In the infirmary, Doctor He cleaned Xiao He’s wound with disinfectant. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. There goes your handsome face. Make sure you get vaccinated after work, understand?”
A long scratch stretched across Xiao He’s cheek, barely missing his eye. The disinfectant stung so badly that tears filled his eyes, and he nodded slightly.
Doctor He was fifty years old and the zoo’s chief veterinarian. Although his surname was also He, he was not related to Xiao He in the slightest. He liked obedient, sensible young people, so he was especially kind to Xiao He. After cleaning the wound, he even gave Xiao He a packet of dried small fish.
“Next time one of them scratches you, use these to coax them.”
Xiao He went to a vaccination clinic for his shot, then returned home with the dried fish tucked away. For dinner, he cooked himself noodles with vegetables. His washed, faded jeans and plain white shirts hung drying on the balcony. The little room he rented was old and shabby, but neat and spotlessly clean. After dinner, he sat beneath the light and seriously worked through practice problems. Late that night, he yawned as he closed his thick workbook and carefully set the packet of dried fish on top of it.
Early the next morning, a strange crunch, crunch woke him up. When he opened his eyes, several dusty-gray stray cats were sitting on his desk, enthusiastically chewing the dried fish. The window, blown open by the wind, knocked against its frame.
Xiao He threw off the blanket and leaped out of bed. The stray cats grabbed the remaining dried fish in their mouths and escaped through the window. Xiao He was one step too slow and failed to rescue even a single one.
With no other choice, he went to the market and bought a bag of fresh small fish, pan-fried a lunchbox full, and brought them to the zoo. After asking the senior caretaker whether it was all right to feed them, he crouched in the open space at the center of the Pallas’s cat enclosure, pursed his lips, and made the same sound Doctor He had. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk—”
Dong Dong and Xiao Luo were the first to come running. They plunged straight into his arms and each took a small pan-fried fish from between his fingers. The other Pallas’s cats raised their thick tails high and came trotting over as well. Xiao Ma hid behind a tree and watched him for quite a while. Seeing the others eating and fighting over the food, it finally could not resist any longer and cautiously edged closer.
Xiao He noticed it and smiled faintly as he held out a little fish. Xiao Ma sniffed it tentatively twice, then opened its mouth and took it.
Rrraow—!
Xiao Ma trembled, but still had the fish clamped in its mouth. Liu Liu charged over, grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, and “rescued” it in exactly the same way as before.
Xiao He looked up toward the tree. Liu Liu had deposited Xiao Ma on the trunk and first carefully sniffed the fish in its mouth, apparently finding nothing wrong with it. Xiao Ma began munching away with loud crunch, crunch sounds until its entire face was greasy. Liu Liu itself lay on the tree trunk facing downward, staring directly at Xiao He. Its eyes remained wary, while its fluffy tail struck the trunk with sharp smack, smack sounds.
Xiao He raised his arm high and offered Liu Liu a little fish too.
Rrraow—! Get lost!
＊
Xiao He squeezed a tiny amount of money out of his already tight living expenses and pan-fried fish once a week, quickly winning over a great many Pallas’s cat hearts.
That day, standing in the middle of the grass with his lunchbox held aloft, he looked like the old baboon raising Simba in The Lion King—revered by the masses and surrounded by every manul in the enclosure. Dong Dong and Xiao Luo stood on his shoulders, one on each side, like his left and right guardians, proud and dignified.
Only Liu Liu sat high atop the tree with Xiao Ma dangling from its mouth, watching him. Xiao Ma stared at the food with its gappy mouth hanging open, drool practically dripping out as it whimpered pitifully. The moment Liu Liu loosened its grip, Xiao Ma scampered down the tree, scrambled up Xiao He’s trouser leg, and shot onto his back.
After Xiao He finished feeding all the Pallas’s cats, he raised the final small pan-fried fish as usual. Liu Liu merely turned around and presented him with its furry, round backside.
Xiao He laughed. “You refuse to eat this, but I’m the one who gives you your regular cat food every day too. You can’t possibly be refusing to eat that as well, can you?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he froze.
