After Saving My Possessive Best Friend, I Couldn't Escape (GL) - Chapter 19

The Ye Yu in the book was a carbon copy of the Ye Yu in reality, making it difficult for Fang Zhile to distinguish any difference between the two.

The only difference was the environment she grew up in. Ye Yu transmigrated earlier and had no memories from before, but Fang Zhile was different.

In her accustomed rhythm of life, Ye Yu was always present, and she never let Ye Yu do any physical work.

When she was little, Ye Yu looked like a doll: big foreign eyes, black Chinese pupils, small pink lips, and her eye sockets were always red. If she fell or got bumped, her skin would break.

Little Ye Yu was afraid of pain but refused to cry, always tearing up with red eyes, pouting, and insisting she wasn’t crying.

Fang Zhile spoiled her from childhood to adulthood, protecting her from bullies.

She carried her schoolbag in kindergarten, tutored her in elementary school, and chased away thugs and a whole lot of boys and girls confessing their love in middle school.

Caring for Ye Yu had become a deeply ingrained habit.

“You don’t need to wash them,” Fang Zhile pointed to the faucet that had been twisted into eighteen bends and used gauze as a filter. She genuinely advised, “You won’t understand the process of these operations. You’re not familiar with them, and you’ll probably just waste my water.”

Ye Yu bit her lip. She wasn’t the type of person to sit still and let others do everything for her. Especially since she had shown up uninvited this morning, and Fang Zhile not only took her in but also found her clothes and made her breakfast…

“Consider it returning the favor,” Fang Zhile saw her hesitation, laughed magnanimously, and her expression was clear and open. “Thank you for taking me in before.”

Ye Yu still felt a little embarrassed. “That’s different. You fell in the water room because of us in the first place.”

Besides, she had taken Fang Zhile in that time purely on a whim. Because Fang Zhile, lying on the ground, looked… very stroke-able.

“Then I’ll tidy the table.” Ye Yu looked around and began to clear the dining table. Fang Zhile was amused—there were only three bowls, and both of them had good table manners. The table looked the same after the meal as it did before. Ye Yu wiped it a few times with a cloth and was done.

Ye Yu, with no tasks left: Self-doubt, deep melancholy.

Fang Zhile watched for a moment, highly entertained. Finally, she raised her hand and pointed. “Go look outside the courtyard gate and see if Xiaohua is there.”

“Who is Xiaohua?” Ye Yu stood up. “Is she someone’s child?”

“Yes, mine,” Fang Zhile started washing the pot after finishing the bowls. “A stray cat that’s been wandering this area for two years. It just rained, so Xiaohua must be hungry and might come knocking for food.”

“A kitten!?” A sudden, unique light burst into Ye Yu’s eyes.

She practically sprinted out the door.

Half a minute later, Ye Yu dashed back in, her excitedly flushed cheeks unable to conceal her excitement. “It’s there! It’s not a calico cat; it’s an orange cat.”

“Xiaohua is an orange cat,” Fang Zhile retrieved an iron can from the windowsill and handed it to Ye Yu. “The first time I saw it, it was fighting a raccoon cat, losing fur everywhere. It had patches of baldness and looked like a beggar. I named it Xiaohua.”

“There’s cat food inside,” Fang Zhile added as Ye Yu took the can. “Later, I found out Xiaohua’s baldness wasn’t from fighting; it had ringworm.”

“Ah,” Ye Yu looked worried. “How did you solve that?”

Fang Zhile sighed. “I didn’t solve it. I wanted to catch it to put some medicine on it, but it must have been brainwashed by its mother with the idea that all humans are evil. It runs away the moment it sees people. I fed it continuously for three months before I could even squat three steps away from it.”

“It took another two months before I could touch its fur while it ate.”

“By then, its ringworm had already healed on its own.”

Ye Yu listened very seriously, looking distressed. “It must have suffered a lot to be so afraid of humans.”

Fang Zhile’s doting on Ye Yu mostly manifested in practical actions and she was not sensitive to Ye Yu’s melancholic emotions. In other words, she was exceptionally oblivious.

“No,” Fang Zhile said, matter-of-factly dismantling Ye Yu’s imagination. “It has been dominating this street for two years. There’s a cook uncle on the next street who brings it various kinds of raw meat every day, making it fat and sleek. It’s afraid of humans simply because it hates them.”

“Besides, most stray cats are small, and humans look like large predators to them. They have an instinctual fear in their genes,” Fang Zhile continued her well-reasoned explanation. “Xiaohua only runs over here because it knows I have food. They aren’t cute either.”

The excitement on Ye Yu’s face faded. She stared at Fang Zhile with a calm expression. After a while, she took the iron can and walked away, grumbling, “Oh, shut up.”

Fang Zhile: …??

Did she just hear Ye Yu use foul language?

No, not foul language, but did Ye Yu just curse at her?

The new human looked gentle, but her scent was unfamiliar, so Xiaohua dared not approach.

Ye Yu scattered the cat food on a clean slate tile, retreated more than ten steps, and crouched by the door to watch it.

Xiaohua assessed that the new human had retreated to a safe distance. It then tucked its tail, pounced alertly on the cat food, opened its large mouth, and stuffed the food down without even chewing. The environment is dangerous. Eat quickly!

Completely unlike the quiet, elegant kittens one sees in pet stores, Xiaohua had glossy orange fur, a mottled nose that looked like it had ‘Major’ blood, and an appearance that was a mix of wretchedness and fierceness, cuteness and rogue behavior—a total shock to the eye and pollution to the view.

Yet, Ye Yu watched with great interest.

In less than a few minutes, Xiaohua devoured every last kibble. After repeatedly confirming that the human in front of it wouldn’t offer any more food, it flicked its tail, twisted its neck, and its fat body nimbly jumped onto the wall, walking away with a cat-like stride without looking back.

When Ye Yu returned, her expression was still slightly wistful.

“I’m doing homework,” Fang Zhile didn’t look up; the Chinese assignment was stressing her out. “If you’re bored, you can watch TV.”

Ye Yu briefly savored the image of Xiaohua’s robust figure on the sofa, feeling highly energized. She immediately decided to do homework too.

Fang Zhile glanced at her in surprise. “Love of studying?”

Ye Yu shook her head. “You’re overthinking it. I chose the calligraphy track partially because I’m not good at academics.”

As she spoke, she saw Fang Zhile pull out a math test paper and instantly wore the expression of someone who dislikes cilantro recoiling from a cilantro bun. She shifted her body back several dozen centimeters. “Especially math.”

Fang Zhile was not at all surprised. “It really is you.”

“What?” Ye Yu asked, taking a practice book from her backpack, flipping to an English test paper, and rapidly writing down the answers. “You don’t need to worry about me. My score in the cultural subjects is roughly enough.”

Aside from math, English and Chinese were her strong subjects.

Plus, memorizing the liberal arts comprehensive material would give her at least a hundred points, so Ye Yu’s overall cultural score never dropped below 400.

Fang Zhile smiled, already understanding. “I’m not worried.”