Chapter 18: Meow p2
Hanging up the phone, Jiang Suifeng sighed softly, closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his tired nose, and let the weight of his body press entirely onto the seat.
Because he was in a hurry to return from this business trip, his body was a bit overloaded.
Since the city of his business trip was very close to his hometown, he stopped by on the way, just to talk to them about that text message.
In the end, naturally, they parted on bad terms.
The one who sent the text message was his grandfather. The old man was old and his thinking was very conservative, so it wasn’t surprising that he did it.
After a few sentences, his grandfather started trembling when speaking, and he couldn’t do anything about him.
Finally, he dropped a sentence: “Mimi died, and Little Jing is already in a very bad emotional state. Do you know how much damage this text message caused him? Will you only be satisfied when you drive people to death?” Then he slammed the door and left directly.
His grandfather knew about Mimi. He heard that he also raised cats when he was young. He was proficient in calligraphy and ink painting. Besides landscapes, he occasionally painted cats, very vividly. After getting together with his grandmother, because she was allergic to animal fur, they never raised small animals at home again.
When Jiang Suifeng came back before, he showed him photos of Mimi, hoping to introduce their small family gradually starting from the kitten, although it didn’t have much effect.
He didn’t know how his grandfather reacted to his words before he slammed the door and left.
But that night, he received a message from his grandfather: [I didn’t know about Mimi. My intention was just hoping you wouldn’t be attacked by worldly views and get hurt.]
But the ones who hurt them the deepest were precisely family members.
Just as he closed his eyes, Jiang Suifeng heard the driver in the front seat ask gossipy: “Conflict with girlfriend?”
Jiang Suifeng’s rebellious streak kicked in, and he replied grumpily: “With boyfriend.”
The driver was a middle-aged man. Hearing this, he froze for a moment, and the car fell into an awkward silence.
When they arrived at the destination and got off, the driver suddenly spoke: “Boyfriend or girlfriend, both are good. Talk properly. It’s not easy to start a relationship.”
It seemed he had been holding it in the whole way and finally spit it out at the end of the trip.
Jiang Suifeng paused while opening the car door, his expression softened a few degrees. He replied with a “Okay” and got out of the car.
In this era, prejudice against homosexuality inevitably still existed in society, but there was more tolerance and understanding.
They just liked people of the same gender as themselves; they didn’t do anything heinous.
His grandfather should be exposed to this more and accept new ideas.
When his grandmother was still around, the two of them traveled together every year to experience new cultures. After his grandmother passed away, his grandfather hardly went out, staying at home every day tinkering with his calligraphy, paintings, and vegetable garden.
“Meow-woo.”
Just as Jiang Suifeng was about to walk into the apartment building, he suddenly heard a cat’s meow.
But when he looked towards the sound, he found the cat had already scurried away, and he didn’t even see its pattern clearly.
Jiang Suifeng couldn’t help but think of Mimi.
He heard that after kittens go to Planet Meow, they come back to visit, possibly through various means, even possessing other cats.
Although it was just psychological comfort, he was willing to believe it.
Being too realistic and rational would be very tiring; life still needed some interesting fantasies.
Jiang Suifeng stood in the cold wind for a while, seeing no trace of any cat, before walking into the apartment building and taking the elevator home.
Home was somewhat different from before he left, but not much.
The smell of alcohol Jing Zhi drank earlier had completely dissipated, and the trash was thrown away, so he didn’t notice.
But he found some of Jing Zhi’s things missing.
Jiang Suifeng searched the house like a dog and finally listed the “lost items” he found—all Jing Zhi’s things: a bottle of melatonin, a laptop, a mobile hard drive, a bottle of shampoo and body wash each, two towels, some clothes including pajamas…
It looked like he was staying out temporarily but hadn’t moved out yet.
The urn containing the kitten’s ashes was still at home, placed in the kitten’s cat house by Jing Zhi.
They had earned quite a bit of money over the years but hadn’t moved out of here. First, because they planned to buy a new house belonging to them directly and move in, no longer working for the landlord. But buying a new house inevitably required waiting for the relationship to be completely stable, not just between them, but also with both families. Second, because they had spent a long time decorating this cat house. Moving would mean dismantling it. In recent years, Mimi got sick from time to time, and changing to a new environment wasn’t good for it.
