I Can Talk to Cats C41

Chapter 41: Kitty New Year (Part One)

Translated by Lime

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On New Year’s Eve, the Lin family’s stores were closed.

Both the cigarette and alcohol store and cat cafe were not open in preparation for celebrating the New Year.

Due to the temporary closing of her cafe for several days, Lin Lan moved all the cat toys, cat trees, and heating pads that she could up to her third floor apartment. The ten or so cats would live on the third floor, and they needed a wide space to run around and have fun in.

Of course, Lin Lan couldn’t move everything by herself, so she had Xiao Song help since he didn’t go home for the New Year.

“Xiao Song, if you’re not going home, how about you come over and celebrate the New Year with us?” After they moved everything into her apartment, Lin Lan said to him, “It isn’t very lively if you celebrate by yourself. How about coming over and joining us for New Year’s Eve dinner? Besides, it can be considered as an employee benefit.”

Seeing his landlord and boss being so courteous, Song Xinmin was a little embarrassed as he replied: “Will my addition be inconvenient for your family?”

“It won’t cause any trouble at all,” Lin Lan assured him. “I already asked my parents and I’m planning on inviting Miss Wang over as well since she’s alone for the New Year too.”

“Boss…” Song Xinmin was touched as he spoke, “You’re truly a good person!” No matter if she was acting as a landlord or as the boss of a cat cafe, she was extremely considerate!

Lin Lan was modest: “Don’t think of me so highly, I’ve never thought of myself as a completely good person, I’m just ordinary. I invited you to come over since you’re employed by me, and I’m inviting Miss Wang to come over since she’s the #1 VIP of the cat cafe. On top of that, you both live in my family’s apartment building and aren’t going home for the holiday.” 

When she received her golden finger of communicating with cats in Greece, she never planned on rescuing every single cat in the world, but only helped the cats that were directly in front of her. She wasn’t worthy of being called an extremely pure-hearted person who wanted to do good.

“Well, you’re still a good person.” As someone who had traveled to many places and experienced many things, Song Xinmin smiled and said, “Even just for being a boss who pays wages on time and gives their employees benefits, you should be praised.”

From his words, it was evident that he had gone through many unspeakable experiences, and Lin Lan sighed, “Remember to come over tomorrow night for dinner then.”

“Thank you boss.” Comrade Xiao Song smiled as he agreed. He was just about to leave when he saw Lin Lan piling cans of cat food into a bag. Curious, he asked, “Boss, our cats don’t eat this kind of canned cat food, so why did you buy so much?”

“You’re right, this isn’t for our cats from the cat cafe, it’s for the stray cats outside.” As she placed the cans into her bag, Lin Lan patiently replied to him. The pack of stray cats led by Cat Boss had a large number of cats who relied on her for food.

Song Xinmin repeated, “You’re feeding the stray cats?” He suddenly realized that every few days, the Boss would be gone for a few hours. So it turned out, she was feeding the stray cats during that time, and it was the source of some of the cats working in the cat cafe.

It seemed like there was a tacit understanding between the Boss and the stray cats. She would bring them food, and from time to time, they would allow her to take the pet cats back.

“That’s right! Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve so I’m heading over to feed them today.”

Song Xinmin heard the determination in her voice and saw her lift the heavy bag onto her shoulders and said, “Boss, why don’t I head over with you? With two people carrying the food, it won’t be as heavy.”

Either way, Song Xinmin didn’t have much to do during the holiday so he decided to follow Boss Lin to meet the stray cats and get some fresh air.

Lin Lan didn’t refuse the offer from her employee, and since her bag was quite heavy she agreed to bring him along. They each carried half of the cat food and headed to Cat Boss’ territory.

These days, it had been snowing constantly in Xicheng. There were no cats to be seen on the tops of roofs, but inside one of the houses, their shadows could be seen.

Song Xinmin followed Lin Lan and they stopped at some houses that looked as if they had been abandoned. Lin Lan walked inside and faced a room that had airtight windows that protected against the chilly wind. She opened the door, revealing a lot of boxes that each had a hole. Out of each holed poked out several cat heads. Inside the boxes were old clothes that helped to keep all the different colored stray kitties warm.

Comparing the slightly cold room to the freezing temperature outside, the room was definitely more suitable and cozy for the cats.

It seemed like the cats were familiar with Boss because as soon as she opened the door, several cats greeted her.

“Miaow…” “Miaowow—” “Miaowoa…” 

The cats meowed at her, their voices were all kinds of soft and rough. After his experience working in the cat cafe, Song Xinmin guessed from their upright tails that they were begging Lin Lan for food.

Of course, only Lin Lan could understand what they were saying exactly.

(Lan Lan, you’re back to see us again?)

(Lan Lan, did you bring us any tasty food?)

(Lan Lan, the cat beds you brought for us are very cozy! Once we go inside, we aren’t cold anymore!)

The stray cats surrounded her at her feet and meowed up at her. Some even rubbed their heads against her leg as if to act spoiled.

“Be patient everyone! There’s enough food for everybody here!” Lin Lan carefully moved away from the cats as she was scared she would step on their paws. “Where’s Cat Boss?”

