It first jumped back and forth inside the cage in a rage. Seeing that its owner still hadn't let it out, it put on a pitiful act.
Its whiskers twitched, and it pawed at the cage, whimpering softly in a wronged manner. It looked exactly like a little creature that had already admitted its mistake. The owner continued to pretend to be angry.
It cried for a while longer, then pitifully hid itself in a corner of the cage, refusing to come out. The owner was about to open the cage to coax it.
However, Liú Sōng offered his assessment: "It's pretending to be pitiful; it's not genuinely sad at all. It's just testing your reaction."
As soon as Pidan heard this, it lunged towards Liú Sōng from inside the cage. Liú Sōng pulled the owner aside, telling her not to soften her heart or look back. He directly led her to the monitor of the director's team next door, letting her observe Pidan's reaction.
Pidan didn't know that Liú Sōng was the cat trainer hired by its owner. It only knew that a stranger had come into the house, said a few words, and the owner believed everything he said, leaving it in the cage without a second thought.
It frantically slammed against the cage door, more fiercely than it had ever shown to its owner. It made nonsensical noises and rammed the door for a long time before finally collapsing in despair in a corner of the cage.
Only then did Liú Sōng allow the anxious and restless owner to go back.
This time, it hid in the corner of the cage, silent. Its brows were furrowed in a wronged manner, and its whiskers drooped listlessly. It meowed.
"I knew you didn't really like me. You just see me as a substitute. Whatever, whatever. You don't care about me anyway." Liú Sōng asked the owner if she noticed any difference.
The owner shook her head, unable to answer.
Liú Sōng then remembered the guest, Xú Yīng, standing by. Thinking he shouldn't let the guest have no screen time, he asked her as well. Xú Yīng confidently said, "It's truly sad this time."
Liú Sōng asked in surprise, "Did you also find the difference in its whiskers?" Xú Yīng looked at him blankly.
No, I heard it.
Chapter 21
Xú Yīng stood to the side, quietly listening as the cat trainer Liú Sōng analyzed Pidan.
He first asked the owner, "When Pidan first came home, did it have the same temper?"
The owner shook her head. "Not at all. I found Pidan near the high-speed train station. Maybe someone abandoned it because they couldn't take it with them. At that time, it was a bit shy and not very affectionate, but it was a very well-behaved and timid little cat."
Liú Sōng analyzed for the owner that Pidan likely had severe insecurity due to being abandoned before. Such cats usually exhibit two behaviors: one is to be more clingy than other cats, and the other is to distrust humans, becoming rebellious and disobedient, deliberately acting contrary to the owner's wishes.
But Pidan was peculiar; it switched seamlessly between the two states.
He guessed that when Pidan first arrived, it was probably more inclined towards the first type, quickly becoming clingy after sensing its new owner's affection. However, perhaps its previous owner had also treated it very well, only to abandon it at the high-speed train station. This made it want to test whether the owner truly liked it.
"It started with minor mischief, causing small troubles. You probably thought it was normal and didn't pay much attention, but it saw everything in your expressions and actions."
Liú Sōng's expression was animated as he tilted his head, mimicking a cat to show the owner Pidan's psychological activity. "Yesterday I pushed Mom's cup off the table, and she didn't get angry. So, it was okay to do that? Today I chewed on Mom's mattress, and she's still not angry. Is it okay to do that too?"
The owner's expression began to change, clearly recalling something.
Liú Sōng pressed on. "Pidan is very smart. Through its daily actions, it continuously tested your bottom line and tolerance. But because you tolerated its tests, even if you stopped it, you couldn't bring yourself to get angry with it, so it started pushing its luck and throwing tantrums."
"At this point, you began to stop it, scold it, and punish it. It then became unaccustomed, anxious, and uneasy."
"In its heart, it thought: Didn't I get away with everything before? Why is Mom suddenly cold towards me now?"
Liú Sōng vividly described: "Its thoughts have shifted from the initial 'This is not allowed, that is not allowed' after being stopped, to an angry 'Why is this allowed and that is not allowed!'"
"This thought process increased its stress. It constantly needed to confirm your attitude towards it, and its temper became agitated and irritable."
The owner suddenly understood.
