After Transmigrating As The Female Lead Of A Cruel Novel, I Raised a Big Shot Cat - Chapter 4

Upon boarding the plane, the flight attendant informed Ji Qingyue that she had been upgraded to first class.

The cabin was empty, making it feel as though she had booked the entire section for herself. This was a relief, the flight crew was unaware of the recent drama at the airport, and there were no prying eyes or whispering crowds. Under the attendant’s care, Ji Qingyue found the most comfortable seat and fell into a deep sleep.

She was no ordinary person, but compared to the male lead who had been raised under a halo of boundless privilege and prestige, she was significantly outmatched. Had it not been for Bo Shuhan, she might not have even made it out of the airport today.

This massive disparity in status left her feeling deeply uneasy, but she had no immediate solution. For now, she forced herself to sleep, there were hard battles ahead, and she couldn’t afford to let her body break down first.

Just before drifting off, Ji Qingyue thought of that cold, solitary woman standing amidst the crowd.

“Bo Shuhan,” she murmured, her voice trailing off into a broken whisper.

At that same moment, Bo Shuhan looked up into the distance just as a plane streaked across her vision.

“Ji Qingyue.” Bo Shuhan knew the name. It wasn’t because Ji Qingyue had achieved anything extraordinary, but because Bo Shuhan had researched Ye Sishen prior to her return to the country. Seeking a potential collaboration with him, she had looked into his background and discovered the existence of Ji Qingyue.

Bo Shuhan held a very unique status, but her most significant identity was that of a “returned talent” a title not bestowed lightly. Her father held dual citizenship in the US and the UK, he was both a British Earl and a titan of the American fintech industry. While his wealth was immeasurable, it was merely secondary. What the nation truly valued was the high-end technology held within his companies.

This included, but was not limited to, photolithography machines, theories on controllable nuclear fusion, and formulas for various breakthrough medications. Had it not been for the fear that a high-profile return might spark a massive diplomatic conflict between the Dragon Country and other nations, an aircraft carrier would have been dispatched long ago to escort Bo Shuhan home.

However, the Dragon Country preferred stability and so did Bo Shuhan.

Thus, they had established a two-year plan. The secrecy surrounding this project was staggering even those just one level below top leadership were unaware of it. To avoid suspicion during the transition, the authorities and Bo Shuhan conspired to create a “front.”

This was the real reason Bo Shuhan had come to the Dragon Country to seek a partnership with the Ye family. None of the Ye family’s subsidiaries had foreign investment, a factor that perfectly met the requirements for this operation.

She hadn’t expected to encounter such a scene the moment she stepped off the plane.

After careful consideration, Bo Shuhan decided to send an email to Ye Sishen. It wasn’t about reconciliation; rather, in the face of national interest, all personal grievances had to be set aside.

With this in mind, Bo Shuhan instructed her assistant: “Send an email to Ye Sishen. Tell him that I will be protecting Ji Qingyue from now on. In exchange, I won’t let him lose out, in the upcoming Bo family projects, I will give priority to him or his partner companies for all necessary supplies.”

The assistant nodded and began drafting the email. However, Bo Shuhan didn’t realize that her assistant, having grown up abroad, was still somewhat clumsy with the nuances of Chinese. Because “he” and “she” are homophones in spoken Chinese, and having just witnessed the “heroic rescue,” the assistant completely misunderstood. They interpreted Bo Shuhan’s intent to protect Ji Qingyue and not mistreat Ye Sishen as protecting Ji Qingyue and not mistreating her.

Consequently, the assistant’s email read:

“Ji Qingyue is my woman now. I will not mistreat her. Thank you for your ‘generosity.’ Moving forward, I will grant you concessions in the cooperation between our two families.”

When Ye Sishen received this email, he was having dinner with his “White Moonlight,” Lin Shuya.

Under the shimmering crystal chandeliers, Lin Shuya looked exquisite in an elegant, gentle white dress.

“Sishen, it’s been a long time.” Her shy words, combined with the way she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, added a touch of flirtatious warmth to the upscale restaurant.

In the past, Ye Sishen would have been overjoyed. But now, his mind was entirely occupied by Ji Qingyue. Her successful escape and the way she had forced him to lower his head felt like a stinging slap to the face, leaving him seething with rage.

In this story, Ye Sishen was not a traditional, one dimensional CEO. He possessed intelligence and strategy, he could be high and mighty, but he also knew how to bow his head, feign grievance, or even cry. He felt like a real person, which was why this book had been so popular in Ji Qingyue’s original world.

