There was silence in the hallway for several seconds.
Xie Lin squatted opposite Chi Qing. He felt a strong urge to reach out and pat his head; he found the sight of Chi Qing having a breakdown over his own mysophobia inexplicably cute. “How did a cat even get into your place?”
Chi Qing repeatedly checked himself for stray cat hair, frustrated because he couldn’t get it all off. “I had a moment of stupidity and let it in. To be precise, it was probably the water in my brain that let it in.”
Usually, few things ever approached Chi Qing voluntarily.
The lunatic named Xie standing in front of him was one.
That cat was the second.
He didn’t know if the cat’s vision was failing, but couldn’t it see that he desperately wanted to grab it by the scruff of its neck and toss it out?
When Ren Qin had handed over the cat carrier and the necessary supplies, she had introduced it as being “shy,” saying it didn’t even dare to get close to her and would likely hide in a corner for hours without coming out. Yet, the moment Chi Qing put on his gloves to open the carrier, the “shy” cat had pounced on him with overwhelming, unreserved enthusiasm. He had had to scramble backward just to narrowly avoid it.
Afterward, the two had engaged in a stalemate on the sofa. Chi Qing had climbed down, intending to return to his bedroom to lock the doors and windows, but the man and the cat had played a game of tag. By the time Chi Qing reached his bedroom door, he was a step too late.
“…”
Chi Qing finally pulled the teaser wand out of the bag of supplies Ren Qin had brought and threw it to the far end of the living room. The cat, possessing limited intelligence, chased after the wand with a flying leap—and that was how Chi Qing finally escaped.
“I’ve never raised a cat,” Xie Lin said after hearing the play-by-play. “Let’s just open the door and see. You can’t stay squatting out here until tomorrow morning, can you? And did you even pour it cat food or water?”
Chi Qing, expressionless and feeling hopeless, replied, “No. It’s lucky enough that I haven’t killed it yet.”
The two stood at Chi Qing’s front door. After entering the code, Chi Qing shrank behind Xie Lin, not even a strand of his hair visible. “You go in first.”
And so, the two men who had just attended a mental health education forum—and who looked completely ill-suited for cat ownership—stood at the entrance, staring at a Ragdoll cat.
In Chi Qing’s eyes, it was a clump of fur-shedding biomass that had zero recognizable “cuteness.”
Xie Lin could accept it, but… the cat likely wouldn’t be affectionate toward him.
Cats were creatures that understood human nature.
When Xie Lin was a child, Xie Feng had been very fond of cats and once brought a stray home. Xie Lin had been in middle school then, sitting in the study reviewing case files. Halfway through, he heard a faint meow at the door. He had been holding the stack of crime records, smiling as he thought of patting its head: “Where did this little thing come from?”
However, when the cat met Xie Lin’s eyes, it felt an inexplicable danger closing in—even though the teenager in front of it had no intention of hurting it.
But its intuition told it that it deeply disliked the scent radiating from this person.
And so, the cat had swiped a claw across Xie Lin the moment it got close.
Just as it had anticipated, this smiling human was indeed abnormal. Even after being scratched until he bled, he didn’t get angry; he didn’t even frown. He only said, “So disobedient.”
“Little thing.”
As Xie Lin slowly crouched down and beckoned toward where the cat was hiding, the cat’s fur stood on end. It backed up all the way until it retreated under the sofa, lying perfectly still. Only then did it show the “shyness” Ren Qin had described.
Chi Qing hadn’t anticipated this turn of events at all. He remembered when he first met Xie Lin at the psychological clinic, the cats had indeed steered clear of him and wouldn’t stay on the sofa he occupied. “…”
Xie Lin spread his hands. “Forgot to tell you. I don’t know why, but since I was a kid, cats have never liked me.”
Most people would say something to comfort him at a time like this.
Only Chi Qing said, with sincere conviction: “Congratulations.”
Xie Lin: “…Thank you.”
Downstairs, Ren Qin was stroking her orange cat’s head. “Look at you, why are you being so fierce? It’s a good thing Mr. Chi upstairs was willing to foster it for a while; otherwise, I wouldn’t have known how to explain it to my friend…”
Ren Qin had no idea she had entrusted the cat to two incredibly unreliable people.
One despised cats, and the other was despised by cats.
“The cat food is here, you need to feed it on a schedule.”
“Oh.”
“It won’t pee everywhere; it uses cat litter itself. You just need to clean it periodically.”
“It needs cleaning? Can’t it clean itself?”
“That would be quite difficult.”
“…”
Xie Lin looked up some tips on raising cats.
Chi Qing sat in the living room with a piece of paper, writing things down point by point. Every time Xie Lin read a tip, Chi Qing would summarize it in a short note.
By the eighth point, the pen in Chi Qing’s hand was running out of ink. He was annoyed to the point of irritation; he should have just let Ren Qin roll away with the cat carrier earlier.
Chi Qing flicked the pen. He wasn’t really comfortable with this arrangement, and fearing Xie Lin might overthink it, he explained coldly, “Don’t get the wrong idea. I wasn’t planning on helping her; I just happened to remember that Dr. Wu suggested that more contact with these things might help with my condition.”
Xie Lin waited for him to finish writing, propping his chin up as he watched him. “Dr. Wu also said that you should have more contact with me, which would also help with your condition.”
“…”
Chi Qing had forgotten about that.
Xie Lin extended his hand, now free of its plaster cast, right in front of Chi Qing as if he were the one who was ill. Dragging out the tail of his words, he complained, “You haven’t come to me for ‘treatment’ in a long time.”
