After he finished counting to three hundred, the street was empty, without a sound of traffic.
Bai Congming crouched by the front gate, hugging the dim streetlamp pole beside him, a little scared and a little angry.
Like a worried parent, he decided to give the naughty child a good scolding when he came home.
"Gouzai," Bai Congming said, holding the cat's tail with one hand, "when Brother Ding comes back, help me scold him!"
Bai Congming felt certain he would not be able to bring himself to do it.
After thinking a little more, he said, "Don't scold him too much. Just a little!"
"Meow~"
Whether that was agreement or not, Gouzai curled into a circle, leaving only a swishing tail to offer the frightened two-legged creature a little comfort.
After another long wait, the familiar car came charging furiously around the corner and stopped beside Bai Congming's feet.
When he saw Ding Ding get out, Bai Congming was no longer so angry, just a little aggrieved. He felt that Ding Ding was not good at all, a bad child who stayed out late at night.
With tobacco, alcohol, and cosmetics mingled together, Ding Ding did not smell pleasant. To Bai Congming, that trace of alcohol was very familiar.
Brother Ding had smelled like that the first time he picked him up.
Remembering what had happened then, Bai Congming suddenly felt terribly aggrieved, wondering whether someone else might pick Brother Ding up.
Then he would become someone else's wife and never want Little Bai again.
The thought alone made his eyes redden.
"Oh, dear!"
Ding Ding gathered him into his arms, told the designated driver to park the car, and handed over all the cash in his wallet before finally taking him inside with an arm around him.
Having