Late at night, several staff members patrolled the zoo with flashlights, searching enclosure by enclosure for Liu Liu. Xiao He followed silently at the back of the group, head lowered, looking deeply dejected.
“Don’t blame yourself,” the senior comforted him. “Who would’ve thought it looked so silly, yet could actually pretend to be sick!”
Xiao He kept his gaze lowered and did not reply. His expression revealed nothing—no one could tell what he was thinking.
…
The late-night search yielded no results. Liu Liu had vanished without a trace.
After that, Xiao He continued to quietly clean the Pallas’s cat enclosure every day.
He was tall and good-looking, and some visitors took photos and videos of him and uploaded them online. In those images, he was sometimes sweeping and feeding, sometimes sitting by the enclosure reading quietly with his head lowered, and sometimes looking up toward the highest tree in the enclosure—as if there were something shining there, something that always drew his gaze.
…
The thick stack of exam workbooks grew thinner and thinner. The day of the examination would inevitably arrive. But the hospital bills kept coming one after another, as though they would never end.
Sitting at his desk, Xiao He calculated again and again. In the end, with hesitation and resignation, he crossed out the money he had planned to spend on buying fish for the Pallas’s cats next week.
On his day off, he went as usual to visit his younger sister Xiao Xin in the hospital. Returning home late at night, he was about to continue studying when he realized he had left an important reference book at the enclosure.
In the middle of the night, he returned to the Pallas’s cat enclosure with a flashlight. Just as he was taking out his keys, he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him—something was moving in the grass.
He bent down, squinting as he tried to peer into the grass.
A small, fluffy, round shadow darted out swiftly and stopped about a meter away from him, staring directly at him without the slightest fear.
—it was Liu Liu, who had been missing for over a month.
And in its mouth… it was holding a koi fish?
A large koi from the nearby pond—its body even bigger than Liu Liu itself, its tail still flapping vigorously!
Xiao He froze on the spot, staring at Liu Liu. They looked at each other for several seconds.
Then Liu Liu dragged the koi over to him and, with a thud, dropped it at his feet.
After that, it raised its rear and stretched lazily, cast Xiao He a proud glance, its tail held upright like a fluffy rod—
and in the blink of an eye, it darted back into the grass and disappeared once more.
Xiao He stared blankly at the large koi, then looked toward the direction Liu Liu had disappeared.
This… was this a gift for him?
Could it be that Liu Liu never ate the small fish he gave because they were too small?
Xiao He examined the koi and found that, aside from being frightened and dehydrated, it did not seem seriously injured. He cautiously placed it back into the pond.
Once in the water, the koi swished its head and tail vigorously, and before long, it swam back into the school.
Xiao He let out a sigh of relief and sat down by the pond. Looking around, he noticed Liu Liu lurking in the nearby grass, watching him from afar.
For no particular reason, he felt very happy.
He had not felt this happy in a long time. Smiling, he called out loudly to Liu Liu:
“I won’t eat your fish either!”
He returned to the Pallas’s cat enclosure to retrieve his book, and Liu Liu followed him from a distance.
“Go on, leave. I won’t catch you—just go.”
He took his book and came back out, yet Liu Liu was still following him from afar.
“Go!”
Liu Liu did not leave.
Not only did it not leave—it secretly followed him all the way back to his home.
That night, after Xiao He turned off the lights and went to sleep, he suddenly heard a series of clattering sounds outside the window. The half-open window slammed fully open with a bang, and a dark blur leapt onto his blanket.
Xiao He turned over and quickly switched on the light. In the warm yellow glow filling the room, Liu Liu sat at the corner of his bed, its round body sinking into the thin blanket and pressing out a deep dent.
It cast him a proud glance, then kneaded the blanket for a while with its paws, testing the softness. Satisfied, it settled down, lifted one fluffy paw, and leisurely began licking it.
Xiao He was full of question marks.
…
After that, perhaps because the weather had grown colder and it wanted a warm place to sleep, Liu Liu actually moved into Xiao He’s home.
At night, it would vanish without a trace; during the day, it would curl up on Xiao He’s blanket and sleep soundly. Xiao He slept at night and worked during the day—until his next day off, when he finally realized that this bold Pallas’s cat had been living in his home all along, and even had a routine.
No wonder the bits of fur on the blanket could never be fully picked off!
Looking at the Pallas’s cat sprawled across his pillow, limbs splayed in all directions, Xiao He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll take you back?”
The Pallas’s cat narrowed its eyes and gave a huge yawn, revealing two missing molars. Then it rubbed its face contentedly against the pillow, leaving behind a smear of eye discharge.
“Hey!”
After washing the pillowcase clean and hanging it out to dry on the balcony, Xiao He resigned himself to cooking.
That day, he still had vegetables with noodles. When he set the bowl on the table, Liu Liu curiously climbed up to sniff it. Xiao He picked up a bite with his chopsticks and offered it to its mouth—but it refused to eat, instead casting him a look of disdain mixed with pity.
…
A few days later, the Pallas’s cat itself took action and brought back a chicken for its housemate—
a half-dead rooster.
The rooster still had a last breath left, wobbling its head as it ran wildly around the room, leaving drops of blood everywhere. Xiao He, asleep halfway through the night, was startled awake by its cries. Turning on the light, he saw blood all over the room—like the scene of a murder!
And the brutal culprit, with a few chicken feathers still stuck at the corner of its mouth, stood proudly on the table, looking at him as if awaiting praise.
“……”
…
Early the next morning, Xiao He carried the now-cold chicken carcass, going door to door to his neighbors to confirm the scene of last night’s “incident,” apologizing profusely and offering compensation.
Although the chicken looked plump and delicious, Xiao He resisted the urge to stew it into mushroom chicken soup. Right in front of Liu Liu, he carefully wrapped up the carcass and threw it into the trash.
“I won’t accept your gifts. Don’t bring them to me.”
Liu Liu stood not too far away, tilting its head as it looked at him, then at the trash can.
A Pallas’s cat’s mind found it difficult to understand human behavior.
Xiao He knew that if he accepted the chicken, Liu Liu would continue hunting—catching fish, birds, even other people’s pets—further damaging the already fragile urban ecosystem eroded by steel and concrete.
He could not bear to send Liu Liu back to the zoo, yet he clearly understood that it should not be roaming freely through the city.
He knew he should not let Liu Liu stay, yet he could not bring himself to send it away.
…
He loved waking in the early dawn to see Liu Liu perched on the window frame, gazing at the rising sun, the gentle morning light reflecting in its eyes—bright and clear.
He cherished returning home at dusk, weary from the day, and touching the indentation on his blanket, feeling the faint lingering warmth.
For many days afterward, Liu Liu did not appear again at Xiao He’s home.
Futile Devices Scans 
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