Chapter 9

Finally, after Bai Chengcheng’s persistent efforts, the exhausted Maine Coon lay on the ground, allowing the cotton ball with a red nose to put on the lion headband.

Once the aloof cool guy put on the lion headband, he instantly turned into a cute little darling. Bai Chengcheng circled around the Maine Coon twice, extremely satisfied with his “work.”

He reached out a paw and nudged the Maine Coon, signaling him to follow.

At this point, the Maine Coon no longer had any desire to resist. He even hoped, with a bit of luck, that his current behavior was for the sake of cooperating with his teammate, so his family shouldn’t make fun of him for it, right?

Bai Chengcheng grabbed a round woven basket, placing several cute headbands of various sizes inside.

Then, he meowed at Maine Coon, signaling for him to take the basket full of headbands and follow him.

Maine Coon, with a limp cat face, followed behind Bai Chengcheng, having completely given up on struggling.

Bai Chengcheng led Maine Coon all the way to the entrance of the “Paw Paw” store’s cat area, and then, he found a prominent spot and crouched down with the Maine Coon.

Next to Maine Coon was Bai Chengcheng, and next to Bai Chengcheng was the basket filled with various cute headbands.

Maine Coon never imagined that Bai Chengcheng had the idea of making him serve customers!

He, of course, couldn’t get up and leave, or else this whiny little creature would launch another round of his “ying ying” attacks at him!

Maine Coon could only stretch out a paw and pull the lion headband down, hoping it would cover his whole face.

The viewers in the livestream never expected the situation to unfold this way.

【At first, I thought they were going to fight. Then I thought Cotton Ball would cry and quit, but I never expected them to actually manage to work things out?】

【Ah, forget Maine Coon, I’d be just as helpless against Cotton Ball’s ‘ying ying ying’ attack.】

【To be honest, even though Cotton Ball’s voice is whiny, it sounds so cute. Every time he cries, I just soften up and give him whatever he wants. I bet Maine Coon is the same.】

【Is no one going to acknowledge Cotton Ball’s effort? He’s really trying his best to sell these things!】

【With Cotton Ball working this hard, there’s no doubt he’ll complete the sales task!】

—

Although the livestream was buzzing with excitement, and Bai Chengcheng now had a decent fanbase, the Paw Paw store, located in the Imperial Center District, was the most upscale beast-mode store in the empire. It was in the center of the Imperial Mall and operated on a membership system.

Even though many viewers wanted to help Bai Chengcheng, not everyone could get in.

However, the store already had a loyal customer base, and the mall itself had heavy foot traffic. So, after being open for more than half an hour, the flow of customers gradually picked up.

Most of the people who could enter the cat area were cat-beastmen or had one at home. A young man walked to the entrance, paused, and then quickly took a few steps back, standing in front of two lucky cat figurines, wide-eyed in shock.

The Maine Coon sat motionless like a cat with a deadpan expression, but the golden fox cat was different.

Bai Chengcheng bounced cheerfully up to the customer, tilting his head, and gave a cute “meow~” in a flirty tone.

Male Customer: “!!!”

The male customer, shocked, exclaimed, “When did Paw Paw store hire models?”

And they’re alive?

And this cute?

“Oh my, I can’t leave without buying something.”

The male customer picked up a rabbit headband from the basket and smiled at Bai Chengcheng, saying, “Are you a model? You’re so cute. Can we add each other on Neural Link?”

Maine Coon: “???”

Bai Chengcheng, excited that the customer had picked up a headband, spun around twice on the spot. However, he didn’t quite understand the Neural Link part, though he did understand the “model” part. He gave a soft, fluffy shake of his head at the male customer, meowing, “Meow~”

No.

The male customer looked slightly disappointed. “Oh, is that not possible?”

What a pity. It was rare to encounter such a small, cute, cat-boy.

Maine Coon, seeing that Cotton Ball had refused the customer, breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, this troublemaking, capricious, “ying ying ying” meowing little flirt wasn’t so foolish as to give his contact information to a strange man on a reality show live stream.

One couldn’t help but admit, Bai Chengcheng’s marketing strategy was quite successful.

In this technologically advanced interstellar world, almost everything—from food and clothing to living arrangements—was managed by AI, and malls were no different. As a result, interstellar beastmen rarely encountered living models in stores.

People could now use AI to try on clothes directly, rendering salespeople and models unnecessary.

All the customers who passed by or entered the store were surprised to see the cool Maine Coon sitting still. They would stop, take pictures, greet them, and occasionally pet the cute, fluffy cats.

Most of the customers in the cat area were cat-beastmen, and they were all friendly with one another. Even the Maine Coon, who usually had a deadpan expression, got petted several times. As for Cotton Ball, who was constantly selling his cuteness to customers, he was practically ^[1]“Getting ‘rua’-ed bald” is a humorous expression used to describe the act of being petted or stroked excessively. “rua” is an onomatopoeic word used in Chinese to … Continue readinggetting “rua”-ed bald from all the attention!

