No One Loves Me (GL) - Chapter 20

The boss saw her hang up the phone and was shaking with anger. “Do you know what you’re doing?! According to the rules, I have the right to sue you! You’re an employee, and you’re ruining my store’s reputation!”

“What are you going to sue me with? Did we sign a contract?” Xin Geling asked.

The boss was speechless. He really hadn’t signed a contract with her, and he didn’t expect her to use it against him.

Soon, his eyes rolled, and he threatened, “You don’t want your salary anymore?”

Xin Geling continued to make another phone call. “You didn’t want to pay me after a week of work. You have no credibility with me anymore.”

“Hello,” Xin Geling said to the person on the phone. “I’m an employee at the pet grooming shop. I was fired today for exposing the boss for secretly using a customer’s cat for breeding. I won’t be working here anymore.”

The person on the other end was surprised. “My cat?”

“No,” Xin Geling said. “It’s another customer’s golden shaded cat.”

The customer remembered her. They had briefly interacted during the drop-off, and Xin Geling’s work ethic and attitude were excellent. She was also meticulous and provided daily updates, so when she heard about the secret breeding, she immediately chose to believe her.

“I’m coming over right now.”

If this was true, she would never board her cat at a place like this again.

Using a cat for breeding without her permission was disgusting enough. She couldn’t imagine if the other cat had a disease that would infect her own cat.

Before long, several other pet owners whose pets were being boarded came to the pet grooming shop to demand an explanation.

The most furious of them was the owner of the golden shaded cat that was used for breeding. She came with her boyfriend and started yelling at the boss.

“Are you sick in the head?! What right do you have to secretly use my Jinbao for breeding?!”

“You must be insane for money!”

“My Jinbao is a show-class blue golden shorthair cat, and you used him for breeding?!”

“You’re not getting away with this today!!”

Sweat dripped down the boss’s face. He wanted to interject and explain, but he didn’t know how. “It’s not true. She’s lying. Don’t listen to her…”

“Do you want to check the surveillance footage?” Xin Geling asked.

The woman’s eyes went back and forth between them. “Fine, let’s look at the footage.”

The boss’s scalp tingled. If she really looked at the footage, there would be no way to explain it. He slapped himself in the face. He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid to teach her how to look at the surveillance footage.

He quickly went to stop her. “Wait, wait, wait… How about I compensate you privately?”

“How much?” the woman’s boyfriend asked.

The boss said a number. “One thousand.”

“Ha!” the woman said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. “Are you kidding me? You’re only going to compensate me a thousand for a show-class pet? The breeding rights are worth at least fifteen thousand.”

“You’re too ruthless,” the boss said. “What kind of pet is worth fifteen thousand? It’s just a pet, isn’t it?”

“Do you dare to say that again?” the woman asked.

The boss immediately backed down. “No, no, no. That’s not what I meant. The breeding rights are too expensive. Besides, I can’t even guarantee that my cat was successfully bred. If I just give you fifteen thousand, wouldn’t that be a waste of money?”

The woman sneered. “Didn’t you just say there was no breeding involved?”

The boss: “…”

Just as the boss was feeling overwhelmed, two more customers came forward, demanding an explanation. When they saw the owner of the golden shaded cat arguing loudly, they were even more certain that the boss of this pet grooming shop was secretly breeding cats.

“I won’t be boarding my cat at your place anymore. Please refund the remaining boarding fee!”

One customer said that, and others followed suit. “Refund! Refund!”

“Also, if my cat gets cat flu or ringworm while it’s here, it’s your fault.”

The boss was faced with a chorus of angry customers and couldn’t say a word. He mentally calculated the cost of the compensation. He was done. He had worked for nothing for the past few months. He decided to just give up and instantly changed his attitude. “Do you have any proof?! Are you trying to blackmail me without any evidence?! Go ahead and call the police! Go on!”

Everyone fell silent, stunned by his shamelessness.

“Boss, are you not admitting to this?”

“Refund the money!”

“Refund the money!”

Xin Geling was holding the cat and watching the boss’s scoundrel-like behavior. No one could do anything to him.

