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It wasn’t possible to go home.

The mother cat was very dirty and couldn’t be taken home directly. When Lu Qi took her, he didn’t even dare pick her up directly, and instead removed his coat and wrapped her up completely. Even so, the back of his hand was still greeted for a moment.

He had rescued many cats, and could see that the mother cat had a skin disease. The hair in some places had fallen off and the skin had started to become red, swollen, and ulcerated. The four kittens were in pretty good condition, even chubby, and their meows were strong. They seemed to be saying: As long as they had a mother, they were not stray cats.

Lu Qi had to take them to a pet hospital for a checkup.

He asked Mu Nanqiao to help hold the cat carrier, because he wanted to use the spare time to repair his own umbrella. Unfortunately, the small yellow umbrella he bought for one yuan with the Pinduoduo new user discount was truly broken, its ribs snapped.

With a sigh, Lu Qi gave up on the small yellow umbrella.

Looking at the sky, the rain would only get heavier. Lu Qi glanced at Mu Nanqiao with some embarrassment. “Then, can you lend me your umbrella? I’ll return it to you when I get home in the evening.”

Mu Nanqiao: “No.”

Lu Qi: ……

Mu Nanqiao watched as Lu Qi’s eyes widened little by little, the words written all over his face: Is it really okay for you to be so heartless, my neighbor?!!

It was really such fun to tease Lu Qi. There was a small smile in Mu Nanqiao’s eyes. However, if he teased him too much, he would lose more than he gained, so he stopped while he was ahead and took the lead in carrying the cat carrier.

“Where are you going? I’ll drive you.”

Lu Qi hurriedly followed in response, only to find that Mu Nanqiao’s back was wet from the rain. The soaked white shirt stuck to his back, and the smooth, undulating lines of his back muscles were faintly visible.

He couldn’t help but let out a wow.

Even though this wasn’t the time to think about it, he really was suitable for being a model.

Mu Nanqiao heard his exclamation and turned back in puzzlement.

Lu Qi quickly took two steps to stand beside him and covered it up with a cough. “Your clothes are wet. Is it because the umbrella isn’t big enough?”

As he spoke, he leaned against Mu Nanqiao.

The umbrella was actually big enough, but Mu Nanqiao didn’t say anything. Instead, he gave a hum and quietly watched Lu Qi cling to him like a kitten.

The black umbrella isolated a small space. The rain still lingered outside, but the body temperatures of the two people mingled inside the umbrella. Mu Nanqiao could smell the scent of Lu Qi’s body. It was the light smell of laundry detergent, not some expensive perfume, as clean and refreshing as him.

He wanted to make this section of the road longer, but both of them were tall and had long legs, so they could walk very quickly. Fortunately, after a moment, they would get into the car and it would still be just the two of them. 

Turning out of the alleyway, Liu Qi caught sight of a somewhat familiar Maybach.

Seeing Mu Nanqiao take out the key and unlock the doors, Lu Qi took a small, uneasy step back. “It’s not good to drive your boss’s car…..”

Chauffeur Mu-shifu: ……

He hesitated for a second between revealing and obfuscating, but still put the kitty family in the back seat, then opened the passenger door and motioned for Lu Qi to get in the vehicle.

“My boss is a very good person.” Mu Nanqiao felt that this was not convincing enough, so he added: “I work at Mu Group, and my boss is related to me, so his management is relatively loose…..”

It was his biological father. Of course they were related, so it wasn’t a lie.

It was really difficult to get a taxi on this section of road. Upon hearing what he said, Lu Qi no longer refused, and sat in the passenger seat obediently.

Satisfied, Mu Nanqiao went around to the driver’s seat and became the chauffeur.

Lu Qi lowered his head and fastened his seatbelt as the car left the alley, not forgetting to remind Mu Nanqiao: “It’s rare to have a good boss these days. Even if someone has a lenient attitude, it’s not good to mess around just because you’re a relative. But I really have to thank you this time! If I hadn’t met you, I don’t know how long I would have had to wait to get a taxi.”

Mu Nanqiao hummed absent-mindedly and abruptly changed the topic. “Did you go to secondary school in Shanghai?”

Lu Qi didn’t know why he suddenly asked this, but it wasn’t a difficult question to answer. He shook his head: “No, I went to school in Yuncheng.”

Mu Nanqiao frowned.

“But I came to Shanghai once in my freshman year.” Lu Qi added: “I came to Hengjin Secondary School for a competition and stayed here for two days.”

Thus, his frown relaxed again. Mu Nanqiao stared at the traffic ahead, but couldn’t help focusing on Lu Qi. “Did you enjoy your two days at Hengjin?”

Lu Qi froze, and it was unknown what he remembered. He blinked his eyes, and after a moment, turned his head to look out the car window. “I had a pretty good time. The competition went well. I heard that one of the participants originally scheduled by Hengjin was unable to participate due to illness, and he was replaced by a substitute…..that didn’t work out well, so we ended up winning the championship.”

He recalled that Mu Nanqiao should also have been studying at Hengjin at that time, but Mu Nanqiao didn’t have a good life when he was a schoolboy, so he didn’t want to talk about this topic anymore. He pointed to the intersection ahead and said: “Wait and turn left.”

As expected, Mu Nanqiao said nothing.

Only, Lu Qi didn’t see the flash of regret in his eyes.

It would be great if he and Lu Qi had first met on the playing field under the spotlights. Meeting their match, they would cherish each other.

It was a pity that it was in a place like that, and Lu Qi encountered him in such an embarrassing situation. 

