Chapter 41.1 – Cute creatures are all interconnected.

Proofreader: Lore

Half of Xia Rong’s face was still under the bedding as he stared at the cat that was rubbing its face again and again on the WeChat page of his phone. A good while later, he couldn’t help but start laughing.

Having just covertly confessed during the daytime, yet now at night the other tries to act cute to soften his attitude. Even if the other’s a kitty, he’s definitely a scheming kitty.

However, after going into a daze for a while on this page, in the end, Xia Rong still chose not to reply.

Su Chi also didn’t send another message. Xia Rong looked at the time. It was now 9:30 PM, still about half an hour before the second episode of 《Liang Ou》 would be broadcasted. He rolled around on the bed with his phone in hand, all the way until his drowsiness completely disappeared. He then got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. When he came out, he turned on the hotel room’s TV.

Too lazy to use the towel to continue drying, Xia Rong directly took the hairdryer and sat on the bed. As a result, even after blowing for a good while, the ends of his hair were still dripping wet. He took a look around, then placed the running hairdryer down on the bed and *poof¹The onomatopoeia was actually *bang*…* turned himself into a kitten. While facing the warm wind, he shook and shook, which soon dried all the fur all over his body.

Xia Rong then changed back into human form. He put away the hairdryer and went to give his hair a ruffle. As expected, it felt very clean and refreshing. Xia Rong simply felt that he was really too resourceful.

Channel Orange was currently showing an idol drama that was produced in-house. Although the actors and actresses were very beautiful, the use of lighting was simply just terrible – able to make a beautiful young man who could be chased and called “oppa” in South Korea into looking like an old uncle.

Xia Rong took a few looks at it, then no longer wanted to watch anymore and picked up his phone to browse Weibo. At this time, he directly logged onto “Xia Rong V” because the program had previously requested the guests to promote the program with leading topics and to remind the fans not to forget to watch before the broadcast each week. So he planned to casually look through the main page first to draw some inspiration before then conveniently sending out a microblog to publicize.

The first broadcast of 《Liang Ou》’s pilot episode got a 1.9 rating²For those who aren’t familiar (like me), the TV rating is the percentage of a certain audience group that had watched the relevant episode. on Orange TV, while the number of online viewing even exceeded 100 million in one day. Although nowadays online viewing statistics generally get seriously inflated, the 《Liang Ou》’s broadcast had indeed attracted a wave of attention. On the night of the first episode, in addition to the two topics – #Xia Rong Snatches Cat# and #What’s the breed of Su Chi’s cat# – that occupied the first and second place on the hot search list, topics as #Zhang Xin square dance#, #Ye Mang, an old cadre#, #Who will save Kang Yifan’s jokes#, and #Gao Junming# also appeared one after another on the front page of the hot searches.

Though the audience rating of the first episode couldn’t be considered explosive – given that at present, variety shows were becoming more and more routine and patterned, where each was becoming more and more saturated by big shots, and that the previously booming popularity of variety shows was on the decline as a whole – this current result was already impressive. The general evaluation by the audience was “relaxing, funny, healing, suitable for watching in common leisure, but also get to see a variety of flourishing beauty, pleasing to the eye.”

Under the guidance of the program group’s intentional marketing, many talented jokesters also started to make gags, wrote jokes, and edit out humorous gifs in various styles, allowing the popularity of the program to spread even farther. Among them, “the biggest face-con dog feast of this century” has even been forwarded by tens of thousands. And so some melon-seed eaters who didn’t know the truth even began to say, “I feel that the me who hasn’t watched 《Liang Shangbo and Romeo》 has already become disjointed from the reality of the current world.”

Thus under such fermentation, before 《Liang Shanbo and Romeo》’s second episode had even aired, the show had already climbed up to number one on the hot search list much earlier in the day. Xia Rong tapped open his notifications, and from a glance, he could see that there was still some residue from the last episode of 《Liang Ou》 that had yet to dissipate—

【This little brother’s face is just too much in line with my aesthetic ah. If it wasn’t for the cat snatching incident, I probably would have taken you as the wall art for the head of my bed!】

【+1 In fact, I also can understand the gamesmanship that the fans have been saying la. It’s just that, given that it was only the first episode and you aren’t familiar with Su Chi yet, for you to just grab someone else’s things, it’s not very good for impressions.】

【OP has hit the heart of the matter! If it was just the squabbling between close friends, I definitely wouldn’t feel as if anything was the matter. The main thing is that you two only started following each other last month and during the program, only maintained weak interactions on Weibo, emmmmm… So I am retaining my reservations.】

【Ah, such two people good-looking, how suitable they are for CP~ Unfortunately, most of these situations are where it’s difficult for both to coexist, so I can only think about it in my dreams.】

…

With the week’s worth of time for things to settle, the audience’s opinions on this matter had become much more moderate and, basically, had all stabilized on this point of view: Xia Rong didn’t really do anything exceptionally wrong, and it wasn’t to the point where he needed to be condemned by the public in speech and writing. It was just that, under the premise that he wasn’t that familiar with the other person, yet he just went and grabbed the other’s things, this made people all feel more or less uncomfortable.

Xia Rong held up his cheek with one hand while he scrolled through these comments with his left hand and sighed almost imperceptibly.

As a matter of fact, having been popular for so long, this was no longer the first day or two that he has been the protagonist of such negative discussions; and the damage the magical editing of the first episode of 《Liang Ou》 created for him could only grow progressively more limited. It was just that, at this sort of time, he suddenly missed that tactile feeling under his palm – substantial and warm – from when a certain British Shorthair would fawningly jump onto his knee.

After leaving the comments, Xia Rong originally planned to send out a microblog, but when he actually returned to the main page, it automatically refreshed.

Then, he noticed the microblog that was displayed as having been sent out ‘just now’.

【Su Chi: Cute creatures are all always connected. #Liang Shanbo and Romeo# #Su Chi Liang Shanbo and Romeo# [picture] [picture] [picture]】

He sent out three pictures. The first two were from back during the recording of the first episode. One of Su Chi with a slight smile with the little fold-ears in his arms in front of the camera lens, while there was also one of the little folded-ears, very cleverly, just lying still while blinking its large eyes. As for the third… It was of Su Chi sitting on a bed with a little orange cat sitting in his arms. He was holding a phone up with one of his hands to take the selfie while there was another [phone] on his knee. The little orange cat was keeping its hold on his knee while it stretched out a curious claw towards the phone.

The comments underneath were stunned by the cuteness:

【Sniff, sniff, sniff³This is an internet slang term often used by cat owners/lovers to describe their love for cats. More details.!】

【Ahhhh, both the two kitties are so cute!】

【Is the third one a sidelight of last time’s hand-slip event? [joy] This little orange cat that’s being raised by Susu’s just too cute, right? [joy]】

【That’s right, that’s right! All cute creatures are interlinked! There are no not-cute kitties in this world!】

…

However, that second one isn’t a kitty but a person ah.

YinYue has something to say:

Still looking for an editor~

The previous chapters have all been updated with either the edited/PR-ed versions (everything up to and including Ch. 38) or the PR-ed version (Ch. 39 onward up to here). Do take a look if you found anything confusing the first time around. Remember you can always ask for clarifications in the comments~

• 1
  The onomatopoeia was actually *bang*… ↩︎
• 2
  For those who aren’t familiar (like me), the TV rating is the percentage of a certain audience group that had watched the relevant episode. ↩︎
• 3
  This is an internet slang term often used by cat owners/lovers to describe their love for cats. More details. ↩︎