Future Pet Shop

Chapter 97: Hah’Er Secretly Watches a Movie

"Ngh!" Seeing someone approach, Hah’Er zipped behind the hillside. He peeked his head out, growling in protest as he scrambled to put on the clothes he’d hidden there.

"Okay, okay, we won’t peek. Take your time getting dressed. No rush, no rush," Shen Yibin quickly comforted him, laughing to himself. ’This little guy has no idea we already saw everything, does he?’

It didn’t take long for Hah’Er to finish getting dressed. He scrambled over to Shen Yibin’s side. It seemed that despite being apart for only a moment, he already missed him.

’Hey, this isn’t right. Why aren’t you the least bit attached to all those lady pandas?’ Shen Yibin facepalmed. ’I brought you all this way just to find you a match. Can you please not be so dense?’

"Ngh! Ngh!" But Hah’Er hadn’t grasped Shen Yibin’s meaning at all. He pounded on the small gate with his front paws, seemingly desperate to get out.

’Sigh, you win.’ Shen Yibin turned around and asked, "Professor Wu Gui, how about we let Hah’Er out first?"

"Alright. The other pandas should be heading back to rest anyway. Let’s try again tomorrow," Professor Wu Gui said with a sigh. He then had someone open the small gate and let Hah’Er out. The other assistants and students entered the play area, planning to take the female pandas back to their enclosures. Today’s matchmaking session had thus ended in failure.

"Sigh, look how filthy you are." Shen Yibin plucked a few blades of grass from Hah’Er’s round ears and brushed the grass clippings and dirt off his fur. Right now, Hah’Er was the spitting image of a naughty child, completely lacking his usual clean and docile demeanor.

"Mr. Shen, your tablet." Professor Wu Gui returned the tablet he had just borrowed to Shen Yibin, giving him a wink. "You just arrived today and have traveled so far, you must be tired. I’ll have someone take you to the hotel to rest. Tomorrow, I’ll show you and Hah’Er around some more."

They had already grabbed a quick bite in the monitoring room, and Professor Wu was preoccupied with Hah’Er’s earlier performance. Besides, he was counting on Shen Yibin to help "get Hah’Er’s engine started" that night, so he had to postpone his plans to treat Shen Yibin to a grand dinner for now.

"Okay, Professor Wu, you head back first. We’ll see you tomorrow." Shen Yibin nodded slightly, showing he understood. Then, leading Hah’Er, he followed the staff member toward the hotel located within the base.

Professor Wu Gui had prepared a suite for them. It looked to be the best room in the hotel. To accommodate Hah’Er, special adjustments had been made to the room: the large bed in the bedroom was replaced with two small beds.

"Hah’Er, you pick one first, then go take a bath. I’ll run the water for you," Shen Yibin said, pointing to the two small beds. He then went into the bathroom and started to fill the tub.

"Ngh!" Without much thought, Hah’Er picked the one on the left. That was the same position his little bed was in back at Shen Yibin’s house.

The water was soon ready, adjusted to Hah’Er’s favorite temperature. The little guy pushed Shen Yibin out of the bathroom and started to take off his clothes to bathe. While keeping an ear cocked for any sounds from the bathroom, Shen Yibin took out the tablet to check the "educational films" Professor Wu Gui had just copied for Hah’Er.

’Professor Wu Gui really has quite a stash. They’re even Blu-ray HD versions? Way more professional than the sites I usually frequent! Even when it comes to educational films, Hah’Er’s got it better than me. Life is so unfair.’

After his bath, Shen Yibin helped Hah’Er dry his fur with a towel and a hairdryer. Once Hah’Er was in bed, Shen Yibin handed him the tablet. "Hah’Er, if you’re not tired, you can watch a movie for a bit. I’m going to sleep now." After saying this, Shen Yibin pulled the covers over his head, feigning sleep.

After taking the tablet, Hah’Er quickly discovered the educational films Shen Yibin had left on the home screen. Out of curiosity, he tapped open one of the videos that had a Panda as its thumbnail.

’Huh, what are they doing? Why is my heart beating so fast after watching for just a little while?’ The innocent Hah’Er had never seen such a spectacle before and instantly panicked. He quickly lifted his head to look toward Shen Yibin, only letting out a small sigh of relief when he saw that Shen Yibin’s head was still under the covers.

Hah’Er wanted to put the tablet down, or close the video and go back to the cartoon he was following yesterday, but his paw felt as if it were filled with lead, so heavy that he couldn’t bring himself to press the off button.

’Oh well, I’ll just wait for this video to finish. It’s not that long, anyway.’ The Panda educational films weren’t like human ones; each video was very short. Soon, the first one was over.

But Hah’Er couldn’t stop himself from clicking on the second educational film. He continued watching, face and ears burning, all while warily keeping an eye on Shen Yibin for any movement.

HAHAHAHA! Hiding under the covers and pretending to sleep, Shen Yibin, who was secretly watching everything through a gap in the blanket, was about to go crazy holding in his laughter. ’This is the absolute spitting image of my reaction the first time I watched an educational film!’

"Ahem!" A mischievous impulse seized Shen Yibin. He pretended to roll over, intentionally making a noise.

THUD! Hah’Er was so startled his paw trembled, and the tablet fell right onto the floor. That made him even more nervous. His eyes were glued to Shen Yibin, but he saw that Shen Yibin had gone still again and was even letting out soft snores from time to time, as if he had fallen fast asleep. Only then did Hah’Er relax a little.

Then, he tiptoed off the bed, picked up the tablet, and got back on to continue watching the educational films. After a little while, he seemed to feel that this wasn’t quite right. First, he tried to copy Shen Yibin by burying his head in the blanket, intending to watch the film from there.

However, a tablet is not a phone; it was inconvenient to watch such a large device under the covers. So, before long, Hah’Er poked his head out again. He looked left and right, and in the end, simply slipped off the bed again and carried the tablet out to the living room.

’Looks like this little guy is planning to watch on the sofa to avoid me. As long as he’s interested in this stuff, I can rest easy. We’ll see if tomorrow he’s still all play and no game, unlike today when he didn’t know how to hit on the panda girls.’

With these thoughts, Shen Yibin slowly drifted off to sleep. To be honest, after first taking a plane and then a long car ride to the Giant Panda Base, he really was quite tired.

"Hah’Er!" Waking up the next day, Shen Yibin instinctively glanced at the bed next to his, but he didn’t see Hah’Er there. This gave him a start, and he quickly got up to search for him.

’Whoa, don’t tell me you stayed up all night watching educational films?’ When he got to the living room and saw Hah’Er curled up in a ball on the sofa, Shen Yibin let out a slight sigh of relief. Just then, Hah’Er sat up. ’Wait, something seems off.’