Chapter 23
Yu Miaomiao didn't know how she got home.
She made a perfunctory appointment with Jiang Chengyi for the next volunteer activity, dealt with the starry-eyed Xiao He, and said goodbye to Li Zhi. Until she lay in bed, her gaze was fixed on a few specks of dust on the ceiling, as if she had no focus at all.
"Bastard, trash."
She suddenly closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly, and murmured something to herself, not knowing who she was talking to.
"They come out after eighteen years, thinking a few apologies will do them any good."
Of course she knew who the man was.
When she was a child, Yu Jianqing had a very precious photo, which she kept in a frame and wiped clean regularly. It showed a young Yu Jianqing with a blond, green-eyed man.
When Yu Miaomiao was little, she pointed at the man in the photo and asked, "Mom, who is this person? Why does he look so strange?"
He is your father.
"Look at your eyes, aren't they exactly the same?"
At this moment, the usually cheerful woman became very sad, staring at the photo and murmuring to herself, "Where did you go..."
"No, no!"
Yu Miaomiao wished she could scribble all over the photo to make this man never appear again and to stop him from hurting her mother.
She jumped onto her mother, her short arms wrapping tightly around her shoulders, and loudly protested, "Not at all! I look just like my mother! Our noses are so similar, our mouths are so similar, our eyebrows are so similar..."
But her mother kept crying, and Yu Miaomiao felt terrible too. She could only whisper to the person in the photo, "I don't hate you anymore. Please appear soon and stop making my mother cry."
When the bloodline clue appeared, she still clung to a last glimmer of hope that this person was just a distant monster relative.
However, as the man approached, his face, identical to the one in the photograph, made her recognize him at a glance.
But she wished she hadn't recognized him, wished he were just a distant monster relative.
Back then, Yu Jianqing would always call the Monster Department, hoping to get evidence that the man was still alive. Time and time again, her expectations were dashed, and time and time again, her hopes rose again.
But she died before she could hear from the man. Many years later, the man finally came back to life, and he was alive and well, with a clear mind, abundant demonic power, and all his limbs intact.
She remembered what Hu Li had said.
[It was found by the Enforcement Division during their investigation of the monster ruins; they are currently in seclusion.]
There was no serious injury, no serious illness, no imprisonment, no compelling reason; it was simply a period of seclusion.
It seems that Yu Jianqing's daily worries, expectations, disappointments, and sadness are all a joke.
"It would be better to be dead."
Yu Miaomiao transformed into a cat and buried her entire body in the pillow.
-
Yu Miaomiao stayed in bed for a long time without doing anything, which was completely out of character for her.
It wasn't until night fell and her phone alarm rang that she remembered she should submit her CAE entry.
She checked the prepared work several times again, then clicked to run it and tried it out.
This is a narrative puzzle game where players take on the role of avoiding monster NPCs, collecting items, solving puzzles, and advancing the story.
Due to code size limitations, the scenes and characters are very simple; the protagonist is a stick figure, and the monster is a roughly drawn stick figure.
After testing several scenes and confirming there were no bugs, she submitted all the materials on the official website.
By the time I finished doing all this, it was already dark outside.
Feeling a distinct hunger pang in her stomach, Yu Miaomiao opened the storage cabinet, which contained quite a few cans of cat food and cat treats.
She opened the can, brought it close to her nose, licked a little off her tongue and put it in her mouth, then frowned.
Perhaps it was because Aunt He treated her to special meals on set, and she had also eaten the limited-edition canned food from Jiang Chengyi's place, that the taste of regular cat food seemed rather unpalatable.
I didn't notice this problem because I had a fever and a dulled sense of taste a couple of days ago.
Yu Miaomiao forced herself to eat a few bites, but finally gave up and chose to eat some human food instead.
But the refrigerator was empty, except for the Red Fuji apples left over from Li Zhi's last visit.
She decided to order takeout because she had never registered with Meituan before, and the platform gave her a lot of huge red envelopes.
She searched for "fish" and a bunch of shops popped up, but after looking at them, she couldn't find any that she liked.
Just as I was feeling troubled, I heard the sound of a door opening downstairs.
Yu Miaomiao pricked up her ears and heard the sound of lights being turned on and footsteps.
Oh, Jiang Chengyi is back.
Ever since she sneaked back to her own home from Jiang Cheng's family last time, she has discovered that the two are actually in a superior-subordinate relationship.
Without realizing it, she walked to the window and looked down. The lights in the apartments below gradually came on: the living room, the bedroom, and the kitchen.
Hmm, the kitchen, is Jiang Chengyi going to cook?
Yu Miaomiao subconsciously recalled the cat food Jiang Chengyi made, which was tender and juicy, sweet and delicious, and at the right temperature, much better than canned food.
She felt an itch in her canines, and her mouth was involuntarily producing saliva.
Why not go to his house for a meal? Since he's already cooking, it shouldn't be too difficult to cook another cat meal, right?
When she came to her senses, she had already transformed back into her original form and was walking towards Jiang Chengyi's house.
Once it stood at the other party's doorstep, it finally felt regret and a sense of unease.
Even if I don't actually have such delicious food, ordering takeout or eating canned food isn't unacceptable.
But looking at the light shining through the crack in the door, it quickly convinced itself that if Jiang Cheng hadn't said that long string of incomprehensible words, they could have gone back earlier, wouldn't have met that man, and wouldn't have forgotten to eat in the cafeteria.
Therefore, Jiang Chengyi should be held responsible for Yu Miaomiao's hunger!
