“Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk,” Doctor He sighed. “Just look at these teeth! What awful thing has it been chewing on? Two of them are broken! They’re infected! Inflamed!”
The senior caretaker had already gone home to pick up her child from school, leaving Xiao He there to watch alone. Xiao He was completely astonished—Doctor He was wearing nothing more than a pair of thin dental gloves, yet he actually dared stick his fingers straight into Liu Liu’s mouth. He even pulled out Liu Liu’s little tongue to show Xiao He.
“See this? Its tongue got cut and it’s swollen this badly. And look at these teeth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk! Covered in tartar! Doesn’t your Pallas’s cat enclosure have special mouthwash? Why hasn’t it been drinking any? Which one is this? What’s its name?”
“Liu Liu.”
“Oh! I remember. The little wild cat from outside with the broken leg! No wonder its teeth are so bad!” Doctor He suddenly understood. “This is the one that scratched you last month, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Doctor He released Liu Liu’s mouth and pointed at its little head as he scolded it. “All you know how to do is bully Xiao He! You’re no good!”
A palm-sized plastic clothespin had been clipped to the scruff of Liu Liu’s neck. The entire Pallas’s cat seemed to have had an acupoint struck and been frozen in place, completely motionless as it stared blankly ahead and endured the scolding.
“Put it back in the carrier for now,” Doctor He said. “I’ll do a small operation on it later. It’ll have to stay here overnight for an IV. You go home after work. Come back and see it tomorrow.”
Xiao He put Liu Liu back into the carrier and removed the clothespin from the scruff of its neck. Liu Liu instantly came back to life, thrusting one paw repeatedly through the gaps in the carrier to swipe at Xiao He while growling angrily under its breath.
Xiao He felt deeply hurt. He had already been working at the Pallas’s cat enclosure for a month and a half, yet Liu Liu still hated him.
What was more, Liu Liu was not vicious toward the senior caretaker, nor did it dare act viciously toward Doctor He. It only bared its teeth at Xiao He. And yet Liu Liu was the one Xiao He liked best. Every day he secretly observed it and even went through the surveillance footage just to watch it. What a masochist I am.
Xiao He went home from work feeling dejected.
Two hours later, he returned to Doctor He’s infirmary carrying his thick exam workbook on his back and a lunchbox full of freshly boiled chicken breast.
“Why are you back?”
“I’ll stay with it while it gets its IV. I’m worried it’ll bite through the tube.”
＊
Xiao He set his schoolbag containing the workbook on the table and carried the box of chicken breast into the recovery room to see Liu Liu first. But Liu Liu had no strength to bite through its IV tube. Doctor He said it had a fever. Two damaged teeth had been extracted, its tongue had been bandaged, cotton had been stuffed into its mouth, and it lay listlessly inside the cage with an IV line attached to one paw. An Elizabethan collar encircled its neck like a crown, making it look like a weak, pitiful, furry little king.
There was no way to feed it chicken now. Xiao He felt sorry for it. He put on a dental glove, slipped a finger through the bars, and carefully touched Liu Liu’s forehead, gently stroking it.
Liu Liu weakly turned its head aside but did not dodge him. Its bright eyes watched Xiao He as it slowly exposed one front paw, somehow still managing a feeble show of aggression.
Xiao He smiled and simply slid one finger beneath its soft paw. Liu Liu strained to curl its claws and scratched him once, then released him. After a while, it curled its claws and scratched him again. It almost looked as though it were shaking hands with him.
Xiao He laughed again. It was trying so hard to act fierce even while weak and wilted. It was unbearably cute.
＊
Every day after work, Xiao He went to keep Liu Liu company during its IV. He spread his exam workbook across the table in the recovery room and bent over it, scratch, scratch, working through practice questions. Every so often he would look up at Liu Liu and smile faintly at it, while stopping it whenever it tried to chew on the IV line attached to its leg.
Persistence finally paid off. On the fourth evening, Liu Liu was at last willing to deign to open its noble mouth and take one small lick of the boiled chicken breast Xiao He had placed inside its cage.
Except it only did so after Xiao He had left for the night.
