserved rooms for his three younger siblings, and Xie Xiaobao had stayed here before, so his clothes and toiletries were already inside.
After a shower, Xie Xiaobao changed clothes.
With half-dried hair, he ran to the kitchen.
Having stayed at He Yu’s for a few days, surviving only on canned food, his hungry cravings were almost unbearable.
Xie Yan came out after changing and saw Xie Xiaobao rummaging in front of the fridge with his half-dried hair.
Clearing his throat lightly, he told him to go dry his hair.
Reluctantly, Xie Xiaobao turned around and lingered by the fridge, unwilling to leave.
“I’ve been eating cat food cans for days.”
Xie Yan’s brow twitched slightly.
After watching him for a moment, he said, “Go dry your hair, I’ll cook.”
Xie Xiaobao’s mood brightened instantly.
He thanked his big brother and shuffled back to his room to blow dry his hair.
Xie Yan looked at his freshly changed clothes and resignedly rolled up his sleeves to go cook.
Originally, the family had hired a housekeeper to cook, but since Xie Yan needed to pick up Xie Xiaobao in the morning, the housekeeper hadn’t come, and there was nothing in the fridge.
Xie Yan could only find two eggs and a small handful of greens to make a simple bowl of noodles.
Noodles cook quickly.
By the time Xie Xiaobao finished drying his hair and came out, Xie Yan was almost ready to serve the noodles.
“So fragrant.” Xie Xiaobao sniffed near the bowl, looking at Xie Yan as he leisurely scooped noodles.
Xie Yan added broth to the bowl, sprinkled chopped scallions on top, and placed the bowl on the dining table.
Calmly, he said, “Eat.”
Xie Xiaobao let out a quiet cheer and started eating noodles with his spoon, barely caring about the heat.
Seeing him eat so happily, the furrows between Xie Yan’s brows smoothed out.
Only then did he return to his room to shower and change, still carrying the lingering smell of scallions and garlic from earlier.
By the time he finished tidying up and came out, Xie Xiaobao was already drinking soup from the bowl.
Xie Yan sat across from him, holding his laptop to handle work, quietly waiting for Xie Xiaobao to finish eating.
After finishing the last sip of soup, Xie Xiaobao exhaled contentedly, rubbed his belly, and said it was delicious.
“Finished eating?” Xie Yan set aside his laptop, crossed his legs, and looked at him calmly.
Xie Xiaobao suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck.
He carefully said, “Yeah.”
Xie Yan’s expression remained composed as he looked at him, shrinking like a little timid animal, yet showing no softness.
“Then we can get to the point.”
Xie Xiaobao quietly asked, “Wh-what point…?”
Xie Yan’s expression turned stern.
His fingers tapped lightly on his knee.
“Talk about what happened this time. Was it right or wrong?”
Xie Xiaobao lowered his head slightly and admitted, “It was wrong.”
Xie Yan asked, “Wrong where?”
Xie Xiaobao lowered his head a bit more.
“I shouldn’t have handled things without telling big brother, shouldn’t have changed forms casually outside, shouldn’t have used my identity to…”
Xie Yan’s expression didn’t change.
“Anything else?”
Xie Xiaobao was stunned, then weakly asked, “Anything else?”
Xie Yan’s brow twitched, and the pressure around him visibly intensified.
Xie Xiaobao leaned back into the sofa, almost curling into a ball, trembling as he tried to remember which clan rules he had broken.
He thought hard but couldn’t recall anything else.
“I-I can’t think of any…” Xie Xiaobao looked like a little quail whose head had been pulled from under its wing—small, pitiful, and helpless.
Xie Yan’s face darkened as he spoke word by word, “Your biggest mistake was, when you first asked He Yu for help, you should have anticipated what would happen today.”
“You acted without any plan, only considering the start but not the end. If I wasn’t home, who would you turn to?”
Xie Xiaobao nervously twisted his fingers, his head almost bowing to his chest.
“I didn’t think of that…”
Xie Yan stared at him for a while, looked at his pitiful state, and finally couldn’t bring himself to keep lecturing.
He sighed and said, “Go copy the clan rules twenty times.”
“Okay!” Xie Xiaobao relaxed, never before so thankful for the existence of clan rules.
He lifted his eyes to look at Xie Yan, testing, “So… I’m going to my room to copy the clan rules now?”
Xie Yan waved his hand.
“Go.”
Xie Xiaobao’s heart fluttered slightly, suppressing his excitement and hurriedly returned to his room.
Closing the door, he patted his chest and let out a long sigh before collapsing onto the bed.
After lying there for a while, he turned over and grabbed the tablet on his bedside.
His phone and other devices were still at Hu Jiuli’s place, so the tablet was his temporary substitute.
Logging into WeChat, a stream of messages popped up.
From He Yu, Old Wang, Hu Jiuli, and others, the notifications dinged and buzzed nonstop.
Silencing the sound, Xie Xiaobao glanced nervously at the door and read the messages one by one.
He Yu’s messages numbered several.
The latest was sent at 10:30 this morning, telling him the cat had been picked up by big brother.
Xie Xiaobao replied, saying big brother had already spoken to him on the phone and thanked him for helping take care of the cat during this time.
[*When I’m back, I’ll treat you to a meal.*]
He Yu didn’t reply, probably hadn’t seen the message, so Xie Xiaobao moved on to other messages.
Old Wang’s messages mostly concerned work.
The Animal Shelter was very satisfied with Orange Bao’s performance and had already sent over a number of sample photos.
According to Old Wang, part of the advertising campaign was already complete.
But Xie Xiaobao couldn’t remember when he’d filmed any advertisement.
He had only played at the shelter for a day, and then He Yu had taken him there for half a day — all in less than two days total.
He opened the photos Old Wang sent.
Several were candid shots taken in the shelter’s backyard while he was playing.
There were pictures of him carrying kittens around, learning to hunt with Xiao Hei, even sitting with Da Zhuang.
“When were these taken?” Xie Xiaobao muttered as he flipped through them.
Some he remembered, some left no impression at all.
He guessed the shelter must have installed cameras in the backyard.
These photos could only have been taken secretly while they weren’t paying attention.
But the results were pretty good.
Xie Xiaobao finished looking through the photos.
Each background was the dull, gray shelter, unedited and unpolished.
Yet against this shabby, even bleak backdrop, the joyful, playful animals inside touched the heart even more deeply.
He saved the photos to his tablet and replied to Old Wang.
The photos had been sent to Old Wang for review by the shelter staff.
If there were no issues, they would release some for early publicity to raise funds for the shelter’s future operations.
Although the star wasn’t Xie Xiaobao, as the cat’s owner, he would inevitably be involved once the shelter’s publicity started.
So the shelter contacted Old Wang first.
Xie Xiaobao had no objections and even asked Old Wang to allocate part of his recent income to support the shelter.
After handling work matters, Xie Xiaobao finally remembered the clan rules he had pushed to the back of his mind.
There were quite a few rules, and copying them twenty times was no small task.
He sighed and got up, sitting at his desk to begin.
Paper and pen were ready.
Xie Xiaobao pulled out the clan rules from the bottom drawer, opened to the first page, propped the book upright against the wall, and resignedly began copying word by word.
Just after finishing one page, his tablet chimed again.
Xie Xiaobao frowned and opened the message.
It was from Hu Jiuli, who had sent several messages after being ignored.
[*Have you made it home?*]
[*No news for days.*]
[*I camped outside He Yu’s building but didn’t see anyone. Are you okay?*]
[*If you see this, make a sound.*]
Xie Xiaobao: [*chirp.*]