Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

Ai Qing reached out and took the thing out, examining it closely in her palm. Xiao Yu, who was next to her, also came over curiously. When she found out it was a cat, she exclaimed "Wow!"

"so cute."

"Of course." Li Qiqi chuckled and said proudly with her hands on her hips, "The kittens in the shop usually shed a lot of fur. I collect it all, wash it, and then I can make cat felt from the cat fur."

"But when Xiaoyu told me that your birthday was coming up, there was only a little over a week left."

"So I only had time to make this one small one. It looks pretty, doesn't it? My craftsmanship is pretty good."

"Hmm, that's good." Ai Qing nodded and said, "You can make more when you're bored and sell them to customers in the shop."

"There's money to be made?" Li Qiqi's face lit up with joy.

"Okay." Ai Qing nodded and said mercifully, "I'll only take 50% of the profits, the rest is yours."

Li Qiqi: "...Capitalists really deserve to die."

“My business is just a small workshop at best. You overestimate me. Capitalists don’t have it that easy.” Ai Qing played with the cat felt in her hand, then handed it to Xiao Yu. “But thank you anyway. This birthday present is quite original.”

"Tch." Li Qiqi pouted, but she was still quite happy to receive affirmation.

A short while later, the two new employees that Xiaoyu had recently hired also arrived at the store.

The new employees are all girls, who also love cats, and they are all quite young, only a year or two older than Li Qiqi.

One went to help out at the drinks area, while the other stayed with Li Qiqi to watch over the cat-petting area.

As the store gradually became more staffed, Ai Qing and Xiao Yu decided not to spend all their time going to the cat cafe.

After all, Li Qiqi was family in the shop, so Ai Qing planned to hand over all the trivial matters in the shop to her cousin.

He and Xiaoyu were content to be hands-off managers, only showing up when they needed to film videos or catch stray cats.

Although writing in a cat cafe is quite nice, having cats provide him with all sorts of material is not bad either.

But over time, Ai Qing had already plucked all the cats bald, so there was nothing else to dig up.

If we're talking about writing, then the chair at home is definitely more comfortable.

Now, Ai Qing is worried that being alone at home with only a man and a woman, she fears that Xiao Yu might seduce her and thus delay her writing.

"Brother, it's nine o'clock."

Xiaoyu glanced at the time and realized that Li Qiqi and her group had already opened for business, so she reminded Ai Qing.

"Okay, let's go then." Ai Qing stood up, put the gift Li Qiqi gave her into Hu Tian's bag, and then put it in the locker in the lounge. "We'll get this when we get back."

"Where are you going?" Li Qiqi asked curiously.

"Of course, we're going on a date." Ai Qing looked at her strangely. "What else could we be doing?"

"Didn't we say we were going to have a party tonight?"

"That's for tonight," Ai Qing chuckled. "You focus on your work, I'll invite you to the birthday party tonight, but during the day you'll definitely be out playing with Xiao Yu."

"Fine, fine, fine." Li Qiqi gritted her teeth and snorted coldly.

"Did you find a suitable husband for me last time?" Ai Qing asked with a smile.

"Don't even mention it." Li Qiqi rolled her eyes at him, too lazy to even acknowledge him.

She made it sound so appealing before, but it turns out that online video dating is unreliable. Everyone was just making fun of her, and while many people praised her for being pretty, not many actually took it seriously.

Even among those who messaged me privately saying they wanted to respond to the marriage proposal, a large number were actually just there to joke around and join in the fun.

Li Qiqi had initially held onto a sliver of hope, but then she saw her inbox filled with red dots, and every time she clicked on them, they were just funny jokes and memes, so she eventually gave up and stopped looking.

She'd be better off asking her mom to arrange blind dates for her instead of wasting her time on this.

"Let's go." Ai Qing took Xiao Yu's hand and walked out, waving her hand as she said, "I'll call you when I come back this afternoon."

"Bye-bye, Qiqi~" Little Fish waved goodbye as well.

The two then left the cat cafe and headed towards the nearby subway station.

"Hurry up, brother, the show starts at 9:30!"

"It should be enough time, it's only a few minutes between two subway stops."

"But Xiaoyu still wants to eat popcorn, and it will take time to buy it."

"Then let's hurry up?" Ai Qing turned to look at Xiao Yu, then laughed, "Let's see who gets to the subway entrance first."

"Okay!" Xiaoyu raised her hands, then looked at Ai Qing, "Shall we begin?"

"Start, run!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the little fish darted off.

Ai Qing continued walking slowly forward. When Xiao Yu realized what was happening, turned around, pouted, and angrily tried to hit him, he opened his arms, warmed his entire body, and carried her all the way to the subway station.

The streets echoed with the clear, cheerful laughter of little fish, and the beautiful figure eventually disappeared at the subway station escalator.

