Xu Ye opened her browser and searched for things like “how to handle PR when your cover is about to be blown,” “how to tell a well-intentioned lie,” and “what to do when someone @s you in a group chat.” After finding answers that didn’t apply to her situation, she stared blankly at the ceiling, the light gradually fading from her eyes.
Xu Ye didn’t want to deceive these naive cats and dogs, but she was also afraid they would reject her if she revealed her true identity. She really wanted to stay in this forum—she hadn’t found the esports dogs yet, didn’t know how everyone here accessed the internet, and David still hadn’t taken her to rank in Glory. Curious little Xu Ye was not ready to give up.
After hesitating for a while, her honesty finally won over her curiosity.
Maybe the cats and dogs wouldn’t reject someone as beautiful and kind-hearted as her.
So, she began typing on the message board: “I was born as a human, I apologize…”
Before she could figure out how to phrase the rest, a timely new reply from the administrator popped up like a lifesaver in a snowstorm:
[Administrator Reply: Users on floors 19, 21, 26, 34, and 37 have posted comments detrimental to friendly interspecies communication. This is your first warning. The “Forum Guidelines” have been updated and pinned. Please make sure to read them before posting or replying. The administrator will take action against violators based on severity.]
The administrator’s short and nonchalant reply instantly redirected the thread’s flow. Within minutes, the users who had been called out—leaders of the cat-dog argument—lined up to promise the administrator they would watch their words in the future. The bystanders who weren’t named left comments like “I’ll go read the pinned post now” before quietly exiting the thread.
Just like that, Snowball’s thread went through phases of gratitude, guessing Xu Ye’s identity, heated arguments, and an administrator’s intervention, before finally quieting down. Snowball, oblivious to it all, was still happily posting:
[80F: Huh? I’m really popular today, so happy! Hahaha~ (Dancing Puppy.jpg)]
After riding this emotional rollercoaster, Xu Ye finally relaxed. She returned to the forum homepage and clicked on the administrator’s mentioned pinned post.
In the short time she had been lurking in Snowball’s thread, the forum’s layout had changed slightly again. A new pinned “featured thread” appeared beneath the two main sections, its font even larger than typical forum highlights:
[Cat & Dog Alliance Forum Guidelines [Pinned]]
The title was styled like a Russian nesting doll, one word stacked awkwardly on top of the other.
The post had been published thirty days ago, and the administrator had enabled the “administrator comments only” option.
Xu Ye read the thread from top to bottom. Most rules were similar to those of any ordinary forum: no hostile comments, no spreading rumors, and other generic reminders.
The rules stated that forum users included residents of Fuli Mingcheng as well as stray cats and dogs who lived in the area. Once registered, even if users left the area, their accounts would remain active. The thread mentioned that several rehomed or relocated users were still active in the forum.
To keep users from getting bored, the administrator had added icons for a few games, video platforms, and entertainment apps. Clicking these icons allowed users to access them without downloading. That was where Xu Ye spotted the game she and David played.
The post also included a link titled “Punishment List.” Most users in the violation log were only temporarily muted or suspended. The users listed in the account suspension section had their accounts permanently deleted.
The violation log was long, with penalties ranging from a one- to three-day mute. The only user who received a three-day mute was punished for “excessive noise pollution,” six days ago. Xu Ye could think of only one candidate who fit this description: that unbearably annoying poodle.
The poodle was infamous among the residents. Energetic and shrill, it would charge at people like it wanted to fight a hundred battles. If not for its leash, it would have gone completely wild.
The group chat in their neighborhood often featured two recurring messages: “601, can you please control your dog?” and the owner’s repeated “Sorry, sorry, I’ll handle it immediately.”
The owner of 601 was always apologetic, but the truth was, he couldn’t control the dog.
Sometimes, his scolding was so loud that the man-dog duet made things even worse. Neighbors downstairs would eventually say in the chat: “Stop yelling at it. Just let it bark.”
Now that Xu Ye thought about it, the 601 owner hadn’t complained about his troublesome dog for a while.
Unlike the violation log, the account suspension section only listed one user, permanently banned for “provoking trouble, repeated personal attacks, and refusing to reform.”
After closing the punishment log, Xu Ye returned to the main guidelines thread. As of now, all the administrator’s replies were from one month ago.
The most recent administrator reply had been posted ten minutes earlier:
[Administrator Reply: Photo-taking and voice chat features will gradually roll out in upcoming events on the forum homepage. Users will soon be able to voice chat or share photos of their experiences. Please look forward to it!]
The administrator’s casual message seemed suspicious to Xu Ye, and her brow furrowed as she pieced things together.
She meticulously reviewed all the threads where the administrator had replied. After thinking for a while, she typed into Huo Shuyan’s chat window:
“Are you the forum administrator?”
Before she could hit send, Xu Ye deleted the message, letter by letter. Her gaze lingered on Huo Shuyan’s cat-themed avatar for a long time.
The forum posts and replies from users were all casual and colloquial, but the administrator’s language was different—refined and precise, almost human-like.
Liu Shuo’s pet shop had been open for months, and Huo Shuyan often helped out there. Yet Xu Ye had never met them before or seen them involved in rescuing strays in the community.
