Lin Anyuan stood frozen in place, the cold river wind cutting into her bones.
She stared in disbelief at the direction Liang Jianshi had left, as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.
In her memory, Liang Jianshi had always been composed, yet today he had run out of the restaurant without any regard for appearances, bumping into several people along the way, all because he had heard that his cat was lost.
Lin Anyuan slumped back down in a daze, overwhelmed by the sourness choking her heart.
Without her brother’s permission, she had come privately to share the latest research findings with Liang Jianshi, hoping only to see him.
She couldn’t sit still; she wanted to explain to him that the night she brought the team over, she had genuinely meant well and had no intention of harming the cat. But after that incident, Liang Jianshi had repeatedly shut her out.
Now, after finally managing to meet him, the cat had taken him away once again.
Lin Anyuan felt she had been naive, foolishly believing that after that incident, there might be hope for a closer relationship between them. Who would have thought a cat would be the obstacle?
She never imagined that the biggest obstacle now would be a cat!
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
On the busy road, Qilan was crouched in the middle, trembling with fear.
“Help! Save a cat!”
After accessing the area’s surveillance cameras, they quickly locked onto the target. Not waiting for the bodyguards to catch up, Liang Jianshi got into a Ferrari himself and sped toward the southern section of the road.
Traffic police had been regulating the flow ahead, and the number of vehicles merging onto the southern road was gradually decreasing, but clearing it completely was impossible. Liang Jianshi raced into the intersection, weaving past one car after another in a life-or-death sprint. Finally, under a sign, he spotted that little ball of fur.
As the rush of air from speeding cars whizzed past her ears, a small white car seemed not to notice the cat on the road. It showed no sign of slowing down, the driver pressed the accelerator and sped forward!
Liang Jianshi had no time to think. He turned the steering wheel, swerved around the small pickup ahead, accelerated, and chased after the white car.
After the screech of tires against the road, the world fell silent.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
On the now-empty stretch of road, the cat was nowhere to be seen.
At the moment the white car was about to hit her, Qilan had closed her eyes. Not long after, she felt a pair of hands lift her off the ground.
“Little cat, you’re so careless. You’re lucky you ran into me today, that’s the only reason you survived.” Before her was a young man who looked like a university student, with sweet dimples on his cheeks when he smiled. “From now on, you’re my cat, got it?”
The young man gazed lovingly at the white cat and scratched her ear with his fingertip.
“My name is Jingwei. I’m your dad.”
Qilan: …
“Another one who wants to be my dad?”
The weather was near freezing, and the raindrops seemed mixed with snow. Afraid Qilan would get cold, Jingwei unzipped his down jacket and placed her inside against his chest, leaving only her head sticking out to breathe.
The boy and his cat walked into the subway station, the bustling crowd blocking the sight of the terrible scene on the road behind them.
The Ferrari, which had forced the small white car to stop, had crashed into the median. The driver’s side window was shattered, and several shards were stained with fresh, hot blood.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
These past few days at Jingwei’s place, Qilan had slept and woken, woken and slept, but hadn’t turned back into a human.
She found this strange. At the same time, she worried, if her human body kept sleeping like this, wouldn’t she starve to death?
Now she could only hope Tong Tong would find her soon and get her to a hospital for a glucose IV to keep her alive.
“Little cat, your cat food is here.”
Jingwei had prepared a bowl and was pouring in pieces of dark brown cat food, one by one.
Qilan had no appetite. Unhappy, she ran off.
“Liang Jianshi’s place was so much better.” lobster, Wagyu, black cod for every meal, sweet imported goat milk to drink like water.
Seeing how picky Qilan was, Jingwei grew troubled.
His family was average. His parents had bought him an apartment in the city, a small but cozy fifty-square-meter duplex where his girlfriend sometimes stayed overnight.
With Qilan refusing to eat or drink and hiding under the bed, the young couple was at their wits’ end, staying up late to research cat care online.
While searching, Jingwei’s girlfriend stumbled upon the account of a blogger named “Empty Cat.” The white cat in the videos looked a bit like the one they had at home.
“Look, isn’t this white cat in the video just like ours?”
At first glance, Jingwei thought there was a resemblance. But the cat in the video seemed younger, while theirs was a bit fatter. “Most stray cats look alike. It probably isn’t her. Besides, look at what the cat in the video eats: Boston lobster, king crab, caviar, top-grade French Bresse chicken, bluefin tuna cheek, premium foie gras paste…”
Xiaoran was stunned. “Who keeps a cat like that? That’s so extravagant. I hesitated for two years before going to a restaurant to try Bresse chicken, and this cat eats it for every meal? And only the breast?”
Jingwei: “Don’t even mention king crab, I can’t even afford blue crab.”
Xiaoran: “Could it be fake?”
Jingwei: “Are they not showing it to you? That’s a real lobster, opened right in front of you. The meat is so white and tender, how could they be faking it?”
Xiaoran was silent for a moment, her lemon-induced jealousy subsiding as a realization struck her. She looked at the space under the bed, where a cat was watching them from the shadows. “So there’s no way this little stray could be the richest cat on the internet.”
With that conclusion, Xiaoran and Jingwei did the same thing; they upvoted the top comment.
