DA chapter 25

 

Lin Jia shot a glance at the cat, but it didn’t quite understand.

“Over there.” Lin Jia pointed to the windowsill and said, “Stay properly.”

The windowsill was right behind Lin Jia with heavy curtains hanging on it. Given the cat’s size, it could easily hide behind the curtain without being discovered. Later, when lip-syncing, Lin Jia only needed to turn his back to the window.

The cat threw over a shocked look ‘Really?’ Could lip-syncing really fool the director? What if she finds out? Fine, taking ten thousand steps back, even if he was really lip-syncing, shouldn’t there at least be some rehearsal? Just like this… Just like this? pushing the cat onto the rack?

The cat wanted to speak, but Lin Jia had already walked to the door. He didn’t give the cat time to react before opening it.

The cat: “!!!”

So crazy!

Madman Lin Jia!

Madman, madman!

The cat’s instinct made it jump behind the curtain at once, its little heart thumping hard.

Lin Jia raised his eyes. “Director, hello.”

It was actually a little late opening the door. There was a hint of impatience on the director’s stern face, but after Lin Jia greeted her, her expression softened slightly.

Leaning on her cane, she entered the room. Before closing the door, Lin Jia saw that everyone else was looking nervously toward his room.

He also saw Yan Xu and Deputy Director Chen. Yan Xu was still leaning against the wall, looking over with a different kind of gaze.

Bang!

Lin Jia closed the door, blocking those rabbit-death-fox-sorrow gazes[mfn]That phrase is a Chinese idiom “兔死狐悲” (tù sǐ hú bēi). literally means: “When the rabbit dies, the fox mourns.” But the actual meaning is: feeling sorrow for someone else’s misfortune because you realize you share a similar fate[/mfn], as well as the gaze of someone watching a show.

When he turned back, the director had already found a place to sit. Her legs and feet were uncomfortable, and she couldn’t stand for long.

Lin Jia glanced briefly. The director’s seat faced the windowsill, which was ideal because human ears are precise instruments. If the sound did not come from the same position as the windowsill, the likelihood of detecting lip-syncing would be even higher.

He walked over and put away the director’s cane for her.

The director’s expression looked much better; even her originally stiff tone softened considerably. “How are the songs prepared?”

Lin Jia had always held high-level positions. He didn’t usually read others’ expressions, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t understand them. Even greeting her and putting away the cane were deliberate acts on his part. When asking someone for something, knowing how to opportunistically gain benefit was also a compulsory lesson for a president.

Seeing that the director’s attitude had softened and that she had a slightly favorable impression of him, Lin Jia asked, “What would the director like to hear me sing?”

It was not a negotiating tone, but rather one that was neither humble nor overbearing, yet pleasing.

“You children always make me worry less.” The director’s mood improved, and a smile appeared on her face. “Anything is fine. Whatever obedient and smart children want to sing is fine.”

Lin Jia didn’t get any useful information, but it wasn’t completely useless either.

Obedient and smart.

Lin Jia silently repeated these two words. Obedience was easier to understand, most likely meaning listening to the director’s words—for example, if the director said to sing, then singing.

But smart?

For now, he could not figure out how that showed in songs, so Lin Jia could only set it aside temporarily. He said to the director, “I want to sing ‘Planting the Sun.’”

The director smiled and said, “Alright.”

Of course, it was supposedly reporting to the director, but it was actually said for the cat behind the curtain to hear. Worried that the cat could not keep up with his rhythm, Lin Jia deliberately counted beats before opening his mouth to lip-sync.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“…I have a beautiful wish. When I grow up, I want to plant the sun. Just one seed is enough—it will grow into many, many suns.”

The cat’s voice sounded from behind the curtain.

Lin Jia froze slightly, not expecting the cat to actually sing quite nicely. Although it was nervous at first and the pronunciation was slightly off-tone, it quickly recovered and sang better and better.

“One given to given to the South Pole, one given to given to the Arctic Ocean, one hung on hung on winter, one hung at night, hung at night.”

