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Lin Gantang took a seat next to Wen Yanqing to listen.

She came with the mindset of watching a spectacle, curious to see which unfortunate soul would bear the brunt, but the meeting was progressing normally, and after a while Lin Gantang found it somewhat tedious and sneakily took out her phone to check the new video comments.

[Now that I know it’s not just my cat that parties at midnight, I’m relieved.]

[Who is who? All I know is that the one as black as pitch has got to be Blackie (laughing cry).]

[That leap was definitely the boss level move.]

Lin Gantang scrolled through a few comments and saw one below that had sparked a heated discussion.

[The cats at Ximi are really well taken care of, so lively, it just made me think of the cats at the Cat Bookstore, the contrast is clear.]

Ever since Lin Gantang’s Cat Bookstore burned down, the nearby copycat café and bookstore thrived alone, enjoying a surge in customer traffic.

[I’ve been there, their bookstore allows feeding the cats for a fee, leading to overfeeding and the cats getting fatter and fatter.]

[Finally, someone said it, the shop opens for extended hours, the cats are visibly exhausted, even when they are asleep, they get picked up and played with, it looks pitiful.]

[In their eyes, the cats are just tools to make money.]

[At first, I thought the owner of the Cat Bookstore was too laid-back in business, now I realize they were ethical.]

Lin Gantang had never been to the cat café and bookstore, but she had a rough idea of how they operated from what netizens described.

Just like the many cat cafes that had sprung up at the time, the cats were used as a means to attract customers for their benefit, but their health was neglected and their lives disregarded.

Illness, abandonment, death.

In the end, such shops couldn’t sustain their business for long.

Lin Gantang couldn’t change this phenomenon, so when she opened her own bookstore, she always paid careful attention to accommodating the habits of the cats.

[Won’t you do live streams anymore? I miss the cats and the litter-scooper.]

Lin Gantang recognized “Idle Egg” as an old fan and replied, “We will live stream at the first opportunity when the bookstore reopens.”

[We still haven’t seen Joy, and I don’t know if we’ll ever see it again.]

When Joy was mentioned, Lin Gantang missed it too, the gluttonous Scottish Fold, wondering where it was now.

She pulled up Xiao Wan’s number, glanced at Wen Yanqing who was attentively listening to the meeting, and quietly stepped outside to contact Xiao Wan.

“Any news on Joy?” Lin Gantang asked once connected.

Xiao Wan apologetically said, “Miss Lin, so far we haven’t found any trace of Joy.”

“Still nothing?” Lin Gantang felt disappointed, “Could it have strayed far away?”

Xiao Wan hesitated, then finally said, “Miss Lin, we’ve been searching for a while now, and despite putting up rewards everywhere and trying all methods at our disposal, we still haven’t found a single clue. It might be cruel to say, but I must tell you, it’s highly likely Joy died in the fire.”

Lin Gantang was at a loss for words.

“Miss Lin, I’m sorry, I can’t complete this job. I’ll return the deposit to you,” Xiao Wan offered.

“It’s okay,” Lin Gantang said with a downcast expression, “No need to return it; you’ve spent a lot of time and effort searching for Joy—that’s the compensation you deserve.”

After hanging up the phone, Lin Gantang sighed lightly, shook off her dejection, and went back to the study.

Lin Gantang had slept late last night, and had gotten up early in the morning. She hadn’t been sitting next to Wen Yanqing for long before she felt sleepy and leaned over to whisper in Wen Yanqing’s ear, “I’m going to sleep for a bit, remember to wake me up when the meeting’s over.”

Wen Yanqing softly stroked her silky hair with endless gentleness, “Don’t worry, rest easy, I’m here, it’s okay.”