HCKSAB ~ 08

Chapter – 08

Shao Sui bought quite a few toys—balls, feather wands, little fish plushies. He lost track of time while unpacking them and playing with the cat, and before he knew it, it was already nine in the evening. Only then did he remember that he hadn’t picked up his car, and the 4S dealership was already closed.

Oh well. Time to wash up and go to bed.

“No getting on the sofa,” Shao Sui emphasized repeatedly. “If you scratch it up, the landlord will make me pay for it, and then I’ll have to ask your owner for the money. So the more stuff you destroy, the more likely he is to abandon you. Got it?”

King Meow lay on the coffee table without a sound, but looked like she was deep in thought.

After washing his hands, Shao Sui walked into the bedroom. There was a small wardrobe by the door on the side, which held his pajamas.

He changed into them and lay down on the bed to catch up on sleep.

As a teacher, he could only get a good night’s rest during holidays—especially in middle and high school, with so many things to deal with and so much pressure.

Shao Sui had a dream.

He dreamed he was back to teaching first-year junior high students, and there was a new kid in class named Mimi—scrawny, underdeveloped, and showing up every day with injuries, reportedly from being abused by his parents.

Teacher Shao’s heart softened, and he brought the kid food every day. Until one day, the kid suddenly confessed in his diary, boldly declaring: “Teacher Shao, I want you to be my dog!”

….What the hell.

While the human was asleep, Mimi crouched by the bedroom door and waited for a while.

Seeing that he really wasn’t going to let her in, she angrily punched the door twice.

“Ow.” That hurt.

Mimi pulled back her paw, leaned against the wall, and licked it. Since the human wasn’t around, she began patrolling the house.

It was very, very small—barely one meow big!

Even though one leg was broken, that didn’t stop Mimi from jumping up and down. She first checked the cans the human had stocked up for her: one, two, three, four, five… ten, twenty, thirty.

Passable.

If she ate two a day, that meant she could eat… never mind, she wasn’t going to do the math.

Once she’d spent all this human’s money, she’d quietly leave this impoverished place.

Mimi also went to check the kitchen door, but it was locked—couldn’t get in.

If she weren’t injured, she’d have opened it in no time.

“Ow!” As a cat, it was perfectly normal to let out a yowl or two now and then.

Mimi ambled back to the living room. There wasn’t much furniture, but it was all very clean. She leaped onto the sofa—the slope was too slick, and she almost fell off, having to scramble several times before finally making it onto her throne.

Not allowed on? She’d get on anyway.

King Meow being rebellious was only natural.

The sofa had a great texture; it was probably one of the human’s more expensive pieces of furniture. Mimi first gave it a scratch, then guiltily looked back, afraid Shao Sui would suddenly appear.

This human was so poor, he probably couldn’t afford to replace the sofa.

King Meow magnanimously decided to find something else to destroy. She scanned the room and spotted a TV, with a small table beside it that held a black-and-white photo of a human.

She tilted her head, then decided to mess with the black tablet on the TV cabinet.

First, she pawed the tablet off the cabinet, then kicked it around like a toy ball. Mimi played with it enthusiastically, completely forgetting her original purpose—until she heard faint yelling from downstairs. Then she shrank back and hid behind the sofa.

After about ten minutes, once she was sure it was safe, Mimi resumed destroying the black tablet. But it didn’t seem to be taking any damage.

She remembered seeing a kitten fall from a height before, so she picked up the tablet in her mouth, struggled onto a chair, then leaped onto the table, letting the thing drop from above.

Clack.

Mimi flinched. Even though she’d done it on purpose, she still felt a little guilty, afraid the human in the room would suddenly come out and hit her.

He probably hadn’t woken up.

Humans just had no vigilance—no wonder they died so easily.

At the traditional Chinese medicine clinic, there was a TV that always played the news: today someone got hit by a car, tomorrow someone drowned… so fragile.

Mimi dropped the tablet several more times, and finally, this black board broke.

She was tired from all the jumping and curled up on the sofa, closing her eyes heavily.

Humans didn’t know this, but little cats could have nightmares too.

She dreamed of clothes hangers, lighters, sticks, and sharp needles. She’d only taken a sip of water from the bowl, and then her throat burned like fire—it hurt so much.

When Shao Sui woke up, it was already nine in the morning. He leaned against the bed for a while, then opened his phone to check his DMs and the community group chat. Still no word from the cat’s owner.

But one comment caught his attention.

TCM Student Xiao Wu: [Oh my god! Mimi! This cat used to wander around near our clinic—super aloof and really smart. She’s so pretty that lots of people wanted to keep her, but no one could ever catch her.]

