Chapter 10 Homesickness She couldn't go home. She missed home so much.
A clear morning after the rain.
The crisp chirping of birds came from outside the window, one after another, breaking the morning silence.
The sky, washed clean by water, was a deep blue, without a single cloud, so pristine it was mesmerizing.
In the living room, the newly bought cat bed is still there, the soft fur on the cushion is fluffy and soft, but the bed is empty.
The cat is missing.
It rained last night.
The kitten's paws were dirty; every step left a black paw print. But now the floor was... spotless.
Xie Shijin stood in the center of the living room, her mind blank, even forgetting how to move her fingers.
A sense of confusion washed over him like a fog. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he seemed to suddenly snap out of it and called out in a hoarse voice, "...Cheng Shiyun?"
There was no response.
Confusion and helplessness turned into a dull ache in my heart.
"Cheng Shiyun?"
The name he shouted in a loud voice echoed in the empty room, finally returning to his ears as only his own echo remained.
Suddenly, it felt like my temple had been hit by a heavy hammer.
The intense pain spread along my nerves, just like when I wake up from a nightmare.
For the past two years, he has frequently dreamed of Cheng Shiyun.
I woke up covered in sweat and could only sit in the living room with the window open, letting the night wind blow in, to slightly alleviate the feeling of suffocation in my heart.
At that moment, he seemed to hear the old man's faltering footsteps again behind him.
"Did you dream about her again?" Grandma's voice was gentle, looking at him with love and heartache.
He shook his head: "It's not a dream, she's back."
“She slept here last night,” he said, pointing to the cat bed.
"You bought a cat bed because you like cats, right? If you do, then get one."
dislike.
He said, "She chose the cat bed." To save him money, she bought the cheapest one, the gray one that she disliked.
"Where is she?"
Where?
There was nothing in the cat's nest; everything was clean, without a trace of her existence.
“That girl left a long time ago and won’t appear here, nor will my grandmother.”
"Xiao Jin, wake up..."
The rain had long since stopped, but he remained lost in that dream, unwilling to wake up.
Xie Shijin repeated softly, "It's not a dream."
He turned and went to the kitchen, where he found the cake he hadn't finished eating the night before, as well as the broken porcelain bowl, in the kitchen trash can.
The sharp shards of porcelain cut his palm.
Blood slowly seeped out, but he felt nothing. He stared at the fragments and closed his eyes tightly.
A moment later, he washed his hands, opened the door, and bumped into the father and son across the street.
The boy, carrying his schoolbag, was on his way to his math Olympiad class. He saw him and waved with a smile: "Brother Xie!"
The boy's father also greeted him, "So early, is Xiao Xie going out too?"
Xie Shijin nodded and asked, "Have you seen a cat?"
He held out his palm and gestured: "It's only this big; my ear is injured."
...
"How did Mimi get her ears hurt?"
A group of children were squatting on the ground in front of a breakfast shop, watching a cat catch a mouse.
The kitten looked to be only a month old, with its ears wrapped in gauze.
The mouse is bigger than its body!
A cat and a mouse were circling on the ground. The cat was arching its back and baring its teeth, which terrified the mouse. It had never seen a cat curse so filthyly.
"Go, kitty! Catch it!"
The mouse scurried into the sewer, and just as the children cried out in surprise, the kitten nimbly stuck its front paws in, then its head followed.
A few seconds later, the tabby cat grabbed the mouse by the tail, pulled it out of the sewer, and bit it tightly.
"Amazing!"
"Mimi is amazing!"
The children clapped their hands around the cat.
The little tabby understood their praise and proudly raised its tail.
Just kidding, her second uncle is like a tiger in the zoo.
With strong ancestral genes, catching a mouse is a piece of cake.
The children looked at her with bright eyes, and Cheng Shiyun walked towards them with the mouse in her mouth.
The children scattered in a flash, frightened by the mouse.
You don't want any of them?
That's great, she'll take it back to Xie Shijin!
Xie Shijin had definitely never seen such a big rat before!
...
Cheng Shiyun circled the street twice.
She had been chasing the mouse so much that she forgot which direction she came from.
It wasn't until she returned to the breakfast shop that she realized she was lost.
With a large rat in her mouth, Cheng Shiyun changed direction and continued to explore.