As the flow of customers increased, Bai Chengcheng didn’t stick to selling animal headbands. He suddenly realized that a headband only cost a few hundred starcoins, and he was nowhere near the target of 100,000 starcoins.

However, cat-themed clothing, jewelry, and snacks all cost over a thousand starcoins each.

Especially the cat jewelry—earrings, collars, paw bracelets, tail rings, and so on—those gems on them, whether real or not, were expensive. Each piece could cost thousands, with the cheaper ones still costing several hundred.

Thus, the Maine Coon once again found himself in a difficult situation.

The viewers in the live stream, watching Bai Chengcheng dress up the Maine Coon in increasingly ridiculous outfits, couldn’t help but laugh hysterically:

【Help, this is too funny! This white collar really suits Maine Coon, hahahaha!】

【I think just the collar, headband, and four paw bracelets don’t fully capture Maine Coon’s beauty. Maybe add three tail rings to really match his bully-vibe.】

【Hahaha, oh my god, Cotton Ball is really brave! He’s actually going to make Maine Coon wear a princess dress!】

—

Maine Coon, sitting at the door looking utterly defeated as the welcome cat, had various jewel-encrusted accessories on his paws, tail, and neck.

In the end, he was even made to wear a pink princess dress, the lion headband was removed, and replaced with a diamond-like princess tiara.

Bai Chengcheng still wore his own headband, but he wasn’t just sitting idly by—he was in charge of “attracting customers.”

While customers stopped to take pictures of Maine Coon, he sat on the jewelry counter and charmed them with his cute, flirty behavior.

After a full day of this, Bai Chengcheng’s sales team managed to sell 180,000 starcoins’ worth of products, leaving the store’s manager astonished.

The manager, looking at the sales figures and the number of viewers in the live stream, suddenly saw an opportunity. He immediately dialed the program director, Zhang Song: “Director Zhang, I think we should discuss a deeper collaboration.”

Originally, they had only discussed this one-time cooperation, which was the cats’ first mission. After it was completed, the show would not have any further cooperation with the Paw Paw store.

But now, the Paw Paw store had changed its mind.

He thought that they could invite more cats to come, have them model, and do other things, as this would increase both sales and visibility.

Moreover, he made a mental leap and arranged for someone to contact other beastman celebrities, possibly inviting them to be the “mascots” in the future.

Zhang Song naturally agreed—this would only benefit the production team.

—

The long and tiring day finally came to an end. When the familiar cloud-white flying vehicle came to pick them up, the Maine Coon with the cold, deadpan face let out a deep sigh of relief.

Fortunately, this exhausting day was over. Honestly, as someone well-known in the business world, he had started from the lowest point and worked his way up from the most remote star systems. But never before had any of those days felt as difficult as today.

This little flirt, with his constant “ying ying ying” mewing, was really too clingy.

The Maine Coon hopped onto the flying vehicle, walked straight to the soft cushion by the window, and lay down. As soon as his eyes closed, he started to purr lightly.

He wasn’t physically tired, but mentally, he felt completely drained.

Bai Chengcheng, on the other hand, was physically exhausted, but mentally exhilarated!

Because he had exceeded his sales target, the mall manager was extremely grateful and even gave him a large cat-themed gift package!

A super~~ large package!

He didn’t realize that everyone had a personal terminal to store things. The Maine Coon’s gift was immediately put into his terminal, but the kind Bai Chengcheng thought Maine Coon didn’t have one, so he planned to share half of the package with him when he opened it later!

However, looking at the large package, he felt a bit awkward.

The program staff assumed his personal terminal was full or that he couldn’t wait to see what was inside the gift, so they directly carried the package onto the flying vehicle for him.

Thus, although he was tired, Bai Chengcheng was mentally excited!

As soon as he entered the flying vehicle, he began tearing open the package.

The gift package was a pink box, decorated with various cute cat images and the Paw Paw store logo.

When he opened it, it was filled with dazzling items.

In addition to the white tiger headband he had worn all day, there was also a pink collar that perfectly matched his fur color. There was also a pretty little dress—although he didn’t quite understand why a little dress was included, it wasn’t important.

The size of the dress was for a Maine Coon, so he could only regretfully set it aside.

There were also small, delicate, beautiful cat life accessories, such as massagers and teethers. Bai Chengcheng immediately grabbed them and placed them in front of the Maine Coon.

Maine Coon: “???”

Bai Chengcheng tilted his head and meowed, “Meow meow meow!”

These are yours! The rest are mine!

The rest of the package contained a large box of snacks!

“Meow~”

Bai Chengcheng’s eyes sparkled. With one leap, he pounced into the box, ripped open the packaging, and grabbed a small green ball. It was sweet, tangy, and had a scent that no cat could resist.

He swallowed it whole.

Maine Coon: “!!!”

The Maine Coon was stunned.

Oh no, what did he just see?

The flirt, who kept mewing “ying ying ying,” had just swallowed an entire concentrated catnip candy ball without hesitation?