Chapter 11
Shao Sui taught three classes in a row, his voice completely hoarse.
“Boom—!”
The thunder mingled with the school bell. Students rushed towards the classroom door, grabbing their lunches from insulated boxes, while those whose parents delivered their meals dashed out to the school gate with umbrellas.
Shao Sui put on his mask and thought of Mimi alone at home.
The weather forecast was getting increasingly inaccurate. Hadn’t it said the heavy rain would start in the afternoon…?
A few students gathered around the podium, chirping, “Teacher Shao, are you sick?”
Shao Sui said, “Ah, my voice is almost gone.”
They laughed, “Then you shouldn’t drink goji berries, they’re heaty!”
One observant student asked, “Teacher Shao, did you get a cat?”
Shao Sui didn’t deny it: “How did you know?”
The student said, “Teacher, there’s fur on your clothes.”
Shao Sui looked at his sleeve. There was indeed. He had been in a hurry this morning and hadn’t noticed.
Forget it. The cat was clean, so the cat hair was clean too. On his clothes, it was just decoration, what was the big deal?
Teacher Shao convinced himself, picked up his textbooks and materials, and walked out of the classroom, only to be stopped by a student named Wu Xiao.
“Teacher, I will study hard… can you please not hate me?”
Adolescents were the most difficult to teach, a slight misstep could lead them astray.
The reason Shao Sui had been removed as homeroom teacher was because last semester, he had noticed something was off with this student’s mood, called him into the office for a talk, which the student misinterpreted as special attention.
Since then, every coincidental encounter, every time he called on the student to answer a question in class, every inadvertent eye contact, was perceived by the child as mutual interest.
The worst part was, Wu Xiao wrote all this in his diary, and his controlling parents found it, causing a scene at school on the first day of the new semester.
Fortunately, the parents cared about their reputation and didn’t blow things up too much. Coupled with Shao Sui being on leave that day, Director Cao managed to appease them.
According to his colleagues, the parents had been incredibly rude in the office, saying it was the school’s fault for hiring a gay teacher who corrupted their child…
Shao Sui himself didn’t even know when he became gay, it was truly baffling.
But even knowing the parents were being unreasonable, the school couldn’t do anything but placate and appease them.
Wu Xiao persisted: “Teacher, do you hate homosexuals?”
“…” Shao Sui glanced back at the classroom. Luckily, the students were engrossed in their lunches, not paying attention.
He already had a cold, now his head was starting to hurt.
“This has nothing to do with sexual orientation, Wu Xiao. As a student, regardless of gender or orientation, you come to school to learn, it’s best not to overthink other things. And as a teacher, I come to school only to teach, do you understand?”
“Teacher, why are you wearing a mask?” Wu Xiao, completely ignoring him, looked dejected. “Homosexuality isn’t a disease, it’s not contagious.”
Shao Sui guessed the parents must have said some hurtful things to the child.
“Because I have a cold, as you all can probably hear. Not spreading illness to my students is also part of my responsibility.”
“I didn’t know…” Wu Xiao said awkwardly. “Then, then Teacher… you should rest well.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Shao Sui actually had more to say, but felt it wasn’t appropriate, it was better to leave it to the homeroom teacher.
He walked towards the office, and Shu Yi happened to be coming out. Seeing him, she winked.
Shao Sui asked, “What’s wrong?”
Shu Yi lowered her voice: “That student’s parents are here again. Didn’t you take the afternoon off? Just leave now.”
“Can I avoid them forever?” Shao Sui sighed. “Teacher Shu, go eat your lunch, I’ll go take a look.”
Shu Yi couldn’t help but sympathize: “Oh, you really are…”
Shao Sui pushed open the office door. The student’s parents, Director Cao, and the vice principal were all there.
Director Cao greeted, “Oh, Teacher Shao, class is over?”
Wu Xiao’s parents, initially furious, were taken aback when they saw Shao Sui, their expressions softening considerably.
Generally, it was hard to get angry at someone good-looking with a pleasant demeanor.
“Teacher Shao, we’re not targeting you.” Wu Xiao’s father cleared his throat. “Wu Xiao’s mother and I also believe the school’s investigation results, that you haven’t done anything inappropriate, but our child, he feels… As parents, we have to do something, we can’t just watch our child suffer.”
Any reasonable person reading Wu Xiao’s diary would understand it was just a child’s fantasy. The instances of being called on in class and eye contact were perfectly normal teacher-student interactions.
And Shao Sui had never been alone with any student. The school surveillance, as well as other students and teachers, could attest to that.
Shao Sui: “Please, go ahead.”
The parents said, “We have only one request, you can no longer teach our Wu Xiao.”
The vice principal said sternly, “Mrs. Wu, as I just said, Teacher Shao hasn’t done anything wrong and will continue to teach at our school. As for changing teachers for Class 7’s physics class, it wouldn’t be appropriate, it’s unfair to other students who admire Teacher Shao. I don’t think their parents would agree to a change of teacher either.”
Director Cao also said, “Yes, we’ve already removed Teacher Shao from his homeroom teacher position. If we comply with your request, it would be too unfair to him.”
Shao Sui remained silent, standing to the side with his head lowered, letting his superiors handle the parents. Anything he said might just add fuel to the fire.
The clock slowly approached 1 PM.
Shao Sui felt drowsy, his mind filled with thoughts of the cat.
“How about this, changing teachers is definitely not feasible, but we can transfer Wu Xiao to a class with a better overall learning environment, how does that sound?”
…
After turning human, Mimi didn’t find thunder so scary anymore.
Mainly because it cleverly turned up the TV volume to drown out the sound.
“Today, the heavy rain in our city has caused great inconvenience to residents…”
Mimi paced around the apartment while watching TV. With its larger body, the familiar furniture seemed smaller, no longer looming giants. It practiced walking and soon became quite proficient.