She looked at the cat in her hand. As long as the shop was still open, the breeding of cats would continue and could not be stopped.

The argument lasted for almost two hours. There would be no resolution if they kept this up. Everyone was tired of arguing. To save his business and reputation, the boss decided to back down and agreed to refund the remaining boarding fees to everyone. The boarded cats were also taken home.

As for the owner of the golden shaded cat that was used for breeding, she could only get a compensation of two thousand yuan and left indignantly.

Xin Geling watched the boss see off the customers one by one. He then turned around and glared at her, his eyes saying, “You’ll see.”

“Give me the cat!”

Xin Geling glanced at the cat in her hand and had to give it back. After all, it wasn’t her property.

“Pay me my salary,” Xin Geling said coldly, looking at him.

The boss laughed as if he had heard the biggest joke. “You still dare to ask me for your salary?”

“I remember our shop doesn’t have a veterinary license,” Xin Geling said. “Boss, is it okay for you to sell veterinary drugs in private?”

The boss’s face changed slightly. “What veterinary drugs did I sell?! Don’t just make things up.”

“Although you have a partnership with a pet hospital,” Xin Geling said. “I’ve seen you secretly trading veterinary vaccines a few times.”

The boss’s face broke out in a cold sweat. His online store never dared to list any veterinary drugs, let alone vaccines. It wasn’t allowed, but he could do it in private. Most pet owners wouldn’t know it was illegal.

He didn’t expect this employee, who only had a high school education, to know!

The boss’s heart was pounding. He was nervous and flustered, but he tried to remain calm. “Do you have any proof?”

As long as she didn’t have any proof, she couldn’t do anything to him.

But Xin Geling said, “Do you think I didn’t record it on the surveillance footage?”

The boss’s face turned pale. “What do you want? I can give you your salary.”

Xin Geling gestured with her eyes. “Then pay me.”

The boss had no choice but to go to the front desk and pay her her salary. “It’s a total of 1,103. Take it and get out.”

Xin Geling took the money. “If you ever use a female cat’s womb for money again, don’t blame me for being rude.”

The boss narrowed his eyes, sneering at her meddling behavior, but he held back. “Fine. I won’t do it again. Now get out. I wouldn’t dare to hire you again.”

Xin Geling knew that this threat was not very useful. She didn’t have any evidence of him selling veterinary drugs, and she only knew it was against the rules. She could only temporarily intimidate him, so he wouldn’t breed cats openly, but who knew what he would do in private?

This kind of gray-area business, with zero cost and thousands of yuan in profit, was a temptation few people could resist.

“If you do too many things against your conscience, you’ll get your karma.”

Xin Geling left the pet grooming shop with Tangtang after saying those words.

The boss only felt bad luck from her curse. After she left, he looked at his empty display cabinet. A feeling of heartache washed over him.

All five or six of the boarding cats were gone!

He had also lost six or seven thousand yuan in compensation. He was so unlucky today!

Since no one else was coming, the boss decided to close the shop and go out for a drink. Before he left, he saw his tabby cat lying on the ground. He was so angry that he kicked it. “Get out of here! What good are you?!”

The tabby cat hit the display cabinet and fell heavily to the ground, barely alive. But the boss didn’t care and spat on it.

He locked the cat inside, walked through the familiar alley, and headed toward the bar at the end of the alley to drink.

A few hours later, he came out drunk and leaned against the alley wall as he slowly walked back to his apartment.

At that moment, a stray cat suddenly darted out from the shadows and lunged at the boss’s face. The boss felt a sharp pain on his face and yelled, “What the hell?!”

He felt blood coming out of his face and, with a shiver, grabbed the stray cat and threw it to the side. The cat’s claws left a few bloody marks on his arm.

The stray cat glared at him ferociously. The boss’s drunkenness immediately sobered up. He felt a sense of dread and slowly squatted down to pick up a brick, raising it high in the air.

The stray cat saw what he was doing and slowly backed away. It jumped onto a wall and disappeared from sight.

The boss touched the blood on his face. He had a hand full of blood. He was so scared that he dropped the brick and quickly ran home. He looked in the mirror, but there was nothing on his face.

