Chapter 24 Türkiye (7) "I don't like cats."...

During this time, Aisha came to Hussein Street almost every day and started planning the adventure list she would take Zelin on in the future.

The street friends, who were already suspicious of her, were quite unhappy about her repeated snubs. Lana and the others noticed that Aisha had stopped playing football with them recently and always made excuses when they asked her to hang out.

Lana complained to others about this a few times. Black threw the deflated ball, then picked it up again: "Didn't you know she's been going to see Zelin on Hussein Street lately?"

“What?” Lana said. “She told me she went to tutor Zelin.”

"The last time I went there to play football, I saw them laughing and having a great time in the yard."

"She actually lied to me!" Lana clutched her clothes angrily. "That's outrageous..."

“They’re probably together right now, should we go to Hussein Street?” Black suggested to everyone, his eyes darting around.

Aisha was pruning jasmine and rose bushes with Zelin in the backyard when Lana, Black, and several other boys and girls suddenly appeared.

It didn't seem like they were playing nearby; rather, they deliberately lingered outside Zelin's window.

"Look, the 'glass doll' has someone to accompany her out to sunbathe today. Be careful not to get blown away by the wind."

Black's strange, high-pitched voice rang out first, followed by the sound of a football hitting the iron gate.

The air seemed to freeze instantly, Zelin's face turned pale, and she instinctively took a step back.

Aisha jumped to her feet, put her hands on her hips, and blocked her way, shouting at Black, "What are you doing?"

Black: "Nothing much, I just came to see what you're doing with that sickly kid."

“Lana.” Aisha looked at Lana beside the boy. “Did you bring them?”

Lana looked at Aisha and Zelin behind her, her eyes clearly filled with resentment, but she didn't say anything.

Another girl, Eve, deliberately raised her voice and glanced meaningfully at Aisha: "I heard someone's been sneaking around trying to curry favor with rich girls lately. Is he trying to become her lackey?"

Aisha's face instantly turned bright red with anger, as if she had been punched hard.

The fact that Zelin's secret of frequently visiting her was exposed in public made her very flustered. She originally wanted to have a proper talk with them, but she didn't expect to be slandered by them without any explanation.

"I don't."

She rushed over and retorted to the children outside the door, her voice trembling slightly with anger, "We're friends, what's wrong with me coming to play with my friends?"

"friend?"

Black scoffed, "You'd better not. Otherwise, do you really think she'll consider you a friend? Wake up, Aisha. The young lady only looks for you to pass the time when she's bored. Once she doesn't need you anymore, who will remember who you are?"

Eve took Lana's hand: "Once the young lady doesn't want you anymore, let's see who you'll play with then, so you can betray us again."

"You're not allowed to say that!" Aisha trembled, burst through the door, and stormed out. "You're not allowed to say that about Zelin!"

Zelin watched as the furious Aisha rushed towards Blake and Eve to argue with them. However, she couldn't muster any strength in her legs and collapsed to the ground as soon as she tried to lift her foot.

She reached out, wanting to say something to Aisha, but due to the intense emotional turmoil, she gasped for breath and clutched her chest.

“I have legs, I can play with whomever I want, and Zelin is not what you think at all. Those things were all done by the teacher on her own initiative, it has nothing to do with her.”

"You think it's okay just because you say so? Who knows if someone has conspired with the teacher behind her back to make sure all the good things go to her?"

"If you don't believe me, go ask the teacher—"

“Aisha, you’re on the same side as the teacher and Zelin now, aren’t you? Don’t forget, you were the one who started to hate Zelin in the first place, and now you’re pretending to be a good person here.”

“I just stopped misunderstanding her. Unlike you guys, you don’t listen to explanations and you dare to talk nonsense.”

The argument escalated, and the other children dared not utter a sound, holding their breath as they watched.

Lana remained silent, watching as the others stood up for her and confronted Aisha.

"So you're going to break ties with all of us now for her sake?"

Why break with them?

Aisha asked, puzzled, "Can't we be friends?"

