IGTCDCN chapter 22.1

Kotha: It’s a super long chapter, so I am splitting it in 2 part🫠

Lin Fengran collapsed on the ground, half-closing his eyes, shaking his fur, trying to muster some energy: “Just a heads-up, after turning into a dog, my brain has already degenerated a lot, so don’t expect me to come up with any clever plans.”

Su Jiujiu was speechless: “By your logic, then after I turn into a cat, my brain capacity is even smaller than yours. Doesn’t that make me basically an idiot?”

“I never said that.”

“Lin Fugui!”

“Call me Lin Fengran.” He lazily scratched his head with his hind leg. “Maybe I haven’t been eating well lately. Maybe eating something will make my brain expand a bit?”

Su Jiujiu: “……”

Su Jiujiu turned and walked away: “I’ll take you to get something to eat.”

Lin Fengran slowly stood up: “But you’re not allowed to take me to rummage through the trash, okay?”

A cat and a dog slipped out of her sight while the aunt wasn’t paying attention.

“Where are we going now?”

“Let’s go to the deli.” Su Jiujiu led the way. “I’ll treat you to some roast chicken.”

Lin Fengran followed her suspiciously. “You wouldn’t be taking me there to steal, would you?”

“Of course not!”

Su Jiujiu grew more and more doubtful about his lifestyle. “What do you usually eat?”

“The cheapest dog food, the kind that’s 30 yuan for 5 pounds on Taobao. Supposedly beef-flavored, but it chews like wax.”

For a normal working person, a takeout meal only costs about thirty yuan. Lin Fengran is a decent guy, eating 35 yuan 5 pound dog food every day, and he can still stay laid-back in this situation?

Lin Fengran saw sympathy in her eyes and sighed softly, “Compared to getting slapped by the long aotian male lead and losing teeth, I think dog food isn’t that unbearable.”

Su Jiujiu still felt sorry for him and immediately took him to her favorite deli.

The guy in the deli saw her coming from afar and immediately raised his phone to start recording.

“Dudu is here again? What do you want to eat this time?”

Dudu, familiar with the routine, jumped onto the sign outside the store and, from a distance, shyly pointed one paw at a roast chicken and a pile of duck necks.

“Roast chicken and duck necks, huh? Wait, I’ll pack them for you!”

A beautiful girl buying deli food nearby, surprised, took out her phone to record the interaction between the cat and the shop owner.

“Boss, now even cats can help their owners buy things? How does it pay?”

The guy replied while packing, “It’s famous around here. Wherever it goes, it doesn’t have to pay. We just record a video of it and send it to its owner, and the owner will transfer the money.”

The girl clicked her tongue in amazement, “It won’t eat it by itself, will it?”

The guy handed the packed bag to the cat, “That I don’t know.”

Today there was an extra roast chicken. Su Jiujiu definitely couldn’t carry it by herself, so she immediately gestured toward Lin Fugui. The big Golden Retriever had been eagerly waiting and rushed up to grab the bag, the aroma of the roast chicken wafting straight into his nose.

The guy saw it and exclaimed in surprise, “Hey! How come there’s an accomplice today?”

“Meow!”

Accomplice? That’s a companion!

The young man didn’t understand Su Jiujiu’s displeasure, and together with the girl beside him, they took out their phones and recorded the two of them.

“I have to make sure to record the video clearly, otherwise if this roast chicken gets eaten by your big golden retriever friend, it’ll count as your share.”

The girl beside them, in contrast to the guy, held her phone extremely excitedly: “This is the first time I’ve seen a cat and a dog be friends! The cat even brought the dog out to buy roast chicken! Are you two going on a picnic?”

Su Jiujiu looked at the girl with some reserve, slightly nodded, and then suddenly jumped onto the back of the golden retriever.

“Fugui! Let’s go, we’re going on a picnic!”

Lin Fengran held a roast chicken in his mouth and rolled his eyes: “Get down from there!”

“No, I won’t!”

The cat and dog gradually walked away, meowing and howling back and forth, neither willing to give in.

The girl reluctantly continued recording the backs of her two pets, marveling, ‘
“This is just too cute!”

She reopened the video she had just taken, not even bothering to pick up the cooked food she had chosen, did a simple edit, and shared it on Douyin.

…..

Su Jiujiu, with the big golden retriever, went to her favorite corner. As soon as she opened the bag, Lin Fengran started devouring the roast chicken.

“It smells amazing!” he said through tears, tearing into the chicken in his mouth. “I haven’t eaten food like this in so long!”

Even before they had that detestable aunt, Qingmei, who didn’t have much money, at most would occasionally open a can or give him a big bone; most of the time, he mainly ate dog food.

He originally thought that after Qingmei moved into Long Aotian’s house, her standard of living would improve, but unexpectedly, it was even worse than before.

Su Jiujiu had been eating well recently and wasn’t craving roast chicken, so she just squatted nearby, nibbling on a duck neck and watching Lin Fengran eat.

“If that’s the case, why not think of a way to improve your own life?”

“How should I put it?” Lin Fengran swallowed the chicken before speaking. “According to my current points progress, I only need to endure a few more months to complete the mission and return, which just means eating dog food for a few months. What if I mess things up and even lose the peaceful life I have? What then?”

Even if he exploited the system to become a big golden retriever, avoiding getting slapped in the face like the male supporting role, he still have to stay by the Qingmei’s side and step in whenever the Long Aotian mistreats her.

If it happens too often, will Long Aotian still like it?

After he said that, Su Jiujiu quieted down: “That’s true, being steady and safe can also complete the task, its just a bit longer.”

