You Need a Home More Than a Stray Cat

A torrential downpour on the spring equinox shattered the peaceful fortress that Lin Xiaoman, a socially anxious flower shop owner, had painstakingly built around herself. As she rescued a Ragdoll cat named Tangyuan, whose paw had been cut by glass, she accidentally smashed the expensive bone china coffee cup held by Cheng Yu, the cold-faced director of the neighboring Paw Paw Animal Clinic. Their first encounter was a complete disaster. Cheng Yu, an elite veterinarian with both a DVM and a PhD, scrutinized her with a gaze sharp as a scalpel. His icy remark, “A new way to abuse cats? How original,” struck like a hammer, leaving the flustered Lin Xiaoman unable to defend herself. Yet amid the shattered glass and splattered coffee, the gears of fate began to turn. The collar worn by Tangyuan concealed a coded tag that unexpectedly stirred Cheng Yu’s buried memories of the pain surrounding his younger sister. Lin Xiaoman’s awkward apology, delivered through a late-night cookie offering while wearing a strawberry headpiece; the community’s heavy-handed campaign to promote them as a “heartwarming couple”; and the trending “hug” photo snapped as they searched together for Tangyuan after the cat went missing again beneath a rain-soaked bridge, all became absurd ropes binding these two utterly mismatched souls ever tighter.