On the third day after Lin Wanxing took in a stray ginger cat named Niangao, she discovered that Shen Zhiyu, the veterinarian who had just moved in next door, could somehow understand the cat’s “little schemes.” When Niangao scratched at her door in the middle of the night, he would knock and bring over some catnip: “It says it wants to sleep on the sofa with you.” When Niangao turned up its nose at its food, he would show up with homemade cat food and explain, “It thinks the food you bought is too salty.”
Beneath the shady trees of the old neighborhood, her sketchbook was always filled with profiles of Niangao and Shen Zhiyu. His medical kit, meanwhile, always held the lemon tea she loved. She helped him care for sick foster cats, and he repaired her leaky windowsill. Even Niangao began carrying “messages” between them, bringing her hair tie to his door and dragging his scarf to her feet.
But when Shen Zhiyu suddenly had to move away, and Niangao sat outside his door all night, refusing to come inside, Lin Wanxing finally discovered in the medical journal he’d left behind that ever since the day she’d run through the rain, struggling to carry Niangao, he had quietly written her into his plans for the future.
“Once I’m settled, I’ll bring Niangao and you home with me.”
