“Meow!”
Anci opened his eyes.
The orange cat stood at the foot of the bed, its long, fluffy tail raised curiously in the air.
“Momo!”
The young man, who couldn’t even remember his own name, called out the cat’s name with perfect accuracy.
He struggled to sit up but his body had yet to adjust to being awake after a full night’s sleep. A wave of dizziness swept through his head.
Before he could fall off the bed, a pair of hands caught him, supporting his body and helping him regain his balance.
Mu Liang carried the faint, pleasant scent of shower gel. Anci felt a little embarrassed being held in his arms and hurriedly struggled to sit upright.
“Sorry,” he said softly.
The man’s voice was filled with helplessness.
“You never need to say those two words to me.”
How could that be?
Anci raised his head, about to argue but then he noticed that Mu Liang’s face, along with every patch of exposed skin, was covered in long, blood red scratches.
It looked as though he had just endured a fierce battle with a wild beast.
Noticing Anci’s gaze, Mu Liang lowered his head and smiled.
“I accidentally fell into the flower bushes yesterday.”
Oh, so that’s what happened.
Anci nodded in sudden understanding.
“Then be more careful next time.”
The orange cat gracefully sauntered over. Its moist nose gently brushed against Anci’s hand in a friendly greeting.
No one could possibly resist a cat that knew how to act spoiled.
Anci reached out and scratched the orange cat beneath its chin. Momo lazily stretched its body, then boldly sprawled across Anci’s lap, enjoying his affection.
A deep, rumbling purr vibrated in its throat as it cast a provocative glance toward Mu Liang.
Mu Liang actually suffered from a severe cat fur allergy.
To enjoy this brief period of harmonious companionship, he had nearly emptied an entire box of allergy medication. (This is a dangerous thing to do. Please do not imitate it.)
At that moment, his body was still unbearably itchy from the allergic reaction.
But when he saw the smile on Anci’s face, he immediately felt that everything had been worth it.
He wiped away the tears of physical irritation that continued to stream from the corners of his eyes, then carefully sat down beside Anci.
When he saw that Anci didn’t show any resistance to his approach, he shifted a little closer before answering a completely different question.
“Whatever you like, I like too.”
Anci nodded as though he understood and when he saw that Mu Liang was being friendly toward Momo, he moved slightly to the side, making room for him.
“Cats like having their heads petted and their chins too. They’re really soft and nice to touch.”
Mu Liang followed his instructions and reached out his hand.
But Momo, who had been docilely enjoying Anci’s affection on his lap, suddenly let out a sharp, shrill cry.
Its claws dug into the back of Mu Liang’s hand leaving behind a long, bloody scratch.
The cat arched its back, its fur standing straight on end and let out a fierce, threatening hiss at Mu Liang.
“Eh! Momo!”
Anci cried out in alarm and hurried after the cat as it leaped off the bed and darted outside the room.
After a great deal of effort, he finally managed to catch the struggling Momo near the doorway and pull it into his arms.
Then he noticed something.
The cat’s small, sharp, translucent claws had blood smeared across their tips.
“What happened? Momo, where are you hurt?”
Anci immediately grew tense. He carefully examined the orange cat from head to toe, checking whether there were any other “wounds” on its body. Momo accepted the human’s meticulous concern with complete ease. When it caught sight of Mu Liang’s wounded expression, it even revealed a hint of smugness.
Mu Liang stood behind them, quietly watching.
The gray cotton pajamas softened Anci’s appearance, accentuating the gentle quality of his temperament. Cradling the cat in his arms, he whispered to it with endless tenderness, his voice filled with affection.
“Little kitty, where does it hurt? Let me rub it for you and it won’t hurt anymore.”
“Little kitty, little kitty, don’t be angry anymore. Getting angry will make you sick.”
“My little kitty, you should be a little happier. I’ll always stay by your side.”
Mu Liang closed his eyes. The wound on the back of his hand which had begun to seep blood and the scratches covering his body and face all throbbed with even greater pain.
Such meticulous care and wholehearted concern had once belonged to him as well.
Unfortunately, he would never have it again.
……
During the period when they had been newly married, they had gone on island vacations like any ordinary married couple. They had traveled to snowy mountains to take their wedding photographs. Whenever Mu Liang occasionally suffered an attack of stomach pain, Xu Anci would always cook him porridge or noodles. He would rub his hands together until they were warm, then press them gently against Mu Liang’s stomach, carefully massaging the painful area.
