Chapter 44: Birth and Death Occur Simultaneously
After Xu Gaodi left, Luo Qingyan and the little male fish's lives became mundane again.
-
That day, Luo Qingyan went to her maternal grandmother's house early in the morning.
Although she moved to Hefengting, she often went back to visit her grandmother. Sometimes they would go out to buy groceries together, sometimes they would cook and eat together, and sometimes they would play with Chestnut. They would usually stay for most of the day.
Today was the same. I accompanied my grandmother shopping, had lunch, and took Chestnut for a walk. We didn't return to Hefengting until almost dinnertime.
Unexpectedly, something unusual happened after returning to Hefengting.
-
As Luo Qingyan stepped out of the elevator, she heard a cat meowing in the stairwell. The meow was long and loud, completely different from the usual "meow," and sounded like a call for help.
She stopped on her way home and waited in the elevator lobby. A few seconds later, the tabby cat came out of the stairwell, saw someone, and walked towards her while meowing, then rubbed against her legs.
"You haven't had your baby yet?" Luo Qingyan noticed that the tabby cat's belly was still big. She squatted down and asked, "Are you hungry?"
"You...you're not about to give birth, are you?" Luo Qingyan's eyes widened as she woodenly stroked the tabby cat's head. "Now?"
The tabby cat, whose head had been patted, nudged Luo Qingyan's hand, then ran towards the young couple's house, meowing and turning back as it ran.
Luo Qingyan followed and saw the tabby cat lying in the nest the young couple had prepared for it, slowly panting, its breathing becoming more and more rapid, and its body constantly thrashing about.
"My God, you're really going into labor!" Luo Qingyan exclaimed in shock. She quickly grabbed her phone. Luckily, she had run into her female neighbor during the National Day holiday, who had given her her phone number so she could call her in case of any emergency.
Are you alright?
The door opened, followed by the little merman's anxious question.
"I'm fine, but the cat is in trouble, she's about to have babies!" After replying to the little male fish, Luo Qingyan dialed the phone. "Hello! I'm a neighbor from Hefengting. The tabby cat is about to have babies, and she's in her nest by the door right now."
"Now?" The female neighbor's voice was very flustered. "Could you please keep an eye on things for me for a while? I'm still on the high-speed train. I'll have my husband get back as soon as possible. Please help me before he gets back."
“I… I can help watch over her, but I don’t know anything else. I’ve never been there for a cat giving birth before. She looks like she’s in a lot of pain, but I don’t know what to do.” Luo Qingyan was full of worry.
"Don't worry, under normal circumstances, domestic shorthair cats can give birth smoothly on their own," the female neighbor quickly reassured her. "There are pee pads and canned food in the box next to the cat's nest. Could you please put down a pee pad for her? The cat needs a clean environment when she gives birth, and she will bleed quite a bit. The canned food is only for her if she is too weak to give birth, but we probably won't need it. My husband will be back as soon as possible."
"Okay, then I'll put a pee pad on it first." Luo Qingyan was a little scared, but she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
"If the cat is giving birth too slowly or in too much pain, you can gently massage her belly to soothe her." Sensing Luo Qingyan's fear, the female neighbor continued to explain some related matters, "Unless the mother cat keeps pressing down on the newborn kittens, you don't need to touch the kittens. They can lick off all the membranes and blood themselves. Please just keep an eye on them."
"Okay." Luo Qingyan calmed down.
"Thank you so much for your help," the female neighbor said earnestly.
-
After hanging up the phone, Luo Qingyan prepared to put a pee pad on the cat's bed. Just as she unfolded the pee pad, the little male merman stopped her.
"Are you going to touch it? It might scratch you!" the little male merman said, both worried and scared.
“The cat needs a clean environment to give birth, so I have to put this pad under her,” Luo Qingyan calmly explained. “She’s in a lot of discomfort right now and doesn’t have time to scratch me.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” The little male merman blurted out, then realized that Luo Qingyan was determined to do it, so he pursed his lips and said, “How about… I do it? I’ll lift it up with water, so at least it can’t scratch me.”
“I’m not as afraid of cats as you are, I’ll take care of it.” Luo Qingyan said as she put the pee pad into the cat bed. “I can understand your fear of cats, not just because cats eat fish, after all, cats don’t eat people, but there are people who are afraid of cats. And some people are afraid just by seeing them and don’t want to get close at all. There are also people who are afraid of other animals, snakes, insects, rodents, and some people even feel uncomfortable just by seeing the names of these animals.”
The little male merman didn't stop Luo Qingyan anymore, and Luo Qingyan laid out a pee pad while he was talking. The cat understood that the human was helping it and cooperated very well, even rubbing its head against Luo Qingyan's hand.
"See, it's alright. I'm not afraid of cats, I can assess the situation." Luo Qingyan turned her head and smiled at the little male merman. "Could you get me a low chair? I need to stay here and watch over it for a while, and it'll be uncomfortable squatting like this."
“What I mean by terrifying isn’t just on the surface.” The little merman’s eyes darted around. “Are you really going to guard it? It’s almost dinner time, and I’ve almost finished preparing the food.”
"Then you continue making dinner, I'll keep watch outside. The neighbor is on his way back, I'll go home for dinner when he gets back."
"Oh, then I'll get you a chair first." The little merman said, turning around to go home and get a chair.
He then gave a chair to Luo Qingyan and went home alone to continue cooking. However, he didn't close the door, so that he could come out as quickly as possible if anything happened.
-
Luo Qingyan sat on a low chair, staring intently at the tabby cat.
The tabby cat was panting heavily, looking very uncomfortable. It would curl up, roll over, and kick its legs. It was trying hard to give birth to the kittens inside its belly, but it wasn't easy.
