Kittens Love to Eat Fish

Lin Lai has been unable to hear for twelve years. She was only twelve years old when the car accident took away her hearing twelve years ago. The doctor said it was traumatic deafness and the possibility of recovery was very low. Her parents cried for a month, but she didn't cry. Because she discovered that after losing her hearing, the world became quieter and brighter. She could see the curvature of the curtains blown up by the wind, the trembling of the cat's tongue when it yawned, and the shape of its mouth that opened when her mother called her to eat - that shape was beautiful, like a flower blooming. She began to draw. Draw the way her mother calls her, draw the smoke exhaled by her father when he smokes, and draw the orange cat in the yard of her hometown - its name is Yu, because when she was a child, she asked her mother: Kittens love to eat fish, so what do fish eat? Her mother smiled and held her in her arms: Fish like to eat kittens. She didn't understand that sentence. But she drew the fish over and over again. Now she is twenty-four years old and has opened a small cat cafe at the end of Huaishu Lane. The store is small, with only three tables, and a few cats always lying on the windowsill. The fattest one is only orange and is still called a fish. Her world is quiet and full. There are cats, paintings, and the sunlight falling on the painting paper at exactly three o'clock in the afternoon. And that person—— When it came, she didn't know. All she knew was that one day she looked up and found a man sitting by the window. Wearing a gray sweater, with a glass of water in front of him, he didn't move, just looked at her. She walked over and placed a small card on his table: What would you like to drink? He glanced down at the card, then up at her, his mouth moving. She understood the mouth shape. What he said was: Can't you hear? She nodded. He was silent for a while, then took out a notebook from his pocket, tore off a piece of paper, wrote a line and handed it over: "I'm a hypnotist. As a professional habit, I always want to use sound to solve problems. But it doesn't seem to work for you." Lin Lai looked at that line of words and couldn't help but smile. She wrote under his piece of paper: "Then what are you going to do?" He took it and read it, and laughed after reading it. He wrote: "By writing. I am very slow, please wait for me." That was the first time Lin Lai noticed Zhou Zhi. Later she found out that he had gone to the wrong door that day. I was going to the flower shop next door to buy flowers for my mother, but I opened the door of the cat cafe. Later she learned that he came every day because he "wanted to see you paint." Later she found out that he ordered a cup of grapefruit tea every time he came - because when he first came here, she recommended grapefruit tea to him, and he thought that was her preference, so he kept ordering it. She didn't tell him that it was the cheapest item in the store. She was just afraid that if he stopped drinking, he would stop coming. The store was quiet that afternoon. Several cats were sleeping at her feet, and fish were squatting on the windowsill to bask in the sun. She sat behind the bar and drew pictures of the sycamore trees outside the window. Zhou Zhi sat in the same seat, with the cup of grapefruit tea that had long since cooled down in front of him. After she finished the last stroke, she looked up and found him looking at her. It's not the kind of secretly looking, it's the kind of looking that's open and honest, with light in the eyes. She walked over, sat down opposite him, and pushed the notebook to him. It read: "Isn't it boring that you come to see me paint every day?" He looked down, then took the pen and wrote a line: "When you draw, you squint your eyes and scratch your chin with the pen cap. When a fish passes by your feet, you rub it with your toes. When the sun shines on your face, you stop and close your eyes for a while." He pushed the notebook back. Lin Lai looked at those lines and was stunned. She turned another page and wrote: "You observe so carefully?" He took it and wrote: "It's not observing. It's seeing." He paused and added: "Everything I've seen, I'll remember." Lin Lai held the notebook and said nothing. The wind outside the window blew in and messed up her hair. She didn't move. She just looked at the last line of words over and over again. Then one day, the fish was lost. She searched the whole alley and found nothing. She stood at the door for a long time, long enough for the sky to darken and long enough for someone to lightly touch her arm. She turned her head and it was Zhou Zhi. He holds the fish in his arms. The fish nestled in his arm, squinting his eyes, feeling extremely comfortable. He freed one hand, took out the notebook from his pocket, turned to a certain page, and handed it to her. Above are the words he had written in advance, stroke by stroke, as neatly as a student: "It ran to the school for the deaf and lay on the window sill of my classroom to bask in the sun. I recognized it immediately - because it was exactly the same as the one in your painting." Lin Lai stared at the line of words for a long time. She thought of the fish she had drawn countless times - the fish lying on the windowsill, the fish rolling in the sun, the fish squatting at the door of the cat cafe waiting for her. She has painted so many times, who should she show it to? She doesn't know. But she knew he saw it. That night, he helped her hold the fish and walked back to the cat cafe together. The street lamp stretched the shadows of the two people very long, and she suddenly wanted to ask him something. She took out her phone and typed: "You are a hypnotist. I can't hear, and you can't hypnotize me. So what are you going to do?" He took the phone and called for a long time. A line of words popped up on the screen: "Hypnosis is using sounds to make people fall asleep. But sometimes, people don't need to fall asleep." "What is needed is to wake up." Lin Lai looked at the words and didn't understand. He typed again: "Before I came here, I couldn't sleep well every day. There were sounds in my head and I couldn't stop. The first time I walked into your store, you smiled at me and poured me a glass of water." "That afternoon, I sat by the window and watched you paint. You painted very slowly, the sunlight was very slow, and the cat walked very slowly." "I suddenly became quiet." He handed her the phone. She looked down, then looked up and met his eyes. The street lights were shining in his eyes, like two stars. She typed: "So I was not hypnotized by you. I was hypnotized by you...?" He took the phone, smiled, and wrote: "You were seen by me." Lin Lai stood there, holding the phone and not moving for a long time. The wind is blowing and it's a bit cool. The fish screamed in her arms. She looked down at the fish and then up at him. Then she raised her hand and drew a kitten in his palm. Next to the kitten, a fish is drawn. He froze for a moment, then smiled. That night, the two people stood under the street lamp, neither of them speaking. An orange cat lay in her arms, purring. She couldn't hear it, but she could feel the vibration. It came from the palm of my hand. It comes from the words written one by one. It comes from his words "You are seen by me". Concept: When a cat cat meets him, my silent days are filled with tenderness