Little Black Cat? Let Me Pet It

Li Xingqing’s submitted script earned high praise from Ke Wei, and copies were printed out and handed around to the actors on set.

Unfortunately, it was already too late to run through anything else tonight.

Ke Wei had people clear the table, then brought out the new board game she’d prepared after yesterday.

A few more people had gone off to rest today than yesterday, but quite a few new faces had joined in as well. Li Xingqing deliberately counted; there were still more than ten people.

She also noticed that Xi Zhen hadn’t shown up in the meeting room all afternoon.

That made Li Xingqing start wondering where she had gone. But after only two minutes, she felt ridiculous. What did it have to do with her where Bai Mo’s assistant had gone?

Everyone had their own work to do, and so did she.

The table was cleared quickly. The large tables that had been pushed together were split apart a bit because there were fewer people now, which made the seats feel even tighter once everyone sat down.

Bai Mo was still full of energy. He picked up the role cards for Three Kingdoms Kill and started having people draw.

Li Xingqing didn’t want to play, but she stayed to watch anyway.

Scriptwriting was different from novel writing, especially for someone like Li Xingqing, who worked on set.

Because she had to account for script revisions at any time, if she could understand the actors well, the script she wrote would naturally work better.

That was also why Li Xingqing had kept glancing over at Bai Mo these past two days.

She valued this hard-won job very much. She had paid such a huge price, almost staking everything to get here, so naturally she couldn’t let all her previous effort go to waste.

More importantly, she could tell that Ke Wei wanted the script to be better even more than she did. In this crew, striving for perfection wasn’t a burden; it was the bare minimum. Li Xingqing had a vague feeling that what she would gain this time would be far more than she had originally imagined.

Whether because of the draw or something else, this round of the game went on much longer than planned.

By the end, Bai Mo was almost ready to give up. He simply flung his cards onto the table and prepared to bring out the lord.

And yet the lord couldn’t be killed, and he couldn’t die either.

At last, it was Zheng Yuyu’s turn, and his luck was terrible. During the [Lightning] judgment, he drew the matching suit. Three points of health were deducted at once, and not even Hua Tuo’s miraculous hands could save him.

The game finally drew to a close; the rebels won. Bai Mo slammed his cards down and shouted that it was over at last.

Yes, finally over. Li Xingqing had been sitting for two hours; her back was sore and aching, so she decided to go out for a walk.

Once she stepped outside the hotel, the air was still hot, but it was much better than in the middle of the day.

Li Xingqing slowly adjusted to it, rubbed her numb lower back, and walked along the road beside the hotel entrance.

At ten o’clock at night, there were hardly any people left on D City’s streets. Aside from the barbecue stalls, where a few tables of diners were still sitting and eating, the rest of the area looked rather deserted.

Li Xingqing didn’t like crowded places. Walking along the small road now, she suddenly felt a sense of relief.

She was wandering aimlessly when a soft mew suddenly reached her ears.

What was that?

Before Li Xingqing could react, something furry suddenly darted out near her feet, startling her.

When she looked more closely, she saw that it was a cat.

The little black cat was very thin; its bones were visible at a glance, but it was incredibly affectionate. It circled around Li Xingqing’s feet and refused to leave.

Li Xingqing had no choice but to crouch down and rub the top of the black cat’s head.

“What’s wrong? Are you hungry?” Even though she knew the kitten couldn’t answer, Li Xingqing still asked.

Unexpectedly, this black cat really did seem as intelligent as the rumors said. Hearing Li Xingqing’s words, it meowed back twice.

“Are you really hungry?” Li Xingqing was a little surprised and rubbed its head a few more times. The kitten meowed again and nuzzled her palm.

It really does seem hungry, Li Xingqing thought. Unfortunately, after searching all over herself, she couldn’t find anything to feed it. After all, this afternoon she had also been the one waiting for other people to feed her.

Li Xingqing stroked the reluctant little cat and looked around. Just then, she spotted a convenience store.

“If you really are hungry, then follow me. I’ll buy you something to eat,” Li Xingqing said as she stood up.

