Chapter 30: Meow (Part 2)
Jing Mimi roughly knew the breed names and corresponding appearances of the cats he had seen, but he didn’t really understand the origin of these names. In his eyes, cats were only distinguished by type, not nationality.
At this moment, the sudden influx of information left his brain muddled.
No wonder his papas both had black hair, and the children around him almost all had black hair, only he had light yellow hair.
It turned out he was a foreign cat (person).
Jing Mimi suddenly felt emo. He let go of the small hand clutching the mascot costume’s tail, walked unhappily to a small stool in the corner, sat down, and started pondering his cat life.
With limited vision in the mascot costume, it took Fang Yuan a while to notice Mimi, who had “teleported” to the corner. His heart skipped a beat.
What happened?
Wasn’t he happily snuggling and talking to me just now?
Why did he suddenly run away?
Fang Yuan recalled everything that just happened and didn’t suspect that conversation. Instead, he thought there were too many children around him, and he had neglected Mimi. After all, after Mimi asked him the question, several other children scrambled to talk to him, and he busied himself responding to the other children.
Fang Yuan hurriedly led the children around him towards Mimi.
He dressed up like this today mainly to gain favorability with Mimi. Although playing with other children was also important, he absolutely couldn’t neglect Mimi.
Sensing the approach of the big cat and the children, the chatter getting louder, Jing Mimi, who just wanted to ponder his cat life quietly alone, glanced at them, stood up quickly, and da da da left the activity classroom.
Fang Yuan: “?!”
Fang Yuan was completely confused now.
There were still many children around him. Fang Yuan couldn’t leave them to find Mimi, so he could only ask another adult in the classroom to see where Mimi went.
After a while, the person returned and said, “Don’t worry, Mimi went to Little Jing.”
Fang Yuan was both relieved and worried.
Naturally, he was relieved that Mimi went to Jing Zhi, but the sudden distance left him somewhat at a loss.
Did he do something wrong again?
There were still many children to accompany. Fang Yuan couldn’t desert his post to investigate, so he could only wait until later to ask Jing Zhi.
Maybe because it was too stuffy inside the mascot costume, Fang Yuan inexplicably felt a bit heavy-hearted.
Jing Zhi was preparing gifts for the children with other staff members of the welfare institute.
Tonight was Christmas Eve. Each child would receive a fresh, rosy apple in a beautiful small box, symbolizing peace and good for the body.
While packing, a small figure suddenly pounced over and hugged him.
“Mimi?” Jing Zhi looked down at the fluffy light yellow head. “What’s wrong?”
There were other people around, so Jing Mimi didn’t answer, just rubbed his little head in Jing Zhi’s arms.
Jing Zhi put down the things in his hand, rubbed the top of his head, and asked, “Why aren’t you playing with Uncle Fang Yuan anymore? He wore the cat mascot costume especially for you today. Doesn’t Mimi like it?”
Jing Mimi finally raised his little head and whispered, “Like it.”
He liked the big cat played by Uncle Fang Yuan, but he was in a bad mood now and didn’t feel like playing.
“If you like it, why did you run here?” Jing Zhi pinched his little face again.
Jing Mimi pursed his lips and asked instead of answering, “If Papa were a cat, what kind of cat would you be?”
Jing Zhi didn’t expect him to ask such a question suddenly. He guessed it might be a fantasy triggered by seeing Fang Yuan “turn into” a cat—what if his papas also turned into cats.
Little brains always think of some whimsical things.
Jing Zhi knew too well how to make the little guy happy, so he answered immediately: “Then I would definitely be the same cat as Mimi.”
He was Mimi’s Papa. Whatever kind of cat Mimi was, he would be that kind of cat.
Jing Mimi felt slightly better after being coaxed, but he didn’t have the interest to go play in the activity classroom next door anymore and stayed with Papa.
Seeing this, Jing Zhi picked up a small Santa hat from the table nearby and put it on his head.
Jing Mimi blinked blankly and raised his small hand to touch the hat on his head.
“Don’t move, let me take a picture of Mimi.” Jing Zhi said.
