Chapter 51: 43

Chapter 43

Don't Dislike Mu'er

Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil

 

After the family has left, the restaurant’s mood is rather tense. The other customers aren’t chatting much anymore, and they are all looking at Bai Yao with mixed gazes.

Bai Yao puts Mu Mu’er gently back on the ground, pats him on the head, and whispers, “don’t worry. Go into the kitchen. I’ll be there in a second.”

Then Bai Yao pushes him on the little buttocks when he doesn’t react, and finally, Mu Mu’er enters the kitchen while continuously looking back at him.

After Bai Yao has finished settling the customers outside, he returns to the kitchen to find a human Mu Mu’er, wrapped in one of Bai Yao’s big towels inside, and is blanking out sitting on the single sofa.

He looks at Bai Yao with glassy eyes. His mood is clearly not great.

Bai Yao thinks about cheering him up, but he still has complimentary desserts promised for each customer. Instead, he keeps an eye on Mu Mu’er as often as he can, and makes an extra chocolate crêpe for him.

Whisked eggs with milk, sugar and flour poured into a thin layer on the frying pan. Chocolate ganache is melted in another small stove. Soon, the kitchen smells of chocolate, like they’re in a chocolatier’s.

Bai Yao continues making the crêpe while glancing at Mu Mu’er every so often.

He has his eyes cast down on the ground, fixated. He does lift up his head at the fragrance, looking towards the stoves, with sparkles in his eyes.

After the crêpe is done, Bai Yao puts it on a dish, gives it a heavy dousing of chocolate, and gives it to Mu Mu’er along with a fork, “try it. I just made it myself.”

Mu Mu’er says “thanks Yaoyao” as usual, though he still appears downcast. His eyes widen brightly after he tries it.

He continues taking little bites off the crêpe on his little sofa. After he’s finished, he puts the plate aside, and returns back to hugging his legs.

He’s wholly quiet. Not even the chimes ringing in the wind can attract his attention.

Normally, he’d look up and around him. Since he is always keen to investigate anything shell-like to see if it’s something nice he can eat.

Finally, after the restaurant is closed, and Bai Yao has finished cleaning the kitchen, Mu Mu’er finally says the second sentence for the night.

“Yaoyao,” Mu Mu’er waits until Bai Yao is looking at him to ask, “what is, a ‘useless piece of shit’?”

Mu Mu’er doesn’t understand the phrase, but he knows it’s something bad from the tone. He thought about what it could mean, the whole evening. His head is dizzy, almost, but he still doesn’t understand.

Bai Yao had a feeling Mu Mu’er might remember that out of everything. He crouches down in front of the boy, so they are looking each other level in the eye.

Mu Mu’er doesn’t remember grudges or hatred, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be hurt.

Mu Mu’er has been looking up at him, and now he is looking straight ahead, waiting patiently for Bai Yao to explain.

His eyes are clear; these are a child’s eyes. Bright enough to reflect Bai Yao cleanly within, without the slightest speck of dust.

If possible, Bai Yao wishes Mu Mu’er would never have to learn about such phrases. He wants to protect this boy so much, put him in a soft little bubble, that is resilient against all the spikes and thorns from outside.

It’s not exactly possessiveness, but simply a slightly selfish wish to protect.

Like keeping a small yappy pomeranian. It needs daily walks, but one would still wish it never has to go outside, and can stay within the comforts of home, well-protected at all times.

Although drawing comparisons with simple cats and dogs is downplaying the subtleties of the matter.

Bai Yao can’t help but wonder what Mu Mu’er future would hold in store for him.

He has been living in the oceans for a long time, as a little animal. He doesn’t even know if he can ever reacclimate to human society again. A nineteen year old man ought to be entering university by now, but that is definitely not an option for Mu Mu’er. It is questionable if he even attended a day of high school, not to mention middle school.

This makes Bai Yao’s chest tight. Tight with bitterness. He has difficulty speaking.

In the end, he slowly, and solemnly tells him, “if someone ever uses those words with you, you can bite them. Bite hard, and never let go.”
“If you don’t want to be touched by someone, but they keep touching you anyway, you can bite them. Keep biting them. Don’t worry about anything else,” Bai Yao pauses, and wraps his hand about Mu Mu’er’s finger, “do you understand me?”

