Chapter 32#
Changxi Road was in the old city area. Except for a few main streets that retained their character, other places were quite lonely.
The area near Changxi Road used to be a not-so-prosperous district of small western-style houses, and at this moment, it was even more deserted.
In front of the nearest pet shop, there were few figures.
The young girl at the front desk yawned, glanced at the clock, and counted down to the end of her shift.
Before the yawn was finished, the door creaked open, and an automatic sensing doll hanging by the wall called out: “Welcome, welcome…”
The girl looked up and immediately perked up.
The newcomer was at least 1.8 meters tall, wearing a casual light coffee-colored trench coat. As he walked in from outside, the setting sun cast a long shadow.
His features were sharp, his expression solemn. Those light brown eyes were heavy with gloom, and a faint mole adorned the corner of his eye. Despite this, his natural sharpness was not diminished.
They were clearly very beautiful features, yet they made people dare not look more.
The front desk girl hadn’t seen many such people, even with the daily flow of customers.
The last time she saw someone like this was Mr. Zhao, who had topped up a ten-year membership for the stray cats on the roadside all at once.
Unfortunately, although that Mr. Zhao appeared gentle in temperament, he sounded unreliable when he spoke. This gentleman, on the other hand, made people lack the courage even to approach.
The man who entered held a familiar sticky note in his hand. He walked straight to the front desk, placed the note gently on the table, and said, “Is this left by you?”
The front desk girl finally came to her senses.
She glanced at it; it was indeed left by her—the words on the paper were written the day Mr. Zhao came, to avoid missing any of those stray cats if one happened to be out playing when they were being settled.
She nodded: “Yes, did you see other stray cats?”
Qiao Nanqi shook his head.
“Are those cats in the shop now?”
The girl was stunned and subconsciously nodded: “Ah, yes, a gentleman entrusted us to settle them. They were originally roadside stray cats, several in a family.”
“Settle…?” Qiao Nanqi’s brow furrowed slightly.
He had thought this was just an act of kindness by the pet shop, but he hadn’t expected it was a deliberate act by someone.
“Can they be adopted?”
“Eh?”
“Those cats… were at my doorstep before. I originally wanted to take them home. Since they are with you, I want to take them away,” he said, “I can pay.”
These were originally roadside stray cats. Even if it was a sudden act of kindness by some good-hearted person, if someone else was willing to take them home and raise them, it shouldn’t be disallowed.
But the girl at the front desk showed a difficult expression.
" I can’t decide on this," she thought for a moment and said, “The gentleman who settled them said he had let these cats roam free for many years, but he just won’t be coming back anymore, so he settled them with us. Strictly speaking, they aren’t raised by us…”
She glanced at Qiao Nanqi’s not-too-happy expression and added: “Or I can help you contact him? Maybe he would be willing.”
A trace of surprise flashed in Qiao Nanqi’s eyes.
He said: “Please.”
The girl at the front desk asked him to wait a moment and went into the back of the pet shop alone, presumably to look through the records.
Qiao Nanqi stood by the empty front desk, eyes lowered, fingertips moving slightly as he rubbed the surface of the sticky note. His mood was a bit complex.
From the front desk’s words, in the many years since he moved away, the reason these stray cats were still alive and well was because another person had been letting them roam free.
He once thought these past events would quietly turn over with time, and these fleeting little lives would only exist in his own memory, lonely yet special.
But right now, unexpectedly and by some strange stroke of luck, he found out that there was actually another person in this world who had been raising these little things. During those years when he wanted to forget, this tiny yet indispensable warmth from his youth had actually been preserved by someone else all along.
He wondered who this good-hearted person was.
Even… was the very first cat shelter for that initial stray cat also provided by this unknown good-hearted person?
It should be impossible.
From when he first stayed here temporarily to this moment, nearly ten years had passed in the blink of an eye. This was almost a lifetime for a youth; this litter of stray cats had probably passed through a generation.
