Panda Cub – Chapter 10

by Little Panda

Proper Bear

Grow Bigger and Stronger, Create New Glory!

After having someone come in and take Zuo Miaotong out to handle matters with her former company, Jing Dan sat in the conference room, lost in thought. If she wanted to help more people develop properly, she had to build the company up—but how could that be easy?

She tilted her body, resting her head against the backrest, feeling a bit deflated. If only she could be like her Aunt—effortless at everything she did. That would beat stumbling around in the dark like she was now.

At that moment, Hu Tu walked in. She slapped the back of Jing Dan’s head and asked, “Have you sorted out your romance?”

Jing Dan: “…Don’t spread rumors.”

She didn’t have any romance! She was a Proper Bear!

“Sure, sure, no rumors.” Hu Tu shrugged nonchalantly and sat down beside her. “Then why do you look like you’ve taken a blow?”

Wilted and drooping, she looked like a little pitiful thing.

Jing Dan sighed, turned to look at Hu Tu, and said with solemn gravity: “You have to treat the company like your home and run it well! Grow bigger and stronger!”

After delivering this line, Jing Dan gave herself an internal thumbs-up. All those TV dramas and commercials she’d watched hadn’t been for nothing! She did have a talent for learning!

Hu Tu: “…”

Had someone’s soul transmigrated into this person? What was she even talking about?

“Treat the company like my home? Then I come and go as I please?”

Jing Dan blinked. “Since I’m paying you a salary, of course you need to show up on time!”

“You said it’s my home—if it’s my home, I come and go as I please!”

“No! You need to work hard!”

Hu Tu: “…”

Hey, where did this one learn all these tricks? Had she gone for advanced training at some little workshop?

“Jing Xiaodan, you can’t go down the path of an unscrupulous boss.” Hu Tu looked pained. When had her little panda’s heart turned black!

Jing Dan was innocent—she’d learned all this from watching TV.

“If you want to learn how to be a good boss, go study under your Aunt more. Don’t pick up these questionable habits.” Hu Tu spoke earnestly, terrified this little panda would go bad.

Jing Dan: “…Oh.”

“Tell me, why are you so set on growing the company bigger and stronger?” Hu Tu relaxed, leaning back and looking at Jing Dan. She shook her head inwardly—still too young. Did she think a career was something you just willed into existence?

Jing Dan said with a serious expression: “Grow bigger and stronger, make money, and help more people develop better at our company.”

Helping people was the best part, and making money too. It wasn’t that she lacked money, but who would complain about having too much?

Hu Tu: “…You really are ambitious.”

She was a demon, and yet she was dead set on building a career in the human world?

Jing Dan took it as a compliment. “So since you’ve joined the company, you can’t slack off, got it?”

She stared straight at her, looking ready to kick her out of the company if she dared refuse.

Hu Tu: “…Fine.”

Then she’d reluctantly be an ambitious demon too…

Jing Dan’s expression relaxed, and a somewhat satisfied smile appeared.

Hu Tu: …What a silly look. Truly a Silly Panda.

“By the way, if you want to learn more about the entertainment industry, you could ask He Ying. She’s been around it a lot and could probably give you some useful information.”

“He Ying?” Jing Dan frowned instinctively. She was supposed to go find He Ying? Wouldn’t that be walking straight into the fox’s jaws?

“Yeah. She runs a dance troupe now—you know, a couple years back the human world had that large-scale pandemic, and the troupe almost couldn’t make payroll and disbanded. Things are a bit better now, but there’s no investment. She supports the whole troupe by herself now, taking on jobs in the entertainment industry. She should know a thing or two about how things work.”

Jing Dan was slightly taken aback. Supporting it all by herself?

“So she’s really strapped for cash?” No wonder she’d gone to work as someone’s female companion last night—was she that desperate?

“Yeah, dance troupes are like that. Art burns money.”

