I Can Talk to Cats C18

Chapter 18: Preparations for the New Shop (Part One)

Translated by Lime

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Recap: Lin Lan had a heartwarming conversation with Momo. She also meets with Cheng Fengyang at the location of the shops to discuss her cafe.

In this chapter: We hear more of her ideas that she wants to be implemented in her cafe and meet Cheng Fengyang’s family. “Preparations for the New Shop” has four parts, enjoy!

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Cheng Fengyang ignored Xiao Zhang’s resentful feelings as he had entered his work mode, not touching the refreshments on the table. He asked Lin Lan for her definite requirements.

“I want an eye-catching window display tower, the kind where kitties can climb up it whenever they want and comfortably nap, but the lighting must be good in the rest of the shop! The size of the counter… should be around the size of this shop’s. All the equipment that’s here now will be used by me later. Also, there must be two bathrooms, one for human use, and the other for cats to use. Make sure that the one for cats is a squat toilet.”

_{(T/N: ‘蹲便池’ = squat toilet, it’s more of a traditional toilet, basically a hole in the ground with a lever to flush waste. In China, it’s being widely replaced with the toilets where you can sit on it/Western toilets.)}

As Lin Lan spoke, Cheng Fengyang dutifully noted down her requests with a pen in his notebook. When she finished speaking, he was confused: “Why do you want to build a squat toilet for the cats?” 

“The regular toilet is too high. Even though a younger cat may be able to jump up, what about when they get older?” This was a problem that Lin Lan had thought about in the past few days. The kittens were used to crouching while using the Western toilets, so wouldn’t crouching over the squat toilets be easier? Asking them to change their bathroom habits wasn’t hard at all.

“At the most, a cat could live up to twenty years. Usually, they would pass away after ten or so years. Since I’ve decided that I will raise them, I will take good care of them. That’s why I need to think over these sorts of things more.”

Lin Lan’s tone gradually became caring.

Being able to understand and communicate fluently with kitties was a lucky accident. She was trying to turn this accident into a wonderful opportunity.

“Lin Lan, you really like cats.” Cheng Fengyang sighed as he watched her eyes overflow with adoration when she mentioned her cats, and he was infected as well, “Don’t be worried, I will definitely design a cafe that the kitties will love!”

“Then, I will be relying on you!” Maybe it was because she spent too much time talking with cats, but whenever Lin Lan looked at humans, she felt that they did not have the innocence and straightforwardness of animals. This was an unresolvable difference between the different species. The person before her, however, had a sincere gaze and genuinely wanted to help her.

For a while, these two discussed the details of the renovation. Cheng Fengyang’s mouth became dry, and it was only then when he noticed the cup of milk tea on the table. He picked it up and sipped a mouthful.

And then, his eyes widened: “It tastes extremely good!” Amazed, he raised the cup to look at it. The packaging was similar to those franchised bubble tea shops so he said, “I’ve drank quite a bit of milk tea, this flavor could compete with the best. How come this shop is closing? It shouldn’t be!”

The certainty with which he asked his question was like two invisible knives puncturing Xiao Zhang’s heart, and the shop owner couldn’t help but cover his stomach in pain.

Lin Lan pursed her lips and refused the urge to smile: “Xiao Zhang has some troubles at home so he can’t continue to run this shop and is not renewing the lease. The equipment on the counter has been sold to me already and these past few days, I have been learning how to make these refreshments. Does it taste okay?”

Behind her, Xiao Zhang nodded his head, grateful towards Lin Lan for making an excuse for him: “Don’t worry about it, since you’re Lin Lan’s friend, you are my friend too. If you want any milk tea or other refreshments, I’ll treat you!”

Xiao Zhang had suddenly remembered that the foodstuffs wouldn’t completely sell before he left. They had expiration dates so he offered Cheng Fengyang more.

At this time, there were two customers, a couple, entering the store: “Boss, I’ll have a sea salt capped oolong milk tea and a hibiscus flower tea!”

_{(T/N: ‘奶盐乌龙和’ = salted oolong milk tea. I assumed the salt part was referring to a sea salt cap/cream.)}

“Okay, it will be ready soon!” Xiao Zhang immediately replied.