“La la la, planting suns, la la la, planting suns, la la la la la la la la.”

When the song ended, the director finally smiled and clapped her hands. “Very good!”

Lin Jia shamelessly accepted the praise that wasn’t his. As the director prepared to leave, Lin Jia handed her the cane. Leaning on it, the director said, “If only all the children were like you, I wouldn’t worry about your future.”

For the children of the Welfare Institute, talking about the future was still too early. Lin Jia quickly realized that the “future” the director mentioned should refer to the destination of the Welfare Institute children.

He supported the director and said, “I want to always stay with the director.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the smile on the director’s face disappeared, replaced by an even sterner expression than before.

“No! It’s dangerous here. I must send you all out quickly.”

Lin Jia pretended to be ignorant and drew out his words. “Dangerous?”

“Don’t ask!” The director weighed the cane in her hand. The cane striking the ground made a crisp sound.

Previously, the director had mentioned the word “obedient,” so Lin Jia remained silent. If the cat saw it, it would say that Lin Jia was cold and valued benefits highly. Knowing he could not draw out the situation any longer, Lin Jia no longer supported the director.

The director seemed to think of something; her face was full of panic and worry. She did not even notice Lin Jia’s coldness.

She walked to the door, turned back, and, after several attempts, said to Lin Jia, “Don’t go out at night.”

Lin Jia neither agreed nor disagreed. He gave the director no positive response, only saying: “Walk slowly.”

After the director left and the door locked again, the cat cautiously lifted the curtain, revealing its pitiful face.

“Gone?”

Lin Jia said: “Otherwise?”

Only then did the cat jump out. It had wanted to say something, but upon seeing Lin Jia’s cold demeanor, it forgot the main point and criticized instead: “I just helped you, and not only do you not thank me, but you also speak coldly to me.”

“On the second floor of my villa, there is a room where I store my accessories.” Lin Jia took off the famous watch on his wrist and held it up for the cat to see. “There are twenty-seven watches in the cabinet.”

The cat did not understand why Lin Jia said this. “And then?”

Lin Jia sneered. “Except on rest days, I change watches every day. But now, I can only wear the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime. Tell me, whose fault is that?”

The cat: “…”

The cat laughed awkwardly. “You only get three days off a month. That’s too hard, right?”

Lin Jia could not be bothered with it.

The cat crawled out from behind the curtain and came to Lin Jia’s feet. It recalled the director’s final words: “What does ‘don’t go out at night’ mean? Could the Welfare Institute really have ghosts?”

The cat knew that Lin Jia was also uncertain whether the Welfare Institute had ghosts. The cat originally thought this sentence would be ignored, too, but unexpectedly, Lin Jia, who had gone to stand by the window and look at the scenery outside, said, “Let’s talk later.”

The cat pondered Lin Jia’s words and was so shocked that its fur stood up.

“You…”

the cat said in terror. “You don’t mean you want to go out at night, do you?”

No response.

The second room the director went to should have been Xiao Yao’s. Xiao Yao passed the director’s song inspection and went outside to get food for Lin Jia.

Lin Jia did not like other people stepping into his room, even if it was only temporary in Fish Belly. Xiao Yao stood at the doorway and described his singing process.

Like Lin Jia, the director left after Xiao Yao finished one song. The difference was that Lin Jia lip-synced while Xiao Yao sang for real.

Xiao Yao was still afraid. For a big, rough man like him, singing was not his strong point. He felt he sang poorly, yet the director neither criticized nor praised him.

Lin Jia thought for a moment and asked, “Nothing else?”

Xiao Yao thought for a moment, then shook his head.

He sensed something was wrong and quickly asked, “Brother Jia, what did the director say to you?”

Lin Jia then told Xiao Yao the director’s warning: “Don’t go out at night.”

Xiao Yao didn’t doubt Lin Jia’s words at all and asked, “Brother Jia, what about tonight?”

Lin Jia replied lightly, “If you want to go out, no one’s stopping you.”

