Chapter 53
Now that Li Ying'an has taken action, I can rest assured.
"Okay, let's have breakfast first. After breakfast, take a nap and get some rest."
Li Ying'an gently stroked and combed the messy hair on my head, trying his best to make me feel comfortable. "You've been so haggard lately. I bought some chicken breast and boiled two eggs for you to nourish yourself."
I was greedy for the warmth next to Li Ying'an, so when he got up from the bed, I followed him without hesitation.
At the dinner table, I put aside all my unhappiness and chatted with him for a while. Then I asked him in plain words: Did you also ask for leave from your boss yesterday?
"I can't just let you go undercover and ignore everything else. I'm worried you might need help when you get home, and if I'm not home, you'll have to go through the trouble of contacting me. Instead of multitasking and wasting time, I might as well put it all aside and focus on waiting for you to come home."
Li Ying'an would rather earn a few dollars less and be relatively safe.
Due to the fatigue and fright from last night, I slept soundly all day after breakfast. I didn’t wake up until the gorgeous clouds in the evening drowned the original color of the sky and scattered golden light.
The strong smell of blood no longer hit my nose. The aroma of food made me hungry. Before I even opened my eyes, my nose was already being led by the smell and I lost the ability to judge direction.
I felt like a floating ghost, with a hand that smelled of food above my head, carrying me to the dining table and sitting down.
The aroma of crucian carp and tofu soup penetrated my nostrils and pried open my eyes. I stared at Li Ying'an as he served me the soup. The milky white tofu and soup fell into the bowl and were brought to my eyes with steam wafting from it.
Li Ying'an was a particular person. He did not put the fish into my bowl, but found another plate, put the crucian carp meat that was almost broken into pieces on it, and then served it to me.
Although the weather was not cool, drinking a bowl of crucian carp soup would stimulate heat all over my body, but as I swallowed it mouthful by mouthful, the delicious taste cleared away all my unhappiness.
After dinner, I had forgotten most of what happened last night.
This magical effect made me feel very happy. I asked Li Ying'an: If I am unhappy in the future, can you make soup for me again?
Li Ying'an's answer was, of course, "Yeah, sure."
He answered so quickly, without any hesitation, that made me feel ashamed: But I can't cook, so if you need me in the future, I won't be able to make you what you like.
He only smiled faintly when he heard that. He walked past me while cleaning the table and rubbed my head: "What does it matter? When the time comes, you can just turn into a cat to accompany me."
He said my snoring could cure all his ailments.
Compared with the past, today we had a mission to complete, so Li Ying'an and I went to work half an hour earlier than usual.
When Li Ying'an and I walked in one after another, Deng Yu was busy at her post working as a cashier. The old lady opposite her seemed to be a little hard of hearing, so Deng Yu leaned over and spoke loudly in her ear.
It was impossible for Li Ying'an to go to the store empty-handed. He was worried that there were not many ingredients left at home, so he took me to the vegetable and meat area, and then swept through the snack area until the empty space in his handbasket was filled. Then he took me to check out.
"Auntie Deng." Without waiting for Deng Yu to notice me, I took the initiative to greet Deng Yu, who had not yet recovered from the previous customer.
Deng Yu was startled when he heard a familiar voice. He smiled and saw Li Ying'an standing next to me. His smile deepened. "Are you here shopping with a friend?"
I knew that there was a communication barrier between us, so I didn't explain too much. To make a long story short, I just nodded and said: Yeah.
Li Ying'an deliberately stood at the end of the queue. There were not many people in the supermarket and no one would come to check out in a short period of time. We had relatively more time to inquire with Deng Yu about Sui Jiangbao's news.
It was less than twenty minutes before my turn to take over, so I simply moved a bench and sat down, blocking Deng Yu in the checkout area.
As a result, Li Ying'an began to greet Deng Yu.
"Did your eldest son come to pick you up from get off work?"
Deng Yu, now free, was willing to chat for a while. She used her free hands to straighten the wrinkled hem of her skirt and said with a smile, "Yeah, he's always the one to pick me up."
"His filial piety proves you didn't raise him in vain," Li Ying'an continued to probe. "He's a good son to you, and he should be a good brother to his younger brother. I don't know how you resolved the incident that night, but it's common for children and parents to have conflicts. It's all about resolving it."
Talking about this, Deng Yu was filled with emotion, and her face was instantly covered with a layer of melancholy. "What's so young about a child going to junior high school? That child is just willful!"
Li Ying'an pondered, "Isn't my youngest son in junior high school yet? He looked quite tall the other day, so I thought he was at least a junior high student. Junior high school students are generally rebellious."
Deng Yu was even more helpless when talking about this: "He only cares about getting ahead. He's always picky about food. The food at home is either not good here or there. His dad and I were so angry that we threw him out and made him go to and from school on his own. If he didn't want to go home to eat, he'd just buy food outside. We thought he'd control himself, but who knew he'd become even more unruly. He'd even skipped lunch and dinner. I don't know what he was eating outside, and he wasn't gaining weight. He wasn't getting enough nutrition, so he kept talking nonsense."
I suddenly raised my eyebrows. From Deng Yu's words, I learned that Sui Jiangbao would probably only go home for the night.
"That won't do," Li Ying'an, who didn't look like a man in his twenties, frowned in mock seriousness while speaking to Deng Yu, appearing even more mature, like a dignified teacher in his thirties. "When he's growing up, he still needs to get more nutrition at home... Is he still attending primary school here? Have you considered sending him to school outside the province?"
