"...No way."
Hui Lang tried—he really tried his best to remember, but nothing came to him. Share prices, new technology, and many other useless things were at the tip of his fingers, but a phone number… he hadn't even bothered to look twice at it.
"I—I don't actually know ANYONE'S number?!"
"Technology has made me DUMB! I have a phone surgically attached to my hand twenty-four hours a day, and I can't remember a SINGLE PHONE NUMBER?!"
He let out a long, anguished "OINK," wailing at the cruel, cruel injustice of the universe.
It sucked. Really sucked.
'I... I just want to go home... I don't want to go back to my life again…'
Hui Lang collapsed by the phone, softly sobbing. Ironically, even his gentle sobs came out as ugly piggy snorts.
'What have I done to deserve this? I was a charitable person. I helped people... so why… why do I have to suffer such a fate?'
Tears dripped down his face, dripping onto the phone.
He didn't even know pigs could cry.
After he had soaked the phone in his pitiful tears, he sighed softly and sat up.
'I can't give up yet... There has to be another way. Think, Hui Lang! Think!' Suddenly, it occurred to him. 'The company website!!'
'My assistant's number might be somewhere on the company website!! I can contact him!!'
His eyes regained a bit of their lost shine.
Letting out a happy oink, he wiped the tears off the phone with his snout. 'It's been here all along. Why didn't I think of that!'
But soon, his plan came to a screeching halt thanks to a very niche problem.
His piggy nose really didn't help with typing. Not one bit. It was so hard to even open the browser app with the old phone, much less type in it.
'Come on, I can do this!' So he kept trying and trying…
His growling stomach finally made him give up. 'I'll try tomorrow… right now I need to get my energy up.'
With difficulty, he got up and dashed into the kitchen. The angel was talking to the old lady as he set the dinner table, but there were only four chairs. He slyly got close and nudged his leg. 'Where's my seat, huh…'
"Bacon, where did you go off to?" The stupid angel lifted him up, hugging him close to his chest. He forked a piece of meat and brought it up to his mouth. "Aunty made such delicious food~ Come on, try it~"
"Ah!" The old lady gripped his hand in a hurry. "You can't feed him that!"
"Why not?" Tian gazed up confusedly.
"Well… that's pork."
"So."
Hearing this, Hui Lang's piggy eyes widened. 'What! Why can't I eat it! I want to eat it! I like pork.' Then his thoughts stopped midway. 'Wait… I'm pork… can I eat pork then? Wouldn't that be like cannibalism…' His thoughts sent shivers down his body.
Just then, the door to the house opened and Lu Chen walked in. "You guys started without me. That's so mean of you." Laughing, he quickly ruffled Tian's hair. "How was your day? Did your work go well?"
The stupid angel's face instantly bloomed into a huge, beautiful grin as he gazed back at him. "Yeah, the old man was so sweet. He even gave me a lot of his grandson's clothes to wear."
"That's so nice of him." He helped wipe the oil stains from the corner of his mouth. "These clothes fit you much better." He sat at the table and started to enjoy the meal.
Hui Lang watched him carefully. Now that he was looking at him carefully and close, he had an inkling that he had met this man before. 'But where... Did he work for me…? No, that can't be. Did we study together? Possibly…'
Occasionally, Lu Chen would serve the angel a bit of meat and vegetable with a doting look in his eyes.
Watching this exchange, Hui Lang's frown deepened. 'What is up with that look in his eyes…?' He looked between them again and again, but he still couldn't put a finger on the strange feeling they both gave off.
A few days ago, these two were complete strangers to each other, and now they looked like a harmonious couple of brothers sharing a meal.
'It's getting weirder and weirder…'
Soon, the dishes on the table were wiped clean, and Hui Lang got to eat the leftover food. Of course, that included a small piece of meat. But after contemplating a lot, he decided to eat it. 'Cannibal or not, if it was tasty meat, he was willing to eat it.'
Just like that, the disastrous day came to an end.
