The Cub Comes from Planet Meow 62

Chapter 62: Meow

Mom took care of it even more carefully.

She was an obstetric nurse. Although humans and cats were different, she knew more professional knowledge than ordinary people and took care of it properly without any accidents.

Cats’ pregnancy lasts about two months. Not long after, its babies were born smoothly, and it became a mother.

There were a total of five kitten babies: a black cat, a white cat, an orange cat, a Tortoiseshell cat, and a tuxedo cat.

Mom praised excitedly: “Our Meili’s genes are really amazing.”

It responded proudly: “Meow.”

The kitten babies grew up day by day. Some were naughty, some quiet, some greedy, some sleepy, some clingy…

The home became livelier and livelier.

Until one day, the most lively, boldest, and most affectionate baby disappeared suddenly.

It was a Tortoiseshell cat with the same coat color as it.

…

Lin Pan’er was born in a poor town, with an older sister and a younger brother.

Because of the family planning policy at that time, a family could only have two children, and fines had to be paid for extra children.

After she was born, to avoid fines, her family never registered her household registration.

Until her younger brother was finally born, her parents were unwilling to keep her at home anymore and gave her away.

Pan’er, Pan’er (Hoping for a Son), hoping the next one would be a son.

Even her name didn’t belong to her, so how could she expect a place in this family?

She was given to a childless couple in the same town, who spent two chickens and a small red envelope to take her home.

Although she was young at that time, she already understood a lot. She was very obedient and well-behaved, hoping to live a better life.

Because they had no children of their own, her adoptive parents were neither good nor bad to her, just feeding her and hoping she would repay them when she grew up.

But good times didn’t last long. A few years later, her adoptive parents, who had never given up on trying to conceive, finally gave birth to their own child.

Her existence became abrupt and eyesore.

Later, they contacted human traffickers and sold her.

The new home was deeper in the mountains, with a foolish son. The other party bought her to be a child bride, treating her not badly, letting her do some work she could do, taking care of the foolish son. The foolish son occasionally gave her candy.

At that time, she was inexperienced and actually thought this was quite good.

After living here for a few years, a police officer named Chen led a group of police officers into the mountains and rescued many trafficked people.

Among them were children and women.

She was one of them.

She was brought back to City A by Captain Chen, who contacted her first adoptive parents. Her adoptive parents were unwilling to take her, but buying and selling were the same crime. Worried that selling her to traffickers would be exposed, they had to reluctantly prepare to take her home.

Captain Chen seemed to see something. When her adoptive parents arrived, he said to them: “There is an elderly couple in City A who lost their only child and likes Pan’er very much. If you feel pressured raising multiple children, you can give Pan’er up for adoption to them.”

Adoption was legal and compliant, and they could get rid of this burden who was not young anymore. Her adoptive parents agreed readily.

Just like that, she was personally sent to Mom and Dad’s home by Captain Chen.

Mom and Dad were already very old; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them Grandpa and Grandma, but she still liked calling them Mom and Dad.

Their only child died in a car accident. The car exploded, leaving no remains.

They were extremely good to her, even better than that foolish son. She had endless candy to eat, endless dresses to wear, didn’t have to do dirty and tiring work, just study with peace of mind.

For the first time, she felt the warmth of home.

But good times didn’t last long. Mom and Dad were too old after all. When she was in high school, Mom was diagnosed with cancer but kept it from her until the college entrance examination ended. In her junior year of college, Mom left her forever.

A few years after graduation, Dad followed Mom, also dying of illness. She insisted on spending all the family’s money to treat them, and finished college relying on student loans, but still couldn’t keep them.

Her home fell apart just like that.

Her life became more and more boring and confusing, just a line between the hospital and the house every day.

The only joy was seeing the vivid and cute faces of newborns in the hospital.

Every child would cry loudly when born because they came to a completely unfamiliar place, facing a completely unknown life. Under the gaze of pairs of eyes, fear completely engulfed them.

Not long after, they would be taken home.

Unknown “home.”

She felt sorry for them and empathized with worries about their future.

She had experienced too many families personally and was afraid they would also experience bumps like she once did.

Besides, in these years in the hospital, she also witnessed too many families.

Some had a sour face because of giving birth to a daughter, rushing to prepare for the next pregnancy to have a son.

Some cruelly abandoned their children because of physical defects.

Some children were disliked as soon as they were born because their skin color wasn’t fair or their features weren’t beautiful, and were even required to do a paternity test.

…

She often thought: Without love, why bring children into this world?

Later, she picked up the Tortoiseshell cat Meili.

She gradually understood the inherent bad nature of humans.

They wanted a perfect child.

Just like they wanted a perfect kitten.

