CH 10.1

The last rays of sunset fell below the horizon, night fell, and outside, below the hospital, the streets lit up with dim yellow lights.

In the early 90’s, the infrastructure of the big cities was not perfect, the lights in the darkness were sparse, sometimes bright, sometimes dark.

On the windowsill, the gray spotted cat’s round head dipped up and down, feeling so bored that it counted the streetlights with its paw.

Outside of the building, the main street was as bright and expansive as during daytime, going farther, row upon rows of streets rose and fell. In this period, there were hardly any high-rise buildings, and the lights shone through each house’s windows in spots.

There were also very few night stalls, but the number of people lined up were many. Bai Xia Xia tried hard to see clearly what the hawker from the stall at the west side of the road was selling, since there were so many people lined up.

Her neck extended very long, the remaining back half of her little body was blocked by the curtain, and only half of her head managed to get out of the window seam.

Vertical pupils that belonged to cats lit up in the darkness, Bai Xia Xia thought, If it’s something tasty, I’ll dupe Guo Chao Ming into buying a portion tomorrow… “Peng!”

“Ah!”

A scream accompanied by the sounds of people stumbling and falling and colliding into things were extremely penetrating in the night. Bai Xia Xia jumped from the scare, narrowing her eyes to find out that a person had fallen headlong into a flowerbed, their hand was also tremblingly pointing in the direction of the hospital.

What? A ghost?

Bai Xia Xia was also scared out of her wits, hearing that a person yelled that he saw a ghost, the fur on her whole body exploded.

“Meow~” She did not believe in supernatural beings, but the problem was that she herself had already transmigrated here. What if there’re really ghosts… Bai Xia Xia swiftly ran down from the window, jumping onto Song Bei’s lap without a thought.

Military green color, a mature and steady old colonel, righteous enough to not be afraid of ghosts!

Bai Xia Xia did not know though, that just as she ran away, the figure that got up looked with fear and trepidation at the window on the second floor.

It was dark and void of anything, he screamed, frantically crawled out of the flower bed, and ran away like the wind, even occasionally turning back his head to look at that window…

“What happened outside?” Song Bei did not have Bai Xia Xia’s hearing, adding on that that person’s flustered cry was vague, he was not able to hear the words clearly.

Bai Xia Xia hurriedly shrunk her head, holding up her little paws on top of Song Bei’s lap, then burying her head under the two paws: “It has nothing to do with me, I’m only a cat… ghosts scare people, don’t scare cats… don’t get the wrong target…”

Song Bei curiously looked at the Persian cat that suddenly took the initiative to jump onto his lap???

There were cats that liked people, and there were also those that did not like people. Bai Xia Xia’s personality was very strange, Song Bei had not deciphered it yet. This cat is extremely smart, for it to suddenly be close with me, it’s not normal. Looking at its bristling fur, and that it isn’t letting other people see its face, is it… spooked out?

Guo Chao Ming pulled open the curtains and looked outside, there seemed to be some people downstairs that were pointing to the windows in their direction.

If it were normal people, they would not care for sure, but Song Bei and the others were from the military. Because of occupational reasons, they were particularly sensitive to some matters, so after hearing what Guo Chao Ming had said, he glanced at Bai Xia Xia, and then immediately told Guo Chao Ming to go down and see.

In her heart, Bai Xia Xia was a bit surprised by Song Bei’s alertness, maintaining her defensive posture with her round head covered, her cat ears were flat against her fur, her state of mind had been shaken by that shrill and scary scream.

She did not understand the public security situation in Tong City, and even though she roughly knew that this period was chaotic, she had never experienced it, so there was literally no way for her to comprehend it. Song Bei’s vigilance, it was natural.

After recuperating from that moment of panic and hair-numbing experience, Song Bei’s lap felt very secure. Mm, a big boss from the army, the green-colored sense of security that comes from national justice.

She looked at her surroundings, feeling that with four soldier gege present, the ghost would undoubtedly not appear here! To be safe, she held her position with her furry paws, lying on Song Bei’s lap unmoving, Song Bei did not move either, letting Bai Xia Xia lie on him.