TCM Student Xiao Wu: [And she’s definitely female. We never saw any balls on her. I swear I’m not mistaken. [Image]]

Shao Sui looked at the photo. It really was Mimi.

In the picture, she looked much more spirited than now—probably a couple of pounds heavier, with fluffy fur that gleamed in the sunlight. More like a little fairy than a little eunuch.

Shao Sui replied: [That’s her, no doubt. Are you sure nobody owns her?]

TCM Student Xiao Wu: [As far as I know, no. She really didn’t like being kept indoors. We tried to catch her several times and never succeeded. No idea how she ended up in your neighborhood—it’s miles away. Everyone around here missed her a lot; the owner of the deli next door saved food for her every day, but she hasn’t shown up for almost two months now.]

TCM Student Xiao Wu: [How did she end up like this? So pitiful, boohoo. If you don’t want to keep her, bring her back to us—we’ll pool money to reimburse you for the vet bills!]

What did she mean “reimburse”? Was she your cat to begin with?

Shao Sui only thought this inwardly and didn’t type it out.

Still, finding her old haunt was a good thing—at least if Mimi’s owner never showed up, she’d have somewhere to go. The people there seemed decent enough, and they were willing to cover her medical expenses.

But Shao Sui didn’t reply right away. He got out of bed and pulled open the curtains—the sky looked overcast today, and it would probably rain later.

He also wondered what that cat had been up to outside, and where she’d slept last night.

When he walked out to check, Mimi was sprawled out on the corner of the sofa, her head practically hanging off the edge.

Shao Sui walked over: “No manners at all when you sleep.”

King Meow was actually already awake, but her current position was too awkward—if she moved even a little, she’d slide right off, and that would be way too humiliating.

To avoid falling, she decided to play dead, squinting as she watched the human’s knees draw nearer.

Shao Sui walked up, cupped her head in his hands: “Didn’t I say no getting on the sofa?”

Mimi nuzzled into his palm, tilting her head to look at him.

“…Stop trying to be cute.”

Shao Sui scratched under her chin, watched her for a moment, then pulled out his phone one-handed and used voice-to-text to reply to TCM Student Xiao Wu: [She should have been adopted by someone these past two months. When I found her, she had a collar on, so let’s wait a bit longer. Roaming around isn’t good for her recovery either. If she’s healed and her previous owner still hasn’t shown up, I’ll bring her back to you guys.]

Xiao Wu asked if they could add each other on WeChat, and Shao Sui agreed. Then the other person sent a flurry of sticker packs along the lines of “good people get good karma.”

“I’m not a good person.” Shao Sui stroked Mimi’s chest fluff, muttering to himself, “The fish oil should arrive today.”

Xiao Wu: [Just call me Xiao Wu!]

Xiao Wu: [I can send you some cat food!]

Shao Sui snapped a photo of the row of cat cans lined up on the sideboard and sent it out, typing coldly: [She doesn’t eat dry food.]

Xiao Wu: [Those cans are pretty expensive—Mimi is getting pickier and pickier… But the ones you bought don’t seem to be main meal cans. You can’t feed them as regular meals.]

Shao Sui paused. He didn’t know much about this.

He looked it up online and found out that cat cans are divided into treat cans and main meal cans, with the latter being more expensive.

Shao Sui replied: [Got it. I’ll buy new ones later.]

Xiao Wu: [Mimi is such a pretty little female cat—are you really not considering adopting her?]

“…”

Why did everyone assume he was going to keep her? Shao Sui, caught between keeping and not keeping, chose to nitpick instead: [She’s actually male. The only reason you never saw his balls before is because they’re too small and hidden by fur.]

Mimi had no idea what he was doing. She rolled over and crept behind Shao Sui, peeking at the phone screen.

Hmm… human language was too complex—she couldn’t understand it.

Shao Sui reached back and scratched under her chin, and King Meow was quite pleased: “Purrrr.”

Xiao Wu: [That pretty little cat is male? I told everyone and they don’t believe me. Oh my god, the sky is falling!]

Then Xiao Wu sent a screenshot—an informational post about calico male cats.

Shao Sui opened it and glanced through it. The gist was that male calico cats have an extra X chromosome, which is equivalent to Klinefelter syndrome in the feline world.

Naturally small “bells,” incapable of reproduction.

That didn’t really matter—for most animals, mating was just about the reproductive instinct etched into their genes; they didn’t actually experience pleasure from it.

But along with that came plenty of genetic defects: poor health, more delicate than other alley cats, and a temperament that was worlds apart from the gentle calico females—relatively more aggressive.

Xiao Wu: [But our Mimi is still pretty well-behaved—just a bit aloof and doesn’t let people touch her.]

Shao Sui scooped the cat onto his lap, took a photo of himself messing with her, and sent it over. He didn’t capture the whole picture—just the cat’s back and one ear.

