"Bang!" The door closed behind Lin Yuan.
He held Baozi up as he removed his shoes. Lin Yuan didn't want to put Baozi down on the floor or he would have to clean up later.
"Lin Yuan, you're back." Lin Yuerong's voice came from down the hallway.
Lin Yuerong had crashed out earlier than Lin Yuan had expected. She had come home yesterday and fell straight to sleep and hadn't woken up even in the afternoon when he was going to school.
She was lounging on the sofa in the living room when she heard the front door open.
However, before Lin Yuan could reply, Lin Yuerong's voice sounded out again.
"Eugh! What is that smell?!" Lin Yuerong shuffled towards him while pinching her nose.
"What is that, is that a cat? Why is it so ugly? No, more importantly, why is it so smelly?" Lin Yuerong pointed at Baozi in his arms.
Baozi was enraged, it could tell that it was being looked down on.
"His name is Heavenly Em-, his name is Baozi" Lin Yuan thought this wasn't the time for a full introduction, "He was being chased by some strays."
Lin Yuan put on his slippers, "I'm going to go clean him first."
As he walked past Lin Yuerong in the hallway, the fat cat in his arm hissed at her.
Lin Yuerong followed behind at a distance, "Are you sure that cat is safe, is it a stray? What if it has rabies?" Actually Lin Yuerong didn't know if cats could get rabies, their family had never owned a pet.
Even though Lin Yuan was also worried, he still replied, "It's fine."
Unlike what Lin Yuan expected the fat cat seemed to enjoy getting bathed, it would lay back and lift its paw like a king and purr while he washed it with water.
Lin Yuan didn't use shampoo or soap because he wasn't sure if that was safe, so the fat cat looked a little cleaner but the smell was still there. When he finally sat down after drying Baozi with a towel, Lin Yuan was exhausted.
Lin Yuerong was standing by the door of the bathroom when Lin Yuan suddenly turned to her, "Take care of Baozi, I need to shower."
And so the fat and somewhat white cat and Lin Yuerong were both kicked out of the bathroom.
"..."
Woman and feline looked at each other silently.
"Actually you're very cute even though you stink hehe."
Baozi glanced up at her then he turned his nose up and slinked back slowly to the living room to attack the sofa pillows.
When Lin Yuan came to the living room again after his shower, he was greeted to the sight of the fat cat testing its claws on the couch, while Lin Yuerong tried to slowly approach it. Whenever she got close however, the fat cat would hiss and move to a different location.
At least don't let him destroy the sofa! Lin Yuan had dark lines on his forehead.
He walked over to the couch and picked Baozi up. Surprisingly Baozi didn't hiss or make any movements but instead let him be placed on Lin Yuan's lap. While petting the slightly smelly cat, he turned to Lin Yuerong.
Although Ning Qing had said that Baozi had gotten all of his shots, Lin Yuan still thought he should take him to the vet. The fat cat was getting chased, and though there weren't any obvious injuries Lin Yuan wasn't sure whether they could be other problems.
He felt like he should talk to Ning Qing about it all, since she probably knew more about the cat than he did.
"Can you give me Ning-, Sister Qing's number? The cat, she's familiar with him."
Lin Yuerong, who had been focused on trying to pet Baozi on his lap, turned her head up in surprise.
"Oh you don't have that? I thought I had…" She sat back and took out her phone, "Let me send it to you."
After a few moments Lin Yuan got a message.
"Actually let me add you to the group chat, Ning Yao is also in it. "
Lin Yuan opened his messages, and sure enough he got a notification that he had been added to a new group chat, '21st Century Girls'.
I'm not a girl though.
Unfortunately he didn't have any executive powers as of yet so he couldn't amend the name.
He scrolled quickly through the previous messages. It was mostly Lin Yuerong complaining about work or sending links to random internet videos. Sometimes she would get a laughing emoji, mostly from Ning Qing. Lin Yuan thought it was more out of pity.
He looked at his sister's new message.
Lin Yuerong: Ning Qing! Emergency! It's a serious emergency!!
Lin Yuan had a dark face. He looked up from his phone at his sister who was typing away. Don't say those misleading words so easily!
He was about to clarify in the group chat, when he realised that she had sent that over a minute ago, and there were already four new messages.
Lin Yuerong: Qingqing!! This is very important, my brother is in deep trouble!
Lin Yuerong: Are you there? Hello!
Lin Yuerong: Qinqing…are you busy?
