The spring sunlight was warm, bathing pedestrians in a comfortable glow. The flowers and plants in the green belts were blooming luxuriantly, and the vibrant, colorful street scene under the blue sky was a delight to the eyes.
However, Ms. Xiao's mood was the complete opposite of the day's weather—melancholy and gloomy. Her eyes were fixed intently on the daughter she was leading by the hand.
"Yaoyao, look, isn't the weather lovely today?" Though her heart ached, not a trace showed on the young mother's face. She spoke to her daughter with a kind, gentle smile. "We'll be at the subway station soon. Mommy will take you to the zoo to see the pandas. Are you happy?"
The girl she held, about eight years old, wore a cute denim pinafore dress. Her hair was meticulously braided into two pigtails, and both her hair and her round-toed leather shoes were adorned with pale yellow daisies. Paired with her jade-like, adorable little face, she could absolutely be described as exquisite and pretty.
But at this moment, the little girl showed no reaction to her mother's inquiry, not even a change in her facial expression. Her eyes stared straight ahead. Apart from moving forward out of inertia from being led, there was no other interaction.
It was as if she hadn't heard her mother's voice at all.
But Ms. Xiao knew the truth—her daughter Yaoyao did hear. Yaoyao was physically very healthy, especially since she had returned to the family and devoted immense care to her, and the child hadn't fallen ill even once.
But so what?
Physical illnesses are easy to treat; psychological ones are hard to cure.
The thought of how her daughter had transformed from a little angel who would jump and laugh into her current state over the past year felt like a knife twisting in Ms. Xiao's heart.
Once again receiving no response, Ms. Xiao merely pressed her lips together, suppressing the bitterness in her eyes, and continued talking to her daughter. "Yaoyao doesn't like the zoo, so you're ignoring Mommy? Then shall we change our plans and go to the botanical garden instead? You used to tell Mommy and Daddy that you loved the spring botanical garden most because it has the daisy flower beds you like. If you talk to Mommy now, I'll take you there, okay?"
No answer, no eye contact. The little girl only stopped when her mother did, but beyond that, there was no other reaction.
"Yaoyao still won't talk? Then Mommy will assume you don't want to go, and we'll stick to the original plan to see the giant pandas, okay?" Ms. Xiao held her child's hand and continued walking slowly forward. "The weather is so nice today; we'll get to see lots of animals. Not just giant pandas, but also lions, monkeys, ostriches, beautiful peacocks... Yaoyao, it's been so long since you last visited, right?"
Once again today, she was performing a monologue. But when you do something day in and day out for a long time, you eventually get used to it. So Ms. Xiao kept talking to her daughter.
"Which animal does Yaoyao like to see most? We'll go see that one first when we get to the zoo. Let Mommy guess... Is it the giant panda? Or the big tiger? Or maybe it's... Yaoyao!?"
Before she could finish, the little hand that had been obediently held suddenly broke free on its own. Her daughter, who usually resembled a quiet doll, started moving by herself, running forward.
After a brief moment of panic, Ms. Xiao immediately gave chase.
Soon after, she saw her daughter push open a door and rush into a shop.
A little girl with no adult in sight suddenly barging into a cat café, heading straight for the display window area without disinfecting her hands or putting on shoe covers, then slapping the glass wall and shouting loudly at the window—this instantly startled everyone in the café.
What was going on?
The little girl's series of actions were too fast and too sudden, so much so that Song Xinmin, who was closest, didn't have time to react.
"Meow! Yellow Meow!" She was still slapping the glass partition hard, her voice loud and the banging sounds sharp, directly frightening all the cats sunbathing inside the display window.
"Little friend, you can't do that..." Song Xinmin immediately walked over to stop her. Just as he was about to reach the girl, the bell on the shop door chimed again.
"Yaoyao!" It was Ms. Xiao, hurrying in.
Several minutes later, Yaoyao was held in her mother's arms, sitting face-to-face with the shop owner in a corner of the café.
"I'm so sorry, owner. My Yaoyao has caused you trouble. I don't know why she suddenly rushed in like that today." Hugging her daughter, Ms. Xiao kept apologizing.
Yaoyao, being held obediently, stared fixedly at the orange cat in Shopkeeper Lin's arms. The little girl's silent, expressionless, and intense stare at the cat made Lin Lan instinctively raise a hand to slightly shield Gentleman's eyes.
For cats, especially for one who was formerly a stray, direct eye contact often means a challenge to a fight. Although Gentleman, due to her training, was unlikely to unsheathe his claws, facing a child who was clearly not quite typical, Shopkeeper Lin thought it better to be safe.
Her action greatly displeased Yaoyao. The little girl's expressionless face showed signs of an impending tantrum. She reached out, trying to reach across the table to grab Gentleman. "Yellow Meow! Mine! Give it back!"
If her mother hadn't known her daughter might act out and hadn't been holding her tightly, Gentleman might have really had a patch of fur grabbed.
"Waaah—" Failing to get what she wanted, Yaoyao's crying and shouting erupted instantly. Her behavior was quite unreasonable. Lin Lan felt that if her mother weren't holding her, this child might immediately start throwing a tantrum on the floor.
"Yaoyao, don't be like that! That's not your Yellow Meow, it belongs to someone else!" Ms. Xiao expended great effort to finally calm her daughter down again.