Xiao Wu: […]

Xiao Wu: [I have to go to work. Bye.]

Mimi struggled in protest, but a three-legged cat was no match for a human with both hands and feet. By the time she finally broke free, her fur was a total mess.

What a nuisance.

She curled up in the corner of the sofa and started grooming herself. Shao Sui figured she must have slept on the sofa last night too.

Oh well.

A cat was a cat. Once she was in the living room, how could she actually listen to human commands and stay off the sofa? Even a dog couldn’t manage that.

Shao Sui just thought he should probably buy a fabric vacuum cleaner.

Even though the one he got yesterday said it worked on both floors and sofas, he couldn’t stand the thought of mixing uses.

Shao Sui was about to head out to make breakfast when he noticed a black shard on the floor: “What’s this…”

He picked it up and looked at it—it seemed to be the back cover of the TV remote.

He grabbed two sheets of paper towel and laid them on the floor, then knelt down and found the remote’s main board under the coffee table. As for the batteries—one was under the dining table, and the other had rolled all the way to the bathroom door.

Shao Sui popped the batteries back in while looking at Mimi: “Did you do this?”

When he said those three words, there was an air of quiet authority about him.

Mimi let out a half-hearted “Meow.”

Before Shao Sui could figure things out, there was another knock at the door: “Knock knock—”

When he turned back, the cat had already hidden herself. Shao Sui had no choice but to answer the door, and found his landlord from downstairs: “Xiao Shao, are you seeing someone?”

Shao Sui was confused: “No, why do you ask?”

The landlord said: “I heard banging noises from your place late last night. We’re getting old and light sleepers—you should go to bed earlier.”

Shao Sui quickly apologized: “Sorry about that. I might have dropped the air conditioner remote on the floor last night.”

“No worries, no worries.” The landlord was very satisfied with Shao Sui as a tenant—clean, tidy, young and handsome, with a respectable profession. It wasn’t easy these days to find a tenant who fit the bill.

“Xiao Shao, my niece is coming back from abroad next week…”

Shao Sui chuckled: “Please don’t set your niece up with me. My personality is too much for anyone to handle, and I don’t plan on getting married or having kids anyway.”

“Oh, you really are something!” The landlord chided playfully. “Well, I’m off to buy groceries. Go to bed earlier from now on—watching TV late at night is bad for your eyes.”

Shao Sui smiled and nodded, closed the door, and the smile vanished instantly.

He turned around and called out, one word at a time: “Mi—mi—dear.”

The cat had disappeared somewhere. Only when Shao Sui passed through the hallway did a paw ambush him from hiding—Shao Sui didn’t budge an inch, and looked down at the sneaky, scheming Mimi.

Failing to trip up the human again, Mimi flopped straight onto the floor and rolled around.

Shao Sui hardened his heart: “Acting cute won’t work.”

He took a big step forward and picked up the ruler from the coffee table. Mimi immediately bolted—her three legs sending her wobbling all over the place—but she clearly wasn’t scared, her tail held high as if she was certain Shao Sui wouldn’t actually hit her.

Feeling completely played, Shao Sui put on his fiercest face and chased after the cat with the ruler. But even with only three legs, the cat was faster than him.

Unfortunately, the apartment was too small. Mimi was soon cornered at the balcony, forced to turn around and face Shao Sui, with barely concealed excitement in her eyes.

Teacher Shao was also getting a little pumped: “Run, go on—where are you gonna run now?”

He hadn’t exercised in days, and now his heart rate was spiking.

Mimi opened her mouth: “Meow~”

“Yell all you want—nobody’s coming to save you!” Shao Sui walked over and gave Mimi’s butt a firm swat. “You little pervert.”

Not only did the little pervert not feel any pain, she arched her butt even higher and rubbed her head against Shao Sui’s calf.

“…”

It was just like those students at school—they made mistakes, but you couldn’t actually hit them. They were all so fragile; one wrong move and you might break them.

Shao Sui bent down and flicked Mimi’s forehead: “Why’d you break the remote? Huh?”

Mimi clawed at Shao Sui’s leg, trying to jump up.

“Talk. No acting cute.”

“Meow.” *If I actually talked, I’d scare you to death.*

Shao Sui was speechless. He scooped up the cat and carried her back to the sofa. He pressed the remote and found it still worked—all of Mimi’s efforts last night had only caused superficial damage.

The cat didn’t understand that anyway. As far as she was concerned, she’d broken it yesterday, so broken it was.

Shao Sui’s hand unconsciously reached for Mimi’s belly, and he was immediately met with a furious back-leg kick.

“Ow—” Shao Sui yelped dramatically before remembering, “Wait, didn’t you miss your deworming pill last night?”