Thinking of this, the kitten scratched at the door and meowed.
It was just a very soft meow, but the person inside immediately stopped moving. Then footsteps approached, and with a "click," the door opened, letting in bright light that illuminated the kitten sitting upright.
"Mimi~"
I'm hungry.
Jiang Chengyi, of course, couldn't understand the meaning of the kitten's meows. He picked up the kitten, looked it over from side to side, and made sure there was no dirt or wounds.
He lifted the cat up so that their eyes were level, and stared intently into its round, lake-green eyes, asking very seriously, "Meow, is your owner so angry that they forgot to close the door?"
"Could you tell me why she's sad?"
The kitten froze instantly, its round pupils narrowing abruptly, and it even forgot its usual struggle.
Jiang Chengyi thinks she's very sad? You're kidding!
She was indeed very angry because she had encountered a man who had abandoned her mother without a word for eighteen years, and then returned without a word.
If it weren't for the resonance of blood ties, she would even be ashamed to acknowledge the blood relationship between the two.
But why should she be sad for this man? What is there to be sad about in a stranger?
She was overjoyed, because the man, just as she had predicted, was a shameless and unfaithful man.
But the kitten couldn't help but freeze in a daze.
"Never mind, you wouldn't understand me anyway."
Jiang Cheng chuckled, petted the kitten, put it in its bed, and headed towards the kitchen.
Much later, the kitten started meowing loudly towards the kitchen.
Nonsense, I'm not sad at all!
Nonsense!!
-
Seven days later, the results of the CAE preliminary round were released, and Yu Miaomiao unsurprisingly advanced to the semi-finals.
In the past few days, Yu Miaomiao has volunteered for many volunteer tasks. After each volunteer task is completed, Yu Miaomiao will sneak over to Jiang Cheng's house and mooch a meal as payment.
After a few meals, Jiang Chengyi's cooking skills improved more and more.
That day, an urgent task was assigned to Yu Miaomiao.
Many crops in the agricultural college were ready for harvest, and to protect them, they set up numerous bird nets around the fields. Birds often couldn't see these nets, and since they stretched for hundreds of meters, many birds got caught in them within a few days.
Upon learning of this news, Jiang Cheng mobilized all available members of the club to check the bird netting and rescue the surviving birds.
Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Cheng were in the same group. They were responsible for checking the bird netting around the cornfields. After only two fields, they had already rescued a lot of small birds, including sparrows, brown-headed crows, and Japanese white-eyes, as well as larger birds such as magpies, spotted doves, and crows.
Bird netting ropes are fine and tough, yet must not harm the birds. As a result, Yu Miaomiao unravels the nets very slowly. Often, after rescuing a bird, her fingers are left with red marks from the ropes.
Looking at Jiang Chengyi, her palms were so large, and her fingers were as thick as two of hers, yet her movements were so light and agile.
During a break, she asked, "We're not a stray animal protection association, so birds shouldn't be considered stray animals?"
Not only do they not count, they could also be described as prey for stray animals.
“It doesn’t really count,” Jiang Chengyi explained. “Before me, the organization was mainly responsible for the shelter and adoption of stray cats and dogs. After I took office, we cooperated with the Wildlife Rescue Center of City A to also take charge of the rescue and temporary care of some wild animals. The application to change the organization’s name has been submitted, but it hasn’t been approved yet.”
Yu Miaomiao nodded. "I see."
But then he suddenly realized something was wrong: Why didn't Jiang Chengyi write this on his resume?
After thinking it over, she decided not to remind Jiang Chengyi.
After resting for a while, just as the two were about to continue, a cat's meow came.
Jiang Cheng frowned. With so many birds hanging around, it was practically a buffet for the cat. He had to shoo them away quickly.
The cat's meows grew closer, "Meow meow meow meow meow!"
Yu Miaomiao, however, could tell that the meow was not the meaningless cry of an ordinary cat, but had a clear meaning.
The cat is saying, "Miaomiao, where are you!"
Yu Miaomiao's expression changed. Damn it, why is this person so persistent!
Accompanied by urgent meows, a large cat appeared in Yu Miaomiao and Jiang Chengyi's line of sight.
The cat nimbly darted out of the cornfield, but suddenly cowered when it saw people.
Even its meows became softer: "Meow~ Meow."
"Miaomiao, I'm sorry, I didn't know there were other people here."
Yu Miaomiao acted as if she hadn't seen the cat at all, treating it like it was invisible, and said to Jiang Chengyi, "Let's continue."
Jiang Chengyi took out an empty cage. "Wild cats have a strong urge to catch birds. I'll catch it first."
Since the cat didn't look fierce, he didn't ask Yu Miaomiao for help.
However, although the big cat doesn't hurt people, it also doesn't let anyone touch it, and Jiang Cheng tried to catch it several times but it escaped each time.
Jiang Chengyi had no choice but to try to capture it again after upgrading his equipment.
The two continued, but the big cat didn't leave. It followed Yu Miaomiao closely, meowing softly, as if afraid that its loud meows would disturb her.
"Miaomiao, it's getting a bit cold, wear another layer of clothing."
"Miaomiao, you're amazing! You can do everything, just like Xiaoqing."
"Miaomiao, can you please talk to me and say something to me?"
Yu Miaomiao pretended not to hear the words that came one after another.
The big cat's meows grew increasingly mournful and pitiful.
Yu Miaomiao remained unfazed. After a few days of adjustment, she had gradually become accustomed to this person's verbal attacks.
To be precise, this person suddenly appeared four days ago—in the form of a cat.
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