Chapter 7: Cat and Mouse

Zhang Yupeng’s mood was very complicated.

Originally, he thought that Lin Ran only needed to be pretty. Having a beauty as a host could attract attention and also divert the audience’s attention during performances, making the magic show smoother. Even if her emotional intelligence was a bit low, he could simply prevent her from speaking and let the magicians do the talking. With Qi Ruige’s years of performing experience, there was hardly any situation he couldn’t handle.

He never expected that she wouldn’t give Qi Ruige a chance to intervene when she encountered unruly audience members. She immediately confronted them. What’s more, he never expected that the audience would actually buy into it; that was even more incomprehensible to him.

What was even more unexpected was yet to come.

Tickets for the next performance sold out within half a day, with scalpers even appearing.

Zhang Yupeng had never imagined that his magic troupe would one day be targeted by scalpers.

For so many years, except for special occasions like holidays, he had never sold out tickets.

He never imagined that his small magic troupe would even trend online.

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…

The day after the Miracle Magic Troupe’s performance, Yang Tengfei hurriedly called An Fei. If it weren’t for the performance ending too late that day, afraid of disturbing the boss’s rest, he would have called yesterday evening.

“Boss An, about what we discussed before—letting Lin Ran perform once and then letting her go—can we do it now? I don’t think she’s of much use. That performance didn’t even sell that many tickets.”

An Fei yawned, “But she trended, you know…”

“Trended?”

Yang Tengfei was stunned. “What trend?”

He hadn’t checked the trending list today; he had no idea what was going on.

“Take a look yourself; it trended quite high… Although it’s only ninth, it’s still trending.” An Fei chuckled, “How about this? If you trend too and compare her, then I can comfortably dismiss her.”

“I…” Yang Tengfei was at a loss for words.

He glanced at the trending list; Lin Ran’s trend was already dropping, but it was still visible.

He had never trended before; could being good-looking really be that important?

“And…” An Fei continued slowly, “Tickets for the next magic troupe performance… sold out! Mr. Yang, did your Saturday evening tickets sell out? Did you work on some new material today? You’re not going to use old jokes again for the next show, right? The audience is quite opinionated…”

“I…” A cold sweat broke out on Yang Tengfei’s forehead. “I have been working on it…”

He couldn’t believe it—the Friday evening tickets sold out?

It was only Saturday morning; how could Friday’s tickets be sold out already?

His Saturday evening tickets had never sold out except for major holidays! That was the most popular Saturday show for the audience!

If this continued, would he even be able to maintain his position for Saturday shows?

He shook his head repeatedly, comforting himself: It’s just a coincidence; once the hype dies down, their next show’s tickets won’t sell out. It must be like that. How could a niche magic performance compete with a popular comedy show in this day and age?

Magic performances are outdated! They’re not suitable for this era at all! There hasn’t been a magic video popular online for a year, but there’s a talk show video every few days. That alone is enough to prove this point!

So his comedy show definitely won’t lose to a magic show!

After leaving the New Star Theater, Lin Ran took the bus to the stop near the hotel and then walked to the hotel.

When she reached the entrance of an alley, suddenly a gray old mouse darted out from between her wrists and ran into the alley.

Lin Ran was shocked. That was… a mouse!

It had just darted out from her arm!

At that moment, a cat jumped out from between her wrists and dashed towards the mouse.

A cat?

Lin Ran was stunned for a long time before she realized that the bracelet on her wrist was a Qiankun bag. She had stuffed the Qiankun bag into the decorative pendant of the bracelet.

These cat and mouse must have come out from that magical trash can, right? They came out of it and entered the Qiankun bag, then crawled out from the bag and ran onto the street.

It was her first time seeing living creatures come out of a trash can.

The cat had orange patterns all over its body, was fat and large, yet was extremely agile. In just a moment, it disappeared without a trace.

Lin Ran patted her chest. Cats were fine; it was just mice she was afraid of.

Who isn’t afraid of mice?

She stood still for a while before continuing in the direction of the hotel.

After walking for a while, she saw an orange shadow flash by her side. After focusing her eyes, she saw that the large, tabby cat had jumped in front of her and was squatting on the ground, waiting for her.

Lin Ran was slightly stunned. When she approached the large tabby cat, it stood up and followed by her side, even rubbing its head against her shoes.

This kind of action… was it showing affection?

