“I’m sorry, Big Cat Aobai—I’m definitely going to fail your son.”
Hang Sheng bowed before the black-and-white cat’s memorial photo on the wall, then rolled up her sleeves, ready to pin Hang Tian to the ground and deliver a series of precise, punishing blows.
She admitted she’d spoken too soon. Staring at the shards of the shattered perfume bottle on the floor—with sunlight reflecting off the fragments in a rainbow of colors—the glint that caught Hang Sheng’s eye was mostly red, and her murderous rage flared up once again.
“Sis, come on, just let it go. You have to understand—Hang Tian’s brain is tiny, and the smoothness of his cerebral cortex is comparable to a sneaky beef meatball in a hot pot. You can’t expect him to be very smart.” Afraid the cat might end up dead, Hang Zheng hurried over to play peacemaker.
Hang Sheng looked at her younger sister, who bore a seventy-percent resemblance to her, and sighed. Her eyes, clear as water, seemed a bit lost at that moment: “But Hang Tian has a bigger head than any other cat. How come the other cats just…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, because her life experience had taught her that happiness isn’t something to be measured against others.
Hang Zheng thought it over carefully, then finally delivered a harsh truth to her older sister: “You know, Hang Tian has been with you since he was a kitten.”
Hang Tian’s cat mother, Aobai, was the queen of the streets. One month after giving birth, due to the cold weather and improper recovery, she was severely injured in a premeditated ambush by a pack of cats and fled. She managed to hold on just long enough to temporarily entrust her one-month-old only son to Hang Sheng, who was on her way home from work. Moved by compassion, Hang Sheng, having been entrusted with the kitten, took on the role of Hang Tian’s human stepmother.
Looking at the adorable, bewildered kitten blinking its big eyes in her hands, Hang Sheng suddenly recalled the day she brought it home. It was a winter just like this one; the tiny creature had been swaying in the cold wind, like a tuft of helpless, low grass, Back then, Hang Tian’s black fur still had a faint, withered yellow tint, giving it a listless, pitiful, and unhealthy appearance.
Hang Sheng exhaled; her heart, which had just hardened, softened once more. She tugged on Hang Tian’s ear and gave him a brief scolding: “ “Never mind. Given your size, your brain is, at best, just a cerebellum—you can’t expect to use that thing for thinking.”
As she spoke, she stood up and gave the cat a kick on the rear, shooing Hang Tian out of the bedroom. Then she threw the window wide open, letting the biting winter wind sweep into the room to carry away the strong, pungent scent of perfume.
This perfume was marketed as light and non-irritating, but like a toxin, it’s pointless to discuss it without considering the dosage. When fifty milliliters were sprayed into a cramped, enclosed space of ten square meters, even the most pleasant scent would turn foul. If a cat were to stay in such an environment, it might well develop a four- or five-digit medical bill—and pet insurance wouldn’t cover more than a few hundred yuan, Hang Sheng didn’t want to spend that much, so she had to be careful, careful, and then even more careful.
Hang Sheng pulled her pajamas tighter around herself and crouched down to pick up the scattered droplets from the floor, feeling a pang of regret over the luxury bottle that had been full just two minutes ago. After all, she’d bought it specifically to treat herself to celebrate her promotion. Now that her job was gone, so had this snobbish perfume.
Hang Zheng gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and comforted her, “It’s okay. At worst, I’ll buy you a new bottle—let’s just consider it a celebration of you buying your freedom back.”
Hang Sheng chuckled. “With your monthly allowance of two thousand, you’d better save that for yourself. After all, I’ve been working for nearly five years—I’ve got some money saved up.”
“So what? I just want to spend it on you.” ” Hang Zheng gave her a playful wink and stuck out her tongue. “I’ll buy it for you not just with my allowance, but also with my New Year’s money, my scholarship, my salary once I start working, my unemployment benefits if I lose my job, my pension when I’m old, and my death benefits when I die. I just want to spend money on you—what business is it of yours?”
Hang Sheng was amused and giggled. She put the glass shards into a small resealable bag, labeled it “broken glass” with a marker, then wrapped it in several layers of thick tape before setting it aside next to the trash can, planning to have Hang Zheng toss it in on her way downstairs later.