Liú Sōng confidently began to show the owner how to set clear boundaries for Pidan when it misbehaved. This included refusing its advances, confining it, ignoring its tantrums and pitiful acts, and various other methods to let Pidan know that the owner had a clear bottom line and would not tolerate its bad temper indefinitely. Then, when it showed improvement, he would pet and praise it.
The owner needed to learn to be indifferent, to refuse, to let it slowly learn patience and restraint, and become a well-behaved, obedient cat.
Xú Yīng had been captivated listening to the initial analysis, feeling as if she were listening to a kindergarten teacher tell a story, and she greatly admired him. But upon hearing this part, her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Wait, something was wrong.
If Pidan was genuinely just cunning and wanted to test the owner's boundaries by constantly causing trouble, then this approach might just turn a naughty cat into a good cat. But Pidan wasn't like that!
Pidan clearly believed that the owner saw it as a substitute for the previous cat and was acting out to figure out if the owner's tolerance and indulgence were because of the former cat or Pidan itself.
This direction would be bad; Pidan would be heartbroken.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but then remembered the purpose for which the Demon Bureau had sent her to participate in this program, and she closed her mouth.
The owner enthusiastically began training Pidan under the cat trainer's guidance. As soon as Pidan came out and the trainer didn't let it approach, and it threw a tantrum at him, it would be indifferently put back into the cage. The owner would watch it act crazy and pitiful with a blank expression; after letting it out, they would try again, and then cage it again.
Pidan began to panic.
During the last time it was let out, it even hesitated, remaining inside the cage, afraid to step out further. Its gaze towards the owner became hesitant and unfamiliar.
It was like a protagonist in a substitute romance novel who had long suspected they were a substitute but refused to admit the truth, deceiving themselves, only to have the "scummy girlfriend" finally reveal her cold, true face. Utterly heartbroken and disbelieving, about to feel despair greater than death.
"Meow."
Pidan's mournful question: "So, you're no longer willing to tolerate me?"
Meanwhile, Liú Sōng was still encouragingly praising the owner. "Well done. See, it's starting to think now. It's thinking about why you've changed, why you're not pampering it anymore? What does it need to do to make you gentle with it again..."
The owner nodded obediently, completely convinced.
Xú Yīng closed her eyes, feeling as if her conscience ached. "Terrible, too terrible. This misunderstanding is huge. Teacher Liú, do you know you're acting very much like a villain right now?"
"Xú Yīng, come here, you try it," Liú Sōng called Xú Yīng over again, enthusiastically giving her more screen time. "Pet Pidan and see if it still bites."
Xú Yīng touched it with a blank expression.
Pidan remained still, only staring mournfully at the owner.
"See, isn't it much better now? Once you grasp the method, the results are immediate, right?" After Liú Sōng and the owner happily high-fived, he raised his hand to Xú Yīng, inviting her to join in the celebration. Xú Yīng numbly forced a smile and high-fived him back.
Liú Sōng then looked down at Pidan and suddenly clicked his tongue. "Why does this little guy look unhappy?" Xú Yīng almost burst into tears. "Teacher Liú, you finally noticed."
She quickly chimed in, "Pidan really doesn't seem right. It hasn't even looked at the owner since coming out. It feels like it's sad."
But in the next second, Liú Sōng waved his hand again. "It's normal to not adapt during the first training session. You must reinforce it repeatedly in the coming days and not give up halfway. Otherwise, if it sees through you, these tricks won't fool it anymore."
Xú Yīng: "Tired. Let's end it all."
After speaking, Liú Sōng, following the script, asked Xú Yīng the question that the director had emphasized with bold, enlarged font: "I've watched your streams. I can observe some things through their reactions, but I don't understand many animals and can't tell. So, do you truly understand animal language?"
Xú Yīng perked up to complete the task. "Of course not, hahaha. We're all the same, guessing through observation and past experience."
"My father is a well-known veterinarian in our area. I've been interacting with all sorts of animals with him since I was young. After spending a long time together, you naturally learn to observe... As for the livestreams, as everyone knows, it's for the sake of show effects, to attract attention."
Liú Sōng and Pidan's owner smiled knowingly.
Xú Yīng took the opportunity to bring up the cat that was causing Pidan's emotional distress.
Xú Yīng said to the owner, "I also have a cat at home, and it's very old. I don't know when it will leave. Losing your previous cat must have been very painful, right? Is your indulgence towards Pidan a form of transference?"
She saw Pidan's ears twitch.
The owner sighed.
