Shoutout to Kari for the commission!
During the second semester of Le Cheng’s third year, Zhou Shirui was already in his fourth year and no longer needed to go to school.
But Le Cheng still had classes.
Sometimes Zhou Shirui would be very busy and would not come home for lunch, staying at the company instead. Le Cheng knew this, so he would go to school by himself, eat lunch with Tan Xiaobai and He Ziqing, and chat with them. Some kind-hearted person at the school had made a cat house in a corner of the lawn, and sometimes Le Cheng would go over to pet the cats.
As everyone knew, the cats and dogs at school were a magical bunch of cats and dogs. They were not afraid of people and were even more affectionate than the ones in residential communities. When they saw someone, not only did they not hide, they would even raise their tails and trot over, stretching out their necks to rub against your pant legs.
Le Cheng had already been interacting with the cats and dogs downstairs from his home for a long time. Perhaps it was some special magnetic field unique to small animals, but cats especially loved rubbing against him. While he squatted there opening cat food, his pant legs had already picked up several tufts of orange cat fur.
Tan Xiaobai was extremely envious of this. “Le Little Cheng, are you the King of Cats? Why do they only rub against you and not me? I’m jealous! I’m very dissatisfied.”
Le Cheng was amused by the strange title of King of Cats. He rubbed the calico’s head and said, “I don’t know either. Maybe because I feed them often?”
“Impossible.” Tan Xiaobai pointed at the fat orange cat that was fawningly circling around Le Cheng. “I’ve been feeding this fat cat for ages. Why doesn’t it ever rub against me?”
The fat orange cat seemed to understand human speech. It let out a “meow,” pretended to be very busy washing its face and scratching its ear, then leisurely trotted off to the side and tucked its paws under itself, deliberately turning its butt toward Tan Xiaobai and putting on an act as though it could not understand him at all.
Tan Xiaobai was so angry that he ended up laughing.
There were many people at the school who fed the cats. There was even an organization called the “Cat Care Association,” which was managed by first-year students. If anyone wanted to feed the cats or donate cat food, they had to coordinate with the designated administrators, who would check whether the cat food met the standards to prevent anyone from accidentally buying poisonous cat food.
Le Cheng thought about it and donated five bags. The person who coordinated with him was a first-year junior student who had a sunny, cheerful appearance, with short hair that stuck up slightly. After Le Cheng donated the cat food, the junior student even added him as a contact and thanked him profusely.
Sure enough, the day after, the brand of cat food Le Cheng had donated had replaced the food placed in the corner where the cats ate. That junior student and a group of female junior students were all there. Le Cheng and Tan Xiaobai went over and squatted down to feed the cats for a while as well.
“Senior, thank you so much.” The junior student smiled brightly, his brown skin showing a faint flush. “The cats like the cat food you bought even more.”
The other female junior students chimed in as well, saying that Senior was so generous.
Le Cheng became rather embarrassed and waved his hand before donating several more bags.
After feeding the cats for a while, Le Cheng stood up and said goodbye to everyone. Zhou Shirui had come to pick him up after school, so Le Cheng scampered over and got into the passenger seat. Only then did he belatedly realize that something seemed off.
“I think this is some kind of tactic they use to get people to donate cat food.” Le Cheng rested his chin on his hand and seriously reviewed the situation. “They work so hard for the cats! That junior student even added me on WeChat, and every day he sends me pictures of the cats, telling me who got fatter and who got thinner… Isn’t that real-time feedback? It gives the customers a sense of satisfaction. They’re really something, doing all this for the cats…”
They happened to stop at a red light. Le Cheng was still chattering away, but Zhou Shirui slightly furrowed his brows. No matter how he thought about it, it did not seem to mean what Le Cheng thought it meant.
“He messages you every day?” Zhou Shirui asked nonchalantly.
“Yeah.” Le Cheng immediately took out his phone and opened the chat. “Look, the tabby cat is rolling around. Cute, right?”
“Do you think he’s trying to distract me with cute cats?” Le Cheng’s eyebrows curved, and he looked rather pleased. “What a strategy. The cute-cat ploy.”
He laughed twice at his own joke, but Zhou Shirui said nothing. He lowered his eyes and glanced at Le Cheng’s phone, his long fingers touching the screen and scrolling up a couple of times. The light turned green, and he started the car.
“Why are you feeding cats at school now?” Zhou Shirui asked.
Le Cheng closed his phone and casually said, “The cats in the neighborhood run around everywhere, and I feed them on weekends. The cats at school are especially friendly, so I can pet them as much as I want.”
Zhou Shiru: “Pet them?”
Le Cheng explained, “It just means petting them.”
Zhou Shirui understood that and gave a slight nod before falling silent again.
But Le Cheng noticed that something had been strange lately.
Zhou Shirui was usually very busy developing games, so he only occasionally came to pick Le Cheng up after school. But ever since their conversation last time, Zhou Shirui had started coming to pick him up every day, and he even had to go inside the school.