If he didn’t remember, then just forget it. For Lu Qi, it may not be something worth remembering. There was only a pure, clean light in his memory, a young boy who only remembered winning first place in the competition that year.

But Mu Nanqiao always remembered that light leaking through the darkness, and the hand that reached through the ventilation window, with a blue and white deer bracelet loosely tied around the wrist.

. . . . . . .

When they arrived at the pet hospital, the mother cat and four kittens were given comprehensive examinations. There was nothing wrong with the kittens, but there was actually some glue on the mother’s body that took a long time to clean up. Finally, the mother was given an intravenous drip and sent to the observation box.

She was very clever, and seemed to realize that Lu Qi was helping her. When Lu Qi took the kittens away from her, she just stared at him quietly with green eyes and finally gave a soft meow.

The veterinarian sister said that she was less than a year old and not old enough to be a mother. Lu Qi rubbed the cat’s little head with his fingers, and she purred in a well-behaved manner.

“She’s still a baby…..” Lu Qi sighed, and whispered, “Don’t worry about the kittens, leave them to me!”

The veterinarian on the side was already acquainted with Lu Qi. When she saw him talking to the cat, she couldn’t help but smile softly: “Xiao Lu, can you really communicate with cats, ah? No matter how ferocious the stray cats are, they behave so well when they see you. They won’t let anyone touch them except you. Why don’t you come to our clinic and do nothing else, just be responsible for appeasing them.”

“Okay, I’ll pet cats on the public’s money,” Lu Qi replied with a smile. Then he picked up the box with the four kittens and thought about business: “I’ll go pay the medical bills.”

“They’ve already been paid.” The female veterinarian pointed to Mu Nanqiao outside. “Your boyfriend paid them for you.”

Lu Qi subconsciously looked in the direction she pointed. Outside the glass door of the hospital, Mu Nanqiao was holding an umbrella in one hand, the corners of his black coat fluttering in the wind. His face was expressionless, his handsome features cold and indifferent. If he was carrying a metal-ensconced suitcase in his hand, he would look like the classic assassin in an American movie.

But what he was carrying was a large shopping bag with a cute cat’s head printed on it, and a cat-teasing stick with the bell sticking out, jingling to the rhythm of his long legs.

The moment he met Lu Qi’s gaze, his indifferent fox eyes lit up. He smiled and raised his hand to let Lu Qi see the shopping bag he was holding, and silently made an “it’s settled” sign.

The veterinarian: “Look, your boyfriend is back from buying milk powder.”

Lu Qi’s face turned red and he waved his hands repeatedly. “No, this is my friend.”

“Oh~~” The veterinarian nodded meaningfully. “There is definitely room for development. Just now you were playing with the cat, but he was staring at you the whole time. His eyes were very focused, tsk, tsk…..”

While talking, the female veterinarian thought of someone and rolled her eyes. “He’s better than the idiot you brought last time. His impatient expression the whole time and his motions when swiping the card at the end were really greasy.”

Mu Nanqiao was already coming over, and Lu Qi warned the veterinarian in a low voice, “Don’t mention that person in front of him.”

He simply felt that Mu Nanqiao didn’t want to hear anything about Lin Yuan, but the veterinarian gave him an “I understand everything” look.

Lu Qi: ……

What on earth do you understand, ah?!

Mu Nanqiao came over and nodded to the female veterinarian, then opened the bag and showed it to Lu Qi. “I bought everything on the list. Can you see what’s missing?”

There were a number of the smallest syringes, milk powder, changing pads and other cat supplies, all neatly packaged in the bag, along with colorful strips of cloth to distinguish between the several kittens.

“There’s nothing missing.” Lu Qi sighed. “This is called provisions going before the troops move forward, and what follows is a tough battle. I suppose I won’t be able to sleep for a while.”

Mu Nanqiao had heard from the young girl at the front desk that such un-weaned kittens required getting up in the middle of the night to feed them. The milk powder could not be brewed too hot or cold, making them as difficult to take care of as human babies.

He knelt and reached down to play with the meowing kittens in the box. In fact, he was not very interested in such fragile little things, but they had come at the opportune time.

“I can help you take care of them,” Mu Nanqiao said. “Days one, three, and five, they can stay at my place. You take two, four, and six?”

“That won’t work.” Lu Qi crouched beside him and looked at the four squirming cat bugs, one black, one white, and two calicos. ”Frequent changes in environment are not good for cats. Besides, it’s not good to bother you, ah. Fortunately, I decide my own working hours, so it’s no trouble to take care of them.”

Mu Nanqiao: “If it’s really not good to change the environment, then I…..”

He realized something and stopped what he was going to say, turning his head with a cough.

Lu Qi tilted his head and looked at him. “What is it?”

Mu Nanqiao: “It’s nothing.”

He almost blurted out that he could go to Lu Qi’s place to take care of the kittens, but suddenly realized that their relationship didn’t seem to go that far. 

Lu Qi: “But…..why are your ears so red?”

“Maybe I’m too hot.” Mu Nanqiao stood up. “I’ll go outside and get some fresh air.”

After walking around the corner, Mu Nanqiao took out his mobile phone and sent a WeChat message to his assistant.

[Look up an internet celebrity named 90° Right Angle Bend]

Assistant: [Okay, Boss. What am I looking into them for?]

Mu Nanqiao sent an emoji: [kitten holding a knife.jpg]

The caption: All must die!

The assistant: [Understood]

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Chapter Twelve << Table of Contents >> Chapter Fourteen