He opened another can of food, turned his back to the cat, and hid the deworming pill inside, mixing in some dry kibble too. Since it couldn’t be used as a main meal, this would have to do for now.

Now that her roaming space had grown, Mimi’s food bowl had also been moved next to the dining table.

The little cat walked over, shot Shao Sui a slightly disdainful glance, then lowered her head to eat.

*Canned food mixed with kibble—how tacky.*

While boiling noodles, Shao Sui searched online for recommendations on main meal cans. All sorts of brands made his head spin, with prices ranging from a few yuan to dozens.

The cheap ones weren’t even worth mentioning—dry food cost more than that. And the best one was over thirty yuan a can!

If Mimi ate two cans a day, that’d be sixty or seventy yuan. Whoever wanted to keep this damn cat could go right ahead.

Shao Sui looked up. Across the room, Mimi had already finished eating and was heading toward the hallway.

Seeing that Shao Sui wasn’t following, King Meow immediately jumped onto the toilet in the bathroom, spat the white pill from her mouth into the bowl, then hopped onto the tank and pressed the flush button.

She wasn’t stupid. Did he really think she wouldn’t notice just because he hid the medicine in her food?

Foolish human.

Shao Sui was still agonizing over whether to buy that brand of cans—not even considering the cheaper ones—when he suddenly heard the sound of flushing from the bathroom.

He walked over just as the cat came out, brushing past his leg without so much as a backward glance.

Shao Sui’s eyelid twitched. Had this cat used his toilet?

Could she really be that smart?

He eyed her suspiciously for a while. Maybe it was just the flush from the upstairs neighbor.

“Meow—”

Hearing the cat’s cry, Shao Sui suddenly remembered he still had noodles boiling. He rushed back to the kitchen, lifted the lid, and cleaned up the spilled water.

The boiled egg was done too. Shao Sui cooled it in cold water for a bit, then peeled the yolk and put it in the cat bowl: “It’s hot, so wait a while before eating…”

He suddenly realized—cat cans were just various meats. If he could boil eggs for the cat, he could cook for her too. Homemade food had no additives, was healthier, and more economical.

He searched online and found plenty of cat food recipes.

It was basically just chicken, fish, seafood, beef, organ meats, and some vegetables—didn’t seem too hard. He could buy some calcium supplements too, and he already had a meat grinder at home.

Just then, a voice message popped up at the top of his screen. The sender was labeled “Dr. Ren, who’s too cheap to feed Mimi cans”: [Mimi’s dad, you can bring Mimi in today to have the bandages removed.]

So after they both finished eating, the human and the cat headed to the hospital again.

“She looks a bit plumper.” Dr. Ren cut open the bandages. “She might still hold up her front paw for a while—that’s fine. Just let her recover slowly. If she heals fast, it’ll take about seven days; if slow, about half a month.”

Shao Sui said: “Okay, thanks.”

Dr. Ren: “No problem. You can stop the medication after two more days. In the meantime, you can get her some fish oil to reduce shedding. We have some here—”

Shao Sui interrupted: “I already bought some.”

Dr. Ren rubbed his nose: “Alright then. The little one’s been home for a few days and already looks so much better! Give her a bit more time and she’ll be bouncing around again.”

“Yeah, she’s passable.”

Shao Sui looked down at Mimi, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

As they were leaving, the nurse friend of Cheng Ke called out to him: “Next time you bring Mimi for neutering, I can give you a discount with my staff card!”

Before Shao Sui could respond, Mimi twisted her head around and hissed at the nurse, her little claws bared—a perfect demonstration of what it meant to “bully others by relying on someone else’s power.”

Yesterday at the hospital she’d been so timid, trembling at every passerby.

Shao Sui held back a laugh and flicked Mimi’s little bells: “They’re so tiny. What difference does cutting them make?”

“!”

Mimi’s back legs clamped together, her beautiful eyes blazing with fury as she glared at Shao Sui: *What an ill-mannered male human!*

This was a cat’s privacy!

And they weren’t even small! All the cats liked her—male and female alike respected her! They all wanted to cuddle and rub against her.

Did size matter?

Not one bit.

King Meow thought to herself… if she were as big as a human, her bells would be that big too.

Don’t bully a young cat just because she’s poor.

The unhappy Mimi ignored Shao Sui the entire way, until they reached the wet market. When Shao Sui asked Mimi what flavor of staple canned food it wanted, it only let out a yowl as they passed by the king crab tank.

“Too much seafood will give you gout.” Shao Sui pinched the cat’s left front paw and threatened, “In the future, not only will this leg stop working, but your other three legs won’t be able to walk either. Is that what you want?”

Mimi struggled fiercely: “Meow!”

Just say you can’t afford it!