Such a long time.
How could anyone do such a small thing for ten years as if it were a single day?
As he was thinking, the girl at the front desk came out after just a few minutes, holding a slip of paper in her hand.
“Sorry, I just called the gentleman. He said he’s currently having a physical check-up at the hospital and doesn’t have much time. This is his number,” the girl pushed the slip toward Qiao Nanqi, “He said you can call him in a few hours to discuss it with him.”
Qiao Nanqi glanced at it; there was a string of phone numbers on the note.
He tucked the slip into his pocket. “Thank you.”
When Zhao Rong received the call from the pet shop, he was undergoing a physical check-up.
His health hadn’t been great since he was a child, and he had been through so much these years. Now that he had some peace of mind, he naturally wanted to take good care of himself.
Initially, when he saw the call was from the pet shop, he thought something had happened to one of the cats.
Learning that someone wanted to adopt them, he was a bit surprised—these stray cats weren’t of any good breed; to think someone would like them.
If someone was willing to take them home and raise them, it might be a good thing.
But such matters couldn’t be settled in a few words, so he asked the pet shop staff to give his number to that person and have them call him in a few hours.
After a few brief instructions, he put away his phone and walked into the consulting room with his check-up report.
The doctor sitting at the desk tidied up the items on the table, looked up at Zhao Rong, and suddenly said: “…Zhao Rong!?”
Zhao Rong was stunned.
He thought for a while before finding the corresponding name in his distant memory.
“So it’s you.” He smiled and sat down calmly in front of the desk.
The person before him was his high school classmate, named Sun Manman.
She was the one who sat in front of Zhao Rong. Although they weren’t very close, they often talked because of their proximity. Later, Zhao Rong saw through Sun Manman’s feelings. He didn’t like her and naturally didn’t want to lead her on, so he gradually became distant.
After university, he, as cannon fodder, entered the plot of The Return Journey, dealing with the likes of Chen Ze every day, and had no contact with these people at all.
He hadn’t expected it to be such a coincidence.
Sun Manman seemed a bit embarrassed. When she looked over Zhao Rong’s check-up report, she often lost her composure when speaking.
Zhao Rong had come specifically to recuperate his health and didn’t have any acute illness. He wasn’t in a hurry and conversed patiently.
After seeing the doctor, taking medicine for his health, and doing some more tests, the person who said they wanted to adopt the kittens still hadn’t called.
Instead, it was Sun Manman who, from some corner, dug out their social media account that hadn’t had a single chat record in all these years and asked him: “I’m almost off work. Shall we have dinner later to catch up?”
Zhao Rong looked at the message, recalling the way Sun Manman had looked at him just now.
He shook his head helplessly and replied: “Okay. You decide the place, it’s on me.”
After Qiao Nanqi walked out of the pet shop, he didn’t return immediately.
He first stuck the sticky note back securely and watched by the cat shelter for a while. Then he strolled along the sidewalk of Changxi Road, looking at these scenes that had faded significantly from his memory. His heart felt empty.
He should have continued his life according to the plan, should have been happy about achieving his goal of many years, should have…
Right now, however, only a vast emptiness remained—no, that wasn’t entirely true.
There was also Zhao Rong.
From time to time, Qiao Nanqi would take out his phone and unlock the screen, wanting to call or message Zhao Rong.
He wanted to hear Zhao Rong speak, or get a response to a message, to know Zhao Rong was still there; at least it could give him a sense of security and dispel the unease in his heart.
No matter what, the restlessness wouldn’t go away. He didn’t know how long he had been wandering when Xiao Wu finally called to tell him that things were tidied up.
Only then did Qiao Nanqi return to the old house.
After entering, Xiao Wu looked at him tremulously and asked cautiously, “Sir, is there anywhere else that needs to be handled?”
Qiao Nanqi turned to look at Xiao Wu.
