The sky outside the window was gloomy and overcast.
In the villa living room, heated to the max, Cao Yuze leaned against the sofa, holding a photo album in his arms, staring blankly outside. He felt his mood was even worse than the weather.
The album lay half-open on his lap, revealing photos of him and an American Shorthair cat. There were pictures from his university days, holding a kitten no bigger than his palm; snapshots of him saying goodbye to the cat after graduation as he began learning the ropes at the family company; and bright, smiling photos of him at home, cheek-to-cheek with the feline... The most recent one was from just three months ago.
In that photo, the three-year-old silver tabby wore a cute birthday hat, standing upright while being held in front of a low table, its little paws resting on the edge. In front of it was a cat-shaped birthday cake with piped lettering that read: 【Happy 3rd Birthday, Weiwei!】
"How could it just disappear..." Cao Yuze murmured to himself, his eyes unfocused and filled with confusion. "I admit I've been a bit busy lately, but I told the servants at home to take good care of you... How could you just run away all of a sudden..."
Weiwei had been missing for a month. From the initial frantic search to the current state of dejected exhaustion, no one knew the torment Cao Yuze had endured during this time.
Just then, a woman slowly descended the spiral staircase leading to the second floor. It was Cao's mother. Seeing her son in this state, she immediately frowned and scolded with clear displeasure, "It's just a lost cat! Isn't a month of this fuss enough? If I'd known you'd be like this, I never should have agreed to let you keep that cat your classmate gave you in the first place. Obsessing over playthings saps your will!"
"..." Hearing the reprimand, Cao Yuze's eyes flickered, but he didn't turn to look at her, only tightening his grip on the photo album.
Seeing her son ignore her completely, Cao's mother grew even angrier, her voice rising a notch. "It's just a cat! Is such a little thing really worth moping around half-dead for?"
"Just a cat? It's different... Weiwei is different." Cao Yuze finally reacted, his eyes turning to her with a hollow intensity. "Mom, ever since I was little, you and Dad have never cared about anything in my life besides studies and work. To live up to your expectations and demands, I've been pushing myself relentlessly—top high school, prestigious university, violin champion, competition winner... all the way to managing the company now, competing for projects with other firms... Mom, I'm exhausted, do you know that? My classmates noticed and specially picked out a silver tabby from their family's cattery to give to me, hoping it would bring me some comfort. Yet my own parents never saw a thing. Isn't that laughable?"
Cao's mother felt a jolt in her heart under her son's gaze, but before she could speak, he continued in a hoarse voice.
"Mom, Weiwei stopped being just a pet to me a long time ago. It's been my emotional companion, the one thing that kept me going these past few years. Every time I was anxious, in pain, miserable, or even felt like dying, it was there with me. I can't understand it. Weiwei is just a cat. This house isn't so small that it can't accommodate it, is it? The cat food it ate each month probably cost less than a single accessory on your handbag. So why? Why did it just suddenly go missing out of the blue? Mom, tell me, why did Weiwei stay in this house for three years without ever running away, and then just happen to get lost this year?"
"What are you implying!" Cao's mother's voice turned shrill. "You think I deliberately got rid of the cat? Am I that bored and petty, to pick a fight with a cat?"
Seeing his mother's reaction and knowing her temperament all too well, Cao Yuze understood the real answer. He let out a laugh that was both bitter and sorrowful.
So that was why, no matter how hard he searched, no matter how many connections he mobilized for a city-wide hunt, not a single cat hair could be found. That was why every servant he asked at home—one, two, three of them—all gave vague, unclear answers. So it was like this.
How ridiculous.
After searching for a month and agonizing over it for another, the answer he had been most unwilling to consider turned out to be the truth.
"Mom, just because I refused to marry that young lady you picked for me—the one who's allergic to cat hair—you went behind my back and threw Weiwei away? Was it really necessary?" After a month, Cao Yuze had lost his patience and confronted her directly. "Am I so worthless in your eyes that you have to personally select and arrange a marriage partner for me, or else I won't find one?"
"What nonsense are you talking! I'm doing this for your own good, for the family's good!" Cao's mother retorted sharply. "What's wrong with the Huang family's eldest daughter? Her looks, education, temperament—where does she fall short? If you marry her, with the Huang family's support, do you have any idea how much it would help the Cao family? Her only flaw is an allergy to cat hair. Is it so hard for you to just overcome that and stop keeping a cat?"
Though her words never explicitly mentioned Weiwei's disappearance, Cao Yuze knew she had tacitly admitted it.
Once again, confronted starkly with a fact he had refused to acknowledge, Cao Yuze's heart suddenly stopped aching.
His Weiwei was a pampered pet cat, never having suffered outdoors. Then someone had deliberately abandoned it far away, and in a bitterly cold winter where even stray cats might not survive. A month had passed now, and Cao Yuze no longer held out hope that it could still be alive.
Now, he just felt that in his parents' eyes, he might not be so different from Weiwei.
"Mom, I am your son, not a toy for you to manipulate as you please." Taking a deep breath, Cao Yuze looked expressionlessly at his mother, his tone icy cold. "Whether I keep a cat, whether I get married, and who I marry—these are decisions only I can make. From now on, don't even think about controlling me anymore."
Closing the photo album, he dropped these words, turned, and walked straight out of the villa, leaving the shocked, angry shouts behind him.
The Spring Festival was just over ten days away, but Cao Yuze felt he couldn't stand another day in this house, let alone sit through a New Year's celebration together.