However, perhaps the author felt those small emotional displays diminished his image, so they continuously amplified his need for control and possessiveness to make him more of a “tyrant.”

But too much of a good thing is a defect.

As this book evolved into a real world, all of Ye Sishen’s flaws became exposed. If his imprisonment of her three months ago was the appetizer, his current indifference toward his “White Moonlight” and his obsession with dragging Ji Qingyue back was the dessert.

When he saw the email from Bo Shuhan’s assistant, specifically the phrase “Ji Qingyue is my woman”, he felt as though he were being accused of selling a woman for profit. His fury was ignited instantly. Like a dog whose tail had been stepped on, he erupted in impotent rage.

He slammed his hand onto the table with a loud thud, turning Lin Shuya’s face pale with fright.

Realizing his loss of composure, Ye Sishen offered a brief apology to Lin Shuya and left with his men, leaving her standing there in awkward silence.

Upon leaving, Ye Sishen boarded a private jet directly to Hangzhou.

You think you can stop me from looking? Bo Shuhan, you’re nothing more than trash who couldn’t cut it abroad and crawled back home.

Ji Qingyue was unaware of the ensuing storm. She woke up thirty minutes before landing. Looking out at the clouds through the window, she began to review her plan.

Since Ye Sishen knew she had fled, she had to be even more vigilant.

While the final destination of this flight was Hangzhou, it had a layover in Changzhou. This layover was the crux of Ji Qingyue’s plan.

Her real destination wasn’t Hangzhou at all, it was Shanghai. She chose this flight for two reasons: first, to use Hangzhou as a smokescreen, and second, because Changzhou is very close to Shanghai. Three weeks prior, she had already arranged a private car trip to Shanghai for today. Even if Ye Sishen found out she got off in Changzhou, he wouldn’t know where she went next.

The reason she used Hangzhou as a decoy was because this world differed from her own. In this world, Hangzhou’s cultural environment meant it was saturated with self-media creators. Out of ten beautiful women there, eight were streamers and the other two were retired streamers.

Furthermore, during the year Su Nuannuan (the original host) was with Ye Sishen, his constant psychological manipulation had made her doubt her own professional abilities. She had begun to believe she was just a “bookworm” someone useless except for her beauty. For such a person to survive after leaving Ye Sishen, her only path would be as a “face” streamer.

Combined with the psychological hints Ji Qingyue had dropped over the past two months, Ye Sishen was absolutely convinced she was heading for Hangzhou.

Unfortunately for him, he was destined to come up empty-handed.

By now, Ji Qingyue had already arrived in Shanghai via the pre-arranged car.

She reached the city of ten thousand neon lights. Stepping out onto the street and watching the bustling crowds, she suddenly felt a sense of displacement. She had changed into ordinary long sleeves and trousers, though she was stunningly beautiful, she managed to blend in among the many “urban beauties” of the metropolis.

Sitting by the roadside, she took out her phone and began searching for information on Bo Shuhan.

Predictably, there was nothing on her in the domestic databases. Finally, Ji Qingyue used a VPN to bypass the firewall and found Bo Shuhan’s profile on a prestigious international university forum.

Bo Shuhan: Born in 1995, father French, mother from the Dragon Country, grandfather a British Earl. Then, there was a photo that didn’t even show her face.

In the picture, the woman was dressed in fencing gear. Her features were hidden, leaving only a pair of forest-green eyes reflecting light through the mask like a wolf king about to hunt.

Ji Qingyue chuckled at the dramatic description. After whispering the name a couple of times, a specific gemstone came to her mind: a flawless piece of lake-blue jadeite. It was pure, without a single impurity, like a ripple of spring water, clear and gentle. It seemed like a poor match for that cold, arrogant woman, yet Ji Qingyue felt they would actually suit each other perfectly.

The thought flashed by and vanished. Whether they would ever meet again was unknown, as for giving gifts, that was a matter for the distant future.

For now, she needed to find a place to stay.

Ji Qingyue had some money on her, but not much. The funds came from a risky move she’d made using 10,000 yuan from Su Nuannuan’s account; she had played the markets with leverage, made 50,000, and immediately cashed out, fearing Ye Sishen might be monitoring her accounts.

Even though she had changed her name, gotten a new phone, a new number, and a new bank card, she couldn’t be too careful. That was why she wasn’t planning on going to a hotel tonight. Instead, she looked for an internet cafe or a KTV lounge to crash in for the night.

