Chapter 37

Lin Langyi waited by the cemetery for a long time. In the summer, there were many mosquitoes, and she spun around in place, waving her arms and kicking her legs like a hyperactive child, making quite a commotion.

Yuan Chuyu finally arrived late, carrying the sacrificial offerings.

He cleaned up all the offerings he had brought, leaving not a single trace at the grave. The bag of items hanging in his hand didn't suit his status; it looked like he was carrying his own luggage, like a wanderer. In particular, Lin Langyi noticed his reddened eyes.

She pretended not to notice, quickly looked away from the person's eyes, and tried to keep her tone relaxed: "Then let's go back."

Yuan Chuyu nodded.

She turned and walked towards the high platform, stretched out her arms to indicate the height, and planned to use her hands to grab the rocks above and slowly climb up, based on her past experience.

She had just tiptoed when a pair of large hands suddenly pressed against her waist. Long, slender fingers tightened around her, and without much effort, they lifted her up in one swift motion.

Lin Langyi's calf kicked instinctively, and he lifted her up, even giving her a hand on that calf, and sent her up in one go.

She turned and squatted down. The two reached out to each other, and she took the things from his hands first. Just as she put them aside and was about to reach out to pull him up, Yuan Chuyu had already taken two steps back, leaning slightly to the side. His left hand was on a large protruding rock, and the veins on his arm were bulging. With a slight exertion, he used his right leg to push off the vertical surface and easily leaped onto the platform.

After he came up, he even had time to pull her out her hand, which she had been holding out to catch someone, and pulled her up from her squatting position.

"You're sober now?" She was pleasantly surprised to see that his steps were much more steady. "Then you can walk by yourself. I was worried that you would slip and fall on flat ground."

He responded, and the two stopped leading each other by the leather book. After walking less than fifty meters, Lin Langyi suddenly heard no more footsteps behind him.

She turned around in surprise and saw him walk behind another clump of bushes, squat down and seem to be looking at something.

"What's wrong with you?" She walked back, and just as she stepped over a small clump of branches, she saw a dark, shadowy thing.

She shone her phone flashlight over and discovered that it was a small black cat, no bigger than the palm of her hand. It wasn't meowing, and half of its body was lying motionless in a small puddle of water in a depression in the rock. Its fur was stuck to its body in clumps, and upon closer inspection, she could see that it was shivering.

Yuan Chuyu picked up the kitten from the small pond. As soon as he picked it up, the kitten's whole body convulsed, its four legs trembled, and muddy water dripped from its body, staining his expensive trousers.

Lin Langyi quickly stepped forward to lend a hand. Just as she settled the kitten on the dry fallen leaves nearby, it suddenly began to convulse and make frequent sobbing sounds.

She frowned worriedly, searched on her phone, and became more and more anxious as she read. She said, "There are all sorts of things said online. It's safer to take her to the hospital."

Yuan Chuyu remained silent for a long time.

She looked over in confusion and saw him gently stroking the kitten's left front paw in his palm. There was a patch of light-colored and sparse fur on that paw, which looked like a small bald spot if you didn't look closely.

"I want to keep it," he said softly. As soon as he finished speaking, he took off his coat, carefully wrapped the kitten in it, and picked it up.

He was holding the dirty kitten, his trousers were stained with mud, and he had a black plastic bag of sacrificial items hanging on his wrist, making him look somewhat disheveled and ridiculous.

But Lin Langyi suddenly felt that he didn't seem so aloof anymore.

She didn't know why, but when she saw him stubbornly spreading his palms to protect the kitten's head, as if holding up an umbrella for it, her heart suddenly softened.

She laughed and praised, "My first... a friend of mine, when I was in college, he was waiting for me downstairs in the dormitory. It was raining heavily outside. I finished putting on my makeup and went downstairs. I saw him squatting on the steps, holding his umbrella upside down for a fat little cat that was too lazy to move, while he himself was exposed to the rain and his shoulders were getting wet."

