After waving goodbye to the two little kittens, Lin Lan’s expression grew serious as she pulled out her phone and started scrolling through the other company addresses she had come across while job hunting these past few days.
The company she was most interested in had already passed on her application, but of course, she still had to keep looking for other opportunities.
Inspired by this experience, Lin Lan had also come up with a clever new strategy to get a head start on gathering information.
She made another call home, letting her family know she might be out late and they didn’t need to wait for her to have dinner. After hanging up, she tucked her phone away, hopped on her little electric scooter, and headed straight for the location of the second company she was interested in.
Across the country, even in the busiest cities, stray cats were never in short supply. These little creatures were clever and adept at hiding, slipping through alleys and streets unnoticed by humans. Without even realizing it, they often picked up a lot of information.
Now that she could understand cat language, Lin Lan had no trouble using them to secretly gather intel on whether the companies she wanted to apply to were worth pursuing or not.
An afternoon passed — not too long, not too short — slipping away unnoticed by someone with things to do.
As autumn edged toward winter, the days grew shorter. The sun set early, and one by one, the streetlights in the city flickered on, illuminating the streets that had already lost the daylight.
After working two extra hours of overtime, Cheng Fengyang finally wrapped up his day. He got into his beloved Mercedes and, like most people heading home, started driving back.
As he steered the car, he chatted on the phone with his buddy, shouting across the airwaves, “Oh man, after a whole month of hard work, I finally nailed it with the client! I’m dead tired! Let me tell you, making a living is no joke! I don’t even know how many times I revised their blueprints or how many trips I made to that house. The lady there said she was buying a place for her son and his wife, but her demands were even more ridiculous than the daughter-in-law’s. Every time I went, those two would be at each other’s throats. The bathroom had to be designed in some avant-garde style, the living room walls had to have peony wallpaper symbolizing a happy family but couldn’t look tacky. The weirdest part was the bedroom — she wanted it split into two rooms: one for the couple, one for the kid — but it couldn’t block any sunlight from the balcony…”
Having closed the deal, Cheng Fengyang let loose, venting nonstop about the torment he’d endured lately.
His phone’s speaker crackled with his friend’s laughter, a hearty “ha ha ha” that showed no sympathy at all: “Isn’t that just how it is? These days, the client’s always king. You just gotta serve them well. Besides, you’re already a seasoned pro in the industry. The fee you got for this job must have been pretty good, right?”
“That’s true,” Cheng Fengyang sighed, “but making money is still tough. Just thinking about how I’m still single, don’t even know where my future wife is, and might have to support her someday — it feels like a heavy weight on my shoulders.”
“Get lost!” The speaker spat out venomously, “You, a second-generation demolition kid, whining here—don’t you have any shame? Don’t think I don’t know your family made a fortune from demolition over a decade ago, snagging four apartments. Your dad even swapped two of them for big commercial shops downtown. The rent alone brings in more monthly income than some people make in a whole year!”
“Cough, but that’s my dad’s, not mine,” Cheng Fengyang said weakly. “Besides, I’m not an only child; the inheritance isn’t just mine.”
“Have some shame!” Yao Gang on the other end of the phone snapped again. “You only have two siblings—just you and your sister—and she married out early. Your parents even transferred one apartment to her as security. The rest will all be yours eventually! And here you are, trying to play the victim. Want me to tell your sister so she can come back and give you a good beating?”
“Don’t stir up trouble, Yao Gang. My sister and I get along great. If you try anything, I’ll rat you out to your girlfriend for secretly buying a VR game console worth thousands a few days ago!”
“Cheng Fengyang, you sly devil, you wouldn’t dare!” The other side sounded flustered.
“Please, please. You stab me in the back, I stab you in the front. Brothers who knife each other stay close.”
Chatting with his buddy, Cheng Fengyang turned the steering wheel, and the car veered onto another street. It was a shortcut home, but since both sides of the street were still half under construction and it wasn’t a main road, there weren’t many pedestrians passing through.
As the car turned onto this narrow lane, Cheng Fengyang paused.
“The streetlights are out?” The street was barely finished, with only a few scattered lamps standing here and there, barely enough to light the way. It hadn’t been noticeable before, but now with all the lights off and high construction barriers looming on both sides, the alley looked pitch black.
But it didn’t bother him much. Switching on the Mercedes’ high beams, the dark road ahead instantly lit up for quite a distance.
Then he noticed he wasn’t alone on this road. There was someone riding a small electric scooter.
“Why’s she riding without lights on in this pitch dark?” Cheng Fengyang muttered to himself. Under the bright high beams, he clearly saw the rider was a woman wearing a helmet and dressed in a professional outfit—clearly work attire. Riding solo through the night, he couldn’t help but sigh, “Life’s tough for everyone.”
Lin Lan was feeling down at the moment.