So they kept dragging it out, dragging and dragging… until the kitten left.
Jiang Suifeng walked straight to the urn and stroked it gently with his palm.
The urn was made of ceramic and felt cold to the touch. The floor heating in the room was hot, but he still felt the chill invading his entire arm through his palm.
They had already lost Mimi; they couldn’t lose each other anymore.
It was his fault for not handling the relationship with his family well, making Jing Zhi sad.
It wouldn’t happen again.
This New Year, he wouldn’t soften his attitude for the sake of sentiment anymore.
Both sides were people he loved. He could accept being caught in the middle, but he couldn’t accept hurting the person on the other side over him. That was also disrespect to him.
Jiang Suifeng stood up and sent a WeChat message to the flower shop he frequently ordered from, ordering a bouquet of Jing Zhi’s favorite Chinese roses.
When he saw Little Jing tomorrow, he would coax him well, soften up, and seek reconciliation.
After showering, Jiang Suifeng sank into the big bed he shared with Jing Zhi, and his exhausted body soon fell asleep.
…
When he woke up the next morning, Jing Mimi’s body had improved a lot.
Although the red spots from the allergy hadn’t faded yet, they were only a bit itchy without any other adverse reactions. The diarrhea caused by lactose intolerance wasn’t as severe as yesterday, and there was no fever or other infections.
If all went well, he could be discharged in about three days.
However, the little guy couldn’t help scratching the itchy spots in his sleep last night, leaving a few red marks. Jing Zhi slept relatively soundly at night and didn’t notice his small movements. Fortunately, the skin wasn’t broken.
Jing Zhi borrowed nail clippers on a keychain from the mother of the little boy in the next bed and trimmed Jing Mimi’s nails.
Cutting them short would make it less likely for him to hurt himself if he scratched unconsciously in his sleep.
Jing Mimi was very obedient while getting his nails cut, never moving his small hands randomly. He was very cooperative even when he was the kitten Mimi.
Jing Zhi still remembered the first time he cut the kitten’s nails. He and Jiang Suifeng made ample preparations, learning from online tutorials to roll the kitten into a burrito with a small blanket, afraid the kitten wouldn’t cooperate or accidentally scratch them while struggling.
The result was that the burrito kitten didn’t move at all. Its round eyes stared straight at its papas as they used their finger pads to push out the retracted claws from its pink paw pads. Snip, snip, with every snip of the pet nail clippers, the kitten’s paw would twitch subconsciously, as if a bit scared, but it didn’t struggle. Soon all four paws were done, effortless.
At that time, he and Jiang Suifeng thought it was the burrito’s credit.
The second time was while playing on the sofa. Jing Zhi casually grabbed the cat’s paw pad and squeezed it, pushing out the claws. Finding that the kitten didn’t struggle or resist, he asked Jiang Suifeng to bring the nail clippers and tried cutting the kitten’s nails directly.
It was precisely because of the second time that they knew it wasn’t the burrito’s credit; they had picked up a divine, obedient cat.
After that, every time he saw videos online of kittens not cooperating or even scratching people while getting their nails cut, Jing Zhi would suppress the urge to brag and pet his obedient cat at home.
Snip, snip.
Jing Mimi obediently watched Papa trim his nails.
Without a scratching board, he had nowhere to sharpen his nails, so they had to be trimmed.
The cold metal touch of the nail clippers wasn’t pleasant, but because the person cutting his nails was Papa, he wasn’t afraid.
He vaguely remembered a long time ago, living in another house, the kitten Mimi was very afraid of getting his nails cut because every time the quick would be accidentally cut. It hurt, but he dared not struggle or resist, or it would hurt more.
Fortunately, the kitten met Papa.
Every time Papa cut the kitten’s nails, he was careful and meticulous, never cutting the quick.
“Done.” Jing Zhi rubbed his finger pad on Jing Mimi’s last fingernail to ensure it was trimmed round and smooth, then put away the nail clippers, wiped them with a tissue, and returned them to the mother of the little boy in the next bed after cleaning.