“Does this rich family need any more cats? I can do home visits and even perform on two legs.”
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Qilan had been surviving on goat milk these days. Suddenly, one day, Jingwei bought a small fish, stewed it into a soup, and brought it to her.
The young couple crouched in front of Qilan, watching the cat lap up the food with blissful expressions.
Her little pink tongue flicked in and out, her eyes narrowing to slits as she ate, her paws tucked into her fur, her tail swaying rhythmically.
“She looks so happy. Her eyes are practically smiling from joy.”
Qilan: “I’m just trying to keep the soup from splashing into my eyes; it’s hard to wash out.”
Jingwei marveled, “No matter how poor we are, we can’t let the cat go without. Now I finally understand why that rich guy is willing to spend so much on food for his cat.”
Xiaoran cupped her face in her hands. “Because cuteness is priceless! If I were rich, I’d want to offer the best things in the world to her, just hoping she’d rub against me once in a while.”
“Watching her eat lobster is more satisfying than eating it myself!”
“You’re right! I totally agree! Have I been bewitched by this cat?”
Qilan: “I’m really not a gold-digging cat.”
The cat, who had ignored them for days, finally let out a few soft mews after eating the fish today. The two were overjoyed.
Hoping for more responses from the cat, they excitedly ran to the supermarket and picked out the most expensive cans of tuna they could find. Then they knelt on the floor, chins in their hands, watching Qilan eat without blinking.
After she finished eating with gusto, the two contentedly made themselves bowls of plain noodles for dinner.
Qilan: “Am I some kind of magic cat? Have I bewitched them like this?”
Jingwei and Xiaoran had been immersed in the joy of cat ownership these days. They admired the cat from a distance without daring to touch her; aside from secretly ogling her from five meters away, they hadn’t dared to lay a finger on her fur.
It was only on the fourth day that Jingwei cautiously approached Qilan, nervously rubbing his hands together as he suggested, “How about I give you a name?”
Qilan turned her head away without responding.
“Liang Jianshi, Liang Jianshi… have you really given up on me?”
She recalled the scene on the terrace that day, and a strange ache swept over her.
She felt a sense of loss. Lin Anyuan had never really liked Liang Jianshi having a cat. Had Liang Jianshi given in to Lin Anyuan and taken the opportunity of her getting lost to abandon her?
He had doted on the cat so much before. Could he really just throw her away?
Qilan was heartbroken. She even thought that if Liang Jianshi didn’t come for her soon, she might as well become Jingwei’s cat.
Those two genuinely loved cats.
“Shufen? Suancai? Haidai? Mogu? Fupo?”
“meow!” “Enough already! Can’t you let a cat have some peace!”
The room erupted with excited cries.
“She responded! She likes the name Fupo!”
“From now on, your name is Fupo!”
“Fupo? Fupo? You’re so beautiful. You’re Fupo the fairy!”
Qilan: …
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
At midnight, the young couple, who had to get up early the next day, were already asleep. Qilan sat with her paws tucked in on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window, unable to sleep. Gazing at the lights of the city across the way, she suddenly missed the days when Liang Jianshi would hold her on his lap, and they would silently pass the time together in the rocking chair.
A Bentley was parked under the banyan trees in the residential complex.
Liang Jianshi’s cast was still on his hand, and the stitches on his forehead were covered with gauze.
Due to a surveillance camera malfunction, they had lost the initial lead on the cat’s whereabouts. Working in shifts around the clock, they had searched city systems for days before finally narrowing it down to a few residential complexes.
After the car accident, he had been unconscious for three days. When he woke, he had pursued this location against everyone’s objections, while other teams of bodyguards were searching other target residences. Liang Jianshi had insisted on staying here.
In his heart, he felt that Qilan was here.
He would find her here.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Early in the morning, Liang Jianshi’s bodyguards began going door to door with photos of the cat.
An elderly woman in a hurry to take her grandson to school initially didn’t want to engage with the somewhat intimidating young man. But when she heard he was asking about a white cat, her expression shifted slightly.
“A white cat, you say? I’ve seen it! Let me show you. Go where I tell you…”
Jingwei and Xiaoran had overslept. They were rushing through their morning routine.
“I got a notification this morning, my internship unit wants me to go on a business trip.”
“What should we do with the cat? Should we take her to your parents’ place?”
Xiaoran said, “That’s what I was thinking. Hurry and call a ride-share for me.”
Following the elderly woman’s directions, the bodyguard went to the 23rd floor, but after ringing the bell several times, no one answered.
At the same time, Assistant Wu received a call and relayed the information to Liang Jianshi.
“Chairman, Group A said there was no one home. They might have to wait until the evening when the young people come back from work.”
“Also, Group C reported finding a blue-eyed lion cat near a trash can, with a small black birthmark on its paw identical to Lanlan’s. Should we go check?”
Liang Jianshi’s eyes widened slightly.
“Of course we’ll go. Drive.”
The Bentley slowly made its way toward the main gate. At the same time, a ride-share car arrived at the designated pickup point and yielded to let the Bentley pass.
Xiaoran, holding the white cat in her arms, hurried out of the residential complex gate, speaking urgently into her phone. “I already see your license plate!”
The moment she closed the car door, the Bentley ahead suddenly stopped.