“Who wants to be friends with a sickly person who can’t even play football and probably needs to be carried around when going out?” Black made a face at Zelin. “Don’t expect us to serve the young lady like you do.”

"Shut up, Black! I'm going to tell your mother you're bullying her."

“Now they’re going to the parents instead of the teachers,” Black shrugged. “Go ahead and try, see if I get scared.”

Seeing Aisha's eyes welling up with tears of anger, she suddenly ran over, her fur standing on end, her tail like a feather duster standing upright, and her back arching towards the group of children.

A child's malice is still malice, especially when it's directed at someone without any reason.

He was furious and hesitant to come out.

His honey-colored pupils narrowed into thin slits as he stared intently at Black and Eve, breathing on them.

Black threw the football over, then did a backflip and kicked the tattered ball back at the boy, hitting him squarely in the forehead.

"Ouch—"

"nice shot!"

1221 wished she could grow hands to clap for the kitten.

The other boys were startled by the kitten's sudden burst of energy. Seeing it bar its canines and prepare to pounce on them, they all retreated and quickly dragged Black, who was covering his forehead, away.

Only Lana didn't run away; she stood still, determined to force Aisha to make a choice.

"Tell me, will you choose her or us?"

The other party persisted: "How long have you known us? How long have you known her? Are you really going to abandon us for a transfer student?"

"I did not abandon you."

"You don't play with us anymore, I just want to go back to the way we used to play together..."

Aisha was upset and didn't want to hurt the other person's feelings, so she turned and ran away.

After the children had scattered, Zelin, who was sitting on the cold ground panting, was not found for a long time. She tried to get under Zelin's arm to support her, but the kitten was far from being able to do so.

In a moment of desperation, he leaped onto the windowsill and dashed into the house like the wind to call for help.

After being chased away by the nanny several times with her feet, the nanny finally realized something was wrong and rushed out to check. She then hurriedly carried the pale-faced Zelin back to her room.

The windows were tightly closed again, and there was no way to see what was happening inside. So he could only run back to Eyes Alley.

"Will they bully Aisha at school?" Chichi asked 1221.

"Well," 1221 said, "I'm not sure either."

I've decided to wait at the school gate for the next few days to pick up Aisha from school, to see if those brats will still try to cause trouble where the teachers can't see them.

After this incident, a layer of unspoken resentment hung in the air. When Aisha and Lana met at school, they no longer joked and played around like before, and neither of them wanted to speak first.

After school, Aisha doesn't go to play football, doesn't do homework with her friends, and doesn't go to see Zelin; instead, she quietly goes home by herself.

He lingered by the other person's side, who looked sullen and lacked their usual energy.

"Ugh, this atmosphere is so weird, I don't even want to go to school."

Aisha gripped her backpack strap tightly, then, remembering something, asked the kitten, "How is Zelin? Have you gone to see her?"

He shook his head slowly.

The back gate of Zelin's house and the window of the other party's room were never opened again, so even if she waited there, she couldn't see anything.

“I’m not in the mood to go see her; I’m afraid I’ll spoil her mood too,” Aisha sighed heavily. “I need to sort myself out.”

He was slow to express his understanding.

If something like this happened to a girl with a lower tolerance for stress, she probably wouldn't even go to school anymore. It's amazing that Aisha is still able to continue going to school.

The kitten nudged the other's leg as a form of comfort.

On the following school days, he continued to fulfill his duty of protection, taking Aisha to and from school every day, and keeping a close eye on the outspoken Blake and his gang.

Aisha tried to ignore them as much as possible, and treated them as if they were invisible when they met her gaze, making the boys who had failed to provoke her feel humiliated.

Until one day after school, I saw a familiar figure first.

Lana stood alone beside the wall of Eyes Alley, head down, kicking pebbles absentmindedly.

Aisha was chatting with the kitten about everyday things happening at school when she spotted someone in the shadow of the wall and immediately shut up.

To be honest, she had mixed feelings about Lana.

The other girl didn't play with the other children as usual, nor did she form cliques at school to deliberately isolate her or upset her. They just went to play with other people on their own, like a silent competition.

