People living in Linshui Alley would not beat or scold these little strays. When they came uninvited to beg for food, the best outcome was being fed human food by the residents, and the worst outcome was being shooed away.
If driven away by the owners of one household, they would simply go beg at another. While they might occasionally go hungry living in this area, they were certainly never driven to the point of having nowhere to go, forced to roam wildly, nor would they ever be cruelly beaten to death.
Yu Silin had not fed these stray animals from the very beginning; in his early childhood, he had rarely interacted with these little strays. Qu Yun disliked any shedding animals, and whenever a stray showed up at their door, Qu Yun would chase it away.
It was during middle school, after witnessing two stray cats walking together get struck and mangled by a speeding car, that Yu Silin realized how fragile the lives of these little animals were. From that point on, he began secretly feeding them behind Qu Yun’s back.
As time went on, he grew more and more invested in these little creatures, managing their food and water, medical care, neutering, and even their baths.
To be more precise, the little strays living in Linshui Alley were essentially stray cats and dogs jointly free-range-raised by the people of Linshui Alley. They lived much more comfortably than typical strays, with even their baths personally catered to by the bipedal beasts.
At high noon, the hottest time of the day, the living creatures in the alley found cool spots to curl up after eating and drinking their fill. The gradually quieting alley was broken only by the occasional chirping of cicadas.
A few cats lay in a row under the camphor tree at the head of the alley, their eyes half-closed as if they were ready to fall asleep at any moment.
Little Yellow suddenly opened its eyes, looking around vigilantly. The alley was completely empty. It lazily closed its eyes again, preparing to drift off to sleep. The next instant, a large hand descended from the sky and accurately pinched the scruff of its neck.
“Meow…” Little Yellow let out a miserable screech, kicking its four legs and trying to run forward, yet it couldn’t move an inch.
The moment the other three cats heard their good feline friend’s cry, they bolted to run away, only to have their destined scruffs swiftly and accurately pinched by three more hands.
“Caught them, caught them!” Yu Silin hugged two of the cats to his chest and excitedly said to Xu Jiaheng, who was also holding two cats, “Brother, let’s hurry back and give them a bath.”
Xu Jiaheng had little to no interest in bathing these little critters. He responded with a lazy hum and followed behind Yu Silin toward home.
Had Yu Silin not made a fuss last night about wanting to wash them, Xu Jiaheng would have much preferred opening a livestream or editing videos in the study during high noon, rather than catching cats and dogs under the blazing midday sun.
The four kittens were each held in the arms of the two bipedal beasts. After struggling for a moment and realizing escape was hopeless, they simply gave up, turned into soft balls of fluff, and snuggled into their two young masters’ arms, occasionally letting out soft, faint meows and ingratiatingly rubbing their heads against the arms holding them to make their presence known.
The scratching made Yu Silin’s arm itch, so he quickened his pace toward the courtyard of the Xu family. Reaching the entrance, he didn’t push the door open directly. Instead, he turned to look at Xu Jiaheng, who was lagging a few steps behind. Only when Xu Jiaheng reached his side did he carefully push open the courtyard gate while using his foot to block the gap to prevent the dogs inside from squeezing out, slipping into the courtyard with sneaky movements.
The four kittens were set on the ground. After surveying their surroundings and discovering that their good canine friends had also been brought over, they immediately felt much more at ease and lay down again in a shady spot.
Ever since they left their cat and dog mothers, these five dogs and four cats had been raised by Yu Silin and Xu Jiaheng. The adults and children in the alley frequently fed them and randomly unlocked the skill of petting cats and dogs, rubbing them until their fur stood completely on end before calling it a day.
Consequently, these nine little things weren’t afraid of people at all. Once caught, they simply lay down on the spot, exposing their bellies and crying out in soft, high-pitched voices.
Let alone the fact that the ones catching them were their two young masters.
Xu Jiaheng retrieved a cylindrical inflatable bathtub from the storage room. Having gone unused for a long time, the tub had accumulated quite a bit of dust. Yu Silin held the water hose in one hand and a brush in the other, enthusiastically scrubbing the bathtub.
