"Galaxy Group is huge! Xiao Bing just went down the mountain to apply for a sales assistant job at their company, but she was rejected!"
"Boss, don't be impulsive! You're a respected person, if..."
Bei Sining waved her hand gently, picking up two gold leaves between her fingertips.
"This will not disappear for a thousand years. If I say it's true, then it's true."
The cats suddenly remembered the divine power their leader had unleashed that day. Their leader was different from them; he was a truly powerful demon!
After getting rid of the cats, Bei Sining slumped back onto the sofa and closed her eyes to rest.
Being watched expectantly by a group of demons like this was a long-lost yet familiar scene. Back in Beiyao Mountain, his spacious bedroom was often frequented by smuggled little demons who would hide in the bed curtains, behind the bronze mirror, or on the roof beams... Hearing that he wasn't as fierce as the previous demon king, they would come to play with him.
Bei Sining never thought he had a good temper; he often got angry, but he just didn't like to use his fists.
The last time I took action was when I killed the previous Demon King.
Humans reproduce far too quickly, and those born possess intelligence and the ability to cultivate. Top-tier cultivators emerge every hundred years, while mediocre mortals multiply faster than rabbits in the mountains, taking over the forests in droves.
The demon race declined, and in just five hundred years, they all retreated to the Northern Shaking Mountains, no longer engaging in infighting.
The previous demon king was so terrified by the human cultivators that he became so pathetic, yet he still said he would hide, and hide some more.
At that time, the young and impetuous Bei Sining, wielding an unnamed iron sword and dressed in black, strolled leisurely into the main hall and nailed the old bear to the throne.
The Fate-Bearing Cats are inherently powerful; their fur and even their bones and blood are considered rare treasures by cultivators. And even within the Fate-Bearing Cat demon clan, Bei Sining stands out remarkably strong.
The hall was dimly lit, with luminous pearls embedded in the floor, creating a path of light.
The young man, bathed in light and silhouetted against the darkness, discarded the dead bear carcass and sat coldly on the throne.
"Si Ning".
Peacock anxiously wiped the blood splattered on his cheek.
"You'll have a tough time from now on... Beiyao Mountain... Beiyao Mountain is all we have left..."
"Hmm." The cat demon's face was still youthful, but her features were beginning to show their beauty. She said softly, "I remember. From today onwards, my surname is Bei."
...
He never forgot his responsibility for a single day afterward.
This responsibility is like a heavy stone, pressing firmly on my heart, and has not loosened even a little over the past few centuries.
Even now, when he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks of himself, he still thinks of "Demon King" first, and then "Si Ning".
Bei Sining kicked the coffee table in frustration, then sank into the long-haired sofa, her hair all disheveled.
So annoying.
What a mess.
My younger brother is also disappointing.
Let that Galaxy Group explode.
***
Liu Yinhe has been having a very stressful time these past few days. Her group's stock has plummeted, and she has been embroiled in the biggest online flame war in history.
His drooping eyes looked even worse, and his already noticeable dark circles made him look like he hadn't removed his makeup properly, making him look much more haggard. How could he have imagined that such a trivial matter would cause such a huge uproar?
Are these people just bored and have nothing better to do? Haven't they ever seen a dead cat before?!
"Meow!" Liu Yinhe came downstairs and stepped on the tail of a cat that was resting on the stairs. The cat let out a pitiful scream, which startled Liu Yinhe so much that she lost her footing and tumbled down the stairs.
"Meow—" "Meow?" "Meow meow meow!" "Meow~~"
There are a total of fifty-two cats in the villa. They all popped out from various corners to observe Liu Yinhe, who had been slammed into a pancake. They chatted amongst themselves as if they were having a meeting.
Liu Yinhe saw stars and it took her a while to recover. Her legs were in excruciating pain, and she could only cry out in pain.
The servants arrived shortly after, laboriously wading into the cats' enclosure to take their young master to the vet. A thorough examination revealed a fractured shinbone.
"Bring my...cat..."
Liu Yinhe lay on the verge of death in the VIP ward, still making requests to the doctors and nurses.
The chairman's wife wiped away her tears: "Doctor, my son is very attached to our cat and really doesn't want to be separated from it... If he needs to be hospitalized, we absolutely have to take the cat back. Please agree, we promise we won't let it out!"
The chairman snorted, "If that's not enough, add more money!"
Doctor: "...Okay, just be careful not to let the cat kick the IV tubing."
“Mom,” Liu Yinhe said to the chairman’s wife, “Don’t glare at me. This was an accident, but it’s also an opportunity.”
"What opportunity?" his mother asked, bewildered.
"An opportunity to eliminate the negative impact!" Liu Yinhe exclaimed excitedly. "When the cat arrives, take lots of pictures for me and post them on Weibo. Say that I really love cats, and even though I'm in the hospital, I was worried about my little ones at home, so I brought them here..."
The chairman's wife's eyes lit up.
"...These people will definitely speak up for me. When we visit tomorrow, I'll take them to the company on crutches. They're disabled but determined!"
"What do you mean by disabled! Can't you speak properly!" The chairman's wife slapped him.
"That's basically it," Liu Yinhe said mysteriously. "This is standard tactic for information warfare. Just you wait and see. I guarantee I'll get you through this crisis!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than the bodyguards brought in eight of his most beloved cats in cages, including the gray cat that had caused him to tumble down the stairs earlier.
Liu Yinhe had someone bring the little creature to him. He sat on the hospital bed, flipped the cat's ears and paws, and when the cat was purring comfortably, he grabbed its tail and snapped it hard.
