Wang Jiayi had been renting in this small building within the urban village for nearly half a year and had been working as a server at the teahouse for over two months. For someone of her young mistress status, this was actually considered hardship.
By now, she had long since obtained the recognition and permission from the Chinchilla cat to take it out of the teahouse anytime. Later, she had also taken the initiative to adopt the kitten Xiuqiu. Now that her parents had come to find her and the family had reconciled, it would be completely reasonable for her to say she was moving away.
The entire Lin family, including Lin Lan, all thought her parents were taking her back home, and that this young mistress would soon be leaving.
But the result was...
"My parents did say yesterday they wanted to take me home, but I'm not leaving!" The next day, Wang Jiayi, who continued to come to work at the teahouse, deftly put on her apron, her face a picture of matter-of-factness. "We agreed before, I still want to keep working here. There's so much I haven't learned yet!"
Lin Lan and the others: "..." So what exactly is there worth learning in such a small teahouse? Wouldn't going back home to learn company management or studying abroad be more impressive?
"My older brother handles the company, no need for me. I've been going abroad once or twice almost every year since I was three, I'm long tired of it," the young mistress replied with utter nonchalance. "Right now, I just think raising cats is more interesting. I can learn new things from you, Lanlan, every day."
Lin Lan, the shop owner who was basically just repeating all the "new things" she’d heard from the cats: "..." No — she was just an ordinary person with level-ten cat-language proficiency, nothing much to learn. Mentally scoffing like that, Lin Lan coughed and forced the subject to change. "Are your parents really that comfortable just leaving you here all the time?"
"Of course they won't let me stay here forever. But for most of the half year I've been here, it's been pretty much the same as being under their watchful eyes anyway. When I said I still wanted to stay, they didn't force me."
Wang Jiayi didn't hide anything, being frank with Lin Lan.
"Lanlan, I've made up my mind. I want to open a proper, officially recognized stray cat shelter. I hope every cat in my shelter can meet the standard of being happily accepted by a human family. Lanlan, you're the best cat trainer I've ever met. No matter a cat's temperament, it ends up well-behaved in your hands. I want to learn cat care from you. If the cats I take in later can be even half as well-behaved and sensible as the teahouse cats, I'll be more than satisfied."
Her tone and expression were very serious as she spoke, clearly not a passing whim or just playing around.
But precisely because she was serious, Lin Lan, after her initial surprise, couldn't help but feel concerned.
Regarding stray cat shelters, anyone who cares to investigate a little knows that such public welfare facilities mostly operate at a loss. Some shelter managers even subsidize them with their own money. For ordinary people to get involved is thankless work and could even bankrupt them. This was the fundamental reason why Lin Lan, after encountering the cat boss and learning about the situation of stray cat communities, had several impulses but snuffed them all out at the source.
It's a bottomless pit. Every year, many pitiful cats and dogs are left homeless for all sorts of reasons. And after all, stray animals aren't human; they can never receive the same level of attention as impoverished people. Relying on donations from kind-hearted members of society might not even cover daily operations.
Only someone with a family background like the young mistress could easily manage it, but still...
"Even if your family supports you, what if it keeps losing money and they have to keep filling the hole..." Lin Lan didn't want to pour cold water, but reality was just like that. No one's money grows on trees. Supporting it for a while is possible, but if it continues like that forever...
"So we have to work hard to make sure it doesn't lose money!" Wang Jiayi understood Lin Lan's implication. She took little Xiuqiu out of its cage and gently stroked its fur. "Of course I don't want to go back to how I was before — simply taking my parents' support for granted, grown up but not even as capable as a cat. That's why I want to study harder and do well at what I set out to do. I know many friends, and now I've met you, Lanlan. Everyone should be willing to help me in that regard. If I can't train the kittens properly and can't help them find a happy home like Gentleman's, you'll definitely help me, right, Lanlan?"
Seeing the trusting smile on the young mistress's face, Lin Lan suddenly understood her thinking.
"So you're planning on getting technical support from me," she also smiled. "Alright then, if you really open one, of course I'll help."
Who said shelters could only take in and rehabilitate stray cats for suitable families to adopt? If needed, spoiled pets from wealthy families or kittens needing training could also be sent there. With the young mistress's family connections, there would be no shortage of business from wealthy cat slaves. This could become the shelter's main source of income.
All along, limited by her own circumstances and an unspoken inner timidity, Lin Lan had only done things within her capabilities, never lightly venturing into anything riskier or more unconventional. Sometimes she felt uneasy and guilty, wondering if using her golden finger in this way was too narrow. Now, Wang Jiayi was giving her a better stage to perform on, one where she could help more stray cats. She was naturally willing.
"It won't be free help!" the young mistress responded seriously. "You'll get paid for every technical support session. We 'Fu Chan' aren't short on money."