No blood, no scratches.

He quickly looked at his arm, and there were scratches. What was going on with his face? He distinctly remembered being scratched.

Did he drink too much and have a hallucination?

After thinking about it, this was the only explanation that made sense. He was probably scared by what Xin Geling had said in his subconscious.

So unlucky.

After Xin Geling left the pet grooming shop, she sat under the banyan tree where Xie Zhitang had sat before, holding Tangtang and messaging Xie Zhitang.

Thankfully, the boarding for Yuanbao had ended yesterday, and Xie Zhitang had already sent it back to her colleague’s house.

Now, only Tangtang was left. Xie Zhitang was furious when she found out about the boss secretly breeding pets, but since she was still at work, she couldn’t come over right away and could only ask Xin Geling to take care of the kitten.

Xin Geling thought Xie Zhitang would be the one to show up, but a voice saying, “Daughter, why are you here?” made her look up in disbelief.

“Mom, why are you out here?”

Lin Huilan saw the kitten on her lap and was confused. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the shop? Why are you outside? Whose cat is this?”

Xin Geling didn’t know which thing to explain to her first. “This is… a customer’s cat.”

She had wanted to say Xie Zhitang’s, but she knew Lin Huilan still had a prejudice against her, so she chose to be vague.

Lin Huilan didn’t doubt her. “Then why are you outside?”

Xin Geling pursed her lips. “Mom, I exposed the boss today, and I was fired.”

Lin Huilan was shocked. “What happened?”

Xin Geling told her everything, from start to finish.

Lin Huilan immediately cursed the boss. “That person is heartless! He’s even using a cat’s womb to make money!”

However, Lin Huilan didn’t think her daughter being fired was a bad thing, because selling barbecue was more profitable.

She could make a few hundred yuan in one night, which was better than working!

“So what are you going to do with this cat?” Lin Huilan asked.

Xin Geling rubbed the kitten’s head. “I’m waiting for the owner to come and get it.”

Lin Huilan sat down next to her. “Then I’ll wait with you. This kitten is so cute.”

Xin Geling thought she probably couldn’t hide it today. Lin Huilan would definitely find out that she was in contact with Xie Zhitang.

Just as she was about to use Xie Zhitang as a starting point to say good things about her to her mother, her phone rang.

She glanced at the caller ID and saw it was Xie Zhitang. Xin Geling put her phone back in her pocket. “Mom, can you hold the kitten for me?”

“Okay,” Lin Huilan said, taking the cat. “Go ahead and take your call.”

Xin Geling walked a little farther away to answer the phone. “When are you coming?”

“I’ll be there soon,” Xie Zhitang said. “There’s just one more traffic light.”

“My mom is with me,” Xin Geling said.

“Auntie is there too? Does she know the kitten is mine?” Xie Zhitang asked.

“She doesn’t know yet,” Xin Geling said. “But she will when you get here.”

Xie Zhitang fell silent. The traffic light turned green, and she drove over. She parked her car in the distance and looked over. She saw her aunt sitting under the banyan tree, holding the kitten.

She was even using her hands to play with the kitten in a clumsy and cute way.

It seemed… that her aunt didn’t dislike the kitten.

Xie Zhitang suddenly remembered the medical report she had seen yesterday. Her aunt’s bronchitis was not caused by a cat allergy or asthma.

But to be sure, she decided to ask her doctor friend. “Sister, I have to go. I’ll hang up now.”

After hanging up, Xie Zhitang immediately called her doctor friend. “Can someone with non-cat allergy bronchitis have a cat?”

“Generally speaking,” her friend said. “Cat hair can’t be inhaled into the respiratory system. It will be blocked by the hair in the nasal cavity. Yes, they can have a cat.”

After getting a definite answer, Xie Zhitang thanked her friend and immediately called Xin Geling again.

“Hello? Sister, I might have something to do. My house is being renovated. Could you please… continue to take care of the kitten for me?”

Xin Geling held her phone and looked back at her mother. She was silent for a moment. “I’ll ask my mom if she’s willing to bring it home.”