Jin Zhao didn’t know what kind of cat would be like her.

She thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything. She felt she didn’t resemble a cat anyway—after all, they were different species.

“Why did you suddenly want to keep a cat?” she asked instead.

Meng Yanxi looked at her quietly. The dim light made the contours of his face appear especially gentle.

After a long while, he murmured, “Nothing much. I just want to be a little closer to you.”

A little closer.

Not just physically, but in every possible way—various kinds of ties and bonds, until they could no longer be separated.

Jin Zhao’s heart suddenly gave a jolt.

For an instant, she had a feeling that Meng Yanxi wasn’t talking about a cat.

But if it wasn’t a cat, the other possibility would make her embarrassed. She quickly cut off that thought and cleverly chose not to ask it out loud.

Let’s just assume he was talking about a cat.

Since her boyfriend had already spoken up, Jin Zhao was spared the trouble of agonizing over a gift. Over the next few days, she used the time when she didn’t have classes to visit several catteries. She looked at cats of all kinds of breeds—big and small, soft and fluffy, each with its own kind of cuteness. She found herself a bit unable to choose, so she took photos and sent them to Meng Yanxi, asking which kind he liked.

Meng Yanxi’s reply was infuriating: “Can’t you just give me a surprise?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

In the end, Jin Zhao chose a six-month-old Ragdoll kitten.

She didn’t think it looked like her. Instead, the moment she saw those deep blue eyes, she felt it looked exactly like Meng Yanxi. Equally beautiful, clear yet unfathomable, making her feel fond of it at first sight.

Meng Yanxi’s birthday was on March 18, a Tuesday, which happened to be the day Jin Zhao had the most classes that semester. She brought the cat home a day early.

That evening, when Meng Yanxi walked in the door, he saw Jin Zhao hiding behind it, holding a chubby cat in her arms.

Like a little cloud, its whole body covered in fluffy, soft long fur, round eyes as blue as gemstones, as clean and clear as her eyes.

Jin Zhao gently scratched it with her fingertip, and the cat in her arms immediately let out a long, drawn-out meow.

By then, it was already dark. Outside the window, night had fully fallen, the cold melting into the darkness.

Inside the room, the lights glowed warm and inviting.

Jin Zhao stood in front of him, the cat in her arms soft and plush. Meng Yanxi reached out and touched it, his hand filled with warmth and softness.

“Do you like it?” she asked with a smile.

Meng Yanxi lowered his gaze to her and said, “I like it.”

He looked straight at her, making her have to speak up and remind him, “I mean the cat.”

Meng Yanxi swept a glance over it and asked, “What’s its name?”

Jin Zhao said, “You come up with one?”

Meng Yanxi tilted his head and thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s call it Yuandan.”

Jin Zhao: “Yuandan?”

Meng Yanxi: “Mm.”

Jin Zhao: “Why call it Yuan—”

She hadn’t finished asking when she met Meng Yanxi’s pitch-black eyes and, as if blessed with sudden insight, understood.

They had gotten together on New Year’s Eve.

“No.” She refused.

Someone, after teasing her, started pretending to be innocent again and asked back, “Why not? Yuandan is great—celebrated by everyone under heaven. Or is it that this name makes you think of something?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Jin Zhao finally couldn’t take it anymore and punched him.

That certain someone got hit and still laughed, fist pressed to his lips, shoulders shaking with laughter. In the end, he finally behaved himself and said, “Then let’s call it 1119.”

“1119?” Jin Zhao couldn’t think of anything special about the number. “The fire emergency number?”

Meng Yanxi: “……”

Look at his immense good fortune—other people get a girlfriend, he gets a nemesis.

With Meng Yanxi’s kind of personality—impervious to both water and fire—most of the time he was the one making others uncomfortable, while he himself didn’t suffer much. But every time he emo-ed, Jin Zhao played a major role.

Fire emergency? Was he a firefighter?!

Someone was clearly bothered to death inside, yet when faced with her wooden questioning, refused to tell her outright, insisting she figure it out herself.

