Lu Nanyang made a sound of acknowledgment, and the car lapsed into brief silence.
Xie Quan rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window, clearly avoiding eye contact with Lu Nanyang.
Lu Nanyang’s gaze flicked between the road and Xie Quan a few times. Two minutes later, he spoke up first.
“How’s the investigation on your apartment going?”
“Not much progress,” Xie Quan said. “They haven’t drawn any conclusions. Just told me to wait for news. If they find signs of arson, they’ll contact me.”
Lu Nanyang tapped the steering wheel with his index finger. “The police aren’t useless. If Liu Qiuyan really set the fire, they’ll figure it out.”
“Forget it.” Xie Quan scoffed. “She sent people to beat you up, too. But who ended up in the police station? Was it her?”
Lu Nanyang glanced at Xie Quan. He noticed that whenever Xie Quan thought about something, there was always a kind of calm pessimism to him—as if nothing in the world ever turned out well, and that was simply normal.
Or maybe, for him, it was.
First his home caught fire, then he collapsed and was hospitalized. So many major things had happened one after another, yet not a single friend or relative had come to help. He was handling everything himself.
He knew so many people, yet didn’t think to ask anyone for help? Insisted on acting like some half-baked lone wolf, dragging himself into this mess?
The car soon left the rural outskirts of the Sixth Hospital and returned to the city center. It was the weekend, and the university district was bustling. Lu Nanyang had to slow the car down to avoid several couples doting on each other, and finally parked near the school’s back gate.
Xie Quan finally turned to look at him, puzzled.
“I’ve got something to take care of,” Lu Nanyang got out of the car. Xie Quan watched him circle around to the trunk and rummage through it. With a sigh, he followed.
Then he saw Lu Nanyang haul out two cages, a fishing net, and a burlap sack.
Xie Quan looked at him. “Catching wild animals without a license is illegal.”
“I studied law. I know more than you,” Lu Nanyang laughed helplessly. “It’s not that. There are two stray cats near the back gate. If I don’t catch and neuter them, they’ll have another litter this year.”
As he spoke, Lu Nanyang hoisted his clinking, jostling pile of “professional gear” and headed toward the back gate. “I’ve caught most of them already. Just two left. I’ll try again today. I even switched to the best cat snacks and canned food. I refuse to believe they won’t fall for it.”
“You’re paying for the neutering, too?” Xie Quan asked.
“Who else would? Pet clinics don’t work for free,” Lu Nanyang laughed.
Xie Quan really couldn’t understand it—this kind of behavior, in his eyes, could only be described as stupid.
There were actually people in this world who spent their own money to buy canned food and pay for sterilizations for a bunch of cats that had nothing to do with them.
When Xie Quan was little, he often saw dead cats in the alleyways near his house.
Some had been poisoned by rat poison while hunting mice, others died slowly from starvation after getting injured in fights with other cats, and some were tortured to death by cruel children from who knows where.
Over time, their corpses would rot and stick to the bricks of the walls, becoming almost impossible to clean off.
To Xie Quan, that was his only connection to stray cats. At most, he’d look at their corpses and think to himself that he absolutely couldn’t allow himself to die in such a miserable state.
“Hey, we’re in luck, they’re just lying there sunbathing,” Lu Nanyang said cheerfully, pointing in a direction.
Xie Quan followed his gaze and saw a black-and-white “cow cat” and a tabby cat sprawled on the lawn, eyes closed in contentment.
“That one’s Little Black-and-White, and that’s Liu Sanjie,” Lu Nanyang said. “Out of all the cats at our school, those two are the most cautious. I’ve been feeding them for so long and they’ve never once let me get close. That’s why they’re especially hard to catch.”
Xie Quan paused. “What did you call them?”
“Little Black-and-White and Liu Sanjie.” Lu Nanyang gestured toward the tabby cat, sounding rather proud. “Look at the pattern on her back—doesn’t it totally look like a ‘3’?”
Xie Quan: “…”
With naming aesthetics like that, where did he even find the confidence to be proud?
After that, Lu Nanyang started rolling up his sleeves, looking like he was about to go all in. He muttered to himself, “First put the canned food out, then hide behind a bush. When the time’s right—bam, net them. Easy peasy. You got this, Lu Nanyang.”
But just as he finished going over his plan and was about to open the can, the cats suddenly stirred. They stood up from the grass.
He thought they’d sensed danger and were about to bolt—but instead, they walked straight toward them.
Little Black-and-White circled around Xie Quan’s feet and began tugging at his pants. Liu Sanjie was even bolder—she bumped her head against Xie Quan’s foot and then flopped right on top of it.
Xie Quan froze, stiff as a board. From the side, he heard Lu Nanyang’s excited shout, “Quick, quick, pick them up!”
“How?” Xie Quan’s eyes widened. He had zero experience holding animals. These cats were long and skinny—he didn’t even know where to put his hands.
Lu Nanyang squatted down, laughing. Xie Quan’s expression was so rare, he was dying to pull out his phone and film it.