After finishing all this, she stood up and rubbed her younger sister’s round, collagen-filled cheeks. “Is there anyone in the world who loves me more than you do? What am I supposed to do if you make me not even want to try anymore?”
“Then don’t try so hard. I’ll take care of you. If anyone dares to say a word, I’ll poison them into silence.” Hang Zheng wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist and whispered, “Sis, are you really not coming home with me?”
“Mm-hmm,” Hang Sheng nodded. “If those relatives find out I’m unemployed, who knows what they’ll say about our parents—both to our faces and behind our backs.”
As parents of two daughters, Hang Sheng’s parents had no prejudices whatsoever, but there were always some distant relatives—whose family ties could be traced back five hundred years—who felt the need to meddle. When the country relaxed its one-child policy to allow three children, those relatives actually brought up the topic of having more children with Hang Sheng’s parents—who were already over forty-five—arguing that there still needed to be a man in the family. At that moment, Hang Sheng hurled the five-spice sunflower seeds she didn’t like from the table right at their heads, Hang Zheng took advantage of the commotion to toss in the wet sunflower seed shells that had landed in her palm—which she hadn’t had time to throw away yet—adding to the mix in a move reminiscent of a celestial maiden scattering sunflower seeds.
Hang’s father was so furious he snarled, “What’s going on here? In your eyes, I’m not even a man anymore—how could I possibly have a child?”
Hang’s mother retorted sarcastically, “That’s right—it’s better if you have a son. After all, the one you bring home for the New Year has to be a boy. No wonder life in your household has become so incredibly difficult these days.”
Even though the family pulled together, they couldn’t withstand the shamelessness of those relatives. Year after year, they were berated, yet the relatives persisted relentlessly; whenever the two Hang sisters faced the slightest setback, it was inevitably linked to the tragic consequence of not having a son.
Hang Sheng could certainly choose to ignore it, but her parents weren’t in the best of health and couldn’t handle much stress. On top of that, they were bound to worry about her unemployment. So, after careful consideration, Hang Sheng decided to find an excuse not to go home for the New Year this year—after all, she wasn’t very good at fooling her own parents.
Hang Zheng recalled how her parents had taken turns staying in the hospital for most of last month, and she really couldn’t think of anything else to say to persuade them. So she casually changed the subject: “By the way, I heard from Grandma Gan that Xue Zhen is bringing his girlfriend home for the New Year this year. Aren’t you curious?”
By today’s standards, Hang Sheng and Gan Xuezhen could be considered childhood sweethearts—they lived right next door to each other—but the two had never gotten along since they were little.
Whether it was academics or behavior, Hang Sheng had always fallen short of Gan Xuezhen in every way since childhood. As adults, she was even a head shorter than him. It was as if everything had to be compared—and yet, she always came up short.
“Then there’s no way I’m going back,” Hang Sheng said through gritted teeth. “He’s really made it big now—successful in both his career and love life. If I go back and see him, who knows how he’ll mock me? I’m not giving him that chance.”
Hang Zheng was at a loss, so she had no choice but to accept the mission of helping her older sister spy on the “enemy” and boarded the high-speed train home alone.
That night, Hang Sheng thought back on her failed interview earlier that day and was filled with regret.
She sat up, roughly ruffling her already disheveled hair, and muttered irritably to herself, “Can they really blame me for not being able to keep my job during the layoffs? Was it my choice to leave? Do they expect me to buy a standing-room-only train ticket and join the factory’s mass exodus to India?”
In her anger, Hang Sheng locked eyes with a pair of glowing green eyes in the pitch-black night—Hang Tian was standing on top of the wardrobe, getting restless again…
As expected, the next step in the kitten’s late-night parkour routine was: leaping over the ribs!
Startled by Hang Sheng’s sudden awakening, Hang Tian lost his bearings. He miscalculated the distance, and his two big paws landed squarely on top of the human’s ribs.
The scent of orange blossom—which hadn’t yet fully faded from the day—grew even more intense. Pressing her hand against her aching ribs, Hang Sheng reaffirmed her resolve to list the cat on a secondhand marketplace for all to see.
She had no heart to pour her soul into every word; instead, she simply reused the template from last time with a few minor adjustments, changing the “cosmetics” column to “x4” and then adding another 1,030 yuan to the total price. To prevent a repeat of the previous incident where someone had snapped it up, she deliberately raised the price to the impossible figure of 9,990,000 yuan—a move clearly and unequivocally meant to shut out certain interested parties, so they would understand her defiant intent: she was listing it, not selling it.