The black cat seemed a little lost without her petting, but when it saw Li Xingqing start walking, it still followed close behind.

One person and one cat, one in front and one behind, made their way to the convenience store.

“Wait here. I’m going to buy you something to eat, okay?”

At the entrance to the convenience store, Li Xingqing pointed at the doorway and said to the little black cat.

The little black cat obediently straightened its front legs, tucked its hind legs under itself, and lifted its head high, sitting there like a dog.

Li Xingqing couldn’t help finding it a little funny and turned to go into the store.

At this hour, the only places still open were twenty-four-hour convenience stores like this one.

There was naturally no cat food, so Li Xingqing picked out some water, bread, and chicken breast.

After paying and stepping outside, before Li Xingqing could say anything, the kitten had already followed her over.

She opened the water, poured some into the bottle cap, and tore the chicken breast into strips.

Her earlier guess was right; it really was hungry. It drank several capfuls of water in a row before finally turning its head toward the chicken breast.

After she fed it the whole bag of chicken breast, the little black cat looked full and content, lying on the ground and exposing its belly to Li Xingqing.

Its round little stomach was puffed out now, and the fur on its belly looked softer and warmer than the fur on its back.

Li Xingqing reached out, scratched it, then pulled her hand back. In the end, she still couldn’t resist the other side’s deliberate display of affection and reached out again to rub it once more.

“You’re full, so I’ll head back now?” After giving the cat’s head one last rub, Li Xingqing took a wet wipe from her shoulder bag and wiped her hands.

The little black cat didn’t seem to react much to her leaving and still lay sprawled on the ground. Li Xingqing waved at it and turned away.

It was close to midnight. Thinking of tomorrow’s work, Li Xingqing touched her head and hoped the new draft wouldn’t cause any trouble for the time being.

She hadn’t gone far, and before long she was back at the hotel.

Bai Mo and the others were probably just finishing the game and waiting for the elevator. When they saw Li Xingqing, they greeted her.

“Teacher Li, out for a walk at this hour? Be careful out there.” Bai Mo stood in front of the elevator and asked after Li Xingqing, who looked as if she had just come back.

“Mm, thanks for the concern.” The moment Li Xingqing saw Bai Mo, she subconsciously thought of Xi Zhen.

She still hadn’t shown up. At such a late hour, was she still coming back?

All kinds of stories about women running into danger late at night suddenly surfaced in Li Xingqing’s mind, and worry rose in her chest.

Xi Zhen was so beautiful, and as an assistant, there was no way she should still be away from the crew at this hour unless Bai Mo had sent her on a business trip, right?

The more she thought about it, the more something felt off. Li Xingqing looked at Bai Mo beside her and was just about to speak.

Ding—the elevator arrived.

Everyone stepped inside, and the words Li Xingqing had been about to say were temporarily stuck in her throat.

As the elevator rose little by little, Li Xingqing, torn by her thoughts, still spoke in the end.

“Teacher Bai, I didn’t see your assistant today. Did she have something to do?”

Bai Mo was clearly baffled by the question. He blinked. “Assistant?”

Seeing his reaction, Li Xingqing grew even more anxious. If even Bai Mo didn’t know, could Xi Zhen really be in trouble? Her concern for this person gradually flooded Li Xingqing’s mind, and she said to Bai Mo, “Xi Zhen. I didn’t see her again after this afternoon.”

Hearing a familiar name, Bai Mo finally reacted.

“Uh, ah... ah, right, Xi Zhen really did have something to do.” Bai Mo’s tongue tied itself in his mouth, and he silently complained to himself.

How was he supposed to know what his sister was going to do? And why did she insist on saying he was her assistant for no reason? Great, now he even had to help her make up nonsense.

So she had something to do. Li Xingqing’s heart, which had been bobbing up and down uneasily, finally settled. Hearing Bai Mo’s explanation, she also felt a little awkward.

Bai Mo wouldn’t think she was strange, would he?

Would he?