And without giving any hints—how was Jin Zhao’s brain supposed to come up with it?

At midnight, the bedroom lights were still blazing.

The six-month-old Ragdoll was in its energetic phase. Not sleepy at all in the middle of the night, it heard some suspicious sounds and immediately crawled out of its cat bed, following the sliver of light spilling through the door crack and squeezing its soft little body inside.

The sounds in the room grew louder, the air carrying a certain damp, heated scent.

It heard the female owner call out hoarsely, “The cat—the cat came in…”

“Mm.”

“Get out quickly… ah! Meng Yanxi…”

“Didn’t you tell me to hurry?”

“I meant go out…”

“Mm, I thought that part was directed at the cat.”

“…Then you go out.”

The man pretended not to hear.

Jin Zhao had also realized that Meng Yanxi only listened to the parts he wanted to hear, even if it meant taking things out of context. And if that didn’t work, he would just pretend he hadn’t heard anything.

Both sly and childish.

Yet she still liked him so much.

The bell marking midnight rang. She wrapped her arms around his neck, their hair damp as it tangled together. She tilted her head and murmured softly, “Meng Yanxi, happy birthday.”

She knew that every year at this time, there would certainly be many, many people saying those words to him—but tonight, the first blessing he heard came from her.

Someone who had been quietly struggling with himself all night seemed to finally compromise at this moment.

He kissed her earlobe and said hoarsely, “1119 is the day I became Teacher Jin’s boyfriend. Don’t forget it again.”

Only then did Jin Zhao belatedly react.

She was the type of person who didn’t really care much for rituals. From a certain perspective, this was also a kind of self-protection for her. After all, she had been alone for so many years—just like her name, a feather drifting with the wind. If there were too many rituals, they would instead become a burden to her.

She only remembered that they had confirmed their relationship sometime in November. As for the exact date, she hadn’t deliberately kept track of it.

Seeing how much Meng Yanxi cared, she suddenly felt a little apologetic.

She thought for a moment, wanting to make it up to him by giving some kind of assurance, but Meng Yanxi had already forgiven her—and even thoughtfully shared a homophonic joke with her.

Meng Yanxi: “It’s easy to remember—yao yao yao jiu, tian chang di jiu.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

She suddenly felt that her boyfriend was a little silly, and a little cute.

The next day, Meng Yanxi went back to the Meng family home.

A twenty-seven-year-old single man being urged to get married was inevitable. Meng Huai and Meng Shixu pressured him, and when he went back, he quietly turned around and pressured his girlfriend instead.

He wasn’t sure if Jin Zhao had understood. Afraid that this blockhead wouldn’t get it, he was just about to make it clearer when Jin Zhao suddenly said, “Meng Yanxi, I want to apply to go to Cambridge as a visiting scholar.”

The living room window was open, the wind pouring in from outside. The weather had been sunny these past few days, with bright sunshine during the day, but at night the temperature was still very low, the wind cutting against the skin with a chill.

Meng Yanxi’s pitch-black eyes fixed on her. After quite a while, he lowered his gaze and asked in a low voice, “For how long?”

“For now it’s not certain—probably six months, or maybe a year.” Jin Zhao paused, and for reasons she couldn’t quite name, added an explanation. “Although I’ve studied abroad before, my school’s ranking wasn’t particularly outstanding. Domestic universities are very competitive now, and a visiting position at Cambridge would be a big help for my future promotion. So I seriously thought about Dean Wang’s suggestion, and I still want to complete the visiting program as early as possible. It’s really only half a year or a year—the time isn’t long…”

By the end of it, she didn’t even dare to look him in the eyes, her palm unconsciously tightening.

It was clearly just like the countless times over the years—always making decisions that benefited her future, without hesitation. But this time, she was no longer alone. She was very nervous about Meng Yanxi’s feelings.

It was obvious that he was in the midst of passionate love right now. Just a second before she interrupted him, he had still been planning to take her home to meet his family.

She didn’t want to interrupt him, but she also couldn’t let him finish saying it.

