Chapter 5 Don't you remember me?
Jiang Muzhou turned his head, his brows furrowed slightly, and his dark pupils reflected Su Cheng's figure disinfecting in the entryway.
He didn't know what she was making him restrain, and he couldn't understand why she addressed him so formally as "Mr. Jiang".
She always addressed Lin Yang by his first name when they spoke.
Yuanbao, however, was quite at ease. Upon hearing Su Cheng's voice, his little ears perked up immediately, and his soft body began to wriggle violently in Jiang Muzhou's arms.
After flapping its four short legs twice in mid-air, it landed steadily, broke free from the clutches, and happily jumped into Su Cheng's arms, wagging its little tail.
Su Cheng's slender fingers dug into Yuanbao's fur, gently rubbing it.
Yuanbao tilted his round head back and nudged her palm with the top of his head, just like a well-trained little sea lion in an aquarium.
Jiang Muzhou watched the scene unfold before him. Su Cheng's eyes were filled with a bright smile, while Yuanbao rolled around excitedly in her arms.
What a heartwarming scene of a loving mother and filial son enjoying family bliss.
I wish that cat wasn't his.
Yuanbao was lying on its back on the ground, showing its soft belly to Su Cheng as if to be friendly.
“Prolonged petting, comforting, and repeated goodbyes before leaving home, and overly enthusiastic greetings or reassurances upon returning home, can make pets perceive their owner's departure as a major event requiring special attention, thus increasing their anxiety levels.” Su Cheng pursed her lips, her gentle smile from when she was teasing Yuanbao replaced by a professional and serious expression. “This fluctuating emotional range is like repeatedly throwing a heart into extremes of ice and fire, which will make their separation anxiety symptoms worse.”
"Another effective tip is to hide a few freeze-dried or catnip biscuits on top of the cat tree or deep in the cat bed, places that Yuanbao often goes to, before you go out."
Su Cheng unwrapped the cat lollipop, and Yuanbao's squinting eyes suddenly widened, then it took a big bite.
"Like a treasure hunt, this way it keeps the fun of exploration going even after you leave, allowing you to release your pent-up energy and avoid getting too bored."
Jiang Muzhou nodded, carefully remembering the key points Su Cheng had made.
His first question was answered, but he had a second one.
“Spend less time playing with it lately to reduce its dependence on you, so it can adapt to being alone.” Holding the cat-shaped lollipop, Su Cheng gently shook it, then looked up, her amber eyes meeting Jiang Muzhou's face. “Is that alright, Mr. Jiang?”
"Could you please stop calling me Mr. Jiang?" he asked softly, his voice trembling slightly, unaware of the unspoken expectation hidden in his words.
Confused by his abrupt question, Su Cheng looked up, puzzled, and asked, "Then I should call you... sugar daddy?"
"Su Cheng, don't you remember me?" The man's eyes were slightly red, and his voice carried a hint of disbelief and grievance.
What does that expression mean? Did she suddenly recall this old classmate who was practically invisible from the depths of her memory?
Su Cheng dared not presume to interpret the warmth in his words any longer. After all, on the day they met again, he had looked at her with the same focused gaze. She mistakenly thought he still remembered her, but it turned out he only recognized her own family's printed garbage bag.
"Linhai No.1 Middle School." His Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, and his voice unconsciously softened. "I even borrowed your notebook to copy things down."
Su Cheng's fingers paused on Yuanbao's body, and the memory of that rainy afternoon gradually became clear.
-
The college entrance examination is like a thousand troops crossing a single-plank bridge. Su Cheng remembers how she gritted her teeth and squeezed herself from the bottom of the class into the top 100 in her grade. However, in the most crucial mock exam, she failed the physics test and fell to outside the top 200.
After school, she sat in the office retaking the test while listening to her homeroom teacher's disappointed sighs, tears welling up in her eyes.
Just then, Jiang Muzhou, carrying a stack of test papers, pushed open the door and entered. After putting down the test papers, he took out the physics notebook that he regarded as his "bible" from his bag and gently placed it in front of her.
Perhaps for a top student like him, borrowing notes was a simple matter, but for her, it was like sunshine after rain, dispelling the gloom.
She held the notebook like a precious jewel, her fingertips carefully tracing his neat handwriting as she copied his notes, comparing them to her own. Occasionally, she would find a smiley face drawn next to a key point, and she would stare at that smiley face for a long time, then try to draw one in her own notebook, but she could never capture his casual charm.
On the day she was supposed to return the notebook, she got up very early, hoping to thank him in person when there were fewer people around.
But his seat was empty. The boy in front of her told her that he had gone to Beijing to take the independent enrollment exam.
She secretly slipped a ginkgo leaf bookmark into the title page; it was one she'd picked up under an old tree on campus, carefully sealed with transparent tape. She wrote the final stroke of "thank you" with a ballpoint pen at the leaf's stem, the ink spreading into tiny stars, freezing that spring in time.
-
Su Cheng never expected that he would remember her because of such a small thing.
She forced a smile to hide her embarrassment at being exposed. "I remember, of course I remember. You're a big shot at school. I just didn't expect that a top student like you would recognize someone as insignificant as me. I thought you didn't remember me at all, so I was too embarrassed to bring it up."
That's true, because she genuinely thought Jiang Muzhou didn't know her at all, and even if he did, after so many years, he probably wouldn't be able to match her face with her name.