The cat let out a piercing scream, and then burst into a frenzy.
"What are you yelling for!" Liu Yinhe roared back at it, "My leg is broken!"
The chairman's wife was also startled. She quickly had the bodyguards take the terrified and struggling cat away. Once her son had calmed down, she scolded him, "Why did you have to do this here? Couldn't you have gone home? What if someone saw you? You're so old and you're so unrefined, not like a cultured person at all..."
Liu Yinhe picked up the other cat and stroked it from head to toe. The cat stood there, stunned and afraid to move.
“Alright, no one saw,” he said. “Hurry up and take a picture, make it look good… Oh, the little flower is so beautiful, look how much it likes me, it even reached out its paw…”
After spending a day in the hospital, Liu Yinhe's leg finally felt less painful. Since it was just a fracture and not serious, he steadied himself and walked to the Galaxy Biotechnology Research Institute, leaning on his crutches.
In addition to the cat owners participating in the competition, the visit also invited journalists from various media outlets that have good relations with their group.
Yesterday's video was quite powerful; it went viral on social media before any paid online commentators even joined in.
While some cat rights activists suddenly became aware of the issue, many more remained indifferent. These individuals spoke out in their defense, preventing the stock from plummeting to the point of being suspended from trading.
Liu Yinhe felt that she was a really excellent CEO. She dressed very formally today and smiled broadly as soon as the reporters arrived.
...However, the cameras didn't turn around for a long time.
"What's going on up ahead? Is there something there?" Liu Yinhe was almost bursting with laughter, so she quickly told her secretary to go check. A moment later, the secretary returned and honestly replied, "There's a man."
"???" Liu Yinhe.
“…Ah, what a real man,” the secretary said.
"You can tell he's a fake man?! Who is he?! He must have some identity to be surrounded by reporters. He's been with me for so many years, and you don't know..." Liu Yinhe didn't finish her sentence before meeting a cold gaze.
He was taken aback.
This person seems familiar.
“…Do you know? Damn.” Liu Yinhe blurted out the second half of the sentence without thinking, then immediately added an interjection. Seeing the man being surrounded, he finally remembered where he had seen these two before.
Isn't that the cultured anchor?
What are they doing here? Competing in a contest? And they even have cats!
Liu Yinhe greeted them with a smile: "You must be representatives of cat owners, right? Come, come this way, haha—" The group squeezed through the main entrance of the research institute, forming a long, narrow line as if being squeezed through toothpaste. Liu Yinhe said kindly, "I don't know what breed of cats you keep? You might not know this, but 65 percent of the cat breeds on the market now come from here..."
He casually took the paper filled with data from his secretary and continued, "...Of the one hundred cats that made it to the finals, eighty-eight were purchased from various channels within our group... I wonder what breed your cats are?"
Liu Yinhe paused for a moment when she saw the short-haired man, and the "cultured person" next to him answered for her: "Country bumpkin."
"?" Liu Yinhe: "What?"
"Chinese mountain cat," Wen Zheng added. "The expert said that yesterday. Our cat is called Dahei, didn't you know?"
"..."
"President, President, be careful!"
Liu Yinhe nearly tripped and fell in public. He tried to salvage the situation, saying, "Haha, I know, I know..."
So, that troublesome cat named "Big Black" is theirs?! The registration information only has the cat owner's name. He'd never heard of "Wen Zheng," and as for the online name "Z Da," he didn't know him at all unless he watched the live stream!
I hope the reporters they called won't write anything nonsense!
Liu Yinhe led them to the disinfection room, saying that someone would accompany them downstairs, and then hurriedly made her way to the bathroom.
"Looks like he's been holding it in," Wen Zheng said. "He's using his crutches quite well."
Bei Sining nodded, watching Liu Yinhe's retreating figure, as if she was thinking about something.
"Si Ning?" Wen Zheng called him, and Bei Si Ning came back to her senses and hummed in response.
Visitors walked through the disinfection room one by one, and researchers in white coats checked them to see if they were carrying any prohibited items.
When the two stood together again, Wen Zheng asked, "What are you thinking about? You've been spacing out all day."
“I hate this kind of place,” Bei Sining said.
Wen Zheng smiled and said, "That's why I withdrew the message that day. I didn't want you to come, but you insisted on coming."
“Hmm,” Bei Sining lowered her eyes, “Let’s see how to make him even more annoying.”
The journey was quiet. The researchers who came to explain things didn't try to create a lively atmosphere, but their explanations were very clear and organized, and they also shared a lot of basic scientific knowledge.
The rooms—the gene mapping area, the petri dish area, the radiation mutation area, and the embryo experiment area—are connected in series, with the machines running quietly and emitting a slight hum.
Wen Zheng listened casually, his attention focused on Bei Sining.
The cat seemed a bit down, occasionally rubbing its nails with its fingertips. It clearly didn't understand what was being said, but it didn't seem particularly agitated either.
Wen Zheng looked at his hand, thinking of the cat's paw that he usually held in his palm, and felt a lump in his throat. He opened his mouth and yawned.
The moment her eyes narrowed, Bei Sining made a strange gesture with her hand, raising it slightly at an angle of no more than thirty degrees.
What are they doing?
Wen Zheng instinctively didn't think it was a relaxing action.
Neither Dahei nor Bei Sining would make such a movement when they are relaxed. Moreover, Bei Sining was out of sorts today, and the muscle lines from his fingertips to his forearms were clearly visible, which was a sign of his tension.