Chapter 40: Holding a Cat Little Xie
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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Broad and generous palm, resting on Little Shiyu’s shoulder.
Five fingers, long as hooks, encircling his tender and small shoulder.
Little Shiyu stood still, catching a whiff of a rich floral scent emanating from that hand, subtly and elegantly.
Not like the cheap fragrance of toilet air freshener from the fourth-floor auntie, nor the Blue Round Tin of Ponds cream that Mom would apply.
Little Shiyu looked quietly at the uncle from the convenience store. This middle-aged man’s hands were unusually coated with high-end hand cream.
“No.”
Little Shiyu said in an innocent, tender voice, “I didn’t see uncle’s cat.”
“Oh, I see,” the convenience store uncle said kindly, “Then could you please help uncle look for it again!”
His large and powerful hand pressed on Little Shiyu’s shoulder, one of his fingers touching the large artery on Little Shiyu’s neck, causing Little Shiyu’s heart to skip a beat. That finger was very cold, like a dead person.
After the uncle finished speaking, he moved down with the crate of milk. With each floor he descended, he took one crate at a time. After moving the milk, he then brought down the soda crate. His movements seemed strained, as if he couldn’t directly lift both crates at once.
Little Shiyu didn’t pay him any mind, he went back upstairs to the fourth floor, unlocked room 404 with his key, and then locked both doors himself.
The house was quiet, with a chilly atmosphere.
The curtains were drawn.
Little Shiyu didn’t bother to open them. He put down his small black school bag, walked to the window, and hid behind the curtain, quietly peeking out through the gap.
After a while, through the blue window glass, Little Shiyu saw the convenience store uncle walking out from the staircase of the residential building.
—He was alone, carrying two boxes, one of soda and one of milk. He walked forward briskly, seeming very relaxed.
The convenience store was about 20 meters to the left of the residential building. Little Shiyu watched through the window as the uncle strode away. Just as he was about to disappear from view, suddenly, the convenience store uncle stopped and turned around abruptly, his gaze piercing directly into room 404 of the residential building.
Little Shiyu immediately crouched down.
Before crouching down, he deliberately moved one step away from the curtain, to prevent the motion from causing the curtain to flutter.
For a moment, Little Shiyu’s heart skipped a beat, but he quickly calmed down. He hid behind the curtain, which was opaque. The uncle couldn’t possibly see him.
After a while, Little Shiyu cautiously moved forward another step, peering out through the gap in the curtain –
The convenience store uncle hadn’t left yet; he was still standing there, his gaze seeming to penetrate through the glass and the curtain, locking onto Little Shiyu. Suddenly, a strange smile crept onto his calm face!
Little Shiyu forced himself to remain still.
If he made any sudden movements now and caused the curtain to flutter, the uncle might really spot him.
***
The convenience store uncle continued staring at the curtain of room 404, but there was no sign of movement.
He shrugged, then casually carried the two large boxes of milk and soda, walking away towards the left, towards the convenience store.
Little Shiyu still didn’t leave; he wanted to know who the convenience store uncle really was.
—If the convenience store uncle was really someone from the news, would his mom be in danger…?
After about five minutes, Little Shiyu saw the uncle coming back again. He walked from the left to the right, still carrying the milk crate, but the soda crate was nowhere to be seen.
Little Shiyu noticed that the milk crate was tied with a red plastic rope.
—-Was there really milk inside that box?
The uncle first went to the convenience store on the left to drop off the soda crate. Then, he brought the milk crate back. Now, the uncle was walking to the right, but Little Shiyu didn’t know where he was going to take the milk crate…
Little Shiyu thought that about a hundred meters to the right of the residential building, there was a parking shed and some small warehouses.
The large milk crate, tightly bound with red plastic rope, seemed like a sealed monster.
This kind of red plastic rope was very common. Little Shiyu thought, scavengers and wholesalers would use this kind of rope to tie large items. It seemed too narrow-minded to suspect something just because of a rope.
