Reborn into a Hamster for 233 Days

Truth be told, Xiao Yu was very interested in what would happen next, but Chu Ge insisted on handling everything himself. Even Yan Jin was no exception.

Chu Ge accompanied Nan Chan to the hospital, while Yan Jin took Xiao Yu home by taxi.

Right, by taxi.

Probably in all of Yan Jin’s years, there hadn’t been many times he didn’t have a car to drive. He didn’t even have any of the ride-hailing apps on his phone. In the end, Xiao Yu logged into his own account to help call a taxi.

The drug finally wore off when they got home. Xiao Yu was sitting on the rubber ducky washing himself when he suddenly changed back to a human, splashing water all over Yan Jin.

Now wet from head to toe, Yan Jin wiped the water off of his face and calmly began to undress.

“What are you doing?” On full alert, Xiao Yu got up from the bathtub and pushed the rubber ducky off his chest.

“Let’s bathe together. It’ll conserve our precious water resources,” Yan Jin said with a straight face.

“Bah! I see what you’re trying to do.” Although his mouth said one thing, Xiao Yu obediently shifted over to make room for Yan Jin after he’d undressed completely.

Maybe because of the current situation or the lingering shock from the events at NN, Xiao Yu suddenly brought up a very random topic.

“... Speaking of which, did you know that hamsters shouldn’t bathe in water?”

“I know, I asked the pet store before. They recommended a sand bath.”

“How come you still got me wet every day then?”

“You aren’t a normal hamster.”

Xiao Yu’s mouth twitched. “A normal hamster would have died to your baths a long time ago.”

Yan Jin scratched the back of his head.

“Hmph, it’s so easy to tell you’ve never raised pets before,” Xiao Yu grumbled.

“I have. I quite like little animals.”

“Really? What kind of pets did you have?” Xiao Yu asked doubtfully.

Yan Jin reminded him, “I’ve been looking after your Faye. Did you know she caught a cold a few days ago?”

“This...” Xiao Yu actually had no idea.

Only after Yan Jin pointed this out did Xiao Yu realize that he had lost a great inconvenience to his life after leaving Faye to Yan Jin.

Xiao Yu had subconsciously forgotten because he had lost this inconvenience instead of gaining it. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he didn’t even know what brand of cat food Faye was eating now.

“How bad is her cold? Has she seen the vet?” Xiao Yu was a little concerned.

“No, I gave her some cough syrup though.”

“What the fuck? You gave a cat cough medicine?”

“She was the one who wanted it. She got better after just two days of it.”

Xiao Yu: “...”

He had almost forgotten that Yan Jin could understand animals.

“Okay then, let’s come back to the original question. What other pets have you raised?”

“Pretty much anything on the market. Cats, dogs, rabbits, fish, tortoises...”

Xiao Yu laughed when he heard “tortoises”.

Nobody could have expected that Yan Jin had this adorable side to him.

“Haha, then have you raised hwameis before?” [TLN: popular pet bird in China]

“No, but I raised parrots before,” Yan Jin said seriously.

Xiao Yu had been teasing Yan Jin and hadn’t expected a reply. Furthermore, his reply was very serious. For a while, Xiao Yu didn’t know how to respond.

Yan Jin sensed something in Xiao Yu’s silence, so he quickly added, “They aren’t as cute as you are. From now on, just one pet is enough.”

This time, Xiao Yu really couldn’t contain himself and bent over with laughter. After recovering, he looked up and saw Yan Jin’s irked expression.

“Hey, sorry, sorry. I really didn’t expect—the disparity is just too adorable—”

Xiao Yu felt Yan Jin’s expression was too hilarious. He could only hide his head in Yan Jin’s chest to avoid looking at it.

“Okay, okay, I promise not to laugh anymore, hahahaha...”

Something collided against his head.

“Owww!” Xiao Yu cradled his skull. He really couldn’t laugh anymore.

After the pain faded, Xiao Yu said, “Well then, where are all your pets now? Let me see them. I should go learn from my predecessors.”

“All dead.”

“Huh? Don’t tortoises live very long?”

“Some ran away, and I don’t know whether they’re alive.”

Yan Jin seemed a little gloomy.

“How can that be? Aren’t you the Gol D. Roger? How can you let them run away?” [TLN: One Piece character]

Yan Jin narrowed his eyes at the familiar metaphor. “Who told you this name?”

“Chu Ge, but, I already watched the show before he said anything.” Xiao Yu felt Yan Jin’s stubbornness was somewhat strange.

“Stay away from him in the future.”

“Heyheyhey, real talk though, you can even hear their thoughts. How could you let them run away?”

“... Being able to hear the thoughts of all living things would truly be a superpower.”

Xiao Yu gave Yan Jin a strange look that said, “Keep pretending; I don’t mind playing along.”

“I’m being serious.” Yan Jin felt helpless. “I can’t hear animals’ thoughts. I can’t even hear human thoughts. I’m just a little more sensitive to mood changes.”