But then I thought, with his memory, he might be able to remember everyone at Linhai No. 1 Middle School.
Even though she was just one of the background figures, she was still happy because at least during those youthful years, he had briefly seen her.
"Who said you're nobody?" Jiang Muzhou's voice came from above, like a clear spring flowing.
After finishing his lollipop, Yuanbao licked his paws with lingering satisfaction and made contented purring noises in front of Su Cheng.
She tilted her head back and blinked.
Hmm? What do you mean?
She was always very discreet when she peeked.
"You were ranked 30th on the Dragon and Tiger List that year."
Su Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and said flatteringly, "It's all thanks to your physics notes."
The top student's memory is indeed excellent; he even remembers such old stories.
However, there are only 30 people on the Dragon and Tiger List, and her name is hanging alone at the end, while the person in front of her is the one who is always at the top of the list.
She decided that the best course of action was to leave, fearing that if she stayed any longer, her ulterior motives would be exposed by her flushed cheeks. "Daddy, I'll be going now! Don't forget the precautions I told you."
Before leaving, she didn't forget to give Yuanbao's little head a quick pat.
Jiang Muzhou watched her hastily fleeing figure, then looked down at Yuanbao's ruffled fur, and helplessly tugged at the corners of his mouth.
-
After eating and drinking her fill, Su Cheng opened the door to the isolation room a crack.
For cats that have just arrived in a new environment, you should not force them to interact. This is especially true for cats like the Devil Cat, which have had traumatic experiences and are particularly wary. They need to be given ample space and time to explore the safety of their new environment on their own so that they can gradually lower their guard.
Su Cheng lazily sank into her own sofa, scrolling through short videos, and suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for the electric sofa next door that could be laid flat with a single touch.
The long-awaited notification sound rang out, and the blogger's avatar that she had set as a special follower popped up at the top of the screen.
[There is a recent update for "渡"]
Su Cheng excitedly clicked into "Du"'s homepage, and a twenty-second trailer instantly filled the entire screen.
The camera slowly pans across the layered mountains, where babbling brooks flow through the crisp forests. As the scene moves forward, the flickering fire in the kiln inside the cave casts the hunched back of the swordsmith onto the rock wall, as the hammer strikes the red-hot meteorite iron, sending sparks flying.
The scorching red-hot iron plunged into the water, and the outline of the blade vaguely appeared in the billowing steam, eventually transforming into a gleaming, sharp seven-star sword.
"Du" is a video blogger who is deeply involved in the field of humanistic documentary, focusing on using the language of the camera to record the vivid humanistic landscape and endangered intangible cultural heritage across 9.6 million square kilometers.
Unlike highly stimulating and eye-catching videos, "Du's" works are more like a gently unfolding biography. With smooth camera movements and precise editing rhythm, he uses carefully designed cinematic language to write life stories about cultural inheritance, allowing the audience to encounter those humanistic memories imbued with the texture of time in the midst of a restless and fast-paced world.
The only drawback is that "Du" updates rather slowly, usually only one five-minute long video per month.
However, Su Cheng could also understand that this "slow and meticulous" creative approach precisely reflects the creator's respect for the content. Just like the Longquan sword forged in the trailer, the craftsman's spirit of spending ten years honing a sword is the most rare.
Su Cheng tapped the screen lightly, giving a triple tap to show her support.
The Decepticon had quietly approached and stopped in the shadows three meters away from Su Cheng. Its pair of agate-yellow eyes gleamed with sharp light, both warily observing the human's every move and subtly probing him.
Su Cheng's first encounter with the kitten dates back to her elementary school days.
On their way home from school, Ms. Lin Wei'an, the mother, and her child found a thin, Scottish Fold blue cat in the community's green area.
At that time, she didn't understand what a purebred cat or a backyard cat was; she just felt sorry for the kitten being all alone. After much pleading and promises that it wouldn't interfere with her studies, Ms. Lin finally relented and agreed to take the stray kitten home.
She took on all the work of caring for the kitten, feeding it, changing its water, and cleaning its litter box. The kitten quietly kept her company while she did her homework and fell asleep with its head on her arm. That time spent with the kitten was her most precious and happy childhood memory.
Unfortunately, her happiness was short-lived. One day, after returning home, she noticed that her kitten was constantly licking and biting its paws, and its once nimble legs had become swollen and stiff. After taking it to the vet for a checkup, she learned that Scottish Fold cats have a congenital genetic defect: abnormal ossification of the cartilage. Behind those adorable folded ears lies a lifetime of skeletal pain.
She followed the doctor's orders, feeding the kitten chondroitin every day, laying thick non-slip mats in every corner of the house, and regularly taking the kitten to have X-rays of its joints.
But fate did not favor it. During the most intense winter when Su Cheng was preparing for the college entrance examination, the kitten closed its amber eyes forever on a quiet snowy night.
Although she later rescued many stray animals, she never had the courage to let any of them into her home again.
The agonizing sense of loss made her prefer never to start again rather than experience the despair of watching her beloved life slip away helplessly.
A note from the author:
"I passed by and saw them. They looked so happy. That's the life I long for: a family of five, three of them and two dogs. I wish that Shiba Inu wasn't my dog." This is a meme expressing the owner's jealousy.
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