After Reuniting, My Beautiful Ex-Lover Fishes for Me Every Day - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Finding the Cat

In late summer, Ningcheng had been completely swallowed by the sweltering heat. Even as night fell, it remained exceptionally humid, as if one rainstorm were pressing down on the heels of another.

Wei Changli ran a full circuit through the old city district, which was as cluttered as a ruin. Sweat broke out across his forehead, yet there was still no sign of Michu.

Roof beams, tree trunks, utility poles, trash cans, or any random hole or manhole cover… there were too many places a small cat could go. In contrast, a human’s range of motion was limited. Even searching in expanding circles with his rental room as the center, a comprehensive, inch-by-inch carpet search was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.

Wei Changli had to admit he was panicking. Of the three kittens he had just picked up by the trash can last night, one hadn’t made it. If his Michu was out there suffering like that, he couldn’t even bear to think about it.

He completed another loop and returned to the base of his rental building. Looking around, he shouted, “Michu? Michu, are you there? Mi—”

His shouting stopped abruptly, and his heart skipped a beat along with it.

By the dust-laden entrance of the stairwell, a man stood quietly. Behind him, a flickering light with a faulty connection struggled to stay alive. Various pasted and printed small advertisements covered the walls, making the man look so out of place he seemed to belong to a different visual layer entirely.

Wei Changli’s eyes met the man’s. The anxiety and panic in his pupils quickly cooled into a distant indifference during the awkward silence.

“Yan Xu, what are you doing here?”

Yan Xu didn’t answer. Instead, he asked, “Were you just calling for Michu?”

Wei Changli frowned, unsure if he should avoid the question.

If one counted strictly, they had found Michu together five years ago. If they hadn’t separated later, the cat might even have been closer to Yan Xu, who at the time was better at taking care of people—and cats.

But they had already separated.

So Wei Changli repeated himself: “I just asked you, what are you doing here?”

Yan Xu raised the carrier bag in his hand to show him, providing a marginally reasonable excuse: “Your clothes. They’ve been washed and dried.”

“I didn’t expect Director Yan to be so idle that two pieces of clothing were worth a personal delivery.”

A cold snort escaped Wei Changli’s throat, sounding like a sneer. But he wasn’t in the mood to entertain the other man; even his sarcasm felt half-hearted.

Yan Xu walked from the entrance to stand before him, maintaining a relatively polite distance. He lowered his voice and asked again, “Searching for Michu?”

Wei Changli still took a step back, then irritably kicked a stone on the roadside. “It seems I forgot to close the window yesterday. The cat seems to have run out.”

“Michu is very smart,” Yan Xu’s first reaction matched Wei Changli’s. “He won’t get lost. Don’t panic.”

Wei Changli: “I know, but that rain yesterday… don’t animals like cats rely on their sense of smell to identify directions? Would the rain make it impossible to tell, especially since this place is as messy as a sewer?”

Yan Xu comforted him warmly, “It won’t. Don’t worry.”

Wei Changli looked up at him.

Three years had passed, and the aura around this man had become even more restrained. His expression was peaceful to the point of being cold, but his eyes were deep—impossible to read, yet making one feel inexplicably that he was reliable.

Two seconds later, Wei Changli looked away. “I hope so.”

Yan Xu: “I can help…”

“No need,” Wei Changli interrupted him, then snatched the bag from his hand, his tone carrying a hint of a warning: “There won’t be a next time. Don’t come here again.”

Yan Xu remained silent, his long hair falling over his shoulders, slightly lifted by the evening breeze.

Perhaps because they had spoken of Michu today, the young master managed to set aside a sliver of his bitterness: “Also, I don’t need your ‘worry.’ It’s unnecessary.”

Before Yan Xu could speak, a sudden flash of lightning streaked behind them.

In Ningcheng, as it approached the rainy season, heavy storms always came in bustling successions.

Yan Xu suddenly said, “I let my driver take the car away. It looks like it’s about to rain.”

“Then get wet on your way back.” Wei Changli brushed past him and headed into the stairwell.

Yan Xu didn’t pester him; he simply stood there, solitary.

The aging circuits of this dilapidated compound were notoriously unreliable; they tended to fail right before a storm. Wei Changli coughed a few times but couldn’t trigger the voice-activated lights in the stairwell. He cursed under his breath in the darkness.

He took several steps up at once. Standing at the corner of the second floor for a few seconds, he suddenly gripped the clothing bag tightly and silently turned back.

“If it’s going to rain, can’t you stand inside the stairwell? Is this crumbling building not big enough to hold a ‘Great Buddha’ like you?”

Hearing this, Yan Xu turned back to meet Wei Changli’s gaze. Strands of his black hair were blown up by the wind, nearly brushing against his forehead and obscuring his eyes—obscuring that soft, quiet gaze.

The intention was blatant, yet it was truly beautiful.

“…”

Wei Changli mentally repeated “For Michu’s sake” three times. With a sour expression, he spoke: “If your driver is far away and you need to wait a long time, come up if you don’t mind the ‘old, broken, and small.'”

Yan Xu finally moved, entering the hallway and walking up the stairs. He gave a reserved “Thank you,” then meticulously reached out to take the bag—which weighed practically nothing—back into his own hand.

