Secret Lover Who Stealthily Fell in Love with My Older Sister - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Eleven Comes Home

With a plan in place, time became tight. Since they were near her mothers’ home, Qiao Xi decided to first go to the pet shop where she usually took Fatty for grooming to buy supplies for the cat.

The pet shop was large, split into two floors. As usual, there were many pets queuing for baths and grooming, and several customers were waiting. Qiao Xi pulled Shen Ya’s wrist and entered the store. After scanning the area and not seeing the boss, she spoke to the girl at the front desk, whom she knew. The girl smiled politely upon seeing her and asked, “Are you bringing Fatty for a bath? There are quite a few dogs today, so you might have to wait a long time.”

Qiao Xi shook her head: “No, I’m here to buy some cat supplies. By the way, is Zi Ning-jie here?”

“Zi Ning went out with the boss,” the girl said. “If you have any questions, you can ask me too.”

“Great, thank you.” Qiao Xi pulled a mini shopping cart from beside the register and looked up at the aisle signs: “Teacher Shen, let’s check out the cat aisle.”

Shen Ya had never owned an animal and was visiting a pet shop for the first time. The store looked bright and clean. Although there was a faint dog smell, it was within Shen Ya’s acceptable range. On the way, Qiao Xi had told Shen Ya that her mother’s home was in the complex diagonally across from the pet shop, where Fatty usually came for baths, and her sister had a good relationship with the shop owner.

The shelves were dazzlingly stocked. There were several types of cat food alone. The packaging for each was exquisite and cute, yet the prices were surprisingly expensive to Shen Ya. She usually saw inexpensive cat food online, so she assumed they were all similar. She picked up the most expensive one on the shelf and asked Qiao Xi, “Which one should we buy?”

Qiao Xi’s gaze was still on the shelves. She first glanced at another brand of cat food, then turned her head to the one in Shen Ya’s hand. She pointed to the other cat food and said, “My Fatty eats this brand, but my eldest mother’s cat eats the one you’re holding, Teacher Shen.”

“Eldest mother?” Shen Ya remembered that was Jiang Yunyi’s mother. “Does Jiang Yunyi have a cat at home?”

“Yes. I remember Sister Yunyi even said she’d buy me a cat after my college entrance exam. Nope, I’m going to ask Sister Yunyi for the cat-raising funds later.” Having made up her mind, Qiao Xi wasn’t bothered. She pointed at the cat food in Shen Ya’s hand: “Let’s buy this most expensive one. Teacher Shen, you choose anything you like, and we’ll let Sister Yunyi pay for it later.”

“This…” Shen Ya wanted to say that it wasn’t appropriate. After all, she would be the one looking after the cat. It didn’t feel right to let Jiang Yunyi pay.

Qiao Xi patted her shoulder and took the cat food from her hand, placing it in the shopping cart: “Don’t worry, Teacher Shen. This is the cat-raising expense Sister Yunyi promised me.”

Shen Ya still felt uneasy but didn’t say anything more. She planned to repay Jiang Yunyi the money the next time they met.

With the cat food selected, Qiao Xi held up two small dinosaur-style bowls: “Teacher Shen, how about these?”

“Mhm.”

Qiao Xi shook the bowl on the right: “This one is for cat food.” Then she shook the one on the left: “And this one is for water.”

The two cute dinosaur bowls were placed in the mini cart. Qiao Xi then pinched her chin and muttered, “Fatty also has a separate bowl for meat. Should we buy another one?”

“How about this one?” Shen Ya picked up a strangely shaped bowl from the top shelf.

The bowl was shaped like a cartoon chick, but the chick had a tilted neck, making it look silly. With the tilted-neck chick bowl held up to Shen Ya’s face, her cool demeanor contrasted sharply with the silly chick, making Qiao Xi burst into laughter. Clear, ringing laughter escaped her throat.

Shen Ya didn’t understand what she said that made Qiao Xi so happy, but she gradually realized something was wrong from the laughter. Qiao Xi seemed to be laughing at her. Shen Ya felt a little embarrassed and annoyed. She put the bowl back on the shelf. Her eyes seemed to be chilled by the air conditioning. With a slight blink, her gaze was as sharp as a knife, briefly slicing across Qiao Xi’s face.

Qiao Xi covered her mouth, quickly suppressing her laughter, but the corners of her lips were still slightly raised. Fearing she had genuinely angered Shen Ya, she patted her own mouth: “Teacher Shen, I’ve punished myself, please don’t be mad.” Qiao Xi then took the tilted-neck chick bowl Shen Ya had chosen from the shelf and praised it excessively: “Teacher Shen has such great taste! This bowl is so cute, just as cute as Teacher Shen.”

