The next two weeks were peaceful.
Su Yu was well-fed by Qin Shou, evidenced by his already chubby “bun face” getting even rounder.
He’d also gained a lot of weight and, judging by his size alone, was now a fully grown cat.
The only drawback was that Qin Shou was too good to him, practically raising him like his own son.
Because of this, Su Yu hadn’t even stepped outside the door in those two weeks, let alone gone to the hospital.
Su Yu had completely adapted to life as a pet cat and even enjoyed it a little.
After all, crazy cat lovers like Qin Shou were rare; not even his own mother had doted on him this much.
Not only was Qin Shou excellent at scooping litter, but he was also a fantastic cat chef!
After eating the same flavor of cat food for a week straight, Su Yu, thoroughly tired of it, began a hunger strike.
Qin Shou, who was obsessed with raising his “son,” was terribly distressed.
He found a recipe somewhere and tried making cat food for him.
Once Su Yu tasted it, he couldn’t stop eating and became even more determined to boycott cat kibble.
The books say that to win a man’s heart, you must first win his stomach.
Clearly, Qin Shou had successfully won Su Yu’s stomach ⊙v⊙.
As a reward for being an excellent “poop-scooper,” Qin Shou received a “cat-scarf” every night.
Oh, I forgot to mention, a few days ago, when the temperature started to drop, Little Su Yu’s base of operations had already moved from the cat bed to Qin Shou’s KING-SIZE bed.
Lying on the “Great Mage” who lived off his “left and right concubines,” his yang energy was abundant, making him a natural warm companion.
***
The weather was great today. Sunlight streamed through the glass, warm and gentle.
Sprawled on the sofa, with a Fruit Ninja game displayed vertically on a tablet in front of him, Su Yu’s eyes were slightly narrowed, filled with a murderous aura.
His two furry paws slid rapidly across the screen.
If you ignored the fruits occasionally slashing across the screen and the game sound effects, you might imagine he was a cat busy handling important national affairs.
Qin Shou, at the other end of the sofa, watched this scene with a twitching mouth, feeling a bit helpless yet strangely proud.
It was probably something like, “My little one is so clever, he can even play fruit-slicing games! Dad is so proud of you o(￣︶￣)o!”
He hadn’t even considered the other possibility.
Tired from playing, Su Yu lay on the sofa, slowly peeking at the person reading a book.
Usually, at this time, Qin Shou would go out and only return in the evening.
Why wasn’t he moving today?
Feeling secretly anxious, Su Yu restlessly turned over, then pounced, covering the entire book.
His limbs spread out, pretending to be a furry blanket, possessively blocking his owner’s view of the book.
The furry blanket was brightly colored, golden-yellow with not a single stray hair.
The warm sunlight sprinkled on it, giving the “blanket” a subtle glow.
Qin Shou put down the book, reached out and pressed down on the mischievous cat, burying his face in its fur and rubbing vigorously.
The “furry blanket,” caught off guard, flailed its limbs weakly, trying to roll over, meowing incessantly.
“Meow! Meow, meow!”
‘Let go of me, you big idiot!’
Having had enough of the fur, Qin Shou mercifully released the stupid cat, who was still struggling.
Su Yu quickly scrambled up, jumped to the other end of the sofa, and watched the man opposite him warily, just in case he launched another sneak attack.
“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore.”
Qin Shou picked up his suit jacket from the back of the chair, rubbed Su Yu’s cat head, and seriously instructed, “Dad has to go out. You should be good and stay home. Don’t drag things around again.”
Su Yu pouted.
Was it just because he accidentally pulled out all the tissues from the living room box last time when he was bored?
How petty!
He turned his back to Qin Shou, pretending not to understand.
‘There’s just no way to deal with this little ancestor,’ Qin Shou thought, feeling both sweet and annoyed.
The sound of the door closing echoed from the entrance.
The furry ears on his head twitched.
Su Yu slyly ran to the door, waited patiently for a while, and after confirming that Qin Shou wouldn’t return, he let out an excited meow.
He then frantically rushed to the bedroom and dragged the cat bed to the door.
The luxurious cat bed had two levels.
When stood upright, it was slightly taller than the doorknob.
Finding the right angle to stabilize the cat bed, Su Yu climbed to the top, pressed his two paws on the doorknob, pushed down with force, and easily opened the front door.
Proudly licking his furry mouth, Su Yu jumped down, squeezed through a gap just big enough for him, slipped out, and then gently pulled the door shut with his paw.
Done!
Having successfully escaped, Su Yu couldn’t stop himself from bouncing back and forth a couple of times.
He then dashed down the stairs like a runaway wild dog, zooming away.
While running swiftly, he mentally recalled the route he had looked up on the map earlier.
Jixiang Residential Area was on Xiangbei Road, while the municipal hospital where Su Yu received treatment was on Xiangxi Road.
The two roads weren’t far apart, but for a delicate, tiny cat, making a round trip and getting back before the crazy owner was almost impossible.
