No one remembered exactly which year it was.
The sky had been a clear, transparent blue, hanging quietly overhead. A locust tree they had planted with their own hands in childhood rustled softly in the wind.
Sunlight slipped through the gaps in the leaves, casting trembling patches of light over Xia Lening’s body.
He lounged lazily in a rocking chair, holding a chilled watermelon. After a long while, he looked up for what felt like the umpteenth time, squinting at a certain second-floor window across from him.
That window had remained tightly shut. The gray-blue curtains were drawn completely, leaving no gap at all. The sunlight could warm the entire wall—but it could not do anything about that single window.
That was odd.
What time was it already? Why was that guy still not up?
Gu Yucheng always opened his curtains and windows as soon as he woke up. Because of that, every time Xia Lening got up late and opened his own curtains, he would immediately see Gu Yucheng sitting by the window reading or doing practice problems.
It was infuriatingly competitive.
Xia Lening had once insisted on switching rooms because of that face-to-face window arrangement, but Xia Xiaoyao shut him down with a single line: “People must take responsibility for their own choices.”
So there was no escape. Every morning he had to face that annoying face.
But today was different. Today, he had overslept badly—and when he opened his eyes, the opposite window was still tightly shut.
Based on his principle of “know your enemy to defeat your enemy,” Xia Lening had repeatedly checked that familiar window throughout the morning. Unfortunately, every glance was met only with disappointment.
Was Gu Yucheng dead in his room?
Curiosity began to stir.
Thinking that a corpse smell might affect the neighbors’ quality of life, he knocked on Gu Yucheng’s door.
The path inside was unobstructed. There was almost no one at Gu Yucheng’s house.
When he pushed open the bedroom door, he immediately saw a curled-up figure on the bed.
He walked over and pulled open the curtains. The room was instantly flooded with light.
“Really dead?” Xia Lening flipped him over and examined him carefully, already calculating his alibi.
Gu Yucheng’s forehead was burning hot. His skin was flushed an abnormal red, and messy black hair stuck to his sweaty temples.
Xia Lening released him with visible disgust. “Fever?”
There was no response from the bed. It looked like he had passed out.
This temperature was not normal. Xia Lening did not hesitate and went downstairs to ask the housekeeper for a medical kit.
After struggling to insert a thermometer under Gu Yucheng’s armpit, sticking on a cooling patch, and grumbling while pulling the kicked-off blanket back over him, he suddenly realized—
Why was he doing all this?
Hm. To witness Gu Yucheng’s embarrassing state of high fever with his own eyes, of course. That was what Xia Lening told himself.
He leaned by the bed and said, “Gu Yucheng, do you know? In my mom’s hometown, there was someone who had a high fever as a kid and was left untreated. He got burned into an idiot—couldn’t even control drooling. Do you think I’ll get to witness that whole process today?”
Gu Yucheng’s eyelashes trembled faintly in his haze, occasionally letting out unconscious groans.
“Idiot just made a sound,” Xia Lening said.
When the time was up, he pulled out the thermometer and imitated Xia Xiaoyao’s tone. “39.8°C. Gu Yucheng, are you trying to die?!”
“……”
He called the family doctor and briefly described Gu Yucheng’s condition, urging him to come quickly and collect the body.
“Make sure the corpse is still warm, or it won’t be fresh,” he added.
Both families were on good terms, and they even shared the same family doctor. The doctor, vaguely aware of their hostile relationship, asked calmly over the phone, “Young Master Xia, why are you at the Gu residence?”
“Mind your own business.”
He hung up coldly.
Feeling he had done a great deed, Xia Lening prepared to leave without a trace.
But he failed to leave—because the idiot grabbed him.
He looked down and met Gu Yucheng’s half-open eyes.
“The idiot is awake.”
“Xia Lening?”
He laughed. “You can still recognize me? Not completely stupid yet.”
Gu Yucheng’s voice was hoarse. “Of course I can recognize you. Even if you turned to ashes, I’d still recognize you. You’re very distinctive—stupid in a very recognizable way.”
“……”
Xia Lening rolled his eyes and reached out to remove the cooling patch. “Just become an idiot already. Melt your brain into porridge and you still manage to insult me.”
But before he could touch it, his wrist was suddenly grabbed hard.
“Don’t fight me now,” Xia Lening raised his voice. “Later you’ll say I took advantage of you while you were sick.”
“Dream on,” Gu Yucheng said hoarsely. “If anything, I’d be the one taking advantage.”
Before Xia Lening could process that, he suddenly yanked him down onto the bed.