However, as soon as she entered a quiet alley, she heard very light footsteps behind her.
As soon as she stopped, her footsteps also stopped.
Someone is following her.
No way...
Who would stalk a kitten?
"..."
Holy crap, that's a pervert!!!
Having dropped the mouse from her mouth, Cheng Shiyun didn't dare look back and ran away on all fours.
After turning another corner, there's a wall in front of you.
The sound of footsteps getting closer and closer came from behind.
Her ears hurt so much; she didn't want to be caught.
The shadow drew closer and closer, its elongated shadow in the sunlight resembling a thin, ghostly figure. She curled up into a ball, covering her ears and eyes with her paws.
In the face of life and death, Cheng Shiyun thought of Xie Shijin.
Xie Shijin, save me...
Cheng Shiyun kept her eyes tightly closed, but a familiar scent suddenly filled her nostrils.
Immediately afterwards, a clear voice rang in my ears, very close.
"Cheng Shiyun".
Cheng Shiyun pried open the claws, her heart pounding.
The boy stood against the light, his hair shimmering with a light gold hue. Half of his face was shrouded in shadow, his nose was straight, his lips were pale, his pupils were clear and distinct, and his whole demeanor was unusually cold and aloof.
Cheng Shiyun looked up at him, feeling inexplicably guilty and unable to meet his gaze.
Moving the gaze downwards, beneath the boy's straight trouser legs were a pair of bare feet.
Cheng Shiyun originally wanted to ask him how he found her, but the words that came out were: "Xie Shijin, why aren't you wearing shoes?"
Even though it's summer, you can't go barefoot.
Xie Shijin lowered his eyes, his dry eyeballs blinking slowly: "I forgot."
"You have a really bad memory," Cheng Shiyun said. "Don't forget next time. The ground is dirty, with broken glass and nails. It'll be a problem if you cut your foot."
She made two "meow" sounds.
No response was received.
The alley was unusually quiet.
Cheng Shiyun looked at his face again and found Xie Shijin staring at her with a dark expression.
His expression was calm, but the emotions in his eyes were profound. He could not see any ripples, but they were like surging mountains and seas, so heavy that it was hard to breathe.
It's like... she lost something very important to him, and he wanted to blame her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
For a moment, Cheng Shiyun hesitated to bite his trouser leg. Just as she was about to ask him what was wrong, she heard him call her name again.
"Cheng Shiyun".
His tone was strained, which inexplicably sent a shiver down one's spine.
Why didn't you tell me?
What?
Why didn't you wake me up?
His throat felt like it was filled with ice, cold and hard.
Cheng Shiyun was a little confused.
Who upset him so early in the morning?
Grumpy when you wake up?
Cheng Shiyun explained softly, "I was going to wake you when I woke up this morning, but a rat crawled over from the neighbor's balcony. It was so dirty, covered in mud all over the house. I saw you were sleeping soundly, so I chased the rat away and cleaned the floor."
I also wiped away the black footprints she left last night.
Don't you think your house is particularly clean?
It was common knowledge in Xie Shijin's class that he was a clean freak. A boy who is fair-skinned and clean is often ostracized and isolated in a group of teenage boys.
Once during a PE class, those cheeky boys in his class deliberately threw basketballs at Xie Shijin, wanting to see him take off his jacket and laugh at the scars on his arms.
Although the boy did not attend classes all day with a huge basketball mark on his back as they had hoped.
But Cheng Shiyun could tell that he was very uncomfortable and suffering greatly.
Similarly, Xie Shijin certainly couldn't stand her being so dirty and leaving so many marks at home.
...
Xie Shijin said, "It's very clean."
It was so clean, as if everything from last night was just a bizarre dream he had.
Of course! She used her mouth to hold the towel and wiped it bit by bit, how could it not be clean?
Cheng Shiyun was very generous: "I know you really want to thank me, but there's no need to thank me."
"It's nothing."
However, Xie Shijin did not seem to intend to thank her.
His brow was still furrowed, and he still looked like he wasn't in a good mood.
So she changed the subject: "Xie Shijin, how did you find me?"
The little tabby sat obediently on the ground, its two bright green eyes gazing at him with a look of curiosity and admiration.