Deng Yu shook his head and sighed, "Actually, the kid is quite homesick. His elementary school isn't far from home; it's only a few hundred meters from Xinhua to my house. He's already in sixth grade, and the school is considering his transition to middle school. During a previous parents' meeting, his teacher told me he had no plans to go far for middle school and was thinking of attending Yingcai, a school close to home. I wanted him to live out of town, but he refused."
After receiving the important news, Li Ying'an and I looked at each other. The clue was clear. It turned out that Sui Jiangbao was studying at Xinhua Primary School.
As far as I know, the way classes are dismissed at Xinhua Primary School is the same as that at kindergartens, where classes line up one by one to leave the school. This ensures that there will be no chaos, and parents who come to pick up their children can also see it clearly.
Since Sui Jiangbao is in the sixth grade, we only need to focus on the sixth grade. He is relatively tall compared to his peers, and Li Ying'an and I have seen his appearance before.
Since the important questions had been asked, Li Ying'an had no intention of continuing the conversation. Coincidentally, Deng Yu was about to get off work and another customer came to the checkout counter to pay. Naturally, the two stopped their daily chat and Li Ying'an left with the shopping bags.
While Deng Yu was paying the bill, I turned around and looked at Li Ying'an through the glass. He also turned his head to look at me. The moment our eyes met, he raised his hand and made an OK gesture to me.
I couldn't help laughing in my heart: He is quite fashionable. After only a few months in the city, Li Ying'an has become more and more fashionable.
For matters like this, Li Ying'an and I agree that the faster the better, but the number of leave Li Ying'an and I have requested recently is really embarrassing. If I were the boss, I would never approve leave for myself or Li Ying'an again. Even if I were a disabled person, I shouldn't be so arrogant.
I don't care. I am not like other cats who sleep so soundly that they don't know what the world is. I don't sleep much, and a nap of ten minutes occasionally can dispel the fatigue of the day. What's more, it's the night shift, and this is the most energetic time of the day for me as a cat.
Fortunately, we all work the night shift, and the place where Li Ying'an works has no more traffic at night than during the day. Even if he doesn't rest in the morning, he can still sneak in a nap at night.
So we set the time to go to Xinhua Primary School to intercept Sui Jiangbao at noon the next day, so that after the night shift was over, Li Ying'an could go home and sleep for a while, and then take a nap before going to work.
It was a rare occasion that Li Ying'an didn't make breakfast. Knowing that the task was arduous, he fell asleep as soon as he got home, leaving me alone to look through the lunch box he bought from the supermarket and some packaged snacks.
It was 11:30 in the morning, and it was the time for Xinhua Primary School to finish school. The school gate was wide open and students walked out one after another.
Li Ying'an and I stood shoulder to shoulder under a poplar tree, watching the elementary school students lined up and walked out in an orderly manner.
The weather today has a bit of the feeling of mid-autumn. The sun is no longer as hot as it was at the beginning of autumn. Even if there is still a dazzling fireball hanging in the sky like in midsummer, it is just for scaring people. The temperature is pleasant, and gusts of cool breeze pass by, sweeping away the remaining heat. I feel a little cold in my short sleeves!
I subconsciously walked away from the shade of the tree and wanted to bask in the sun.
"Are you feeling cold?" Li Ying'an was very attentive.
The closer winter gets, the more sensitive I become to temperature changes. Winter is the most difficult season for me, and autumn is the time when I am most anxious, especially this autumn.
I looked at Li Ying'an and thought carefully. I have spent nearly five years in the world as a human. Now Xiaoju's life or death is uncertain, and after experiencing the scene that night, it has already entered the grave in my heart.
I can't take Xiaoju back to Empress Wuqing. If I don't keep my promise, I will have to accept the punishment that Empress Wuqing has agreed on in advance. So in less than half a year, I can only be Li Youzhi and accompany Li Ying'an.
Actually, for me, this is not a punishment, it is even a reward, but I still feel uncomfortable and regretful.
No matter what, separation between people seems to hurt.
I still lied: It’s not cold, let’s find the child first.
In elementary schools that haven't merged with junior high schools, sixth graders are the kings of the class. They're the last to leave. As Li Ying'an and I waited, the number of parents around us gradually dwindled. When we finally looked around, there were only a handful left.
Yes, children in the third grade go to and from school by themselves, and sixth grade students who are about to enter junior high school must be more independent and self-reliant.
We found Sui Jiangbao in the class that appeared last.
Ever since I saw him that night, I've never forgotten him. Sui Jiangbao and Deng Yu were practically cut from the same cloth. In a calm and composed state, everyone would mistake Sui Jiangbao for Deng Yu in terms of temperament and appearance.
He was wearing a blue and white school uniform and walked across the street without blinking, into a fast food restaurant opposite the school.
Li Ying'an and I looked at each other, and immediately walked towards the fast food restaurant and ordered the same meal as Sui Jiangbao.
While ordering, I vaguely sensed a cautious and evasive gaze. At that time, Sui Jiangbao was observing us.
So when we sat on the benches at the same table and looked at each other, Sui Jiangbao didn't think twice and said directly: "We met that night, I still recognize you."
Instead of ignoring us or even avoiding us impatiently as we had imagined, Sui Jiangbao was very enthusiastic towards us. After learning that we had come to look for him and hearing the reason why, his eyes widened and he even lost interest in the food on the table. "Do you believe me?"
"It's not a question of whether I believe you or not," I said, unable to speak, so Li Ying'an had to conduct the conversation. "What evidence do you have, or why do you firmly believe your brother abuses cats? A society ruled by law requires evidence. Without evidence, you're just spreading rumors, and serious consequences include imprisonment."
Sui Jiangbao shouted, "Of course I have evidence!"
But as he continued to shout, his voice gradually faded, visibly deflated like a balloon that had lost air. "Please don't scold me."
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