Even a cat dared to hiss at her—Chen Wenlu didn’t stay long. She tossed out a few final remarks and left.
As for what she said, neither of them paid attention.
Fireworks were going off inside Gu Yucheng’s head.
Xia Lening looked at the man, who seemed to have gone a bit stupid, with concern.
If Gu Yucheng had been scolded into stupidity, then who was going to cook for him?
“Gu Yucheng? Gu Yucheng? Did you really go dumb? Are we even celebrating New Year or not?”
“Yes.”
“???”
Xia Lening instinctively jumped down to the ground, nearly scared out of his wits.
Gu Yucheng suddenly coughed a few times, clutching his chest, speaking as if struggling to catch his breath. “In… a few days, cough… we still need to go to the hospital for a follow-up check. Otherwise, I won’t dare let you eat other things.”
Xia Lening: “…Oh.”
Although Xia Lening’s leg injury had mostly healed, the injury to his liver still required regular follow-ups.
As the doctor had put it, for a little cat like Xia Lening to survive such severe injuries, recover in just over half a month, and already be lively, bouncing around and gossiping everywhere—it was nothing short of a miracle.
At the time, Xia Lening had rolled his eyes. He wasn’t gossiping everywhere—he had just been concerned about Gu Yucheng’s love life.
The day after tomorrow, December 9th, was indeed the date for the follow-up.
He ran through it in his mind—yes, that was correct.
Still shaken, he sized up Gu Yucheng a few times, flicked his tail, and walked away.
Gu Yucheng: “……”
Damn mouth, stay shut.
Gu Yucheng immediately stood up and followed after him. “Pai Pai, where are the flowers I gave you?”
“I threw them away,” Xia Lening said.
“Did you actually keep them somewhere?”
“As if.”
Xia Lening hopped lightly onto the bed, turned on the tablet, and started watching on his own.
Gu Yucheng searched the room and finally found the flowers arranged into a wreath in the corner.
His brows relaxed, curving into a pleasant smile. He climbed onto the bed and lay down beside Xia Lening. “Pai Pai, you’re a very artistically talented little cat.”
Xia Lening kept his eyes on the tablet, humming twice, his tail swaying in the air.
Of course—didn’t they know who he was?
The pride on his face was impossible to hide. Gu Yucheng almost wanted to scoop him up and bury his face in him.
But he couldn’t.
Every time he tried, Xia Lening would shriek and escape at the last second, then curse him out and ignore him for a long time.
Gu Yucheng restrained himself, glanced a few more times, and after being glared at, obediently lay there watching the tablet with him.
Xia Lening was actually watching pet videos.
Gu Yucheng was genuinely puzzled. “Is it that good?”
Was this like humans watching attractive people?
Had Xia Lening developed a cat’s aesthetic?
“It’s hilarious. The person in the video says her cat is always acting cute toward her, but what the cat is actually saying is, ‘Damn two-legged creature, come any closer and I’ll scratch you!’”
Gu Yucheng laughed out loud.
Even though he couldn’t understand, Xia Lening’s urge to share was satisfied.
A paw tapped the screen.
The next video was a proud owner boasting: raising a little cat that treated her like its mother since childhood. It wanted cuddles every morning and followed her everywhere—adorable…
Gu Yucheng looked at Xia Lening.
Xia Lening swiped it away. “Fake. Don’t believe it.”
The next video was a compilation: cats kicking their owners, knocking over cups, scratching up sofas, leaping from above and startling everyone…
Xia Lening said, “Watch more of this. Be grateful, Gu Yucheng.”
“……”
From next door came Wangcai’s call. Xia Lening pushed the tablet toward Gu Yucheng and jumped away.
Gu Yucheng stared at the tablet for a moment, then made up his mind and checked the screen usage time.
Zhihu: 54 minutes. News app: 24 minutes. Xiaohongshu: 16 minutes.
The first one—scrolling posts—understandable.
The third—watching videos—very understandable.
As for the news, Gu Yucheng opened the app.
He thought: he should respect Xia Lening’s privacy. If Xia Lening had deleted his history, he wouldn’t dig further.
Opening the search bar, sure enough, there was no record from today.
Gu Yucheng kept his promise and exited.
But by accident, his little finger tapped the homepage, and in the scramble, his index finger hit the browsing history. His eyes instinctively scanned it.