It wasn’t until she discovered the Cat & Dog Alliance forum that she kept running into Huo Shuyan: when she was taking out the trash, when she was looking for Snowball, and now, when her cover was nearly blown—just as the mysterious administrator stepped in to divert attention.
Xu Ye rubbed her face hard, feeling self-conscious. She had foolishly thought Huo Shuyan didn’t know her identity, but maybe he had known all along. Maybe he knew that “Good Ye” was Xu Ye and simply hadn’t said anything.
But why wouldn’t he say anything?
Xu Ye hesitated, typing and deleting in the chat window over and over. Finally, she locked her phone, pulled the covers over her head, and collapsed onto her bed.
Liu Shuo, wearing rimless glasses, closed the browser window labeled “Fuli Mingcheng Community Forum.”
He hadn’t expected such a simple thank-you post to trigger speculation about Xu Ye’s identity.
He hadn’t even managed to eat his noodles before hurriedly pulling up the rules thread and hastily cobbling together a new response. Using his administrator privileges, he redirected everyone’s attention to the pinned post.
Fortunately, the forum users were naive enough not to notice the few grammatical errors in his reply, nor did they realize that such mild “unfriendly comments” were actually outside the administrator’s jurisdiction.
Stirring the now-soggy noodles in his bowl, he sent a message to Huo Shuyan:
[Liu Shuo: I might’ve gotten you a new workload, but don’t yell at me yet—I did it to help Xu Ye.]
[Liu Shuo: (Cat Sincere.jpg)]
He waited for a long time without a response. Sighing, Liu Shuo slurped up a mouthful of limp noodles.
Just then, the door opened. Huo Shuyan walked in, covered in dust, and locked eyes with Liu Shuo, whose cheeks were stuffed like a giant hamster.
“What work?” Huo Shuyan removed his mask, tossed it into the trash, and headed to the bathroom to wash and disinfect his hands.
Liu Shuo almost choked on his noodles as he swallowed. Leaning against the bathroom doorway, he recounted the series of twists and turns that followed Snowball’s post.
He shrugged helplessly. “There were too many users demanding Xu Ye to come clean. My brain couldn’t process it all. This was the best solution I could come up with. Plus, that pinning feature… honestly, it’s kind of terrible. It still needs some tweaking.”
Huo Shuyan wiped his hands with a tissue and said flatly, “Understood. The voice chat and photo-sharing features, right? I’ll start working on them tomorrow.”
Liu Shuo straightened up in surprise. “You’re not mad?”
It had taken them over a year to develop even the basic language translation and game plugins. Although voice chat and photo-sharing were simpler, they still weren’t things that could be finished overnight.
Huo Shuyan’s gaze fell on the cat tree next to the shoe rack, where a lazy black cat was lounging.
“It has to be done eventually.”
Xu Ye lay in bed for a while before finally deciding to clear up her doubts. Just as she was about to ask, a long-absent message from David popped up.
David didn’t ask anything about Snowball’s situation.
Instead, he sent just two lines that made Xu Ye’s heart race more than any romantic confession ever could:
[David: I got a way to join my little bro’s team. I’ll carry you to Glory.]
Xu Ye instantly replied with two cheerful “OK” emotes, closed her chat window with Huo Shuyan, and launched the game. No forum secret could compare to a cat who knew how to play games.
David’s owner and David himself both seemed like the cool, aloof types. They didn’t speak a word, with the voice channel muted, and Xu Ye jumped straight into the game.
In the hero selection phase, they ended up in a silent disagreement over who would play jungler. Neither trusted the other’s jungle skills, and they furiously clicked on their previous match stats to try to make the other give up.
Seeing the simultaneous “Request Help” buttons appear, Xu Ye felt like she shouldn’t even be in the lobby—she should be under the car instead.
Resolutely, she locked in her best hero—the agile Monkey King—and typed, “Stop fighting. I’ll jungle.”
Perhaps her confident, smooth moves while jumping around the map had impressed them. Xu Ye ended up playing jungle all night, with David and his owner politely letting her do her thing.
On Monday morning, Xu Ye’s alarm went off right on time. Half-asleep, she smacked the snooze button and abruptly sat up, shouting, “Taste my staff, fools!”
Realizing she had to go to work, she groaned in laughter and got out of bed to wash up.
The entire night, even her dreams were filled with scenes of her Monkey King smashing wild boars. As the boars got pounded, they suddenly turned to her and screeched: “Are you a cat or a dog? Tell us! Are you a cat or a dog?!”
Frightened, Xu Ye had tried to take down the Baron monster, but after two hits, it morphed into Huo Shuyan wearing a pig feed mask.
He sternly shouted, “Attacking forum users? You’re banned from using your first skill for two days!” before swatting her away.
Sighing over the monkey hero’s curse, Xu Ye shook the vivid dream from her mind. Splashing her face with cold water, she tried to wake up fully.
After three straight nights of gaming, Xu Ye’s dark circles were hard to hide.
She dabbed on some concealer, called a ride, and didn’t think much about the driver’s name—Liu Hao. It was too common to stand out.
Still groggy, she arrived at the community gate and, after checking the car plate, opened the door. A familiar and overly confident voice came from the driver’s seat:
“Look at you, still half-asleep. Xu Ye, women who can’t get up by 8:30 will never get married, you know!”
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