Purr

Ever since the two of them came back, the livestream had resumed, and the barrage of comments had been filled with squeals the whole time.

[Ah, little cat! I can’t take it, how can she be this cute…]

[Look at that… the kid’s been so happy she’s gone a little silly, sob sob, I want Sister to feed me bread by hand too]

[Twisting into a worm… I suspect that if Nan Changgeng weren’t here, she’d be far less restrained than this (honestly, she’s kind of just like Xu Yang in a different way)]

[Oh my god, oh my god, little cat, what are you doing!]

[Does this count as acting spoiled? My heart is melting watching this, help, who could possibly resist this?]

[It’s obvious Sister Nan can’t resist; her eyes are completely blank, and she didn’t even notice that Yu Mao was mixing milk powder with cold water…]

Nan Changgeng only came back to herself when Yu Mao was already holding the cup and drinking.

Looking at the milk in the cup, only stirred a few times and still dotted with clumps, she couldn’t help making a hard-to-describe face.

But the girl had already drunk half the cup in just a few gulps; it was too late to stop her now.

After Yu Mao finished, Nan Changgeng suddenly said, “Can you make me a cup too?”

Yu Mao lifted her brows and looked at her. Her whole face seemed to glow with happiness; she nodded emphatically, very seriously. Picking up a bottle of mineral water provided by the program, she walked to the desk by the window and fumbled for the electric kettle to start boiling water.

Nan Changgeng opened her mouth, her feelings complicated. She murmured, “So you do know milk powder is supposed to be mixed with hot water…”

Yu Mao pressed the boil switch. At the sound, she turned back. “Warm water between forty and sixty degrees is best.”

“…” Nan Changgeng drew in a breath. “If you knew that, why were you mixing it with cold water?”

“I don’t need to use warm water. This is faster.”

To Yu Mao, eating was only a way to keep her body going; if milk powder was easier to swallow, she could even eat it dry.

But Nan Changgeng couldn’t. She had to have the best.

Nan Changgeng didn’t like lecturing other people, but at that moment she really couldn’t help saying, “You’re a little too careless with your own body. If you keep this up, you’ll ruin yourself.”

“It’s fine.” Yu Mao turned around and looked at her deeply. “I think there’s still time.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d heard a reminder like that, but it was the first time she had answered so seriously.

Unfortunately, Nan Changgeng didn’t understand. “Time for what?”

“To do what I want to do.”

Yu Mao was waiting for the last thing she could do for her, until she wore herself down completely; that was the meaning of her existence.

“You need a healthy body if you want to do things.”

Nan Changgeng sighed helplessly. She always felt as if she and Yu Mao were talking past each other, not even on the same wavelength.

Yu Mao agreed with a nod. “Changgeng, you have to stay healthy.”

“…” Nan Changgeng covered her forehead and let out a long breath.

Forget it. She’d pretend she hadn’t said anything.

Unlike her, who was only seeing Yu Mao’s thought process for the first time, the netizens were already used to it and had even started treating it like a joke.

[You can always see all kinds of different people around Yu Mao, only for them to be left speechless by her; didn’t expect her idol herself to be no exception, dying of laughter]

[Sister Nan, her brain is literally built around you. Hang in there! You’ll get used to it sooner or later]

[Is this funny? Even Teacher Nan can’t persuade her to take care of her body, and I just want to know who in this world could possibly control her?]

[…! I’ve just performed a smile-disappearing act live on the spot]

The kettle’s buzzing gradually faded, and a moment later it clicked off and went quiet.

Yu Mao concentrated fully, pouring the boiling water into the cup and mixing it with cold water to the proper temperature. Then she added the milk powder and stirred carefully until not a single lump or bubble remained.

A properly warmed cup of milk powder was finished and handed to Nan Changgeng.

“Thank you.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, she took it.

Yu Mao stared fixedly as she drank the milk down cup by cup, pacing back and forth as if there were needles under her feet. In the end, she even started bouncing in place, the fluffy hair on her head bobbing up and down.

She couldn’t smile; with one outlet for her happiness missing, the tide of joy inside her body had nowhere to go, forcing her to vent it through movement.

In reality, she looked almost comically neurotic, like an android with a slightly odd behavioral pattern. Nan Changgeng stared and stared, dumbfounded, the milk in her mouth almost forgotten; she accidentally choked.

Yu Mao froze instantly. She snatched a tissue and rushed over, wiping away the milk that had spilled from the corner of Nan Changgeng’s mouth, then wiping the suit pants that had been dampened by the drops.

She moved so quickly that Nan Changgeng barely had time to react.

Looking down, she could only see the top of a diligent head pressed against her knee.

“…Why are you kneeling again? Get up. You already fell once this morning.” Nan Changgeng hurriedly reached out to pull her up.

But Yu Mao didn’t get up. Instead, she shifted from kneeling to squatting, one hand still holding the tissue against Nan Changgeng’s knee. She lifted her head and looked at her with wide, watery black eyes. “Did the program team tell you I fell?”

Nan Changgeng paused. Before she could think of how to answer, her hand moved faster than her brain and pinched Yu Mao’s cheek.

The skin felt soft and smooth, though there wasn’t much flesh.

Yu Mao’s eyes widened a little more at once, those glossy black irises beautiful like a doll carefully made by someone’s hands.

…It really wasn’t on purpose; who told Yu Mao to lean in so close, and for her eyes to look so much like the cat she kept.

Feeling a little guilty, Nan Changgeng tucked her hand under her thigh to hide it and kept a serious expression. “Yes. The program team is worried about your health and wanted me to persuade you.”