Suddenly, there were sounds at the door. Mimi, naked, ran over, only to find it was a neighbor, not Shao Sui.
Liar. He promised to be back before the thunder, and it has already thundered four times.
When the clock struck one, Mimi couldn’t sit still any longer and decided to go out and look for Shao Sui.
The news had just said going out during heavy rain was dangerous, like accidentally falling into a sewer, being struck by lightning while standing under a tree, being hit by a skidding car…
Humans were truly fragile and needed the Great Meow King’s protection.
Mimi knew humans needed to wear clothes when going out, unlike cats with their built-in fur coats. It tiptoed into the bedroom, opened the wardrobe, and immediately saw the blue and white clothes folded in the bottom left corner.
It picked them up and sniffed. They carried Shao Sui’s scent, but it wasn’t very strong.
It would have to do.
Mimi tried to recall how humans wore clothes, struggling for a while before finally putting on the pants, which immediately fell down as soon as it let go.
It quickly pulled them up, tightened the waistband, and tied a messy knot, almost tying its fingers together in the process. Mimi, in its human form, had very fair skin, and after all this struggling, it was covered in red marks.
Mimi, oblivious, looked at the two garments in its hands, somewhat like the school uniforms it had seen before. The thin one went inside, the thick one outside.
It awkwardly pulled up the zipper, pulling it too far and scratching its chin.
That hurts!
Make Shao Sui remove the zippers too!
Finally ready to go out.
Mimi couldn’t find an umbrella and forgot to put on shoes, running out barefoot. It had ridden the elevator before as a cat, so going downstairs wasn’t a problem.
Just that, as a human for the first time, its fingers weren’t very dexterous.
As soon as it reached the building entrance, Mimi saw the ginger kitten huddled in the corner – the one Shao Sui had held earlier.
“Meow~”
Sensing a fellow feline, the little ginger kitten slowly crawled over, wanting to rub against the Great Meow King’s ankle.
However, the Great Meow King, cruel and heartless, carried the kitten through the pouring rain to the entrance of the furthest building: “Meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow, meow?”
—The humans in this building all have nice pheromones, you’ll find a good person, understand?
The little ginger kitten clearly didn’t understand.
It seemed it couldn’t speak proper cat language in its human form. Mimi decided to let it be. Anyone could take the little ginger kitten home, except its male human.
So cold.
Mimi’s hair was soaked, clinging to its smooth forehead. It really wanted to turn back into a cat and curl up somewhere warm.
But it couldn’t.
Its male human hadn’t returned home yet. Perhaps he was in danger and needed rescuing.
Otherwise, who would make its dinner?
Soaked to the bone, Mimi ran back into the rain, following the faint scent of pheromones in the air, tracking Shao Sui’s trail.
Because it wasn’t wearing shoes, the rough ground scraped its feet raw, but it didn’t matter, cats had a high pain tolerance.
Humans were so fragile, the skin on their soles was so thin.
Mimi walked and sniffed, occasionally attracting curious glances from humans who wanted to ask why it was out in the rain, but Mimi would avoid them warily before they could approach.
It suddenly felt that it might not be able to be as carefree as before.
It used to be fearless, thinking all humans were kind, but now, without Shao Sui by its side, it felt every human wanted to prick it with needles and beat it with sticks.
Mimi was cold and miserable, but it was determined to find Shao Sui.
After a long time, perhaps as long as it took for the clock hand to reach the next whole number, Mimi finally saw him.
Shao Sui was unharmed, walking with an umbrella on the opposite sidewalk.
Mimi, ignoring the traffic lights, ran across the street, almost getting hit by a car.
It heard the driver, slamming on the brakes, yell, “Are you fucking suicidal!?”
Mimi didn’t want to listen, Mimi just wanted to catch up to Shao Sui.
It ran faster and faster, Shao Sui’s figure getting closer and closer.
If Mimi had a tail right now, it would be held high.
But the ground seemed to be against Mimi. Just as it reached out to grab Shao Sui, its foot stepped into a loose manhole cover, and its oversized pants caused it to trip and fall flat on its face.
Mimi wanted to get up immediately, but the pain was unbearable even for a cat.
It couldn’t catch up to Shao Sui.
It would be locked out.
Would Shao Sui look for it when he realized it was gone? Would he be worried? Or would he be happy to be rid of it?
Cold rainwater pelted Mimi, like tiny pebbles.
Suddenly, an umbrella appeared above its head, muffling the drumming rain, and the familiar scent of pheromones filled its nose.
Hearing a noise behind him, Shao Sui turned around. He helped the teenager in the school uniform up and asked, “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you using an umbrella?”
Mimi, on the verge of tears, couldn’t process anything, throwing itself into Shao Sui’s arms: “It hurts, it hurts!”
It repeated the words several times, as if in unbearable pain.
Shao Sui, however, experienced a surge of PTSD, forgetting even his own mysophobia.
He pushed the teenager away, fearing it was another student with a crush on him, and asked sternly, “Are you from the senior high? It’s class time, why aren’t you in the classroom? What’s your name? Which class are you in? Who’s your homeroom teacher?”
Mimi stared blankly at Shao Sui, not knowing which question to answer.
So fierce.
It was raining and thundering now too, why wasn’t he holding it inside his shirt like last night?
Not only was he not holding it, he was also scolding it.
Did he not like it in its human form?
Shao Sui realized his tone was a bit harsh, softening his voice and saying, “Which grade and class are you in? I’ll take you back, you’ll get sick wearing wet clothes.”
The teenager still didn’t speak, and although he wasn’t crying, he looked utterly heartbroken, as if on the verge of shattering.
He inexplicably resembled an abandoned kitten. If he had a tail, it would be drooping sadly.