"At that time, I thought he was quite nice."

Yuan Chuyu suddenly raised his eyelids and glanced at her. His expression was unclear, but in the thick darkness of the night, she could vaguely sense that he seemed to be in a bad mood after hearing what he said.

Lin Langyi was bewildered. What did she say about him being in a bad mood? Wasn't she implying that he was also compassionate and kind to animals?

The two didn't say anything else, and quickly and in perfect unison, they went down the mountain, drove, and found a pet hospital that was still open.

Yuan Chuyu handed the kitten to the vet, who diagnosed it with feline distemper and required it to stay in the hospital. That night was probably a sleepless one.

Lin Langyi accompanied the kitten to get the injection, while Yuan Chuyu went to pay the bill. After giving the kitten an injection to stabilize its blood pressure, Lin Langyi went to the 24-hour convenience store next door to buy an electric blanket, a towel, and lactose-free milk. Just as she returned, Yuan Chuyu had already asked the doctor for the syringe to remove the needle. The two of them huddled together, preparing to feed the kitten a little lactose-free milk mixed with ribavirin granules, as prescribed by the doctor.

"It's okay. Feline panleukopenia isn't actually incurable. The key is to detect it early and treat it early. Older cats are more resilient. This cat is too thin, so we need to observe it more closely," the veterinarian, an experienced woman with short hair, explained. "The treatment plan is roughly interferon for antiviral purposes, amoxicillin for inflammation, anti-vomiting, and anti-diarrheal. It should be fine tonight."

After the kitten received its injection, its continuous convulsions finally stopped, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. After cleaning it up, they wrapped it in a warm blanket.

Lin Langyi tried to feed it a little. Yuan Chuyu stood beside her, holding a milk carton in one hand and handing her a tissue to wipe up the spilled milk. The two of them were busy for a while, but fortunately the kitten had a good appetite and was able to eat.

In the midst of her busyness, Lin Langyi's phone rang twice. She was preoccupied feeding the kitten lactose-free milk with a syringe, so she left the phone aside and didn't have time to pay attention to it.

Yuan Chuyu obediently acted as a shelf to the side, but he kept glancing at her phone silently.

Three large, bright characters: Cheng Yanjin.

He paused for two seconds, then subtly moved to the side, blocking Lin Langyi's view with his body. He then casually handed her the milk carton, saying, "Feed her slowly, no rush."

The two of them took care of the kitten until late at night. When they finally had some free time, Lin Langyi noticed that five or six missed calls on her phone were from Cheng Yanjin.

By this time, the temple had already stopped banging the wooden clapper. She didn't call back, but only sent a message on WeChat: "What's up?"

The next second, the other party called back as if they were waiting on the other end of the phone.

Lin Langyi answered the call and realized it was a video call.

It was pitch black in Cheng Yanjin's room, with only one window letting in a little light. You could vaguely see him sitting cross-legged on the bed, his upper body upright, video chatting with her.

He could vaguely see the white wall and equipment behind her and asked, "Are you still outside?"

"Hmm." Lin Langyi answered absentmindedly, her mind still replaying the doctor's words.

"What are you doing?" he asked, another pointless question.

"I'm taking the cat to the vet." Lin Langyi looked back at the screen. "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

His gaze immediately wandered, glancing up and down randomly without looking at her: "I'm not tired today, so I can't sleep."

"Oh, so you're not tired because you didn't do farm work, right?"

"Lin Langyi!" he glared angrily. "You heartless bastard!"

Lin Langyi covered her phone, trying to block out his loud, boisterous voice: "What do you want?"

He pursed his lips, still too embarrassed to say that he had become increasingly afraid after returning to the temple. He was afraid that she would be angry because of what happened at the banquet that night, and he was also afraid that she would cause some trouble to retaliate against him. But what he was most afraid of was that she would ignore him, so he wanted to call her late at night to sound her out.