Jing Mimi examined his small hands for a while.
Human hands were very different from kitten paws; they didn’t have retractable claws.
Jing Mimi’s gaze fell on the auntie’s hands in the next bed. The auntie took back the nail clippers returned by Papa and put them back on the keychain.
The auntie’s nails were different from his; they were sharp and long, looking more like kitten claws than his, but they were light green.
“Papa.” Jing Mimi leaned close to Jing Zhi’s ear and whispered this discovery to him.
Jing Zhi couldn’t help laughing and explained to him what a “manicure” was.
Jing Mimi’s eyes sparkled as he listened, and he said to Jing Zhi, “I want a manicure too.”
The auntie in the next bed heard it and laughed out loud with Jing Zhi.
Bai Ying just came out of the bathroom and asked curiously what happened. Jing Zhi told her the conversation with the little cub just now.
Bai Ying also joined in the laughter.
Children’s thoughts were always strange and cute.
Seeing Bai Ying return, Jing Zhi got up and went to the bathroom, sending a text message to Jiang Suifeng: [See you at 11 AM.]
He also sent him the ward number where Mimi was.
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Suifeng looked at the words “Children’s Inpatient Department” in the text message with some confusion.
Although Jing Zhi was from Province A, he didn’t interact frequently with relatives. His father was a cheating scumbag, and the relatives on his father’s side protected his father, needless to say. His mother had him late in life. His maternal grandparents passed away one after another when Jing Zhi was in college. There weren’t many relatives on his mother’s side, and some went abroad for development. By Jing Zhi’s generation, there was almost no interaction.
Based on his understanding of Jing Zhi, he couldn’t imagine whose child he was accompanying in the hospital.
Moreover, their meeting place being in the inpatient department was also strange.
The only thing he could think of was that the child needed Jing Zhi’s company and care, and Jing Zhi couldn’t get away.
He didn’t mind the meeting place; he just found it a bit strange.
Jiang Suifeng tentatively replied with a text message: [Whose child is it? Should I bring any small gifts?]
Jing Zhi: [No need, just come yourself.]
Jiang Suifeng had to withdraw his probing thoughts. Anyway, they would meet soon, and he would know then.
The flower shop had already delivered the flowers early. They were fresh and beautiful; Little Jing would definitely like them.
He quickly tidied up, went downstairs with the flowers, and drove straight to the hospital.
When he heard someone walking in at the door of the ward, Jing Zhi was playing Happy Match with Jing Mimi.
The family in the next bed took their child for a checkup and hadn’t returned yet. That child didn’t have gastrointestinal problems. Last night, the family discussed eating out for lunch today. Bai Ying was also “sent away” early by Jing Zhi, asked to buy a lunch from a faraway place. Of course, asking someone to do something naturally required giving a red envelope.
In Happy Match, there was a level Mimi couldn’t pass several times, so he simply gave the phone to Jing Zhi and asked Papa to help pass the level.
Jing Zhi passed it quickly in one go.
“Papa is so amazing! Next level, Papa let me play.” Jing Mimi nestled in Jing Zhi’s arms, his eyes full of undisguised admiration.
“Okay.” Jing Zhi smiled gently and indulgently, handing the phone to the small hand.
As soon as the words fell, a “thud” sounded.
Two pairs of eyes fell on the person who suddenly appeared in unison.
Jing Mimi’s phone fell onto the bedsheet with a thud.
It was Big Papa!
The Chinese roses in Jiang Suifeng’s hand fell to the ground. He looked at the little cub held in Jing Zhi’s arms on the hospital bed in disbelief.
The little cub called out “Papa” repeatedly, obviously addressing Jing Zhi.
The little cub also bore a resemblance to Jing Zhi.
For a moment, Jiang Suifeng’s brain crashed completely, like a rusted gear, unable to turn at all.
Actually, if he thought calmly, he could find something wrong, but people couldn’t be calm in extreme shock.
With a blank mind, Jiang Suifeng walked straight to the hospital bed where the two were.
“Whose child is he with you?!”
***
Author’s Note:
Mimi: [Starry Eyes] With you, Meow.
