See!
She had never wronged Li Yuyuan on the small things!
Since he was being so candid, Fei Chaichai didn't bother with pretense either. She indulged his desire to see her make a fool of herself and said generously, "Fine then, open your eyes wide and take a good look."
With that, she raised her hand, her two slender arms practically shoving themselves right in Li Yuyuan's face.
And he didn't dodge at all. Just as she'd said, he lowered his eyes and took a good look.
The ointment that hadn't been rubbed in properly on her skin had already dried, but the mosquito bite marks were still clearly visible, and the long bloody scratch marks around them from her scratching were even more striking.
"Satisfied now?" With the physical evidence in hand, Fei Chaichai had much more confidence than before. She snorted, "If it weren't for you refusing to see me, I wouldn't have ended up in such a miserable state."
Actually, it was her own fault, after all, Li Yuyuan had no obligation to see her.
Of course.
He also had no morals, so he wouldn't be held hostage by such words at all.
She was simply using blame-shifting to change the subject, so she wouldn't be held accountable for the stalking.
But Li Yuyuan seemed to take it seriously.
Under the dappled shadows of the rustling trees, his expression was blurred and hard to read, only his voice was clear, its coldness scattered by the evening breeze as he hummed in acknowledgment: "My fault."
Fei Chaichai, who had been waiting to be laughed at: "?"
No way.
Not only did he not kick her while she was down, but he actually accepted this fabricated accusation?
Was this still the same cold-blooded, heartless Li Yuyuan?
Fei Chaichai was so shocked she could only blink.
Hearing Li Yuyuan admit fault was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was hard not to be greedy, wanting to know exactly what mistakes he thought he'd made. She quickly lowered her arm and pressed further: "Like what?"
With the obstruction gone, her face was fully visible again in his field of vision. The anger was nowhere to be found, replaced by undisguised curiosity.
Li Yuyuan didn't brush her off. He thought about it seriously.
Like.
After that phone call this morning was hung up, he thought she would back off when faced with difficulty, or perhaps take her time to plan.
It wasn't until he came downstairs to walk the dog and saw her sitting blankly on the swing that he realized he might have underestimated her naivety and recklessness.
And also.
"I didn't expect you to be so popular with mosquitoes."
"…"
What exactly had she been expecting.
The light in Fei Chaichai's eyes instantly dimmed. She pouted listlessly, imitating his manner, crossing her arms over her chest, lifting her chin, and snorting lightly: "Everyone likes me except you."
Bathed in the thin moonlight, her palm-sized face was full of fresh, rich emotions.
There was disappointment, disdain, smugness, and pride.
God knows what she was so proud of.
Her self-awareness was clearly so lacking.
Li Yuyuan said nothing more. He turned his head away, his Adam's apple bobbing, as if letting out a soft laugh.
The night was thick, and Fei Chaichai wasn't quite sure. She stepped directly in front of him, hands on her hips, and demanded, "Were you just laughing at me?"
This question actually made Li Yuyuan doubt himself for the first time.
He reflected on where the problem lay, and fearing she might misunderstand again, he even carefully considered his tone for once, replying with rare seriousness: "I probably wasn't just laughing at you a moment ago."
The implication being, he'd been laughing at her the whole time.
Fei Chaichai, who had played a perfect hand terribly: "…"
Damn it.
If she'd known, she would have ended the conversation when he was admitting fault!
Curiosity killed the cat…
Wait.
Cat?!
Fei Chaichai almost forgot the main issue. She quickly turned her head toward the direction of the bushes, ready to save the cat at any moment.
But to her surprise, there was no cat in sight.
On the ground, there was only a bag of cat food, a bottle of water, and two plastic bowls.
And that big orange cat that might have been poisoned was happily running across the grass with his dog, lively and healthy, completely fine.
Now it was Fei Chaichai's turn to have a problem.
She turned back, looking at Li Yuyuan, hesitating: "You…"
She only said one word before trailing off.
But Li Yuyuan smoothly picked up where she left off, saying, "Yeah, no poison."
The moment he finished speaking, the young girl's mouth fell open, then quickly shut again, and her wide-round eyes were pressed back to normal shape by her furrowed brows, as if she were trying desperately not to reveal a single trace of her true emotions.
