February 19th, Lantern Festival.
After dinner at the restaurant, Ren Ma stopped by the supermarket on her way home and picked up two bags of tangyuan and a carton of fresh milk—one bag with black sesame filling, the other with peanut filling. Once home, she heated the milk with white sugar, then cooked the tangyuan in it. Even Ren Suo next door was practically drooling.
Cooking tangyuan in plain water was heresy. They had to be cooked with milk.
Thus, the four family members and one cat gathered around the dining table to eat tangyuan. After Ren Suo let the black cat try some, he discovered that it was, like him, a devoted fan of black sesame filling. Ren Ma then served the black cat a bowl.
Though Ren Ba, Ren Ma, and Ren Xingmei said nothing, they had all noticed that this black cat clinging to Ren Suo was remarkably unusual—the most significant difference being that Ren Suo never had to scoop its litter. There was no poop to scoop at all, so the litter box Ren Ma had bought could only be listed on Xianyu.
Besides that, the black cat was exceptionally humanlike, clever, and completely undiscerning about food. It especially loved desserts like ice cream. If anyone else saw it, they would definitely think the Ren family was abusing a cat.
"You two are going back to the academy together to register tomorrow?" Ren Ma suddenly remembered and asked.
"Yeah." Ren Suo exchanged a glance with his sister, then nodded. "My little sister has her rank registration at school on the 21st. I have to register a day early, on the 20th, so we're going together."
"Have you packed?"
"Not yet. I'll get it done later."
"In that case, Xingmei, why don't you stay one more day