Shen Ya raised her hand and flicked Qiao Xi’s nose. She knew Qiao Xi was still teasing her. This little rascal was getting bolder, not even feeling shy when playing tricks on her now.

“Ouch, that hurts.” Qiao Xi put down the bowl and rubbed her nose. She cried out in pain while secretly glancing at Shen Ya’s reaction, then put on a severely hurt expression that demanded comfort when Shen Ya looked over.

Shen Ya’s understanding of Qiao Xi was nearly one hundred percent now. The moment Qiao Xi’s eyes moved, she could guess what mischief the other girl was up to. She ignored Qiao Xi and continued browsing the shelves. The pet treats looked even more exquisite than human snacks.

She picked up a bag of catnip biscuits and dried fish treats. When she was about to put the items down, Qiao Xi’s small shopping cart was pushed to her side.

Shen Ya walked around to another shelf. She saw cat wands and some small cat toys. Shifting her gaze slightly, pet collars with bells came into view.

She was very familiar with collars, only they weren’t for pets. These collars were beautiful, colorful, and had very cute patterns. She took down a collar with a little cat paw print in the center from the hook, but her thoughts drifted to Blank.

“Oh?” Qiao Xi leaned in. “Teacher Shen likes this collar?”

Shen Ya snapped back to reality. She quickly hung the collar back, but Qiao Xi pressed her hand down, took the collar, and placed it in the shopping cart: “If you like it, buy it. Although it’s not good for cats to wear collars all the time, it’s nice for taking photos.”

Qiao Xi had no idea what Shen Ya had just been thinking. Watching the collar being placed next to the cat food, Shen Ya’s gaze climbed inch by inch from Qiao Xi’s fingertips, finally resting on Qiao Xi’s neck. The slender neck was very fair. Compared to the kitten, Shen Ya felt this collar was more suitable for Qiao Xi’s neck.

“Teacher Shen, should we get two more cat wands?”

Shen Ya’s gaze narrowed. She knitted her brows. What was I thinking? Qiao Xi was clean and pure; how could she contaminate the little sun with such dirty thoughts?

She secretly pinched the hand hanging by her side, the nails nearly digging into her flesh before Shen Ya successfully cleared all those thoughts from her mind. To avoid further overthinking, she took some other toys from the shelf to cover the collar: “What else do we need to buy?”

“Cat litter and a litter box. Oh, and a scratching post and a cat bed.” Qiao Xi checked the items in the cart. “Let’s ask the girl at the front desk to recommend those to us.”

While the girl at the front desk was recommending supplies to Shen Ya, Qiao Xi called Jiang Yunyi. After briefly saying she was adopting a cat, Jiang Yunyi transferred her a sum of money. However, when paying, Qiao Xi used the membership card her mother had registered at the store. She planned to save the cat-raising fund to buy groceries for Shen Ya later.

The cat supplies filled the car trunk. Qiao Xi thought the cat couldn’t be kept in the cardboard box after her bath, so she also bought a practical cat carrier bag.

After much effort, they finally arrived at the supermarket. This time, Shen Ya was the one pushing the shopping cart. Qiao Xi wanted to toss everything she saw into the cart next to her. They hadn’t bought ingredients for dinner yet, but the cart was already half-full of snacks and drinks.

This was the first time Shen Ya had company while grocery shopping. Before, she could only stand on the side, listening and watching families talk and laugh while discussing what to eat for dinner. Now, Qiao Xi was giving her this warm experience. Watching Qiao Xi point at the food in the display case, her eyes shining as she said what she wanted to eat, Shen Ya momentarily felt like she and Qiao Xi were already living together, that they had become a family.

The emotions buried deep within surged out violently again. She desperately wanted to freeze time here. Shen Ya started to doubt: were her feelings for Qiao Xi really just simple friendship?

But what exactly was love?

Shen Ya didn’t know. She didn’t know who to ask. If she truly had inappropriate feelings for Qiao Xi, was it a good or bad thing? How would Qiao Xi view her?

Shen Ya’s frequent distraction caught Qiao Xi’s attention. She placed chicken wings in the cart and linked arms with Shen Ya: “Is Teacher Shen very tired today? Maybe we shouldn’t cook dinner. I can take you out to eat.”

“Since we’re near my mother’s place, Teacher Shen, do you remember the New Year’s Eve dinner I brought you? How about we go eat at that restaurant?”

“No need. I was just wondering if we should buy some meat for the kitten.”

“Teacher Shen is so gentle.” Qiao Xi didn’t doubt her words. She had initially suspected Shen Ya’s distraction was due to their extensive physical contact today, fearing her actions had raised Shen Ya’s suspicion.