The handsome young man had a naturally cool and indifferent appearance. In the eyes of his fellow students, Xu Anci was a senior who was not good with words but possessed exceptional professional abilities. Within the academic world, he was a rising scholar who had won major awards at a young age and published papers in top tier journals before even completing his doctorate.
Mu Liang especially loved watching Xu Anci give presentations. A suit would accentuate the young man’s already refined and handsome appearance, making him stand tall and straight like a bamboo stalk. His cool voice was unhurried, neither servile nor overbearing and his explanations were simple and accessible. Even the most complicated theories and theorems would become clear and orderly under his interpretation.
Yet a person like that would reveal an inexperienced, innocent expression when he was in Mu Liang’s arms. For the sake of preparing every meal and every bite of food for Mu Liang, he would immerse himself in the warmth and bustle of ordinary life, washing his hands and personally preparing soup and food.
Such a tremendous contrast was enough to satisfy anyone’s vanity.
Mu Liang had enjoyed it endlessly. He had become deeply intoxicated by it, indulging in the tenderness and gentleness that belonged exclusively to him.
But he had never done anything for Xu Anci.
Xu Anci liked cats.
When the conflict between the two of them had reached its most intense point, that orange cat had appeared. Anci had given it the ridiculous name “Momo.”
On the day of their anniversary, the dishes on the table had been reheated again and again yet Mu Liang had never returned.
According to the servants, Xu Anci had cried that night.
Even his sobs had been cautious and restrained, as though he were afraid of disturbing anyone. That was when the cat named Momo had appeared before him, rubbing its head against Anci’s ankle.
Yet even then, out of consideration for Mu Liang’s allergies, Anci had still refused to let Momo enter the house and spend the night.
Xu Anci had cared about him.
Because of Mu Liang’s allergies, a person who loved cats and dogs had never kept a single pet in his home.
Before Xu Anci attempted to take his own life, he had used the last bit of money remaining on him to entrust Momo to a familiar servant, asking them to take care of the cat as though he were making arrangements for an orphaned child.
But that Xu Anci, who had endured everything and constantly compromised himself, was already dead.
Anci held the cat in his arms and turned his head to look at Mu Liang in bewilderment.
“Momo is such a well behaved little cat. Why would it dislike you?”
Mu Liang gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
“Perhaps cats simply don’t like me.”
That cat rejected him. Rather than saying it merely disliked him, it would be more accurate to say that it hated him.
The previous night, Anci had murmured the cat’s name in his sleep. Mu Liang had braved the pouring rain and wandered around the garden for several hours.
In the end, he had found the cat beneath the fence, trembling as the cold rain soaked its body yet despite its miserable condition, it had been astonishingly fierce, baring its sharp claws and teeth at Mu Liang.
The difference in strength between a cat and a human was enormous, especially when the human in question was Mu Liang, a man who stood nearly one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, had once fought underground boxing matches across an entire venue and possessed abilities comparable to those of a professional boxer.
Yet he could not use the same violent methods he would employ against a savage criminal to subdue a cat.
Because this was Xu Anci’s cat.
If the female servant had not been quick enough to react, rushing forward to hold the constantly snarling cat in her arms and soothe it with whispered words, Mu Liang might very well have become the first boxer in history to be knocked down by a kitten weighing less than three kilograms.
Mu Liang avoided the cat’s gaze and spoke in a gentle voice.
“I’ve prepared cat litter and canned cat food, as well as many different kinds of dry food. Let’s go choose some together and see which kind of cat food Momo likes best, all right?”
From that day onward, Momo began living in the villa openly and without restraint.
Its time spent wandering outside had awakened the cat’s wild instincts. Even though Mu Liang had carefully prepared an expensive cat bed and a large cat climbing frame for it, Momo was still more accustomed to sleeping in discarded cardboard boxes beside garbage bins.
As for Mu Liang, he had taken on the role of a scratching post.
Every time Momo came to visit, it left behind several fresh, bloody scratches across his body.
Even more troubling was the fact that Momo would only return home after it had grown tired of playing outside.
What worried Mu Liang even more was the obvious concern Anci displayed whenever the cat suddenly disappeared.
…
“Click on this symbol and you’ll be able to see where the cat is.”
The latest model of smartphone and electronic equipment lay in front of Anci. It was impossible for an adult living in the twenty first century to have had no contact with electronic devices yet Anci behaved like a young child who had only just encountered something new and unfamiliar.
