Chapter 44

TLC: Lilies

Editing: Whiteflare

Compared to how nervous Big Return Date was when facing the camera lenses for the first time, Little Return Date was like a natural born celebrity. It didn’t get scared when the big black thing before it started to get closer and closer, even daring to extend its paw to claw that object gleaming with reflected light.

“You can’t scratch that.” Qi Jing held it up just in time to stop it from damaging the camera lenses.

“Your cat really is so funny; it looks so clever too.” The cameraman praised while holding the equipment on his shoulder, carefully scrutinizing Little Return Date’s appearance through the camera lenses.

Qi Jing temporarily put Little Return Date back in a small box, freeing up his hand to check through the action plan for today one last time while chatting with his colleagues: “This little fella is living a comfortable life when at home and has been spoiled silly. Its three big daily missions are to eat, sleep, and fool around; right now, it’s a perfect chance to take it out for some ‘training’, otherwise it really would become a pile of lazy cat bones.”

Little Return Date lifted its head and watched its owner and a few strangers bustle about from its crate, an innocent and naive look on its face. Little did it know that today was its grand day, as it was about to step onto the path of devoting itself to the acting.

Qi Jing hid a mini microphone in the inconspicuous place behind his collar and covered it with a coat while the camera assistant helped him with placing a micro-camera inside his bag. Once everything was secured in place, Qi Jing briefly tested out the camera angles; everything was ready, so he held Little Return Date, and got out of the car.

Those days he made a full display of his perception skills as a news reporter when studying the little guy’s daily routine. Just as Shen Yan had said before, this little guy would become sluggish and sleepy after eating, looking rather apathetic—it was quite similar to its look when ill. That’s why Qi Jing made it eat its fill in advance.

As expected, the kitten laying in the crook of his arm started to show some signs of sleepiness, its eyes drowsy and sluggish. It didn’t even feel like stretching out its paws. Qi Jing smiled lightly and walked towards the nearby vet clinic in large strides.

After coming in through the large doors, he first looked around the lobby. He didn’t see any business permit or compliance certificate of animal disease prevention hung on the wall, the equipment also looked rather crude. But there were still clients waiting there, sitting separately. He concluded his observation and let the camera in his bag shoot everything before going to the front desk.

The receptionist lady smiled wholeheartedly and said in a pleasant voice, “Welcome, how can I help you?”

Her attitude wasn’t that bad.

And so his acting skills tempered for three years of voice acting were set in motion. “It seems like my cat got ill, can I ask the doctor to examine him? It’s the first time for me to keep a cat, so I lack experience. Those two days I was so anxious I thought I was about to go crazy.” Qi Jing’s brows creased in a deep furrow as he lifted the hand carrying the cat, pleading piteously.

With the intense anxiety in his voice, it sounded as if the little guy in his arms was an apple of his eye, one he couldn’t bear making suffer any grievances.

The phrasing ‘

it seems

’ was for the sake of creating an effect of ambiguousness.

Saying ‘

It’s the first time for me to keep a cat

’ was for the sake of highlighting his lack of knowledge.

The receptionist lady gasped slightly, looking genuinely concerned. She turned her head and called a medical assistant who looked an intern, “You take a look at this kitten first and examine its symptoms.”

Qi Jing secretly pinched Little Return Date’s paw. Little Return Date opened its eyes halfways, thinking its owner was playing with it—but Qi Jing stubbornly refused to either pay attention to it or pet it for a long time, so it started meowing complainingly. For a bystander, it could very well be a whine caused by an ailment.

The intern assistant came over absent-mindedly and took over Little Return Date, lifting the little guy by its armpits. He put on an act of looking at it closely a couple of times before putting it down without examining anything.

At that moment, the receptionist lady skillfully fished out a price list from beneath the counter and put it before Qi Jing, showing him all kinds of examinations offered at their place, “Please first check out our prices. Generally speaking, for the people that keep a pet for the first time, we recommend a complete set of examinations including the lab tests for faeces, blood, and bacteria. But the most important are feline distemper and

feline infectious peritonitis

.”

All that time, Qi Jing had been looking quietly at that intern’s movements and only at that moment he withdrew his eyes. His expression was still as flustered and at loss when asked dumbly, “Feline distemper? What is this feline distemper, what is that feline perito-something?”

In reality, he was perfectly aware of what those two were. Every evening, Shen Yan would sit by his bedside and read him the treatment diary, every now and then chatting with Qi Jing about the matters related to those small animals.