Cheng Fengyang sensed that the shop was busy and made preparations to leave. When he was about to bid goodbye, he was stopped by Lin Lan, who told him to wait a little longer.

“Shop owner, I’ll do it.” 

Xiao Zhang opened the entrance to the counter, and Lin Lan started to make the milk tea using the equipment inside.

Shortly after, the customers were contentedly sipping on their straws: “It’s very tasty. Turns out that this bubble tea is delicious! Boss, do you offer delivery? We’ll be sure to come here next time!”

If he heard these words a month ago, Xiao Zhang would have been ecstatic. Now, he only wanted to cry, especially because those two were asking Lin Lan.

“Sorry to disappoint you, this shop is closing this month.” Lin Lan smiled at them and answered their question, causing the two to be disappointed. She explained further, “It will be turned into a cat teahouse and all the same flavors on this menu will be offered.”

“Is it like a cat cafe?” When they heard this, the couple were interested. Most of the customers who bought bubble tea were young and were not unfamiliar with cat cafes, many of them visiting them frequently. One of the customers, the woman, blurted out, “I was wondering why this milk tea tasted so good but your shop is closing. Turns out you are expanding your shop into a cat cafe. How many cats will there be? Is there going to be a Ragdoll?”

If you really wanted to pet an ordinary cat, it was not difficult. Eventually, you would meet a stray cat that was willing to let you pet them. However, there were fewer encounters with valuable and well-known breeds of cats. If you wanted to be in their presence, other than asking  relatives and acquaintances that owned these cats, with a relatively small fee, you could enter a cat cafe to satisfy that craving.

“Even though it’s a cat cafe, we won’t be selling coffee, but tea and other refreshments.” Lin Lan gleefully smiled: “Once it opens, not only will there be a Ragdoll kitty, but a Russian Blue cat and a Siamese cat. Also, there will be a pureblooded Chinchilla cat.”

“Wow—!” The girl’s eyes filled with excitement and said, “Ragdoll, Russian Blue, and a Chinchilla! I’ll be sure to come! Boss, when you open, you must notify us!”

“Of course, thanks for your patronage. Our cafe will absolutely open this winter. If you have any friends that like kitties, please spread the word.”

Watching as Lin Lan converted his shop’s customers into her cat cafe’s future customers, Xiao Zhang was filled with a gloomy aura.

Sure enough, this shop wasn’t really his. The equipment on the counter was sold to her and after being taught how to make the drinks, her milk tea was actually better than his. Not to mention that when his lease expired, the store unit would be hers as well. Now, even his customers were being snatched away.

…This caused him to be sorrowful, but he couldn’t cry. 

Xiao Zhang pretended to be cheerful while he saw Lin Lan gracefully preparing a few cups of fruit milk tea and taking out several small cakes from the food warmer to pack into a box. She placed the box into a plastic bag and handed it over to Cheng Fengyang.

“Cheng Fengyang, thank you for taking the time to come over and designing my cafe. Here, you should take these cakes and drinks back home.” Lin Lan had a point; although he willingly offered to design her cafe for free, she couldn’t not try to repay him.

When he was given these snacks, Cheng Fengyang was quite happy. Ignoring the fact that he enjoyed the taste of the milk tea, his niece was coming over to visit him today and the cakes were given at just the right time.

Carrying the bag, the young man thanked her and gladly carried the food home.

Cheng Fengyang lived across the street. This time, he didn’t have to awkwardly princess carry a dog that had sustained injuries on its butt so in a few minutes, he arrived at the entrance.

Not in a hurry, he followed the red brick pavement lined with green shrubs. He paused in front of a bungalow that was surrounded by a garden and pushed open the iron gate. After walking through the garden, he entered his home.

“Uncle, you’re back!” As soon as he opened the door, Cheng Fengyang heard his niece shouting and her little legs ran over.

She wasn’t excited to see him.

“Wow! There’s milk tea and cake!”

The five year old Xiao Douding only ran over when she saw the desserts. Her eyes were fixated on them.

_{(T/N: Xiao Douding is a character from Big Ear Tutu – Chinese cartoon targeted for children. I think this is why small children around the age of 4-6 are called this. Although her name isn’t mentioned, she is Li Mengmeng from a few chapters ago.)}

“Uncle, Uncle, I want to eat!”