Wei Changli knew he couldn’t take back the invitation once it was out, but it felt wrong in every way, like leading a wolf into the house. With a foul face, he led Yan Xu upstairs and struggled to pull open his door. A draft blew through; sure enough, the rain had started outside, and it was coming down hard.

Young Master Wei naturally had no desire to play “host.” Perhaps out of an urge to hide the embarrassment of his current plight, he circled the room again with a mix of tension and hope, only to be disappointed that Michu had not returned.

Standing at the door, Yan Xu took in the cramped and dilapidated scene of the space, his gaze darkening slightly.

He then suppressed his outward emotions and asked in a normal tone whether the other had eaten so late.

Not only had Wei Changli not eaten, but he hadn’t eaten all day. The tension of not finding Michu, combined with the energy drained by those idiotic thugs last night, was significant. It was fine when Yan Xu didn’t mention it, but once he did, Wei Changli felt the hunger in hindsight.

“None of your business,” Wei Changli said indifferently, intending to make do with some instant noodles. “You should contact your driver as soon as possible.”

Yan Xu watched as Wei Changli brought out a pack of nutritionally void instant noodles from the bedroom. He asked softly, “Is there nothing else to eat in the house?”

“Sure there is,” Wei Changli said, tearing open the noodle bag as he walked. He turned to look at him with a curl of his lips. “Cat food.”

Yan Xu could only walk over and take the bag of noodles from him. “I’ll cook it for you.”

Young Master Wei snorted coldly and was about to mock him when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang. The caller was his manager, Tao You.

He frowned, but he had no reason to hang up on her. He gave Yan Xu a hurried glance and turned into the bedroom to answer.

Director Yan successfully intercepted the instant noodles from the young master and took them into the kitchen. However, the moment he stepped inside, he felt the smell in the kitchen was a bit strange.

There was a faint, putrid odor, like something had gone bad.

Yan Xu was somewhat surprised. After all, based on his understanding of Wei Changli, the man would never allow spoiled things to exist in his home.

He placed the instant noodles on the tiny stovetop and looked around. He noticed a stew pot on the simple gas stove across from him, its lid partially covered.

There was nothing unusual about this scene. In a place that could be called “home,” it might even be considered cozy: for instance, the cook of the house has prepared a dish for everyone, but happens to have to go out, so they leave the food covered in the pot so whoever returns first can serve themselves. Very convenient.

But there wasn’t a trace of “coziness” on Yan Xu’s face.

As a researcher who dealt with biology long-term, he knew that familiar smells weren’t necessarily good smells.

Yan Xu turned silently to look out of the kitchen. Wei Changli’s voice drifted in faintly from outside; he was still talking to someone.

There was only a single, tiny window in the kitchen. The pale moonlight, mixed with streaks of rain, brushed across the man’s profile, casting a grim shadow.

In the next moment, he walked toward the stove and silently lifted a corner of the pot lid.

The faint stench suddenly grew several degrees more aggressive, rushing into his nostrils. The water in the pot had been boiled dry; all that remained was overcooked fur and stewed meat.

Even though the body had been twisted beyond recognition, Yan Xu could easily distinguish what kind of animal it was from the shape of the bones in the pot.

A cat.

The moment he opened the lid, Yan Xu’s entire expression became cold to the point of being suppressed. The hand holding the lid suddenly gave a violent shudder.

In the bedroom, Wei Changli had just hung up the call with Tao You. What surprised him was that there seemed to be no news from Shen Shuqiang’s side. Tao You had even just confirmed with him whether he had actually gone to visit today.

Is he still not awake? The old thing couldn’t have been scared that badly.

With the recording in hand, Wei Changli didn’t care much. He leaned over to grab the charging cable from the end of the bed to charge his phone, thinking awkwardly about whether he should go out.

To be fair, Yan Xu cooking for him three years ago was an incredibly common occurrence… but the problem was they were broken up now.

Hiding in the bedroom and not going out made it seem like he was being shy after accepting a favor, but even if he entered the kitchen, it seemed it would serve no purpose other than adding more awkwardness and sarcasm.

Was he supposed to… help Yan Xu?

But it was just a pack of instant noodles. There was practically no room to “help.”

Wei Changli hesitantly unplugged and replugged the charger several times before finally making a decision and standing up. Just as he stepped out of the bedroom, he bumped into Yan Xu coming out of the kitchen.

Done so soon?

Wei Changli’s nose twitched; he didn’t smell anything.

Yan Xu looked him over for a second, as if confirming Wei Changli’s condition.

He… couldn’t smell it.

Under the current circumstances, Yan Xu didn’t know if this was bad news or even worse news.

“Instant noodles are unhealthy,” he spoke, his voice a bit raspy. The emphasis fell somewhat abruptly, but he quickly steadied it. “I’ll take you out to eat.”

Wei Changli glanced at the “shua-shua” of the rain outside and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Yan Xu: “My driver is here. What do you want to eat? We’ll go together…”

“Oh, then you should leave.” Wei Changli hadn’t expected the driver to arrive so quickly. He couldn’t tell if his tone was happy or not, but the intention to see his guest out was more than clear.

“Changli,” Yan Xu paused, then said in a deep voice, “Come with me.”