Chapter 36
By the time Jiang Heng’s next injection appointment arrived, Lu Yichuan had been discharged from the hospital.
Song Zhang came to visit on the day of his discharge, carrying a box. He tossed the box to Lu Yichuan, his expression unreadable.
“I never would have guessed. So much for all that talk; in the end, you’re still backsliding.”
Lu Yichuan ignored his sarcasm and opened the box, taking out the contents.
It was a collar with a bell attached, but there was no clapper inside, so it wouldn’t ring. A name tag was attached to the collar, engraved with Lu Yichuan’s name and phone number.
He lowered his eyes, his fingertips tracing two small characters engraved above his name, a satisfied smile in his dark eyes.
Song Zhang, standing beside him, asked, “Explain the name.”
“Explain what?”
“Don’t play dumb. You told me there was only one Rongrong, that you would rather give the cat away than find a replacement for him. And now you’ve engraved his name on the tag?”
Lu Yichuan looked at the collar, then turned to pick up the cat from the bed. “Just consider it me regretting my decision to find a replacement.”
Song Zhang’s expression immediately darkened.
Even if the cat couldn’t understand, calling it a replacement to its face was too cruel. Song Zhang could only remain silent.
Jiang Heng was groggily lifted into Lu Yichuan’s lap. He struggled for a few seconds before finally opening his eyes.
Lu Yichuan untied the red string from his neck, took the collar, threaded the string through the bell, and carefully wound it around the collar.
Jiang Heng pawed at the bell. He didn’t hear the usual chime, but felt something shift inside, a dull thud.
The man’s fingers deftly wound the red string around the collar, making sure it looked neat. He saw Jiang Heng’s movements and explained, “A cat’s hearing is very sensitive. Putting a clapper inside the bell could damage its ears, so I put a tracker in it instead.”
Jiang Heng was stunned. Was there a connection between the two? And why put a tracker on him?
“Mimi likes to wander off. It’s dangerous outside. With a tracker, I won’t have to worry. You don’t want me to lose you, do you?”
He spoke calmly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
He didn’t think it was strange, and seeing his casual expression, Jiang Heng also felt like it wasn’t strange.
In Lu Yichuan’s eyes, he was just a cat. And after the recent incident, it made sense that he would be worried and put a tracker on him.
Song Zhang, witnessing this, also didn’t think it was unusual.
After all, putting trackers on pets wasn’t uncommon.
Only Lu Yichuan, as he fastened the collar around Jiang Heng’s neck, the two small characters engraved next to his name hidden beneath the short fur, a declaration of ownership, knew the true meaning behind his actions.
He slowly curved his lips into a smile.
You can’t escape now.
He thought.
Song Zhang had the day off and, having nothing better to do, accompanied them to the pet hospital.
As they entered, the doctor, wearing gloves and holding a rather gruesome object, saw Lu Yichuan and casually removed his gloves. “You’re here.”
Song Zhang stared at the unidentifiable objects in the transparent container, a sense of familiarity creeping over him. “What’s that?”
The doctor glanced at the container. “I had some free time today, so I decided to finish the job and neutered all those tomcats.”
Jiang Heng turned his head and saw Big Orange lying on the operating table, its tongue lolling out.
Big Orange, the campus bully, the calico cat’s devoted admirer, was now destined to be just friends with his goddess.
The doctor, basking in the glory of his good deed, turned to Lu Yichuan with a sales pitch. “Mr. Lu, when your cat is old enough, feel free to come find me. I’m a professional, quick and precise, I guarantee a painless neutering. And since we’re old friends, I’ll give you a discount.”
Jiang Heng felt a chill down below and clung to Lu Yichuan’s arm, letting out a terrified meow.
“Meow!”
Lu Yichuan covered Jiang Heng’s head, preventing him from seeing the contents of the container, unwilling to traumatize his cat, and politely declined the doctor’s offer. “No, he won’t be neutered.”
The doctor carried Big Orange, still unconscious from the anesthesia, back to its cage, and glanced at the cat in Lu Yichuan’s arms. “Then you’ll have to find him a wife.”
The smile on Lu Yichuan’s face faltered slightly. “Are you that free, Doctor? Even concerning yourself with a cat’s personal life?”
Doctor: “…”
For some reason, he felt a sudden chill.
Song Zhang circled the group of cats. “I remember a calico cat caused those injuries on that guy’s face. Why don’t I see it here?”
The doctor replied, “It probably didn’t like being here and escaped while I wasn’t looking. I searched outside, but I couldn’t find it.”
Since it was a stray, it wouldn’t starve to death even if it ran away, so the doctor wasn’t too worried. He cleaned up the operating table, then turned to Lu Yichuan with a cheerful smile, holding out his hands. “Come on, little guy, it’s time for your injection.”
For a long time after that, that cheerful smile would haunt Jiang Heng’s nightmares.
Returning to the dormitory, Jiang Heng felt a strange sense of unreality.