Zhou Shirui got out of the car and saw Le Cheng’s back from a distance.
Even among a crowd, he stood out remarkably. His neck was long and slender, his hair fluffy, and because of his good proportions and relatively short upper body, when he squatted there, he looked like a tiny little ball.
No one knew what they were talking about, but he seemed very happy. Even while his hand was petting the cat’s mouth, he could not stop talking, chattering away about all sorts of things with a beaming smile. Beside him, the black cat happily followed along, looking even darker by comparison.
As though he could no longer stand it, Zhou Shirui walked over and called Le Cheng’s name.
Le Cheng immediately looked up, his eyes widening slightly. He stood and ran toward him. “You’re here!”
The junior student who had been given the nickname watched helplessly as Le Cheng ran toward the very tall man. In just a few seconds, Le Cheng naturally burrowed into the man’s arms.
The man had an extremely cold-looking face, with hardly any trace of a student’s air about him anymore. But after hugging Le Cheng, the corners of his lips lifted slightly, and his long, narrow black eyes slowly lowered, as though filled with endless tenderness. The junior student suddenly understood.
“Zhou Shirui came to pick up his boyfriend again.” The girl beside him said, “It’s like a novel come to life. They’re so close, and they look so good together.”
The junior student silently lowered his eyes.
“Right, I forgot. You’re a first-year student, so you probably don’t know Zhou Shirui. He’s on the school’s Wall of Honor.”
It was not that he did not know him. He had seen him on Le Cheng’s Moments.
Zhou Shirui steadied Le Cheng by the waist before looking at everyone.
“Yes, let me introduce you.” Le Cheng pulled him over. “They’re all from the Cat Care Association.”
Zhou Shirui nodded at them. When his gaze passed over the junior student, he raised his eyes slightly. His black eyes were cold, and his thin lips parted. “Hello. I’m Le Cheng’s boyfriend.”
The junior student managed a smile. “Hello.”
After greeting them, Le Cheng pulled Zhou Shirui away. As it happened, it was the weekend break, so the two of them spent two whole days curled up at home. While they were sitting on the sofa playing games, Zhou Shirui suddenly asked, “That coal… that junior student still contacting you?”
Le Cheng frowned in confusion, staring at the screen. “If you hadn’t mentioned him, I would’ve forgotten. He hasn’t messaged me for two days…”
“But what did you just say? Coal what?” Le Cheng was dissatisfied. “Why are you giving him a nickname based on his skin color?”
Zhou Shirui refused to admit it. “No. You heard wrong.”
Actually, it was not because of his skin color. If that person had been very fair, he would have thought of another name.
Le Cheng said, “Oh, okay,” and then muttered quietly, “Could it be because you donated fifty bags of cat food to them all at once on Friday, so the junior student thinks you’re the real big customer and that’s why he stopped messaging me?”
“Did he add you?” Le Cheng asked.
“No.” Zhou Shirui lied without changing expression. “I rejected him.”
Before Le Cheng could ask, he added, “I’m relatively busy. I don’t like receiving unnecessary messages.”
Since there had already been a misunderstanding, there was no harm in letting the misunderstanding continue.
Le Cheng understood perfectly. He stopped playing the game and came over to lie against him, squeezing his arm. “That’s true. You’ve been so tired lately.”
Zhou Shirui naturally reached out and rubbed his head.
If, a long time ago, he had not told Le Cheng about Lin He’s unrequited love because he was afraid, then now, he simply did not want to cause him any unnecessary trouble.
Thinking of this, he actually began to feel grateful for Le Cheng’s unique way of thinking.
He pinched Le Cheng’s soft ear and lowered his eyes to ask, “Are you a cat too?”
“I’m not.” Le Cheng bit his finger.
Zhou Shirui slipped his finger into his mouth and stirred it around. “And you still say you’re not.”
Because a new cat café had opened near the university, He Ziqing invited Le Cheng there once, and afterward, Le Cheng started refusing to let Zhou Shirui pick him up after school, even giving him a reason.
“I want to hang around at school a little longer.”
Zhou Shirui exposed him. “You mean you want to hang around at the cat café a little longer.”
Although Le Cheng was well-liked by small animals, he still had to “throw himself at them” first before he could win their affection. When had Le Little Cheng ever seen anything like this?
Who could resist a super-forward little kitten? And not just one, but lots of them!
Kittens that purred and kneaded with their paws the very first time they saw you!
Le Cheng instantly became addicted to the cats.
Sometimes Zhou Shirui would still come to pick him up. When he saw cat fur stuck all over Le Cheng’s hair and cheeks, he would help pull it off and ask in confusion, “Do they shed this badly at the cat café?”
Thinking of the way he “lost himself in cat bliss” at the cat café, Le Cheng guiltily said, “There are just more cats, so they shed a little more.”
Zhou Shirui asked, “Really?”