Lin Ran squatted down. She suddenly thought, If it were a species from the heavens, it might be somewhat special, right?

She squatted down and looked into the cat’s eyes, tentatively asking, “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

The large tabby cat nodded slowly, blinked its eyes, and looked at Lin Ran.

Lin Ran’s heart raced. It could actually understand what she was saying!

She continued asking, “Are you from the heavens?”

The large tabby cat nodded again.

Lin Ran: “Are you a pet of some immortal?”

The large tabby cat shook its head.

Lin Ran: “Are you a stray cat?”

The large tabby cat nodded.

Lin Ran: “Did you chase that mouse and jump into a trash can?”

The large tabby cat nodded once more.

As she guessed, it was brought here by the trash can.

Lin Ran reached out and touched its head. “So, you have nowhere to go; do you want to follow me?”

The large tabby cat lowered its head with a bit of grievance, nodded, and let out a “meow,” then rubbed against Lin Ran’s pants leg with its head.

Lin Ran could understand. It probably had its own cat nest; maybe its parents were also in the heavens. But upon suddenly arriving in this strange place, it naturally felt helpless.

Since Lin Ran was the owner of the trash can, the large tabby cat chose to follow her.

Lin Ran’s guess was basically confirmed. She lifted the large tabby cat, feeling its weight was quite heavy. She gently stroked its head and said softly, “I can’t send you back, but don’t worry, just follow me from now on. I’ll take care of you; buy you cat food.”

The large tabby cat looked at her with a puzzled expression, probably not understanding what cat food was.

Lin Ran suddenly thought of the mouse from earlier. Did this cat… just eat a mouse?

She felt a bit disgusted, so she flipped the large tabby cat over and held its belly, not letting its mouth or feet touch her.

Just as she was thinking about this, Lin Ran unintentionally turned around and saw a mouse staring at her from the bushes not far away.

It hadn’t been eaten!

Lin Ran instantly felt a bit overwhelmed and shouted at the mouse, “Don’t come over! I’m afraid of mice! Go away! Shoo!”

Although the mouse was small, most people would scream in fear when they saw it, trying to hit it with whatever they could find. On the other hand, people weren’t afraid of cats, even ones much larger than the mouse. They would even be willing to hug and kiss them.

Upon hearing this, the large tabby cat jumped out of Lin Ran’s arms and growled at the mouse, scaring it off into the greenery, where it disappeared.

Proudly, the large tabby cat jumped back into Lin Ran’s arms, meowed, and comfortably settled down to sleep in her embrace.

Lin Ran then brought the large tabby cat into the hotel and into her room.

Since the large tabby cat could understand human speech, taking care of it would be very easy.

First, she gave the large tabby cat a bath and dried its fur with a hairdryer. Then she called the front desk, and soon someone delivered a box of canned fish.

Lin Ran opened the can, and the large tabby cat’s eyes lit up. It pounced on it eagerly and began to eat.

She patted the cat’s back and said, “Since you’re following me, I should give you a name. Hmm… your fur has various mixed colors, so I’ll call you… Snow White.”

The large tabby cat: “???”

It protested softly with a “meow.”.

Lin Ran explained, “Snow White is a princess’s name here!”

The large tabby cat was even more unwilling now, even raising its leg to show that it wasn’t a princess at all.

Lin Ran: “…”

She compromised, “Okay, then I’ll call you Dahua.”

The large tabby cat finally stopped protesting and accepted it silently.

After finishing the canned food, Dahua conscientiously carried the empty can to the hotel’s trash can. It jumped back onto the sofa to sleep, then suddenly howled at the window.

Lin Ran turned her head to look out the window and got goosebumps all over her body.

The mouse was lying on her windowsill outside, looking inside. The window was slippery, and it was struggling to cling on, its tiny body swaying as if it could fall at any moment.

This is the seventeenth floor. If it falls from here, its life probably won’t be spared.

Lin Ran thought that this little mouse should also come from the heavens. With Dahua’s speed, it could have easily caught it, but Dahua didn’t do so, presumably for this reason.

Perhaps in the heavens, Dahua would have eaten it, but now that they’ve both come to the human world, they’re somewhat in the same boat.

She hesitated, but finally opened the window and let it in.

As soon as the mouse entered the room, Dahua snarled at it and pounced to catch it. The mouse was scared and ran around the room, squeaking incessantly.