Louis often cooked at home, and he quickly washed and chopped the vegetables without Elisa having to ask, leaving only the stir-frying for her. It was just the two of them, so there was no need for overly complicated dishes. A meat dish, a vegetable dish, and a soup would suffice. Unfortunately, it was already quite late, and there wasn’t enough time to make bone broth. Elisa casually made a sour and spicy soup with pickled vegetables and sliced pork, refreshing and flavorful, along with stir-fried hollow heart vegetable and sweet and sour pork. Lunch was ready.
“Take the bowls and chopsticks out and wait for me; I’ll be done soon,” Elisa said.
The kitchen was not large, and it was a bit inconvenient for two people to pass by each other. Elisa turned on the range hood.
“Where are the bowls and chopsticks?”
“Here,” Elisa pointed to a cabinet under the counter, revealing clean bowls, chopsticks, and plates.
The cabinet was quite empty, with not many bowls, chopsticks, or plates. It seemed they hadn’t planned on having guests over for a meal and had only prepared enough for their own use.
Louis took out two pairs of chopsticks and two bowls, rinsed them in the sink, and then placed them on the table. He took out a box from his pocket. Inside was a cat collar he had specially commissioned, with a tag hanging from it, inscribed with a message.
—Mimi Forever.
The collar had a locator function to prevent the cat from getting lost.
Louis took out the collar and sought out Mimi’s figure. He met Mimi’s gaze as the cat sat on the sofa, staring blankly at him. Some cats were averse to having something hanging around their necks, and he wasn’t sure if Mimi would like it. He had bought it because he thought it would be useful and because he found it attractive, and the message seemed particularly fitting for Mimi.
But if Mimi didn’t like it, he wouldn’t force it to wear it; he would find another one.
Sitting next to Mimi, Louis looked into the cat’s eyes and noticed a flicker of movement in Mimi’s damaged ear. He held the collar out to its nose. “This is for you, would you like to try it?”
He didn’t know if cats could understand human speech, but he felt that Mimi should understand his intention.
Mimi looked at the collar curiously, sniffed at it, and showed no sign of rejection. Louis was pleased. He unclasped the collar and coaxed, “Mimi, lean over, I’ll put it on for you.”
Mimi remained still.
Louis didn’t want to force the collar on Mimi, so he continued coaxing, “If you wear it, I’ll give you a treat.”
Still, Mimi did not move.
Louis scratched the back of his head and glanced towards the kitchen. The kitchen door had a frosted glass window, through which he could faintly see Elisa bustling about inside.
“This collar has a locator inside. If you ever accidentally get lost, Elisa can find you using it. It will put your mind at ease and hers, and besides, it looks really nice.”
The collar was designed with a bow tie style, and a fish dangled from it. In addition to the engraved message, there was also contact information.
Upon hearing Elisa’s name, Mimi’s pupils involuntarily dilated, shimmering like two blue glass marbles. Louis gestured towards the collar, and this time Mimi reacted. It obediently leaned its head forward.
Louis quickly placed the collar around its neck, adjusting the size and fastening it.
Not bad, he had good taste.
Just then, the meal was ready. Louis heard the kitchen door open and saw Elisa coming out with two plates. “Come and eat,” she said.
Louis was playing with the cat on the sofa. Upon hearing Elisa’s voice, he carefully picked up Mimi. “Elisa, look!” he said excitedly, wanting to show her the cat collar he had purchased.
He looked like an elementary school student who had aced an exam and was eagerly running home to show his parents the test paper in exchange for a reward.
Elisa set the plates down and shifted her gaze from Louis’s face to the cat he was holding. “You bought it?”
“Yeah!” Louis nodded, looking silly, as if he were asking for praise. “Is it nice?”
“It’s quite nice,” she said. In truth, the bow tie seemed a bit tacky, but Elisa didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm when he was seeking praise. She focused on the cat tag on the collar, observing its golden sheen. It seemed to be made of pure gold. But that wasn’t the point. The point was the sentence written on it. Elisa pinched thetag and read the inscription.
—Mimi Forever.
Elisa’s gaze softened considerably as she thought of the words she had spoken to Mimi during the big fire three years ago. If there were another life, she would bring Mimi’s favorite dried fish to find it. She had indeed brought it back, but now Mimi’s injured throat could no longer enjoy its favorite snack.
“It’s really nice,” Elisa said, feeling a sudden pang in her nose as she spoke.
She reached out and gently rubbed Mimi’s head. Mimi seemed to sense her unusual mood and responded with a hoarse meow.
Louis explained, “I installed a locator in this collar to prevent Mimi from getting lost.”
“Thank you, you’ve put a lot of thought into this. Mimi likes it very much.” If Mimi didn’t like it, she wouldn’t have put it on. Elisa didn’t think Mimi would get lost; it was always by her side and Iris looked after it. Unless it was taken by someone with ill intentions…
Just the thought made Elisa break out in a cold sweat, and she felt even more grateful for the gift Louis had given her. She hadn’t paid much attention to it before.
After dinner, Louis and Elisa chatted for a while about work. Regarding the acquisition of shares in X Entertainment, they now held twenty-five percent of the scattered shares, making them the third-largest shareholder. As these scattered shares had not yet been consolidated, no one had noticed someone deliberately acquiring shares.
“It’s not enough,” Elisa said, her eyes lowered, a coldness lurking beneath her dark lashes.
Louis agreed, “Of course, it’s not enough. We still need a final push to make them go bankrupt and acquire all the shares in one go.”
“Be patient; it won’t be long.” She had a strong intuition that Lorelei had some unspeakable secret, and once that secret was exposed, X Entertainment would be affected. That would be the time to make their move when the shares fell.
Louis planned to leave after dinner, although he wanted to stay the night, he dismissed the thought since he and Elisa hadn’t defined their relationship yet.
Elisa saw him to the door. When she returned, she checked her phone and found some activity on Twitter. It was late at night, and once again, someone was stirring up trouble.
A whistleblower had posted on Twitter. It was about a recent large-scale costume drama shoot. Two major investors had a physical altercation over a supporting actress. Later, even the leading actor got involved.
The comments section began to discuss who this supporting actress might be, listing all the recent costume dramas that had started filming. Until a comment appeared.
—“I feel like it’s Revenge and Love. When it comes to the supporting actress, why is Elisa the first one I think of?”
Before a minute had passed since the comment appeared, the entire post was deleted.