Shrine - Chapter 73
Chapter 73
The next day, Ruan Ruan changed into a designer white shirt, linen culottes, and a shawl-style jacket. With her slightly curled long hair, fair forehead, and a pair of long, simple earrings, her style had a touch of Shi Ran's.
She walked out while rubbing lotion on her hands. Zhou Jiafen was making congee. Ruan Ruan said she had a magazine shoot today and didn't have time to eat, asking her mother to come sit on the sofa so she could talk to her about something.
Ruan Dongliang pushed the blanket and pillow on the sofa to one side. He seemed to have a bit of a cold and pulled out a tissue to wipe his nose.
"Mom," Ruan Ruan fiddled with Zhou Jiafen's cuff, straightening it for her. "I just got a notice from the company. I have to go on a business trip for an interview, and then I'll be joining a film crew right after, so the company needs to give this apartment to a colleague. I'm sorry, Mom, I can't go with you to your follow-up appointment. I've already spoken with Xiao Qi. He'll help you book flights to Jiangcheng and a hotel near the hospital. He'll see you home after the check-up."
With restraint and dignity, she didn't mention the chat logs. She just said to Zhou Jiafen, "Let Xiao Ruan take the computer back with him to use. A desktop isn't convenient to move."
The computer was dirty; she didn't want it anymore. She had also contacted a worker to replace the toilet, who would come over after they left.
Zhou Jiafen was a little disappointed. She didn't notice that Ruan Ruan had referred to Ruan Dongliang as Xiao Ruan, no longer calling him her brother.
She also touched Ruan Ruan's sleeve, but afraid of tearing it, she didn't dare to pull too hard. Having sold clothes, she knew this material wasn't cheap.
"It's fine, don't worry about Mom. You go focus on your work. Just take care of yourself! Are you coming back for dinner tonight? Mom will make you some flatbread." Zhou Jiafen was very reluctant to see Ruan Ruan go. She kept her eyes fixed on the web of Ruan Ruan's thumb, blinking, without looking up.
In the end, she still didn't directly bring up buying a house for Ruan Dongliang. Instead, she just told Ruan Ruan to take care of herself.
Ruan Ruan patted her shoulder and said she would try her best to come back, but not to wait up if it got too late. Then she reminded her again not to touch the things in her room, as many of them were borrowed and would be expensive to replace if broken. Her mother agreed repeatedly, telling her not to worry, and stood at the door watching her put on her high heels.
"If they chafe your feet, put on a bandage." She added this out of habit.
Ruan Ruan went downstairs, got into the van, and gazed out the window at Shucheng. This was a film city, but it was also home to families living their ordinary lives. It was time for children to go to school, and parents were leading little backpacks by the hand under the trees of early spring.
Before she had a brother, her mother used to walk her to and from school, holding her hand like she was a precious treasure. She would occasionally skip, jumping a little farther, and Zhou Jiafen would laugh and say her arm was going to be pulled off.
During the time she was temporarily blind, she was especially scared at night. Zhou Jiafen would throw on some clothes and come to see her, and then she would stay. Ruan Ruan would clutch her mother's index finger while her mother told her stories until her voice grew hoarse. She would want to clear her throat forcefully but was afraid of chasing away Ruan Ruan's sleepiness, so her chest would just vibrate with a low rumble.
Ruan Dongliang had actually spoken a truth: if it weren't for Zhou Jiafen, Ruan Ruan might already be dead.
Ruan Ruan blinked. She had received some fragments of sincerity, but they were too diluted, easily scooped out without any effort.
The magazine interview and the photoshoot for the inner pages were done together. The schedule was packed tight, and they didn't wrap up until eight or nine o'clock. Ruan Ruan had barely eaten anything. She took a couple of sips of water and rushed home; her mother was probably waiting to have flatbread with her.
When she got home, she leaned against the entryway wall to change her shoes. As expected, Zhou Jiafen was still up, wearing an apron and handing her a pair of slippers. Ruan Ruan gave a tired smile and was about to follow the aroma to the dining room, but she froze the next second, feeling that something was wrong.
"Xiao Hei, Xiao Hei." She tilted her head and called out softly a few times.
Usually, the kittens were all quite lazy, but the little furball Xiao Hei was the most energetic. She would always run out to greet her, affectionately rubbing against her calves. But today, while Xiao Ju and Xiao Bai had ambled out of the bedroom, Xiao Hei was nowhere to be seen.
Her heart pounded with a premonition. Ruan Ruan walked quickly into the apartment, searching as she went.
The spot on the floor where she liked to sunbathe, the chair and sofa where she napped, under the bed and inside the cabinets where she loved to hide when stressed—she wasn't in any of them.
"Where's Xiao Hei?" Ruan Ruan's voice trembled slightly, her brows knitted tightly together.
"She's... she's not here..." Zhou Jiafen was also at a loss, wiping her hands on her apron.
Ruan Dongliang followed her out, looking around the living room.
Ruan Ruan turned back to the table and took out a tube of Xiao Hei's favorite nutritional paste—the same kind she used to have in Shi Ran's RV. Xiao Ju's family loved it. Usually, the moment she twisted the cap, the little gas canisters would come running.
Ruan Ruan opened it. One, two, three cats came running...
She stared at the empty hallway, listening intently for any sound. Nothing. There was no fourth cat.
The three kittens scrambled to lick the paste, and Ruan Ruan's heart turned cold, inch by inch.
Unwilling to give up, she searched the entire apartment again, even pulling open the washing machine drum and the drawers, but still found nothing.