Although his ears had turned red in private, in the open, Xie Lin remained the unflappable “male fox spirit.” Seeing that Chi Qing didn’t reach out to grab his hand, he extended it further, pressing the back of his hand directly onto the paper Chi Qing was writing on. The tip of the nearly empty pen grazed a faint line of black ink across his palm.
It had been Chi Qing’s excuse back then, and now, Xie Lin was the one bringing it up again.
But ever since he could read Xie Lin’s thoughts, Chi Qing couldn’t bring himself to drag him into “treatment” anymore.
Before, he hadn’t read others because he had no interest and most of their thoughts were unpleasant. Even though Xie Lin didn’t make him feel that way, he didn’t want to pry into what the man was thinking.
Any normal person would feel that was an intrusion.
Yet, Xie Lin insisted on moving closer. Chi Qing’s gloves were covered in cat hair—he had already taken them off—and as Xie Lin reached out, he pressed squarely against the first joint of Chi Qing’s little finger.
[He clearly wants to help, yet he pretends he doesn’t care.]
Followed by:
[Tsk, why is he so cute?]
Chi Qing was struck by the word “cute” and slowed his hand-pulling motion by half a beat.
…
He must have been talking about the cat.
Even after Chi Qing noted down the cat-raising tips, it was useless. He couldn’t get any work done whenever the cat approached him. He ended up pouring half the cat food onto the floor.
Cat hair was like dust; it floated everywhere.
In the end, he had to let Xie Lin handle it.
- It’s feeding time.
Lately, the chat history between the two was entirely about the cat briefly residing in Chi Qing’s home.
Ren Qin was helping find a new owner, but after putting the word out, no suitable candidates had come forward yet.
The cat was stuck living for a few days with the two people least suited to raising one.
When Ji Mingrui heard there was a cat in Chi Qing’s home, his jaw nearly hit the floor. He couldn’t help but lament: “…What kind of sins did this cat commit in its past life? Did it murder someone or burn a house down to end up in your hands?”
“Do you know how to raise it? And, may I ask, is it still alive?”
“…” A vein throbbed on Chi Qing’s forehead. “Get lost.”
“Poor, young, innocent life. I hope it doesn’t develop a misunderstanding about the human species because of you.”
“…”
But even so, for some reason, the cat loved to cling to Chi Qing.
When Chi Qing sat on the sofa watching TV, it would sleep at his feet. After several failed attempts to communicate with it, Chi Qing gradually got used to it, finding it wasn’t as unbearable as he’d thought.
After all, he wasn’t the one who had to do the real “scooping” (cleaning).
Xie Lin, the real “poop-scooper,” replied a few minutes later: I’m on the road, I’ll be there in five minutes. If it makes a fuss, feed it some canned food first.
Chi Qing glanced at the lump of fur sound asleep and didn’t wake it up.
- No problem. Five minutes. It won’t starve to death.
When Xie Lin parked, he saw this reply and smiled as he turned off the engine.
In his message list, there was a string of ignored red dots from Wu Zhi.
- Why did you leave in such a hurry?
- We barely had two drinks after finally getting together, and you just left. Is someone waiting for you at home or what?
Wu Zhi’s comment was pure sarcasm, but he had accidentally hit the nail on the head. Xie Lin took a few seconds to reply.
- You’re actually right. Someone is waiting at home.
Wu Zhi: …
- And there are two of them, one big and one small.
- Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.
Wu Zhi: ???
Xie Lin was quite skilled at feeding the cat by now, though the ungrateful little thing still hid under the sofa or next to Chi Qing whenever it saw him. Whenever it chose the latter, it was usually picked up by Chi Qing.
Chi Qing: “Go under the sofa.”
Xie Lin watched the cat eat for a while.
The cat stopped licking the food, cast him a wary look, as if debating whether to keep eating or hide to the side.
Before Xie Lin stood up, he muttered under his breath, “You little ingrate, you don’t even get used to me after I feed you.”
It was just in time for dinner.
Xie Lin was helping feed the cat, and Chi Qing wasn’t petty, so he kept him for dinner.
Chi Qing’s apartment had always been empty, but with the cat there these past few days, along with the person coming in and out to feed it, the place finally felt a bit more alive.
As Chi Qing was in the kitchen choosing which knife to use to slice the beef, he heard Xie Lin cough lightly behind him.
Xie Lin leaned against the kitchen door frame, watching him. “There’s something I want to ask you.”
He had spent ages on the phone with Officer Ji last time and hadn’t learned anything, especially regarding the one question he most wanted answered. After thinking it over, he decided to just ask the person himself.
“Chatted with Officer Ji last time and your name came up. He said you didn’t have much romantic experience, so I was curious… I wanted to ask, you…”
Xie Lin paused, not knowing why he felt so nervous. “What kind of person do you like?”
If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t be this helpless, but this was Chi Qing.
He thought perhaps he just happened to match Chi Qing’s unconventional aesthetic.
Even if he were a bit far off, it wasn’t like he couldn’t put in the effort to change.
…
Then, Xie Lin watched as Chi Qing picked out a slicing knife. He wiped the blade with a clean kitchen towel, looking as if he were truly pondering the question.
“I don’t really like the human species,” Chi Qing said, wiping the blade. Reflections of the cold, sharp steel danced in his deep, dark pupils. He answered casually, “If I had to choose, it would probably be the dead. Quiet, breathless, and they don’t talk.”
Xie Lin: “…”
