Zou Zeming sighed as he recalled the small black cat who used to live under an abandoned shrine. It was a pitiful little thing that everyone used to bite and scold just because they thought that she was the harbinger of bad luck.
" She had fur darker than the sky of the night with no moon," stated Zou Zeming as he looked at Xua Ying Yue. " People around my house thought that she was the cause of everything that happened wrong with them. So if they met with bad luck they would come to the shrine and hit her. In the beginning, her eyes were filled with the desire to crave warmth but then they slowly turned cold. The little cat turned to distrust humans, every time someone approached her whether their intentions were good or bad, she would hiss at them and even injure a few."
He hooked the side of his lips which showed off his dimple as he continued, " I sometimes wonder if I had given that little cat help at the right time maybe she would have never turned wild." As he spoke his gaze dropped and he looked at Xua Ying Yue's hands which were covered with gloves.
Xua Ying Yue sensed his gaze and her eyes darkened before she pulled her hands off the table and stared at him coldly. She then said, " You are wrong. If you have helped the little cat then it would have developed a sort of dependence on you. What's the point of helping her once and twice when you can't help her to the end? You would have only broken her heart."
Zou Zeming looked at Xua Ying Yue before he burst out laughing. He patted the table with his palm and then looked at Xua Ying Yue, mirth dancing in his eyes before he solemnly spoke, " Who said I wouldn't have, maybe if the cat had accepted my help? I would have stayed with her till the end."
His words caused Xua Ying Yue's heart to feel stifled, she looked at Zou Zeming wanting to see whether or not he was joking but he looked serious. Seeing his serious look Xua Ying Yue panicked but then she calmed down and looked at Zou Zeming before saying calmly, " Then you are bound to get hurt."
After she was done speaking, Xua Ying Yue picked up her things and did not wait for Zou Zeming to get up from his seat, she paid for the meal and then stepped out of the restaurant leaving Zou Zeming behind.
Zou Zeming continued to sit in his chair and then looked at Xua Ying Yue who was walking away at an even pace. He shook his head before picking up the chopsticks on the table and taking a bite of the crayfish that he had peeled earlier for Xua Ying Yue.
" How pitiful you are Zou Zeming," he murmured as he chuckled softly.
….
Xua Ying Yue did not care about Zou Zeming though his words lingered in her head for quite some time she forced herself to stay calm. She knew well enough what it meant to depend on someone else, didn't she hope for someone to come and help her when she was at her lowest?
What happened then? Did someone come to save her?
No. She was alone back then.
And she was still alone.
As Xua Ying Yue was strolling down the streets, she looked around the undeveloped buildings that were boarded up. Maybe it had to do something with the change in the economy of the country but the people of this small town seemed to be moving to big cities at a considerably faster rate. Xua Ying Yue had been here for less than a month and she had already seen more than ten families moving out of the M city.
" Xiao Huang, you had three days to move out of the house. I cannot do this anymore, you haven't paid your rent for more than three months and your wife and sons also left you ages ago. I am not trying to be heartless but you have to understand that I am also trying to make a living here," a gruff voice called out from the corner of an alley causing Xua Ying Yue to turn around and look at the direction of the voice.
Xua Ying Yue turned around, she saw a middle-aged man standing over a young man on the ground. From the looks of it, the man was drunk and didn't seem to be aware of his bearings, his things were scattered all over the ground as he tried to get off the floor and beg in front of his landlord.
" Please give me a few more months, I promise that I will bring you the rent," the man named Xiao Huang tried to beg, his hands clutching the legs of the landlord causing the latter to curse out loud.
" You said this last week and then the week before that, no this is it. You get your things and leave, I am going to put this place on rent for someone who can pay for it," the middle-aged man shook his head and then pulled his leg off from the man's grip. " I hope you will stop creating trouble, I will not be helping you anymore if you end up being thrown in the police station this time."
With that, the landlord turned to leave while the man on the ground continued to look around in a daze. Xua Ying Yue walked out from the dark corner where she was standing and then slowly squatted beside the drunk man. She gently pushed the man on his shoulder and asked, " Are you sober?"
Xiao Huang was indeed sober even if he was not completely fine, he could still understand what was happening around him. Feeling a gentle push on his shoulder, he raised his head and looked at the young girl around seventeen or eighteen squatting next to him.
Seeing that he was able to hear her, Xua Ying Yue tilted her head and then asked with an innocent expression, " Mister, are you a criminal?"