Xia Lening had looked up the progress of the Xia family’s power struggle.
As expected, even though he had already suspected it, seeing it still made his chest tighten.
Gu Yucheng skimmed through quickly, confirming that the news was neutral and official, revealing nothing specific.
He pressed his lips together. Was Xia Lening simply concerned about the situation, or did he want to return to Xia Xiaoyao?
If he wanted to go back… would he let him?
Gu Yucheng recalled Chen Wenlu’s words.
She hadn’t been entirely wrong. If it happened again, on that birthday, he would definitely take extreme measures to prevent Xia Lening from leaving.
He had become someone just as domineering and self-centered as Gu Linli.
Or perhaps he had always been that way.
On the balcony, Xia Lening listened through the railing as Wangcai talked about Xiao Zhu’s recent strange behavior.
Speaking of the railing—this was all thanks to Gu Yucheng’s overreactions.
Usually, Wangcai would carry Xia Lening across.
But recently, after inspecting himself in the mirror and practicing on the indoor climbing boards, Xia Lening felt confident he could jump across on his own.
So he called Wangcai out and performed a “flying cat show.”
He made the jump cleanly, landing steadily beside Wangcai—very cool.
But Gu Yucheng, who had just stepped onto the balcony, was badly frightened.
In the end, Xia Lening was carried back home after Gu Yucheng knocked and came over, following closely behind him, lecturing nonstop.
“That was dangerous! What if you missed? Before, letting your friend carry you over was dangerous too—if anything went wrong, both of you could fall! This is the fifth floor!”
Xia Lening found it unbearably annoying and continued doing as he pleased.
When soft persuasion didn’t work, Gu Yucheng got even softer.
He pitifully described how anxious he felt watching Xia Lening jump around, how uneasy he was, how agonizing it had been waiting at the hospital before—his eyes even reddened as he spoke.
As if he had really heard news of his death.
To avoid further nagging, Xia Lening surrendered.
From then on, he only talked to Wangcai through the railing. It was clear enough anyway.
“What do you think?”
Snapped back to the present, Xia Lening recalled what he had heard and analyzed, “He’s been on long calls every day, smiling at his phone, and even making you learn backflips? Xiao Zhu’s about to get a girlfriend.”
Wangcai thought about it, accepted the conclusion, and asked, “So how do you do a backflip?”
Xia Lening dragged out a blanket from the living room, laid it down, and stretched on top of it.
“I haven’t tried one with this body yet. Let me test it.”
He lowered his front limbs, raised them high, his fur puffing slightly.
Then, with a powerful push from his hind legs—
His body shot upward like a spring, curling midair into a perfect fluffy ball.
At the peak of the flip, he was completely upside down, all four paws facing the sky, yet unbelievably light.
Finally, he landed steadily and casually lifted a paw to lick it. “Like that.”
Wangcai’s pupils shook in shock.
In just a month, the little cat who once couldn’t even jump down from half a meter without falling had evolved into this?
Xia Lening acted nonchalant, but inside, he was ecstatic.
Hehe, didn’t expect that, right? He had learned taekwondo as a kid.
Looking downstairs, he casually asked, “Hey, Wangcai, are there still stray cats around down there?”
Wangcai came back to his senses. “Yeah, plenty. Every time I go down, I see new faces.”
“Can you help me ask if there are any cats that like traveling?” Xia Lening paused, then added, “Preferably with a good temperament, affectionate, able to accompany someone with emotional issues. Oh, and must be perceptive—if they see someone crying, they should comfort them, even if it’s just pretending. They also need to tolerate some human touching; if they can’t, kicking once is fine. Just not too heavy—he might cry if it hurts. Yeah, that’s about it.”
“…Are you looking for a cat for a fragile human?”
“……”
Xia Lening had thought it through.
He couldn’t possibly stay with Gu Yucheng forever.
He would either slip away to find Xia Xiaoyao, or tell Gu Yucheng the truth.
No matter which path he chose, he couldn’t remain by Gu Yucheng’s side.
He wasn’t sure what Gu Yucheng felt about this cat.
If he left—or if Gu Yucheng discovered that he was actually human—what would he think?
Xia Lening didn’t know.
So he decided to let Gu Yucheng raise another cat first. Once he got used to it and grew attached, then Xia Lening would reveal that he was actually human.
That way, Gu Yucheng wouldn’t end up as a man with no cat at all.