As she was yelling, the border collie that had been guarding the entrance also surrounded Cheng Fengyang, wagging his tail.

In the middle of Cheng Fengyang dealing with the child and his dog, Cheng Xingyu and Mother Cheng exited the house.

“You’re back.” Cheng Xingyu noticed that her brother was holding something and smiled: “Is this what she gave you? Looks like you had a successful talk.”

“Sister, what are you talking about!” Cheng Fengyang snapped at her, “We were chatting about matters relating to her shop and she gave me a few desserts when I left, that’s all.”

“Well, if you don’t like it, make sure you don’t return them.” Cheng Xingyu laughed, “I didn’t even say anything much in the first place. Her liking your designs means that the both of you have pretty similar tastes.” 

_{(T/N: The first sentence sounds weird, so to provide some context, the way Cheng Fengyang was talking to her in the last paragraph *kinda* seems like he’s brushing off/disregarding the desserts (in Chinese) and his sister is poking fun of him for it in this sentence.)}

Mother Cheng was listening at the side and the more she heard, the more her expression became strange. All of a sudden, she latched onto her daughter and asked, “Is she the person that helped your husband? Across the street in the “village”, isn’t there a Lin family who owns a building?”

“That’s her family’s building.” Cheng Xingyu nodded with a smile, “Younger brother might not remember, but I do. Before our side of the street was demolished and rebuilt, there was a high building that was well-known in the area that was owned by the Lin’s. I didn’t expect that the girl to help our family’s Old Li was the daughter of the Lin family. When Cheng Fengyang became interested in her, I don’t think that he realized who she was.”

“No! Mom, don’t listen to my sister. I haven’t met with her that much!” Cheng Fengyang abruptly retorted, but his tone was a little off. Last time, in the park, he had already addressed this with righteousness, “I won’t participate in this twisted gossip and argue with you two. I’ll leave these desserts on the table and then I’m going back to my room to draw the design blueprint!”

After saying this, he left the dessert and quickly ran up the stairs and into his room.

Downstairs, the mother and daughter did not stop him, and when they heard his door shutting, Cheng Xingyu used her finger to poke her mother and pointed to the ceiling. Her face was full of laughter: “Did you see? He’s bashful.”

Mother Cheng let out a big sigh of relief and patted her stomach: “He’s trying to fool us.” She turned her head to look at her daughter, “Before, when he was still in school, I was scared he would have a puppy love. Now, I have been worried about him because he never goes out. Finally, he is making some progress.”

Cheng Xingyu didn’t know whether to laugh or smile: “Mom, these kinds of things can’t be done urgently and you can’t pressure him. After all, my brother doesn’t need to worry about his family background. Let him do it slowly, isn’t it good for him to meet someone suitable?” Saying this, she reminded her mother again, “Mom, you need to tell Dad about these things and you both absolutely can not nag him about it. First let them slowly get to know each other. We don’t know how the girl feels so let nature take its course. If you nag him too much and it has the opposite effect, that wouldn’t be good.”

Originally, Mother Lin wanted to wait until dinner to discuss things with her son, but hearing what her daughter heard to say, she nodded: “Okay, we will observe for now and not nag. Xiao Yu, stay here and watch your child, I’m going to call your father and tell him about this.”

Cheng Xingyu was not able to say anything else before her mother impatiently entered her room and closed the door. She helplessly said: “Don’t be in such a hurry… They just met and things haven’t developed that fast yet.” 

As this was playing out in the Cheng family, across the street in the small store owned by the Lin family, Father and Mother Lin were sitting at the counter and eating sunflower seeds. Coincidentally, they were also talking about their daughter’s matters.

“Do you think that Lin Lan’s cat cafe will be successful?” Wang Xiuzhi never came across these sorts of shops before and was naturally worried: “Can she really rely on those cats to make money?”

“Of course she will turn a profit. If not, other cat cafes would have closed down already.” Lin Youyu was not as worried as his wife and said, “Even if she doesn’t make money, it will be fine. Look at ourselves, we don’t rely on our small shop to make lots of money and we only run it to find something to do. If it constantly is in debt, we can just close down and rent it out to other people.”