That afternoon, she had ridden her scooter to visit three companies she was considering. Two of them happened to have stray cats nearby, and although the third didn’t have strays, the surrounding shops kept cats. She had spent some effort quickly gathering some recent news about these companies.
One company was in the middle of layoffs—since firing employees directly meant paying more severance, they were deliberately provoking staff to quit on their own;
Another company’s job postings promised one set of benefits, but the reality was completely different. They advertised a five-day workweek but actually required six days with only one day off, and the perks were slashed by nearly half. They often forced employees to work overtime without paying for it;
The last company’s system wasn’t really the problem; it was just that the boss had developed an inappropriate relationship with a female employee. Yesterday, the boss’s wife unexpectedly showed up at the office and caught them red-handed. Apparently, it caused such a huge scene that neither of them showed up at work today.
Lin Lan: “……” Although she had long suspected that job hunting was full of pitfalls, running into so many back-to-back was really exhausting.
After all the hassle, night had already fallen. Remembering she had promised to bring something tasty for Xuehua, Lin Lan rode her little electric scooter home, by now it was completely dark.
Taking a shortcut, it seemed like even the heavens were deliberately making things harder—there wasn’t a single streetlight on.
Going around wasn’t an option. After all the detours she’d made today, her scooter didn’t have much battery left. To avoid the embarrassment of having to push it home, she didn’t even dare to turn on the headlight. Now, she cautiously and slowly rode along the narrow road.
Until a car appeared behind her, its bright high beams cutting through the darkness. Lin Lan’s tightly wound nerves relaxed a bit, but she still instinctively edged her scooter toward the side of the road to let the car pass.
But the car didn’t speed up. Instead, it slowed down to a steady pace, following behind her—not overtaking, nor crowding her. The bright headlights just happened to illuminate the road right in front of Lin Lan.
Was this… someone lighting the way for her?
The unexpected kindness from a complete stranger made Lin Lan glance back, only to be blinded by the harsh glare and forced to look forward again. Under such strong light, it was impossible to make out the driver’s face, or even what the car looked like.
She stopped worrying about it and simply sped up, wanting to get through this stretch of road as soon as possible. The car behind her matched her speed and kept following.
And so, the little scooter and the car moved silently and in perfect harmony, one in front, one behind, until they passed through the pitch-black road.
Once they reached the brightly lit main road, Lin Lan was close to home. As she turned onto the bike lane, she glanced back at the kind stranger’s car now on the main road.
What she saw made her eyes widen in surprise. Under the streetlights, the car’s deep blue Mercedes-Benz was fully visible. The car quickly sped up and soon left Lin Lan far behind, allowing her to catch a glimpse of the license plate, confirming it was the same car she’d seen that morning.
She recalled how the driver had been teasing his dog with a pack of “Wang Zhuang Wang” cigarettes at the traffic light earlier. Coupled with his earlier kind gesture, Lin Lan’s feelings grew complicated as she continued riding her scooter.
Soon, she saw the speeding car slow down again and turn into the gate of a high-end residential community across the street. The security guard raised and lowered the barrier, while Lin Lan arrived near her own apartment building.
“So, he lives in the community opposite,” she muttered, stepping off her scooter and staring at the gated entrance. Then she turned around, wheeling her scooter into the underground garage.
It was already very late. Her stomach was protesting loudly. Better hurry upstairs and eat.
Lin Lan felt like she was cursed. Ever since that day, every attempt to find a job had been a dead end. Every company she liked turned out to have some kind of problem.
For several days in a row, things were just like this, leaving her so frustrated that she didn’t want to go out at all. She curled up on the sofa with the big white cat at home and complained to her parents, “Mom, Dad, what kind of nonsense is this?!”
Lin Youyu understood his daughter’s anger but also felt a bit helpless. He tried to comfort her gently, “Lanlan, why don’t you just skip job hunting for the rest of the year? Wait until after the New Year, when the job market picks up again.”
“You’re just too picky, that’s why you can’t find a job,” her father said, but it was her mother who didn’t hold back. Wang Xiuzhi bluntly added, “Some of those company disputes you’ve been digging into aren’t unbearable. You just get unhappy the moment the company you like isn’t exactly what you imagined.”
“I’m not that picky!” Lin Lan protested, annoyed by her mother’s criticism. She stroked the cat a little harder. “I’ve already lowered my salary expectations. I just want a quiet, easy job. Is that really too much to ask? Snowflake, do you think I’m wrong? Grandma just keeps nagging me every day. I’m so pitiful.”
She looked down and pleaded her case to the cat. The big white cat immediately meowed at Wang Xiuzhi, as if standing up for Lin Lan.
Wang Xiuzhi watched this with a mix of irritation and amusement. “So now you’ve teamed up with Snowflake to gang up on me!” she said, though no mother could truly be indifferent to her child. “If you can’t find a job you like, then don’t be so picky. Just like your dad said, stay home for the rest of the year and try again next year. Besides, the Lin family isn’t exactly hurting for money.”