Doctor He was tending to a white peacock with diarrhea when he heard Liu Liu bury its face in the metal bowl and devour the chicken with noisy snuffle, snuffle sounds.
“Ha! You eat his food at night, then scratch his face during the day!” Doctor He mocked.
Liu Liu could not understand him anyway. It planted itself protectively in front of the chicken breast and turned its backside toward him.
＊
On the morning of the seventh day, Doctor He informed Xiao He that Liu Liu could be discharged. Xiao He happily arrived with the cat carrier and brought Liu Liu back to the Pallas’s cat enclosure.
The moment they heard Liu Liu’s cries from a distance, Xiao Ma and several of the other half-grown Pallas’s cats raised their tails and came trotting over excitedly to welcome it. As soon as Liu Liu stepped out of the carrier, they surrounded it, licking and rubbing against it with obvious affection.
Xiao He stood in the middle of the grass handing out the day’s pan-fried fish. As usual, he saved the final one and tentatively stretched out his hand toward Liu Liu.
This time, Liu Liu did not growl at him. It slowly approached and cautiously sniffed his fingers, its cool nose brushing over his knuckles.
It still did not eat the small pan-fried fish from Xiao He’s hand. Instead, it circled once around Xiao He’s feet, suddenly stuck up its backside and stretched, then gave Xiao He a proud look, raised its tail, and trotted briskly into the nest inside the rock formation.
Xiao Ma came scampering over and, as usual, took away the little fish that no manul had claimed.
＊
Xiao He devoted himself to observing Liu Liu and discovered that, after its teeth were treated, it had apparently realized that blindly gnawing at things was useless and therefore gave up attacking the ventilation opening. It still prowled around the Pallas’s cat enclosure every day, however, and once even deliberately hid beside the entrance, intending to escape the instant Xiao He came through the door.
Once it got out, it discovered that there was another locked little room outside—the exact reason that room existed was to prevent Pallas’s cats from pulling tricks like this.
Xiao He supported it under the forelegs and rump and carried the frustrated, resentful escapee back into the enclosure. Fortunately, Liu Liu no longer scratched or bit him now.
Xiao He asked the senior caretaker, “Since it wants to leave so badly, can’t we release it back where it originally lived?”
“Uh, about that…” The senior caretaker named a place. Xiao He fell silent, because that area had been developed into a new urban district that very year.
“Its original ‘home’ is already gone. We could send it to grassland a little farther away, but there are fewer and fewer wild Pallas’s cats now, and survival conditions in the wild are very harsh. It would be safer here in our zoo, with food and shelter guaranteed,” the senior caretaker said.
＊
Holding his broom, Xiao He looked up at Liu Liu. Liu Liu had once again climbed to the very top of the tallest tree in the Pallas’s cat enclosure. With both front paws pressed against the transparent ceiling, it stared at several little birds hopping and flying outside.
Xiao He did not think Liu Liu wanted safety and guaranteed food and shelter.
＊
The peaceful days did not last long. One morning, Xiao He opened the gate to the Pallas’s cat enclosure and counted the animals inside. Liu Liu was nowhere to be found. After searching everywhere, he finally discovered it lying silently and alone beside the ventilation opening, its mouth covered in crumbs and a small puddle of half-digested cat food vomited beside it.
Xiao He crouched down and gently poked it. Liu Liu opened its eyes weakly and let out a hoarse mrrraow.
Xiao He hugged the cat carrier to his chest and ran all the way to Doctor He’s infirmary, panting for breath. Without even bothering to close the door, he opened the carrier and reached in to lift Liu Liu out. “Doctor He, I think it ate something bad!”
A furry object slammed hard into his fingers, making him cry out in surprise. Liu Liu no longer looked remotely on the verge of death. It shot onto the operating table like an arrow, kicked off with its hind legs and sent instruments clattering all over the floor, then leaped again and disappeared through the half-open door almost before either man could blink.
Doctor He lunged after it, but did not manage to catch so much as a single strand of manul fur. “Aiya! That rotten little thing!”
Xiao He remained frozen beside the cat carrier, completely dumbfounded.
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