When the cats heard her asking about their leader, they simultaneously moved out of the way to form a path.

“Waawuuuaoo…” Lin Lan heard the familiar voice and looked to the very top of the cat boxes to see Cat Boss. (Even though you brought cat food over this time, we still haven’t found the kinds of cats you asked for.) 

Lin Lan smiled: “I’m just bringing food over to celebrate the New Year. I wish you all a fat year.”

^{_{(T/N: sounds kinda funny, but similar to how people wish each other to get rich in the upcoming year, Lin Lan is hoping that they’re going to get fat.)}}

Song Xinmin stood behind Lin Lan with the cat food. When he heard that the Cat Boss was behind the pack of stray kitties, he turned to look and was instantly stunned.

It wasn’t the outer appearance of this cat that drew his attention, it was his aura.

He had traveled to so many cities and towns and had never encountered such a cat with an aura of a leader which immediately set it apart from common cats of the same breed.

Song Xinmin instinctively patted his pocket before realizing that he forgot to bring his camera with him. He instantly regretted it; if he could take a picture of this cat now, it would definitely be a good picture.

He quickly forgot all about his regret because Boss Lin started to open the canned cat food to feed the kitties.

Once the cans were placed in neat rows, the stray kitties each bowed their head to gobble up the food. The number of stray cats was quite shocking, and they all let out meows as if to guard the food, which was a sight Song Xinmin was used to since the cats at the cat cafe would do the same.

Or maybe it was because the skilled Boss Lin was feeding them? Even when the stray cats were eating, they were peaceful and orderly.

As the pack of stray cats ate, he couldn’t help but notice that the Cat Boss with the menacing aura wasn’t eating with them. Instead, Boss Lin and the Cat Boss were communicating with each other… Boss Lin was displaying her magical proficiency in cat language again.

“Waawuuu.” (Recently, there have been some cats that wanted to join us, but I had to drive them away.)

“Why did you drive them away?” Lin Lan was surprised.

“Waaa.” (Food is limited and I can’t take in every stray cat. It’s normal for weaker cats to perish in winter.)

Lin Lan was silent. Compared to humans, most animals had to face the possibility of not surviving due to conditions as simple as the weather. They had to compete for food, territory… and opportunities to simply survive.

“You’re the boss and this is your pack, so you have the final say.” After a while, Lin Lan finally replied to him.

Cat Boss’ golden eyes gleamed as she spoke and meowed, “Waawuuuwuuu—waawuuu.” (I’ve met many two-legged creatures in my life. Some are like you and take the initiative to feed us, but suddenly they would stop coming. Instead of relying solely on you for food, I would rather rely on myself.)

Lin Lan fell silent.

Huh… She really didn’t know how to respond.

As cats, they naturally didn’t understand the intricacies of human behavior, so this cat was merely relying on his past experiences to make a judgment.

‘I’m sorry.” Lin Lan could only say so much. “I can only promise to take good care of the cats that I have taken back with me. As for your pack of stray cats, I can’t make the same promise.”

If she was being realistic, there was no way for her to accurately know if she could support and feed this pack of stray cats for her entire life. There were just too many unknown variables that could get in the way.

Cat Boss’ eyes softened and he meowed in a lower pitch, “Waawuuu.” (It’s okay. After all, only you two-legged creatures would help contribute food and shelter to other species.)

After they finished feeding the cats food, Lin Lan helped the cats adjust their bedding and made sure the windows were still airtight before she left in a disheartened mood.

She had a lot of jumbled thoughts in her head including a lot of unrealistic ideals, but one by one, they were put down by her acceptance of reality.

In the end… She was only a regular selfish human being.

“Boss, are you close with the Cat Boss of those stray cats?” Song Xinmin’s question while they were walking back brought her back to reality. She looked up to see his excited face as he asked, “I want to take a picture of him, do you think it’s possible?”

He was earnestly asking for her help.

“Don’t ask me, you first need to gain the approval of the cat himself.” Lin Lan thought that it was a 50-50 chance that the cat would agree. “It’s still too early to say, let’s talk about it after the New Year holiday ends.”

Upon returning to the apartment building, Xiao Song went to his room to rest while Lin Lan returned to her apartment on the third floor, where the cats from the cat cafe were lazing around.

Like before, as soon as she opened the door, she was faced with the incessant meowing of the kitties. The sensitive kitties knew it was her the second they heard her footsteps.

(Lan Lan, you finished feeding them?)

(You smell like the other cats!)

(Get rid of their scents! Mommy is mine!)

Right after she closed the door, she was surrounded by cats rubbing themselves on her to get rid of the other cats’ scents. Lin Lan’s poor mood from earlier gradually was restored into one of cheerfulness.

“Stop rubbing, the scent won’t come off that easily.” Lin Lan scooped up the ragdoll kitty that was rubbing against her the hardest and poked her small, pink nose. “Don’t you all forget! We agreed that everyone is taking a bath today.”

After a wash, there would be no more scent left over.

In an instant, the cats who were just surrounding her ran far, far away.

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This chapter marks the halfway point! Next 2 chapters are super cute and will be released together so hopefully I can get them done sometime soon. To those of my fellow students on summer break, hope you have fun! Take care! ❤

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