＊
Xiao He observed carefully for several days and then checked the enclosure’s surveillance footage. He discovered that Liu Liu truly did not eat the food provided by the Pallas’s cat enclosure. Every day it secretly prowled near the ventilation duct, sometimes catching mice that passed by, sometimes digging insects, geckos, and other small creatures out of the soil. It was always solitary, but if anyone bullied Xiao Ma or the other half-grown young Pallas’s cats, it would rush over and lash out left and right, looking every bit like the enclosure’s guardian of order.
He reported this to the senior caretaker. She was surprised. “It ate when it first arrived.”
“Why was it brought here in the first place?”
“Volunteers found it badly injured, with one of its front legs broken, so they brought it here,” the senior caretaker recalled carefully. “We put a cast on it before, so it couldn’t climb trees or the rock formations. It would crawl over to the food bowl every day and eat a little. But now that I think about it, ever since we removed the cast, I haven’t personally seen it eat from the bowl.”
“There’s something else I noticed,” Xiao He said cautiously. “It wants to get out. Every night, it secretly goes over and bites the iron bars on the ventilation opening.”
The two of them went over to the ventilation opening together. They found an iron grate that had not budged in the slightest—not even a notch had been bitten out of it—as well as several smears of blood between the bars and half a broken tooth.
“…” Xiao He stared.
“Oh dear. It’s kind of stupid, isn’t it?” the senior caretaker said.
“We need to catch it and check its teeth…” Xiao He said.
“Yes.”
＊
Easier said than done. In reality, it was incredibly, incredibly difficult.
The senior caretaker carried a cat carrier while Xiao He brandished a long-handled net, and the two of them battled through the Pallas’s cat enclosure for an entire afternoon. Liu Liu seemed to have ten ears growing all over its body. Even while dozing, it remained on maximum alert. No matter which direction the two of them tried to creep up from, it noticed them instantly and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
One moment they were climbing the rock formations, the next they were scrambling up trees, then wading into the pond, then sprinting circles around the grass.
“Aiyo… I can’t do this anymore. My back…” The senior caretaker set down the cat carrier and began groaning.
Xiao He was a little out of breath too. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm. “This isn’t going to work. I have an idea.”
The long-handled net was transferred into the senior caretaker’s hands. Xiao He jogged over to Doctor He and returned with two ready-made dried fish.
“Didn’t you say Liu Liu won’t touch those?” the senior caretaker asked curiously.
“They’re not for coaxing Liu Liu.” Xiao He turned toward Xiao Ma, who was washing its face beside the pond. “Xiao Ma, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk…”
Xiao Ma raised its tail and came trotting over happily. It wolfed down the dried fish and was just about to flick its backside and leave when Xiao He caught it.
Xiao He took a deep breath, pulled out a piece of sterile gauze, and began—rubbing its butt!
Xiao Ma had no idea what was happening, but instinct told it that Xiao He was up to no good. It immediately began rolling around and shrieking, desperately trying to save the fur on its backside. Mrrraow! Mrrraow-ow-ow-ow!
A dark shadow suddenly appeared atop the rock formation and shot straight toward Xiao He.
“Now! Net it!” Xiao He shouted.
The senior caretaker brought the net down, catching Liu Liu, Xiao He, and Xiao Ma together in one sweep. Xiao He fell onto the ground with the two Pallas’s cats. Xiao Ma panicked and kept scratching at the net in an attempt to escape, while Liu Liu, radiating murderous fury, latched onto one of Xiao He’s arms and began biting and kicking with savage force.
The senior caretaker rushed over, grabbed Liu Liu by the scruff, and stuffed it into the cat carrier. Xiao Ma was released from the net as well and immediately circled Liu Liu’s carrier, crying anxiously. Xiao He looked down at his arm and saw a small patch of blood staining the sterile suit.
“You got bitten?!” the senior caretaker cried.
Xiao He touched it in confusion. “No. That’s blood from its teeth.”
He picked half a tiny broken tooth out of the bloodstain.
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