The room was exactly as Lu Yichuan had left it, except the cabinet door was wide open, the bag of cat food ripped to shreds, kibble scattered everywhere, and messy paw prints all over the clean floor.
Seeing this, Jiang Heng felt a twinge of guilt and buried his head in Lu Yichuan’s arm, staying silent.
The man didn’t say anything, just gently tugged his tail, placed him on the bed, and started cleaning up the mess the cats had made.
Jiang Heng shifted on the bed, found a comfortable position, and looked at his tail.
The burned part of his tail seemed to be growing fur slower than the rest of his body and was still bald. To be honest, Jiang Heng wasn’t very fond of his tail and avoided looking at it most of the time.
But recently, for some reason, Lu Yichuan seemed obsessed with his tail, constantly touching and stroking it, especially the burned part, almost as if he wanted to keep it in his pocket.
Jiang Heng didn’t understand, and Lu Yichuan didn’t need him to.
By the time he finished cleaning, it was already afternoon, the setting sun painting the balcony gold.
The man carried a chair to the balcony, bent down, and carefully brushed the kitten’s perpetually unkempt fur with a small comb, then sprayed it with hair growth serum.
The tip of the tail was his focus.
He gently massaged the burned area, as if trying to soothe the old wound, willing it to grow the thickest fur.
“Beautiful,” he praised sincerely. “It will be even more beautiful when your fur grows longer.”
Jiang Heng, embarrassed by his praise, instinctively tucked his sensitive tail under him, letting out a few incoherent meows.
He thought, even if Lu Yichuan didn’t know who he was, he would be happy to spend the rest of his life like this.
The wind rustled the leaves of the plane tree, and the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the branches, falling on Lu Yichuan’s face, illuminating his dark eyes, in which a small figure was reflected.
They sat together, close, almost embracing.
But Lu Yichuan always felt…
…that it was all a dream.
The orphanage relocation was underway, and the existing staff was suddenly insufficient, so Su Ye stayed to help.
Big Orange and Little White had been taken in by the orphanage and were living comfortably. But that other pitiful, dirty little kitten, she hadn’t seen it since those students had come.
It wasn’t unusual for a cat or dog to disappear in this area. Although Su Ye felt a pang of sadness, there was nothing she could do.
Then, one morning, a man came looking for her.
He wore a suit, looking refined and out of place in the grimy industrial district.
He brought her to a café.
The café wasn’t fancy. Due to its location, business was slow, and the dusty tables were left uncleaned.
A single customer sat inside.
It was late April, and the temperature was rising. The man wore a thin white jacket, his posture upright, his presence a stark contrast to the dingy surroundings.
Seeing Su Ye enter, Lu Yichuan pushed the coffee towards her. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I ordered something most girls enjoy.”
Su Ye hesitantly sat down. She noticed the bandages around the man’s left wrist, his fingers long and clean, and above them, a handsome face.
His narrow eyes seemed familiar.
Lu Yichuan said, “We’ve met before, at the orphanage. I was one of the students who made a donation.”
Su Ye remembered.
That rainy afternoon, and the refined, aloof man.
She didn’t touch the coffee, nervously wringing her hands. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Lu Yichuan took out a photo and handed it to her. “Sorry for calling you out so suddenly, I just wanted to ask you something. Have you seen this cat?”
Su Ye took the photo and saw a small, dirty kitten.
She froze for a moment. “Yes. I haven’t seen it for a while. I thought it…”
“He’s my cat. I looked for him everywhere, and then he came back to me on his own.” Lu Yichuan took a sip of the bitter coffee. “I don’t know what he went through before that. I heard you had seen him, so I wanted to ask you about it.”
It took Su Ye a moment to process this. She held the photo, looking at the kitten, and answered thoughtfully.
“I only saw it a few times. The first time was at the entrance of my restaurant. It was soaking wet, probably splashed with water by someone. I felt sorry for it and gave it a bowl of egg fried rice.”
“Later, my restaurant went out of business, and I returned to the orphanage. That’s where I saw it the second time…”
She seemed to remember something and looked at the man across from her. “You were there that day.”
Lu Yichuan abruptly looked up.
“It came in through the dog hole in the wall with a white cat that morning. We gave them some food, and then I got busy and didn’t pay much attention. You arrived in the afternoon.”
After Su Ye finished speaking, the man’s expression didn’t seem to change, but she felt as if something inside him had shattered silently.
She suddenly found it difficult to continue.
“It…it came back after you left. I saw it was injured and went to find something to bandage its wound, but when I came back, both it and the white cat were gone.”
“I never saw it again after that.”
“It was so sick, I thought it had already…”
…
Lu Yichuan was silent.
After a long moment, the last bit of hope inside him finally crumbled.
His shoulders slumped, his grip on the spoon tightening, his knuckles white. The spoon scraped against the bottom of the cup, a sharp, jarring sound.
So he had come to see him one last time.
He thought.
