If ranked by how much they love cats, Xia Kening is clearly far superior to her two older sisters. And compared to Xia Jinshu, Xia Yunuo likes cats even more than her sisters.
For Xia Jinshu, cats are something she can keep, play with, and take responsibility for, but she can't really say she likes them that much.
It's fun to hold a fluffy little thing in your arms, but it gets boring after a while.
If it were any other cat, Xia Jinshu might lose interest after petting it for a short while.
But the blue cat in her arms right now was specially chosen for her by Song Yunshen, and even its name was chosen by her and Song Yunshen together.
The feeling seems a little different now.
Xia Jinshu sat in the chair, holding the chubby QQ Candy in her arms, her eyes growing increasingly gentle.
How to put it— Xia Jinshu felt like she was holding a baby, not a cat.
Thinking of this, she suddenly paused, and subconsciously glanced at Song Yunshen sitting next to her, noticing him occasionally reaching out to scratch QQ.
Sugar's chin and eyes looked a little dazed.
Looking down again, she almost hallucinated.
It looked as if she was actually holding a child in her arms.
Will the future hold a similar scenario?
Xia Jinshu couldn't help but purse her lips, then quickly shook her head gently, trying to clear her mind of these jumbled thoughts and focus again.
Calm down.
What am I even thinking?
She felt she couldn't let her mind wander like this any longer, so she quickly handed the blue cat to Song Yunshen.
As a result, Blue Cat only stayed in Song Yunshen's arms for a few seconds before struggling to jump out and return to Xia Jinshu's lap.
Seeing that she wouldn't hug him, he simply refused to leave, lay down on her lap, and began to rest with his eyes half-closed.
Song Yunshen, watching from the side, was also somewhat speechless. "This guy is so opportunistic, it seems like he only likes you. He won't even let me hold him."
Seeing this, Xia Jinshu couldn't help but chuckle and shake her head, reaching out to pat the blue cat's big head.
QQ Candy seemed to enjoy being touched, and it raised its head to rub against Xia Jinshu's palm, acting extremely obsequious.
"That shows you have great taste; you picked it right away. I didn't expect you to listen to me so readily." Xia Jinshu's eyes held a hint of doting, but she didn't let QQ Candy have her way completely.
After petting the cat's head for a while, she picked up QQ Candy again and placed it on Song Yunshen's lap.
QQ Candy wasn't satisfied and struggled again to climb back onto Xia Jinshu's lap, but this time Xia Jinshu stopped it, pressing its head down and admonishing, "You can't be so naughty. He personally chose you to come here. Without him, you wouldn't even be able to see me."
Whether she understood Xia Jinshu's words or simply accepted reality, QQ Candy, after failing to escape, actually reluctantly...
It lay down on the ground, glanced up at Song Yunshen, then tucked its two front paws in and obediently stayed on his lap.
Song Yunshen didn't initially think Xia Jinshu Shu's words would be effective, but seeing QQ Candy quiet down, he was immediately surprised. "You can train cats? That's amazing."
Xia Jinshu was also somewhat surprised, not expecting it to go so smoothly. A look of astonishment appeared on her face, followed by a smile as she said, "Perhaps it really is fate."
After saying that, Xia Jinshu stretched in her chair, then looked around and, feeling that there was nothing else to do, simply picked up her schoolbag, took out her lesson plan, and looked at Song Yunshen with a smile.
Song Yunshen was petting his cat when he suddenly heard a familiar voice. He looked up and saw Xia Jinshu Shu flipping through lesson plans. He immediately gave her a speechless look. "Seriously, Teacher Xia? Didn't you say it was just for show? How did you end up taking it so seriously?"
"Anyway, we're just killing time. We're not really having a class, we're just going to go over the vocabulary we need to memorize today. You can familiarize yourself with it if you're bored." Xia Jinshu said this as she handed the lesson plan to Song Yunshen and pointed to the vocabulary list.
Upon seeing this, Song Yunshen, "What kind of good person would come to a cat cafe to take an English lesson?"
"You've seen it, haven't you?" Xia Jinshu said with a smile.
She said he needed to memorize vocabulary, but Xia Jinshu didn't force him. She just used this as an excuse to chat with Song Yunshen.
After all, she wasn't good at initiating conversations, so she simply used the excuse of memorizing vocabulary words to ask Song Yunshen to memorize a word when she couldn't think of anything to say. Then, she could naturally develop a new topic based on that word.
The two of them stayed in the cat cafe until 5 o'clock. Seeing that it was almost dinner time, Xia Jinshu suggested, "It's rare for us to go out together, so let me treat you to dinner today?"
"Sure," Song Yunshen readily agreed, without refusing. "Then let's go get some barbecue."
