Ch68 - Don’t make me repeat myself a second time

The kitten was too small a thing, it was perhaps only one or two months old. It stood its ground, observing me from a distance as it stayed cautious and wary.

I threw away the trash and remained where I was for a while, looking at the kitten before I attempted to get closer to it. It appeared to be startled by my movements, as at once it lowered its body and retreated in alarm. 

“Over here, come here.” I said as I crouched down, attempting to minimise the threat of my presence. “Kitty, come here.”

The tiny, orange kitten stared timidly at me, traces of curiosity and terror reflected in its almond eyes.

 

 

The kitten was dirty all over, with black soil stuck to its pink nose tip, just like every other inch of its body.

I had previously heard my father mentioning that cats were fastidious animals and looked after their hygiene scrupulously. Once stray cats appeared dirty, it meant that their survival was already such a problem for them that they had no excess energy to look after themselves. This also signalled that the cat wasn’t too far from death. 

In addition, the temperature had dropped recently, and this was such a small kitten, it had probably just been weaned. Without its mother, it may not be able to survive this winter.

 

If I turned around and left it here, there was a high chance that tomorrow I’d be seeing its corpse lying by the trash can.

There were many strays in this world, with many of them being in pitiful situations. It was impossible for me to rescue every one of them, but this one was different. Not only did this cat look like the one from many years back, it had also appeared under Sheng Min Ou’s apartment block, and I had chanced upon it.

In Wuxia stories, if the protagonist were to achieve great things, then he must suffer tribulations and hardships to meet his fate.

 

This kitten here looked like an ‘old friend’, it was currently homeless and was abandoned by its mother. It ticked all the boxes for a main character backstory. Therefore, I would be the fate it encounters, and become the hidden master that would assist with its rebirth.

“Come here, I’ll give you a good meal to fill your belly, and then we’ll find a good family for you. Won’t it be much better than you traversing the streets having only one meal in your belly without a guaranteed one later? Think about it.”

The little orange cat didn’t turn around to flee immediately, as it confronted me quietly for a moment. Perhaps it had felt that I wasn’t a threat, as it gradually shifted closer towards me.

 

The kitten was still timid as it gingerly sniffed my fingertips. If I even moved a little bit, it would dash away like a frightened rabbit, only returning when I became still again, and so this cycle would repeat. 

“Okay, okay, don’t be scared, it’s not like I’m going to eat you or anything.” I said, waiting patiently for the kitten to completely trust me. It was only when the kitten began to nudge itself against my palm that I smoothed my fingers gently down its clumped fur, before I firmly grasped fate by the back of its neck.

Kittens around this age still retained its memory of being carried around by the mother cat by the scruff of their neck, so they generally wouldn’t put up a fight. I therefore took it home, and as soon as I got back I headed to the shower and closed its door behind me.

Facing this unfamiliar environment, the kitten raised its guard against me again as it shrank into a corner, and began to hiss at me.

This behaviour was not like the previous orange cat at all, that one was nowhere as mean. It was soft and plump, and when it saw Sheng Min Ou it would start vying for his affection, revealing its belly and meowing in the process. 

I closed the glass shower door and pulled out some frozen chicken wings from the refrigerator that I had bought not long ago. After boiling them in plain water, I rinsed them in cold water and tore the chicken wings to strips before placing them in small plates and delivering it to the kitten.

“I originally was going to eat these chicken wings myself, so you’ve really lucked out here.” After being placed on a liquid diet for a month, I now even had dreams of eating hotpot, and I constantly drooled whenever I passed a fried chicken store.

Initially, I planned to take advantage of Sheng Min Ou’s absence in these few days to secretly get my hands on some meat and fish. However, it turned out that what wasn’t mine would never be, as halfway through a Cheng Yao Jin appeared and I ended up not having a single bite at all.

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I then pinged @Shen Xiao Shi in our four person group chat, and told him to post an adoption notice on the pawn shop’s account to see if anyone was interested in adopting a cat.

Shen Xiao Shi requested for me to send some pictures of the kitten for him. I filled up a bowl with some water and placed it on the floor of the bathroom as I conveniently snapped a picture of the kitten devouring the chicken pieces. 

“…” Shen Xiao Shi was silent for a while.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you sure this isn’t just a really big mouse? It’s way too dirty, don’t you think?”