She said, "Xiǎo Bái, my previous cat, ran out when my dad didn't close the door properly while visiting. She got lost and was eventually hit by a car. I used to have nightmares every day, dreaming that she asked me why I didn't install a guardrail by the door, why I didn't notice she was gone in time, why I didn't find her hiding in the roadside greenery."
"I can't blame my dad either; he didn't do it on purpose, and he feels very guilty. He wanted to bring back a cat from my hometown, a kitten born to Xiǎo Bái's littermate, saying it looked exactly like Xiǎo Bái. I refused."
The owner said that at that time, she had planned never to own another cat again.
Because she felt her carelessness and irresponsibility had caused Xiǎo Bái's death. She didn't want to cause another cat's death.
She lived in a daze, waking up to cry, then staring blankly. Passing by greenery, she would have auditory hallucinations of cats meowing and couldn't help but look. It was then that she found Pidan, abandoned outside the high-speed train station.
Xú Yīng saw Pidan nervously shift.
"It felt no bigger than my palm, placed in a cardboard box. I didn't know how long it had been starving. People near the high-speed train station are always in a hurry; no one would notice movement in the green belt. If I hadn't taken it home, it surely wouldn't have survived," the owner recalled.
She walked around the area for several laps that day and finally decided to take Pidan home.
"I originally planned to give it away after a few days, but I looked for so many people, and I was worried they wouldn't be reliable. If I don't trust myself, how can I entrust it to others?"
"It was during that time that I gradually began to think, would it be better to send it to someone else's home where it might be abused or go hungry, or keep it with me? At least I would try my best to take care of it."
It was also around that time that she started to think she had to have confidence in herself because Pidan needed her to keep it. Pidan had saved her, so she had to be responsible for Pidan.
The owner said to Xú Yīng, "So, strictly speaking, it's not transference. It's Pidan saving me."
Pidan, who had been nestled nearby, looked up, its eyes shining as it looked at her.
Then, it heard the owner give another wry smile. "Originally, I did gain some confidence in myself and was slowly moving on from the incident with Xiǎo Bái. But Pidan, such a well-behaved kitten, has become like this because of me. I've started doubting whether I'm suitable to own a cat again."
"I've been thinking about Xiǎo Bái a lot lately. If my friend hadn't suggested I try 'Cat Whisperer,' I wouldn't know what to do with it."
Pidan: !!!
"Meow!"
Pidan's eyes widened in shock. So, the reason the owner had been murmuring about that Xiǎo Bái while looking at her phone gallery recently was because Pidan made her doubt her life?
Was it its own fault?
After the filming ended, Xú Yīng glanced at this overly imaginative, drama-prone little darling. She hoped that after resolving the misunderstanding with its owner, it could live harmoniously and happily.
After finishing the recording, Xú Yīng began thinking about Ā Dàn and Ā Huáng at home. She changed her high-speed train ticket for the next afternoon to the morning and, under the scorching midday sun of 38 degrees Celsius, returned home tiredly.
As soon as she sat down and had a few sips of water, petting her cats and dogs, it was time for her livestream again. She opened the livestream room in advance and chatted with the danmaku for a while.
"What have you been up to recently? I was working outside yesterday, and the results of that work should be visible tonight. It's a surprise, I'll keep it secret for now."
"Can you talk about ring-tailed lemurs? Are they really smelly?" Xú Yīng said, amused, "Yes, they are smelly."
"What are you streaming today? I don't know yet." She checked the time. "If everyone is in a hurry, we can start connecting with today's first guest now."
[Okay!]
[Let's start, let's start, everyone is here.]
As soon as Xú Yīng finished speaking, a connection request immediately popped up in the livestream room, as if someone had been waiting in the room. As soon as Xú Yīng connected, she heard noisy and bustling vendor calls in the background.
"One yuan, one yuan, little goldfish all one yuan!"
"Just born Huskies, not purebred, money-back guarantee!"
"Rabbits, rabbits, pearl rabbits."
The girl with the ID name "Round-eared Tutu" fumbled to put on her headphones. The outside noise finally lessened considerably. The livestream camera could also see that she was in a large pet market.
Round-eared Tutu said softly, "I won't show my face. Is it okay if I show you the camera view from my perspective?"
[Yes!]
[Immersive tour of a fluffy market? Yay!]
Xú Yīng: "It's fine. What question do you have?"
