Shen Lizhou had a dream.
In the dream, there was pristine white snow.
Snowflakes drifted down, pure and generous, settling upon the dry, gray branches, radiating a dazzling glow.
The world was so holy and beautiful that he briefly thought he had ascended to heaven.
He blinked.
His eyelashes swept lightly across his eyes, and his blurred vision sharpened. He quickly realized he was curled up in a small bathroom.
A familiar bathroom, with its familiar crampedness and cold.
A familiar skylight, but unfamiliar snow.
Lian City had not seen snow this heavy in a long time.
The last time he remembered such a heavy snowfall, it had claimed his father's life. The middle-aged man, drunk, had collapsed at the last corner of the alley on his way home. No one knew what dream he had been having, but he had frozen to death with a smile on his face in the snow. A street vendor setting up for breakfast found him in the morning and called the police.
Shen Lizhou shook off the thin blanket wrapped around him and stood up, his head feeling heavy, to wash up.
Ice-cold water splashed against his face like a dense array of needles. He bent over, using the cold water to rinse his hair and wash his body, until the scent of soap replaced the smell of the bathroom and completely enveloped him. Only then did he slowly raise his head and exhale a scalding breath.
The boy in the mirror lifted his wet eyes.
His skin was pale, his eyes light in color, but his lips were a vivid red—the "fox-spirit look" his mother often cursed.
Unfortunately, he bore too strong a resemblance to his father's mistress.
The bathroom door was still locked from the outside.
Shen Lizhou waited quietly, then suddenly heard the faint sound of piano music coming from beyond the courtyard wall.
It was a very complex piece, one he had been listening to for nearly two months.
Played in the morning, played in the evening, and sometimes suddenly in the dead of night.
The music had started in tune, but then, at some beat, it faltered and got stuck.
A pause, then it started again, only to get stuck at the same spot.
Again, and again, stuck at the same place. After who knows how many repetitions, it forced its way through clumsily, every note stumbling, as if wrestling with some unseen opponent.
As it wrestled, the music stopped. After a brief silence, a jumble of chaotic notes was slammed out of the keys.
A few seconds of quiet.
Shen Lizhou's breathing grew lighter.
Suddenly, the piano sounded again.
Very slow. Very soft.
Each note was pressed with great care.
And it was beautiful.
For the first time, the music smoothly passed through the passage that had been stuck—graceful, fluid. But just as it was about to complete successfully, the sound abruptly vanished.
Complete silence. It never sounded again.
Shen Lizhou snapped back to reality.
He withdrew his fingers and saw that, without realizing it, he had drawn a little picture on the fogged mirror—
A tiny figure playing the piano, gritting its teeth.
The bathroom door lock clicked and rattled, then the door was pushed open. A sturdy-looking little boy poked his head in and whispered, "Brother, come out."
As he spoke, the boy walked in cautiously, as if about to embrace him, and pressed an egg into his palm. The egg's warmth carried the heat of the boy's hand, warm enough to feel almost hot.
Shen Lizhou tucked it away, ruffled the boy's curly hair, and walked out.
The living room was dimly lit. His mother sat by the window, a cigarette held between two fingers, smoke curling upward, facing a blank canvas. Several tubes of paint lay discarded by her hand, squeezed flat and dry, the dried paint resembling clotted blood scabs.
Her long hair fell loose—fluffy, curly, messily covering most of her face, making her expression unreadable. The cigarette burned at her fingertips, ash dropping onto her knees, but she remained perfectly still, as if unaware.
"Mom," Shen Lewei pattered over, tilting his head up to smile at her, "Brother is taking me to school—"
Only then did she seem to startle awake from a dream. She quickly stubbed out the cigarette on the canvas, and said hoarsely, "Okay, sweetheart. What do you want for breakfast?"
"We already ate breakfast," Shen Lewei tilted his head, a little confused. "You just made it for me."
She was clearly dazed. Her somewhat cloudy eyes stared at Shen Lewei, her lips murmuring, unable to find words for a moment.
Shen Lizhou stepped forward, took Shen Lewei's hand, and said in a low voice, "Mom, we're heading to school."
She was silent for a few seconds, then hummed in acknowledgment and turned her head away.
Opening the door, snowflakes blew in with the cold wind. Shen Lewei rushed out first: "What beautiful snow!" He stepped into the snow, then immediately worried, "Brother, will Banban be cold?"
Shen Lizhou tightened his grip on the egg and looked around.
Banban was a stray cow cat. Shen Lewei had once carried it home during a heavy rain, but their mother wouldn't allow pets in the house and ordered them to send it away. Banban was clever—it started begging for food around the neighborhood, and they often spotted it on the way to and from school.
But now the world was a vast expanse of white, with not even a cat's paw print in sight.
All he saw was the grandmother next door, up and sweeping the snow.
She wore a dark floral padded jacket and a small cap, sweeping slowly and carefully, stroke by stroke.
"Please, leave it!" The man beside her, dressed in a crisp black coat, held an umbrella over her, his voice tinged with helplessness. "If President Shi finds out, he won't be happy. Let the servants handle these chores…"
"Servants?" Grandma didn't let go, her voice carrying a slow, weighty authority. "The Shi family has never had any servants."
"Grandma, good morning!" Shen Lewei chimed in eagerly, his voice soft and childish. "Our teacher told us yesterday that everyone is equal!"
"Oh my, Lele, Zhouzhou, good morning." Grandma greeted them with a beaming smile. Her gaze drifted to their tightly shut door, and her smile faltered for a moment. "What is your mother doing at home? It's the first day of school—didn't she take you to school?"