Aisha hesitated for a moment, but still went over.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Nothing."

Lana kicked a pebble at her feet again, watching it roll into the sewer.

Aisha's voice was a little harsh: "Why don't you go play football with Eve and Black?"

"It's boring," the other person said. "Besides, we're missing a striker."

This is almost a disguised signal of reconciliation.

Aisha's lips moved, but then she remembered the hurtful things the other party had said to Zelin's house that day with a large group of people, and her slightly softened attitude became firm again.

"Then you stay here, I'm going home."

"Wait a moment."

Aisha stopped and gave the other person a reluctant profile: "Is there anything else?"

Lana kicked the gravel on the ground again, as if she had made up her mind, and said in a somewhat awkward tone, "I shouldn't have taken them to Zelin's house that day."

Aisha exchanged a glance with the kitten at her feet, but still didn't turn around.

"I just don't know why you suddenly became so close to Zelin, and why you kept everything from me."

Lana stared at the back of her shoes, her voice gradually fading to almost inaudible, "It's alright, you can go now."

All she could hear was the sound of the wind blowing through the street. Aisha calmed down a bit and turned around.

“I wanted to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen to my explanation. You just grimaced when you heard her name, so I didn’t dare to say anything.”

Lana didn't say anything, which was taken as tacit agreement.

"Will you come back and play with us again?" Lana kicked at the crack between the bricks with the tip of her shoe. "I mean, after school and after school."

Aisha scoffed, "I'm not that petty. You're all my friends, except for Black."

Chi Chi looked up at the two of them, and the tense atmosphere disappeared. Although it hadn't returned to its previous level, it was at least not as tense as before.

Let's go.

Aisha finally said to him, "Why are you standing here in the wind? Aren't you going home?"

"I'm going home."

There was no formal apology, nor a straightforward "Let's make up," but even so, the pent-up anger from the past few days finally dissipated somewhat.

Aisha and the other person parted ways on the street and went in different directions.

Chichi said to 1221, "That's what friends are like. Some things don't need to be said to understand each other. It's good that Lana wasn't determined to break up with her, otherwise I don't think Aisha would be in a good mood."

1221: "It's good that they're like this. After all, some adults can't bring themselves to lower themselves and offer a way out."

Breaking the ice with Lana and the others didn't make Aisha any easier; she was still busy preparing for exams at school and had also heard that Zelin was sick again.

To be precise, it's not that I'm sick again, but rather that my condition, which had just improved for a few days, suddenly deteriorated again.

Zelin's mother called Aisha to ask if she could come over when she had time, as Zelin really wanted to see her.

Upon hearing this news, Aisha's heart sank. Ignoring the biscuit she dropped, she quickly asked, "Is Zelin alright?"

You could hear the worry in her voice: "She's very weak, has trouble walking, and the doctor recommended hospitalization, but she keeps thinking about seeing you..."

Before the call was even over, Aisha had already put down her phone and rushed out of the house like a whirlwind.

"Aisha, aren't you going to eat?"

The mother's cries were left far behind.

Chichi was resting on the roof, but when he saw Aisha run out of the house with a drastically changed expression, he was wide awake and quickly followed her.

I followed the little girl, panting, to Hussein Street. The familiar windows were still tightly shut, with thick curtains drawn inside, so I couldn't see anything.

Chichi jumped onto the windowsill, while Aisha darted in through the door.

"Zelin!"

Aisha's heart clenched when she saw Zelin lying on the bed.

The other person was covered with a thick blanket, and their complexion was even worse than before, like a piece of white porcelain that would shatter at the slightest touch. Only after seeing her did their amber eyes brighten a little.

"You've arrived."

Zelin's voice was as light as a feather: "Have you finished your exams?"

"It'll be soon." Aisha walked over and carefully took her hand. Although the room was warm enough to make one sweat, the other's hand was still as cold as ice.

"I've been too busy these days to come see you. How are you feeling?"