That's the good thing about all-you-can-eat barbecue: the prices are clear and transparent, and it's a fixed price, so you don't have to worry about spending more money. That's why Song Yunshen always chooses to go here whenever he goes out with a girl and she offers to treat him.
Xia Jinshu didn't think too much about it. Since Song Yunshen said he wanted to eat barbecue, she naturally nodded in agreement.
The two got up to leave the cat cafe. QQ Candy was still a little reluctant to part with Xia Jinshu, and escorted her all the way to the gate, whimpering for a while.
Even the waiter, Xiao Cheng, was a little surprised, since the shop's blue and orange cats had become notorious for ignoring people lately, acting like two big Buddhas, always sitting high up on the cat tree.
Did they drug Blue Cat? They seem so reluctant to part ways.
Hearing QQ Candy's call, Xia Jinshu turned around and waved at it, "Don't call anymore, I'll come see you again when I have time."
Upon hearing this, QQ Candy immediately quieted down, but remained squatting in front of the gate, watching Xia Jinshu and Song Yunshen's departing figures. Xiao Cheng clicked his tongue in amazement. Xia Jinshu Xia Jinshu followed Song Yunshen out of the cat café and was about to head towards the all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant when she suddenly noticed an adoption guide posted on the wall outside the cat café. She stopped in her tracks, curious. "What's this?"
"All the cats in the shop are available for adoption," Song Yunshen said. "My sister's pet hospital also rescues stray cats."
"As is customary, we are also open to adoption."
"Of course, it's not free. The adoption price generally covers the expenses after the stray cat comes to the store, mainly the cost of vaccinations, deworming, and spaying/neutering."
"These 10 cats at the cat cafe were all strays rescued from a pet hospital and were already within the adoption range."
"Now that the cat cafe serves as a showcase, the adoption success rate should increase significantly."
"Is the senior interested? Does she want to adopt QQ Candy?"
Hearing this, Xia Jinshu nodded in understanding at first, then immediately shook her head. "That's not necessary. My home is very small, and adopting it would only mean it would suffer."
If it's my younger sister who likes it, and now that the family's finances are a bit better, it's not really that we can't afford to raise her.
But Xia Jinshu would never adopt the cat just for her own selfish desires.
Song Yunshen was just saying that casually. Seeing that she didn't intend to adopt, he stopped talking about it and took her to a self-service barbecue restaurant.
Xia Jinshu took out her phone to pay, and she and Song Yunshen found an empty seat and sat down. The two of them then began to eat the barbecue.
At the same time, Song Jiaxuan had already driven to the entrance of a milk tea shop near the gate of Ningjiang Middle School, rolled down the car window and called out to the shop.
Song Jiayao, who had just finished her shift, immediately ran out and sat in the passenger seat next to Song Jiaxuan.
"Why did you decide to take me out to eat today? Sis, have you finally had a change of heart?" Song Jiayao asked happily.
"The Maine Coon at the cat cafe seems a bit sick; I'm planning to take it to the vet," Song Jiaxuan said casually. "Picking you up was just on my way."
"Fine, fine, I'm just a pitiful little nobody wants then." Song Jiayao pouted.
"Why don't you just find a boyfriend and someone will want you?" Song Jiaxuan chuckled.
Upon hearing this, Song Jiayao immediately snorted, crossed her arms, and stopped talking, too lazy to pay any more attention to her.
The two quickly arrived at Wanda Plaza. Song Jiaxuan led her sister to the 4th floor, planning to have a meal first and then go to the cat cafe to pick up the cat.
As they passed by the self-service barbecue restaurant, Song Jiayao, who was looking around, suddenly froze, as if she had seen a familiar figure. She immediately stopped and grabbed her sister's wrist.
"What are you doing?" Song Jiaxuan asked, puzzled. She looked up at the sign of the all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant and then said, "We've eaten at this place several times already, are you going to eat here again?"
"No—Sis, look over there!" Song Jiayao whispered furtively in Song Jiaxuan's ear, pointing her finger and quietly reminding her, "Isn't that Yunshen, that brat? Who's opposite him? Xia Yunuo?"
Upon hearing this, Song Jiaxuan immediately followed his finger and looked in that direction, then her gaze sharpened.
Even though this angle only showed the girl's back, Song Jiaxuan could tell at a glance that it was definitely not Xia Yunuo.
The hair lengths alone don't match.
Could it be Xia Kening?
After thinking about it for a moment, Song Jiaxuan looked at it carefully again, slowly shook her head, and ruled out this possibility.
It doesn't seem like it either.
Although he had only met Xia Kening once, he still had a deep impression of the girl.
She remembered that Xia Kening's hair shouldn't be this long.
The girl sitting opposite Song Yunshen at this moment had hair that was exactly between Xia Yunuo's and Xia Kening's lengths, perfectly avoiding both possibilities.
