Chapter 239: Xiao Jiu Buys a House
Chapter 239: Xiao Jiu Buys a House
Jincheng.
Dragging his tired body, he took the last bus back to his rented room from the software park.
After showering in the tiny bathroom and stepping out, the hot water in the electric kettle was ready. He pulled out a bucket of instant noodles from the wardrobe, opened it, and poured hot water to soak them.
Thinking it over, Luo Ang got a sausage and a pack of pickled vegetables from the food carton.
He tore open the wrappers, pushed the sausage and pickled vegetables into the noodle bucket, made sure they soaked well in the hot water, and put the lid back on.
He placed the heavy noodle bucket on his little desk, sat down, and turned on the computer.
Life was not easy.
He had graduated two years ago and worked as a programmer at a company in Jincheng Software Park, living the “996 blessing” life. Most of his hard-earned monthly pay, after what he needed to live, went back home.
During his school years, his family had owed a lot of money. His sister would soon take the big exam for college and they still had to save for her school fees.
He saved every penny he could, so he didn’t have fun hobbies that cost money.
Listening to music online, watching videos, and chatting with his online friends were his biggest chill times.
Beep beep beep!
Right after logging into the messaging app, the message alert cursor blinked quickly.
Luo Ang clicked and saw the group admin of “Big Cat Appreciation Base” had @-ed everyone, with a link to Bilibili, telling the group members to hurry and see it.
Luo Ang slid the mouse, didn’t look at the title clearly, pressed the link, opened Bilibili, and went to the video page.
Huh?
Luo Ang glanced around and caught the UP creator’s ID in the top-right corner. Also, the follower count was dazzling.
So it was an update of Xiao Jiu’s video!
Luo Ang felt a little excited right away.
Luo Ang liked cats very much.
When he was little, his family had kept a calico cat. It loved to cling to people and got along great with Luo Ang. It curled up on his lap and often snuck onto his bed to sleep beside him.
It brought Luo Ang lots of joy.
Sadly, close-by, that girl cat was charmed away by an outside tomcat and never came back.
Luo Ang felt sad for a long time after.
Probably from that time, he had a thing for loving cat creatures in his bones.
He didn’t raise another cat, though, because of his life.
In college, Luo Ang ended up clicking a cat video from a UP creator on Bilibili by chance. He became one of those “cloud cat cuddling” young people and followed lots of those creators online.
It cost no cash and he didn’t have to worry about the cat’s health, feeding, or the smell of cleaning up after it.
Life was hard, but those cute cat videos gave Luo Ang some happy times he hadn’t felt in a long while.
He couldn’t really touch the cats, but the good feeling in his mind chased away work and life stress.
It helped him stay brave and carry on firmly in this city.
Out of all the cat video creators he followed, Xiao Jiu was hands-down his favorite.
That cat named Nine Apertures? It was not just super duper cute, it was also crazy smart.
It could nuzzle and act all lovey-dovey, do acrobatic tricks and fighting moves, flush the toilet on its own, and really understand human talk!
True, after seeing Xiao Jiu’s clips, Luo Ang even thought it might have turned into some kind of magical spirit.
Truth was, in the cat fan group, many folks thought Xiao Jiu wasn’t real but done with fancy computer tricks.
How else could it be so alive with feeling?
As a Xiao Jiu fan, Luo Ang scoffed at that.
Xiao Jiu was the perfect kitty cat. He saw traces of his old cat in Xiao Jiu.
So every time a new video about Xiao Jiu popped up from Gao Shan, Luo Ang never missed liking it, giving coins, and bookmarking it.
He would pull them out to watch again every so often.
The only bummer was how Gao Shan, the big-shot wealthy UP creator, didn’t share videos of Xiao Jiu often.
So far, he had only put up these Xiao Jiu videos: 10 Vlogs exactly.
You couldn’t complain about the quality of these videos, though—all parts like the camera shots, pictures, colors, and cutting were clearly pro-grade.
Now seeing a new video appear, Luo Ang gave a tiny smile.
He didn’t click play right off. Instead, he waited until the hot water soaked up the noodles properly, then held the bowl in his hands while eating and watching.
That’s what made it sweet and fun.
After seeing only to about the one-minute mark, Luo Ang found himself totally dazed.
The video was named “Xiao Jiu Buys a House”.
First off, Luo Ang figured it was Jiu Niang—that super-hot pretty cat lady who’s always in his videos—making a Vlog about her buying Xiao Jiu another cozy cat spot.
Then, shockingly, Xiao Jiu’s new cat bed came in at a whopping 1080 square meters big, in the heart of Huhai! The price jumped up to $250 million!
“Uh-gh!”
A slippery noodle shot out of Luo Ang’s nose and splattered onto the computer screen.
He nearly toppled his noodle bowl.
By that moment, the screen’s floating chat comments had piled up like a storm, blotting out any video view!
“Holy smokes! Holy smokes! Holy smokes!”
“$250 million!!!”
“The cost of booting up this Vlog seems kinda steep.”
“I’m worse off than a cat, crying now!”
“Woo-hoo, Huhai One! That building where celebs keep flocking in!”
“Real deal or fake?”
“Fake setup, I’d say.”
“Even if fake, it’s totally epic!”
“Hey you guys, why the hate toward Lord Gao?”
“Lord Gao can foot this bill, quit it.”
“So cute at Xiao Jiu! So drop-dead gorgeous at Jiu Niang! Must lick my screen looking!”
“Most expensive cat pad ever in history!”
Luo Ang set his noodle bucket aside asap, grabbed tissues to wipe the screen clean, and reset the chat comment view setting.
Then he chowed down on noodles again and stared at the video.
The camera trailed Xiao Jiu tightly as a stunning sales expert guided him showing off that jaw-dropping mansion.
It was styled like a villa with floors three up and down, own indoor lifts, a wrap-around terrace for miles of view, plus sky-high garden and pool outdoors. The whole setup and decor screamed luxury beyond fancy—just the master suite covered nearly 200 square meters.
Sofas in the living room cost millions per set; top-price furniture and gadgets through and through; a faucet above the sink in that master shower scored at half-a-million smackers…
Luo Ang gobbled instant noodles paired with sausages and pickles, happily glued to the show.
All this flew way past things he’d learned—didn’t even stir up dreaming about it—just opened his mind to new spectacles instead.
Now, the full-on mind-blowing shot clearly showed Jiu Niang cradling Xiao Jiu out on the balcony gazing at the Huangpu River’s shorelines!
Over at the finale:
At a long meeting desk, five sales reps from property firms sat dead straight scanning as Xiao Jiu across the wood popped his paw into stamp ink and pressed its paw print flat onto a house sale contract paper.
Meow~
Shouts of clapping all broke out!
The chat messages had turned nuts right then!
Luo Ang gulped down the soggy noodles stuck in his mouth. His heart felt a jumble of feelings, and plain-old laughter sparked inside him oddly.
That fresh video aired at 7 pm. When Luo Ang saw it, the clicks had already cleared the five-million hurdle.
Arrowed messages channeled tens of thousands more.
Plus, the same flick zipped live on Weibo, Kuaivin and other places online.
This pulled eyeballs and buzz from tens of millions of internet folks watching on!