TAM 10

Mo Yao searched in the grass for a long time and did not find anything. The night wind was cold. It brushed against him, and his mind cleared for a moment. He straightened his back and stood up, thinking, what am I doing?

When he turned around, Mo Yao saw that Si Yuan was still there. He leaned against the bicycle, his hands on the handlebars and he was looking at him.

The light around them was not bright enough, and Si Yuan’s expression was not clear. He only said suddenly, “Be careful, there’s dog poop in the grass.”

Mo Yao felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over his head. His body froze. His face showed confusion. He looked down, then stepped out of the grass in big strides, almost jumping onto the back seat of Si Yuan’s bicycle.

He held Si Yuan’s waist and said, “Let’s go back.”

Si Yuan did not hesitate. He stepped on the pedals and rode toward the dormitory with Mo Yao on the back seat.

When they returned to the dormitory, Zhang Ziyu and Chen Xinyong were not there. Mo Yao washed up in a daze, lay down on his bed, and pulled the blanket up to his chin.

Later, he felt Si Yuan climb onto his bed. The metal frame shook for a while, then went quiet.

Mo Yao fell asleep. He did not dream, and somehow it was already morning.

When he woke up, he saw through the mosquito net that someone was sitting in front of his bed. He looked closely and saw it was Chen Xinyong.

Chen Xinyong was sitting on Mo Yao’s chair and playing on his phone.

Mo Yao rubbed his forehead and lifted the blanket to sit up.

Chen Xinyong heard the sound and turned his head. “Awake?”

“Yeah.” Mo Yao felt something was off.

Chen Xinyong said, “They all went out.”

Mo Yao lifted the mosquito net, stretched out his legs, and searched for his slippers with his feet.

Chen Xinyong said, “I’m the only one waiting for you to eat breakfast.”

Mo Yao grabbed the pants hanging by his bed and pulled them on. He said casually, “Go eat first.”

Chen Xinyong looked at him. “You came back with Si Yuan last night, right?”

Mo Yao said in surprise, “Huh?”

“Zhang Ziyu and I were buying instant noodles at the shop. We saw you riding back with Si Yuan.”

Mo Yao opened his closet, took out a clean shirt, and put it on. “Really? I drank too much last night. I don’t remember.”

He was lying. He remembered. He just didn’t want to say it.

Chen Xinyong asked again, “Why was Si Yuan eating with Tian Shen too?”

Mo Yao walked toward the bathroom. “No idea. I drank too much. I don’t remember.”

Chen Xinyong seemed to want to get closer to Tian Shen, but he didn’t say it directly.

Mo Yao wasn’t interested in his roundabout talk. He went into the bathroom, left the door half-closed, picked up his toothbrush and cup, and when he raised his head to look in the mirror, he suddenly realized what felt wrong. Last night, he hadn’t turned into that cat. From beginning to end, he hadn’t even dreamed once.

That night, Mo Yao sat by his bed, staring at a table full of beer.

He had bought the beer after dinner at the supermarket. He first took two bottles, thinking that wouldn’t be enough to get himself drunk, so he took a whole case.

But when he carried the case of beer back to the dormitory, he started to hesitate. Did he really want to try getting drunk just to test something?

Zhang Ziyu came back early that day. As soon as he entered, he saw the case of beer and whistled. “How many dishes?” he said.

Mo Yao said nothing.

Chen Xinyong was on his own bed. Mo Yao had been distracted all day, and it showed in how coldly he responded. By dinnertime, Chen Xinyong stopped talking to him.

Zhang Ziyu noticed the silence when he came in. He asked, “What’s wrong? What day is it?”

Mo Yao picked up a bottle of beer and asked Zhang Ziyu, “Want one?”

Zhang Ziyu hadn’t had water all evening and was thirsty. He took the beer. “Sure, let’s.”

They didn’t have any food. Each of them drank one bottle.

Zhang Ziyu finished his drink and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Mo Yao picked up another bottle. He thought that he still had class early the next morning, and if he got drunk, he would feel awful when he woke up. In the end, he put the bottle back.