Of course Bai Mo wouldn’t think that!

His mind was completely occupied by how Zheng Yuyu had kept going against him while they were playing just now.

Ding-dong—

The elevator reached its floor, and Li Xingqing was saved.

She hurriedly said goodbye and got out.

---

Over the next few days, Li Xingqing’s entire life revolved around the script Seal the Heart.

Ke Wei had very high standards. Although most of the lead actors in the crew were newcomers, they all took their work very seriously.

During the script-reading process, everyone repeatedly pored over the characters’ psychology in the script, and Li Xingqing followed along, revising the content again and again.

Rewriting a script was no easy task, especially when later revisions meant earlier sections had to be redone from scratch as well.

Li Xingqing was driven nearly mad by it; she could only make time to go out for walks at night and clear her head.

The little black cat she had met before used the opportunity to completely latch onto Li Xingqing. Every time it saw her, it would definitely come over and ask to be petted.

Li Xingqing also paid it a proper fee: a piece of chicken breast and half a bottle of water, and she could win herself an adorable cat that would obediently let her pet it.

One day, work ended late again, deep into the night. Li Xingqing hadn’t eaten dinner properly and was so hungry that her head felt a little light.

She casually grabbed a baseball cap and put it on before heading out.

The person in the room next door hadn’t come back for several days in a row.

Li Xingqing didn’t know whether it was just her imagination or something else, but she always felt that with Xi Zhen gone, even Director Ke Wei’s mood seemed a little off.

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help smiling. Really, she could connect anything to anything; what relationship could there possibly be between the director and an assistant?

But then she thought: why couldn’t there be a relationship between a director and an assistant?

The two thoughts wrestled in Li Xingqing’s mind. She shook her head and threw those bizarre ideas out of it.

She lived on the twelfth floor, so the choice for going downstairs certainly couldn’t be the stairs.

Li Xingqing stood by the elevator, wondering whether she’d run into Little Black soon.

Little Black was the name she had given the little black cat; simple and straightforward, exactly as it sounded. As someone terrible at naming things, Li Xingqing was quite satisfied with the name she had come up with.

It was nearly the end of September, and these past two days D City had been hit by a rainstorm, dropping the temperature by a few degrees.

Still, it could only be called cool; it had nothing to do with cold.

The bright lights in the hotel lobby had already been turned off, leaving only a few smaller ones. It wasn’t dark, but it was definitely not well lit.

Li Xingqing followed her memory toward the convenience store and, as expected, ran into Little Black along the way.

The moment they saw each other, Little Black started meowing, politely greeting Li Xingqing.

Li Xingqing bent down and stroked it a few times, then took it with her all the way to the convenience store.

After buying things, she gave half to the cat and kept half for herself. Sitting on the flowerbed by the road, Li Xingqing shared a late-night snack with Little Black.

The oden at the convenience store had probably been simmering for a long time; the daikon was full of flavor.

Li Xingqing finished eating, and before she could throw away the trash, her phone rang.

That familiar number was flashing on the screen again; Li Xingqing had known it was coming.

“Mom?”

“Qingqing, you’re still not asleep?”

Yin Yi asked a question she already knew the answer to. Li Xingqing didn’t say anything and answered in silence.

“You haven’t even called your mother these past few days. How have you been lately?”

“Very well.”

A truck happened to pass by the road, which had previously been almost empty.

The loud roar of its engine quickly caught Yin Yi’s attention; her voice turned cold at once, and her emotions seemed to surge out of control. “Qingqing, are you outside?”

It was a blunt question, and Li Xingqing really was outside. She had no way to deny it, and in the end could only offer a weak explanation. “I was hungry tonight, so I came out to buy something to eat. The convenience store at school is closed.”

“...Things outside aren’t clean. Never mind. Hurry back to school.”

“Okay. Goodbye, Mom.”

“Qingqing, don’t let Mom worry, all right?”

“...Okay.”

Author’s Note:

Xi Zhen: Why didn’t I appear in this chapter?

Li Xingqing: First day without my sister; I miss her~