Jing Mimi obediently put down his small hand, stood straight in front of Papa, looked at the phone camera, and gave a faint smile.
When he was a kitten, he didn’t know how to cooperate with the camera and could only be captured by his papas when they found a chance. After becoming a little human, he knew he should smile when facing the camera so the photos would look better.
After taking the photo, Jing Mimi couldn’t wait to cling to Papa and look at the photo in his phone.
In the photo, the Santa hat on the little cub’s head was loose, and the white pom-pom at the top drooped with gravity, incredibly cute.
Suddenly thinking of something, Jing Zhi exited to the album group, clicked on the album created for the kitten Mimi before, and searched.
In a moment, a photo of a Scottish Fold kitten wearing a Santa hat appeared before their eyes.
The Santa hat on the kitten’s head was smaller and cuter, and it also wore a small cloak, looking like a Christmas kitten messenger who could use magic to deliver gifts to the bedside at midnight.
Just as the two were admiring the old photos, a welfare institute staff member packing gifts with Jing Zhi passed by, glanced at his phone screen, and said abruptly, “Is this your cat? So cute, what’s its name?”
Jing Zhi was startled, uttered an “Ah,” and answered vaguely, “Mm, called… Mimi.”
Not many people in the welfare institute knew the origin of Mimi’s name. He was too lazy to explain again. To avoid unnecessary trouble, a little lie was harmless.
“Jing Mimi,” forced to change his name temporarily, blinked, knowing Papa was covering for him.
If he were in kitten form right now, he would definitely tilt his little head and “meow.”
The person smiled upon hearing this. Indeed, there were many cats named Mimi in the world, just didn’t expect Jing Zhi to name his cat that too.
She added: “I heard you work in self-media. Are you a pet blogger? I feel Mimi is prettier than some internet celebrity cats.”
Jing Zhi shook his head. “No, in other fields.”
Sensing that Jing Zhi had no interest in chatting further, the person nodded, said nothing more, sat back in her seat, and continued packing gifts.
Jing Zhi withdrew his gaze, met the round amber eyes beside him, remembered the nonsense name “Mimi” just now, and pinched his little face with a smile.
Jing Mimi turned into a curious kitten and asked him, “Papa, what is an internet celebrity cat?”
He only knew Calico cats, Tortoiseshell cats, Orange cats, Dragon Li cats, Jianzhou cats, Siamese cats… What breed was an internet celebrity cat? Why did they say the kitten Mimi was prettier than internet celebrity cats? Were internet celebrity cats very pretty?
Jing Zhi didn’t quite know how to explain. After thinking for a long time, he lowered his head and switched to the short video app, entered the keyword “cat,” and many videos of internet celebrity cats popped up instantly.
While scrolling through the videos, Jing Zhi explained simply to Mimi: “It means taking videos of cats, posting them online, and many people see them. Cats watched by many people become internet celebrity cats.”
Maybe the explanation wasn’t rigorous enough. Jing Zhi added a few more sentences combined with the videos, which should make the little guy understand.
Although he made a living from self-media, he never thought of capitalizing on Mimi’s traffic, only occasionally showing the kitten to fans during live streams.
After all, Mimi was a Scottish Fold. He was afraid that people who didn’t understand would think Scottish Folds were cute after seeing his photos and videos, buy them blindly, send money to Scottish Fold breeders, and fuel the breeding of Scottish Folds.
Jing Mimi nodded his little head thoughtfully, raised his small hand, switched the phone screen back to the album, and admired the photos taken by his papas before.
He didn’t want to tell Papa that he seemed to have been an internet celebrity cat before too.
He didn’t want to watch those internet celebrity cat videos either.
The cats in the videos were pretty and cute, but he didn’t know if they were bullied by the people filming them off-camera.
He always uncontrollably remembered that dark time.
Only under his papas’ lens was he a truly happy kitten.
He liked looking at himself in Papa’s album.
…
Until he took off the cat mascot costume and left in the evening, Fang Yuan didn’t snuggle with Mimi again.