“You’re right, if she loses a lot of money, we can rent it out again!” After realizing a solution to the problem she was most anxious about, Wang Xiuzhi calmed down and stopped worrying about the shop losing money.

“In the end, it’s still you who thought things out more thoroughly!”

“Of course, you take care of the smaller things in our household, and I will end up taking care of the larger things.” Rarely being praised by his wife, Lin Youyu was proud, but his wife brought up another difficult problem.

“Then, as Lan Lan’s dad, have you visited government offices to apply for permits? When Lin Lan even asked you already about those business permits and various licenses and what procedures to take, you said you would do it. Did you forget?”

_{(T/N: ‘工商局’ = Industry/commerce office. I don’t know the exact term/English equivalent this would translate to.)}

Lin Youyu immediately changed from heartily laughing to stuttering for a response. Just when he was about to reply, a husky entered the shop… and the owner who was being dragged inside.

“Uncle and Aunt Lin, good morning!” The young man was wearing a set of camouflage sportswear and carried a skateboard while greeting them with a smile.

“It’s Xiao Xu!” Lin Youyu recognized the man and smiled back, “Are you going out to walk your dog?”

“Yup, I have to take him on walks frequently. Otherwise, he will tear up my sofa again.” This was the tenant from the fourth floor, Xu Xiangfei. He was an office worker, but this young man always seemed to have so much energy. In the words of his daughter, this was a stereotypical silly young man who had many holes in his brain and somehow always had the energy to do things.

Wang Xiuzhi particularly liked him and thought that all young people should be energetic and full of vitality. She teased him, “Xiao Xu, a few days ago, I overheard that your Cola was bullying Xiao Qian’s Niu Niu.”

This husky was known among the tenants for being lively. All day long, it would attract the attention of cats and birds. One day it was Qian Xuan’s British Shorthair, the next day it was Uncle Yu’s parrot. No matter who it was that brought their pet out, if they met this dog, it was inevitable that he would howl and jump around wildly.

Unfortunately, Xu Xiangfei only had time after work to play and his dog was stuck inside. When Lin Lan started to bring home many cats, he regarded her as a target to avoid at all costs—cats were much more fragile than dogs. If they received a huge scare, they might be scarred mentally. If he wasn’t careful, one of them might even be scared to death.

That’s why the two had few encounters despite Lin Lan having been home for almost two months and living in the same apartment building.

Xu Xiangfei was thick-skinned and did not care much about other people gossiping. Hearing Aunt Lin’s teasing, he exaggeratedly begged for forgiveness and pretended to be wronged: “That’s not the case, Aunt Lin! My Cola and Qian Xuan’s Niu Niu frequently get into altercations, but Cola has never won. Every time, Niu Niu fiercely slaps and claws at him! Your family owns Snowflake so you should know how fast they can unsheathe their claws. As soon as Cola reached his head over, he was slapped by Niu Niu on both sides of his face. He howled miserably and the sound spread throughout the apartment building.”

Wang Xiuzhi was amused by Xiao Xu’s exaggerated recounting of events: “Hmph, although he was slapped by Niu Niu on both sides of his face, your Cola’s fur is thick. Even if Niu Niu’s small claws scratched him ten times, it wouldn’t hurt or itch.”

What she said was true, even if it didn’t hurt, he would howl miserably to give the impression that he was hurt.

“Uncle and Aunt Lin, let’s talk about something else; I have something to ask.” As he lived in the same apartment, Xu Xiangfei already knew that the landlord’s daughter was collecting cats in order to open a cat cafe. He especially entered the Lin family’s shop to ask them: “Is Lin Lan still searching for pet cats? At my company, there is a female colleague that recently got pregnant. She owned an Abyssinian cat before, but she was requested by her husband’s mother to give it away. My colleague hopes that the cat will be rehomed to a caring family, so would she be able to take it?”

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If some parts of the conversations sound or seem off, it’s most likely the culture differences. Some things may be said as a joke and it would not be taken offensively, but when I translate it to English it sounds kinda weird. Although I tried to make their interactions flow more smoothly, I couldn’t really alter phrases or parts that would be important later into their conversation. 

I apologize for the delay in posting this, I’m pretty busy/overwhelmed with things at the moment. Hope you enjoyed the chapter 🙂

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