But her youthful face simply couldn't hide anything.
It seemed that in her stammering, he had unfortunately hit on the question she most wanted to know but most wanted to avoid.
Li Yuyuan regretfully lowered his eyes, shook his head with a soft sigh, and said nothing more. He straightened up, walked around her, and stepped out of that space.
Fei Chaichai, still shocked by his mind-reading: "Huh?"
Why was he leaving without hearing her make excuses again?
The handles Li Yuyuan had on her were already enough to braid into a full head of dreadlocks. She absolutely could not let him see that she had just suspected him of poisoning.
"What poison, what poison? What I wanted to say was, you're so kind-hearted!"
Fei Chaichai quickly chased after him, showering him with praise: "Look at you, not only do you keep a dog with a limp, but you also feed stray cats. You're practically a living bodhisattva. You must often help rescue stray animals with Dean Yan Ci, right?"
Her old habit of mixing in her own selfish motives had flared up again.
Like a little demon with insufficient cultivation, unable to maintain its human form for long, she gradually reverted to her original shape bit by bit.
The first thing that couldn't be hidden was her tail.
Li Yuyuan ignored her once, showing no reaction to her flattery, and said flatly, "Wrong target."
"Huh?"
Wrong target?
Could it be that the "living bodhisattva" was someone else?
Fei Chaichai pondered for a moment, and a little lightbulb beside her head "dinged" on: "You want me to praise Dean Yan Ci, right!"
Before he could answer, she twisted her hands and let out an "ouch," looking shy as if she herself were the one being praised. "Everyone knows he's compassionate—my little compliment is hardly worth mentioning. How about… I send him a banner of honor? Or I could give the mayor…"
Lost in her own world, she chattered on and on, only realizing after a while that the man beside her had disappeared.
She turned to look.
Li Yuyuan had stopped at some point, hands in his pockets, standing at the edge of the streetlamp's glow. His expression was even more indifferent than the moonlight, watching her like she was a stage play he had no interest in.
The atmosphere took a sharp turn.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
Fei Chaichai instinctively stood at attention, feeling the uneasy confusion of having done something wrong without knowing what it was.
Fortunately, she had a proper attitude and proactively reflected: "Did I say something wrong?"
Li Yuyuan didn't answer, just looked at her.
The visual principle of near-large-far-small didn't seem to apply to her.
She was small up close and even smaller from afar—a single leaf's shadow could easily swallow her whole, drawing a sympathetic evening breeze that tried to blow away the tree's shadow.
"Not wrong, exactly."
When the wind gained the upper hand, Li Yuyuan started walking again.
As he passed by Fei Chaichai, he didn't slow his pace, adding a light turn of phrase: "But you're bothering me."
"…"
Fei Chaichai was confused and puzzled.
Shouldn't someone be proud when others praise their own brother? There was no reason for this kind of reaction.
Unless—
"You and Dean Yan Ci…" She wanted to ask if the two of them had quarreled.
The moment the words left her mouth, Li Yuyuan glanced at her again.
Fei Chaichai decisively shut her mouth and turned away as if nothing had happened. She busied herself—first going up to Xia Xiang to read the tree plaque, then counting how many ants had climbed the tree—extremely occupied.
Only when she heard a rustling sound did she sneak a glance.
Li Yuyuan had already started packing up the things on the ground.
Fei Chaichai couldn't help but plead her own case.
It really wasn't her fault for misunderstanding earlier.
In the deepening layers of night, light and shadow interwove in a blur of reality and illusion. Occasionally catching sight of the tattoo on Li Yuyuan's neck amplified the cold desolation among the withered branches.
His face flickered in and out of clarity—once stripped of emotional variation, it looked especially icy and devoid of human warmth.
Any of those traits fit the criminal profile of someone poisoning stray animals far better than someone feeding them.
Yet his movements were practiced, clearly not his first time doing this.
For a moment, Fei Chaichai felt dazed.
Even when she first met him, with Li Yuyuan wearing a face identical to No. 108's, she had never thought the two were alike.
But now, she seemed to see a shadow of No. 108 in him.
Before more illusions could form, Fei Chaichai redirected her attention, opened her phone's notes app, typed something out, and held it up in front of Li Yuyuan, asking him.
—What's your dog's name?