What Little Shiyu was really concerned about was the way it was tied.
Absolutely secure knots, a complex series of interlocking knots, somewhat like Chinese knots but lacking any aesthetic appeal. Little Shiyu couldn’t figure out how it was tied.
Inside that large milk crate, it might not contain boxes of milk, but…
In Little Shiyu’s mind, the TV broadcast flashed:
Body parts.
***
The third day of school.
The afternoon sun was as golden as orange juice, splashing onto the mottled road surface under the tree shadows.
The first-grade students dispersed again at the intersection after school.
Little Chu Feng went right, Little Shiyu went left.
Little Chu Feng stood there for a while, wanting to go to Little Shiyu’s house to play, but Little Shiyu seemed to not understand his hints no matter how many times he subtly mentioned it.
He didn’t know whether Little Shiyu genuinely didn’t understand his hints or intentionally didn’t welcome him to come over. Little Chu Feng didn’t consider the issue of Little Shiyu’s living environment; he just thought that others might not like him to come over, so he temporarily dismissed the idea.
Little Chu Feng turned his head and walked to the right, returning to his upscale residential complex. He didn’t like to associate with Sun Bing, who was giggling along with a few other boys behind him.
After just a few steps –
“Meow… Meow… Mew… Mew…”
Little Chu Feng looked up.
Sun Bing behind also heard the commotion:
“Hey! Did you guys hear something?”
“…Yeah… Yeah!! It sounds like a cat meowing!”
“It’s… a kitten!”
This poor little kitten sometimes couldn’t produce a long “meow,” only mewing.
Little Chu Feng and his friends looked up, quickly searching for the kitten.
On the left side of the sidewalk was a fence, and along the street, there was a row of very tall camphor trees. The mewing of the kitten was coming from the trees.
“Hey! Look there! Over there!”
Sun Bing shouted, and several kids tiptoed and jumped up occasionally to look. They followed the direction pointed out by Sun Bing:
“Where? Where? Oh oh! I see it, there’s a cat! Black and white!”
A small bundle of fur, roughly black and white. The kitten was hiding on a high branch of the tree, calling out anxiously.
“It seems like… it can’t come down,” Little Chu Feng said.
“Nonsense! You don’t understand!” Sun Bing exaggeratedly laughed. Since he was slapped by Little Chu Feng last time and wanted to make peace with him after school, but Little Chu Feng didn’t give him face, Sun Bing felt resentful and said, “My aunt’s house raises cats. I know cats are good at climbing trees, how could they not know how to come down!”
The other boys followed Sun Bing’s lead, saying, “That’s right, that’s right, if you don’t understand, don’t talk nonsense.”
Little Chu Feng remained silent.
“Watch this, I’ll knock it down!” Sun Bing squatted down, picking up a stone from the ground.
“Don’t scare it!” Little Chu Feng turned around to stop Sun Bing but was blocked by the other boys. Sun Bing chuckled and aimed the small stone at the kitten on the tree –
Bang!
The stone flew too low, hitting the iron railing and making a loud noise. Sun Bing cursed and picked up more stones.
First-grade Little Chu Feng wasn’t physically strong; he was firmly blocked by these two or three boys and couldn’t get past them at all. Sun Bing felt happy to see Little Chu Feng displeased. He didn’t care whether the kitten would be frightened or not.
Bang, bang, bang!
Several stones hit the tree, and finally, one hit the branch where the kitten was.
“Meow…!!”
The little furball kitten was frightened, curling up into a ball.
Although cats were good at climbing trees, they actually had a fear of heights. Especially for young kittens, the higher they climbed, the more scared they became, not knowing how to come down.
The black-and-white kitten, originally unable to climb down the tree, became even more nervous, especially now that it was being attacked by stones from human children. It was so scared that it climbed higher and higher, but the higher it climbed, the harder it was to come down.