In the hearts of her biological parents, a boy was the most perfect child, so she became a victim.

In the hearts of her first adoptive parents, their biological child was the most perfect, so they sold her to traffickers without hesitation.

In the hearts of the couple who bought her, their foolish son was the most perfect child. They had to settle his life, including marriage, so she was bought to be his child bride.

In the eyes of Meili’s previous owners, its appearance didn’t conform to human aesthetics. Even with the best personality, it was cruelly abandoned because of its “ugly” appearance.

But she had also felt pure love from a family.

She wasn’t a perfect child, but became Mom and Dad’s favorite child.

Because of this, she also possessed the ability to give love.

She adopted Meili without hesitation, giving it her own surname. The family had a new furry member and wasn’t as dead silent as before.

Not long after, she found Meili’s belly was “not quite right.” After checking, she found—it was carrying kitten babies inside.

She was surprised and expectant.

In the hospital, she had witnessed the arrival of new life in many families.

This was her first time welcoming new life in her home.

Cats’ pregnancy is very short. More than a month later, there were 5 cute kitten babies in the house.

One of them was a Tortoiseshell cat with the same coat color as Meili, born first, the eldest among the kitten babies, the older sister of the other 4 kittens.

There was still a big difference between raising one cat and six cats.

Although she liked the liveliness brought by the kitten babies, the work in the hospital was indeed tedious and busy, and she couldn’t take care of them all.

As the kitten babies grew up, the demand for space and litter increased. The area of the house became insufficient for their activities. The old building had low total floors and no elevator installed, so she could only go up and down on her legs. She happened to live on the top floor. Carrying heavy bags of litter up and down, once she lost her footing and fell down, getting injured all over.

She liked every kitten baby, and liked Meili even more, but her ability was insufficient, and she really couldn’t give them the best care.

She struggled for a long time. On the night she fell down the stairs and lay in the hospital, she decided—to start looking for reliable new parents for the kitten babies.

She took videos of the kitten babies and posted them online.

To her surprise, the first one adopted was the Tortoiseshell kitten baby with the same coat color as Meili.

The adopter worked in self-media, running a cute pet account. She had even swiped his videos. The video showed his previous cat, which died of illness. He hadn’t raised a new cat until he saw the photo of the Tortoiseshell kitten baby she posted online.

Raising a cat depends heavily on fate.

She felt the other party would be a good parent and could give the Tortoiseshell kitten baby a happy home, so she sent it over.

Meili seemed to find a baby “missing” and walked around the house looking for the baby’s figure.

She suddenly felt sad and guilty. She let Meili down; she sent away its baby.

But after being arranged by Captain Chen to be adopted by Mom and Dad, she had a better life. She hoped the kitten babies could also be adopted by better parents like she once was.

But she was wrong.

The adoptive family wasn’t necessarily a family like Mom and Dad’s; it could also be a family like her first adoptive parents’.

After the Tortoiseshell kitten baby was sent over, she watched the adopter’s account every day.

Initially, the video of him picking up the Tortoiseshell kitten baby had good traffic. Many people in the comment section praised the new cat, especially its chatty meows, very cute.

After that, the adopter would update a video of the Tortoiseshell kitten baby from time to time, mostly capturing its soft and cute meows to make interesting videos.

Initially, the traffic was good, but gradually, it became lukewarm.

Although it was a little chatterbox, its appearance didn’t quite fit the public aesthetic of humans, nor was it ugly enough to form a huge contrast with its meows to attract traffic.

Not long after, the adopter’s account stopped updating for a while.

She privately messaged the adopter on WeChat. The other party said lightly that he was sick, so she didn’t dare ask too much, afraid of disturbing his private life.

After a while, the other party’s account suddenly released a video of a new cat, with very good traffic.

It was a particularly beautiful pedigree cat, but the Tortoiseshell kitten baby was nowhere to be seen.

She felt a lingering fear in her heart and immediately sent a WeChat message to ask.

The other party replied: Sorry, during his illness, when getting medicine from delivery, the Tortoiseshell kitten baby sneaked out and got lost. He was confused by illness and didn’t discover it in time. Later, he looked for a long time but couldn’t find it, having no face to see her.

She always felt the other party was lying, but she had no evidence.

She went to the other party’s community and surrounding areas to look for a long time but didn’t find it.

She argued with the other party, but the other party always had an attitude of apologizing and taking the blame, like punching cotton.

Maybe she really overthought it.

But watching the other party update videos of the new cat every day, while the Tortoiseshell kitten baby’s videos were gradually squeezed to the bottom, taking a long time to scroll to, she suddenly wanted to cry.

Why did she send the Tortoiseshell kitten baby away? If she hadn’t sent it away, none of this would have happened.

