Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

Chapter 70 You're Just a Pet

Everything went smoothly on the way home.

After taking the elevator to the 18th floor, Ai Qing also took the opportunity to register Xiao Yu's fingerprint at the door.

"Give it a try."

After helping her register her fingerprints, Ai Qing closed the door again and gestured for her to come forward and try.

With a curious look, Xiaoyu stretched out her left hand, placed it on the doorknob, and pressed her thumb on the fingerprint scanner.

With a beep, the fingerprint lock emitted a sound: "Unlock successful."

As soon as she finished speaking, Xiaoyu pressed the doorknob, and the door opened smoothly.

"Wow!" Little Fish exclaimed in surprise.

When Ai Qing had her try it before, she couldn't open the door from this side using the doorknob.

But now you can open it simply by pressing your thumb on it?

so amazing!

Xiaoyu doesn't really understand fingerprints and such, and doesn't know what scanning or unlocking means.

But she kept them all in her heart.

It's okay if you don't understand now; you'll understand later.

This is something Ai Qing often says.

“That way, you can go out and come home by yourself from now on, and you won’t be locked out.” Ai Qing pressed Xiao Yu’s shoulder and helped her into the house. “But it’s best not to go out alone for now.”

"Mmm...uh-huh." Little Fish nodded obediently, listening to Ai Qing's words.

Now that she's home, Ai Qing closed the front door and went straight to her bedroom, where she slammed her head on her pillow.

But I don't know if he's gotten used to this routine lately, so it's not realistic to expect him to fall asleep right away.

Xiao Yu, who had followed in, lay down next to Ai Qing, absorbing the warmth emanating from him.

Turning her head to look at the girl beside her, Ai Qing asked in an attempt to distract herself, "Did you have any thoughts or questions about going out today?"

"Hmm..." Caught off guard by the question, Xiaoyu was at a loss for words. She could only furrow her delicate brows and think for a while before turning to Ai Qing and asking with a curious expression, "Sister-in-law, what do you mean?"

Ai Qing: "..."

Good guy.

They started by asking a very difficult question.

They silenced Ai Qing completely.

Hesitantly, Ai Qing chose the latter over a "white lie" and the "honest truth".

So he said, "Kong Fugui is older than me, so when we address each other as brothers, what can he call me?"

“Little brother!” Little Fish answered affirmatively.

Because she had learned this knowledge point in her Chinese textbook, she remembered it very clearly, so much so that she was quite happy when she answered, and her voice was particularly loud.

"...No need to shout so loudly." Ai Qing twitched the corner of her mouth and continued, "My father married my mother. At that time, who was my mother to my father?"

"Wife! Hmm..." Xiaoyu blurted out the answer subconsciously, but her voice was still a bit loud. She quickly covered her mouth and then quietly added, "It's wife."

“…You don’t need to speak so softly.” Ai Qing said helplessly, then explained, “If we’re referring to our younger brother’s wife, we usually call her ‘sister-in-law.’”

"Huh?" Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment upon hearing this answer, then asked innocently, "So, so, Xiaoyu is, a wife?"

“Of course not.” Ai Qing shook her head. “Apart from marriage, if it’s just dating, then she’s just a girlfriend. You can call your brother’s girlfriend his sister-in-law.”

"Girlfriend?" Xiaoyu muttered the word, then still seemed confused. "Girlfriend, what is that?"

“You can think of him as someone who has a chance of becoming your wife,” Ai Qing said. “For two people to get married, they usually need to date first and make sure they are suitable for each other before getting married.”

"Before marriage, the two people are each other's lovers, the boy is the boyfriend and the girl is the girlfriend."

"Does this make sense?"

"Mmm!" Xiaoyu nodded vigorously, her eyes shining, feeling like she had learned something new. "So, Xiaoyu, is, my girlfriend!"

“No, not exactly.” Ai Qing shook her head in denial. “Girlfriend, it’s just that my brother mistakenly thought so, and since you don’t have a suitable identity on the surface, I just went along with it and didn’t explain.”

"Huh?" Xiaoyu's cat ears drooped slightly after being rejected twice in a row, and her voice became much softer. She couldn't help but clutch Ai Qing's clothes with her right hand and asked softly, "I... have no chance... of... getting married?"