Qi Jing listened to him devotedly—every time they came across some medical jargon he didn’t understand, he would let Shen Yan pause for a moment and explain it to him. Shen Yan’s explanations were always very detailed, going through everything from the illness’ condition, causes and symptoms, until Qi Jing completely understood it.

After having a few of these exchanges, he gradually familiarised himself with the common feline diseases and could more or less recite the symptoms from his memory.

As expected, Kitty’s Papa is always so reliable.

The receptionist lady asked that intern to briefly explain the feline distemper and FIP to him. The intern explained it to him roughly&#k2014;a lot of things were mentioned off-handedly and he put a great stress on the effects and consequences, purposely making the situation sound terribly severe.

Qi Jing nodded his head in confusion, as if he was hearing this for the first time, even gasping anxiously from time to time.

“I think I understand now.” Those five words made both the receptionist and the intern smile in unison, yet his next words made those smiles disappear in a blink of an eye, “But I don’t have so much money, can it just have the faeces examination?”

It was the cheapest examination from the list, with a price of mere 30 yuan.

The corners of the receptionist lady’s lips sank as she sized him up for a bit, then she quirked them back up again, “Mister, it’s your first time having a cat, so it’s better to be cautious. In our clinic, you can get a discount if you purchase a full set of examinations. This is your first time here, right? We can give you a 25% discount, so it would be only 300 yuan for an entire set. How about that?”

Qi Jing made an expression as if he was thinking hard and paced a few steps in front of the counter, yet still shook his head in the end, “I underwent surgery a couple of days ago and used all of my money on hospital fees, so my financial situation is pretty bad at the moment… Let’s just make it a faeces examination.” While saying that, he pointed at his left arm covered in a cast, as if to prove he was telling the truth.

Upon seeing this, the intern assistant shrugged and took Little Return Date to collect the faeces sample as told. The receptionist lady’s smile didn’t look as amiable anymore as, she just did her job and printed him a receipt, then tore it off with a single flick of hand, tossing it before him so he could pay.

Qi Jing paid for the lab test without acting fussy and kept the receipt—it would naturally get submitted to the unit so he could get a reimbursement.

Holding Little Return Date in the lobby, he didn’t even wait for ten minutes before the intern-looking person came back to tell him that his cat has feline distemper and requires hospitalization.

“Doctor, are you sure my cat has feline distemper?” Qi Jing was sure this wasn’t a doctor, but he still used the most estimable way of calling him.

“That’s right, just look at those red lines on the indicator paper.” That assistant raised a white indicator paper with an almost indiscernible red line-shaped thing on it. Shen Yan had once explained it to him, saying that an indicator paper examination was very imprecise. The standard way of diagnosing the feline distemper was to check the amount of leukocytes in blood or to examine faeces for the virus. Still, the whole procedure of the latter would certainly not take mere ten minutes.

“Then I have no other way,” Unexpectedly, Qi Jing made a grieved expression and lifted the half-asleep Little Return Date up while saying in a pained tone, “I don’t have money to take this little guy to a doctor. I can only send it back to home so it can spend the rest of its days in peace.”

The assistant stared at him, dumbstruck. “If… If feline distemper doesn’t get treated in time, it would really… really die.” Qi Jing’s sudden change in attitude and lack of care about the kitten’s life or death shocked him so deeply he began to stutter while speaking.

“I know, but that’s the only option.” Qi Jing put on a rather solemn and tragic expression.

In reality, there was not a single trace of feline distemper on the little fella. It had just had its blood test done a few days ago, its leukocyte count was regular and the virus examination results didn’t show anything unusual—just an evening before, it was rolling happily on Shen Yan’s lap. It was just Qi Jing knew just the right time to give some treats to the little guy as a reward in advance as they prepared on their way here.

After that, Qi Jing used the same method to carry out an investigation in a couple of other veterinarian institutions.

A certain doctor from one of the clinics had told him in a very certain tone that Little Return Date had FIP. He also told him that the rumours about it being one hundred percent deadly disease weren’t reliable—his clinic had managed to rescue a couple of cases before, but a specific imported vaccine was needed for that. Each vaccination cost 200 yuan and it was only effective if the vaccination continued daily for a week. Of course, Qi Jing found some excuse to decline the advice given.

Later there were also the cases of marketing cat products, indiscriminately charging outpatient services fees, an examination involving a misused canine distemper indicator paper…Basically, a thousand and one reasons to trick people into paying.