Round-eared Tutu walked through the crowded people, saying with some anticipation: "I want to ask the streamer to help me choose a blue budgerigar!"
[Another new service!]
[Just got a great idea. Next time, I'll try reposting and if I win, I'll ask the streamer to help choose a pet!]
Xú Yīng couldn't help but smile. She asked, "Do you have any requirements? What kind of little budgie are you looking for?"
Round-eared Tutu thought as she walked. "I'm a full-time artist now. I stay at home alone every day and am very lonely, with no one to talk to. Besides that, I'm happy being alone, so I don't want to find a roommate or move back in with my parents."
"But I really, really want to talk. I'm naturally a very introverted person, quite socially anxious. But now that I don't go out often and haven't chatted with anyone in a long time, my social anxiety has improved. On the way here, I chatted with the taxi driver the whole time."
She continued chattering, "So, I want to find a clingy, lively blue budgerigar. It doesn't matter if it can learn to talk, as long as it's willing to listen to me talk and play with me at home."
[I can tell this sister is really desperate hahaha.]
[What a cute chatterbox.]
[Why did you say so much hahaha]
Round-eared Tutu glanced at the danmaku and stopped, embarrassed, then couldn't help but add, "I can spend all day at home with it, so it's okay if it has a lot of energy."
"Okay, no problem," Xú Yīng nodded.
Round-eared Tutu weaved through the stalls and finally reached the bird stand, only to find it surrounded by three layers of people. A man with a strong voice could be heard clearly from inside: "This parrot seller is a swindler! No one should buy from him!"
Another voice retorted without yielding: "Everyone be careful! This swindler actually switched the bird he sold me and is trying to get a full refund for a parrot that belongs to someone else!"
"Nonsense, you switched the parrot I bought from you!"
"Ridiculous. All my customers watched me put the bird they chose into the cage with their own eyes!"
"You scumbag xxx swindler, may you die a horrible death!"
"Whoever scams gets their ancestral grave dug up!"
[Wow, we've stumbled upon a fight!]
[Tutu, hurry and squeeze forward! Ah, you're killing me, what are they arguing about? Let me hear!]
[Hurry and squeeze forward!]
The two voices argued back and forth, and the crowd of onlookers grew. Round-eared Tutu, urged by the viewers in the livestream, squeezed with difficulty from the outer edge to the inner circle.
A man in his sixties or seventies, with his hands behind his back, was arguing fiercely with the parrot seller behind the stall. Both sides were shouting with red faces, and it was impossible to tell which one showed even a tiny hint of guilt.
On a nearby cage stood a blue budgerigar, small and perched on it. Its belly was a fluffy sky blue, and its back had gray-black tiger stripes. It was tilting its head, watching the two people's argument with wide eyes.
After listening for a long time, and combining it with the discussions of the surrounding aunts and uncles, the viewers and Round-eared Tutu finally pieced together what they were arguing about.
It was all about that blue budgerigar that was watching the commotion.
The Old Man claimed that he had bought a talking blue budgerigar from this parrot seller last week for an expensive price of 150 yuan. At that time, the shop owner had even demonstrated the few phrases the parrot knew: "Congratulations and be prosperous," "Hello," and "Welcome."
Upon returning home, he discovered that the blue budgerigar he brought home couldn't talk at all.
Even when he followed the seller's instructions, speaking a phrase before feeding, the parrot still wouldn't talk. Finally, after starving it for two whole days, the Old Man, afraid the parrot would die and there would be no proof, began feeding it.
The Old Man's hand trembled with anger. "He's definitely a swindler, a repeat offender. He secretly hid the parrot I chose and swapped it with one that couldn't talk, giving me an ordinary parrot that should have sold for 60 yuan for a pair!"
"You're spouting nonsense!"
"You're the one spouting nonsense!" the parrot seller jumped up in anger. "I think you're deliberately trying to extort me. It took me half a month to teach that parrot. I was willing to sell it to you because I saw you were knowledgeable and knew how to care for birds. Otherwise, if I kept it at my stall, how many buyers would it attract every day!"
He pointed at the Old Man and cursed, "And you, you're hilarious. You actually come here and demand a refund of 150 yuan for a parrot that can't talk. Are you an old swindler trying to scam your burial money?"
"Who are you cursing?"
"Who says swindlers, what about it?"