Looking at the little fish who looked a bit aggrieved, Ai Qing opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

He understood why Xiaoyu said that.

Because she doesn't actually understand what the concepts of dating and marriage really are.

Just like when he was in kindergarten, he could "sincerely" tell a girl in his class that he wanted to marry her and have children together.

There was more than one girl.

But as you grow up, you gradually realize that these words can only be said to one girl at a time, and they carry a heavy responsibility and affection.

Xiaoyu doesn't understand these things yet, but Aiqing can.

"Don't be sad again." Ai Qing patted her head. "I didn't express myself clearly. There's a chance that you can get married if you have a girlfriend. That's just a way of putting it."

Simply put, for two people to be together, go through dating, and get married, they must be compatible and like each other.

"They can accept each other's strengths and weaknesses, and are willing to stay together and live under the same roof."

“It takes a lot of courage and love to do these things.”

Xiaoyu listened attentively to Ai Qing's explanation, then blinked, looking puzzled, and asked, "Aren't we... like this?"

Ai Qing: "..."

He opened his mouth, wanting to refute.

But as the memories of those nearly two months came flooding back, it seemed impossible to find anything that contradicted his account.

Even Kong Fugui, that guy, could tell at a glance that Xiaoyu was his girlfriend.

But only he himself knows that's not true.

“It’s different.” Ai Qing shook her head. “Before you could become human, you were just my pet.”

He calmed down, and became even somewhat cruel.

Theoretically speaking, small fish only live for a little over ten years.

Even if we were to become human now, it's still hard to say.

Ai Qing maintained a certain degree of caution regarding this matter, which prevented him from getting too carried away throughout.

Little Fish doesn't have a normal human value system. Even when she's called a pet, she's just curious and continues to ask, "Pet?"

“Like a kitten like you,” Ai Qing said, “or like some other small animal.”

"Many people live alone in modern society and lack human companionship, so they keep a cat to relieve their loneliness."

"We call this kind of animal a pet."

"So, is the little fish a pet?"

“It used to be.” Ai Qing sighed, still unable to completely calm down, and took the initiative to gently hug the little fish. “Now, maybe, probably, possibly, it’s not just a pet anymore.”

But this can't really be called a girlfriend.

Chapter 71 Breaking Through the Premium Line

October 4, Wednesday.

I held the little fish in my arms this morning and talked to it a lot, but I can't remember what I said afterwards.

I only vaguely remember falling asleep while holding her.

This is probably the first time in my life, besides my own mother, that I've ever fallen asleep while holding a girl.

It has a very warm and cozy feel.

I'm sleeping very soundly.

I woke up at around 10 a.m. I ordered ingredients on my phone, typed for a while, and then cooked lunch with Xiaoyu.

Today I tried making braised crucian carp. Cooking isn't difficult. Although I don't understand the principles of removing fishy smells and enhancing flavor, I just need to remember how to add the ingredients.

It's not too difficult to learn.

Since today's difficulty level has increased, I made the other dish and soup myself.

Xiao Yu, who has tried braised crucian carp, says that basa fish and the like aren't that delicious either.

Haha, she'll probably say that many more times in the future.

……

October 4th, Thursday.

I feel that Xiaoyu's speech is becoming more and more fluent.

Although it was still intermittent and hesitant, he could occasionally utter sentences of five or six words in a row.

Very good, that's progress.

Indeed, the transformation of a cat into a human cannot be judged by common sense. Otherwise, how could a normal child go from being completely unable to speak to learning pinyin and being able to communicate with others in less than two months?

However, Xiaoyu still needs to learn to recognize characters, as her vocabulary is not yet extensive enough.

Often she can speak, but she may not recognize what the words she is saying look like.

When I see text, I still can't read it completely; I have to rely on pinyin.

It seems like you can set the font to include pinyin on a phone. I can set that on the phone I buy for her after I receive my royalties next month.

With a phone that comes with built-in Pinyin, learning and using it should be much easier for her.

When the little fish can speak and communicate normally, and has learned how to use various functions of a mobile phone, then it will truly become a normal human being.

Oh no, I should say that he behaves like a normal human being.

From Xiaoyu's perspective, some of these beliefs are things that are unlikely to be changed in this lifetime.