This was the most highly rated pet tracker currently available on the market. In order to put the collar containing the tracking chip around the cat’s neck, Mu Liang had acquired several more fresh wounds on his arm.
Anci fiddled with the device for a while before figuring it out without any instruction. He gazed at the small red dot moving slowly across the map, his voice bright and cheerful.
“Momo is hunting.”
The small red dot stopped moving.
Anci let out a quiet cheer.
“Momo caught its prey!”
Clearly very satisfied with the gift, Anci lifted his head and thanked the person standing behind him, who had remained silent the entire time.
“You’re really nice… President Mu.”
Over the past few days, Mu Liang had tried every possible method to correct the way Anci addressed him but every attempt had ended in failure.
Although the young man had lost his memories, he had retained his former character and a trace of the stubbornness that had always been part of his temperament.
He said,
“I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done but I know that you brought me back because I resemble your wife.”
“You’re my employer, so calling you ‘A’Liang’ wouldn’t be appropriate according to the rules, would it?”
Mu Liang’s gaze darkened but for the time being, he accepted the somewhat stiff form of address, “President Mu.”
He reached out and touched the phone screen beside Anci’s neck. A green chat icon immediately popped up.
“This is WeChat. In our daily lives, we don’t just need to find cats. We also need to communicate more with other people.”
Over the past few days, Mu Liang had consulted doctors. He had also taken advantage of the time when Anci was asleep to bring him for a head CT scan and an MRI.
Because Anci had suffered an impact to the head, the pressure caused by the blood clot had damaged his cranial nerves, resulting in the loss of some of his cognitive and behavioral abilities.
“If surgery is performed, there’s a very high chance that other nerves will be damaged as well.”
The doctor’s cold words continued to echo through Mu Liang’s mind.
“There’s a twenty percent probability that the surgery will fail. If we operate recklessly, he might die on the operating table.”
The temporary solution was to allow the blood clot to be gradually absorbed by the body.
It might take as little as a few months or as long as several years. It was even possible that the condition would last for the rest of his life. A person who had once possessed extraordinary natural talent might be forced to remain at the cognitive and intellectual level of a seven or eight year old child, with his way of thinking and understanding permanently frozen there.
“If we use things the patient was once familiar with to provide appropriate stimulation, it might accelerate the absorption of the blood clot.”
….
Learning how to use electronic devices might be the first step toward helping Anci recover.
Mu Liang was standing far too close. Anci felt uncomfortable and instinctively drew his neck back a little.
“You can add the contact information of people you’re familiar with.”
His fingers stumbled clumsily across the screen. With Mu Liang’s guidance, Anci quickly learned how to add contacts.
“Big Sister Xiao Yuan made egg tarts this morning. They were delicious.”
“The butler uncle invited me to exercise with him.”
One after another, the servants who had shown Anci kindness or goodwill over the past few days added him as a friend.
There seemed to be one more person.
Anci held the phone in both hands and racked his brain, trying desperately to remember yet no matter how hard he tried to grasp the memory, his mind remained a chaotic blur.
Anci muttered softly, “I’m so stupid! It feels like there’s someone else who’s very, very important but how could I have forgotten him?”
The more he spoke, the more dejected he became. Frustrated, he raised his fist and lightly struck his own head, only for a warm palm to catch him by the wrist.
“You’re not stupid.”
Mu Liang crouched down, lowering himself until his line of sight was level with Anci, who was sitting on the floor. His eyes were strikingly clear, the black and white of them sharply defined. His eye shape had originally appeared severe, giving him an almost unapproachable air but the faint warmth and gentleness in his gaze softened those harsh features.
“You’re very smart. You learn so many things after being taught just once. Don’t call yourself stupid anymore, all right?”
Anci was embarrassed by the praise. He hurriedly pulled his hand back and turned away.
The butler, however, winked at him and tilted his chin toward Mu Liang, quietly reminding him, “There’s still another very important person. Shouldn’t you add his contact information as well?”
Anci turned around and happened to meet Mu Liang’s expectant gaze.
A sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He clapped his hands and cried out,
“I remember now!”
“Brother A’Hao!”
“Brother A’Hao saved me! Brother A’Hao said that he once caught a huge fish weighing fifteen kilograms. It was this, this, this long!”
Anci stretched out his hands to demonstrate the length. There were still so many other things about A’Hao that he wanted to talk about, so many words he had yet to say.
But before he could get any of them out, he saw Mu Liang’s face turn deathly pale. Clutching his chest, the man slowly, slowly, crouched down.
