Chapter 36: 32.1

Chapter 32.1

Snow Leopards, They Eat Sea Otters

Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil

 

Days come and go. Mu Mu’er has been living with Bai Yao for almost three weeks now.

He did promise Bai Yao not to turn back into a sea otter, but he still often seizes lull periods of time to sneakily transform.

Bai Yao would occasionally find an inexplicable flat piece of idle sea otter somewhere at home. Sometimes, on the bed, just awake. Sometimes, underneath a table in the restaurant. Sometimes, in the bathroom, when Mu Mu’er doesn’t come out after showering, there’d be a sea otter floating in the bathtub.

Whenever Mu Mu’er gets caught, he makes a meek ‘yip,’ covering his eyes with his little paws, while acting dumb.

He really enjoys being his normal form. The whole sea otter would appear placated and pacified from his whiskers to the tip of his flat tail.

Bai Yao, of course, can’t bring himself to scold him. He’d sigh and act like he saw nothing.

To be honest, it’s fine as long as no one sees him transform in the moment. Bai Yao eventually relents, and instead reinforces in him the idea that sentient beastkin are discriminated for showing their animal forms, the same way a human would be if they were wholly naked.

It’s difficult to tell if Mu Mu’er understands. He is definitely listening attentively each time, but who knows if he’d forget everything the next second.

Finally, Bai Yao also gives up on the practice. If Mu Mu’er is happy being himself, who’s he to say anything?

With the restaurant being next to the ocean, it isn’t too strange that there’s a sea otter wandering about every day. The tourists have also seen groups of sea otters down at the beach, so they don’t seem bothered when sometimes Mu Mu’er hasn’t returned upstairs when Bai Yao has already opened the restaurant.

Most customers would look and wave at him, some would take photos of him with their phones.

Bai Yao would worry at first that they would scare Mu Mu’er, and often kept a close eye on him, but the people are more respectful than he gave them credit for, and knew not to casually go touch wild animals.

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Today, there is a dumb sea otter floating on his back in the inflatable pool in the back garden, while Bai Yao is smoking behind a tree in a corner. In his hands is the account book of the restaurant. He’s working out the finances of the restaurant recently.

He’s also smoking far from Mu Mu’er to ensure that he wouldn’t be irritated by the smoke.

The weather report has warned of storm conditions for the next few days. The sun is still shining brightly right now, but just in case, Bai Yao has ordered a few days’ worth of ingredients for now. If there is a storm, he expects there to be few customers, but who knows.

He thought of disposing of the pink inflatable pool after Mu Mu’er has learned to transform into his anthropomorphic form, when it appeared it would see fewer use, but Mu Mu’er seems to really enjoy swimming around inside after turning into a sea otter. Bai Yao ends up keeping it.

The pre-storm days are exceptionally stifling, so Bai Yao also added ice blocks inside the pool to cool. He doesn’t want to end up cooking the poor sea otter in the sun, after all.

Mu Mu’er is playing with the blocks of ice, trying to collect them all on his tummy. They keep sliding down, though.

Almost like if a bear is collecting corn cobs and putting them in its armpit – pick one up, the previous one falls down on the ground. The sea otter has picked up as many ice blocks as ones that have slid back down.

Then, when one block of ice slides and falls into the water at a bad angle, Mu Mu’er has to flip himself to retrieve it, rolling in the water, forgetting the ice already on his tummy, so when he flips back around, he realises his tummy is now empty.

He makes a few upset squeaks, while patting his tummy with his paws. Woe is he.

Then he seems to fall into thought, looking at the block of ice in his paw, and at the blocks of ice floating about, and concludes his block of ice is the most important. He decides to hold it tightly and not move anymore.

After some time, his paws might be cooling a bit much, so Mu Mu’er decides to put the ice in his little pocket.

Satisfied, he puts his paws in front of himself, and closes his eyes to rest.

Though soon enough, a sense that something is wrong wakes him up to check his little pocket under the armpit – the ice has shrunk quite a lot in his pocket, and is now only the size of a ping-pong ball.

Mu Mu’er appears distraught, and holds the little ball of ice with panic in his eyes. Why did the big ice suddenly become small?

Bai Yao is now watching the sea otter like it’s the discovery channel. It’s more relaxing than any movie, and it is best not to disturb the environment. He holds his laid-back cigarette and leans back against the tree, wondering when Mu Mu’er will figure out that ice is something that melts.

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