Chapter 83: Yuyuan?
Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Yuyuan?
Jiang Xia effortlessly tugged at her heartstrings, and a blush crept up Lin Yanwan’s face in the twilight.
She ducked into the shadows, not wanting Jiang Xia to see her burning-hot face. She huffed lightly. "Such sweet talk. I’m not some eighteen-year-old girl. I’m not going to be cheered up by one of your cheesy pickup lines."
Jiang Xia smiled silently. He knew his wife was a tsundere and didn’t call her out on it, playing along with her. "If one isn’t enough, I’ll give you a hundred. I’ll keep going until you’re happy."
"Then go on!"
Jiang Xia suddenly stopped walking. His gaze sharpened as he looked around. "Babe, do you smell something?"
"Huh?" Lin Yanwan sniffed the air doubtfully, saying in confusion, "No, I don’t."
"You don’t? Then why is the air all around you so sweet?" He took a deep breath and, as if by magic, produced a rose from behind his back.
"A beautiful flower for a beautiful woman. This is for you, my lady." Jiang Xia smiled, presenting the rose to her with a gentlemanly flair.
Lin Yanwan’s heart felt as sweet as honey. She took the rose from his hand, suddenly too shy to meet his gaze.
"Hey, when did you buy this?" she asked, lowering her head to gently smell it.
"I didn’t buy it. I just plucked it from a flowerbed as I passed through your community," Jiang Xia said with a grin.
"Be careful, the security guard might yell at you."
"They won’t. The security guards can’t see that flowerbed," he said with a laugh, giving her soft, delicate hand a gentle squeeze. "Are you a little happier now?"
"Just... a ’b’-it."
"A ’bit’ or a ’billion’?"
"A bit! The first one!"
Lin Yanwan gave a tsundere sniff. She wasn’t going to admit it, no matter what.
"My dear, being a tsundere is so outdated," Jiang Xia suddenly whispered, leaning close to her ear.
Flustered, she squeezed his hand tighter. "The first one! It was the first one! No, wait, now I’m not happy at all!"
"I can fix that."
"It’s already gone!"
Seeing that she didn’t get what he meant, Jiang Xia couldn’t help but burst out laughing. ’Oh, well. I’d better stop teasing her.’
’She’s so smart, but she turns into a ditz when it comes to romance.’
’It’s an adorable kind of ditziness, though.’
Hearing his loud laughter, Lin Yanwan was baffled. ’Did I fall into one of his traps again?’ she wondered. But after thinking it over, she couldn’t find anything amiss.
"Want to walk around?"
"Mhm."
They held hands and slowly walked on. As Lin Yanwan held the rose, she noticed that he had carefully removed every single thorn from the stem, just so she wouldn’t prick her hand.
The sweet feeling in her heart deepened just a little more.
Before they knew it, they had arrived at a night market not far from home. It wasn’t large, but it had all the essentials.
They passed by the shouting food stall vendors, and Jiang Xia bought two bowls of ice jelly from an elderly gentleman. It was the perfect thing to eat on a summer night—it quenched your thirst and cooled you down.
Jiang Xia asked, "Want to go play some ring toss?"
Lin Yanwan glanced at a nearby stall. It wasn’t large, but it was crammed full of little trinkets. She wasn’t interested, though.
"No, it’s a waste of money."
"Alright."
Jiang Xia sighed. ’There really isn’t much to do for fun these days, other than surfing the internet.’ But these two, having been reborn, had long grown accustomed to fine flour; how could they possibly stomach coarse bran? A stroll under the moonlight as a couple was far better than a trip to an internet cafe.
After finishing their ice jelly and taking a casual lap around the night market, the two prepared to head home.
But just then, Lin Yanwan suddenly heard a meow. Amidst the cacophony of the night market, it sounded incredibly faint.
"What’s wrong?" Jiang Xia stopped and turned to look at his wife, who had frozen in place.
"Shh..." Lin Yanwan put a finger to her lips and whispered, "There’s a kitten meowing."
Jiang Xia knew how much his wife loved cats. Sometimes, when she saw a kitten in a shop, she couldn’t resist stopping to play with it. He strained his ears to listen, but all he could hear was the clamor of voices and the sizzle of stir-frying.
"Are you sure you heard it?"
"I’m absolutely, one hundred percent positive! I just heard it right here." Lin Yanwan nodded emphatically, pointing at the strip of shrubbery in front of them.
Jiang Xia didn’t doubt his wife’s cat-sensing abilities for a second. He finished his ice jelly in a few quick mouthfuls, tossed the bowl into a nearby trash can, and started making soft "pspsps" sounds. Hunching over, he switched on his phone’s flashlight and began searching through the bushes.
"See anything?"
"Not yet. It’s not responding to my calls, either. But this patch of greenery is pretty big, so it might have run off and hidden somewhere else."
Jiang Xia pursed his lips and then said suddenly, "Babe, speaking of which, do you remember Yuyuan?"
Lin Yanwan froze for a moment. Yuyuan was the cat she’d had for ten years; of course she remembered.
She remembered the winter break of her sophomore year. The two of them were heading home together and had stopped at this very night market for a bowl of noodles when they encountered a scruffy stray cat begging them for food.
Jiang Xia had only given it a few of his leftover noodles, but the cat started following them and didn’t stop until they reached the Brocade Splendor Community.
It was clearly a ploy to latch onto them for good. At the time, Lin Yanwan couldn’t bear to push the poor thing away. So, after a quick discussion, they decided to adopt it. They ended up having it for ten years.
"Are you saying... this could be Yuyuan?" Lin Yanwan’s eyes immediately lit up.
"It’s just a guess," Jiang Xia said after a moment of thought. "Yuyuan was already an adult when we found her, and we never knew how long she’d been a stray. But what if she used to survive in this night market on people’s leftovers? This could be her as a kitten. Of course, it could just be some other cat."
"I’ll help you look!"
Without another word, Lin Yanwan finished her ice jelly and joined Jiang Xia, hunching over to search through the shrubbery.
"Yuyuan~ Meowth~" she called out softly.
Jiang Xia gave her a strange look. "We don’t even know if it’s a calico. How can you be so sure it’s Yuyuan?"
Lin Yanwan paid him no mind. She had a strong premonition that the kitten’s meow she’d just heard belonged to Yuyuan!
Unexpectedly, after her continuous "meow" calls, a soft little mewl actually answered her.
"Listen! Did you hear that?" Joy filled Lin Yanwan’s eyes. "That sounds exactly like Yuyuan when she’s being affectionate!"
Jiang Xia couldn’t tell the difference. To him, all kitten meows sounded more or less the same. Besides, this was a night market. There were plenty of strays around; the chance of it actually being Yuyuan was extremely low.
Lin Yanwan immediately followed the sound, but unfortunately, the meowing stopped after that single cry. The kitten must have grown wary of them.
She stared at the stretch of shrubbery. With the kitten hiding inside, it was practically impossible to find it.
"What do we do now? Yuyuan won’t come out."
Lin Yanwan turned to look at Jiang Xia.