The calico cat lay on the soft cushion, yawning and stretching cutely. It smacked its three-petaled lips, lazily wagged the tip of its tail, and meowed.
Lin Xuan lowered his eyelashes, his pale, slightly cool fingertips pressed against his temple, while his thumb unconsciously rubbed the metal frame of his phone. After a long while, the phone screen finally lit up, illuminating the dark depths of his pupils.
Jiang Lu: [Hello! I am Jiang Lu. So nice to meet you, classmate Lin Xuan ^_^]
Lin Xuan looked at it for a long time before he finally smiled softly.
Jiang Lu shook the water off his umbrella and walked upstairs while replying to Lin Xuan.
Upon reaching the dorm, the sound of Xie Yu and Chen Feng bickering could be heard through the door, interspersed with the frantic clicking of keyboards and mice. They were probably playing a game.
Xie Yu was yelling at Chen Feng: “You are dead again? Sixty times a minute! What on earth is sandwiched between your two ears? Ultimate bad luck 666?”
Chen Feng immediately uninstalled the game right on the spot, pulling at his hair in total breakdown: “Is this my fault? Can this possibly be my fault?! Is this game even meant for humans, huh?! It is bad enough that the apple flies, but it also strafes! Strafes! The save file is a total fake, it is out to get me! Was that a speed I could possibly dodge, huh? Is this fucking reasonable??!”
Xie Yu: “Isn’t this as easy as using your hands?”
Chen Feng jumped up and slapped the table: “6666666666 Streamer Xie is awesome!”
Their other roommate, Shi Jiayu, sat behind them, holding his head in utter torment. His expression was identical to the Doraemon-covering-its-head sticker he had been spamming in Jiang Lu’s chat window.
Nobody noticed when Jiang Lu walked in.
“I am back.” Jiang Lu propped his umbrella against the door. Seeing that no one paid attention to him, he pursed the corners of his lips and placed the noodles on Xie Yu’s desk.
Xie Yu turned his head to glance at Jiang Lu, then kicked Chen Feng away: “Get lost, go play your casual browser games.”
Chen Feng was sick to death of him: “Get lost, get lost, get lost. Just hearing you talk is annoying.”
Jiang Lu curved his eyes into smiles.
Shi Jiayu was allergic to cat hair. Although Jiang Lu hadn’t held the cat just now, just to be safe, he didn’t go over to their side. Instead, he sat down and carefully used a lint roller to clean the cat hair off his clothes.
The two loudmouths in the dorm finally quieted down, though Shi Jiayu still felt his head buzzing. Seeing Jiang Lu pick up the lint roller, he asked, “Did you go see that calico cat again?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Lu said, forcing a faint smile, “I won’t go next time.”
Xie Yu took a bite of the noodles and half of them were gone: “Why?”
“Lin Xuan took it away.” Jiang Lu put the lint roller into his drawer.
“What? Lin Xuan?” Chen Feng chimed in, pushing off with his foot so that his gaming chair spun right in front of Jiang Lu. “You saw Lin Xuan?”
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t they say he took a month off? I heard it is a sequela from being trapped in a snowy mountain last year. Didn’t he also skip military training a while ago?” Chen Feng said. “He came?”
Before Jiang Lu could speak, Shi Jiayu asked with a hint of confusion, “Where did you hear that news?”
“The forum, of course. Didn’t you guys know? The forum has been talking about it endlessly lately.”
So Lin Xuan really is sick, Jiang Lu thought to himself. No wonder his complexion was so pale just now.
He got up to put his umbrella on the balcony, and by the time he returned, they had already changed the subject: “By the way, did our classes today specify when they will be made up?”
Chen Feng awkwardly downloaded I Wanna Be The Guy back onto his computer, his tone feigned nonchalance. “No notice yet, probably Saturday. Why, does Streamer Xie have plans for the weekend?”
“My streaming hours aren’t enough this month, so I plan to stream for a bit over the weekend.”
“Isn’t Little Lu the study commissioner? Why don’t you have him ask the professor?”
Jiang Lu had run for study commissioner right after military training ended. Closing the balcony door and turning around, he saw everyone looking at him. After a moment of thought, he said, “The professor mentioned this weekend this afternoon, but the exact time hasn’t been set yet. I can ask.”
They had a heavy course load today, with both the afternoon and evening fully scheduled. The professors for all three classes had said they needed to find time to make up the missed sessions, asked him for his schedule, and still hadn’t notified him of the exact time.
Jiang Lu found the professor’s WeChat in his chat list and politely inquired about their arrangements.
Because he was proactive during classes, the professors had a good impression of him. Upon seeing the message, they gave him a precise reply: [Make it up on Saturday, following today’s class schedule order, and the classroom remains the same. By the way, please go notify the study commissioner of Class 3 as well.]