Chapter 213: Such formidable combat power?

Aiqing and Xiaoyu are already very familiar with going to Yintai for fun.

Yintai itself was built when Ai Qing was in college, so he wasn't very familiar with it.

It was thanks to Xiaoyu's shopping needs after she turned into a human that Ai Qing was able to gradually figure out how to navigate the various entrances and exits of Yintai.

Even so, once he actually entered Yintai, he was still at a loss as to which way to go.

The malls these days are so ridiculous; you get lost after just a few steps and have no idea which way to go.

The worst part is that escalator.

I have no idea who (idiot) invented it.

Ai Qing vaguely remembers that in shopping malls like this when she was a child, if you wanted to go directly to the fourth floor via an escalator, you could go from the first floor to the second floor and then from the second floor to the third floor by simply turning a corner to get to the next escalator.

But things are different now.

It makes you have to go around in a circle to get from the second floor to the third floor.

As for those vertical elevators that go straight to the destination, they are either hidden in nooks and crannies and hard to find, or there are too few of them and too many people.

When there are many people, the time it takes to wait for a vertical elevator is equivalent to the time it would take to ride the escalator to reach the top floor and then come back down.

Therefore, the more familiar Ai Qing was with this kind of shopping mall, the less inclined she became to come.

He's only willing to go out with Xiaoyu.

Because as long as there are little fish around, all of these drawbacks don't matter.

After all, I'm happy just being with Xiaoyu. We walk hand in hand in the mall, and it doesn't matter if we have to walk a bit from the second floor to the third floor.

Anyway, he still has a little fish on his leash, doesn't he?

"Brother, snoring~"

When Xiaoyu arrived at Yintai, she ran forward like a child and rushed towards Ai Qing.

Using the friction of her shoes against the smooth ground, she slid and finally fell into Ai Qing's arms.

She was having a great time playing like this until the two of them arrived at the movie theater entrance on the fourth floor.

Ai Qing went to pick up the tickets, and Xiao Yu went to buy her favorite popcorn and cola.

By the time we got our tickets and bought popcorn, there were only two or three minutes left before the movie started.

The two quickly ran to get their tickets checked and entered the theater. As they walked into the theater, they headed towards the last row of couples' seats, then stopped in the middle and sat down.

Ai Qing isn't particularly interested in movies, but she's very interested in watching them with Xiao Yu in a couple's seat.

Now that the two of them have broken through the last bottleneck, Ai Qing's hands have become even more restless.

Fortunately, he knew that the surveillance cameras in the movie theater could see very clearly, so he limited his interactions to hugging and kissing.

But even in such an atmosphere, it is still very immersive.

Next time, I should try renting one of those private mini-cinemas.

Ai Qing held Xiao Yu's slender waist, thinking to herself, feeling quite tempted.

When they came out of the movie theater around noon, the two of them went to have lunch.

Seeing that it wasn't too late, Ai Qing finished her meal and took Xiao Yu for a stroll in Yintai City.

I took Xiaoyu to the arcade area to exchange some game tokens. We played claw machines, whack-a-mole, basketball, and arcade games.

It wasn't until almost 3 p.m. that the two of them leisurely returned to the cat cafe.

"Li Qiqi, let's go."

Ai Qing stood at the entrance of the cat petting area and said to Li Qiqi inside the shop, "Let's leave the rest of today to Xiao Liu. You come back with us to celebrate your birthday."

"Coming!" Upon hearing that she could leave work early, Li Qiqi immediately followed along excitedly.

Seeing that she was about to leave, having already changed out of her apron, picked up her bag, and was holding Xiaoyu's arm, Ai Qing coughed twice.

"You'll have to deduct the second half of the day's wages."

"Why should I?!" Upon hearing this, Li Qiqi was struck dumb and turned to question, "I'm here to celebrate your birthday!"

“Business is business, and personal is personal,” Ai Qing said seriously. “When it comes to deducting wages, we are in a boss-employee relationship, which is perfectly reasonable.”

“On my birthday, we are cousins, and I am grateful for that.”

"The identities of these two cannot be confused; we must distinguish between them."

"Besides, weren't you happy to work here for free before?"

"Fine, fine, fine." Li Qiqi gritted her teeth, then snorted coldly, "Men are all the same, not a single one of them is any good."

"It's okay," Xiaoyu said softly, "I'll secretly make up for half a day's wages."

"The landlady is so nice~"

Ai Qing was just joking. After the three of them left the cat cafe, he gave Hu Tian a few instructions and then followed behind her home.

As they passed the pet hospital, they greeted Xiao Youqian.

However, Xiao Youqian had things to do in the afternoon and could only go to see them in the evening.

Ai Qing followed Xiao Yu and Li Qiqi back home, changed into slippers, and then saw Li Qiqi looking on with curiosity as she toured their house.