When Guo Chao Ming came back, the expression on his face was a bit weird, he first lowered his head to look at the Persian cat that had already gotten into the role of an idling farmer, the expression on his face seemed to be like he wanted to laugh, Song Bei frowned: “Something the matter?”

Bai Xia Xia sneakily glanced at Guo Chao Ming, and when Guo Chao Ming’s gaze ran over, she instantly lowered her head to count the number of floor tiles, her paws restlessly moving.

“Cough, cough!” “This is what the people said, they saw a ghost in the window, that there were faint blue and dark green ones, and a white figure was floating on the window…right now, they’re probably looking for a witch to perform exorcism.” Guo Chao Ming stared at Bai Xia Xia as he talked, and even added: “They told us to be more careful at night, to ask the hospital to change us to another ward.”

Bai Xia Xia ???

Shocked: “Meow?” Faint blue, dark green… those colors are a bit familiar?

Guo Chao Ming deliberately teased: “Some cats ah, peep through the window and scare people to death, in turn, they also scare themselves…”

Bai Xia Xia flew into a rage from shame: “Shut up!”

Lu Jianhua was chomping on an apple; today, his mouth had not stopped at all. Qin Xiao had long ago fallen asleep on the bed. His body was very tired, after all, a whole day of small and big examinations were also very tiring, and after eating, he had gone to rest. Lu Jianhua was sitting on the side watching the quick-witted Persian cat, he enviously looked at the colonel: “Colonel, this smart cat looked for you first.”

It meant that in Bai Xia Xia’s heart, Song Bei was the person that could give the most sense of security. Song Bei understood the meaning in those words, mature men were always the most well regarded, even cats were not an exception. He beamed with joy[1]: “Kitty has a good taste!”

Guo Chao Ming scolded Bai Xia Xia as ungrateful in passing, Bai Xia Xia did not care even a bit that he was jealous[2]. Since there was no ghost, she immediately leaped down from Song Bei’s lap and escaped.

Abandoning its benefactor after achieving its goal[3] was done rather smoothly, not giving Song Bei any opportunity to play with the cat and brush its fur. Song Bei’s hand stopped in the air: “…”

Guo Chao Ming was immediately happy, Hm, I get it. This cat is the same towards everybody, not caring about anyone.

Qin Xiao’s wounds were very serious, and the doctor had instructed, to constantly be on watch. If his wounds inflamed, or if adverse reactions such as a fever appeared, they had to call the doctors at once.

Song Bei left Lu Jianhua to guard during the night, Bai Xia Xia hesitated, wanting to stay. Clutching at her long-furred tail that was like a broom, she turned in two circles on the spot.

She was held by the back of her neck and forcefully dragged away by Guo Chao Ming: “Just look at your dirty appearance.”

“Old Qin won’t disappear in the middle of the night, what’s the point of insisting on staying? Do you hate to part with him so much? You’re still not owned by him.” Guo Chao Ming jealously pressed down on the little white cat’s scarf-like thick coat, tugging twice, and muttered: “I’m clearly treating you very good too, so why do you only keep thinking of that guy.”

Guo Chao Ming did not wait for Bai Xia Xia to respond, touching his own face: I’m sure that this ge is good-looking too.

Bai Xia Xia rolled her eyes big time.

On their way to the small hotel, the Persian cat diligently stuck behind Guo Chao Ming’s butt, following them.

It intentionally stepped on his shadow, and when its paws landed on the floor, it was full of power.

Totally taking a certain someone’s shadow as the person himself to step on, amusing Song Bei to a great extent. This human and cat, they were simply one’s destined enemy.

Translator’s comments:

Bai Xia Xia is also a ghost now, maybe she’ll use that tactic later?

Translator’s notes:

[1] Idiomatic expression ‘眉开眼笑 (méi kāi yǎn xiào)’: lit. translation ‘brows open, eyes smile’. It means that someone is very happy and that they are all smiles.

[2] Here, the literal translation was ‘his vinegar jar was toppled’. It means that someone is jealous.

[3] Idiomatic expression ‘过河拆桥 (guò hé chāi qiáo)’: lit. translation ‘destroying the bridge after crossing the river’. It’s used to express that someone is abandoning their benefactor after they have achieved their goals.