TAM 7

Mo Yao ran all the way down to the first floor. He ran to the window at the end of the corridor and pressed his body against the wall while looking up for a while. When he confirmed that the black cat was nowhere near the windowsill, he climbed up and threw the milk tea bag out the window.

Mo Yao stood on the windowsill and stared at the partially visible paper bag in the dark grass. When he exhaled, he noticed that he had bitten too hard earlier. His lips were slightly numb now. He stuck out his tongue and licked them, hoping that when daylight came and he woke up, he would find that this had only been a strange and overly vivid dream.

When the horizon glowed orange and white, Mo Yao woke up in his bed.

He sat up and the blanket slid off his body. The weak morning chill of late summer and early autumn slipped through the mosquito net. He froze for a short moment, and the cool air touched his chest and back.

When Mo Yao got out of bed, Chen Xinyong and Zhang Ziyu were still sound asleep. Only Si Yuan got up soon after.

By the time Mo Yao slowly finished dressing, Si Yuan had already gone into the bathroom. Neither of them exchanged a single word.

When he opened the dorm door, Mo Yao stood in the doorway and took a deep breath. He leaned forward to look toward the stairs but saw nothing unusual. Then he walked toward the other end of the corridor.

It was still early. The dorm doors on both sides were all closed, and only now and then came sounds from a few rooms.

Mo Yao walked to the end, leaned forward and looked out the window. He clearly saw a paper milk tea bag lying in the messy grass outside.

It was not a dream, or at least not just a dream. He had become a cat that night and wandered through the campus. Whatever that cat had done, it was what he had done. Everything had really happened.

Mo Yao leaned against the window and stared blankly for a long time. His head was full of complicated thoughts that he could not sort out. His mind was empty.

When he turned around, he saw Si Yuan standing at the dorm door, watching him.

He did not know how long Si Yuan had been looking, but when Mo Yao turned back, Si Yuan still had not looked away.

In Mo Yao’s eyes, his behavior could only be called provocation. He lifted his chin slightly and walked toward Si Yuan with a cold expression.

When Si Yuan saw him approach, he turned away without a word and left.

That night in the dorm, Chen Xinyong invited Mo Yao to play games, but Mo Yao refused. He had something on his mind. He sat by his bed, restless, and finally decided to go out and walk around the campus.

It was Friday. The whole campus was unusually lively. The open space in front of the campus shop was filled with tables and chairs. Young men and women sat together chatting, playing cards, and drinking beer.

As Mo Yao passed by, he saw a dirty stray dog begging for food under one of the tables. On the table were barbecue skewers that students had brought from the cafeteria. The girls threw gnawed ribs under the table to feed the dog.

Not far ahead, a cat belonging to the shop owner was tied at the store’s entrance. It was a tabby cat, and in front of it sat a stainless steel bowl. The cat sat upright, its eyes half closed.

Mo Yao stopped and looked at it. He wondered where all the stray cats on campus hid at times like this.

He continued walking. He passed the shop, walked by the cafeteria, and approached the gate of the girls’ dorm. Under a streetlamp, a cat rubbed its body against a girl’s leg, fawning and affectionate. The girl crouched down and fed it a piece of opened sausage.

The cat softly meowed.

Mo Yao moved closer. The cat looked familiar to him, so he crouched down to see more clearly.

The girl turned her head and looked at him.

Mo Yao said nothing. He realized that he knew this cat. The night he got stuck in the gate of the girls’ dorm, this cat had been among the ones watching.

The cat had a distinctive coat pattern. One of its eyes was surrounded by a dark patch, like a black circle.

“Do you want to feed it?” the girl asked when she noticed he had been watching too long.

“No,” Mo Yao said coldly. He stood up and turned away, thinking that this cat might have bullied him before. Why would he feed it? Not hitting it was already generous.

In the middle of the night, Mo Yao woke up in a dark corner of the campus.

This time he was neither in the boys’ dormitory nor the girls’ dormitory. He found himself curled up behind the sports field.

The field was already deserted, and the lights were off. It was dark and damp. Mo Yao did not know why this cat was hiding here. When he walked forward, his tail dragged on the wet grass, and soon the fur on his rear and tail was soaked.

Mo Yao felt miserable. He stood under a streetlamp and shook the water from his body.

There was no one on the road. Everything around was silent.

Mo Yao suddenly realized he was hungry.

He should not have been. He had eaten plenty for dinner. It must have been the cat that was hungry now.

Mo Yao exhaled heavily. It sounded like a sigh. He thought of the stray cat with panda-like eyes he had seen earlier that night and felt frustrated that this cat of his was so useless.

He dragged his tail and walked forward slowly. At this hour, where could he find anything to eat?

Mo Yao went toward the campus shop. He hoped he could still find some leftover food there.

Unfortunately, he could not. When the shop closed, the area in front of it had probably been swept clean. Now it was spotless, not a single trace of food remained on the ground.

Mo Yao walked past slowly. There was really nothing to eat. He sighed again and began to think about whether he should look for something near the cafeteria or go back to the dorm to come up with another plan. If nothing worked, he could climb over the wall and leave the school. The world outside was larger. There must be a late-night barbecue stand somewhere.

But before he made his decision, a familiar stray cat appeared in front of him.

That cat stood under the streetlamp at the intersection. Its fur had once been white, but after years of wandering, it had turned gray and dull.

It was one of the two cats he had seen the night he got stuck in the girls’ dorm gate.

Animals had their own way of sending signals. Even without words, Mo Yao could feel its mood.

The newcomer was not friendly.

Mo Yao had no time to wonder why, as a cat, he was disliked by others. When he instinctively took a step back, he felt another presence behind him, to his right.

He turned his head quickly and saw another cat in a hunting stance. It was the one with the dark ring around its eye from earlier that evening.

Mo Yao’s heart beat very quickly. His eyes scanned around. Fortunately, there was no third cat. He shifted his body slightly so that the three of them formed a triangle, and he started to back away slowly.

Even though he was nervous, Mo Yao tried to appear calm and intimidating. But the two cats were not afraid of him. They closed in on him with a heavy, threatening presence.

Mo Yao took several steps back. When he could no longer hold his ground, he turned and ran with all his strength into the bushes beside the path.

He ran frantically. As a cat, the tall grass blocked his view. The two cats behind him did not give up. He could hear them running through the grass, and their pace was no slower than his.

Mo Yao felt like a headless fly. He had no idea where he was running, only that he had to keep going.

He crossed several narrow campus paths. A building appeared ahead. Mo Yao almost ran straight into the gray wall. He swerved, scraping close to the rough surface as he kept running. The friction against the wall was so harsh that he almost felt sparks.

But they still caught up.

One cat lunged at him from behind and pinned him down. Mo Yao felt a stinging bite on his foreleg.

They rolled together on the ground. Mo Yao was trapped underneath. He kicked with all four limbs and threw the cat off, then jumped up to run again. But the other cat pounced on him.

Mo Yao felt a heavy impact, and his body flew forward. He hit the ground, rolled twice, and landed face-down on something soft.

He smelled a foul scent. His chest was covered in sticky, mushy filth. He could not see clearly in the dark, but he did not need to. He knew he had landed in a pile of dog feces.

Mo Yao stopped running. The mix of exhaustion and fury made his chest rise and fall violently. He turned around to face the two cats.

They were only strays. Why did he have to be shoved into dog feces by them? He had lived almost twenty years. Could he really not handle two cats?

Mo Yao extended his claws.