Several dogs gathered around Yu Silin, looking left and right, occasionally reaching out a paw to bat at it. Yu Silin waved his hand to bat them away. After a brief moment, they crowded around again. Having tried to push them away several times to no avail, Yu Silin simply gave up and ignored them.
The cats loved cleanliness and disliked water; as soon as Yu Silin turned on the faucet, they had scampered far away.
Xu Jiaheng sat on a stone stool under the tree, cupping his chin and watching with a clear conscience, observing Yu Silin hum a tune while energetically scrubbing the tub and waving away the troublesome dogs.
Who knows what was so fascinating about these little creatures that he guarded them like the apples of his eye.
“Scrubbed clean!” Yu Silin turned off the faucet, ran over to Xu Jiaheng, and said, “Brother Jiaheng, go get some hot water.”
Xu Jiaheng raised his gaze. Yu Silin’s fair cheeks were flushed red from the sun, with fine beads of sweat hanging on his forehead and the tip of his nose. The strands of hair across his forehead, whether dampened by sweat or splashed by water from the faucet, had clumped into several locks clinging to his brow.
His hair had grown a bit long, easily falling over his forehead to obscure his eyes, and he pushed it aside carelessly with a pair of dark, bright eyes looking eagerly at him.
Xu Jiaheng stood up, his fingers casually flicking the strands of hair on Yu Silin’s forehead, and said, “Your hair has grown long.”
Yu Silin rolled his eyes upward and shook his head side to side. “It is a bit long. I’ll get it cut after the vacation.”
Xu Jiaheng didn’t pick up on his remark. He pressed down on Yu Silin’s shoulder and said, “Sit still.”
Puzzled, Yu Silin hadn’t even had time to speak before Xu Jiaheng stood up and walked away.
“Brother Jiaheng is so strange.” Yu Silin muttered, sitting down on the stone stool and grabbing Little Yellow, who was curled up on the stone table, for a thorough rubdown.
Before long, Xu Jiaheng pushed open the door from the living room, his voice cool and detached: “Yu Silin, come here.”
“What?” Yu Silin stood up by reflex. Realizing what had happened, he walked toward Xu Jiaheng while demanding loudly, “Why did you suddenly call me by my full name?”
Xu Jiaheng shoved a tube of something into his hand and said, “Go put this on yourself.”
“What is this?” Yu Silin held it, turning it over to examine it. It was all in English, and he couldn’t read it.
“Sunscreen.” Xu Jiaheng was pouring hot water into the inflatable bathtub. A cluster of dogs eagerly stretched out their doggy heads, but because of the rising steam, they all kept their distance, not daring to approach.
Yu Silin had been pinned down by Qu Yun to apply sunscreen a few times before and didn’t hold much aversion to it. Taking the sunscreen, he headed into the bathroom.
Still preoccupied with the idea of bathing the cats and dogs, he smeared it carelessly onto his face a few times and rushed right back out.
Xu Jiaheng poured a good amount of cold water into the bathtub to cool it down. Yu Silin crouched beside the tub, reached out to test the temperature, and found it was just right.
“Brother Jiaheng, keep an eye on things here. I’m going to catch the dogs.” Yu Silin looked up and said to Xu Jiaheng, who was squatting beside him.
Xu Jiaheng’s stature was much taller than Yu Silin’s. He lowered his gaze to look at Yu Silin, whose dark, bright eyes carried a lively spark, clearly still excited about washing the cats and dogs.
Failing to get a reply right away, Yu Silin’s gaze shifted into a hint of dissatisfaction, his brow furrowing slightly.
Xu Jiaheng suddenly raised a hand, his fingertips brushing against Yu Silin’s cheek. Feeling the delicate skin beneath his fingertips, he lowered his voice and said, “The sunscreen isn’t rubbed in.”
“Huh?” Yu Silin froze, instinctively raising a hand to rub his face, only to have Xu Jiaheng block him with the back of his hand.
Immediately after, he felt Xu Jiaheng’s warm fingers gently smoothing the cream across his cheek, causing his long eyelashes to flutter uncontrollably a couple of times.
At this moment, the two of them were very close. A cool, minty scent drifted continuously into his nasal cavity along with Xu Jiaheng’s movements, stirring an itch in his heart that made him shrink back slightly. “It tickles.”