Xie Shijin bent down, lifted her up, and held her in his arms: "Keep looking, and you'll find it."
Cheng Shiyun: "..." This is the same as not saying anything at all.
Xie Shijin carried her back.
Cheng Shiyun said, "These two streets have changed so much. I remember that rice noodle shop used to be Wanzhou grilled fish, and the oden shop has also moved. I almost didn't recognize them."
"Almost?" the boy asked indifferently.
Cheng Shiyun twitched her ears. Well, she just didn't recognize him.
"I've been dead for two years. These streets change every day. Isn't it normal that I didn't recognize them?"
Fortunately, only two years have passed. If it had been twenty years, Xie Shijin might have moved by now.
Cheng Shiyun looked up and saw that the boy's jaw was taut and his eyes were looking straight ahead, but there were faint dark circles under his eyes, showing a bit of fatigue.
"Have you... been looking for me for a long time?"
The kitten doesn't have a watch and doesn't know the time.
Xie Shijin said, "No, not long."
"real?"
Cheng Shiyun believed her; she hadn't really run far: "It's a good thing you came to find me, otherwise I wouldn't know how to get back."
The familiar streets have changed; she no longer recognizes the way.
When Cheng Shiyun realized she was lost, she was a little scared. She wondered if the next person she would meet would be someone as kind as Xie Shijin.
But the person she encountered happened to be Xie Shijin himself.
Her fear vanished, but Xie Shijin still seemed unhappy. A lingering cloud seemed to hang over his brow.
She asked cautiously, "Xie Shijin, are you angry?"
He blamed her for not saying goodbye to him when she left in the morning.
It's still her fault for not being able to find her way back and causing him trouble.
Cheng Shiyun panicked a little; she wouldn't do it again.
Xie Shijin shook his head, his expression relaxed and his lips flat.
He said, "I thought...you had gone home."
"go home?"
Cheng Shiyun's eyes dimmed for a moment, like a candle flame extinguished by the wind.
She looked away from his face.
If she could go home, things wouldn't have turned out like this.
They walked towards the sun, and the sun rose higher and higher.
Cheng Shiyun nestled in his arms, smiled, and said, "Of course I want to go home, but let's wait a few more days. I haven't figured out how to tell my parents that I've turned into a cat."
She had also considered asking Xie Shijin for help.
"But you know, my dad teaches Marxism, is a party member, and a materialist atheist. If you tell him I was reborn as a cat, he might think you're mentally ill."
"...I'm doing this for your own good."
She screamed until she was hoarse, but her father still didn't recognize her.
Her mother is allergic to cat fur, so how can she get home?
...
She can't go home.
...
She misses home so much.
...
Cats only live for about ten years at most. Her parents were only in their fifties at that time. After she died, they would definitely search the world for her.
Of course, Cheng Shiyun felt that she was very likely not to live for another ten years.
Whether it's a human or a cat, life is full of uncertainties.
She might die in an accident tomorrow.
It transforms into a mouse, a dog, or a butterfly, in an endless cycle.
Ideally, she should have hands and feet, so she could secretly go home to visit and then ask Xie Shijin to adopt her.
It's also possible...
He died just like that.
Disappear from this world.
She didn't want her parents to suffer the pain of losing their daughter a second time.
Humans couldn't understand her speech, not even her parents, but Xie Shijin could. On the night he planned to end his own life, he heard her plea.
Cheng Shiyun didn't expect Xie Shijin to support her for long; she'd just take it one day at a time.
...
Before leaving home, Xie Shijin poured goat milk into a small bowl and warmed it with hot water, so the temperature would be just right when she returned.
The kitten, which is a little over two months old, can eat cat food now.
The cat food was soaked in goat milk until soft, and it tasted like a biscuit-flavored steamed cake.
Cheng Shiyun suddenly lunged forward and began to eat her rice with gusto.
"Knock knock—"
A knocking sounded suddenly.
Xie Shijin wiped the cat food crumbs off his fingertips and got up to open the door.
Outside the door stood a middle-aged man with graying hair, wearing thin-rimmed glasses and a neat, well-fitting shirt.
Xie Shijin opened the door and called out, "Teacher Cheng."
A note from the author:
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Collect this! [Sprinkling flowers]
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