After about ten minutes, seeing that the tabby cat wasn't making any progress, Luo Qingyan decided to gently massage its belly. She did some research online and followed the methods shared by netizens who had helped cats give birth, gently massaging the tabby cat's belly.
The tabby cat lay on its side, its belly exposed for her to rub, meowing occasionally.
After finishing making dinner, the little male merman came out carrying a low stool. Although he still had a scared and worried expression on his face, he quietly sat down beside him.
After massaging it for a while and seeing that the tabby cat was making its own movements, Luo Qingyan stopped. She turned to look at the little male merman behind her and said, "You can wait at home. If you're hungry, you can eat first. I'm not hungry yet. It's good to keep the cat company. She trusts me, so I feel at ease."
"I want to stay with you," the little merman said calmly.
Luo Qingyan was slightly taken aback, then smiled and said, "Okay, then you can stay with me. I like having you with me, so I feel at ease."
"It moved!" Although the little merman was looking at Luo Qingyan, he kept an eye on the tabby cat out of the corner of his eye, so he could immediately notice when the tabby cat reacted differently.
Luo Qingyan turned her head and saw the tabby cat's belly heaving violently, with something black beneath its tail. Startled, she exclaimed in alarm, "It...it's starting to give birth...this...so fast..."
Watching the tabby cat give birth, Luo Qingyan felt inexplicably nervous. Her heart was pounding, she was sweating profusely, her hands and feet were ice-cold, and she felt nauseous. She clenched her fists tightly. Her nails dug into her palms, causing a sharp pain, but the pain did nothing to alleviate her tension.
"Don't be afraid, it's alright." The little male merman got up from the low stool, knelt down on one knee next to Luo Qingyan, and put his arms around him from behind. "Nature's creatures have their own laws of survival. Life is heavy, but it is also tenacious."
“It looks like it’s in so much pain…” Luo Qingyan leaned closer to the little male merman, raising her right hand to grasp his. “I was just looking up information about cats giving birth online, and I found out… the mortality rate for newborn kittens isn’t low, especially… for someone like me with no experience here, the knowledge I’ve gained is all from what I found online…”
"Without you, it would have to give birth entirely on its own. With you here, you can put clean pee pads on it, massage its belly, and keep an eye on it to prevent it from crushing its newborn kittens."
“I… I’m actually very afraid of seeing these kinds of scenes… I feel very… uncomfortable…” Luo Qingyan lowered her eyes slightly. “I know life is amazing, but… I’m also very afraid of this kind of nakedness… I feel very uncomfortable and sad.”
The little male merman gently pulled Luo Qingyan's hand and slowly said, "Did you know that sea turtles must lay their eggs on the beach? For this, some female sea turtles have to cross half the Pacific Ocean, and some die along the way. When they collectively lay their eggs on the beach, their natural predators, birds, will come to prey on the eggs they have just laid. After laying their eggs, the female sea turtles return to the sea and do not stay on the beach to guard the eggs. Can you imagine that while sea turtles are laying their eggs, birds are preying on them? After the eggs hatch into baby sea turtles, birds will also come to prey on them, and they may be eaten as soon as they are born. Only a small number of baby sea turtles can return to the sea. It is truly a case of birth and death happening at the same time."
Luo Qingyan frowned slightly, imagining that scene in her mind, her feelings complicated.
The little male fish continued, "There is another type of fluorescent squid. Their lifespan is usually around one year. They grow naturally for the first 300 days, and the rest of the time is their bioluminescent mating season. Mating and laying eggs is the end of their lives. After mating, the male fluorescent squid stops eating because their reproductive organs are damaged, and they slowly die. The female fluorescent squid needs to go to shallow waters to lay eggs. After laying eggs, they don't have the strength to return to the deep sea and can only die."
"Humans might find it pitiful, but for them, life is just like this, endlessly repeating itself. Survival and reproduction are indeed instincts, but there's nothing else. They don't think as much as humans do. Humans have complex minds; they gain much, but they also have to bear much more." The little male merman's voice remained calm, as if only inner peace could allow him to calmly face everything.
Luo Qingyan remained silent, her hand gripping the little male merman's hand tightly.
At this time, the tabby cat gave birth to its first kitten, a small, dirty blob that was barely recognizable as a kitten unless you looked closely.
Immediately afterwards, I heard meowing coming from the neighbor's house. It's likely that their cat sensed what was happening outside and started meowing.
The tabby cat whimpered a few times and continued giving birth, leaving a bloody mess.
Luo Qingyan suddenly felt nauseous, gagged a few times, and felt extremely uncomfortable.
"Go home and stay here, I'll take care of things here," the little male merman said, trying to help Luo Qingyan up.
"It's nothing..." Luo Qingyan said he was fine, but he felt extremely uncomfortable.
“You don’t look alright.” The little merman’s tone hardened. “You have to go back. As long as someone stays here to guard you, I’ll stay here.”
"You don't like cats..."
"I can stay even if I don't like it!"
The male neighbor was a smart man and realized that something was wrong, so he quickly said, "Thank you, I can take care of the rest. Thank you for your help."
"It's nothing," Luo Qingyan replied immediately. She knew it wasn't appropriate for her to stay any longer. "The cat is giving birth, and too many people would only disturb her. It's better to have familiar people with her. We'll head back now."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work." The male neighbor nodded, then went to look at the tabby cat in the cat house.
The little male fish immediately pushed Luo Qingyan towards the house, saying that they could talk about the chairs and such later.
Luo Qingyan glanced back at the tabby cat that was still giving birth, feeling a mix of emotions.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