She began to consider the possibility of lying flat. According to Tan Chen’s current level of favor toward her, as long as she continues to lie flat and act cute for a few more months, she could successfully accumulate ten thousand points.

The biggest risk is just to guard against the malicious female supporting character Song Yawen coming to harm her.

While she was still thinking, Lin Fengran had already devoured the roast chicken at lightning speed, and, still not satisfied, came over to snatch all the duck necks.

“If you really can’t swallow this, or if you want to get revenge the next time the supporting female attacks you, there should be another way.”

Su Jiujiu’s eyes lit up: “What way?”

“Use points to redeem a temporary body. Your system should have told you already—500 points can get you one minute of body effect.”

Su Jiujui: “…It didn’t mention it to me.”

Now it was Lin Fengran’s turn to sympathize with her: “Your system isn’t a newbie, is it? It didn’t even warn you about this?”

The system started playing dead in her mind again, and Su Jiujui gritted her teeth: “It is totally a newbie!”

Yesterday it let her exchange for one minute of a limited-time body, and it even called it a benefit! Now that we’re at this point, it doesn’t even say a word about using points to exchange for a body!

“But if I can avoid using it, I should. 500 points only get me 1 minute. What can I do in 1 minute? It’s expensive and basically useless, just a way to burn points.”

Su Jiujiu did some quick math: finishing a task to return to the real world required 10,000 points, exchanging for a human body needed 5,000 points; exchanging for 1 minute of a human body required 500 points, and the points needed for 10 minutes could get a permanent human body instead! She only had 3,600 points now, which could only get her 7 minutes of a human body—but what could she even do in 7 minutes?

Might as well save up a bit more and go straight for breaking 5,000 points to exchange for a permanent human form. No wonder Lin Fengran didn’t want to spend points recklessly—spending is easy, but saving is really slow!

“Alright, you’re right,” Su Jiujiu sighed, “I’ll focus on saving points then, finish the tasks early and go back sooner.”

Lin Fengran nodded in agreement: “Working hard doesn’t guarantee success, but taking it easy sure brings happiness!”

Su Jiujiu: Strange, somehow I was persuaded.

“Hey, shouldn’t you be heading back?”

Lin Fengran licked his paw, still savoring the taste: “Almost, then I’ll head back first. After all, we’re from the same hometown. If anything comes up, come find me next time.”

“Alright.”

…..

Ever since being ‘enlightened’ by Lin Fugui, Su Jiujiu really did start to see things more clearly.

Last time Song Yawen came over, she managed to scare her off a bit too, which partially satisfied her revenge. For now, she put aside her hatred for this vicious supporting character and focused on racking up points.

Once she gets a few more points, she’ll think things through and figure out how to make the supporting character understand that even cats can’t be bullied casually!

But she wasn’t sure if it was because she had been milking the male lead too often, basically draining him, that recently she hadn’t completed many tasks.

Her points were stuck firmly at 3,600, not moving at all.

At night, Su Jiujiu lay by Tan Chen’s pillow, staring at his face and lost in thought.

Could this be what it feels like to be an old married couple?

Reluctantly, she snuggled into Tan Chen’s arms, rolling around on his chest.

Even so, her points didn’t change at all.

“System, you’ve changed! Before, when I rubbed the male lead’s abs, I could at least complete a daily task, but now I can’t even activate a daily task!”

[That was in the past; what you can’t have is always stirring up trouble. The male lead’s abs get boring if you rub them too much, so you need to develop some new ‘green tea’ behaviors.]

Su Jiujiu couldn’t think of anything, and could only twist her body wildly in Tan Chen’s arms, her four paws constantly clawing at her own head.

“Meow meow meow!”

Surely, after turning into a cat, her brain capacity must have shrunk—every time she tried to come up with a solution, her head would itch!

“In the middle of the night, what are you calling for” A hand grabbed her out of the blanket, stopping her from disturbing the peace.

Tan Chen propped his head up and picked it back up to place by the pillow, his sleepy black eyes staring straight at it.

“You’re lucky, no need to get up early for work tomorrow, full of energy all day long.”

Su Jiujiu felt a bit guilty under his gaze and let out a soft ‘meow.’

“Meow.”

Sorry about that.

The sound of the cat meowing made Tan Chen slightly more alert. He stared at the cat for a while, then suddenly leaned his face closer.

“Why don’t you transform into a human so I can take a look?”

The sudden question startled Su Jiujiu.

“Can’t transform?” The man’s tone was hard to read—dangerous or regretful—but obviously, he still remembered that ‘illusion’ from that day.

Su Jiujiu turned around, showing him her butt.

Tan Chen chuckled lightly and scooped her back into his arms: “Not teasing you, let’s go to sleep.”

Su Jiu didn’t dare to push her luck anymore, so she just obediently stayed and slept with him.

…..

Early the next morning, Su Jiujiu was still asleep when Tan Chen ruthlessly woke her up. “So energetic in the middle of the night, why not come to work with me?”

The man, dressed in a suit and with an abstinent expression, clearly no longer had the tenderness and mystery of last night. With the first ray of morning sunlight, he revealed the ruthlessness of a capitalist.

In front of her was a tablet, with an incredibly complicated spreadsheet on the screen, even paired with a pink Bluetooth keyboard and a pink mouse.

Tan Chen pointed at the spreadsheet on the tablet: “See this? This is your monthly expenses. You have to sort it out before you can get off work.”

Su Jiujiu looked at him in horror, never expecting that even turning into a cat would still have her suffer this capitalist indignity.

What the hell is this???​