CH 5

Hiding?

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

Before the mackerel is done steaming, the little sea otter has already put most of the former box of scallops down in his tummy.

Bai Yao feels a pain in his heart. Hundreds of RMB! Though the little sea otter does make it look immensely delicious, and Bai Yao decides against stopping his happy meal time in the end.

He can probably ask him to pay after he’s done. Cash, card, even bank transfers.

The sea otter is clearly enjoying himself, swallowing half-a-palm-sized scallops one after another, while Bai Yao pries open another one for him. His nose is scrunching up and down, and his eyes are narrowed to a line from happiness.

Maybe he’s been truly starving for quite a while, or he has a black hole in his tummy. Over a dozen scallops down the line, the little sea otter seems to fall into thought holding his next scallop. He looks at Bai Yao, then slowly wobbles over to hand it back to him.

Bai Yao’s brows furrow slightly, “… it’s raw.”

The little sea otter then tilts his head at him for a few seconds, before stuffing his paw with the scallop back into his mouth. Bai Yao feels like his eyes are saying ‘then I guess it’s all mine.’

Finally, the sea otter is full. He burps and sits onto the ground, but not for long, as he gets back up to clean up the shells he’s produced, looks around, then stands up before wobbling away to a corner of the restaurant.

Curious, Bai Yao follows to see what he has in mind this time.

He watches the little sea otter pile the empty shells up, one by one, into a neat little stack at the corner of his restaurant, but saves the very first scallop Bai Yao pried open for him, as he lifts up his paw and looks down towards his pocket.

The pocket on his right still has the oyster from before, and the little sea otter puts the shell in his left pocket. After that, he pats it, as if to ensure it is securely lodged within.

Bai Yao doesn’t know what he was expecting. Then he clears his throat and asks, “so, first aid?”

The little sea otter is ruffling through his pockets as Bai Yao spoke, staring at a small piece of rock he produced, like he is wondering when he put that inside. After the question, he looks up at Bai Yao, then saunters his way over, stopping just a few steps in front of him, waiting patiently.

“Let’s go,” Bai Yao moves, and looks behind, then is satisfied when the little sea otter follows along obediently.

Bai Yao lives on the second floor of the restaurant, accessible from the stairs off the side of the restaurant area. The town is small and safe enough that Bai Yao leaves everything unlocked during the day, and only shutters access when he’s asleep at night.

The stairs and the door on top give way to the roomy and bright living room, with light grey carpet, a white beanbag chair that’s soft and fluffy, and two lounge chairs.

To the left is a small dining area with a glass table and an open kitchen, that is almost as well-equipped as the restaurant kitchen downstairs.

On the living room coffee table is an ashtray with a few old butts within. Bai Yao seldom smokes, and he’s been trying to quit smoking for good, but so far he’s only had limited success when the urge doesn’t overtake him.

Out of each window on the second floor is a full view of the boundless ocean. It’s really the same view as the first floor, but the view is even more spectacular upstairs here. It would make a perfect background to an oil painting, perhaps, with glittering waves from the midsummer sun.

Speaking of which, Bai Yao thinks that Qiaohai is the most beautiful during summer, when the azure ocean is also host to many schools of little fishes, visible close to the coast where the water is clean and transparent. Bai Yao has really chosen a picturesque spot to build a restaurant.

From down under the television, Bai Yao produces a first-aid kit from the cabinet, and then walks back to the little sea otter. He retrieves bandages and sanitised cotton swabs from within. Meanwhile, the sea otter appears distracted; fixated on a piece of shell decorating the area just above the shoe rack close to the second floor entrance. Then, when he sees Bai Yao extending his hand to him, he reflexively bares his teeth and backs off a little.

“What now?” Bai Yao asks, imitating it and also baring his teeth.

Perhaps the little sea otter has come to trust Bai Yao a little more when he has mostly only shown him hospitality, he hesitantly allows Bai Yao to touch him.

Sea otters have long and dense fur that covers up their skin entirely, and it is barely visible even when parting the fur away. On the beach, Bai Yao saw that it had a patch of much sparser fur, and assumed there was still a wound. Now he could see that it’s actually healed already, but it is still scarred, and no new fur has grown from that area. It’s become bald.

Poor guy. It’s lucky he didn’t have that scar on his face, or he’d have his appearance ruined.

So the little sea otter isn’t hurt. Bai Yao subconsciously sighs in relief as he puts the first-aid kit back, before observing the slender and thin sea otter more closely.

It appears he has whiter fur above his chest area, which he has generally kept clean and well-groomed. The fur turns to a deeper colour by the waist, and his webbed feet and tail are dark grey in colour.

He actually has a pretty pleasing aesthetic that could almost be described as ‘pretty,’ especially his eyes that resemble sparkly black pearls from the sea. They look clean and crisp, with nothing to hide.

While he lacks much fat everywhere else, his face is at least round and soft-looking. Something has taken Bai Yao over, and he slowly extends his hand towards the whiskers on the side of his face.

He’s always seen the sea otters hanging about on the beach, but has never actually had the curiosity of how their face feels to rub satisfied.

Yet the little sea otter who was quietly looking at him immediately goes into defence mode when he sees Bai Yao extending his hand towards his face, and backs off while baring his canines again.

“No touchy?” Bai Yao retracts his hand before he could bite him, and straightens up, “I don’t get why you’re so hung up on your animal form, really.”

Actually, he thinks he might have heard of a cult or two that are almost fanatically obstinate about using their human forms.

Though he doesn’t have much time to ponder the question, because the clock above the living room sofa shows that it is already half past one in the afternoon. His restaurant opens in less than three hours.

If he doesn’t start the prep work now, he won’t make it on time. He still has a tub full of potatoes, and fresh fish that arrived in the morning that is still sitting unprocessed, and various other things.

“You can leave by the door. Turn back into human if you’re leaving. There are clothes in that wardrobe, just…” then Bai Yao looks up and down the little sea otter, and goes, “tch, just take them. My treat.”

He leaves the room without fully closing the door, thinking the sea otter not exactly talented with opening the door using his paws, and waves a casual goodbye just before going back downstairs, “see you then.”

Bai Yao doesn’t even so much as entertain the idea that he might get robbed wholesale, because he has nothing of value in his house at all. Well, the sofa and bed aren’t cheap, but if that little sea otter can actually somehow tow them away sneakily… He deserves them by that point, to be honest. He’d also be curious to watch a little sea otter dragging furniture across the open street if that happens.