Little Chu Feng saw the fluffy little kitten cowering on a very, very high branch, trembling among the leaves. The wind blew, making the leaves rustle.
Suddenly –
Little Chu Feng saw the tall treetop, and the branches of the whole tree were shaking violently!
“Ah ah ah ah ah!!”
Sun Bing and the other boys immediately screamed:
“Caterpillars!!”
Many, many black caterpillars fell from the tree like rain, pouring onto Sun Bing and his cronies’ heads. They cried out in pain, jumping around in fright.
—-Little Chu Feng was just blocked by them and wasn’t standing in the shadow of the tree. It was very lucky that not a single caterpillar fell near him.
Little Chu Feng looked up –
In the rustling leaves, a young boy suddenly jumped out, holding the bundle of fur kitten, and leaped down from the tree.
He was like an agile little black panther, jumping down from the high treetops. His first step landed on the horizontal bar of the iron railing, leveraging, and with the second step, he landed silently and steadily.
Little Shiyu wore a simple black T-shirt and shorts, holding a frightened little kitten in his arms, as if a gust of wind had blown him in front of Chu Feng.
Chu Feng’s shoulders tensed slightly; where Little Shiyu landed… was a bit too close to him!
They were almost face to face, and at this moment, Chu Feng suddenly observed that Little Shiyu’s eyes weren’t pure black; his pupils were slightly brown, reflecting the sunlight, like beautiful amber, gazing at him.
Chu Feng shyly averted his gaze, looking down at the little kitten.
The black and white furball nestled in Little Shiyu’s hands, still trembling uncontrollably.
“You climbed so high to rescue it?” Chu Feng gently reached out his index finger and timidly touched the fluffy kitten.
Little Shiyu: “Yeah.”
Chu Feng praised him, “You’re so compassionate.”
“It’s not really…” Little Shiyu was sincere, “I’m finding the cat to earn money.”
“Oh…” Chu Feng paused, “Whose cat are you looking for?”
“A… neighbor.” Little Shiyu didn’t want to tell Chu Feng too much about the convenience store uncle.
Seizing the opportunity, Chu Feng said, “Then… can I go with you to return the cat to your neighbor?”
—–This way, he could go to Little Shiyu’s house to play! Chu Feng didn’t want to go back to his own home so soon.
“No.”
Chu Feng asked, “Why not?”
“Well… there’s no particular reason, but it’s not convenient recently. Maybe… another time, you can come and play!”
Little Shiyu had written in his residential building investigation diary. The convenience store uncle was someone he had never paid attention to because everyone thought the convenience store uncle was very kind and friendly, including his mother, who had always said so.
His mother needed to use the convenience store uncle to sell stolen goods and earn money. If the convenience store uncle was really the kind of person he imagined… his mother would be in danger.
Little Shiyu walked towards the direction of the residential building, holding the cat alone. He wanted to thoroughly understand who the convenience store uncle really was while returning the cat.
The red plastic rope and the strange knots were indeed suspicious, but they couldn’t be confirmed.
If he rashly cut off the line of communication between his mother and the convenience store uncle, he wouldn’t be able to exchange the “packages” for cash. Without money, when his drug-addicted father returned home next time, he would beat his mother to a pulp again.
Little Shiyu hugged the cat, bid farewell to Chu Feng, and walked away without looking back. He walked to the corner, hid, then secretly glanced back –
Little Shiyu saw at the intersection, Chu Feng lowered his head somewhat dejectedly. He turned around, walked to the right, entered the right fork, and walked back into his own normal world.
Little Shiyu stayed hidden around the corner, watching Chu Feng walk further and further away until he couldn’t see him anymore. Then, he stood up, holding the kitten, and continued on his own path.
The three or four o’clock sunlight elongated his shadow. Seven-year-old Little Shiyu, holding the little kitten, went alone to find the convenience store uncle, who was suspected of being a serial killer.
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