Mu Mu’er nods, but he still looks a bit lost.

It hurts when he is bitten. He was bitten by other sea otters before, and he still has marks on his body. So he does not want to bite other people, even if they touch him or speak bad words. He can roar at them, but he doesn’t really want to bite.

You are reading story Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little at novel35.com

Still, he completely trusts Bai Yao.

After nodding, he remembers something, and asks again, “Yaoyao, you did not tell me what ‘useless piece of shit’ means.”

There is a moment that Mu Mu’er feels like this is a secret. Bai Yao is not telling him because you cannot tell other people secrets, but he wants to know, the more it is a secret, the more he wants to know.

He grabs Bai Yao’s finger in turn, and shakes it a little, “can you tell Mu’er?”

Bai Yao can easily come up with some white lie, and tell him ‘useless piece of shit’ means he’s cute, or just tell him it’s something those people randomly said to insult him, but he does not. He does not have the right to.

“Mu’er, do you really want to know?”

Mu Mu’er thinks about it, and nods, “yes.”

Bai Yao does not answer immediately, but asks, “was the crêpe tasty?”

Mu Mu’er looks at the plate still by his side, and nods again and again, adding loudly, “tasty! Yaoyao made tasty food!”

Bai Yao chuckles, and brushes his finger past Mu Mu’er’s lips, cleaning the chocolate away.

“Yaoyao made that for Mu’er,” he says, “if Mu’er isn’t here, Yaoyao cannot make the desserts as tasty anymore. Doesn’t that make Mu’er amazing?”

“Mm~” Mu Mu’er doesn’t understand, and, still slightly hesitant, asks, “did Mu’er, help Yaoyao?”

“Yes, you helped Yaoyao out a lot. Mu’er is always able to help Yaoyao a lot.”

Mu Mu’er puffs his chest out a little at the praise. He happily replies, “you’re welcome, Yaoyao!”

After all that setup, Bai Yao slowly arranges his words to explain to Mu Mu’er, “a ‘useless piece of shit’ means someone who cannot do anything for other people. But Mu Mu’er is helping Yaoyao a lot every day. That means he is wrong.”

Mu Mu’er thinks about it, and gets it, saying, “he was lying!”

“Yes, he was lying.”

Finally understanding what the phrase means, Mu Mu’er smiles happily, revealing parts of his little pointy canines. He continues swinging Bai Yao’s hand from side to side, smiling.

Bai Yao also smiles in turn looking at him. Then he stands up, and ruffles his hair, “hungry yet? I’ll cook.”

Mu Mu’er stands up after him, but he suddenly seems to remember something, and, saddened, does not let Bai Yao’s hand go. Instead, he rushes into Bai Yao’s embrace.

Bai Yao is already captured by the waist now. Mu Mu’er’s head is bumping, brushing against his chin.

“Mu’er is not dirty. Mu’er does not have disease.”
“Yaoyao, please don’t dislike Mu’er.”

The boy still smells a little chocolatey, sweet. He’s a little loaf of fluffy bread freshly baked out of the oven.

Bai Yao does not speak for a long time, but his eyes are sharp and his fists tight. He stares at the coast for a long time, before finally exhaling and putting his big hand on Mu Mu’er’s head again, ruffling more strongly than before, until the hair is all a mess.

“What do you want to eat tonight?”

“Seafood fried rice…” Mu Mu’er looks up at him. The mention of tasty food has chased any sign of sadness in his eyes away.

Mu Mu’er hasn’t nearly had enough of seafood fried rice; Bai Yao has already had enough of cooking it, in turn.

Bai Yao pretends to be deaf, “hmm?”

Mu Mu’er actually believes he didn’t hear, and yells, “seafood fried rice!”

“What was that?”

Mu Mu’er appears confused that Bai Yao couldn’t hear him both times. He furrows his brows, stands on tiptoes, and yells loudly into Bai Yao’s ears.

“Sea! Food! Fried! Rice!”

Bai Yao is almost getting cramps from holding in his laughter.

The boy is far too cute. Cute and bubbly and all the things in between.

You can find story with these keywords: Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little, Read Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little, Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little novel, Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little book, Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little story, Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little full, Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little Latest Chapter