"It's alright." Zelin forced a smile. "It's like this when the weather gets cold; my chest always feels stuffy. It'll be fine when it gets warmer, so don't worry."

“I’m not the only one worried about you.” Aisha walked to the window, opened it, and let Chichi in. “You also have a cat friend.”

"You've all come together."

Zelin's smile deepened and brightened, and she finally looked energetic.

She gazed longingly into the other's seemingly larger eyes, rested her chin on the other's hand, and rubbed her cheek and head against it a few times, trying to warm the other's hand just like Aisha.

Aisha quietly barricaded the door so the adults outside couldn't see the kitten inside. Only then did Zelin dare to hug it and bury her face in its soft, warm belly.

"It smells nice, like a kitten."

Zelin: "Isn't the sun shining brightly today? It smells like sunshine."

Chichi shifted her belly slightly, placed the other person's hand under her fur, and soon it became warm from the cat's body heat.

Zelin stroked the kitten's head and asked Aisha, "Did you and Lana...did you two have another fight?"

Aisha shook her head.

"She said she shouldn't have brought Black and the others to cause trouble that day, and she apologized to you. Do you want to forgive them?"

"It's okay if you don't forgive me," she quickly added.

“I forgive her.” Zelin smiled. “Anyway, I can’t go back to school… I don’t care what they think of me.”

“Who said that?” Aisha retorted instinctively. “You can go back to school next spring.”

Zelin said softly, "I hope so too. Tell me about school; it's been so long since I've heard any good news."

I wanted to get up from the bed I'd been lying in for so long and sit on the bay window with Aisha as we used to, but I was too weak after being in bed for days to sit for long.

To make her more comfortable, Aisha laid out all the cushions, blankets, and quilts on the bay window, making it a thick and warm nest, and helped Zelin from the bed to lie half-reclined on it to listen to her talk.

Aisha moved a chair herself and told the other person in great detail what had happened at school.

Where the textbook has covered the current topic, what we ate for lunch each day, and which formula the math teacher wrote incorrectly.

"And then the math teacher did this."

She stood up and adjusted her non-existent glasses: "What I just wrote was a bad example. You absolutely mustn't make such a basic mistake during the exam..."

"He clearly made a mistake, but he still tried to save face."

Aisha's incredibly lifelike imitation of the tone made Zelin laugh, but it was immediately followed by a cough.

"Tell me more."

She begged Aisha.

Zelin longed for the exciting campus life where something new happened every day, so much so that just listening to Aisha talk about it would make her eyes light up.

Illness confined her body, but it could not imprison her thirst for knowledge and curiosity.

"I'm way behind you guys. Why don't you be my math teacher? You've always been one of the best in math."

"Okay," Aisha readily agreed. "Then what should you call me from now on?"

He looked puzzled for a long time.

What should I call her?

Zelin understood immediately, looked at the smug person opposite her, and followed the other person's lead: "Teacher Aisha."

Seeing how cooperative she was, Aisha felt a little embarrassed and chuckled twice: "Okay, Zelin, you should rest well. I'll give you homework every day from now on."

When we left Zelin's house, a few inconspicuous stars hung in the night sky, twinkling faintly.

Chichi asked 1221, "Do you think praying at a temple is really effective?"

"I don't know." 1221 flashed. "From a purely logical and data analysis perspective, prayer cannot be proven to directly interfere with humans, but from a human perspective, it may provide some psychological comfort."

"When humans feel powerless, they place their hopes on higher-dimensional forces to give them the courage to face difficulties."

Chichi: "That also shows that prayer itself carries positive energy."

"You could say that desperate people will even give up praying."

The kitten didn't understand anything about faith, but that didn't stop her from wanting to help Zelin.

Aisha's own prayers might not be loud enough, so she went to the Blue Mosque and explained the situation to every cat she encountered, asking them to pray with her.

We also visited Hagia Sophia, St. Anthony's Cathedral, and other temples.

Countless slender white candles were lit inside the steeple church, their flames casting shadows on the face of the statue, while the melody of the pipe organ made the kitten's paws go numb.