But when it was midnight, Mo Yao realized that the beer he had drunk had gone to waste. He was crouching in the grass again.

That cat always hid in the dark corners of the campus. It starved and stayed curled up miserably.

Mo Yao moved slowly and let out a sigh. He thought that he did not need to think about anything else for now. The most important thing was to find food, because if not, by tomorrow night, the cat might have already starved to death.

The campus was silent.

Mo Yao slipped through the empty campus path and ran to the front of the girls’ dormitory. He planned to slip through the gate and search the trash bins there.

Searching trash bins was a decision he had reached after much compromise, and he believed that the bins at the girls’ dormitory would be cleaner than the ones at the boys’ dormitory.

But entering the girls’ dormitory again meant squeezing through the iron gate.

From his last attempt, he had concluded that this cat’s body was not fat from solid flesh. The reason he got stuck was that he didn’t know how to draw in his belly. He had watched several videos where cats could easily make themselves narrow and slip through tiny openings.

Mo Yao stood in front of the iron gate and took a deep breath. He felt his whole body tighten, then he exhaled slowly.

Just as he was about to stick his head through the gate, he suddenly heard a cat meow. The sound caught his attention, and his ears twitched. He raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound.

Not far in front of the girls’ dormitory was the cafeteria. Beside the cafeteria, there was a passageway, and on the other side of that passage was a small grove. The grove was not big, but hardly anyone went there.

Mo Yao walked with light steps. Even his tail was tucked. He poked his head toward the grove to see if there was a cat fight.

There was movement in the grove. Two cats were there. One was on top of the other’s back, and it didn’t look like they were fighting.

Mo Yao suddenly realized what those two cats were doing.

The one being pressed down looked familiar. It was the panda-eyed cat that had ganged up on him before. The one on top was large, with fluffy fur and a strong presence.

Mo Yao felt nervous and strange. He stared at them.

Then, he suddenly sensed something wrong. He turned his head and before he knew it, a black cat had appeared beside him. The black cat was like a spirit born from the night. It stood there quietly, perfectly merged with the darkness.

Mo Yao almost jumped out of his skin.

The black cat was calm. When it noticed Mo Yao looking at it, it turned around and walked away from the grove.

Mo Yao watched it go, then looked back at the two cats in the grove. The male cat suddenly raised its head and looked straight at him. Its two eyes shone bright like searchlights, dazzling even in the dark.

Mo Yao immediately stepped back several times and moved away from the grove.

There was a streetlamp in front of the cafeteria. The black cat was crouching under it as if waiting for him.

Mo Yao walked closer. He lowered his head, raised one paw to the streetlamp, and used the other to pat his chest. He thought, damn, that was too much.

After a long while, his heartbeat finally calmed down a little. He lifted his head and looked at the black cat.

The black cat kept its eyes on him. Then it turned around and walked forward slowly.

Mo Yao stayed still and watched its back.

The black cat walked a short distance, stopped, and turned its head again to look at Mo Yao.

Mo Yao thought for a moment and then walked toward it.

When Mo Yao got a bit closer, the black cat turned around and continued walking.

The two cats, one in front and one behind, went all the way to the side gate of the school.

The side gate was already closed. The wooden doors had no gaps, and there was no way to squeeze through.

The black cat jumped straight onto the top of the wall to the left of the gate. It crouched there, waiting for Mo Yao. Beyond the wall was outside the campus.

Mo Yao looked up at the high wall and hesitated. He thought that he probably couldn’t jump that high, and if he failed to do it in front of another cat, it would be embarrassing.

He stepped back twice and scratched his claws against the ground.

The black cat looked down at him for a moment, then lifted its head slightly and turned its gaze toward a big tree beside the wall.

Mo Yao also looked at the tree and realized that he could climb it and cross the wall that way.

Climbing the tree was much easier. Mo Yao scampered up, jumped from a branch, and landed on the wall.

But he didn’t land steadily. His head dipped forward, and right after that, he felt his scruff being bitten.

Like a kitten, Mo Yao was carried by the black cat, who had bitten the back of his neck, and they jumped down from the wall together.