Four Cats

For the rest of the shift, the two took turns serving food and cleaning, falling more and more into rhythm.

Their duties were clearly divided. When customers finished eating and left, Chisaki usually went over to clear the table.

She was skilled at sorting used dishes, tissues, and trash. She stacked the reusable cups neatly, wiped the tables until they gleamed, and arranged the tables and chairs in straight rows.

Wuling handled the larger areas of mopping, tidied the common areas, and restocked the tissues and disposable utensils at the front desk, all while keeping an eye on the café.

If several tables emptied at once, he would step in to help clear them, taking some of the burden off the girl.

Most of the time, the kitchen ran smoothly and needed no help from the front.

Although the number of customers rose slightly toward evening, the kitchen could still manage.

The café also offered no delivery service, and its interior was relatively small, greatly reducing the pressure on the kitchen. As a result, it rarely needed help from the front.

So Wuling and Chisaki only had to look after the front of the café. Under normal circumstances, the kitchen did not need their help.

The busy hours passed quickly. By evening, the café had grown quiet again.

Faint moonlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spreading silver-white across the front of the café and casting their long, overlapping shadows on the polished floor tiles.

Chisaki stood by the window, gently straightening the last row of tables and chairs, her hair stirring in the evening breeze.

She turned her head and glanced out of the corner of her eye at Wuling, who was putting the tools away nearby.

Aimisi had told her before that her older brother was a very gentle person who treated people well, but since this was their first meeting, she had still been a little nervous.

After spending the afternoon with him, however, Chisaki found that he was almost exactly as Aimisi had described, and that he had some good qualities Aimisi had not mentioned.

He never talked to her so much that he disturbed her peace, never grew secretly impatient because she was a little shy, and certainly never forced her to get used to a lively atmosphere.

He always respected her pace, or anyone else's, quietly keeping them company, helping when needed, and treating them with gentleness and understanding.

Because of what she had experienced as a child, she was a little shy around strangers and did not much like talking. Over time, it had shaped her personality.

But today was different.

Wuling made her feel more relaxed than she ever had before.

The evening breeze drifted through the half-open window, stirring the wisps of her bangs. The cool night air soothed the slight weariness of a busy afternoon and blew away the last trace of distance she felt around a stranger.

Chisaki lowered her eyes, her fingertips brushing lightly over the smooth edge of a table, a soft glimmer in her burgundy eyes.

"All done."

A clear, gentle male voice suddenly sounded beside her, interrupting Chisaki's jumbled, tender thoughts.

She abruptly came back to herself and instinctively looked up.

Wuling had put all the cleaning tools neatly away and taken off his light apricot work uniform, revealing the everyday clothes underneath.

He looked at her with a faint smile on his lips.

"I've finished tidying up on my end. Are you done over there? If you are, we can clock out and go home."

Chisaki nodded gently and answered in a quiet voice, "Mm, I'm done."

She turned and followed Wuling to the front desk. Auntie Bo had also finished checking the kitchen and come out. Smiling, she checked their shift records and promptly settled their pay for today's part-time hours.

"You two worked very well together today."

Auntie Bo praised them sincerely as she made the entries.

"It was your first shift together, but you were already so in sync. Quiet and steady, and more dependable than a lot of the older students."

The two smiled and nodded in response. After clocking out, Chisaki changed out of her uniform, folded it, and put it back in the designated locker.

Outside the shop, the evening streets were much quieter than before. The streetlights outside Star Torch Academy came on one after another, their warm yellow glow spreading along the road back to campus.

The two walked out of the café side by side, the evening breeze brushing their faces with a freshness and gentleness unique to that hour.

There were few pedestrians on the road, only scattered lights from the distant campus, quiet and gentle.

Suddenly, a rather low meow came from an alley to one side, seemingly accompanied by the cries of many kittens.

Hearing it, both of them stopped at once and exchanged a glance, then, without a word, headed toward the sound.

As they drew closer, the sounds grew clearer. After another seven or eight steps, they rounded a corner and saw their source.

Three palm-sized kittens huddled tightly against a large cat. Their thin, sparse gray fur was covered in dust, and their frail little bodies trembled. Their soft, tiny mews were almost swallowed by the evening breeze.

The sight of the mother cat protecting her young made their hearts tighten.

Part of one hind leg was missing. The wound had long since scabbed over and healed, but she could not even lie down comfortably, only propping herself up awkwardly in a cardboard box.

A cloudy, deathly pale film covered her left eye, leaving it completely blind. Only her right eye remained open.

The cat's hearing did not seem very good either. She only noticed Wuling and Chisaki when they were right in front of her.

Her dirty, matted fur was caked with mud and grime, dry and rough, with none of the smooth fluffiness a cat's coat should have. Her thin frame held up a layer of skin, and she was visibly frail.

Yet despite her battered and disabled state, she kept all three kittens firmly sheltered beneath her chest and belly, her body tense as she silently guarded against the approaching strangers.

For an instant, even the evening breeze at the mouth of the alley seemed to soften, carrying a trace of pity.

Chisaki instinctively made her steps lighter and even slowed her breathing, afraid of disturbing the fragile little lives.

"So small."

Chisaki's voice was extremely low and soft, like an evening breeze falling on cotton, carrying a tenderness she could hardly conceal.

Beside her, Wuling also moved more gently, quietly lowering his gaze to the scene in the box.

"They've probably been strays for a long time."

Wuling lowered his voice, his tone gentle.

"With a missing leg, blindness in one eye, and what seems to be a hearing problem, it's hard for her to find food and survive with three kittens."

Wuling was not exaggerating. To put it bluntly, under these circumstances, it was already remarkable that the mother cat had managed to raise her three kittens this far. But they would grow, and their appetites would surely increase. She could barely feed them now, but what would happen later was hard to say.

With the conditions they lived in, it was questionable whether the mother cat could even keep herself alive. He might unexpectedly die the very next day, and what would happen to the three remaining kittens hardly needed saying.

The night wind grew a little colder, carrying the chill of the alley as it brushed past the battered cardboard box.

The three kittens seemed cold. They burrowed more anxiously into their mother's embrace, their tiny, intermittent cries enough to soften anyone's heart.

Watching the cat strain to stay alert and do her utmost to protect her young, Chisaki felt a pang of sadness.

She pressed her lips together slightly and turned to Wuling beside her, a trace of helpless yet earnest tenderness in her eyes.

"Could they be... very cold? They look so hungry."

Wuling understood the hope and compassion in her eyes and nodded gently, his voice calm and certain.

"They've probably been hungry all day. The temperature drops at night, so they'll definitely get cold if they stay here."

He glanced up at the mouth of the alley, then lowered his eyes to the shivering family of cats in the box and thought quickly for a moment.

"Sorry for the trouble, but could you wait here for me? I'll be back soon."

"Mm!" Chisaki nodded lightly at once and answered obediently.

With her answer, Wuling hesitated no longer. He turned and left, his steps quick but steady.

She stood quietly where she was, neither too close nor too far away, remaining still as she kept them company.

Sensing that the human before her did not seem to be approaching with ill intent, the mother cat's tense back slowly relaxed a little. The warning sounds in her throat gradually faded, and she slowly let down much of her guard.

Chisaki lowered her eyes to the cats huddled together in the box and, somehow, found herself thinking of her parents.

When she was bullied as a child, her parents seemed to have protected her just like that.