But pissing off Xie Quan wasn’t a smart move, so he gave up the idea.
“Just support their armpits with both hands, like holding a baby,” Lu Nanyang said, demonstrating. “Slowly and gently—don’t scare them.”
I’ve never held a baby either, dammit!
But since the situation was what it was, Xie Quan could only grit his teeth and bend down.
The cats didn’t back away when he leaned in. Little Black-and-White even rubbed against his shoe.
Xie Quan carefully reached out. The moment his fingertips brushed against the soft fur, he jerked back like he’d been electrocuted and looked at Lu Nanyang nervously. “Will it bite me?”
“Could happen.” Lu Nanyang grinned wickedly. “I’ve never held either of them before.”
“You—” Xie Quan glared at him, clearly holding back a long string of curses.
Screw it. Sooner I die, the sooner I reincarnate.
Xie Quan braced himself and followed Lu Nanyang’s instructions, grabbing Little Black-and-White under the armpits and lifting him up.
Surprisingly, the cat didn’t struggle much and let him pick it up obediently.
…Wait, cats can stretch that long?! Xie Quan was shocked.
The soft fur wrapped around his palms, the warmth of the flesh beneath shifting subtly with each breath—constantly reminding him that what he was holding was alive.
Lu Nanyang’s eyes lit up. He waved frantically. “Quick, quick! The other one!”
Xie Quan awkwardly cradled Little Black-and-White in his left arm and reached for Liu Sanjie with his right. In the end, he stood there holding one in each arm, looking extremely stiff, like a puppet forced into a weird pose.
“Nice! Hold them tight! Don’t let go!” Lu Nanyang rushed over with two cages, reaching to take the cats from him.
But the moment he got close, the cats suddenly squirmed violently in Xie Quan’s arms, startling him.
“Hold on tight!” Lu Nanyang shouted, then swiftly grabbed both cats by the scruff and stuffed them into the cages with practiced ease.
Inside the cages, the two cats hissed and struggled furiously, baring their teeth at Lu Nanyang in protest.
Lu Nanyang let out a breath and patted the cage. “What now, still so fierce? Didn’t I catch you in the end?”
Xie Quan finally relaxed a little, checking himself over. Luckily, aside from a few cat hairs on his clothes, he was unharmed.
“I never expected it. You actually have such a way with cats,” Lu Nanyang said, looking at him with a smile. “This is the first time I’ve seen those two be so friendly with someone. Usually if anyone even approaches, they’re gone in a flash.”
Xie Quan frowned and started brushing off the fur with visible disdain. “I’d prefer if they stayed far away from me.”
“What, you don’t like cats?” Lu Nanyang asked.
“I don’t like creatures that approach me for no reason,” Xie Quan said bluntly.
Lu Nanyang chuckled and shoved some of the open canned food through the bars of the cage. “You think cats care whether you like them or not?”
What kind of question is that? Xie Quan frowned.
“They don’t,” Lu Nanyang said with a grin. “That’s just how cats are. No matter how much you like them, if they don’t like you, there’s nothing you can do. On the flip side, even if you don’t like them, if they like you, they’ll come close without a second thought.”
He scraped the last bits of meat from the can and tossed the empty tin into the trash. Then he looked back at Xie Quan. “You see, I’ve been feeding them for ages, and they still bare their teeth at me. A cat doesn’t approach you because it wants something from you. It just likes you and wants to be close. That’s all there is to it. No other reason.”
“…” Xie Quan didn’t speak. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and the gray pupils behind his glasses observed Lu Nanyang, trying to detect any unnatural reaction.
But Lu Nanyang simply picked up his gear piece by piece, finally grabbed the cat cage, walked back to the car, and opened the trunk. “I’ll take the cats to the vet first, then we can go eat. How about rice noodles? There’s this old shop next to the hospital I used to go to all the time in high school. Haven’t been there in a while, not sure if the owner still remembers me…”
“Mm, anything’s fine,” Xie Quan finally replied, then opened the car door and got in.
…..
After that meal with Xie Quan, the next time they met was two nights later.
There was no night study session or assignment that day. Lu Nanyang had a shoulder bag slung over one side and rented a shared bike at the school gate, riding it in the direction of his apartment.
His long legs curved into a handsome arc over the pedals. Moths circled the street lamps, casting light on one side of his body while the other disappeared into the quiet of the night.
When the tires rolled over the last bit of concrete, Lu Nanyang braked in front of the apartment building. Aside from the chirping of insects, there was no other sound. The friction of rubber against pavement stood out sharply.
Standing not far away, dragging a suitcase, Xie Quan turned around and looked at him calmly. Before Lu Nanyang could say anything, Xie Quan spoke first:
“First, I’ll pay rent, so we owe each other nothing. Second, I’m only staying until my insurance payout comes. As soon as I find a new place, I’ll move out. Third, we must strictly separate personal areas and shared spaces and not interfere with each other’s daily lives.”
Lu Nanyang laughed, “Happy co-living, roommate.”