Xiao Yao laughed awkwardly and went back.

Lin Jia opened a compressed biscuit and threw a piece to the cat.

The biscuit was too hard. While the cat was trying hard to bite it apart, suddenly—

Ahhhhhhhh!

A scream tore through the silence of the Welfare Institute, frightening the cat and causing it to swallow the entire biscuit whole. But the cat’s throat was too small, and the biscuit got stuck halfway, unable to go up or down. The cat fell to the ground, kicking its four limbs wildly.

Lin Jia looked at the cat’s foolish appearance and couldn’t stand it. He reached out, turned the cat upside down, and patted its back with the other hand.

“Cough cough cough—”

After finally coughing up the biscuit, the cat covered its throat. It was still in the shadow of almost choking to death.

By the time the cat recovered, Lin Jia was opening the door.

The cat hurried to chase after him, but its limbs were weak from the recent suffocation. After chasing a few steps, it collapsed softly to the floor.

“Lin Jia!”

The cat wanted to call to Lin Jia to wait for it, but he walked away without turning his head.

It felt wronged, to the point of almost shedding tears. Yes, even if it was because of it that Lin Jia came to the Underwater Wold, it had been making up for it all along. Lin Jia had already agreed to help it find its true self, so they were already in a cooperative relationship. It had just helped Lin Jia with lip-syncing and almost died, yet Lin Jia still wouldn’t wait for it?

So cold.

While the cat was full of grievances and complaints, Lin Jia had already disappeared.

The cat: “…”

The cat gritted its teeth, climbed up, and chased out.

Finally, it saw Lin Jia ahead. As a kind of revenge, the cat gathered its strength and rushed forward. Its claws hooked onto Lin Jia’s clothes, and in a few quick moves, the cat stood on Lin Jia’s shoulder.

Its claws were dirty, and it deliberately left dirty paw prints on a visible spot on Lin Jia’s shoulder.

Hm hm.

Who told you not to wait—

The cat suddenly saw Lin Jia’s hand. The back of his hand was covered in red scratches.

They must have come from when it kicked wildly and injured him.

The guilty cat: “…”

He silently wiped off the dirty spot and crouched quietly and obediently on Lin Jia’s shoulder.

Since everyone lived on the second floor at the front of the building, finding the room where the scream came from was not difficult.

In fact, someone was already standing outside the room where it happened before Lin Jia came out to check.

The room was near the right-side staircase. At that moment, the room was completely silent, with only blood slowly seeping out through the crack in the door.

Very quickly, the smell of blood clogged the air on the second floor.

“Say it.”

In the crowd, Yan Xu spoke to a girl. Lin Jia remembered that, during introductions, this girl had been called Xiao Tian, one of the newcomers.

Xiao Tian’s room was right next to the room where it happened, so she should know the most about what happened.

Someone had really died. Even though the corpse had not yet appeared, the amount of blood flowing on the ground explained everything—such a large amount of blood loss was absolutely impossible to survive.

Xiao Tian’s face looked ugly. His mouth was open for a long time, but he didn’t say anything meaningful.

Yan Xu said, “Fifteen seconds, okay?”

Xiao Tian nodded gratefully at Yan Xu. However, the time she needed to regulate her emotions far exceeded 15 seconds. It took her more than a minute to open her mouth.

“The director… after the director left my room, she went to his room.”

The owner of the room where the incident occurred was also a newcomer. Since newcomers were grouping together, after Xiao Tian passed the song inspection, she wanted to see if others could pass safely as well.

She stood quietly waiting at the door, but what she heard instead was a scream from inside the room.

There was not much useful information. Yan Xu turned to Deputy Director Chen and asked, “Leader, may I go take a look?”

Deputy Director Chen said, “Be careful.”

Yan Xu stepped forward. The door was not locked; a light push was enough to open it.

The moment the door opened, a corpse fell face-first in front of everyone.

With a thud, it smashed into a pool of blood, splattering it everywhere.

 

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