He remembered how, in the past, whenever there was something at home that needed handling, Zhao Rong would handle it perfectly and then slightly tilt his head, smiling as he asked him, “Take a look?”
No trace of distant fear, no guarded approach.
He sat down listlessly on the sofa and said in a low voice, “You go back.”
As if granted a pardon, Xiao Wu hurriedly left with the other housekeepers.
At the end, he even gently closed the door, considerately leaving this small space of silence to Qiao Nanqi alone.
Qiao Nanqi took a few deep breaths to calm his mood and then took the slip of paper the pet shop staff had given him out of his pocket.
On the slip was the phone number of the good-hearted person who had raised that litter of stray cats for several years.
He opened his phone and entered the numbers from the slip one by one.
If the other party was reluctant to let go later, he could offer more money; surely no one would refuse.
Or other benefits; what he could give, he could also promise, as a way of thanking this person for protecting that bit of warmth from his youth all these years.
If the discussion went smoothly, he could also ask the other party whether the very first cat shelter for that little stray cat over ten years ago was placed by them—though it was unlikely.
And…
As he was thinking, the phone number was already entered.
A contact name he had just modified a few days ago surfaced under this string of numbers through the system’s automatic matching.
Those two words had appeared in his mind every day lately, impossible to shake off. But at this moment, as they truly appeared before his eyes, he seemed not to recognize those two words anymore.
Qiao Nanqi’s hand, which had subconsciously moved toward the dial button, came to an abrupt halt.
The surroundings were lonely, yet it seemed something was noisy in his ears. Invisibly, a hand suddenly stabbed into his chest, gripped his heart, and gave a fierce pull—
Tearing it into pieces.
So much so that, in this instant, he didn’t even have a single thought.
A moment later.
Memories from twelve years ago slowly surfaced.
He had paid for all of Zhao Ming’s medical expenses for the fourteen-year-old Zhao Rong. Just as he turned around, the youth, as if holding a treasure, handed a freshly written IOU to him with both hands.
He hadn’t accepted it, directly tearing the IOU to pieces and throwing them into a nearby trash can.
Later, as he walked out of the hospital, the young Zhao Rong came running after him, calling him out of breath.
“Can I ask for your bank card number, or your address? Later… later when I have money, I will definitely pay you back.”
At that time, things were not as convenient as they are today.
Financial transactions were mostly face-to-face or involved troublesome bank transfers.
It was understandable that Zhao Rong would ask for his address.
But Qiao Nanqi didn’t want to use his kindness to demand a reward.
Nor did he want the youth before him to feel it was charity, which would hurt his dignity.
So he found a pen in the hospital lobby and said to Zhao Rong, “Reach out your hand.”
Zhao Rong was dazed for a moment and didn’t ask what he was going to do, just obediently reached out his right hand.
Qiao Nanqi lightly tapped the clenched fist with the pen.
“Open it.”
“Oh…”
The youth once again obediently opened his palm.
He raised his hand, held the pen, and the pen point lightly landed on the youth’s palm.
“Don’t shrink back,” he said.
“It tickles a bit…”
Even so, Zhao Rong indeed did not move again.
The sixteen-year-old Qiao Nanqi wrote down the address of this old house on Changxi Road.
At that time, he thought that this house his mother had bought years ago had long been unoccupied. Even if Zhao Rong went to find him then, it would just be an empty room. This would both allow the current Zhao Rong to let go of his guilt and quietly erase this kindness.
It was like killing two birds with one stone.
But life is unpredictable.
He later moved back to this house but forgot that he had once written the address here, stroke by stroke, on the youth’s palm.
He didn’t know what car drove past outside, but a noisy engine roar suddenly pulled Qiao Nanqi’s thoughts back.
He looked down, only to find that the slip of paper from the pet shop staff with the phone number on it had been tightly clenched in his hand, crumpled into a ball.
Just like his thoughts.
—How could anyone do such a small thing for ten years as if it were a single day?
It was possible.
…There was one person who could.