This was the first day of her escape, the day Ye Sishen’s men would be searching most frantically. So, would it be a smoky internet cafe or a noisy KTV?

While Ji Qingyue was weighing her options, the distant sound of barking dogs and screeching cats erupted, followed by a man’s agonizing howl and the screams of pedestrians.

She couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but she saw a pack of battered, scarred dogs led by a single cat, viciously attacking a man. Most of the dogs were small breeds, the man kicked them away easily, leaving them motionless on the ground. Only a Golden Retriever kept lunging at him, bite after bite.

It was clear the Golden Retriever was professionally trained. It wasn’t aiming for the throat, it was focused entirely on the man’s right hand. The man was wielding a large watermelon knife, swinging it wildly, sending terrified bystanders running and children into fits of crying.

Suddenly, the man lost his footing. The knife clattered to the ground.

In that lightning fast moment, a powerful silhouette lunged upward. The man let out a blood-curdling scream, clutching his eyes as he was dragged to the ground by the Golden Retriever.

Ji Qingyue braced herself for a bloodbath, expecting the dog to kill him. Instead, the Golden Retriever stood up on its hind legs like a human and slammed its front paws down heavily onto the man’s chest. It struck again and again until the man was knocked unconscious.

Once the threat was neutralized, the Golden Retriever seemed to lose all its strength. It collapsed onto the pavement, its aggression completely gone.

At that moment, the black cat limped toward the dog. It seemed heavy with grief, rubbing its head against the dog before turning away without looking back. It was like a lone wolf, its brief pause had only been for a passing moment of beauty.

Watching the cat limp away, Ji Qingyue felt her eyes sting. In her original world, she had owned a black cat just like this, a solitary wanderer who loved the open road.

The Golden Retriever whimpered, looking toward Ji Qingyue. When she looked back, its whimpering became more urgent.

Initially, Ji Qingyue was frightened and wanted to leave. But seeing her fear, the dog struggled to drag its body back two steps, though its innocent eyes never left hers. In that moment, she saw a dog’s plea.

Walking toward a dog that had just been in a violent frenzy was a foolish thing to do, but Ji Qingyue did it anyway. As she approached, the dog tilted its head toward her. She hesitated, but the Golden Retriever remained gentle, its eyes full of supplication.

Gathering her courage, she reached out and touched the dog’s neck. There was a tag. She removed the collar and read the information under the streetlights. Her pupils shrank.

“My name is Cola, and I am a guide dog. My owner’s name is Lele. She and I are bravely practicing going out together lately!”

Recalling the dog’s desperate fury, Ji Qingyue ignored her fear and dialed the number on the tag. A raspy voice answered within seconds. “Hello?”

“Are you Cola’s owner?” Ji Qingyue asked directly.

The man on the other end froze, then suddenly choked up. “I am… Did you find Cola? And… did you see a five or six-year-old child with him?”

Ji Qingyue’s worst fears were confirmed. Looking at the man lying unconscious on the ground, she didn’t know how to break the news. The owner seemed to already know the answer, amidst the sounds of a woman’s piercing wails in the background, the man said painfully, “Please… give me the address.”

Ji Qingyue provided the location, and the police arrived shortly after. Under the flashing lights, the scene was grim, with “bodies” of small dogs scattered around. Even the officers were startled.

Ji Qingyue explained the situation. Upon hearing that the Golden Retriever was a guide dog and that the owner’s child was missing, the police mobilized immediately.

She looked down at Cola, who lay there as if he had stopped breathing. Her gaze was drawn to a trail of bloody “plum blossoms” paw prints leading away from the dog’s head.

She wondered how that cat was doing.

Not wanting to get caught up in the police investigation, Ji Qingyue grabbed her suitcase and turned to leave. Where would she stay tonight?

Under a bridge, then.

As she approached a bridge underpass, she heard the sharp, defensive hiss of a feline. At that moment, she remembered the bloody paw prints by the Golden Retriever’s head.

Ji Qingyue took off her hat and softened her voice, gently calling out, “Kitty, kitty…”

It was pitch black under the bridge, and with the cat being black as well, she couldn’t see a thing. She could only grope around in the dark, following the sound.

Deep in the shadows, Bo Shuhan stopped her intimidating display and poked her head out from a corner.

She seemed to recognize the voice.

Wait… wasn’t Ji Qingyue supposed to be imprisoned by Ye Sishen again?