I contemplated the photo for a while, before I forced out a defence on behalf of the tiny orange kitten, “It’s just not very photogenic, if you look at its features it’s actually quite beautiful…” 

Shen Xiao Shi expressed his doubts, “Feng Ge, how about you take the kitten to a pet shop tomorrow to have it bathed? With its current appearance, there will be no one who wants to adopt it. We should know best, given that we work in this industry. These days, no matter what people fancy, the first thing they pay attention to is how it looks. Not to mention what we’re listing here is a kitten, a living creature that will need to be cared for for at least the next ten years, right?”

I thought about what he said and agreed, so I had him pause on listing the cat for adoption, as I began to search for my nearest pet store.

Sheng Min Ou’s apartment was in an excellent location, with all kinds of shops around him ranging from restaurants to clothing boutiques. Within five hundred metres was a large shopping mall, and on one street was a pet care centre, a pet beauty salon, and a veterinary hospital, all in close proximity.

Early the next morning, I took the kitten with me to the veterinary hospital for a check-up. The vet took a look at it and said that other than a mild case of cat moss and malnutrition, there were no other issues. 

The doctor suggested that I vaccinate the kitten and deworm it. He was a professional, and I was a layman at this matter, so evidently I followed his advice.

After receiving the vaccination, the kitten became even more frightened, as it shrank in my backpack and shivered intermittently. I touched its small head, and it looked up at me as it meowed softly. Having witnessed the breakdown of trust between us two last night, I thought we wouldn’t be back to our initial relationship for a while, so I didn’t expect for it to start showing affection towards me so quickly again. Considering this, the kitten had a pretty cute and naive character.

I took the prescribed medicine and nutritional cans with me as I brought the kitten to the pet shop next. As the kitten had just been vaccinated, it couldn’t be bathed for the next seven days. Therefore, I requested for the staff member to only trim off the knots on its fur and apply the prescribed ointments to the kitten. 

After receiving a trim, the kitten’s bones which were protruding under its skin were more clearly visible. I wasn’t sure whether it was because the kitten was cold or because it was afraid, but it had been shaking this whole time. The staff member brought me a blanket to wrap around the kitten, and also recommended a beginner kit for new cat owners, which contained cat litter, cat food, and a cat potty.

I bought it all, then selected two more pet bowls and a cat bed that looked especially soft. In the end, I headed home with a kitten and bags of various sizes.

After a busy day, I had just taken a breather when the delivery person for the furniture I had bought called again to confirm a time with me, as he said the delivery would be made early tomorrow morning.

Human beings were both tenacious and fragile creatures, it had only been one month, but all that remained of the gunshot wound in my abdomen was a fresh, pale red scar. However, after all, I had just been through a major operation, and though it looked like all was recovered on the outside, my stamina on the inside couldn’t bounce back instantaneously the same way. Once I felt fatigued, I was more prone to sweating due to my physical debility. 

During the day I helped move the furniture, and at night I would shovel the kitten’s litter and feed it medicine. By day two, I couldn’t keep up with this routine anymore as I laid in bed, unable to get up with my head incessantly spinning.

I heard a pitiful cry from the kitten in the bathroom and I wasn’t sure whether it was running out of water or food, so I forced myself to get up from the newly bought king bed, passing the now transformed living room as I came to the bathroom.

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The kitten sat behind the glass shower door, and when it saw me, it started meowing even louder.

My heart softened for a moment as I opened the shower door, with the intention of having it get some exercise in the bathroom. 

However, the kitten had premeditated its next move as it quickly sprang out through the crack of the door, passing under my legs as it bolted towards the bathroom door and disappeared in front of my eyes.

My eyes widened, flabbergasted by the turn of events.

In the past, Sheng Min Ou’s house only had a few things, so that cats aside, even if it was a fly I would still be able to spot them clearly. However, ever since I had moved in, the style of this residence had become more messy, with growing corners of parts. The kitten was tiny, so if it was intent on playing hide and seek with me, then I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Kitty, come out, it’s time to eat…” I called, squatting on the ground, as I opened a can of nutritious food, and tapped the spoon against the body of the can in an attempt to draw it out. 

I repeatedly ducked down and pressed myself low to the floor to look beneath the sofas, behind the curtain, and I had even moved the coffee table and some cabinets to look behind them. Yet, there was no trace of the kitten.

My head became increasingly dizzy, and just when I was about to let it have its freedom, not caring about whether it was going to come out of its hiding spot or not as I planned to go back to bed and sleep, I heard the sound of someone trying to open the door.

The fingerprint was successfully verified by the electronic door lock, and a mechanical female voice replied saying “the door is now unlocked”. In the next second, the door was slowly pushed open.

I spotted him and instantaneously shoved the cans of kitten food under the coffee table the second Sheng Min Ou had entered the room. 