Lin Lan sighed and put on an innocent act, “I guess that’s all I can do.”
And just like that, Lin Lan officially became unemployed.
As autumn deepened and the temperature dropped, she found herself sleeping in until nine or ten in the morning every day, sometimes skipping breakfast entirely and waiting straight until lunch. But this lazy routine lasted only two days before her mother put an end to it with the “blanket-flip” method.
“Do you think I’m still going to spoil you like when you were in school? Get up! If you’re not working, then you’re coming with me to do chores!” Wang Xiuzhi ordered without mercy. “The porridge is warming on the stove. After you eat, help me strip all the bedsheets and duvet covers. We’re washing everything today and hanging it out to dry!”
Lin Lan dragged herself out of bed and obeyed, filling her stomach before quickly joining her mother in the housework.
At this time, her father had gone downstairs to check the shop, and her grandmother was at the senior center practicing dance. So it was just the two of them at home... oh, and the big white cat.
“Meow—” As Lin Lan carried the freshly stripped duvet cover toward the balcony washing machine, she heard Snowflake’s call.
“Going out to play, huh?” She stopped and looked down at the cat at her feet. “Remember to come back for meals, okay? I’ll make you some cat food.”
“Meow!” Snowflake’s tail shot straight up, a clear sign of happiness.
Lin Lan smiled at this. “You think my cat food tastes especially good? Better than Grandma’s? Don’t let her hear you say that, or she might stop making it for you.”
“I already heard that.” Wang Xiuzhi, apron tied tight, glared fiercely at her daughter. “I ask you to do some chores, and you start making up stories about me. From now on, all of Snowflake’s cat food is yours to prepare!”
That’s just not right!
Lin Lan hurriedly changed her tone. “Snowflake, come here! Grandma’s upset, you better go charm her!”
Wang Xiuzhi had thought her daughter was joking. Just as she was about to laugh and tell her to stop using the cat as an excuse, she saw Snowflake actually trotting over. The cat rubbed against her affectionately, meowing softly—a sound so tender and coaxing that Wang Xiuzhi immediately lost her temper.
“You little clever thing.” She scooped up the big white cat into her arms. Despite her words of complaint, the middle-aged woman clearly adored the cat. “Why do you only listen to that girl, Lan Lan? She brought you home, but I’m the one who’s fed you the longest.”
Seeing Snowflake completely win over her mother, Lin Lan breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed the bedsheet, rushing toward the balcony.
Compared to Grandma Lin’s balcony, which was full of various vegetables, Lin Lan’s family balcony had, apart from the two pots of greens Grandma Lin had pointed out earlier, only cat grass specially grown for Snowflake. The grass showed signs of being nibbled, growing unevenly here and there.
After stuffing the bedsheet into the washing machine and starting the wash cycle, she heard from the living room that her mother had finished her intimate bonding session with Snowflake and was even holding the door ajar for the cat to slip outside for a stroll.
With the cat gone, Wang Xiuzhi looked a bit wistful, mixed with a hint of resentment as she glanced at Lin Lan. “You’re hardly home all year round, so why is Snowflake so close to you? And why does she listen to you so well?”
“Maybe it’s because she’s just so understanding,” Lin Lan said boldly, “She knows I’m her lifesaver—she’s special.”
After all, if she admitted she could understand cat language, everyone around her would just think she was joking and then heap on a bunch of teasing.
“Hmph.” Even now, she had to endure her mother’s cold snort and eye-roll.
The chores still needed to be done. Mother and daughter first went to Grandma Lin’s house to help change the quilt covers and sheets, then returned to their own home to do the same. Since Lin Lan had just come back recently, her room didn’t need fresh linens, so they changed her parents’ bedding.
While helping to remove the quilt cover, Lin Lan was about to take off the bedsheet she had set aside when she noticed her mother, who was sitting and removing pillowcases, suddenly stop midway.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Lin Lan asked, puzzled as she waited to grab the bedsheet.
Wang Xiuzhi said nothing, simply pulling off the pillowcase entirely to reveal the pillow inside.
The pillows at Lin’s home were latex ones, favored by the Lin family because they never lost shape no matter how much they were used. Anyone who had bought such pillows knew they had rows of tiny holes all over them. But now, with the pillowcase removed, Lin Lan could clearly see those tiny holes were stuffed with pink little slips of paper.
Hmm... no, that was a mistake—it wasn’t just pink slips of paper.
They were pink bills.
Wang Xiuzhi reached into the hole and carefully pulled out a tightly folded bundle of compressed paper. As she unfolded it bit by bit, a crisp one hundred yuan bill came fully into view before the mother and daughter.
And the small hole stuffed with pink paper bundles remained full, nestled within the pillow stuffing.
The room suddenly fell into a heavy silence.
Lin Lan looked at her silent mother, unable to help but silently mourn for her elderly father downstairs.
