Gu Yuqing thought this was a good opportunity to educate her younger sister.
Since Shi Li had mentioned that her sister would become a hopeless romantic in the future, she should start instilling subtle impressions now.
Educating children should start early, with small things.
On the way to dinner, Gu Yuqing earnestly told her sister, "Little sis, let me tell you, there's not a single good man out there. You must be careful of men, they only approach you if they have something to gain."
Gu Yulan replied, "I understand." She also realized that Shi Li must have been taken away by a boy.
While waiting for the cat to be examined, Shi Li felt bad about standing up the Gu sisters.
So she sent a text to apologize and suggested they study together in the library next time.
[Next time, let's have dinner with you and your sister!]
Seeing that Shi Li mentioned another opportunity to go to the library together, and even offered to treat her to a meal, Gu Yuqing's anger dissipated instantly.
She even wanted to brag about it to Fu Huixing.
Fu Huixing, how can you compare to me? I'm the queen, and you'll always be just a concubine!
Gu Yulan witnessed her sister's rapid change of expression and couldn't help but marvel inwardly: Her mood swings are so fast.
Feather Duster returned with the carrier, "The mother cat is very healthy. I gave her an external deworming treatment."
The tabby cat, presumably having not eaten her fill in a long time, devoured the cat food with great enthusiasm.
Fu Huixing told her to come forward and choose, "If you want to adopt, which kitten do you want?"
"I'll take the mother cat."
[Out of the four cats - one mother and three kittens - she likes me the least]
Hearing this, Fu Huixing's lowered eyelashes trembled slightly, but he only stared at the ground.
The tabby cat, still busy shoveling food, was unaware that she was being coveted by humans and their ulterior motives.
"Then I'll pick one of the kittens to keep her company."
Shi Li thought for a moment and asked, "What do you plan to do with the remaining two kittens I don't choose?"
Feather Duster waved his hand dismissively, "No worries, we've raised so many cats, two more kittens won't make a difference."
Shi Li had more concerns, so she asked, "The kittens are only a few days old. If I take the mother cat away, won't that make it harder for you to care for the kittens in the future? Otherwise, I could take all four cats and adopt them."
Their villa was quite large, with plenty of room to raise a few cats.
Feather Duster didn't think raising two newborn kittens would be much trouble.
Their shop had no customers, so he and his colleagues were very free. They could hand-feed the unweaned kittens. Plus, they had taken in many cats, some of which were mother cats that could help care for the little ones.
Fu Huixing spoke up first, "You can leave all four cats here for now. When the kittens are older and can eat cat food on their own, not needing their mother anymore, you can take them. They'll receive better care here than at your home."
"Moreover, newborn kittens are prone to illness. Here, we have professional veterinarians who can quickly detect any discomfort. That might not be the case at home."
"This pet hospital is near your school. If you want to see the cats, it's quite convenient to drop by after class."
Feather Duster's eyes widened. He had never heard Fu Huixing say so much at once.
He used to think Fu Huixing had a speech impediment, able to go all day without speaking and not feeling uncomfortable, which Feather Duster found incomprehensible.
And when he did speak, it was usually just single words or phrases. Now, seeing him speak normally, he actually sounded quite good.
Shi Li thought his suggestion was excellent. She truly lacked confidence in her ability to properly care for newborn kittens, and having professionals look after them here would put her mind at ease.
She looked at Feather Duster and said, "Alright, I'll trouble you to take care of the cats for this period."
She opened her phone's payment function and asked, "How much should I pay for this time?"
Feather Duster understood now. Despite Fu Huixing's young age and seemingly poor communication skills, a boss was still a boss.
It turned out that business had to be actively sought after. He had thought Fu Huixing had impure motives, but was he actually trying to drum up business? He had misunderstood him earlier.
This was the first money they'd earned in the half-year since opening.
Receiving money for the first time, Feather Duster's actions were very flustered, almost pulling up his own payment code to receive the money.
As for how much to charge, he didn't know that either. They had never thought they would make money, so they hadn't set any fee standards.
He could only say, "Pay whatever you think is appropriate."
Shi Li: ?? [Pay whatever I think is appropriate? First time I've seen a business talk like this]
[How am I supposed to know how much to give?]
[It's like you'd accept it if I gave you one yuan]
Fu Huixing: He really would accept it.
With zero revenue until now, even receiving just one yuan would make all the employees happy for an entire day.
[I hate it when they say 'pay whatever you think is appropriate']
Feather Duster didn't want to ask for too much; he just didn't know how much to charge.
Shi Li thought for a moment and transferred a sum of money, "I'll transfer this much first. If it's not enough, let me know."
When Feather Duster saw the amount, he almost jumped out of his chair.
"That's so much money!"
"You don't need to pay this much."
Feather Duster fumbled to transfer the money back, "You don't need to pay this much, just a symbolic hundred or so is fine."
Although Shi Li didn't know the standard rates at other pet hospitals, letting cats stay for a few weeks for just a hundred yuan? Do you think you're a rural veterinary station?
Even a veterinary station wouldn't be that cheap.
Sometimes people are quite contradictory. They hope expensive things could be dirt cheap, but when faced with dirt-cheap prices, they worry about the quality.
This ridiculous price made Shi Li somewhat concerned. Would this pet hospital sell the kittens? Would they abuse the cats? Would they feed the kittens cheap, poisonous cat food?
Shi Li thought this, so she said half-jokingly and half-probingly,
"With such low fees, you don't need normal operations, huh? Please don't feed the cats poisonous food just to break into the market."
Feather Duster couldn't accept such an accusation. He immediately defended, "That would never happen. All of us colleagues here love cats and dogs. They eat and use the best products available on the market."
"Don't worry about operating costs. Our boss is rich. He pays our salaries and buys medicine and cat food."
"I can see that you're a kind-hearted person, miss, so I'm willing to give you a super discounted price."
"Having an employee like you is truly your boss's good fortune."
Feather Duster thought Shi Li was complimenting him and felt particularly proud.
Having such a good employee like himself was indeed the boss's good fortune.
Now that it was just the three of them, with Feather Duster's boss not present, Shi Li didn't keep her thoughts to herself but spoke them out loud.
"Your boss is really a sucker."
As an employee, instead of trying to create value for the boss, he's taking advantage of the boss.
For Shi Li, as a consumer, the boss was indeed a very kind person.
Feather Duster hadn't expected that Shi Li's previous words weren't praising him.
Actually, if the boss wasn't present, he, as a working man, would definitely agree with calling the boss a sucker.
But now the boss was right in front of them. Although the boss was younger than him and usually didn't put on airs around them,
Even Feather Duster, with his zero emotional intelligence, wouldn't badmouth the boss to his face.
He had a rare moment of emotional intelligence, realizing this was an opportunity to score points in front of the leader.
So he puffed out his chest and said passionately, "My dear lady, you're mistaken. Our boss isn't a sucker, he's just a great philanthropist who loves charity work. He doesn't care about returns... (800 words omitted here)... What a spirit of selfless dedication!"
Fu Huixing listened with twitching lips. Thankfully, Shi Li didn't know that this great philanthropist was him, so he could pretend this had nothing to do with him.