One day coming home from work, she saw a kitten’s body crushed by a car in the middle of the road. It wasn’t the Tortoiseshell kitten baby, but it still broke her last line of defense.

Where would the Tortoiseshell kitten baby be now? Would it encounter any danger? Would it be bullied? Would it be injured?

Back home, she finally couldn’t hold back, hugging Meili and crying for a long time. Her tears wet its fur, licked away by its soft tongue.

The remaining four kitten babies also came over, wrapping her up, rubbing against her skin furrily.

She didn’t dare look for new families for them anymore, afraid they would end up like the Tortoiseshell kitten baby.

With one less cat, there was less crowding, and taking care of them was slightly easier.

During that time, because her seniority increased, her salary also increased a lot. Her savings accumulated, and her student loans had long been paid off. She chose for a long time and rented a new, large apartment with an elevator, enough for her and the kittens to live better.

She regretted countless times why she couldn’t grit her teeth and take care of the kitten babies for a while longer. When she had enough savings and her salary increased, she could change to a better house, and the family wouldn’t be separated.

But the old injury on her leg from falling down the stairs that time always relapsed in the rainy season.

If the injury wasn’t on the leg but the head, if the injury was more serious, she might not even be able to take care of one cat.

But there is no medicine for regret in the world.

She would always be sorry to the Tortoiseshell kitten baby, sorry to Meili.

She also became the irresponsible parent she hated the most.

…

Hospital ward.

The baby had fallen asleep. Jing Zhi lowered his voice and asked: “When do you plan to move into the new home? Do you need our help moving? We just plan to take Mimi to eat that particularly delicious beef noodle near Jiayuan Community.”

The kitten Mimi lived in that community for a while back then. They had long planned to take the little human Mimi back for a stroll, considered revisiting an old haunt.

It would be even better if they could go to the Shen family’s home. The kitten Mimi should be more familiar with that place.

Shen Ziyuan answered: “Moving this weekend. You can help lend a hand. Treat you to a meal.”

Jing Zhi smiled and said okay.

Lin Luo also smiled and said: “We can shoot a vlog, leeching off our Little Jing big streamer’s traffic.”

Lin Pan’er beside them suddenly moved her lips and asked: “Are you doing self-media?”

Shen Luo hummed.

Because the previous adopter also worked in self-media, that person was like a thorn stuck in her heart. Lin Pan’er was extra sensitive about this.

She asked without hope: “Do you know ‘Shovel Officer Qizi (Flag)’? Qi as in Caiqi (Colorful Flag), also from City A, a cute pet blogger.”

Shen Luo shook her head. Shen Ziyuan searched on his phone and saw the cat videos he shot; the traffic was okay.

Jing Zhi and Jiang Suifeng also searched. They didn’t know him, but had swiped videos of the cat he raised now, and asked: “What happened to him?”

Lin Pan’er pursed her lips, thought for a moment, and told them about the Tortoiseshell kitten baby.

Halfway through, Shen Ziyuan suddenly exclaimed, his tone strange: “Isn’t this Chestnut when it was little?”

He couldn’t mistake Chestnut.

Jing Mimi was also listening to the story while looking at Uncle Shen’s phone screen, eyes wide open.

In the video on the phone screen, it was really Sister Chestnut when she was little! Sister Chestnut with two ears!

As a kitten, he couldn’t mistake the cat he was familiar with either.

Lin Pan’er was also stunned after hearing this. Her heart beat faster inexplicably, and her lips trembled a bit: “Can you show me Chestnut’s photos and videos again? How did you meet it?”

Shen Ziyuan handed over his phone, which had switched to the Chestnut album, and answered: “Saw it at the rescue station. It only had one ear. Ah Luo felt a connection with it, so we took it back on the spot.”

Lin Pan’er: “When?”

Shen Luo couldn’t wait to say a date.

Lin Pan’er held Shen Ziyuan’s phone in one hand and her own open phone in the other, her hands starting to tremble too.

Although missing one ear, Chestnut’s overall pattern corresponded to the Tortoiseshell kitten baby. Although the date Shen Luo mentioned couldn’t be pinpointed precisely, it was indeed a few months after the Tortoiseshell kitten baby was lost.

The answer was already clear.

Chestnut—was the kitten baby Meili lost.

…

[Tortoiseshell Cat Lin Meili’s Wish Completed]

Planet Meow, Chestnut looked at another Tortoiseshell cat sitting beside her in disbelief, murmuring: “Mom?”

Lin Meili leaned close gently, licking her remaining small ear, as if she had recognized her long ago.

***

Author’s Note:

[Milk Tea] The Tortoiseshell cat’s story has a happy ending! Unlike the previous tear-jerkers.