He had already risen to a senior management position in the company. Besides the company shares he received on his twentieth birthday, his grandfather had gifted him some last year. Coupled with the trusted allies he had cultivated within the company over the years, it wasn't impossible for him to challenge his father and seize more authority.
He was no longer a child who could only follow orders. The position of company decision-maker wasn't necessarily beyond his reach.
Driving the car out of the villa gates, Cao Yuze sat expressionless in the driver's seat, but his eyes were blazingly bright. The incident with Weiwei had made him realize completely: under the control of parents with such a strong desire to dominate, merely being a filial son would never bring him liberation.
As the car drove on, just as he was about to head towards another property he owned, his phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID showing Wang Jiayi gave him a momentary pause, but he quickly answered. The girl's voice immediately came through from the other end: 【Brother Yuze, I think I found your Weiwei! I uploaded and sent you a photo. Can you check if it's him?】
A few minutes later, the car made a U-turn at an intersection, veered onto the highway on another road, and headed directly towards West City.
Meanwhile, at the Cat Tea House, Lin Lan and her two employees were utterly bewildered.
"You're saying this cat is from the neighboring city?" Tang Xiaoya pointed at the American Shorthair Lin Lan had just brought out, her face full of disbelief. "You've got to be kidding. Even if a cat gets lost, it couldn't possibly end up in another city unless it started right on the city border."
But judging by this young lady's attire and the latest foreign-brand phone in her hand—a model not even released domestically yet—it only took a moment's thought to realize that someone who could be friends with her probably lived in a villa in the city center, right?
"I'm not lying. This really is my friend's lost cat. You all heard the phone call just now," Wang Jiayi pouted, clearly unhappy. "The reason it's called Weiwei is because it has a small V-shaped marking on its belly."
Lin Lan lifted the cat to check, and sure enough, there was a marking like that on the center of its belly. She then cradled the cat back in her arms and stroked its head. "Little one, you never mentioned your previous owner was from a wealthy family, did you?"
The American Shorthair lifted its head and meowed at her: "Meow—" (What would have been the use? There's no Xiao Yu's scent in this city; I couldn't find him. Besides, I got so dirty on the road that no one could tell what I originally looked like. No humans paid attention even when I tried to be cute. I was just lucky to find you willing to take me in.)
A heartbreaking tale of a pampered cat's wandering history. Surviving was an achievement in itself.
Thinking back to when the cat was first taken to the clinic, and the pile of extra medical fees Dr. Liu added on top of the usual charges, Lin Lan could only sigh inwardly. Compared to the two local stray cats, this American Shorthair really did need more care before it could join the tea house.
Now that its owner had come to take it back early, it was actually quite a commendable outcome.
While the three were talking, the door chime rang again.
"Welcome to the Cat Tea House!" x3
Lin Lan and her two employees greeted in unison.
"Whoa, you scared me!" a young man's voice immediately sounded from the entrance, tinged with laughter. "No need for such a grand reception for me, right?"
Hearing the voice, Lin Lan couldn't help but smile. Holding the American Shorthair, she went to greet him. "Cheng Fengyang, it's been almost two weeks! You finally showed up!"
Seeing the young woman holding a cat walk towards him with evident delight, Cheng Fengyang also broke into an involuntary, happy smile, though his words were a complaint. "Don't even mention it! It's all because of that client who made me miss out on barbecue with you last time. I solved his house problem, and then he said it was a 'test' and immediately shoved another urgent project at me—designing another house for him. It completely wore me out!"
After killing himself with overtime for half a month, he had finally shaken off that high-paying but utterly annoying client.
"I've already told the company I'm not taking any more projects until after the New Year. I need a break, I need a vacation!" Cheng Fengyang looked at Lin Lan and silently added in his heart, And I want to see you every day.
Lin Lan had been giggling throughout his story and finally spoke up. "Alright then, Mr. Designer finally on vacation, shall we go for barbecue tonight?"
"Nothing could be better. I've been waiting for half a month; I need to make up for it properly."
As the two chatted by the door, Tang Xiaoya inside the shop narrowed her eyes. She remembered this guy—he was the helper when the tea house first opened. The owner had said he was a friend. Now it looked like there might be something more going on.
As a leisure-oriented shop, mornings were generally quiet, especially on weekends when young people sleeping in were everywhere. Anyone who could leave their warm bed before nine in the winter already deserved praise for being tough.
Right now, the tea house had gathered five such 'tough' people. Apart from Miss Wang, everyone was wearing the tea house's standard aprons, creating a very uniform style.
And from their conversation, Cheng Fengyang learned the whole story behind the American Shorthair.
"You say the original owner of this stray pet cat is coming to get it soon?" Compared to the others' simple happiness about the cat going home, Cheng Fengyang's expression turned somewhat serious.
He swept his gaze around the interior of the tea house. During this time, a few more guests had trickled in. Some were just there for milk tea and snacks, treating it as a combined brunch, while others were already holding cats and taking various selfies.
"What's wrong?" Lin Lan asked, feeling both puzzled and concerned by his expression. "Isn't it good for the kitten to go home?"
"No, it's good. It's very good." After scanning the tea house, Cheng Fengyang turned back to Lin Lan. "Business has been pretty good for you lately, right? The regular weekend cat performances must have attracted a lot of repeat customers, haven't they?"
"Absolutely. I'm one of them, and now I even work here part-time," Tang Xiaoya chimed in first. "This tea house is really great. The snacks and tea are delicious, and it's so comfortable to just come sit and pet the cats whenever you have free time. Having repeat customers is totally normal, right?"