Li Yuyuan tossed the last two bowls back into the bamboo basket and stood up. "Zhang Fei."
"…"
Zhang Fei?!
No wonder the little girl called him "Zhang Fei's brother"—so it was all thanks to the dog.
Still, that name was way too hastily chosen.
Fei Chaichai had a reasonable suspicion—
Are you messing with me?
She typed that sentence in her notes app.
But before she could hold it up, she heard Li Yuyuan's voice.
It seemed he had guessed what she was thinking. He pulled the leash hanging from the tree and gave a slight tilt of his chin, signaling her: "If you don't believe me, try it."
—No way I'm trying that.
Fei Chaichai habitually rejected every suggestion Li Yuyuan made, but her typing fingers suddenly paused.
Wait—does this mean he's not bothered by her talking anymore?
Then she could speak normally!
Fei Chaichai caught on, didn't put on airs, and took the opening he offered. She called out loudly: "Zhang—Fei—"
The moment the words left her mouth, the dog that had been circling around the big orange cat turned its head to look around. Once its gaze locked onto her, it limped its way over to her.
Now Fei Chaichai had no choice but to believe its name was "Zhang Fei."
She crouched down halfway, opened her arms, and after being tackled into a full embrace, immediately bragged to the dog's owner: "See, I'm liked by everyone—except for a certain someone with the surname Li."
Actually, it was because she carried a familiar scent on her.
But Li Yuyuan didn't dampen her spirits. His voice was lazy, without a proper tone, but he played along: "Mm, I'll have a word with him later."
It sounded perfunctory, but it didn't affect Fei Chaichai's mood.
"They say dogs bring wealth, dogs bring wealth—looks like I have to buy a lottery ticket today, hehe." She rubbed the dog while happily muttering to herself, then asked curiously, "Oh right, why did you name him that?"
Li Yuyuan: "He looks like it."
Hearing this, Fei Chaichai immediately took another look.
The dog had gray-brown fur all over, but its face was a patch of black—perfectly matching the line "Black-faced Zhang Fei shouts with a roar."
But why not call it "Chacha"?
After all—
"Calling out the name Zhang Fei in public probably gets a lot of stares, right?" Fei Chaichai's concern was quite practical.
Li Yuyuan nodded in agreement, rare for him to concede: "That's why I called it out for you just now."
"…………Then I really must thank—you."
"You're welcome."
"……"
This dog should've been his to be!
Fei Chaichai cursed herself for not learning her lesson. After verifying the name was real, she didn't hog the dog's playtime any longer—she patted its butt and let it go back.
But Li Yuyuan grabbed the leash and intercepted it halfway.
Fei Chaichai was stunned.
So that "Zhang Fei" wasn't just to embarrass her—it was also to lure the dog over so he could "take it down"?
What a two-birds-with-one-stone scheme!
As the only one who could speak, Fei Chaichai took it upon herself to be the mouthpiece for the cat and dog: "Isn't it still early? Why not let them play a little longer?"
The "victim dog" seemed to understand, glancing back at its owner.
Li Yuyuan's thin lips curled slightly.
A human and dog united in protest—now that was something new.
He crouched down, pinched "Zhang Fei's" scruff, and gave it a gentle flick, manually rejecting its overtime request, unmoved: "Play too much and it becomes addictive."
Fei Chaichai wrinkled her nose.
Why was he so strict with a dog, too?
She didn't agree with Li Yuyuan's dog-raising philosophy, but she couldn't exactly meddle in someone else's parenting, so she could only shoot "Zhang Fei" an apologetic look and ask again: "So are you heading back?"
"No rush."
Li Yuyuan's hands kept moving, not even lifting his eyelids, but his words were all considerate of her: "Your goal hasn't been achieved yet, has it?"
His tone was as casual as if he were talking about the weather.
But Fei Chaichai was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, suddenly bristling: "Wh-Wh-What goal could I possibly have?!"
Having clipped the leash on, Li Yuyuan straightened up.
At that, he finally showed a bit of reaction, his gaze dropping slightly, lingering for a long time on that face putting up a bluff.
So long that her eyes began to dart away, and only then did he let out a barely audible chuckle, his tone lazy and relaxed, each word crisp: "Buying lottery tickets."
Fei Chaichai: "……"