As she was now, what could she possibly take with her to go meet his parents?

Leaving aside whether it was too soon or not—under normal relationship progression, after meeting the parents came a meeting between both families. And she couldn’t even piece together a pair of parents. If his family were ordinary, perhaps she could face it calmly, without humility or arrogance. But his family was anything but ordinary. That kind of disparity in reality couldn’t be ignored, and she didn’t have the psychological strength to do what television dramas portrayed—finding actors to pretend to be her parents.

Her heart was hanging high in the air. Only by constantly moving forward herself, keeping her feet firmly on the ground, could she feel at ease.

But at the same time, she was greedy and didn’t want to give up her relationship with Meng Yanxi.

She drafted everything over and over in her mind, preparing to communicate with him honestly.

She wanted him to know that it wasn’t that she didn’t care—on the contrary, it was because she cared too much that she was eager to push herself to improve.

But he didn’t wait for her to speak. He nodded first.

“Okay.”

He took her hand, the slightly rough pads of his fingers rubbing against hers. “But this time, you have to leave me a way to contact you.”

The heart Jin Zhao had been holding up suddenly dropped, and she smiled in relief. “Not just contact info, we’ll video call every day!”

Meng Yanxi lowered his gaze to her and said thoughtfully, “We probably can’t video call every day. I should at least get to see the real person once in a while.”

Jin Zhao couldn’t help laughing, warmth filling her chest.

She hugged his waist tightly and looked up at him. “Alright. I’ll come back to see you whenever I have time.”

After reaching an agreement with Meng Yanxi, Jin Zhao quickly started the application process. There were many steps, and all kinds of materials were extremely complicated. During that period, Jin Zhao was very busy. Meng Yanxi would occasionally go to her apartment to stay the night, but since 1119 was kept at Shanshui City, most of the time Jin Zhao still stayed over at his place.

At six months old, 1119 was right in its energetic, exploratory phase—very clever, and very good at imitation. It was always circling around Jin Zhao. When Jin Zhao sat in front of the computer, it would jump onto her lap and pretend to be well-behaved and cute, putting on a faux-innocent act to draw her attention. At times like that, Meng Yanxi would lean off to the side and watch coldly.

Jin Zhao keenly sensed that Meng Yanxi seemed a bit dissatisfied with the gift she’d given him.

He didn’t even like it as much as Luo Heng did.

During the Qingming Festival holiday, Lu Jingyue, Luo Heng, and Si Tian came over for a small get-together. The moment Luo Heng heard the name 1119, he liked it so much he started yelling with excitement, hugging the cat and petting it nonstop.

“1119? That’s my birthday! Meng Yanxi, who would’ve thought you cared this much about your brother—using my birthday just to name a cat. Alright, I won’t say more. I’ll remember this brotherhood. From now on, this is my godson. I’ll cover all the cat toys!”

Everyone else looked at him like he was an idiot.

1119 was a bit of an attention seeker. Rarely seeing so many people at home, it went all out to attract notice—acting cute one moment, imitating the next, putting on little performances—like a femme fatale, stirring things up so much that Si Tian and Luo Heng almost came to blows over fighting for its custody.

Suddenly, 1119 ran off to one side, lay down on a cushion, and began rapidly swinging its hips, at the same time letting out some kind of indescribable moan.

At first, no one realized what it was doing. Si Tian even casually asked, “You didn’t get the cat neutered?”

Jin Zhao replied, “The cattery…” did.

Just as the words left her mouth, she realized something and abruptly fell silent.

Help—help! 1119 wasn’t in heat. It—it was imitating!

Jin Zhao’s face instantly turned so red it looked like it might drip blood.

At the same time, the person being imitated also reacted immediately. But Meng Yanxi was indeed Meng Yanxi—his skin was really thick.

He calmly stood up, stepped forward, grabbed the cat, tossed it into a room, and as he shut the door, even put on an act and threw out a line: “Don’t be noisy.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Meng Yanxi’s performance made it hard to say whether it made her more embarrassed, or less.