“I said I’m fine, but they don’t believe me.”

Yu Mao lowered her eyes, looking somewhat regretfully at the hand hidden under Nan Changgeng’s leg.

Just one touch…

The shadow of disappointment caused by that tiny regret was interpreted by Nan Changgeng as something else entirely, and a trace of pity appeared in those gray-blue eyes. She actually reached out again and rubbed Yu Mao’s hair.

Yu Mao’s spirits instantly loosened. The numb, tingling feeling from the top of her head spread through her whole body, making her relax completely. She squinted in enjoyment, and a soft purring sound slipped unconsciously from her throat.

The hand on her head stopped at once.

She opened her eyes in confusion and met Nan Changgeng’s shocked gaze.

“You…” Nan Changgeng’s eyes flashed with surprise. She lightly touched Yu Mao’s throat and lowered her voice a little. “How are you making that sound?”

Yu Mao’s throat tightened. The numb itch spreading from that tiny patch of skin seemed to flood inward, blocking her vocal cords. After a long pause, she finally found her voice again.

“I don’t remember. It seems like I’ve been able to since I was little.”

Nan Changgeng was still immersed in delight and didn’t notice her unnatural silence. Her eyes curved with anticipation as she looked at her. “Can you do it again? I think it’s amazing.”

She rarely showed this kind of liveliness. Yu Mao’s heart began to tremble too; she swallowed unconsciously, staring into her smiling gray-blue eyes, and she also wanted to reach out and touch her head.

Suppressing the desire in her heart, Yu Mao carefully took Nan Changgeng’s wrist and placed her hand on top of her own head, then blinked at her, clearly hinting.

Nan Changgeng froze for a moment, and immediately hallucinated her own cat at home acting spoiled. Her heart softened; she reflexively rubbed Yu Mao’s head twice. Her hair was on the soft side; though it looked a little messy, the fluffy feel was actually quite comfortable.

Yu Mao closed her eyes and let out two more purrs.

Nan Changgeng seemed to understand. Amused, she used both hands to rub Yu Mao’s head, as if she’d acquired a new toy. “So it’s a passive skill.”

Yu Mao was rubbed so hard she swayed left and right, unable to squat steadily. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Nan Changgeng’s calf, leaning in close and resting her chin on her knee, purring with great enthusiasm.

Her nose was very close to the suit pants. She smelled a faint scent of sunlight mixed with laundry detergent; half rich and warm, half fresh and sweet.

Very much like Changgeng.

Her eyes nearly overflowed with tears, but she squeezed them shut and forced them back.

How much she wanted to freeze this moment, to stay on her knee like a real cat until she died peacefully.

This was the scene in her sweetest dream.

“Do you think you were really a cat in your past life?”

Nan Changgeng toyed with her hair, her fingertips brushing carelessly past her ear and cheek. The warmth of Yu Mao’s jaw against her knee spread through her skin almost instantly.

Actually, Nan Changgeng wasn’t used to being this close to a human body; if any part other than her palm was touched, that softness and warmth always gave her a physiological sense of rejection.

Maybe it was because the sensation was too unfamiliar, the closeness had exceeded the limit she could accept; or maybe a living person with thoughts was beyond what she could control, and would bring some kind of mental intrusion and pressure.

But Yu Mao strangely didn’t trigger her resistance.

She guessed it was because Yu Mao really was too small, and because she was lying there purring on her knee like a fragile little animal, not yet possessing the intrusiveness of a complete human being.

Nan Changgeng couldn’t help feeling a little sorry about that.

For the moment, she still couldn’t regard Yu Mao entirely as an independent human being…

“I don’t know.” Yu Mao thought about it carefully, but she was very confused. “If it was my past life, then it wasn’t me. What does it have to do with the me now?”

Nan Changgeng blinked, then burst out laughing. “You really took that seriously? I was just teasing.”

Yu Mao wrinkled her nose and tilted her head back to bump against Nan Changgeng’s hand, expressing her displeasure.

Nan Changgeng somehow understood what she meant. It was exactly like the way her own cat acted when it was upset and begging for food.

Unable to resist, she teased her a little and scratched under her chin. “Can you meow? Meow twice for me.”

Yu Mao glanced at her from the corner of her eye, cheeks puffing slightly, then followed her feelings and howled out a cat cry: “Miaow…”

“Oh…” Nan Changgeng’s heart skipped. She drew in a small breath. “You’ve been able to do that since you were little too?”

She was certain that if someone blindfolded them, almost nobody would be able to tell this apart from a real cat’s meow. She was even beginning to suspect that Yu Mao’s mother and father had raised her like a cat since she was a child.

“Yes. In my memory, I’ve always been able to.”

As Yu Mao grew up, she gradually lost many of her childhood memories; even part of her understanding of her own childhood came from a teacher who had looked after her in elementary school telling her about it when she was older.

That teacher had been very responsible. Noticing that Yu Mao was different from ordinary children, she had specifically gone to learn about her situation and even spoken with the aunties from the welfare home where Yu Mao had once lived.

The teacher probably knew more about her past than she did herself. After all, she had grown up all the way through, and her memories had been lost all the way too. She only remembered what she felt was important, making room for Changgeng instead.

Even now, she could still recall the clothes Nan Changgeng wore, along with their colors and accessories, on any day she had ever seen her.

Yu Mao lowered her eyes, pressed her cheek against Nan Changgeng’s knee, and sniffed lightly, her nose twitching.

Now, she could still remember the scent on Nan Changgeng’s body every single day.