Jiang Lu replied with a “Sounds good,” found the WeChat of the adjacent class’s study commissioner, and sent her the make-up class schedule.
Once he received a reply, Jiang Lu unconsciously stared at his fingers against the light source overhead.
“You are staring at your fingers again.” Xie Yu was standing in front of him before he knew it, blocking the glare of the incandescent light, and gently took hold of his fingertips.
All three of them knew that Jiang Lu had a habit of spacing out and staring at his fingers from time to time. Xie Yu frowned. “Why are your hands so cold? Did you catch a cold?”
He used the back of his hand to test Jiang Lu’s forehead.
“No,” Jiang Lu shook his head, but didn’t pull away. He obediently let him check his temperature, then withdrew his hand to send the make-up class notice into the class group chat.
“Such a hardhead. Are you worried about that cat?” Xie Yu flicked him on the forehead, ruffled his hair until he was swaying left and right, and said, “If you really can’t bear to part with it, go ask Lin Xuan for it back. I will have someone help you raise it, and you can just go visit whenever.”
Jiang Lu hurriedly smoothed down his hair: “Mhm mhm mhm!”
He earnestly explained, “That is his cat, you cannot just ask for it back.”
“Fine then.” Xie Yu tormented him a little longer before finally letting him go and heading out to the balcony.
His phone vibrated continuously. Thinking it was the roll-call sign-up for the class group, Jiang Lu opened it while fixing his hair, only to find it was a message from Lin Xuan.
Lin Xuan: [Classmate Jiang ^_^]
[Just took Bububu for a bath.]
[Image]
[Bububu really likes the cat food and small dried fish you bought for it. May I ask what brand they are?]
[Bububu is the name I gave it. You can call it that, or you can call it by your old habit, it doesn’t matter ^_^]
[It really likes the cat bed you prepared for it, so I brought the cat bed back along with us.]
[Image]
[Classmate Jiang doesn’t need to worry.]
The photos Lin Xuan sent were all of Bububu. The cat was posing comfortably and leisurely in front of the lens, obediently letting Lin Xuan take its picture. In one or two of the photos, Lin Xuan’s hand accidentally crept into the frame.
In a place with ample light, his fingers still retained a sickly white hue.
In the photos sent by Lin Xuan, Jiang Lu spotted the cat climbing frame and the cat bed, with a teasing wand lying on the ground. None of them looked new, and even the cat bed he had bought for Bububu was right there.
Classmate Lin Xuan really is a very observant person.
Jiang Lu thought to himself, knowing that he had been feeding the cat for so long, Lin Xuan not only considered that taking it away directly might worry him, but also noticed his emotions during those few brief minutes of interaction. Realizing that he would miss Bububu and feel sad, Lin Xuan had proactively offered to add him on WeChat, share updates about the cat, and give him peace of mind.
Jiang Lu lowered his eyelashes and replied to Lin Xuan: [I will send you the links for the cat food and small dried fish right now.]
He found the links and sent them over to Lin Xuan.
Lin Xuan replied instantly: [Thank you, Classmate Jiang. ^_^]
Before long, he sent over a few thirty-second videos.
The star of the videos remained Bububu.
Bububu had a big belly, lying on its side on the soft cushion, wearing a hand-knitted woolen collar with a small golden bell embedded in the middle, looking utterly adorable. When Lin Xuan scratched its chin, it purred with contentment, making the bell ring out with crisp, pleasant jingles.
Jiang Lu: [It is very cute.]
Lin Xuan: [Bububu likes you a lot, and might feel unaccustomed to not seeing you for a while. If you have free time, would you like to come see it? ^_^]
The calico cat jumped onto the sofa, shook its ears, and curled up on Lin Xuan’s lap.
The iPad screen in Lin Xuan’s hand was split into two halves.
On the left was the chat window with Jiang Lu, while on the right was a surveillance feed.
The surveillance clearly showed that exact corner by the small north gate, and the timestamp in the bottom-left corner was from about an hour ago.
In the footage, Jiang Lu walked over under his umbrella, carefully squatted in front of the camera, called out to the calico cat tucked inside its cat bed, filled its little food bowl to the brim with cat food, and petted its plump chin with ivory-white fingertips.
He was very close to the surveillance lens, making even the tiny, fine fuzz on his face crystal clear.
“It did not turn transparent, did it?” Lin Xuan heard Jiang Lu murmur softly to the streetlamp, then watched him poke the cat’s soft flesh and mutter to himself, “Looks like you need me too, right, baby?”
To actually look for a sense of existence and value in a cat.
Lin Xuan leaned against the sofa armrest, propping his chin with one hand, a constant smile curving his lips. His thumb brushed over Jiang Lu’s pretty face in the video as he murmured with deep pity, “How pitiful.”
The chat window jumped.
Lin Xuan glanced over.
Jiang Lu: [Alright. I will go see it. ^_^]