Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Chairman Yan’s Mark
“Since when did you install a fridge here?” Xiao Yu squinted. “You even filled it up with beer cans. I clearly remember that your alcohol tolerance is bad?”
Yan Jin: “…… On what basis did you conclude that I can’t drink alcohol?”
Xiao Yu smiled wordlessly.
Actually, Yan Jin’s alcohol tolerance was quite good – he had started dealing with people from the business community and political circle when he was fourteen years old. Naturally, he could not avoid situations with alcohol. A person’s alcohol tolerance was very dependent on their training. Even if a person could not drink a lot at first, they would eventually learn how to drink better.
However, there was something in this world called natural gift.
No matter how he trained himself, Yan Jin could never win against Xiao Yu who could already outdrink an adult as a kid.
Xiao Yu’s alcohol tolerance could even be considered as an inherited natural gift. During his days at SI, Zhou Jinrong would always bring Xiao Yu along to business meals because at least within SI, he had not found anyone who could drink better than the designer.
Moreover, no matter how good a person can drink, they would eventually get intoxicated. Xiao Yu was different – regardless how much he drank, aside from running a few more trips to the washroom, he did not experience any side effects from drinking too much. Xiao Yu had not thought much about his unusual alcohol tolerance in the past. But, now that he thought back on everything that had happened recently, he reckoned that it probably had something to do with his “non-human” physique of turning into a hamster.
However, due to Xiao Yu’s natural ability to handle alcohol, he still had no idea what his limit was – the only thing he figured was that among all the liquor he had tried, he preferred those that tasted sweeter like red tea or chocolate.
Yep, he had never gotten drunk till he pa.s.sed out before.
Xiao Yu dared not to say about anything else, but when it came to alcohol, he dared to say even ten Yan Jins could not outdrink him.
“Are we drinking again? I’m fine with it though.” Xiao Yu shrugged his shoulders. “But if you get drunk here, I can’t send you back home and we would end up staying back in the office for tonight.”
Yan Jin’s office was a suite. Besides the working area, it also included a bedroom, a small kitchen and a washroom. In the past, Yan Jin had not cared about the difference between overnighting at his office and going home to sleep. Once he worked past two a.m., he would simply stay overnight at the office.
But now, Yan Jin would definitely not do such a thing ever again.
The reason was simple, the bed in his office was a single-sized bed. Its “practicality” could not even be compared to that of a s.p.a.cious couch for guests.
“That’s not what I mean.” Obviously, Yan Jin would not find trouble for himself. He handed over the beer can to Xiao Yu and pushed away the stray fringe stuck to his lover’s sweaty forehead. He answered vaguely, “You’re the only one drinking.”
“Trying to fish with no bait? What benefits would I have?”
Xiao Yu craftily squinted.
He obviously knew what Yan Jin wanted, but he did not want to let him off so easily. It was rare that he discovered something in which Yan Jin could not outdo him. How could he not make good use of that?
“Stop thinking about dirty things all day long. I’m not that kind of person with no controls.”
Xiao Yu was so stunned by Yan Jin’s thick-face that he was momentarily at a loss for words.
“I told you, we’re just changing the form.” Yan Jin flicked Xiao Yu’s forehead and helped him open a can of beer.
The can popped open with sizzling sound.
“What do you mean?” Xiao Yu could not recall what Yan Jin had said earlier. The moment he saw the combination of Yan Jin plus alcohol, he immediately thought of indecent things.
“You’ll find out once you drink it.” Yan Jin replied.
Xiao Yu acted coy for awhile but still ended up drinking it.
As the beer went to his stomach, he started to feel warm.
“Don’t blame me for not reminding you. This is already beyond the amount to let my ears appear. which means I’ll directly transform into a hamster and not my half-human form.”
“I already told you, that’s not what I mean.”
Yan Jin was slightly speechless. Was his image in Xiao Yu’s eyes a crazy maniac that spent 24 hours thinking about s.e.x?
If Xiao Yu could read minds, he would answer Yan Jin: Yep, that was exactly what he thought.
Even if he wasn’t, he was a maniac with an animal ears complex at least.
Xiao Yu was still doubtful about Yan Jin’s excuse, but he was not worried that the chairman had ulterior motives because once the alcohol hit, he would immediately transform into a hamster. Yan Jin was unlikely to go as far as to get excited over a hamster – that would be way too sick.
Truthfully, Xiao Yu had accused Yan Jin wrongly.
Regarding Xiao Yu’s unique physique, after learning a bitter lesson, Chairman Yan had been experimenting on Xiao Yu for a long time. He had studied Xiao Yu’s transformation considering conditions that even his lover could not understand fully. If he wanted only Xiao Yu’s furry ears to appear, he would have used a smaller can of beer.
About an hour later, a fluffy grey hamster appeared on Yan Jin’s desk. The hamster stretched out its body lazily and then lay on its stomach like a fatty-meat hamster pancake.
“Long time no see.” Yan Jin’s kneaded Xiao Yu, showing his good mood. Then, he poked his white little stomach. “Are you a little fatter?”
“Squeakk.” You’re the fat one. Your whole family is fat.
Xiao Yu turned his body arrogantly, turning his b.u.t.t to Yan Jin.