'Fu Chan' – short for 'wealthy poop-scoopers'. As a fellow member of the wealthy poop-scooper class, the young mistress expressed no heartache about charging them.
Lin Lan was amused. "Alright, then I'll follow you in feasting off the rich."
The matter of the young mistress continuing to stay quickly settled down. She had a clear, methodical plan for what she wanted to do in the future, so of course no one had anything to say. Lin Lan even intentionally or unintentionally shared some common cat care experiences she had summarized after understanding cat language. This girl learned quickly. The better she learned now, the more comfortable the stray cats would be when the shelter opened later. So Shopkeeper Lin held nothing back.
Wang Jiayi could naturally sense her attitude and returned it all the more warmly. She had specially compiled a notebook of notes on tea and pastries, jotting down any good new recipes she came across. Half the notebook was already filled, reserved to be given to Lin Lan as a gift when she left her job.
Now living in the small building, every day, besides going to work making tea and pastries and learning to care for cats, she would proactively call home after work, chat with her family, and tell them what she had done that day. Then she would take out the shelter operation and management materials her brother had sent and study diligently at her desk. Her days were busy but fulfilling.
Of course, during this time, reminded by Lanlan, she also didn't forget to pay attention to how her two adopted cats were getting along.
"It looks pretty good."
Once the seven-day isolation period was over and after tentatively placing the kitten among the teahouse cats, no serious incidents of rejection occurred.
It should be said that the teahouse cats, who have always had ample food and never needed to fight over it, are now in quite good tempers. Even when they heard the little kitten Xiuqiu eating its cat food while continuously making threatening, food-guarding noises, none of the cats bothered with it.
The kitten Xiuqiu wasn't particularly close to the Chinchilla cat, but it wasn't averse to it either. The relationship between the two cats was more like parallel lines with little intersection. Instead, Xiuqiu quite liked sticking close to the black cat, Mo Mo.
The adult cats were quite tolerant of the young one. Mo Mo sometimes let it cling, and other times, when impatient, would extend a paw to nudge it aside. But the kitten wasn't discouraged by the rejection; it remained undeterred, happily seizing any opportunity to stick close again.
"What an unexpected turn of events..." Shopkeeper Lin, who had been hoping to watch some drama, and Designer Cheng, who had been obviously pacing around more frequently, were both disappointed at not seeing the juicy spectacle they wanted. The latter said bluntly, "Is it because the main storyline of joining a wealthy family hasn't started yet?"
"Probably won't start at all," Shopkeeper Lin, who saw the situation clearly, shook her head. "Once Xiuqiu gets used to this environment with so many cats and becomes familiar with their scents, even if it's later taken home alone with Silver, it won't cause a fuss."
It didn't even cause trouble living in this mixed-cat courtyard; it's even less likely to make a scene later in a wealthy family's single room.
The wealthy "poop-scooper" herself accidentally overheard this and stomped her foot in displeasure: "Really! You two are so mean! What kind of mentality is it to hope they fight after coming home with me!"
The two only replied with a provoking "heh heh heh" grin, their faces not hiding in the slightest their delight in watching potential chaos.
"Ugh!" The young lady wrinkled her nose indignantly. "Just you wait and see! With my efforts, Silver and Xiuqiu will definitely become a loving pair of cats later!"
Lin Lan had originally been waiting to see some excitement among the kittens. Unexpectedly, within a couple of days, she herself became the subject of others' curiosity.
Well, to be precise, it was her teahouse that became the spectacle.
The reason was that a local media outlet in West City had dug up and reported on the teahouse's previous incident of using the orange cat Gentleman to help cure Yaoyao. The eye-catching headline about a cat curing an autistic child immediately attracted the attention of West City residents, drawing many curious people into the shop to spend money.
If they were just ordinary tea customers, it would have been fine. At most, they would ask a couple of curious questions, and Lin Lan could deny it and brush it off.
Unfortunately, they weren't just ordinary customers. There were also media who came specifically for interviews. After all, West City is a second-tier city. Even if only a small fraction of the various media outlets came, Lin Lan had to deal with several waves of them, her face stiff from smiling and saying "that's not true."
She wanted to let the matter rest, but the reporters weren't having it. The first time she brushed them off, the second time they appeared before her with all sorts of solid evidence—photos and videos—scattered information posted online by other tea customers who were present at the time, enough to prove that the child did indeed have mental health issues back then and gradually improved because of the cat.
"It was just a normal cat adoption." "That child really didn't have autism." No matter how hard Lin Lan tried to explain, after the reporters finished their on-site interviews, they would still write their articles according to their own ideas.
Articles written with more gathered material became even more sensational and eye-catching. How the little girl got sick, how terrifying her episodes were and how they wore down her family, how the teahouse used a cat for treatment, and later how the family persistently came to the teahouse every day, how Xiuqiu moved the owner to agree to let them adopt the cat, and so on... It was described as if they had witnessed the entire process firsthand.