Fortunately, there was one relatively normal clinic among them. After finishing the routine examination, the nurse had told him that the cat didn’t show anything out of usual, but if he wanted, they could ask the doctor to come and examine it once again. Qi Jing thanked her with a smile. He said he would observe it for another couple of days before leaving.

Of course, the whole process of investigating had been recorded by the microcamera.

The provincial TV station and

SAIC

were in long-term cooperation; there was a fixed team of staff that they liaised with, so he reported the names of the institutions he visited that day to them, asking to investigate whether those businesses had operational permits.

As for the exterior of those vet hospitals and clinics, his colleagues waiting outside had already finished recording them; all that was left was post-production editing.

“According to the plan, there are still four other places we’ll be checking in the afternoon. It’s Saturday, so we can wrap up the work earlier.” Said the equipment assistant responsible for driving the car. In a blink of an eye, it was already noon and they stopped the car near a residential area to take a short break.

“Mhm, let’s wrap this up quick and go home early.” Qi Jing smiled. It was the first time he felt an urge to rush back home everyday since he started working.

After finishing feeding Little Return Date, he closed his eyes to relax for a while. Suddenly, the phone in his pocket buzzed.

He got a message.

In fact he knew who that was before he even took out the phone, but as soon as he saw that single “Yan” in the sender’s information, all the fatigue accumulated during the day had vanished into the thin air and he smiled unconsciously. Probably because Shen Yan didn’t want to hinder his work, the content of the message was very short, but still very heartwarming.

【You worked hard during the interview. Remember to find time to eat lunch at noon. Don’t walk around hungry.】

Qi Jing lowered his head in silence, looking at the text for a long time. He repeatedly stroked the words on the screen with his thumb, over and over, his smile only becoming bigger.

“I’m going out to make a call.” He stood up and informed his colleagues before getting out of the car to find a secluded corner. He leaned on the wall and called the other’s number.

“Hello?” The call came through really quickly. Qi Jing laughed lightly and greeted, “You worked hard, Dr Shen. Is it already the time for a break in the clinic?”

“Mhm, there was an operation in the morning, so it’s a little later than usual. But there’s nothing important going on at the moment.” Shen Yan had to work on Saturdays, that time when he came to visit Qi Jing he made an exception and took a leave. Of course, Qi Jing only got to know about that later when he was chatting with the head nurse at the clinic.

“So you must be tired. Make use of your break and go to the lounge to rest for a while, we’ll talk again later when I’m back in the evening.”

Qi Jing had seen Shen Yan working by the operating table—the burden of this work was heavy, so heavy that simply hearing the word ‘operation’ made him frown and urge Shen Yan to take a nap.

“It’s okay.” Maybe because he kept the phone too close to his ear, but he could hear Shen Yan’s breathing very clearly, making him feel as if Shen Yan was murmuring by his ear, “But back to you, have you eaten yet? Even if you don’t have any spare time, you should still sneak a bite or two to fill your stomach. I left some snack bars in your bag so you can eat those when you’re busy.”

“So it was you who had put it there? And here I thought it was a

snail girl

.” Qi Jing couldn’t help but chuckle.

He didn’t realise that first when he was going out—only when he opened his bag to take out a document did he realise that there was an extra bag full of snacks inside, all of them tasty, light and healthy. He thought to himself that there was no other person that would put it there, but since the other party had admitted to have done that, he might as well tease him a little.

Shen Yan was indeed amused by his teasing; Qi Jing could hear the smile in his voice, “Those are only for the sake of allaying your hunger, you still need to remember to eat a regular meal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a takeaway or not, either way, I’ll cook something when you’re back in the evening.”

The plum in Qi Jing’s heart seemed to be so ripe it turned into a wine, leaving him somewhat woozy.

Even though lately the temperature in the city had continued to drop and he already had to wear a thick jacket, he still didn’t feel even the slightest chill. It was no wonder though—during his stay in Shen Yan’s apartment the food was hot and steaming, the quilt was cozy, and even during his break when he was working outside, he could still call Shen Yan to listen to this warm concern.

This year’s autumn… really didn’t seem as unbearable.

“I know,” he said in a low voice, “I will come back as soon as I finish my work, don’t worry too much about me, just wait for me.”

When he was saying those words, a single leaf drifted down from the tree above him. Its golden colour overlapped with the ray of light seeping through the clouds on the horizon, the view luminous and dazzling. The falling leaf was swept away by wind, so his eyes chased after it, looking as it twirled in the wind, his voice brisk from joy.