Next morning, at the crack of dawn, when the whole house was asleep, a small, fuzzy piglet had already started the day early. Hui Lang rolled off the bed and rushed under it. Soon, in his little mouth was an old phone. He placed it carefully on the ground and started his training.
In order to learn to type in his piglet body, he needed training because he refused to be defeated by a phone.
What better time to do it than in the mornings?
Tian woke up to this bizarre sight. The small piglet was seen sitting by the bed with the phone in between its front hooves, its snout on the phone as if it was trying to smell it.
"What are you doing…" he whispered, rolling close to the edge of the bed.
"Oink!" The piglet let out a startled scream and backed away, but soon its small, beady eyes gazed up at him as if it was resentful for scaring it.
Tian plucked the phone off the ground, gazing at the browser the piglet had managed to open. There were unknown liquids on the screen that he magnanimously wiped on the piglet itself.
The piglet let out an angry roar and charged at him.
He simply just lifted the phone up. "No, you can't eat it. This is not food."
"Oink!!!!" The piglet screamed loudly, making his ears ache.
"This is Lu Chen's thing. You absolutely can't eat it." He hid the phone in one of the drawers so that the piglet couldn't access it with his height.
"Oinkkkkk… oink…" The piglet angrily nudged his feet. Even its angry wails were quite cute.
Chuckling, Tian lifted it up and gave it a gentle kiss on its snout. "I'll find you something else to eat, okay."
The piglet in his arms paused, its whole body went rigid for a minute or so, and then it started to squeal and wiggle in his arms.
Tian noticed this weird contrast. He once again kissed its fuzzy ears.
The piglet went still again, its beady eyes going wide.
"You like being kissed?" He kissed its head again.
The piglet let out a huge wail, loud enough to wake the whole house up.
Lu Chen stumbled into the small room, rubbing his eyes. "Wha… what happened?"
"Lu Chen, look! This pig likes kisses."
The piglet struggled hard in his embrace.
Lu Chen: "..."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Look, watch."
Kiss.
The piglet let out a louder wail.
"Um… it doesn't seem to enjoy it, though…" Lu Chen mumbled under his breath, but he didn't want to disillusion the young man. So he simply smiled and nodded, watching the man kiss the wailing pig again and again.
"Oh, it's getting late. I have to get to work." The angel hurriedly left home with the piglet in his arms.
Hua Lang lay limply in the stupid angel's arms, his hooves shaking with each of the man's cheery steps. After his assault, he barely had energy for anything. Never in his life had he been assaulted like this. It was a crime.
'I swear to God, as soon as I turn human, I am going to lodge a complaint for sure! I'm having this guy arrested!' He blankly watched the street. Humans dressed in sharp clothes on their way to work. They all seemed in a hurry.
When he was human, he too was like that.
Work was his everything.
He had spent his entire life rushing from one meeting to another. He had looked at the same streets thousands of times but never actually seen them.
But as he watched the familiar street, he could see something different. The small dandelions growing in the cracks of the pathway. The beautiful clouds that were slowly moving around.
Those small things that he wouldn't have noticed before.
"Morning, Grandpa Chao," the angel happily chimed as he entered the store.
Hua Lang dully looked up, only to be stunned. The whole store was filled to the brim.
'What the… Is this the same store?' Hua Lang did a double take.
"We seem to have a lot more customers." He happily chuckled as he walked up to the cash counter.
Every customer here was a woman, schoolgirls and office workers who were secretly taking photos and whispering to themselves excitedly.
But the angel seemed ignorant to this.
"Yeah, it's tiring. Can you handle it by yourself today?" Grandpa Chao said, tapping his back.
"Yeah, I can do that. Don't worry. Please go rest." The angel assured him and sent the old man away.
The customers who were lingering around in the store immediately came to the counter with their purchases.
"Is this your pig? It's so cute…" one schoolgirl whispered with a blush, her gaze falling on the angel's face occasionally.
Hua Lang wanted to roll his eyes at this. 'For God's sake, he is collecting flowers wherever he goes.' He lay silently on the counter, watching these women make a joke of themselves.
He too had been quite famous. So many women and men threw themselves at him. But that was only a bother. He had no interest in people who approached him with ulterior motives.