Asking Jing Zhi, Jing Zhi told Fang Yuan what happened after Mimi came to find him, guessing that he might have just been momentarily fascinated by the cat mascot, after all, it wasn’t a real cat. Once the novelty wore off, he lost interest, but he still liked it; Mimi answered personally.
Fang Yuan still felt a bit dejected.
The plan to gain favorability met its Waterloo again.
Sigh, the road ahead is long and arduous.
Fang Yuan inexplicably thought of the kitten Mimi raised by Jing Zhi and Jiang Suifeng. He had visited their home many times back then, always wanting to build a good relationship with the kitten Mimi, but made no progress.
He was really at odds with creatures named “Mimi”…
It was getting late. Fang Yuan took out his car keys and said to Jing Zhi, “Then I’ll leave first, meow.”
Jing Zhi: “…”
Jing Zhi: “Can you change this catchphrase?”
Fang Yuan: “Can’t change it, meow.”
Jing Zhi: “Meow like this in class tomorrow too, let your students meow with you.”
Fang Yuan: “…Changed, changed.”
Just as Fang Yuan was about to leave, a small figure suddenly appeared and handed him a small box.
“Uncle Fang Yuan, here’s an apple for you. Safe journey.” Jing Mimi looked up at him with his little head.
Fang Yuan was both surprised and delighted. He took the apple and excitedly rubbed the little cub’s head with his palm for a long time, messing up the light yellow hair.
Jing Zhi scolded jokingly while smoothing the little cub’s hair again and put the Santa hat back on him.
The snowy road was slippery, posing a great safety hazard for driving. Fang Yuan hummed a song and drove very slowly.
Suddenly, the apple box placed in front of the car rolled down due to inertia, making a “thud” sound.
Fang Yuan had to stop the car on the roadside and bend down to pick it up.
As soon as the car stopped, a “bang” was heard. Two cars in front suddenly collided, causing a rear-end collision of several cars behind.
Fang Yuan held the apple, staring blankly.
If he hadn’t gone to pick up this apple, he would probably have been one of them.
Truly magical.
…
When Jing Zhi received the message “Lucky Mimi, Lucky Apple” from Fang Yuan, he was holding Mimi and video calling Jiang Suifeng.
It wasn’t that he wanted to video call Jiang Suifeng, mainly because he wanted to show him the little human Mimi wearing a Santa hat.
Jing Mimi nibbled on the apple slowly with his small teeth while talking to Big Papa.
Looking at Jing Zhi holding Mimi on the other end of the video, Jiang Suifeng inexplicably felt the warmth of “wife, child, and a warm bed,” liking it more and more as he looked.
Jiang Suifeng: “Heard Mimi learned to sing Christmas songs. Can you sing for Big Papa?”
Jing Mimi paused, put down the apple he was nibbling, chewed, swallowed, and said, “Okay.”
Soon, the little cub’s soft and cute tune rang on both ends of the video call: “Ding ding dang, ding ding dang, ling er xiang ding dang…”
It was the Chinese version of “Jingle Bells.”
After singing, Jiang Suifeng praised him very supportively and added: “Heard Mimi also learned the English version. Big Papa wants to hear it too.”
Jing Mimi pursed his lips and refused to sing anymore.
He didn’t want to sing foreign songs.
He was already a foreign cat. If he spoke a foreign language, he would be completely different from his papas.
He wanted to speak Chinese.
Jiang Suifeng thought he was shy about foreign languages and coaxed him: “Mimi speaks English very well, very talented. When Mimi grows up, you can study abroad, go to the UK.”
Jing Mimi looked shocked upon hearing this.
Papa wants to send me back to the UK?!
After the shock came endless panic and sadness.
He didn’t want to go to the UK.
He didn’t want to leave his papas.
Jiang Suifeng was still saying something.
But Jing Mimi couldn’t hear anything anymore. The more he thought about it, the sadder and more wronged he felt. Unable to hold back anymore, he burst into tears with a “Wah.”
**
Author’s Note:
Mimi: [Crying loudly] [Crying loudly] [Crying loudly]