Yan Jin chuckled softly and did not argue with his lover. Instead, he smoothed his finger over his spine in comfort.
“Alright, let’s start working.” Yan Jin placed Xiao Yu on the stack of drawings that he brought back earlier and opened the ink case at the side.
“Squeak?”
Xiao Yu watched in confusion – apparently, he still had no idea what Yan Jin meant.
“Don’t you remember? You’ve done this before.”
Yan Jin tilted the ink case with one hand and with the other grabbed Xiao Yu’s front paw, sticking it into the ink case.
“Squeakk!” What are you doing?!
Xiao Yu was caught off-guard by Yan Jin’s surprise attack. By the time he wanted to resist, it was already too late. The paw he withdrew was no longer his pinkish, soft one.
He looked dazedly at his stained-black paw and aggrievedly rubbed the paw on his stomach. He pulled his paws back and looked up cautiously at Yan Jin.
“Hmm? You really don’t remember?” Yan Jin hinted helplessly. “Last time when you did the products review for Autumn Release Conference selection you used your paws to choose the Luxuriant Flower series that then caused an uproar.”
Reminded of the incident, Xiao Yu finally remembered.
Oh, it was that time when Yan Jin brought home his unfinished work and he had originally planned on helping out personally. As his ident.i.ty had not been revealed back then, he could only pretend to be a hamster playing around and pressing his paw prints onto the drawings.
He finally understood what Yan Jin meant by changing form.
“You remembered. Then, let’s get started.” Yan Jin took a piece of tissue to wipe off the black stain on his stomach. “You won’t be affected by your trauma this way, right?”
“Squeakk.” Hn, trickery.
Despite saying that, Xiao Yu’s body was honest as he started to work.
Bloop.
This one’s good. Stamped.
Bloop.
Yan Jin coordinated and took away the drawings after Xiao Yu examined them.
Bloop.
This one’s not good. *shake head*
Bloo-
A big hand appeared on top of the drawing.
Xiao Yu could not withdraw his paw in time and slapped his paw on Yan Jin’s palm, as if doing a hi-five.
The five fingers closed and gently pinched Xiao Yu’s little paw.
“Squeakk!” Don’t mess around!
Xiao Yu screamed resentfully.
“Your paw is dirty. I’ll help you wipe it,” Yan Jin said with a straight-face.
“Squeak.” Nonsense.
“It’s true. See?”
Yan Jin opened his palm and presented his pale-looking palm that had a black-colored three-fork paw print – it was very eye-catching.
Just like a beautiful tattoo.
Xiao Yu who was successfully pleased, hummed joyfully and laid backwards to roll around on Yan Jin’s palm.
Yan Jin naturally reached out to tease his hamster. Xiao Yu did not hesitate and tried to take a big bite of Yan Jin’s finger. The chairman nimbly moved his finger away, pressed down, and forcefully made the hamster flip over and lay on his stomach on the papers.
The first drawing on top instantly suffered a calamity.
“Squeakk.” We haven’t finished selecting.
“There’s plenty of beer.” Yan Jin replied.
Fine, that’s reasonable and fair.
And so, the Yan Jin who convinced Xiao Yu and the Xiao Yu who was convinced, pushed the drawings aside, ignored their proper duties, and played the whole afternoon.
They had not had so much interaction so a long time. When Xiao Yu had turned back into his human form, they both wished to continue having fun.
The transformation from hamster back into human was instantaneous. The little ball of fur that had been clinging onto the ink case transform into a naked young man sitting on the desk facing Yan Jin. The pair of soft, delicate, furry ears were drooping shyly, looking very vulnerable.
Yan Jin quickly placed his hand over his nose.
“Y-You such a…”
Xiao Yu had nowhere to hide under Yan Jin’s gaze. He could only turn his body over to get off the desk to look for his clothes.
But ,the moment his feet touched the floor, his waist was hugged by someone.
“There’s still time. Why don’t we do something interesting?”
Yan Jin spoke in a low voice as he placed his chin on Xiao Yu’s shoulder and bit his ears.
……
Much later, YL’s designers received their drawings with paw prints once again.
Everyone eagerly pa.s.sed the drawings around to look at the exquisite paw prints. The “Chairman Yan’s mark” incident spread across the entire company once again.
By the time Xiao Yu returned to the third level, he was showered from head to toe with respectful and envious gazes from the entire design department. He did not have the time to understand what exactly had happened and was instantly surrounded by a group of young designers who wanted to ask for advice.
The scene was more majestic than his first day at YL as the mystery designer.
After spending several hours shaking off those people, Xiao Yu finally got to know the reason from He Xinjia.
It turned out that everyone in YL come to an unanimous agreement that only drawings that Yan Jin specifically approved of would have the unique three-p.r.o.nged marking. Also, the number of three-p.r.o.nged markings on that design would represent how much Yan Jin loved it. As of then, there was only one drawing that had two of such markings.
Yet this time, everyone was astonished by how many markings were stamped on a particular drawing. And it did seem very logical – after all it was a drawing by a master.
……
Xiao Yu looked at his extremely crumpled drawing that was stamped with countless paw prints all over the entire paper. He suddenly felt very complicated.