8:30 AM, the first day of the Lunar New Year.
"Wei Yan, thank you for taking the New Year's Eve shift! I'll take over for the day, you should hurry home and rest!"
The company, with only a skeleton crew on duty, welcomed the shift change. A colleague, also part of the unlucky few on holiday duty, arrived and immediately began handing over work to the night shift staff.
Finally off work, Ms. Wei let out a deep sigh of relief. With dark circles under her eyes, she finished briefing her colleague and offered a weak smile. "I'll leave everything here to you. I can't take it anymore, I need to go sleep."
"Are you okay?" her colleague asked with concern, quickly handing her a bag containing a scallion pancake and a cup of soy milk. "I brought you some breakfast. You should eat a little before you go?"
"Thank you." Exhausted from the night shift, Ms. Wei had no appetite. She only drank the still-warm soy milk in one go, regaining a bit of energy before saying goodbye and leaving.
She swiped her card and stumbled out of the company building. A male colleague watching her leave sighed sympathetically. "Wei Yan really drew the short straw."
Before the holiday, the company had drawn lots to decide the Spring Festival duty roster. Among the few unlucky ones picked, Wei Yan was the only woman.
Working overtime during the Spring Festival, even with triple pay, sometimes couldn't soothe the frustration, especially when pulling a night shift.
Ms. Wei, that is, Wei Yan, worked for an internet company. The software developed by the company in recent years had become hugely popular, keeping all employees very busy, particularly the programmers. It was a place where women were used like men, and men were used like beasts. Working all-nighters was commonplace, and even the rare female coders weren't spared, as evidenced by the lack of leniency for female staff during the holiday duty assignments.
But this also meant the company was profitable and doing well. The boss wasn't stingy, knowing how hard his team—who faced the daily risk of balding—worked. Salaries and benefits were generous. Everyone worked in a state of bittersweet exhaustion.
"So tired..." The moment she boarded the subway, Ms. Wei let out a soul-weary sigh.
Very few people were commuting during the Spring Festival. At this hour, many were still buried under their quilts. Not having to squeeze into a crowded subway was probably the most comforting thing for Ms. Wei at the moment. The relatively empty train car also allowed her to relax completely.
As the train started moving, the engine rumbled. Ms. Wei tilted her head back, staring blankly at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, her eyes and expression completely vacant. It was hard to say if her spirit was wandering elsewhere or if she was simply numb.
This was her normal work state. There was nothing to complain about; at least the salary was substantial.
Just like her family—an ordinary family of four. Her parents worked from dawn till dusk to earn money and raise her and her younger brother. Wei Yan grew up ordinarily, advanced through school ordinarily, and started working ordinarily. She never considered herself particularly outstanding, nor did she feel inferior to others in any way.
It wasn't until later, when her brother, two years her junior, got married and her parents used all their savings to buy him an apartment without even mentioning it to her, that she finally realized her status in the family wasn't as high as she had imagined.
Wei Yan didn't complain. Her parents had never treated her poorly growing up, and she never had conflicts with her brother. It was just that her heart suddenly felt a bit emptier, and she grew more confused about the world.
After that, she worked even harder, becoming a better programmer and landing a better offer—her current job.
After several years of relentless effort at this company, she had saved up several hundred thousand yuan, wanting to buy a place of her own in Xicheng. When her family learned of her plan, they were supportive, saying straight out that once she bought the apartment, they would also try to scrape together some extra money to help with the renovation.
This year's year-end bonus was also quite generous. If she didn't prefer buying a property outright, she could have gone to look at places and paid a down payment last year.
Life was clearly going quite well, yet Ms. Wei felt an emptiness in her heart.
She didn't enjoy socializing, didn't like dressing up, and at home just wanted to lounge like a salted fish without moving. She couldn't be bothered with the time-consuming and effort-intensive pursuit of romance; reading code was much easier than picking a man.
The only thing that brought her joy was watching the numbers in her bankbook grow higher and higher after her hard work.
If a person's heart is like a field, then hers was probably a bit barren?
Although not completely empty, at most it was overgrown with weeds. That's what Ms. Wei thought.