“Of course.” Le Cheng took a small mirror from the compartment in front of the passenger seat and discovered that there was even a strand of ragdoll cat fur stuck to his eyelashes. He quickly plucked it off.
Although there were plenty of fellow cat enthusiasts at the cat café who were just as crazy about petting cats as he was, to other people, it would probably look pretty wild.
Le Cheng was afraid Zhou Shirui would think that the way he petted cats was unhealthy, that he might inhale cat fur and develop allergies, so he refused to tell him the truth.
Zhou Shirui fell silent. Thinking he had managed to get away with it, Le Cheng unconsciously swung his little legs and happily hummed a tune.
Once again, Le Cheng declined Zhou Shirui’s offer to pick him up. He headed straight for the cat café, but when he arrived in front of the shop, he still turned around to look behind him, acting sneaky. Only after confirming that no one was paying attention did he happily push open the door.
Zhou Shirui, who had parked far away, watched this scene and could not help smiling.
All the cats at the café already recognized Le Cheng as their big customer. Whenever he came, they were given canned food, and they all came running over with little bellies bouncing, stretching out their heads to rub against his pant legs.
Le Cheng randomly picked up one of them. The employee smiled and said, “This one just had a bath yesterday. It smells so nice.”
Le Cheng buried his face in the warm, soft belly of the ragdoll, rubbing back and forth before taking a huge sniff.
Every cat smelled different. This one smelled like caramel popcorn.
Le Cheng stroked the kitten, going, “Smooch, smooch, smooch,” and repeatedly planted kisses on its little head. He picked it up and bounced it in his arms, muttering, “A cute little kitty like you is meant to be eaten by me!” as he frantically rubbed his face against the cat’s belly, successfully covering his own face in cat fur.
This way of “absorbing cat energy” was something he had learned after coming to the cat café. Before, when he fed stray kittens, the strays did not have anyone to bathe them, so Le Cheng could only give them a few simple pets. But at the cat café, he could pet them to his heart’s content!
After finally feeling satisfied with this one and ruthlessly preparing to move on to the next cat, his gaze suddenly froze and landed on Zhou Shirui, who had appeared beside him at some point.
“!”
Le Cheng was startled, as though someone had stepped on his tail.
Zhou Shirui reached out to pluck the cat fur from his face and asked, “They shed badly?”
Then he pulled another strand of fur from Le Cheng’s bangs. “Of course?”
Those were both Le Cheng’s own words. Guiltily, he did not dare say anything.
He was quickly taken away from the cat café by Zhou Shirui. When they got home and Le Cheng had finished showering, he heard Zhou Shirui on the phone with a doctor, asking whether prolonged inhalation of cat fur could cause any harm to the respiratory tract.
Le Cheng listened in terror and shrank back under the covers like a quail. Before long, Zhou Shirui came in carrying a glass of water and made him drink it.
Le Cheng took it and gulped down the entire glass. Only then did Zhou Shirui turn him by the shoulders and say seriously, “Don’t inhale cat fur like that. You’re prone to allergies in autumn, and the cat fur will irritate you even more.”
Le Cheng did not want to agree. He lowered his head dejectedly, his long eyelashes drooping as well.
Zhou Shirui lifted his chin. “Say something.”
Only then did Le Cheng reluctantly agree. “Fine…”
That was the end of the conversation. Zhou Shirui got into bed and wrapped his arms around him from behind. After a while, he slowly said, “When you get sick, I’ll feel terrible too.”
Le Cheng’s heart beat slowly. He turned around and buried himself in Zhou Shirui’s arms, quietly saying, “I won’t inhale cat fur like that in autumn anymore.”
Only then was Zhou Shirui satisfied. “Mm.”
After this incident, even when Le Cheng visited that cat café, he would have Zhou Shirui come pick him up, as if deliberately showing him how well-behaved he was.
But while Le Cheng managed to quit his strange cat-obsessing habit, Zhou Shirui became somewhat strange instead.
Whenever Le Cheng was sitting on the sofa, Zhou Shirui would suddenly come over and push the confused Le Cheng down, lift his shirt, and reach inside to touch him. That alone would not have been anything unusual, but Zhou Shirui would also bury his face against him, his defined features rubbing against Le Cheng’s soft lower belly. Sometimes he would even grab and pinch the little bit of flesh on Le Cheng’s stomach.
Every time, Le Cheng would be rubbed until his face turned bright red, feeling something strange, but like a cat, he could not resist. He would grumble and call him a pervert, asking how he could “inhale” a person the same way he inhaled a cat.
Whenever this happened, Zhou Shirui would deliberately tease him and calmly say, “I’m just inhaling a cat. Is that not allowed?”
Le Cheng pushed against him, but could not move him, so he had no choice but to shyly and indignantly let Zhou Shirui have his way.
So for quite some time afterward, Zhou Shirui discovered that Le Cheng had secretly changed his contact name in his phone to “Big Pervert.”