Shen Lizhou tightened his grip on Shen Lewei's hand and said, "She told me to take Lele to…"
"Alright, alright," Grandma said. "But the snow makes the roads slippery. Why not take Xiao Wang's car? It's on the way anyway." She gestured to the man in black, who nodded politely at them.
Shen Lewei let out a "wow" as he noticed the sleek silver luxury car nearby. "Grandma, you're so rich!" Then he hesitated. "But I wanted to play in the snow on the way…"
"Thank you, Grandma," Shen Lizhou said gently. "We'll walk in the morning—it's good exercise."
After saying their goodbyes, the two headed toward the end of the alley. Shen Lewei whispered, "Mom told me not to bother Grandma too much. Why?"
The grandma next door was actually their landlord.
Her son had made a fortune and wanted to move her away, but she refused to leave her old home. So she expanded it in place, building a modern Chinese-style courtyard with tall walls.
Their family, on the other hand, were tenants renting the old house beside her courtyard. They had already received so much of her kindness; they shouldn't ask for more.
"Because you're growing up," Shen Lizhou said with a smile. "You need to learn to do things on your own."
Shen Lewei let out a long "oh."
He was only eight, a second-grader, with much he didn't understand—yet somehow, he seemed to grasp a lot.
Behind them, Grandma was still complaining to the man: "And you—tell Shi Guoli to come pick up his rebellious daughter right away. That piano, playing day and night—is she trying to kill this old woman?"
The man snapped out of his daze. "Where has the young miss gone?"
"What 'young miss'? Use her full name!" Grandma frowned, then called out in a booming voice, "Shi Ran—Shi Ran—"
"Coming—"
From beneath a family car up ahead, a girl crawled out.
Her nose was red from the cold, snow dusting her hair tips and eyebrows, her eyes bright and clear. She cradled a black-and-white cow cat in her school uniform jacket, running past Shen Lizhou with a gust of fresh, crisp air, calling out, "Grandma, look what I found—"
"A little cat!" Her voice rang out clear and bright, growing fainter as she ran. "I spotted it from the second floor this morning and finally caught it. It's so cold out—look how frozen it is. Grandma, help me raise it…"
Banban huddled pitifully in her arms, the snow on its fur melting from her body heat, making its belly look even rounder.
"Give it here, give it here—your uniform's all wet!" Grandma said. "Oh, this cat's pregnant…"
The egg had gone a bit cold. Shen Lizhou let out a small sigh of relief.
Luckily, not all stray cats had to stay strays forever.
In his heart, he congratulated this cat on finding a home.
It wouldn't have to follow him, getting only a cold egg every morning.
Shen Lizhou turned to look at Banban.
Banban lifted its head from the girl's arms, gazing back at him from afar.
…
The snow melted, sunlight spilled down, shifting into a shimmering, rippling sea.
Shen Lizhou opened his eyes to find a cat staring at him intently.
Their eyes met, and those clear feline eyes seemed to pierce straight into his heart.
He stiffened almost imperceptibly. Then Panghu was quickly scooped away, and Shi Ran's voice rang out: "You're awake."
The girl holding the cat and the woman holding the cat overlapped before him. Shen Lizhou sat up in a daze, slowly realizing that half of a pink cat-patterned blanket was draped over him—the other half over her.
Like fire, like an electric current, something surged through him from somewhere deep inside, burning all the way up until his ears felt hot.
Shi Ran casually rolled the blanket away, wrapping it around herself, and pointed at his phone. "Your phone's been buzzing nonstop. Someone seems to be urgently looking for you."
"…Looking for me?"
Shen Lizhou's voice was hoarse. He picked up his phone and swiped through the messages.
They were all from Wang Lixiang.
Photos, videos—starting with text, then voice messages, and finally a mix of both, asking if Shen Lizhou had received them, and if so, could he please reply.
Shen Lizhou's fingers were numb from sleep. As he scrolled down, he accidentally tapped a video. It played with "meow, meow" sounds, drawing Panghu's attention and Shi Ran's too. "Is that your cat?"
"…No," Shen Lizhou said, quickly scanning through the flood of messages, summarizing, "There's a cat giving birth. Seems to be having some trouble with labor."
"Dystocia?" Shi Ran turned serious, sitting up straight. "Is there a video? Can you show me?"
Shen Lizhou paused, then moved his phone a bit farther away. Her head naturally leaned in close to his, staring intently at the small phone screen.
In the video, the "captain" was lying on its side in a cardboard box lined with an old towel, its abdomen heaving violently. It turned its head with effort to lick itself, pausing every few licks to pant, its gaze somewhat unfocused.
"How many has she had? How many came before this one?" Shi Ran stared at the screen, speaking faster than usual. "How long has it been?"
Shen Lizhou paused, then directly called Wang Lixiang via video.
The other party picked up quickly, his voice somewhat urgent, and his question strange: "Mr. Shen? Are you alright?"
"…Mm," Shen Lizhou said. "Where's the vet?"
"The vet is part-time," Wang Lixiang said, a bit flustered. "He recently went back to his hometown to rest, not in Lian City…"
Shi Ran took a quiet breath.
And at that moment, the man beside her looked up at her, and for some inexplicable yet utterly natural reason, placed his phone into her hands.
"…Hello, I'm a veterinarian." Shi Ran spoke almost instinctively, looking at the phone screen, her voice steady. "Would you mind pointing the camera at the mother cat?"
During the brief black screen as the camera flipped, the two of them were reflected in it.
Their gazes met unexpectedly, and she saw his calm, assured expression.
…How strange.
Shi Ran thought.
She had never told anyone about being a veterinarian, except Cheng Zimiao.
Not even her parents knew…
How did he know?