The child's outburst drew Wang Jiayi and Song Xinmin in the café to unconsciously gather closer. Fortunately, there hadn't been a single customer that afternoon, or they all might have been scared away.
Even so, these two waitstaff, both actually graduates of prestigious universities, were frowning and watching the little girl intently.
"Madam... your child's behavior just now... seems indicative of autism?" Missy spoke up at this point.
Song Xinmin didn't speak but also showed agreement.
Not responding when called, not making eye contact, not interacting with others, focused only on herself, and being a child... in their understanding, this fit the symptoms of autism, or childhood autism, very well.
"She's not! My daughter does not have autism!" Ms. Xiao's shoulders trembled, and she hugged her daughter, almost reflexively refuting the claim. "Yaoyao is not an autistic child. She just closed herself off after a traumatic experience!"
Despite the rebuttal, tears began to stream down the mother's face.
"My child was perfectly fine until she was six... It's all my fault, it's mine and her father's fault for always being busy with our business and neglecting her care. That's why Yaoyao became like this..."
Perhaps eager to explain that Yaoyao was a healthy child with no problems, or perhaps simply wanting to confide in someone, Ms. Xiao told Lin Lan and the other two about her family's experience.
The Xiao couple ran a small business. They were a pair from out of town who had come to West City to make their living. At an age where their savings were neither substantial nor negligible, and with a child now in the picture, how could they afford to slack off? After opening their shop, the couple devoted themselves entirely to earning money to support the family. Although they dearly loved their child, time was always in short supply. To earn money meant they couldn't spend much time with her; to spend time with her meant they couldn't earn more. Weighing the family's future, the couple ultimately chose to focus on earning money.
Because of this, Yaoyao essentially grew up free-range.
Although her parents didn't spend much time with her, because they ran their own shop and were physically close by, the little girl didn't feel neglected. Plus, there were many neighbor children around to play with, so her childhood was quite happy, and her personality was lively and cheerful.
But perhaps precisely because she was raised too freely, it later led to a tragic accident.
One day a year ago, Yaoyao went out to play with the neighbor kids. This bunch of mischievous children actually ran off to a nearby abandoned construction site. When it grew dark and the other children returned, Yaoyao did not.
That night, the Xiao couple were nearly frantic with worry. They gathered the neighbors and even called the police, searching in the darkness for three hours. Finally, they found Yaoyao in an abandoned well, unconscious and still trembling.
From that day on, the once lively little girl, frightened by the ordeal, stopped speaking altogether. She closed herself off, shutting out the outside world.
"I truly regret it, regret why I was always so busy making money and didn't pay more attention to Yaoyao!" Mrs. Xiao sobbed mournfully. "If I had been more vigilant back then, paid more attention to the time, asked the neighbors one more question, she wouldn't have had to stay alone in that terrifying abandoned well for so long. She was only six years old then!"
But now, any words were too late.
"I stopped being so busy with the business, came home, and devoted myself wholeheartedly to accompanying Yaoyao, taking care of her, ensuring my daughter wouldn't encounter the slightest mishap again. But what does it matter? It's already too late..."
The grieving mother's confession made the three young people sitting across from her feel involuntarily sorrowful. But Yaoyao, held in her mother's arms, showed no reaction at all. It seemed that because the memory of that night was too terrifying, she had shielded herself by blocking out all emotions, including fear.
However, this child now had a reaction to Gentleman.
Thinking this, Lin Lan moved her hand away from covering the cat's head. As soon as Gentleman's face was revealed, the expressionless little girl became excited again and called out: "Meow! Yellow Meow!"
Once more, the little girl stretched out her hands, struggling within her mother's embrace, making a motion as if she wanted to hug the orange cat.
Watching her behavior, Lin Lan suddenly recalled all the words and actions from the moment the girl had rushed into the teahouse until they sat down to talk. A flash of insight struck her.
"Did Yaoyao also encounter a cat that night? A cat that looks very much like my Gentleman, which is why she mistook him for it." She spoke up suddenly. "After falling into the well, Yaoyao must have seen it at the mouth of the well and repeatedly tried to reach out and hold it!"
Banging on the glass wall, reaching over the table to grab the cat, even now still trying hard to stretch out her hands—it was all actually an effort to pull Gentleman into her embrace. It was as if she were back at the bottom of that abandoned well, straining to stretch out her arms, trying to tightly hold onto the only hope that gave her spiritual support.
"A cat...?" Mrs. Xiao's tear-filled eyes widened in surprise, her expression turning thoughtful as she searched her memories. Suddenly, as if remembering something, her whole body shuddered. "It seems... that night, before we found Yaoyao, we did hear a cat meowing near there. In fact, it was because it kept meowing that we were drawn to check that area."
As she said this, she couldn't help but cover her mouth, tears once again streaming down uncontrollably.
That pitch-black, helpless night—it turned out a cat had helped them find their child!
The hidden truth, buried for a year because the child fell ill upon waking, was now mostly unraveled today after her daughter encountered an extremely similar cat.
"Ms. Lin," Mrs. Xiao wiped her tears, looking earnestly at the cat in Lin Lan's arms as if seeing the hope for her daughter's cure. "Could you possibly part with this cat for me? I'm willing to pay any price!"
