Chapter 6 Xie Shijin, please don't die!

"Your name is Xie Shijin? Don't be afraid."

Thirteen-year-old Xie Shijin looked up.

The gaze slowly moved upwards.

Snow-white stockings, knee-length school uniform plaid skirt, she seemed to be wrapped in a warm halo.

The girl, who had just entered the first year of junior high school, had soft, jet-black hair loosely tied with a pink hair tie, with a few stray strands of hair sticking to her forehead, and a clean and bright smile.

She reached out her hand to him, revealing a small, light brown mole in the middle of her palm.

"It's alright now, get up."

“My parents are both teachers at the middle school across the street. If they continue to bully you like this, come to the school across the street and find me.”

Her voice was bright like a wind chime, and it was very pleasant to hear when it rang softly.

"Oh no, I'm going to be late!"

"I'm going to my tutoring class now, goodbye."

The girl covered her bangs with her hand and ran away.

After running a few steps, the girl turned back and said, "I forgot to tell you, my name is Cheng Shiyun, I'm in Class 3 of the first year of junior high. If anyone bullies you, you must come find me."

...

Cheng Shiyun doesn't remember him.

...

During a math class in the first semester of her first year of high school, Cheng Shiyun got into an argument with the teacher over an extra credit question.

In the end, Cheng Shiyun won, but she was listless.

Cheng Shiyun had no interest in the opportunity to sneak out to the cafeteria for a snack during the long break between classes.

When I got back to the classroom, I saw her slumped over her desk.

She was fast asleep. She changed her arm pillow halfway through the night. There were fine marks on her fair cheeks. Her ponytail was scattered on the unfinished test paper, with a few strands hanging on her ears.

In the middle of her earlobe was a small, transparent earring. When she encountered a difficult problem, she would subconsciously pinch the two ends of the earring with her fingertips and rub them.

The preparatory bell rang urgently, and Cheng Shiyun stood up, only to be pulled back down to sit by the student behind her.

Her pants were stained red. She had started her period.

As Xie Shijin entered puberty, she grew taller and sat in the last row.

Cheng Shiyun spoke very quickly, her lips pursed repeatedly.

He couldn't see the shape of her mouth, but he could sense her embarrassment.

The student behind her was trying to borrow clothes for her everywhere, and she practically buried her head in the desk drawer.

Xie Shijin took off his shirt and placed it on the desk.

And the desk behind her just happened to pass by his desk.

...

His shirt was wrapped around her waist and hung down to her knees, like the skirt she was wearing that day.

...

After the birthday candles burned out, Xie Shijin sat for a while longer before getting up and going to the kitchen.

He has had excellent grades since childhood.

But excellent grades couldn't bring about family harmony.

My memories of my parents are always of them arguing, arguing, arguing endlessly, which eventually escalated into physical fights.

The scalding kettle was swept to the ground, and boiling water was splashed on him, but neither of the two arguing men turned around.

He curled up in pain.

His arms and thighs were burned, leaving large, indelible scars.

His parents divorced because of gambling.

From the age of eight, he lived with his grandmother, and from then on, his life consisted only of the old woman's faltering figure and the dripping sound of the old water pipes.

In his first year of junior high school, he met his divorced mother for the first time.

At the entrance of a hotel.

His mother, handcuffed, stood with a dozen or so scantily clad women and was mistaken for a prostitute.

Police lights flashed and sirens blared.

In the noisy crowd, his mother saw him standing outside the crowd and screamed his name frantically.

He stood frozen in place, receiving shocked, disdainful, and pitying glances from all directions.

After school, he was cornered in an alley by classmates he didn't know. They spat at him and called him a bastard, saying no one wanted him.

Cheng Shiyun ran down the steps, descended from the sky, and chased away those people, telling him not to be afraid.

During the summer vacation after the high school entrance exam, his father wanted to sell his grandmother's house. He turned the house upside down and asked him where the property certificate was.

He didn't say anything, but slaps and fists immediately landed on him.