After confirming this, Song Jiaxuan felt a sudden surge of anger, so much so that she took several deep breaths to finally calm herself down: "That guy—"
Seeing that her older sister seemed a little angry, Song Jiayao immediately shrank back, then couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "He actually went out to eat alone with another girl. What if Xia Yunuo finds out—"
"Don't say anything more." Song Jiaxuan calmed down temporarily, not letting her anger cloud her judgment. "What if there's more to the story?"
Maybe it's just a normal meal.
"What secrets could high school students possibly have? Do you think they'd be out discussing business?" Song Jiayao pouted. "That Yunshen is such a bad boy, always wanting more than he has. He's got Xia Yunuo and he's still not satisfied?"
"Let's go in and take a look first." Song Jiaxuan still didn't make a hasty judgment. She pulled Song Jiayao to pay at the door and then found a seat nearby, where she could get a good angled view of the girl's face.
After the two sat down, Song Jiayao couldn't help but crane her neck and look closely. Then she exclaimed to Song Jiaxuan, "That girl is so pretty! Although she doesn't seem as beautiful as Xia Yunuo, she's definitely a school beauty!"
"You even know about the school beauty level?" Song Jiaxuan glanced at her.
"A school beauty like Sister Xuanxuan is just like that," Song Jiayao said with a chuckle.
Song Jiaxuan rolled her eyes at her, then pulled her sister up and went to get some barbecue meat and seasonings. They continued to observe while grilling the meat.
Although she unexpectedly discovered that her younger brother was having dinner alone with a strange girl, she felt she couldn't just accuse someone without further investigation.
Since Xia Kening was Xia Yunuo's sister, it was normal and understandable that Song Yunshen knew both of them.
After that day, when Song Jiaxuan recalled the scene, she always felt that the interaction between Xia Kening and Song Yunshen was more like a little sister acting coquettishly towards her older brother.
To say that Song Yunshen was two-timing would probably be an overstatement.
After all, he has such a good relationship with Xia Yunuo, so it's only natural for him to take care of her younger sister.
But today's situation is different.
Judging from the girl's appearance and demeanor, Song Jiaxuan felt that the girl was probably a little older than Xia Yunuo.
Surely we can't have another Xia Yunuo's older sister popping up, can we?
While thinking this, Song Jiaxuan continued grilling meat and putting it on her sister's plate.
Just then, Song Jiayao suddenly became agitated and patted her sister's shoulder forcefully, gesturing for her to look over. "Sister, look, something's really wrong between them!"
Song Jiaxuan looked up and saw the girl grilling meat with a serious expression, then she took the initiative to put the meat on Song Yunshen's plate.
Song Yunshen ate his meat with gusto, while the girl opposite him looked at him tenderly, and even took out a tissue to remind him to wipe his mouth.
"Is this normal?" Song Jiayao couldn't help but ask.
Song Jiaxuan took a deep breath and covered her forehead, feeling a bit of a headache.
I never expected my younger brother to be such a womanizer.
One Xia Yunuo wasn't enough, so there was Xia Kening, and then another unfamiliar girl appeared.
That makes three now!
Could there be a fourth or fifth one?
Where's this basketball team?!
Just as Song Jiaxuan and Song Jiayao were shocked by the interaction between the two, Xia Jinshu suddenly stood up and said that she wanted to go to the toilet.
Song Yunshen nodded, watching Xia Jinshu leave. He turned to look at Xia Jinshu's retreating figure as she walked towards the shop entrance, but just as he was about to look away...
The light met the gaze of two familiar figures diagonally behind him.
His gaze fell on Song Jiaxuan and Song Jiayao, and his expression froze instantly. His eyes widened in surprise, as if he were seeing things.
"Sister Xuanxuan, Sister Yaoyao? What are you two doing here?"
Now that she had been discovered, Song Jiaxuan stopped hiding and gave Song Yunshen a cold laugh. She then raised her hand and waved to her younger brother.
Suddenly realizing something, Song Yunshen recalled his interaction with Xia Jinshu during the barbecue, and awkwardly touched his nose before getting up and sitting down opposite them.
"Speak, what's going on?" Song Jiaxuan asked in a cold tone.
"Speak up, speak up, confess honestly!" Song Jiayao, taking advantage of Song Yunshen's power, slammed her hand on the table, pointed her finger at Song Yunshen's nose, raised her chin, and acted arrogantly for once.
Song Yunshen glanced at Song Jiayao, completely ignoring her. Then he looked at Song Jiaxuan, his eyes darting around slightly. Having recovered from his earlier embarrassment, he relaxed. Instead of answering immediately, he asked with a grin, "You two still haven't answered my question. Have you become private investigators? Why are you following me?"