He met the angel's gaze. 'But this guy doesn't seem to have any issue with it.'
Tian smiled and gently rubbed his head.
He scoffed and turned, showing him his ass. But that didn't seem to bother the man, as he continued to rub his ass.
Safe to admit, it ruffled some feathers in him.
Hua Lang let out a squeal and jumped off the counter. 'Better off on the floor than being molested!' He put a safe distance between them and laid down with his head in between his front hooves.
Many women approached the counter, but strangely, there was a man too.
Hua watched with interest.
"That will be twenty yuan." The angel said with a smile, but the man simply looked at him with interest.
"Are you interested in being a model?"
"Um?"
"You have the face and the height for it. You can earn a lot of money." The man said with a lecherous look in his eyes. His eyes literally roamed all over the man's body as if he was going to devour him.
Hua Lang let out a scoff. 'This bastard is really not looking for a model, is he? Probably planning on luring innocents into a one-night stand.'
"You're perfect as a model." The lecherous man continued.
The stupid angel, who heard the empty compliments, let out a dazzling smile.
"You think so?"
"Yes~ You are perfect for our agency. This is my card. I'll inform you where we can meet to further discuss our cooperation." He said, groping the angel's arms.
Hua Lang just gaped at this. 'He literally gropes him, but the stupid guy is smiling at him! Is he that stupid!' Enraged, he let out an angry roar and hit the man's legs. 'Shoo off, you go!!'
The man simply gazed down at him with visible disgust. "We'll meet soon. Contact me, okay." He said, once again rubbing Tian's arms, and left the shop.
Hua Lang let out a huff. 'Fuck this. Why does this guy bring me so much trouble?' He angrily glared up at the angel.
Thankfully, after a full two-hour busy shift, the store was almost empty.
Tian let out a laugh, holding up the card. "Did you hear that, Bacon? I can be a model. Of course, my face is of help, but if I can earn a bit more, I eat good food."
Hua Lang just peered up at him expressionlessly. 'This guy… how dumb can he be? Isn't he an angel? Like a godly being? Why is he so ignorant to human emotions?'
'Oh yeah, right. He is an angel… an innocent angelic being.'
He jumped up on the side of the counter, letting out soft oinks.
"You want up?" Tian lifted him up and placed him on the counter.
Instantly, Hua Lang lunged at the card and chewed it up instantly.
"What did you do! You can't eat that!!" He tried to pry his mouth open, but Hua Lang refused to let him.
Hua Lang chewed the tasteless paper and spat it out when it was mush. 'God, that tastes awful.' He wiped his tongue on the counter in order to get that taste off his mouth, but remembering that it was a dirty counter many had touched, he became even more enraged. 'Ahh!'
Tian simply picked up the mushy paper and glared at the piglet. "Why did you do this! I could have earned a lot more, and I…" He flopped on the counter. "Why do I even have to try… I just… I don't like this place… I don't want to be here…"
His voice became softer and softer.
Hua Lang froze. 'Is he…' He walked close, nudging him with his snout.
The angel gazed at him through the small gap between his arms. "I didn't want to be anyone's burden..." He whispered, with tears dripping down his face.
'What! I was only trying to protect you, idiot! That man is a bastard that had ulterior motives!' But sadly, his words of comfort only came out as oinks.
'I'm sorry, okay… please… don't cry…' He leaned close, nudging him softly. 'If you want money, I can give you a lot. I have a lot of money. So don't cry…' He nudged him again.
Tian gazed at him with a sad smile. "Are you trying to comfort me, you naughty little bacon?"
'Yes, yes…' Hua Lang moved close and gently rubbed against his face. 'Don't cry for such a silly thing.'
Tian let out a small laugh. "You were supposed to be my future dinner, you know… but who knew pigs were so cute." He gently rubbed his soft hairs. "I guess I understand why humans like having pets."
Hua Lang rolled his eyes. 'Now I'm a pet? Awesome… the great CEO is a cute pet.'
But seeing the tears disappear from Tian's face, he felt a strange sense of relief.