Jing Dan pondered. Was it that bad? If she went to ask her for advice, would she need to pay a consultation fee?

“If you want to ask her, it just so happens she’s going to a variety show taping today, right? We could drop by the set.”

Visit a set? A variety show? Jing Dan’s eyes brightened a little. She’d only ever seen variety shows online after they aired—she’d never seen how the behind-the-scenes filming worked!

“Would she let us?”

“Why wouldn’t she? It’s not like we’re going to steal her show. I’ll contact her and set it up. You just need to show up.”

Hu Tu’s familiar attitude showed she didn’t treat He Ying as an outsider at all. Jing Dan asked, “When did you two meet?”

She and Hu Tu had been friends since childhood—how had she never known she was acquainted with a fox spirit like this?

“When did we meet?” Hu Tu thought about it. “A couple years back, I guess. She had a performance for a show—you should’ve seen it. She was radiating this incredible charm. You know me—how could I not be moved by a beautiful, charismatic woman like that?”

Jing Dan: “…”

“So I launched a fierce pursuit. But don’t let her gentle demeanor fool you—I chased her for months without making any progress at all.” Hu Tu shook her head. Even talking about it now, she sounded a bit wistful.

Jing Dan: “…So how did you two end up as friends?”

“Ha, that time at the bar—did you think she was a very casual person?”

“…Yes.”

“Hahaha, exactly! Don’t let that carefree vibe fool you. But doing what she did to you that night? She’s never done that to anyone else! Plenty of people have chased her, but not a single one has ever won the beauty’s heart.”

“Seeing you two like that that night, I thought you had some kind of secret fling going on!”

He Ying was cold and ruthless to people—to anyone with ulterior motives, she only had to sense them approaching before she’d freeze them out, chilling their hearts to the bone. But that night, Hu Tu had seen it with her own eyes: every move had been He Ying’s own initiative!

So Hu Tu had even started to suspect that He Ying had ulterior motives toward Jing Xiaodan.

Jing Dan: “…You’re the one who has a fling with her.”

Her and that fox spirit He Ying?! Over her dead body!

“I’d love to, but she’s not interested in me.” Hu Tu shrugged. The pity was that He Ying was actually quite proper at heart—she never played with feelings.

With that, her expression darkened a little. She said to Jing Dan in a low, serious voice: “If there’s nothing between you and He Ying, that’s for the best. After all, humans and demons walk different paths¹. I don’t want to see you get hurt someday.”

Jing Dan was different from her. Hu Tu flitted through fields of flowers, treating love as a game, and the people she sought mostly shared that attitude. So even after parting, there wasn’t much heartbreak.

But Jing Dan wasn’t like that. She was most likely the type who, once she set her heart on someone, would commit with single-minded devotion. With Jing Dan’s lifespan stretching no one knew how far into the future, if she took a human as a partner—would she really spend lifetime after lifetime searching for her lover’s reincarnations?

Humans and demons walk different paths?

Jing Dan blinked. So Hu Tu didn’t know that He Ying was also a demon?

“Are you even listening to me!” Hu Tu snapped.

Jing Dan: “…Oh, got it.”

She didn’t reveal that He Ying was a demon. In human society these days, many demons did their best to hide what they were.

Hearing her response, Hu Tu was partially relieved. At worst, she’d keep a close eye on things going forward.

After Hu Tu left, Jing Dan thought about the He Ying that Hu Tu had described. She really wasn’t a casual person?

Then why was she so casual with her!

The little panda felt a spark of irritation rise in her heart.

The author has something to say:

I’m gearing up for the ranking lists, which have word count requirements, so for a while I’ll be keeping chapters shorter—something that’s normally over 3,000 words will be trimmed to around 2,000. Plus I haven’t been feeling well lately, getting dizzy spells and headaches, so I need to take advantage of the shorter chapters to build up a backlog, or I won’t be able to crank out the 10,000-word chapters later (facepalm)