"Did you open the door today?" Tiny beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
Zhou Jiafen was a little frightened. "Yeah, to take out the trash."
Ruan Ruan said no more. She turned, opened the door, and ran out.
The stairwell, nothing. In front of the neighbors' doors, nothing. Ruan Ruan went back home to change into a pair of sneakers, took the elevator to the top floor, and turned on her phone's flashlight, scanning each level as she descended the stairs.
Her frail, trembling voice echoed in the pitch-black stairwell. Her eyes stung slightly in the darkness, and she forced them wide, searching carefully behind the fire escape doors and in the trash areas on every floor.
Third floor, second floor, first floor. Hope dwindled. Suppressing her tense emotions, she patrolled the lobby one more time before pushing open the door and heading into the chilly early spring air of the complex's garden.
There were few people in the garden at night; celebrities almost never went for strolls. She only encountered one or two neighbors walking their dogs, who looked curiously at the beautiful girl with perfect makeup and red-rimmed eyes.
She bent over in front of every bush, squatting down, then standing up, standing up, then squatting down again.
"Xiao Hei, Xiao Hei." She tried her best to control her voice, worried that a sob would escape and frighten the already timid kitten.
Her calves were already trembling. The cold air she sucked in while running went straight to her stomach. Having barely eaten all day, she was so hungry she felt like throwing up, but she swallowed it back as if swallowing blood. As she ran and called out, she couldn't hold it in any longer, and tears began to fall.
She was stubborn, unable to think clearly about where Xiao Hei might have gone, searching aimlessly like a headless fly. This stubbornness felt like a contest with fate itself. Give her back to me. You have to give her back to me.
She had never had anything good in her life. Her luck had started with Xiao Hei.
Xiao Ju got pregnant, she adopted Xiao Ju, and she crossed paths with Shi Ran. The first time Shi Ran allowed her to get close was when she said—add another kitten.
After they slept together, she wanted more and more, so she invited Shi Ran over to see the kittens. Shi Ran spoke to her in a soft, gentle voice, asking if Xiao Hei's father was the Black Cat Detective.
Later, she said she wanted to adopt them all and give them names. A person only dares to give a pet a home when they feel settled. Back then, she had used the kittens to plant a faint seed of hope, a lavish wish that she and Shi Ran could also last for a long time.
She thought it was about to come true. Just a few days ago, Shi Ran had even said that when she got back, she would train Xiao Hei to be a Retrieving Kitten.
Because Xiao Hei was the smartest, the cleverest, the most energetic, and also the most affectionate one.
How was she going to tell Shi Ran that Xiao Hei was gone?
Ruan Ruan was more scared than ever before. Her family had only been here for two days, and they had already thrown her life into chaos, as if they had punched a hole in her existence and were grabbing her by the ankle, dragging her down. It was like looking at a once-calm pool where someone had nonchalantly pulled the plug. The water gurgled into a vortex, and the goldfish inside, running out of oxygen, struggled and looked to her for help.
She told herself, plug it, plug it, don't run out of oxygen, don't get washed down the drain.
But could she really handle it?
—Shi Ran, can I really handle this?
Ruan Ruan sat on a garden bench, covered her face, and burst into tears.
She was utterly exhausted—exhausted to the point of collapse, so exhausted she couldn't control her tears. She blamed herself fiercely for not insisting on locking the kittens in the bedroom. She was also terrified—afraid that Xiao Hei was cold and hungry, afraid that something had happened to her. Or rather, it wasn't just Xiao Hei; it was her own heart—adrift and displaced, finally taken in after so much hardship.
She was afraid it would be cold and hungry again. She was afraid it would die.
Ruan Ruan wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Choking back a wet gasp, she called a professional cat-finding team, her vision blurry. Her temples throbbed as she sobbed out her address. While waiting for them to arrive, she sat on the bench and cried.
Her shoulders slumped limply. She was mentally and physically exhausted.
At eleven o'clock, the cat-finding team arrived. Ruan Ruan had calmed down considerably and met them in the stairwell. After explaining the situation, she followed the team as they continued the search, using equipment to find cat fur and analyze paw prints. Fortunately, Xiao Hei's black fur was conspicuous, and they found some by a door a few floors down.
A member of the team said she had probably gotten into someone's apartment. They went and knocked on the door. A young woman who was staying up late answered. When she heard they were looking for a cat, she let out a cry, "Oh! She's at my place, she's at my place!"
Because she was a public figure, Ruan Ruan didn't show her face. She pressed herself against the not-so-clean wall of the stairwell, her fingers trembling slightly.
Her eyes reddened again. She bit her lip, swallowing the sour lump in her throat.
The team member brought Xiao Hei out into the stairwell and handed her to Ruan Ruan. Ruan Ruan pressed her right cheek against the top of her fluffy head, tears falling one by one into her soft fur.
That night, she didn't stay at home. Under Zhou Jiafen's terrified gaze, she silently locked each of the room's doors from the outside and then took the kittens back to Wu Mei's place.
Wu Mei was working a night shoot, but even with no one there, the apartment still had its familiar furnishings and humidity. Her room was untouched, which made Ruan Ruan feel very safe. She calmed down, and after playing with the kittens for a while, she stared blankly at the long-neglected shrine next to the dining area.
"Was it you who worked a miracle?" she murmured to herself in a daze.
The Buddha statue in the shrine had a kind face and benevolent eyes, smiling as it accepted all living beings.
"Please bless me one more time." Don't let me lose anything. Don't let me lose anything.
she pleaded in her heart, utterly distraught.
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