When Xia Cong’an and Yu Tiantian asked if she liked Shen Ya, she still had the confidence to refute them.

But seeing and interacting with Shen Ya today, every action they shared made her heart pound wildly. Every time she touched Shen Ya, every cell in her body rejoiced. It took great effort to suppress her desire. She could only try to make her physical contacts seem more reasonable, trying to bury her true feelings so Shen Ya wouldn’t discover them.

If she couldn’t be sure about her feelings for Shen Ya before, now, Qiao Xi was fifty percent certain that she harbored a special affection for Shen Ya. But she still couldn’t jump to conclusions; it would be embarrassing if she was wrong.

Moreover, she hadn’t figured out what to do if she truly did fall for Shen Ya.

During the second half of the supermarket trip, both were preoccupied and tried hard to conceal it. They wanted to confirm their own feelings, to gauge the other’s intentions, yet neither dared to make a move, afraid of revealing their true feelings and being rejected or scorned by the other.

When they returned to the pet hospital, the kitten had already been bathed. The doctor waited for them to arrive before giving injections and deworming. The clean kitten’s fur was fluffy and smooth. The formerly dusty cat finally revealed her original appearance: white fur and sapphire-like blue eyes. Although her face was still a bit pointy, Qiao Xi saw a hint of Shen Ya in her.

The white kitten was graceful and distant, or perhaps just too nervous and scared, remaining curled up in the cage. Even though she was sleepy, she didn’t dare to close her eyes, watching everything outside cautiously, fearful yet curious, much like Shen Ya’s own longing for light and warmth during her solitary life.

The kitten was very docile and didn’t resist being taken out of the cage. Qiao Xi lowered her head and took a sniff. “She smells so good.”

Saying this, Qiao Xi placed the cat in Shen Ya’s arms. Shen Ya’s body instantly tensed. She maintained the posture of receiving the cat, not daring to make any other move. This was the first time she had such intimate contact with a living creature other than a human.

She could already feel the kitten’s body heat, and the scent of the shampoo intermittently drifted into her nose. Shen Ya looked even more nervous than the kitten. She wasn’t afraid the cat would scratch her, but afraid her movements would scare the cat.

“Teacher Shen, relax.” Qiao Xi took Shen Ya’s hand and placed it on the kitten’s back: “Stroke her.”

Following Qiao Xi’s instruction, Shen Ya cradled the cat with one arm and stroked from the head down to the tail with the other. After only a few strokes, she heard the kitten purr. This time, she understood: this sound meant comfort.

“The kitten really likes Teacher Shen.” Qiao Xi gently touched the kitten’s head, then said to the doctor behind her: “Well, we’ll be going now. Thank you, Dr. Xu, for your hard work.”

Shen Ya also nodded slightly to the doctor, and they left after saying goodbye to the vet.

Back in the car, Qiao Xi didn’t let Shen Ya put the kitten in the carrier bag. She claimed it was so Shen Ya could properly bond with the kitten during the ride.

Shen Ya sat up straight. The stray kitten was small and was now curled up on Shen Ya’s lap. Shen Ya was afraid the kitten would fall, so she couldn’t take her eyes off her for a moment. She loved the feel of the kitten, constantly playing with her pink little paws. The kitten’s tail would sway, occasionally brushing against her palm.

While driving, Qiao Xi kept an eye on Shen Ya and the kitten’s interaction in the rearview mirror. She vaguely noticed a faint smile consistently on Shen Ya’s face. It seemed adopting this kitten was the right choice. Shen Ya had lived alone for many years, and only with Qiao Xi’s occasional company did she feel more alive. Now that Qiao Xi was in college and couldn’t visit often, she was worried Shen Ya would revert to her previous “lone wolf” state. She hoped little Eleven could bring joy to Shen Ya during the days she wasn’t around.

There were many items in the trunk, but Qiao Xi had a foldable cart in the car, which came in handy now. She didn’t let Shen Ya help, who simply stood nearby holding the kitten, looking very much like a mother waiting with her child for the other mother.

Qiao Xi felt a little guilty at the thought, so she could only speed up loading the items onto the small cart.

It was rush hour, and the elevator was quite full. They barely managed to squeeze in. When the two people and one cat arrived at the apartment door, Shen Ya unlocked it one-handed and carried the cat inside.

While Qiao Xi was still “wrestling” with the small cart, Shen Ya’s lips brushed past the kitten’s head. She then looked gently at Qiao Xi outside the door and whispered to the kitten’s ear: “Welcome home, our little Eleven.”