"If I weren't right there, I'd have thought it was true too," Lin Lan said irritably, swiping away a news article on her phone. "These unethical media will do anything for clicks! Is autism something that can be cured so casually? And in such a short time? They're treating people like fools!"
"Some people might even criticize you, saying you're running false advertising to make the teahouse famous," Cheng Fengyang looked up at the sky.
"I'd actually prefer people to think it's false advertising," Lin Lan sighed. "The real trouble would be if confused relatives of autistic children actually came looking."
This was very distressing.
Wang Jiayi immediately took out her phone: "I'll call my dad right now and have him help take down these ridiculous news stories."
The young lady was working at the teahouse. If it got a bad reputation leading to any incidents, her doting father, who was already worried about his precious daughter, would definitely step in to eliminate any potential trouble.
Over ten minutes later, Wang Jiayi returned after hanging up: "Dad said it's impossible to retract all the articles completely, but revising them to correct the autism claim based on facts is doable."
That would work too.
Lin Lan single-mindedly waited for the news hype to die down and consistently refused any further interviews, thinking that would settle things. However, just as she was figuring out how to fend off the reporters, Song Xinmin, who had returned from leave, pushed the door open holding a photography magazine and shouted inside: "Boss! My photo won an award! First place in the animal category!"
As if afraid others wouldn't see, he held that highly reputable domestic photography magazine high.
Whoosh—the crowd of reporters surrounding Lin Lan instantly swarmed towards the young photographer Song at the door.
And just like that, Lin Lan's Cat Teahouse suddenly became a hit in West City.
First, there was the gimmick of using cats to cure mental illness, followed by the news that an employee was a winning new-generation photographer in a top magazine competition. So, whether to see the cats or to see the person and the photo, a large crowd flocked to the teahouse, drawn by its fame.
The teahouse business, which had already normalized and quieted down, suddenly became as bustling as it was during the opening period, keeping everyone extremely busy.
"Fengyang, thank you for coming to help these past few days. I'd be exhausted otherwise," Lin Lan thanked Cheng Fengyang during a break for coming again to help out.
"It's fine. Things will go back to normal in the shop once the hype dies down," Cheng Fengyang said, knowing she had opened the shop not to make money but simply to care for cats, and comforted her thoughtfully. "It's an internet-famous shop after all. Actually, these things come in waves for everyone."
"Haha, I just wish it would go out of fashion right now," Shopkeeper Lin gave a bitter laugh, then turned to employee Xiao Song with a changed expression. "You caused this. Don't even think about quitting during this period. You can get your deposit back and move out only after you've helped serve all these people and they're gone."
The guilty photographer Xiao Song meekly agreed. It was his own fault for being so excited and blurting it out without considering the situation. He made his own bed.
To cater to these trend-following "check-in" customers, the teahouse enlarged and displayed Song Xinmin's award-winning photo on the wall.
The photo showed a backdrop of poor weather—windy with a fine drizzle. A cat sat upright atop a wall, head held high and gazing ahead. Below the wall, several pedestrians hurried along with their heads down, simply trying to avoid the wind. The contrast between stillness and motion created a wonderful visual effect. But the most striking feature was the cat’s eyes. Its posture was calm and its eyes showed no distress or panic at the approaching storm; it even seemed to be enjoying it. This aloof, outstanding poise immediately made the cat stand out in the scene, becoming the focal point for everyone.
"This cat is so handsome!" a customer who saw the photo exclaimed.
Even those who know nothing about photography would be captivated by the cat in this photo, its unique aura unforgettable to anyone who sees it.
Some tea customers gathered around the photo to discuss it, while others were more interested in the cats themselves. Discovering that these teahouse cats were hidden gems, even better at posing than they were, they became utterly absorbed in taking selfies, unable to tear themselves away.
New repeat customers were steadily increasing. The effect of becoming a viral hotspot was something Lin Lan, accustomed to a leisurely pace, found very uncomfortable; she could only hope the hype would fade quickly.
But in places unknown to her, these sensational local news stories from West City were also spreading to other parts of the country via the internet.
In a city far from West City, inside a rented apartment, a man sat before a laptop, watching a news video playing on the screen.
Beneath a cute sign printed with the words "Cat Teahouse," an attractive woman wearing a teahouse apron was being interviewed by a reporter.
["...That child is not autistic, just an ordinary customer. The idea of cats curing autism is completely unfounded, pure rumor. The teahouse simply had a cat adopted by a customer. Please do not believe these baseless stories."]
The man stared fixedly at the face on the screen and the utterly ordinary residential building in the background behind her. His fist gradually clenched, and he ground his teeth. "Lin Lan," he hissed, "How dare you make a fool of me!"