Lin Yuerong: Xiaoyao! I can see you reading this! Why don't you reply?
"..."
It was getting sad now. Lin Yuan watched as his sister crashed out in the group chat for a few minutes. He could see Ning Yao's profile icon under every message showing she had read it but she still didn't reply. Well, neither did Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuerong at the side finally put her phone down and sighed, "Sorry Lin Yuan, I think Qingqing is busy at school. What can you do huh? My Qinqing is a hard worker!"
Lin Yuan ignored her and looked at the time. It was only around 5 o'clock but he thought it would be better to get everything over with sooner rather than later. So Lin Yuan exited the group chat and clicked on Ning Qing's profile and messaged her.
Considering she wasn't in the group chat, he thought he would have to wait for a while for her to see it, but surprisingly he got a reply back within a few moments.
"Oh, she replied to me." He said out loud.
"Huh?" Lin Yuerong had come beside Lin Yuan at some point and was now leaning over looking at his phone. "Why didn't she see my message then…"
Probably because you spam, he thought. Then he focused back on his phone.
Lin Yuan: Hello.
Ning Qing: Lin Yuan? Hello, did something happen?
Lin Yuan: The cat, Mr Moonlight. I found him, he was attacked.
Lin Yuan waited for a while but there was no response, until he suddenly got a video call notification.
Lin Yuan was caught off guard, but before he could even settle himself, Lin Yuerong had already accepted it for him.
Is she at home? Is she at school? Looking at the buffering signal, Lin Yuan felt nervous for some reason.
"Hello? Lin Yuan? Oh Sister Yuerong, you're there as well" The blank icon brought Ning Qing's soft voice.
"..."
Lin Yuan was annoyed at himself for being flustered, he was about to reply when he thought of something. How did she know that his sister was here?
Looking at the corner of the phone he realised his camera was on. Lin Yuan was a little self conscious, he was wearing the pink cat shirt his sister had gotten him a while ago .
Then he felt like she must have done it on purpose, but he didn't have any proof.
"Hello? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Lin Yuerong thought Lin Yuan was about to speak so she didn't say anything at first, but seeing him just stare absentmindedly at his phone, she took over, "Ning Qing are you at school? Did you see my messages?"
"I'm in my dorm room, sorry, I had my notifications off. Was it something important?"
"No, no, nevermind." Lin Yuerong thought she should probably delete her messages quickly.
He glanced at his sister who was now sitting cross-legged on the sofa with the phone pointed to her slight double chin, and thought Ning Qing was really cruel.
"So Lin Yuan…about the cat?"
Hearing his name again, Lin Yuan finally came back to his senses.
He avoided the phone that Lin Yuerong suddenly pointed at his face, and held Baozi up against his chest. "It's him."
"Hmmm, it does look the same. You said it was attacked? What happened, was someone abusing it?"
"By cats. It was attacked by cats."
"...Oh, um well, does it have any injuries? Are you going to take it to the vet?"
"It looks fine but I thought I should go anyway. You said he already got his shots…."
"Do you want to go to the same place? I didn't get it vaccinated but I did take it with me to the vet for a checkup, do you want the address? I'll send it to you."
"Okay, thank you." Lin Yuan was grateful.
"Are you going now? Do you want me to come with you?" Ning Qing's soft voice sounded out again.
Before Lin Yuan could reply, Lin Yuerong turned the phone back to her, "Don't worry about it Qinqing, you're still at school. It's too much of a hassle, I'll go with my brother!"
"Well, okay, then send me a message after it gets checked. Xiaoyao would also be sad if something happened."
"Okay." Lin Yuan replied
They talked for a few more minutes, until they hung up.
After that both siblings went to the vet with the fat cat. Thankfully, the only thing wrong with Baozi was that it needed to lose weight because it was too fat.
On the way back Lin Yuan messaged Ning Qing, and also asked her about the 'gourmet' cat food that Baozi liked to eat. He bought that and some shampoo, but Lin Yuerong bought a lot of stuff recommended by the pet shop employee.
Back at home. Boazi was lying lazily playing with a new toy in his cat bed.
"Hey, hey, are we gonna keep him?"
"I don't know." Then Lin Yuan added, "I heard he didn't have a home. He will probably leave tomorrow."
"But we bought all this stuff…" Lin Yuerong was disappointed. Even though the fat cat didn't seem to like her, she thought he was very cute. She'd always wanted a pet cat or dog but her father was allergic before, and after he died it never seemed like the right moment.