[Next stop, XXX Station. Doors will open on the right. Please prepare to alight...]
The announcement sounded in the carriage, indicating it was her stop. Ms. Wei shouldered her backpack again, lowered her head, and exited the subway.
Outside, the sky was already bright. The streets around 9 AM were still not very crowded. A cold wind carrying a few flakes of fine snow blew, jolting away most of the drowsiness she had cultivated on the subway.
A new year...
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Ms. Wei took it out and saw it was a call from her hometown. She silently pressed answer and held it to her ear.
[Sis! Happy New Year!]
It was her brother's New Year greeting call.
"Yeah, Happy New Year... I'm doing fine here. I was on the night shift yesterday, a bit tired... Company rules, nothing to be done. Making money is always tiring... I can't make it home for New Year's, so you and your wife take good care of Mom and Dad..."
[Okay, Sis! I know! Did you get the New Year's goods we mailed you before the holiday? Remember to cook and eat them! Earning money is important, but your health is too. Don't push yourself too hard!]
"I will. Thank you for sending the New Year's goods, they're all things I like... Next year? Don't know if I can make it back next year either. It all depends on the company..."
Mindful that she had just finished a night shift, the other end of the line didn't chat for too long. At the end, they urged her to go home and sleep soon, saying she could call their parents in the evening. The call soon ended.
Ms. Wei stared at the now-black phone screen for a moment before stuffing it back into her pocket.
"A new year..." She breathed a warm puff of air into her hands to heat her icy fingers, then started walking again.
Leaving the subway, she turned right at the intersection ahead. The place she rented was right across the street, just a few hundred meters away—very convenient, and one of the main reasons she had chosen and rented it. Although the building didn't have an elevator and required climbing stairs, its other amenities were excellent: clean, safe, and the landlord lived downstairs, always responsive if there was any trouble.
Like that time with the big cat that broke into her place at night to steal food, or that other time when she made a somewhat presumptuous request to change floors...
"Meow!"
While walking, a shadow suddenly darted out from the greenery beside the path, startling the daydreaming Ms. Wei and making her take a step back.
Looking closely, it was a grey-and-white long-haired cat. It stood squarely a few steps in front of her, not running away, but staying put and meowing at her again.
"Meow!"
Its little voice was quite pleasant, but Ms. Wei noticed its eyes were fixed intently on the bag containing the scallion pancake dangling from her wrist.
...So it was begging for food.
Wei Yan hesitated for a moment before opening the plastic bag. The egg pancake, which had been sitting out for a while, was long cold. The fragrant aroma it had when her colleague handed it to her was gone, but that didn't mean the little creature at her feet couldn't smell it. The cat's meows grew more urgent and louder.
"I don't even know what you can eat..." She rummaged through the rolled-up pancake and found a hot dog sausage split into two strips. "You should be able to eat this. It's yours."
The sausage, dabbed with a bit of ketchup, was picked out and placed before the stray cat, who immediately began devouring it ravenously. The sheer force of its eating even startled Wei Yan.
It must have been hungry for a long time.
Fine snow began to fall from the sky, sprinkling like stars onto Miss Wei's face and settling into the stray cat's messy, long fur. The cat trembled slightly from time to time. Miss Wei, who had originally intended to leave, felt her heart soften. She took off the backpack from her shoulders.
"Wait a moment, I remember I have a fish sausage in my bag." What kind of mental worker doesn't need energy replenishment? Miss Wei's bag naturally contained snacks. After rummaging, she found it was the last one left; the rest were things like chocolate.
She tore open the packaging of the fish sausage and offered it to the cat, who accepted it without hesitation, eating everything given as if trying desperately to fill its stomach completely.
Is it okay for it to eat so voraciously? Did I overfeed it with just two sausages?
Miss Wei had no experience keeping pets. Her parents and relatives had never kept any at home either. In her memory, only neighbors would pour leftover rice and porridge into bowls for cats and dogs. It was only after moving here and seeing the landlord keep many cats that she heard cats shouldn't be overfed.