Lin Langyi hadn't answered his calls, and he had imagined countless possibilities. He had scared himself awake, so how could he fall asleep?

Fortunately, she was just rescuing a kitten.

Save the kitten...

Cheng Yanjin stretched out his long legs with a carefree air, leaned comfortably against the headboard, and casually asked, "Kitten? You still rescued a kitten? Take a picture of it for me, what kind of cat is worth you staying out so late at night and not answering my calls?"

Lin Langyi was eager to get rid of him, so she impatiently turned her phone's view, zoomed in, and took a picture of the kitten for four or five seconds.

"Wow, Lin Langyi, this cat looks just like you!" Cheng Yanjin suddenly exclaimed.

Lin Langyi: "Huh?"

He moved closer to the phone, propped one leg up, and rested his arm on his knee: "Look at it, it's like a lump of coal, but on its front leg, isn't there a white patch of fur? You have a birthmark like that on your leg, around the same spot."

He craned his neck to observe for a while, and then, for some unknown reason, suddenly said, "Let me keep this cat. I promise to feed it the best food and drink it the finest, and let it do backflips with me all the time, turning it into a bodybuilding cat."

Idiot.

Lin Langyi rolled her eyes dramatically, about to explain that the cat already had an owner, when Cheng Yanjin's expression suddenly changed subtly.

The video shows a pair of well-defined hands gently taking the kitten away from the camera's view right in front of the viewer.

On his exposed wrists was a discontinued platinum Patek Philippe watch with an engraved design, the black strap fitting snugly against his wrist bone—a watch he knew all too well.

Cheng Yanjin checked the time and frowned: "Is Brother Yu next to you?"

Lin Langyi nodded: "Yes, we met at the foot of Laoshan Mountain. He found the cat and plans to adopt it, so the kitten doesn't need you anymore."

Cheng Yanjin gave a flat "Oh". He knew that Yuan Chuyu must have gone to the grave to pay his respects when he heard that the foot of Laoshan Mountain was mentioned. However, he felt inexplicably uncomfortable after seeing Lin Langyi and Yuan Chuyu together in the middle of the night, just after he said those words.

You're probably overthinking it. Brother Yu pays his respects every year; there's nothing unexpected about it.

Cheng Yanjin changed his posture again. Day after day, whenever it was related to Lin Langyi, he would always think about this and that.

"Was this cat found at the grave?" He inexplicably started fighting for custody. "Isn't Brother Yu prone to allergies? Cat hair flying everywhere, how can he keep it? I'll take it, I'm very loving."

"No need." Yuan Chuyu did not appear in the shot; only his cool voice came from the side. "You're not home often, so it's inconvenient for you to keep a cat."

Cheng Yanjin suddenly became stubborn and insisted: "Don't you also have to work overtime? And you live alone."

Yuan Chuyu didn't know why he just wouldn't budge: "I've sent you the location of the rescue station. There are many stray cats and dogs here that support adoption. Adoption instead of buying is great."

Cheng Yanjin stubbornly refused to budge an inch: "I've got my eye on this one. I feel like I have a connection with this cat."

"Cheng Yanjin, just give up already." Lin Langyi interrupted this pointless argument. "Keep a cat? How many times will your cat even see you? You'll go from being a stray to a left-behind child, won't you?"

Cheng Yanjin: ...

"I'll hang up if you have nothing else to say," Lin Langyi said, making a move to hang up. Cheng Yanjin quickly waved his hands frantically in front of the camera to stop him, and said:

"Did you hear what Aunt Yuan said at the birthday banquet? She will be coming to Laoshan Temple in a few days to sponsor a month of vegetarian meals, and you will also be invited to stay for three days."

He winked and said, "Remember to bring some wine and cards up. It's so boring up here. We can play some games tonight."

Lin Langyi glanced at him and coldly and impartially cut off the communication.

The messages kept coming in one after another, each one repeating the same thing:

Remember, bring the alcohol and the license plate!