“Mhm, I’m waiting for you.” Shen Yan’s voice on the other hand sounded completely different, steady like the Mother Earth herself, calm and unfaltering.

Falling leaves go back to their roots

, returning to the earth.

He also wished he could, just like that leaf, return to that person’s side quickly.

When Qi Jing proposed to go out and buy boxed meals, his colleagues revealed the same stunned expression and uniformly looked at him blankly.

In the eyes of everyone in the news department, Qi Jing was a model workaholic. The interview crew members who had worked with him before all knew that during the work time, he usually never ate anything and the lunchtime situated in the middle of the work hours was especially easily omitted. He always liked to wolf down food quickly at the end of the work or simply replenish his energy with some midnight snacks.

Now, when he suddenly started eating lunch like a normal person, it was only natural that his little comrades were all shocked.

“Why are you all looking at me like this, don’t you usually eat boxed meals, too?” Qi Jing discovered that all of the people in the car were looking at him as if they were sizing up an exotic beast and couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s not strange to eat boxed meals, it’s strange that it was you who mentioned eating it.” The cameraman’s wide open mouth still didn’t close completely before quickly he quipped in.

“Ah, that’s because I’ve eaten some snacks, before so I’m not as hungry. That’s why I’d rather buy a boxed meal than eat in the restaurant.” He didn’t want to waste even a single bit of the food Shen Yan prepared for him. He’d eat a couple of snacks, finish dealing with the follow-up and only eat something normally at home, at the time the meal is normally eaten.

“No, it’s not about that,” The lightning technician on the side shook his head like a rattle-drum, “it’s the fact that you would eat on time that’s so strange.”

“I’m a bone fracture patient, I need to recuperate.” Qi Jing narrowed his eyes while smiling slyly.

“That’s also true…”

“So it’s like that…”

“You’re all too naïve, that guy is hiding something from us, I’m sure of that!” In the whole group, only the equipment assistant didn’t give up. He had an experience with doing odd works at the entertainment department before, so his skill with fishing for gossip was above ordinary and he wouldn’t be fooled by Qi Jing’s tricks. Saying that, he suddenly clapped his hands, his eyes shining, “I understand! Qi Jing, I’m almost certain that you’ve found yourself a girlfriend!”

When that sentence dropped, all of the eyes in the car swooshed in Qi Jing’s direction.

Qi Jing denied, smiling without any pressure, “Not, at, all.”

Disbelief was written all over the equipment assistant’s face. He pointed his finger at Qi Jing, dead set on getting to the truth of the matter, “You’re not allowed to lie, if you do, you’ll get your pay deducted and your year-end bonus will be gone.”

But Qi Jing would keep both his pay and his bonus. Because it wasn’t a girlfriend, but a boyfriend—even though nominally, that title still had the “under probation” tag attached to it.

So Qi Jing stayed composed and said candidly with a smile, “I really don’t have a girlfriend. Since the car accident, I’ve been living with someone temporarily; they have a strict eating routine and with how I can’t use my hand, it’s them who are responsible for making meals, so it’s only normal that I eat it whenever the food is done. Eating like that for a long time, I got used to it and now I get hungry whenever it’s a mealtime.”

It was probably because the tone of his voice sounded so calm that all of his colleagues believed his excuse. Even the equipment assistant admitted defeat and had to give up on prying into Qi Jing’s private matters.

The group of guys stopped the car in front of a fast food shop and got out one after another to order some food. Qi Jing chose a relatively light option and returned to the car with his colleagues to eat. Originally, he was able to finish eating everything, even the meals from the hospital cafeteria. But even though the boxed meal he was eating now was way better in quality then the hospital one, he thought it tasted plain when he nibbled on it and didn’t show as much of an appetite as other people in the car.

“Crap…” Qi Jing stopped his chopsticks and smiled while mumbling to himself, his head lowered.

Seems like his taste has changed, he became more picky.

And he even knew who was responsible for that. Besides the times he worked outside, he was eating three meals made by Shen Yan a day nearly every day. They were fresh and neat; they smelled, looked, and tasted great. How could an ordinary boxed meal bought on the streets compare anymore?

“Seems like I need to hurry back home.” He continued eating with a smile. Only with enough energy would his efficiency be high and only like that he would be able to finish his work quicker.

Besides, it was the day of the official announcement of the contestants who qualified for the 《Order to End the Heavens》.