In a blur, their lips pressed together—warm, brief, and gone in an instant.
Then Gu Yucheng flopped back onto the pillow and closed his eyes peacefully.
“…?”
Xia Lening froze for a full second, then jumped up in shock and punched him. After that, he stormed downstairs, grabbed a few eggs from the fridge, stuffed them into Gu Yucheng’s blanket, and left in rage.
“If you’re sick, go hatch eggs. Stop disgusting me!”
Even like this, Gu Yucheng still wanted to mess with him.
……
Xia Lening opened his eyes.
What he saw was not the familiar cat bed ceiling, but a high, unfamiliar ceiling.
Waking from a drowning-like dream, his breathing was rapid. He froze for a moment.
It had been a long time since he last dreamed about the past.
Thinking of that incident, Xia Lening could not help but sneer.
Back then, he had gone home and washed his mouth countless times. Yet the next day he still came down with a fever. Half-delirious in bed, he cursed the heavens and earth—only to find out that Gu Yucheng had actually tried to infect him on purpose. And worse—it had worked.
He shot a cold glance at the man beside him.
If not for Gu Yucheng suddenly acting insane today—completely abandoning his cleanliness obsession and insisting on pulling him into bed to sleep, even kissing the top of his head like it was “affection”—he would not have dreamed of this.
Before sleeping, Xia Lening had tried to escape, but was repeatedly restrained. He had planned to wait until Gu Yucheng fell asleep, but underestimated his own excellent sleep quality and ended up falling asleep under Gu Yucheng’s almost eerie gentle gaze.
A fatal mistake!
He shook his head and crawled out of the soft blankets, then quietly jumped off the bed. He refused to sleep with Gu Yucheng.
One advantage of being a cat was night vision. He easily found his own little nest, curled up inside, and closed his eyes.
Tch. Why did his own bed feel less soft without Gu Yucheng?
It really was hard to go from luxury to hardship.
He crawled back out of the nest, looking melancholic, and sprawled on the balcony. Across the way, faint lights flickered. Occasionally, smoke drifted up.
He guessed the opposite side was also dreaming about their first kiss being ruined by a mortal enemy, feeling equally miserable.
Gu Yucheng had clearly gone crazy. He could not stay here any longer. He might lose his feline purity. Worse—if Gu Yucheng ever found out his soul was inside this cat body, he would absolutely mock him to death.
Male pride mattered more than anything.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from behind.
Before he could turn around, he was lifted into the air again.
He was already used to it. Hah.
The hand holding him was trembling.
“Gu Yucheng? You got Parkinson’s or something?”
He turned—and froze when he saw Gu Yucheng’s face.
His eyes were red. His eyelashes were wet. Tears shimmered in his eyes.
Gu Yucheng was crying again.
Again.
Why was he crying?
Did he have a nightmare?
Something unclear twisted in Xia Lening’s chest.
He had never seen Gu Yucheng cry growing up. Yet now, after becoming a cat, he had seen it three times in just a few days.
Gu Yucheng, privately, really cried a lot. Was he going home and crying every time he got scolded?
Even Xia Lening felt a little guilty.
A mortal enemy’s tears really were too spicy—like a dangerous side dish.
Gu Yucheng stared at him for a long time without speaking.
His expression looked devastated, as if he had survived some catastrophe.
After a moment, Xia Lening silently told himself three times: I am a cat now… I am a cat now… I am a cat now…
Then he raised a paw and gently wiped away the tears.
“Alright, alright. Dreams aren’t real.”
“You never cried even when your parents didn’t care about you. Why are you crying over some dream?”
Gu Yucheng’s Adam’s apple moved. His voice was low and hoarse. “Paipai, I dreamed that you were just my hallucination. When I woke up, you were gone.”
The hoarse tone sent a strange tingling through Xia Lening’s scalp, like a lingering echo of that earlier kiss.
“That’s fake, fake, fake. How could I be a hallucination? Did you get my permission for that hallucination?”
Gu Yucheng repeated, “When I woke up, you were gone.”
“I just came out for some air, okay? Stop being so clingy.”
“I feel really bad.”
“None of my business.”
“Can you kiss me, little cat?”
“Get lost.”
But Gu Yucheng did not move.
He sat on the sofa, holding the cat in his arms, staring blankly into space.
……
The cat in his arms shifted slightly.
Gu Yucheng looked down.
A fluffy little head brushed against his hand, and a quick, light kiss landed on his palm.
Xia Lening’s awkward voice echoed in his mind.
“It’s not a real kiss. My mouth just bumped into it.”