“But when I’m a hamster, you can always hear what I’m thinking.”

“You’re different. That’s called the tacit understanding between lovers.”

“Whatever, keep pretending then.”

That’s what Xiao Yu said, but he was ecstatic inside.

In his elation, Xiao Yu forgot how they had suddenly gone off-topic.

......

After chatting for too long in the bath, Xiao Yu’s fingers got all puffy. Xiao Yu blew his hair dry and then fell onto the bed, motionless.

Yan Jin tidied up the bathroom and quietly got into bed. He was just about to turn out the lights when he faintly heard Xiao Yu’s voice from inside the blankets. “About Nan Chan, what are you guys going to do with her?”

Yan Jin paused, then turned off the lights in the end.

Darkness enveloped them. Yan Jin lay down next to Xiao Yu and embraced Xiao Yu around the waist, placing his chin on Xiao Yu’s head. In a low voice, Yan Jin said, “Whatever you want, I’ll do for you.”

“Initially, I wanted to teach her a lesson,” Xiao Yu’s muffled voice said. “But, after seeing her, I thought, well, there’s no need...”

“I’m not trying to be a Mother Teresa, but, well...” Xiao Yu hesitated for a long time before spilling his true thoughts. “This was my first time seeing such a person, and it really was too frightening. Have you heard that if someone who is mentally ill commits murder, they don’t have to pay with their own life? That Nan Chan, *sigh*, if we send her to prison, she might seek revenge after coming back. I guess we can let her go this time; after all, nothing really bad happened. But I hope we don’t get into this kind of mess anymore.”

“If you think so, then naturally I’ll fulfill your wish.”

“What did you want to do? Send her to prison?”

“All I wanted was not to lose you.” Yan Jin sighed and brought Xiao Yu closer to him. “... No matter the means.”

“What did you say?” Xiao Yu didn’t hear the last part properly.

“It’s getting late now. Go to sleep; we need to wake up early tomorrow.”

“No? Isn’t tomorrow Saturday?”

“Mhmm, wedding setup starts at four tomorrow.”

Xiao Yu, who had been drowsily falling asleep, suddenly shot up.

After being awoken from his semi-dreamlike state, Xiao Yu’s brain felt very sluggish. Did he really hear those words or had he been dreaming?

“Hey, did you just say something?” Xiao Yu nudged Yan Jin with his elbow.

“‘It’s getting late now. Go to sleep; we need to wake up early tomorrow,’” Yan Jin recounted perfectly with his top-tier memory.

“The next part.”

“‘Mhmm, wedding setup starts at four tomorrow.’”

He hadn’t heard wrong!

Xiao Yu was shocked.

“That, that wedding. It can’t be what I’m thinking of, right?”

“It’s our wedding. It was written in YL’s internal group and on YL’s official blog.”

Xiao Yu: “...”

How come he felt like he’d missed this announcement? He felt like he’d made some irreversible mistake.

Another problem was, would normal people learn of the day and time of their own wedding from a messaging group or official blog?

“It’s too late for you to say no now. You already agreed to your Aunty Fang to marry me.”

“I didn’t say no. True men need to stick to their word. I was the one who first proposed it anyways...” For a while, Xiao Yu couldn’t find the words to express his own mixed feelings. “I was, well, a little surprised.”

“According to the horoscopes, tomorrow is the only suitable day for our marriage. I thought you would have guessed it a long time ago.” [TLN: horoscope refers to Tung Shing = Chinese lunar divination almanac]

Yan Jin hadn’t always been a superstitious person, but ever since a Xiao Yu had burst into his life, his superstition had grown by leaps and bounds. Now, Yan Jin knew more than enough to even be a sect leader.

Speaking of which, Yan Jin had dedicated an office at YL for worship and incense burning. He had thought there would be some opposition to it, but in the end, the reception was very favorable. Uninterested people were unaffected and indicated that they didn’t care. Interested people lit incense day and night, hoping to pull an SSR... [TLN: pulling a “Superior Super Rare”, refers to winning something very lucky in a gacha game.]

So, while the end result deviated from Yan Jin’s expectations, it was clear that even the modern man still needed the metaphysical.

“I even need to guess about my own marriage...?”

Xiao Yu’s family was quite superstitious, but even he couldn’t understand Yan Jin’s actions.

“And, we can’t get married here in China. Same-sex marriage hasn’t been legalized yet, right?”

“It’s only a wedding. There’s no rush to get the actual marriage certificate. After the Autumn Conference, let’s take a vacation for our honeymoon until the end of the year. We can pick up the certificate along the way.”

It was like Yan Jin was talking about eating or drinking. On the other hand, Xiao Yu could already see the not-too-distant resulting chaos—for example, the inevitable mess at YL.

*Sigh*, with such a chairman, YL was probably already used to such misfortunes.

However, Xiao Yu no longer had time to worry about YL. From now on, a strong nervousness pervaded his thoughts.

Tomorrow was the wedding. It was a little late to be nervous...