A buzzing sound filled his ears, and as his consciousness blurred, he only remembered the sound of his father slamming the door and leaving, as well as the pain that felt like his bones were breaking.

When he woke up, the world was completely silent; his ears would never hear a sound again.

During the summer vacation after her first year of high school, Cheng Shiyun died in a car accident.

A month before the college entrance examination, my maternal grandmother worked herself to death trying to save more money for my son to go to university in Beijing.

He was working so hard.

Study hard, live life to the fullest, and cherish every person you care about.

For the first time, I had the urge to protect someone.

But before he could do anything, he lost her.

He felt like he was stuck in a quagmire, and the more he tried to climb out, the deeper he sank. The mud blocked his mouth and nose, and he couldn't breathe.

He was like a wandering soul, unable to find his destination.

Outside the window, a bolt of lightning struck, instantly illuminating the room and the corners of his red, wet eyes.

"Cheng Shiyun, it's raining."

Were you very scared when you left?

"I'm so scared too..."

The boy's voice was deep and slightly hoarse.

The raindrops pounded against the glass.

Xie Shijin closed the kitchen window and turned on the gas.

He returned to the living room, lay down on the table, closed his eyes, and waited for the rain to stop.

The darkness following the lightning enveloped the entire room, but the cat's night vision was excellent.

Cheng Shiyun was so anxious she was almost speaking human language.

With the doors and windows locked, a gas leak could lead to poisoning! Xie Shijin, you idiot.

Was Xie Shijin stupid?

Why did Xie Shijin give money to their family? Because he never intended to go to university.

Cheng Shiyun's hair stood on end.

Xie Shijin is going to commit suicide!

Xie Shijin is an idiot!

Outside the window, Cheng Shiyun scratched at the glass with her claws, the sharp scratching sound particularly jarring in the quiet room, but Xie Shijin, sitting with his back to the window, couldn't hear it at all because he was deaf.

"Dad, there's a cat on the balcony next door!"

The neighbor's window opened, and a boy of about twelve or thirteen years old poked his head out, staring at her with bright eyes.

Seizing the opportunity, Cheng Shiyun leaped onto the adjacent balcony and slipped into the house following the boy's outstretched hand.

"Wow, what a smart cat! It even knows to come in and take shelter from the rain."

The boy squatted down, wanting to pet the kitten's head, but the kitten frantically circled around his legs, biting his trouser leg and dragging him towards the door.

"Meow!"

Come with me! We're going to rescue Xie Shijin!

"Little one, are you hungry?"

The kitten bit his finger again, and the boy hissed in pain: "Still a ungrateful little white-eyed cat."

"Meow!"

Please come with me to save people.

Please...

But humans can't understand a kitten's meows; her desperate cries for help sound like she's just being affectionate.

Her urgent and shrill cries attracted the male homeowner: "Where did this stray cat come from? Throw it out quickly, don't let it run around the house, I just mopped the floor."

"oh……"

Cheng Shiyun took to the air.

The boy picked up the kitten by the scruff of its neck, looking very dejected: "I'm sorry, kitten, Dad won't let me keep you. Go check across the street, there's a very nice older brother living there, maybe you can scam him."

The kitten's limbs dangled in the air, and it could only kick its paws in vain, watching helplessly as it was carried towards the door.

As soon as the door opened, Cheng Shiyun darted out like a rocket.

Cheng Shiyun did not want Xie Shijin to die.

Today is not Xie Shijin's birthday, but Xie Shijin is celebrating her birthday.

Cheng Shiyun found it hard to describe the tremor she felt the moment Xie Shijin called out her name.

Like a soda that's been shaken for ages, suddenly having its tab pulled, the dense bubbles surge up, filling her brain, and then bursting open in a flurry.

Why are you celebrating my birthday?

Why are you calling my name?

Why?

His tone was full of pain, guilt, and self-blame.

Cheng Shiyun's mind had never been so chaotic.

But one idea became increasingly clear.

