Chapter 15: The Socialite Hunter Meets a Rival

Tang Tang acted like antivirus software, blocking Su Hongdou for an entire day.

“You could be contacting Young Master Xu, that’s fine, but you’re contacting Shen Baizhou? Isn’t that just lowering your value?” Tang Tang snorted.

“But he reached out to me…”

“He wouldn’t not contact you! Don’t worry, if you don’t respond, he has nowhere else to go, right?”

What if he went to Miss HR’s house instead? Su Hongdou thought. She had seen them walk so closely together today! Somehow, she felt a pang of jealousy. The more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Picking up her phone, she said, “No, I have to send him a message.”

Tang Tang quickly pressed her hand down. “Mistress, you’re being foolish!” she thought. I’ve already blocked him, can’t let you find out…

At that moment, a notification pinged. Usually, messages were just ads, so Su Hongdou rarely looked. But right now, flustered and anxious, she picked up her phone—and froze.

Tang Tang froze too. “What is it?”

“Shen Baizhou sent me a photo of a cat… and asked if I liked it,” Su Hongdou said, astonished.

“But why would he send it via text? Don’t we have WeChat?”

“Really? Let me check. Maybe your WeChat’s the problem,” Tang Tang said, pretending. She grabbed the phone, quickly bypassed the friend verification for Shen Baizhou, and pulled him out of the call blacklist. Then, feigning surprise, she said, “WeChat works fine. I even tried blocking him—everything’s fine. Hmm, this cat he sent…” She pursed her lips disdainfully.

“Hongdou, let me tell you—guys using pets as conversation starters? That’s low-level trickery! But… wow, this cat is actually beautiful!”

“It really is gorgeous… I liked it the moment I saw it,” Su Hongdou said, taking the phone.

Suddenly, a thought struck her. Could it be that Shen Baizhou didn’t contact her all day because he was picking out a cat as a surprise? Her eyes widened in astonishment. That was possible!

“Wow!” Tang Tang was shocked at the cat photo too. “This little face… it’s so cute I could cry! Wait, Su Hongdou, what are you doing? Delete the part in your reply that says ‘I really like it, Baizhou, thank you!’”

She snatched the phone and changed the message to: “Not bad.” Then sent it.

“Poise! Poise! Su Daidai, a socialite must maintain poise!” Tang Tang lamented.

Su Hongdou said nothing, staring at the screen without blinking.

A minute later, a new text arrived:

“Oh, then I won’t bring it over for you to pet…”

“No!” Su Hongdou panicked, grabbing the phone and furiously typing: “No no no! I really want to pet it, please let me pet it…”

Tang Tang snatched it again, deleting everything she typed. She changed it to: “Bringing it over is fine.” Then sent the message.

Suddenly, she thought this phrasing sounded a little weak, so she quickly added a follow-up: “Anyway, I’ll be free tonight.”

Three seconds later, Su Hongdou exhaled in relief, grinning happily.

Su Daidai was acting strangely, Tang Tang frowned with concern. Is global warming real? Is our ice queen about to melt?

Tang Tang remembered seeing Shen Baizhou’s photo yesterday. Sure, the guy was good-looking, but she had felt he had the face of a “socialite hunter”—definitely not a good man.

“Socialite hunters” were a group of scumbags who targeted naive, rich young ladies like Su Hongdou… ladies who had never been in a relationship before.

And Shen Baizhou? He suddenly appeared, married Su Hongdou yesterday, insisted on staying over that night, supposedly cooked for her, chatted for hours… and the next day pulled a “beautiful cat” stunt? It couldn’t be more obvious!

No way. Tang Tang glanced at the gleeful Su Hongdou. I absolutely cannot let him stay at Hongdou’s tonight.

Scumbag, trying his schemes on my friend. Tang Tang snorted, thinking about how she’d deal with him…

Meanwhile, the “Great Cat Operation” was a success. Shen Baizhou let out a huge sigh of relief. Looks like tonight he wouldn’t have to meet White Lady and Xiao Qing at the Broken Bridge. He could quietly write The Tuner…

But the cat was still with Old Cao, who wanted 20,000 yuan. Shen Baizhou didn’t have that kind of money, and even if he did, he wouldn’t spend it on a cat…

So he proposed to borrow it—not asking stingy Old Cao, but after dinner, he praised Sister Xiao Cui’s cooking and figure nonstop, and casually brought up:

“Sis, can I borrow your cat for five days?”

Xiao Cui immediately agreed without hesitation. Not many men appreciated her, and Zhuozhuo happened to be the most handsome one. Not only did she agree, she gave him a pile of cat essentials—cat food, litter, toys, a cat backpack, everything. She even added a vacuum-sealed pack of pork:

“This is black pork from Lü County, smells amazing, try it!”

Too much to carry, so Xiao Cui had Old Cao, looking annoyed, get a rolling suitcase and packed everything into it…

So when Shen Baizhou left Old Cao’s house, he had three rolling suitcases… Two given by his aunt: red and orange, and Old Cao’s: yellow—just missing green, cyan, blue, purple, and he’d have a complete set.

Thinking of completing the set, he suddenly pictured the old Chinese cartoon Huluwa—seven suitcases circling him, calling him “grandpa.” He shivered…

He didn’t dare think further. He slung the cat backpack, grabbed the three suitcases, and rushed to the bus stop. Time was tight, every second counted.

Still, he had to take the bus; the subway was too expensive right now.

“You’re just buying one ticket for yourself?” the bus driver frowned. “Three suitcases, a cat, no extra ticket?”

“No.”

“Alright, impressive!” the driver nodded in disbelief. “Someone about to do big things!”

So Shen Baizhou, the time-traveler, pushed three rolling suitcases onto the bus and somehow snagged a seat. His sheer perseverance moved passengers to tears. Many took out their phones to capture this shareable moment.

Shen Baizhou remained outwardly calm, but inside, he was in turmoil. The thought of all the likes and comments on these strangers’ social media made his lips twitch uncontrollably…

Finally, he arrived at Su Hongdou’s neighborhood, Hanhai Manor. He sighed in relief. But once the bus disappeared into the crowd, he realized—he forgot to swipe his card! Not swiping meant paying the full fare. He stood in the wind, feeling his heart break…

Then, the security at the manor questioned him. If Su Hongdou hadn’t repeatedly told them on the phone that he was a friend, not a random vendor, they wouldn’t have let him in.

By the time he reached Su Hongdou’s villa, Shen Baizhou was drenched in sweat.

He thought: “Maybe these unreliable self-driving cars should be paused for now… what the world really needs is self-driving rolling suitcases!”

Exhausted, he pressed the doorbell. No matter what, tonight he was determined to stay and finish writing The Tuner.

Cat, oh cat, it’s all up to you.

He prayed silently: Su Hongdou likes cats, wants to pet—yet the cat only likes me, won’t go to anyone else—so I must reluctantly stay at her place to write. Logical loop closed.

He reviewed his reasoning. Yep, solid.

But to his surprise, the door opened—not by Su Hongdou…

“You must be Shen Baizhou?”

A graceful girl with an oval face sized him up from head to toe, her expression full of disdain.