However, that weirdo still snapped it up instantly…
[I’ve paid. Waiting for you to ship.]
Hang Sheng pinched her thigh hard; a pain sharper than a rib jab shot through her brain. She confirmed that it was all real—it was now 12:30 a.m. on January 18th, and the payment amount was three nines followed by four zeros.
Faced with this astronomical figure, Hang Sheng did waver—but on what grounds? Just because of this mischievous little cat in her arms?
Her rational mind told her this was a scam targeting her specifically—she couldn’t trust it. Even though it broke her heart, Hang Sheng steeled herself and clicked the “Request Refund” button.
She hugged the bewildered kitten close and said, “ “Sorry, but I’m not letting you go and enjoy this special day.”
Ugly Cat Weirdo: [Hi, why did you cancel it again?]
Regardless of whether the other person was a scammer or not, Hang Sheng—who was currently unemployed and staying at home—couldn’t help but be tempted by the huge sum of money. She joked: [Boss, forget buying a cat—buy me instead to come work for you. I’m a top-notch workhorse, cheap, and a real hard worker. 】
Hang Sheng thought the matter was completely settled at that point, but to her surprise, after a long pause, the other person replied: 【Deal. Call me.】
Looking at the string of eleven digits that followed, it felt like she’d been transported back to her math class days, and Hang Sheng inexplicably drifted off to sleep.
In her dream, she suddenly understood cat language. A bunch of kittens missing limbs meowed with tear-filled eyes, saying they’d been kidnapped and abused, that they weren’t getting enough to eat or warm clothes, that they wanted to go home, missed their owner, and begged Cat-Man to save them.
Hang Sheng woke up with a start. When she opened her eyes, Hang Tian was nestled close to her face, looking worried, meowing helplessly.
Having a cat really does keep you young, Hang Sheng thought with satisfaction as she patted the kitten’s head to soothe it for a while. Glancing at her phone screen, which was still displaying that phone number, she resolved—regardless of whether the caller was a cat abuser or not—to go undercover and get to the bottom of this.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz—”
“Hello, who is this?” The phone rang for a long time before someone picked up. On the other end was a very young man’s voice, hoarse with sleepiness, and only then did Hang Sheng realize how late it was.
The call had already been made—there was no turning back. Hang Sheng had no choice but to steel herself and say, “Um… hello, I’m…”
Just as she was hesitating over how to introduce herself, the other person spoke first: “Has the Heartless Meow-Meow Hero eaten three jin of cat food and still isn’t full?”
“Ah… yes, that’s me.” Hearing her online nickname read out so solemnly, Hang Sheng felt a bit at a loss.
“I’m Fang Huajun.” The other person briefly introduced themselves before getting straight to the point. “I need someone for a short-term part-time job lasting until the Lantern Festival to take care of the fifty-three cats at my house—mainly handling the kittens’ meals, daily care, and health monitoring. The number of cats may fluctuate later on.”
The number might go up or down? An increase because they’re breeding cats? And a decrease? Because they’re selling them? And why are there all these weird and ugly cats in the link? Is this some kind of supplier for people with unusual fetishes? No matter how Hang Sheng looked at it, she couldn’t help but think this was a shady cattery.
Frowning, she continued to ask patiently, “Are there any requirements?”
“You must be in good health, have no criminal record, have at least two years of experience caring for cats, and be able to start as soon as possible. Most importantly, you must not abuse cats.” Fang Huajun emphasized the last sentence heavily. “Also, you’ll need to live on-site. The daily wage is 1,000. For the sixteen days from New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival, you’ll receive triple pay. You cannot breach the contract and quit midway; a hefty penalty clause will be included to prevent this. If you’re interested, you can come by in person tomorrow to take a look, and we’ll discuss the details then.”
Hang Sheng actually met all the requirements, and the pay was excellent—it would be the perfect short-term solution while she was unemployed. It was just the live-in requirement…
“Are you going on a trip?” Hang Sheng asked curiously.
“No, I’ll be home the whole time,” the other person replied calmly.
Hang Sheng’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You mean… I’ll be living with you the whole time???”
Author’s Note:
Yes, you’ll be living together.