Whether it was their friendship as classmates or the help Xie Shijin had given their family, she couldn't just stand by and watch Xie Shijin give up his life.

But Xie Shijin's gate was very tall and very big.

She didn't know what to do.

She's just a cat.

There was nothing they could do, and nothing they could do to save Xie Shijin.

All she could do was frantically scratch at the door while calling his name: "Xie Shijin, Xie Shijin..."

...

Without hearing aids, Xie Shijin cannot hear any sound.

But now, he heard a girl calling his name repeatedly, just like countless times in his dreams, saying to him, "Xie Shijin, don't be afraid..."

Xie Shijin.

Xie Shijin.

Xie Shijin...

...

Xie Shijin opened his eyes.

He rested his head on his arm, his gaze sweeping over the house where he had lived for nearly ten years, with familiar furnishings on every table and chair.

After Grandma passed away, no one turned the calendar behind the door. The pages were stuck on a past day, but now they were swaying and making a soft rustling sound.

The doors and windows inside were tightly closed, no wind was blowing in, and the sounds continued to fill the room.

The sweet, soft memories are gone, replaced by a sob.

"Open the door, Xie Shijin, open the door..."

Xie Shijin heard Cheng Shiyun's voice.

...

Xie Shijin opened the door, and there was a cat outside.

"Meow?"

The little kitten, who had been scratching at the door, stumbled and fell onto his shoes, rolled over, and kept scratching at his trouser leg with its little paws, crying and saying, "Xie Shijin, Xie Shijin, you finally opened the door..."

Xie Shijin's pupils trembled, and his eyes were covered with a layer of misty water, making his originally bright eyes feel soft.

The little kitten tilted its head and looked at him, its round eyes unblinking, and then meowed softly twice.

"Meow meow~"

Xie Shijin, don't you recognize me either?

It's okay, it's already impressive that she was able to knock on the door.

Xie Shijin looked down at the cat, his face expressionless.

After being stared at for a long time, Cheng Shiyun's little ears twitched restlessly.

Why are you staring at her like that?

Could Xie Shijin be infatuated with her?

But she looks like a steel wool ball right now, that shouldn't be possible.

Shouldn't she go inside and turn off the gas first?

The kitten tried hard, then sighed.

Xie Shijin stood there stunned for a long time, watching the kitten tilt its head and mutter to itself.

Confirming he hadn't misheard, Xie Shijin slowly squatted down, reaching out several times but hesitating to touch her, freezing in mid-air, his voice trembling as he asked, "Cheng Shiyun, is that you?"

Cheng Shiyun: "Meow!!!"

The kitten's emerald green pupils suddenly dilated.

The cat was shocked!

"You can understand what I'm saying!"

"Cheng Shiyun, are you here to pick me up?" Xie Shijin asked.

Take him away to other worlds.

Through the dampness of his vision, he saw the kitten shake its head.

"Meow~"

No, I'm here to save you.

Xie Shijin kept his lips tightly closed, and after a long while asked, "Save me? Then why did you only come now?"

He wasn't blaming anyone; his voice was very soft, as if he were in a dream, as if everything in front of him would disappear in the next second.

His hand hovered in mid-air, careful not to fall.

Cheng Shiyun tilted her still-fluffy cat head up and rubbed it against his palm.

Humans are hard to please.

Highly intelligent people are harder to coax.

Meow~

Because the cat doesn't know you're suffering, and it went through many hardships to find you.

The cat wants you to live.

The kitten snuggled up to her gently, and Xie Shijin could feel its warm body temperature and soft fur.

The cat's translucent white whiskers clung to his wrist, swaying up and down with the kitten's breath, sending a tingling, itchy sensation down his skin and all the way to his heart.

His heart, which had been dormant for so long, finally began to beat again.

One sound after another, endlessly.

The kitten spoke again, in soft meows, but it was the familiar, affectionate tone he knew.

She said.

"Xie Shijin, please don't die! If you die, no one will take care of me."

A note from the author:

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Saving humanity? A piece of cake! [Sprinkling flowers]