“So, I have this friend, and she, uh, she’s run into a problem.”
Ye Qingchang tried to make herself sound less flustered, but she wasn’t quite succeeding.
“Of course, I’m not talking about myself. It’s my friend—she has a cat. Yesterday it was perfectly fine, but today it suddenly started sneezing and had a runny nose. And my friend has never owned a cat before, so she has no idea what’s going on…”
“Is that so?” The reproach in Xiao Yi’an’s voice over the phone faded quite a bit.
He seemed to understand why Ye Qingchang hadn’t answered his call earlier—it was probably because of the cat.
She must have been at her wit’s end over it.
In reality, the idiot had stayed up late the night before, thinking that reading by lamplight while gazing at the moon would be poetic. She’d stayed up so late she slept all the way until noon the next day.
“I’ve raised pets before. Bring it down and let me see.”
Xiao Yi’an clearly wasn’t going to be easily fooled by Ye Qingchang’s weak “I have a friend” excuse.
As it happened, he was right outside her dormitory building.
He had originally planned to go for a run around campus, but to help Ye Qingchang run as well, he’d even dug out an old backup phone he hadn’t used in a long time. All she needed to do was log in to her account.
But she hadn’t answered the phone. If she hadn’t picked up that last call, he would have just gone by himself.
“Can you handle it?” Ye Qingchang suddenly asked.
After all, it wasn’t her cat. If she just handed it over, she’d still feel uneasy no matter what.
When Zhu Niao got back, she would kill her.
“Can you handle it?” Xiao Yi’an repeated her question back to her.
Ye Qingchang suddenly realized that Xiao Yi’an had at least raised pets before, while she was truly clueless.
“Got it, got it. I’ll be right down.” Ye Qingchang hurriedly changed her clothes.
Then she scooped up the pitiful little orange cat, slipped on her shoes, and walked out of the dorm room.
As she exited the dormitory building, she ran straight into the dorm matron.
Being quite polite, Ye Qingchang even nodded and greeted the matron.
Then she was stopped.
The dorm matron, facing a confused Ye Qingchang, pointed at the little orange cat in her arms.
It was no different from walking past the discipline director in high school while live-streaming on your phone and asking if he’d eaten yet.
“Uh, this is…”
“Don’t let your counselor find out.” The dorm matron smiled warmly, reached out, and gently patted the little cat that was calmly staying in Ye Qingchang’s arms.
“Oh, okay.”
Ye Qingchang replied twice, stood still for a moment to let her brain process, then came to her senses and walked out of the dormitory building.
Wearing a windbreaker was Xiao Yi’an, who had been waiting for a while.
He wasn’t wearing his glasses—probably using contacts—and had even used a headband to lift his hair slightly.
He looked like one of those sunny types who would sweat buckets in some sports setting.
But this bastard was supposed to be just as much a sour literary youth as she was, living in a dark sewer, feeling his body grow weaker by the day, and still mumbling, “A youth who knows no sorrow,” and then wanting to “compete with the heavens for height.”
Ye Qingchang felt she was also starting to sound crazy, especially compared to Xiao Yi’an, who looked a bit more normal now.
Xiao Yi’an walked over to her, but he didn’t even glance at Ye Qingchang in her hoodie. Instead, he reached out and snatched the cat from her arms.
He turned it over, looked at it from both sides, then grabbed the little cat, which was still dripping from its nose, and examined its nose.
“Clear discharge. Probably just a cold.”
Doctor Xiao made his diagnosis.
“Then what do we do?” Ye Qingchang leaned in with her head.
She noticed that this little orange cat didn’t resist no matter who held it.
Damn. She’d thought this cat’s docility toward non-owners was reserved just for her.
In the wild, this would be called a slutty cat.
But Ye Qingchang only thought of it as a flirtatious cat.
Look at you, flirting with everyone.
“Do you even hear what you’re saying? What do you do when you catch a cold?”
“Drink more hot water.”
Xiao Yi’an paused for two seconds. “We’ll go to the nearby pet hospital and buy it some cold medicine now.”
“Is there a pet hospital nearby?” Ye Qingchang really didn’t know.
“Yes, there are all kinds of shops near a university.” Xiao Yi’an pulled out his phone and efficiently looked up the nearby pet hospitals.
Then he took off his windbreaker and wrapped it around the little cat.
“It’s probably the change of season from autumn to winter. It couldn’t adapt in time and caught a chill.”
Xiao Yi’an turned to look at Ye Qingchang. “Did you make its nest warm enough?”
Ye Qingchang froze.
She remembered preparing a nest. She and Yang Shuli, who was still a kid at heart, had built a little fortress out of delivery boxes last night.
That little fortress was sturdy enough and could keep out the cold wind.
But she seemed to have overlooked a key point.
She’d forgotten to stuff it with some old, warm fabrics she didn’t need.
And last night, after the little cat had crawled into her bed and slept for a while, she’d picked it up and put it out.
She just didn’t want her bed to be covered in cat hair, which would make her rhinitis flare up the moment she woke up.
Thinking about it that way, it seemed like… this situation was actually her fault?
“You have to save me—”
Ye Qingchang grabbed Xiao Yi’an like a lifeline.
If Zhu Niao came back and found out that her baby had been abused and caught a cold just from staying with Ye Qingchang for one night, Zhu Niao would definitely kill her.
“It’s probably just a common cold. A couple days of medicine and it’ll be fine.”
Xiao Yi’an glanced at Ye Qingchang. “But we still need to go to the pet hospital for a checkup, just to rule out feline herpesvirus.”
Ye Qingchang didn’t even understand what he was saying.
“Whatever you say.”
Ye Qingchang submitted.
“Then let’s go. We’ll head out early and come back early, so it can take its medicine sooner.” Xiao Yi’an took a step forward first.
Ye Qingchang followed behind.
“You didn’t prepare a cat carrier or a cat box?”
“Is that a thing?” Ye Qingchang tilted her head.
When Zhu Niao gave her the cat, she’d just carried it in her backpack.
“This is your first time raising a cat, isn’t it?” Xiao Yi’an said. “These little things are very fragile. The moment they feel unwell, they come down with a minor illness that costs a few thousand dollars. You have to take care of them meticulously, because once you take over custody, you’re responsible for its life.”
Ye Qingchang, like a scolded student in a teacher’s office, followed behind Xiao Yi’an, nodding repeatedly.
What Xiao Yi’an said was true. There really was a pet hospital near the university.
It was right at the entrance.
Even though the school forbade keeping pets.
Ye Qingchang thought that pet hospital was pretty bold.
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