Zhao Yao stroked his chin as he responded, "So why did you come all the way here to meet me?"
Xiao Ming rubbed his palms together as he smiled sheepishly in embarra.s.sment.
For a moment, there was an awkward silence between the two of them.
Zhao Yao looked like he couldn"t care less about what Xiao Ming wanted to say to him and continued to surf the net on his laptop, ignoring Xiao Ming, who was struggling to find a way to tell him the truth. Xiao Ming looked lost and confused as he tried to organize his thoughts before telling Zhao Yao everything he wanted to say.
At the corner of Zhao Yao"s eye, Mango back-faced him and dragged a piece of cus.h.i.+on across the floor towards a corner of the room. It looked like he was trying to bury something secretly. Zhao Yao frowned as he recalled that the cus.h.i.+on belonged to the seat of the chair; there"s no reason why he would be placed in a corner of the wall.
Just then, Zhao Yao had a premonition. He rushed towards Mango, fearing the worst. Mango turned his head around and stared blankly at Zhao Yao.
Zhao Yao flipped the cus.h.i.+on over and a gush of pungent urine stench came rus.h.i.+ng towards his face. He almost pa.s.sed out.
"Sh*t!" Zhao Yao cursed. His speculations were right; Mango really did pee at the corner of the wall and tried to cover it up with the seat cus.h.i.+on.
Zhao Yao shot a glare at Mango as he saw the pool of urine on the floor. Mango stared at Zhao Yao with an innocent look on his face and meowed as he rubbed against Zhao Yao"s legs. He acted as if he was unaware of the trouble he created.
"Mango, don"t tell me you"re in heat..."
That was the problem with cats who have yet to be sterilized. During their period of estrus, they would mark the entire place with their pee. Zhao Yao was so busy with his cafe that he couldn"t find time to sterilize the rest of the cats.
Zhao Yao quickly grabbed a few pieces of tissue paper and soaked up the pool of urine. He squatted down to clean up the mess but instantly took a few steps back when he did so due to the pungent smell.
"Holy sh*t! This stinks more than mine." Unwilling to clean the mess, Zhao Yao shook his head and pa.s.sed a bunch of napkins to Baiquan and instructed, "Baiquan, clean up the mess on the floor and throw the cus.h.i.+on away for me."
Baiquan was stunned. "?????"
"How could you pee anywhere like that!" Zhao Yao reprimanded Mango, who simply couldn"t understand what he did wrong. As he stared at Zhao Yao with his innocent looking eyes, Zhao Yao sighed, "Forget it... It"s about time I brought you guys for sterilization anyway."
However, he knew that it would be impossible to bring all of them for sterilization at once. He had to wait for Mango to "go out of heat" before he can undergo sterilization.
Hence, Zhao Yao planned to bring them for sterilization in batches. He would buy several cat cages, mark the sterilized cats with a collar and keep them in the cage to prevent their wounds from opening up.
In order to prevent Mango from peeing everywhere else, Zhao Yao decided to cradle him in his arms and returned back to his seat.
Mango laid in his arms like a baby as Zhao Yao rubbed his furry head, chest, and stomach occasionally. The silly cat simply laid there obediently and stared blankly into s.p.a.ce with his huge beady eyes.
Most cats including supercats like Matcha usually disliked being hugged by humans for extended periods of time. Most would start to kick and squirm about and eventually jump away after a few minutes or ten minutes at most. Zhao Yao simply loved how Mango would lay in his arms obediently for as long as he wished without squirming around.
As he teased Mango playfully in his arms, he looked at Xiao Ming and asked, "Still can"t think of what you wanted to say?"
Xiao Ming took a deep breath and smiled awkwardly. "I"m just a little embarra.s.sed to break it to you, but since many people already know about it, I guess I"ll just tell you directly. Truth is, the place where I"m staying is completely owned by my granny. However, my granny is being unknowingly scammed by an imposter who tried to interfere with our family"s business. The religious imposter even tried to absorb our business and make it his own. I tried to stop him but this guy had plenty of tricks up his sleeve and managed to neutralize every single threat or danger. Somehow, he managed to earn my granny"s trust and he kept on abusing her trust to get hold of what he wants. I sought help from many masters to deal with him but each and every one of them was dusted off by that guy. He became unstoppable and in fact, all the failed attempts fuelled his arrogance."
Xiao Ming continued with a grave look on his face. "This is the reason why I came all the way here. I completely trust your powers, Master. I really hope that you could pay a visit to my house and chase that imposter away for me... I believe you are the only one who can do this."
Zhao Yao was slightly taken aback by what he heard; he didn"t expect to hear anything like this from Xiao Ming. From what he heard, it sounded like the religious imposter was an apostle as well which meant that he could use superpowers.
Even a rich family like Xiao Ming"s family was unable to control the spread of news regarding the supercats and apostles. It seemed like the government had been doing a pretty great job in censoring such information all along. Either that or Xiao Ming"s family only focused on commercial gain and simply did not bother to cover up such news.
Suddenly, Xiao Ming"s phone rang and as Xiao Ming picked up the phone, Zhao Yao could hear an old lady yelling at the top of her lungs on the other end of the line.
"Xiao Ming!! What do you think you are doing? Are the previous few imposters not embarra.s.sing enough? Master Luo was forgiving for not pursuing the matter and you still have the cheek to find other imposters?"
"Get back here right now! Or you can forget about your business in the mall."
Xiao Ming started to breathe irregularly and reb.u.t.ted, "Granny, I...I..."
"I"m glad you still recognize me as your granny! I"m still alive you know! Who are you to make decisions on your own! If you don"t come back within an hour, don"t ever call me granny anymore."
As Xiao Ming got off the phone, his face began to turn green as he feared the worst. He let out a long sigh and smiled bitterly as he spoke to Zhao Yao. "You"ve seen how it"s like... I really hope that Master would be willing to help me out."
"Was that your granny? She seems pretty hot-headed."
Xiao Ming explained as he smiled bitterly. "Ever since Master Luo came along, Granny"s temper had gone from bad to worse. She is grumpier than ever these few days and would find any chance to scold us for any small little thing. She wasn"t like that before..."
A new mission popped up in the mission panel and Zhao Yao opened it up to read it.
Mission: How could you let the religious imposter get away with abusing supercats" powers?
Mission Objective: Help Xiao Ming defeat the religious imposter.
Mission Reward: Gain 200 experience points
Mission Penalty: Deduct 200 experience points
Zhao Yao"s eyes lit up as he received the new mission and told himself that he would definitely help Xiao Ming.
But seeing how desperate Xiao Ming looked, Zhao Yao replied with a cold facial expression, "I"ve been very busy with the cafe stuff lately you see... There are so many things to do. I even have to take care of my cats peeing and p.o.o.ping everywhere."
Baiquan: "????"
Zhao Yao rubbed Mango"s belly as he spoke. Suddenly, he frowned as he sniffed his palm and was greeted with the familiar urine stench from before.
He threw Mango on the floor and scolded, "d.a.m.n it! You even peed on yourself?"
Xiao Ming replied, "Master, I will repay your kindness for sure! If you help me defeat the religious imposter..."
"RMB 1,000,000!" Zhao Yao demanded arrogantly. "That is the fee for hiring my services."
"RMB 1,000,000?" Xiao Ming blinked a few times but remained composed and offered, "No problem, Master. I"ll give you RMB 2,000,000 if you succeed!"