So, Su Yu decided to take a bold step: ride the bus! Anyway, he was just a cat now, so he could sneak in through the back door without needing to buy a ticket, Su Yu thought happily.
After waiting a bit at the bus stop, the moment the bus arrived and the door opened, Su Yu darted onto the bus with lightning speed.
Excellent! He was practically a master of evading fares! Su Yu gave himself a thumbs-up in his heart.
He arrived at the hospital without a hitch.
Su Yu swaggered past the gatekeeper and blended into the hospital grounds.
“But which room am I in?”
Scratching his ear, Su Yu decided to tour the inpatient department first to check things out.
The municipal hospital covered a vast area.
The outpatient department was on the very outside, while the inpatient department was built further inside, separated from the front’s hustle and bustle by a small grove of trees.
Skillfully weaving through the trees, Su Yu successfully reached the inpatient department under their cover.
Hiding in a small flowerbed, Su Yu eagerly watched the nurses passing by in twos and threes.
Su Yu’s timing was perfect; it was exactly the hospital’s afternoon shift, and doctors and nurses were walking in together, chatting and laughing.
Su Yu perked his ears, listening carefully to their conversations.
Perhaps he was truly lucky.
Just as Su Yu was getting a bit impatient and scratching his ear, he heard one of the young nurses say, “Did you guys see the news from a while ago? It’s rumored that the eldest young master of the Su family really became a vegetable. He hasn’t woken up yet.”
“I know,” another voice responded, deliberately lowering her tone, “Isn’t he the one in Room 401? I saw him when I passed by earlier; he’s quite cute.”
Another voice chimed in, “I’ve seen him too, but he’s quite pitiful. He’s been sick for so long, and besides the caregiver, no one else has come to see him…”
The group walked further and further away.
Su Yu emerged from his hiding spot in the small flowerbed, walked along the corner of the wall, found a window, and quietly slipped inside.
***
The fourth floor.
Compared to downstairs, the fourth floor was exceptionally quiet.
Occasionally, one or two nurses would pass by, always in a hurry.
Su Yu hugged the wall, swiftly running towards the end of the corridor while no one was around. Room 401 was at the very end.
He poked his head out to look around, ensuring no one would come for a while.
Su Yu tiptoed to the door, extended a paw, and pushed it.
It wouldn’t budge.
Scratching his ear with a hind paw, Su Yu went around to the other side, his eyes lighting up at the half-open window.
He scurried back a few steps, pushed off with his hind paws, and landed lightly on the windowsill.
Perfect jump!
He impatiently jumped inside and slowly approached the hospital bed.
It was only when he saw the figure on the bed that Su Yu belatedly realized he was feeling a bit “homesick but afraid to go home.”
How ridiculous.
Feeling a bit irritable, Su Yu restlessly paced the room twice, comforting himself. ‘It’s just a shell, right? And it’s mine. What’s there to be afraid of? It’s not going to suddenly jump up.’
Five minutes passed.
Su Yu, who had started sharpening his claws on the floor, ‘Damn, I’m really scared.’
Feeling that self-comfort was utterly useless, Su Yu gritted his teeth and went for it!
He rushed to the bedside and slammed to a halt.
Su Yu stood up, clinging to the edge of the bed, narrowing his eyes, and stealthily peeked at the person lying on the bed through the slits.
The young man on the bed had his eyes tightly closed, a respirator covering his nose and mouth.
His face was pale, and he lay motionless on the bed, his chest barely rising and falling.
Clinging to the edge of the bed, Su Yu jumped onto it and crouched beside his own “shell.”
He tentatively extended a paw and pressed it, but there was no response.
He then extended his tongue and licked it, still no response.
Su Yu sadly lay down. Although he had known that even if he found his shell, he might not be able to return, he had still harbored a sliver of hope deep down.
‘What if?’
But reality dealt him a cruel slap.
Su Yu, deflated and dejected, lay beside his shell, feeling his cat life was utterly bleak.
After wallowing in self-pity for a while, he realized this wasn’t going to help.
The shell was here; he’d eventually find a way to get back.
Besides, there were many things waiting for him to do!
Su Yu, burdened with his mission, instantly revived with full health.
He reluctantly glanced at his beautiful shell and skillfully slipped out the same way he came in.
Following the same routine, Su Yu safely arrived home and shook his fur.
First, he went to the bathroom to clean his fur.
As usual, he squatted on the washbasin, first cleaning the paws that had been treading on the ground for several hours.
Then, he leisurely used his paws to clean his face, and finally, extended his hind paws to rinse them.
After the entire cat was soaking wet, Su Yu, having finally destroyed the evidence, pulled out a towel from the cabinet, rolled around twice, and then stomped on it.
The whole cat was clean again!
There was no sign at all that he had snuck out earlier.
When Qin Shou returned home in the evening, what he saw was a squeaky-clean “Ah Zai,” serious-faced, playing on the tablet, wildly slicing fruit with both paws.