Li Feili found a cat on the road. The cat couldn't remember who it was, only that his scent was wonderful, like a pine forest after snowfall.
He talked to the cat the whole way. He told it about someone named Xu Miao, about how that person's eyes curved when they smiled, and how they'd promised to come back for him. The cat didn't understand, but whenever he mentioned Xu Miao, it rubbed its head against his palm.
He didn't know if the cat was Xu Miao. The cat couldn't remember a thing. Guided only by a faint instinct, it had dragged itself from somewhere far, far away, barely alive, to his side.
Later, the cat died. As Li Feili touched the tiny scar on its left ear, he discovered the whole truth of what he'd missed.
He sat on a flower-covered cliff, holding a porcelain urn in his arms. The wind lifted the petals and scattered them everywhere. He buried a letter beneath the roots of the flowers.
There was only one line in the letter.
"There is nothing to offer in these mountains, so I send you a sprig of spring."
Spring had arrived, but it was too late.
You had come back long ago. I just recognized you too late.
Theme: A little kitty saves the world.