He sat for a long time behind the people, listening to their prayers.

The nuns, bishops, and monks all noticed a certain little cat that frequented the temple. No one chased her away; they simply watched her gently.

Even in more distant lands, cats are the only creatures that can freely jump onto altars.

Even God would love such a spirited little creature.

1221 said that the gods worshipped in the places she visited were different, and she believed that as long as she was sincere enough, God would not care if she prayed to other gods at the same time.

"With so many places and so many gods, surely one of them will hear it?"

"If only we could gather all the fragments of the Light of the Soul right now," Chichi said.

That way she can make a wish for Zelin to get better.

"You can only make one wish. Are you really willing to just give it away to someone else?" 1221 said.

"I'm willing to give it away," Chi Chi said. "If I haven't decided on a wish by the time I've collected them all, I'll just give them away randomly to someone who needs them."

"Your vision is as vast as the universe," 1221 couldn't help but say. "If you're not Miracle Cat, who is?"

If her existence is a miracle for someone, then such an achievement is also great for the kitten.

"Let's go." Chi Chi licked her tired hind legs. "We've been to too many places these past two days, let's go back and rest for a bit."

Back at the corner of Anran Alley, Chichi once again found fresh canned turkey at her usual spot.

The people in this area are quite generous.

After all, not everyone would choose to feed their cat expensive and hard-to-preserve canned food instead of a cost-effective option like cat food.

Seeing the tender pink minced meat in the bowl, Chichi's appetite was whetted. He stopped licking it elegantly in small bites and instead opened his mouth to take a big bite.

Just as she was about to dig in, her ears twitched first.

An empty tin can was thrown into a roadside trash can, making a metallic clanging sound. The kitten keenly looked in a certain direction.

Then, in surprise, he forgot to swallow the turkey meat in his mouth.

"Eat quickly, eat quickly," 1221 urged her. "There are several cats behind you that are crying for food."

After quickly filling his stomach and giving up his seat, he ran into Anran Alley and caught up with the wheelchair that was slowly moving forward on the stone-paved road.

Meow~

The kitten meowed at the "NPC" mentioned by 1221: "Do you put all the canned food on the street corner every day?"

When she was happy, her shouts rose in pitch, regardless of whether the other person could understand her.

"The system said you don't like cats, but it seems it was a misunderstanding. I didn't expect you to be such a nice person."

"Do you remember me? We met in Hawaii."

"I brought the seashell to give you, but it probably got lost after the rain. It's okay, I'll give you something else."

"I'm living on your roof now. Did you have those wooden boxes on the roof placed there? They're really sturdy, so they don't get wet in the rain. And that mat is really comfortable too..."

"What are you talking to a 'dangerous element' about?!" 1221 was utterly desperate.

"I shouldn't have let you get so close to him. Get away from him! Can't you feel that aura of 'keep away, strangers! Keep your distance,' or 'cats!'?"

"Didn't you say he was an NPC?"

He asked, still puzzled, "Would your headquarters leave such a dangerous NPC next to the cat?"

"That's because—" He's not some ordinary NPC.

1221 was speechless.

Realizing he had said something wrong, he muted his microphone before being punished, entering a state of absolute silence.

"Are you going home?" Chichi jogged to the side of the other person's wheelchair, tilting his head up as he asked, "What time do you leave home every day? I'll come down to find you whenever I have time..."

"You should listen to the system."

It was the first time I heard the other person speak; it sounded as if it came from a very far place, yet it entered my ears clearly.

It was clearly the first time she had heard that voice, yet it didn't sound unfamiliar. The speaker's pace was neither fast nor slow, and he was strangely calm and detached, without even much emotional fluctuation.

They remained motionless, lingering in place.

The wheelchair continued to roll forward at a steady pace until it stopped in front of the dark door.

Just as the person was about to push the door open and go in, he hesitated and ran over to ask, "Why?"

The other person turned their head slightly, their calm gaze falling to the kitten at their feet, which had a whole host of questions waiting to be answered.

"I don't like cats."