Xu Jiaheng withdrew his hand and said flatly, “Go catch the dogs.”
“Oh.” Without dwelling on the strange feeling in his heart, Yu Silin stood up to catch the dogs.
Looking at the bathtub that looked massive to them, and seeing Yu Silin approaching with an excited expression to catch them, the dogs let out a chorus of yips at the top of their lungs. Unfortunately, they were only a few months old, and their yipping puppy voices sounded much more like pleading for pampering.
No matter how fast their four short legs scrambled, they couldn’t outrun a bipedal beast. Soon, all five puppies were apprehended and tossed into the bathtub.
Xu Jiaheng pulled up a small stool to sit beside the bathtub, tasked with watching them to prevent jailbreaks. Yu Silin took turns giving all five puppies a thorough scrub. After a few water changes, five sweet-smelling little puppies were freshly minted.
Using a clean bath towel, Yu Silin wrapped them up together and rubbed them dry. Then he lined them up in a row on the bamboo lounge chair beneath the eaves, letting them dry their fur in the sun.
With the five puppies bathed, it was time for the remaining four cats.
Having witnessed the bathing process of their good canine friends firsthand, how they had run parkour-style around the courtyard only to be subdued by the bipedal beasts and tossed into the bathtub, the cats decisively chose the latter over lying flat and giving up versus waiting for the bipedal beasts to serve them a bath.
Without breaking a sweat, Yu Silin washed the four cats clean, used a fresh large towel to dry the water off their fur, and placed them in a row right beside the puppies to sunbathe.
While the nine cats and dogs enjoyed a comfortable sunbath, their young master still had to clean up the chaos in the courtyard.
Even after washing nine cats and dogs, Yu Silin didn’t feel the slightest bit tired. He trailed closely behind Xu Jiaheng, offering a half-hearted helping hand whenever the other was about to empty the water from the bathtub.
Seeing Xu Jiaheng go to put away the water hose, Yu Silin interlocked his fingers and loosely gripped the flexible hose without exerting an ounce of force, letting Xu Jiaheng pull and coil it up entirely by himself.
Xu Jiaheng glanced back at Yu Silin, who looked busy but was actually doing zero work, and said flatly, “Go get the basin used for washing the dogs’ things.”
The cats and dogs had their own designated food and water bowls, as well as a specific basin for washing their items.
Primarily, it was for washing the towels used to dry their bodies, since they didn’t wear clothes.
“Okay!” Yu Silin walked behind the little puppy house, retrieved a blue basin, and handed it to Xu Jiaheng.
Xu Jiaheng swept a glance at him and didn’t take it. Instead, he tossed the two towels they had just used into the basin and said, “You wash them.”
Yu Silin put on a young master’s air: “I don’t know how.”
Xu Jiaheng: “…”
With a dark expression, Xu Jiaheng took the basin, added water and laundry detergent, scrubbed the two towels clean, and hung them on the clothesline. His gaze swept around the courtyard. Those little critters were basking in the sun and growing drowsy, but Yu Silin was nowhere to be seen.
He lifted his foot to head inside when the courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open. Yu Silin rushed in with a flurry of energy, shouting, “Brother Jiaheng, treat yourself to an ice pop.”
Last night when Yu Silin was pestering Xu Jiaheng, he had promised that if Xu Jiaheng helped wash the cats and dogs, he would treat him to an ice pop.
Xu Jiaheng hadn’t paid him any mind at the time; after all, the ice pops in the Xu family’s refrigerator were all prepared for Yu Silin anyway.
When Xu Jiaheng didn’t take it, Yu Silin edged closer to him, wrapping his arms around his sleeve just like usual and acting spoiled: “You worked hard today, Brother! If it weren’t for you, how could they be lying there clean and sunbathing? Plus, now that they’re washed clean, holding them doesn’t smell like dog anymore; they smell wonderful.”
Xu Jiaheng gave him an indescribable sideways glance, completely unmoved by the high praise Yu Silin was heaping on him. Lowering his gaze to look into the young man’s sparkling eyes, he crooked a finger to press against Yu Silin’s arm and said calmly, “Did you forget you aren’t supposed to have close contact with an Alpha?”