Feeling like her good intentions had backfired, this programmer girl shrank her neck, swiftly shouldered her bag, and prepared to flee the scene.
Just as she had walked some distance away, a series of "meow-meow-ya" sounds came from behind. The cat was chasing after her, calling out as it ran, its voice jostled and scattered by its hurried pace.
"Meow-meow-ya~~" The grayish-white long-haired cat called out and soon overtook Miss Wei.
Then, it flopped down horizontally right in front of her feet, rolling over to expose its belly to her.
"Meow!"
The first day of the Lunar New Year, the first day of the new year.
Miss Wei had been claimed by a cat.
"Stop following me!"
Walking to the intersection, crossing the zebra crossing, navigating past numerous road barriers, the grayish-white long-haired cat stubbornly trailed behind Miss Wei.
"How can you be like this, you cat!"
Even when Miss Wei had reached the stairwell entrance of her building and had climbed a flight of stairs, the cat was still chasing after her heels.
Miss Wei felt a hint of the same frustration she'd experienced last time when a large cat broke in at night to steal food.
Meanwhile, in the old Lin residence on the third floor above, Lin Lan was forced awake, sporting a pair of panda-like dark circles under her eyes.
As expected, she hadn't slept well last night. Finally managing to doze off a little, she was brought back to consciousness by a feeling of suffocation on her chest and around her nose and mouth. Opening her eyes, she saw a cow-patterned cat clinging to her head, sound asleep. Then, curled up on her chest and abdomen were two black cats and one Siamese. The cats sleeping in various postures on either side of her were not even worth mentioning; lifting the quilt, she could find several cats, big and small, who had crawled in at some unknown time.
Lin Lan: "..."
She was wrong. It wasn't that there were many cats on the bed; clearly, she was the extra one.
"Up, up, everyone up!" Feeling she could no longer let them waste her precious sleep-in time, Lin Lan mercilessly roused all the little kittens. "Go play in the new house, all of you! Breakfast will be ready soon!"
Hearing "breakfast," the little cats who had planned to pretend to be asleep or deaf quickly stood up. Lin Lan was treated to a sudden display of various kitten yawns and stretches.
"Meow!" (Lanlan, breakfast!)
"Meow!" (I want to eat last night's meal again!)
"No way!" Manager Lin was cold and ruthless. "That was a New Year's Eve special! You can only have it once a year!" Of course it was delicious. Last night's cat meal cost four figures just for the ingredients. How could it not be fragrant?
The kittens weren't disappointed because Lanlan mentioned later that during the Spring Festival, they would be supplied with Old Zhou's family's baked fish jerky, which was also very fragrant.
Wanting to catch some more sleep, Lin Lan couldn't be bothered to change clothes. She threw on a thick cotton-padded jacket and herded the cats towards the new house next door, where a heated carpet was already prepared, so the cats wouldn't get cold.
Just as she opened the door and walked into the corridor, she heard Miss Wei's voice from the fourth floor coming from the direction of the stairwell.
"Don't follow me, don't follow!"
"I never planned to keep a cat. Find someone else!"
Lin Lan's half-drowsy eyes suddenly lost all sleepiness. She strode towards the stairwell.
Just as she reached the stairwell entrance, she saw Miss Wei's legs already climbing to the fourth floor, and a few steps behind, a grayish-white long-haired cat chasing after her.
"I told you not to follow me... Sigh... Sigh...!" Miss Wei's voice trailed off into a tone of utter frustration.
The cat, having followed her up to the fourth floor, was still meowing at her: "Meow—"
That particular meow made Lin Lan's expression at the stairwell turn rather peculiar.
Miss Wei finally surrendered: "Alright, fine, I'll keep you. I'll keep you, okay? Come in then, sigh..."
Lin Lan stood there, hearing the soft sound of a door opening and closing, followed by silence. Lin's father, who had come out to look after seeing the door left open in the old house, spotted his daughter and walked over. "What are you doing?"
He was met with his daughter's face, a mixture of suppressed laughter and gossipy delight. "Dad, Miss Wei upstairs is about to become a Cat Grandma."
