Chapter 32. Save the Cat

When she returned to the tavern, Ruan Tang saw Feng Xue's motorcycle parked outside the store from a distance, and her steps became more brisk.

"Feng Xue, look, this is me..." She was like the little girl who got perfect scores on the test in elementary school and was holding the test paper all the way home. She was waiting for the other party's praise with joy, but pretended to be very calm on the surface.

But when she saw a person, it was like a bucket of cold water was poured over her head, choking her and making her swallow the second half of her words.

"Sister Tang, you're back." Fang Shanshan was standing by the sink washing cups. She greeted her familiarly, but quickly put the cups down. The air was filled with the embarrassment of being caught wearing Pinru's clothes.

Feng Xue came out from the kitchen and asked: What did you say?

Ruan Tang put the massager box aside and replied indifferently: It’s nothing, Xu Wei gave me the massager.

He said "Oh" lightly, turned around and went back to the kitchen.

Ruan Tang: ???

I have to say, he is quite good at taking the initiative when it comes to giving someone a cold shoulder, Ruan Tang thought.

"Sister Tang, I just happened to have nothing to do today, so I came over to help you. I only washed the cups for you and didn't touch anything else. You and Brother Feng shouldn't be unhappy because of me." Fang Shanshan took off her apron, walked to Ruan Tang and said with her eyes lowered.

Ruan Tang put her bag aside and smiled: Do you like him?

Fang Shanshan turned her head and glanced at the kitchen, without commenting: Do you think I can do it?

"I think you are very courageous," Ruan Tang pretended not to hear the hidden meaning in her words, walked to the counter and started processing the coffee beans, and continued: You don't have to waste your energy on me in the future. Didn't you learn politics in high school? Didn't you learn to grasp the main contradictions?

It was obvious that she didn't find any breakthrough with Feng Xue, so she turned to Ruan Tang for a roundabout approach. Seeing that Ruan Tang had no intention of accepting the attack, she packed up her coat, said hello to Feng Xue, and left.

Not long after she left, Feng Xue also left. He walked straight out the door from the kitchen and started his motorcycle, as if he didn't see her.

Ruan Tang was furious. She picked up her phone, pulled out Feng Xue's profile page and blacklisted him.

As evening approached, the weather forecast said that there might be heavy or torrential rain tonight. Ruan Tang thought that was a good idea. She didn't want to see Feng Xue unless it was necessary in the short term, so she closed the store early and went home.

At around ten o'clock, there were indeed a few loud thunders trying to break through the thick night sky, and then it started to rain heavily.

Ruan Tang kept wiping her hair, but water droplets still kept flowing down her neck, gradually wetting her nightgown, and together with the hot and humid air coming in from the window, attacking her psychological defenses.

She irritably adjusted the air conditioner to 24 degrees Celsius, and then turned on the hair dryer to the highest setting of hot air and put it aside. Only then did she finally feel a little more comfortable.

The phone showed three missed calls.

It’s Feng Xue.

As she was hesitating, the phone rang again.

She pressed the red cross with a sullen face, but continued to stare at the phone screen without blinking. He called again, and she continued to reject the call...

It was as if this was a game of chase that she never got tired of. After a while, Ruan Tang's eyes finally warmed up and showed a hint of smile.

Just as she was beginning to think about what reasonable reasons she could use to explain the blocking and rejection, a few faint cat meows from outside the window caught her attention.

Ruan Tang took out a flashlight and looked outside. In the hazy rain and fog, the kitten squatting on the tree branch reflected the flashlight's eyes.

The branch looked no thicker than a wrist, and it swayed in the heavy rain, as if it would break at any time.

"Don't be afraid, little cat. Just wait... I'll come to save you." Ruan Tang shouted to the cat. Not sure if it heard her, but it meowed at her several times.

Ruan Tang found a plastic storage box, looked around the room, and then suddenly had an idea. She stood on the dressing table and took down the curtain rod. She assembled the storage box and the wooden rod, like holding a plus version of the red tasseled spear, and hurriedly put on her raincoat and went downstairs.

She stood on tiptoe under the tree and tried to move the storage box closer to the kitten, encouraging loudly: Come on, jump, be good, I'm holding it, it won't fall, hurry up.

The rain mercilessly hit her upturned face, mixing with her sweat and flowing down her cheeks into her clothes.

Suddenly, a big hand stretched out from somewhere and pulled her back hard. Ruan Tang staggered and almost fell backwards.

She was startled and her first reaction was to poke back with the curtain rod in her hand.

She heard a muffled groan, turned around and was about to head straight for the bottom road, but before that, fortunately, she recognized Feng Xue by the light coming from the nearby residents.

"Why are you here?"

"Standing under a tree in such heavy rain, do you think you've lived too long or are you particularly confident that lightning won't strike you?" He didn't usually talk like this. Ruan Tang felt that Feng Xue had a special sense of humor when he was angry, although she didn't know what he was angry about.

She wiped the rain off her face, pointed at the tree and said: I don't know when it climbed up the branch, and suddenly it rained so heavily. It must have been scared and didn't know how to come down, so I thought of catching it.

As soon as she finished speaking, the kitten meowed a few more times as if to testify for her.

Feng Xue walked towards the tree but was stopped by Ruan Tang, who asked: Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?

"It's panicking now, so it's definitely not going to jump into your box. The tree isn't very high, so I'll go get it. It's better than you waiting down there."

Before Ruan Tang could react, he had already started climbing the tree.

While climbing the tree, he did not forget to turn around and remind people: Stay away from the tree.

Ruan Tang paid attention to the kitten's movements, took a few steps back obediently, and held the flashlight high to illuminate it.

Feng Xue stopped by the tree branch, stretched out a hand and kept moving closer to the kitten, not forgetting to comfort it softly: Come here, it's okay, I'm here to catch you, don't be afraid, come...

The kitten hesitated and took a few steps towards Feng Xue. He hugged the cat in his arms, turned around and gestured to Ruan Tang to hold the kitten in his arms, and then slowly stepped back.

When he was still a short distance from the ground, his feet suddenly slipped and he fell from the tree. The kitten stopped beside him and meowed a few more times.

"Are you okay?" Ruan Tang shouted and hurried over to help him up. The kitten seemed to be frightened by her reaction. It glanced at the two of them and quickly jumped into the grass and disappeared.

"What an ungrateful little thing." Ruan Tang was dissatisfied.

Feng Xue was helpless: Do you still expect it to say thank you to you and then bow to you?

At this time, Ruan Tang suddenly seemed to remember something, his expression turned cold, and he asked: What are you doing here?

"I wanted to talk to you, and seeing you blocked me on WeChat, I thought about calling you, but you didn't answer. I asked Xu Wei, and she said she wasn't with you and was worried something might have happened to you, so she came over."

"What could possibly happen to me?" She raised her eyes and noticed a scratch on his cheekbone and a slight bruise at the corner of his eye. "Did you get into a fight?"

He turned his head to the side, as if he was thinking of something to say. Before he could finish, Ruan Tang continued to attack: "Why are you acting like Jia Yingjun? Can't you talk properly? What's wrong with you people?"

Feng Xue saw a few strands of hair sticking to her face and the rain making it impossible for her to open her eyes. She shook her head and said: Why don’t you go back first and be careful of catching a cold. I’ll tell you on the phone.

Ruan Tang was silent for a few seconds, lowered her head and glanced to the side, and asked: Can you come with me to help me install the curtain rod?