Sheng Min Ou was carrying his suitcase, and when he looked up and saw the furnishings in the room, he was stunned and furrowed his brows slightly.

“Ge, how come you came back earlier than expected?”

I used his account to purchase all these things, so it was impossible for him to not know, but knowing is one thing and seeing is another.

“The prosecutor in charge of Xiao Meng’s case asked us to meet him in his office tomorrow, I sent you a message earlier.” He changed his shoes and entered the room, placing his suitcase at the entrance, and began inspecting every change that had taken place. “Didn’t you see it?” 

I replied, “I took a nap in the afternoon, so I didn’t notice it.”

I stood up with a smirk and introduced him to the new items one by one, “Ge, look, you can sit and sleep on this sofa, and there’s also storage space here. There’s also this coffee table, where you can also store things, this is a TV cabinet… the TV will come after a few days. I bought a 72-inch one, so in the future we can watch movies together on the sofa…”

Likely due to the fact that Sheng Min Ou’s apartment was a big place, despite only having two bedrooms in the flat, each part of the place had ample space, and this was especially the case with the living room. I hadn’t touched his original set up with the punching bag, as I split the living room into two areas. One part was for Sheng Min Ou to box, and the other was an area for entertainment and to chill. Even with these two distinct areas, the place still didn’t feel crowded.

“I also bought a new bed and a bookshelf, which I placed in the bedroom. That way, we can read together on the bed before going to sleep.” I placed my hands anxiously behind my back and twisted my fingers, worrying about how I could break the news to him regarding the kitten. 

I had a persistent feeling that he wouldn’t like the kitten. Not only because of his obsession with cleanliness, but also because… it resembled the cat from back then too much, the cat that had made him lose control.

“Good.”

 

Sheng Min Ou made a simple comment, then untied his tie and went into the bedroom, as if to change his clothes.

I rushed into the bathroom in a hurry, stuffing all the cat bowls and the cat potty into the cabinet under the sink. Then, I rinsed the shower tiles with water, in hopes that Sheng Min Ou wouldn’t be able to catch anything amiss. 

“Lu Feng, come here.”

I had just covered up evidence of the crime when Sheng Min Ou’s voice came from the bedroom.

“Coming!” I replied. Without thinking too much, I got up and rushed over, but when I saw the situation in the room, I stopped and stared at Sheng Min Ou’s feet as if I were a ghost.

The tiny orange kitten, the same little bastard that I had been searching for this whole time that obstinately refused to come out, was currently circling Sheng Min Ou’s feet and meowing. I could hear that purring in his throat from a mile away. 

Was Sheng Min Ou a silvervine in his previous life? Why was he so popular with cats?

“What’s this? A guinea pig you raised?” Sheng Min Ou raised his foot, with the small kitten going up and down with it.

I was already feeling the heat, but when I was nervous, it felt even hotter, as sweat dripped from my forehead.

“No, no, it’s a little stray cat I found.” I wiped the sweat on my forehead and gently approached Sheng Min Ou, intending to catch the kitten while it wasn’t paying attention, “Ge, don’t worry, I’ll be giving it away soon, however… let me catch it first!” 

As soon as I pounced, the kitten leapt away and disappeared again, and I, due to all the momentum I had, fell into Sheng Min Ou’s arms.

I couldn’t do it anymore, my head just felt so dizzy.

Sheng Min Ou held me up and firmly supported my weight.

Perhaps he noticed my complexion seemed off, as he leaned up close and pressed his forehead against mine. I began breathing heavily as I closed my eyes slightly, my eyelids even feeling hot. 

As Sheng Min Ou backed away, he tutted softly before remarking, “You have a fever.”

All of a sudden, I felt as if my whole body had become lighter. I opened my eyes to find that I was being carried bridal style by Sheng Min Ou.

In a few strides, he had already reached the bed as he placed me down on it, his features looking still as ever, without any signs of exertion or redness. One could have never been able to tell that he had just carried a man weighing fifty something kilograms over.

On the other hand, I felt so faint that I hadn’t even been able to even catch a cat. 

Sheng Min Ou went out before coming in again, this time with a mercury thermometer which I had no idea where he had gotten it from.

He disinfected it, before shaking off the current temperature on it and then held it near my mouth, “Open up.”

 

I pulled his sleeve, saying, “That kitten…”

He narrowed his eyes as he responded, “Don’t make me repeat myself a second time.” 

I obediently opened my mouth to hold the thermometer under my tongue, and didn’t say another word.

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