Chen Miansheng, Happy New Year…

Even though it was just Chen Miansheng and Fei Yan at home, Chen Miansheng still took out all the meat he had bought from Butcher Wu from the ice cellar.

Fei Yan lifted a paw to scratch at her ear, wondering if Chen Miansheng was overestimating the eating power of one man and one cat. Sure, she usually ate a lot, but with this much meat, even ten days to half a month wouldn’t be enough to finish it.

She hurriedly hopped onto the stove and waved her tail at him.

Chen Miansheng looked down at her. “What is it?”

Fei Yan didn’t quite know how to express what she meant. She paced around the pile of meat in tiny cat steps, shaking her head in urgency.

“You’re worried we won’t be able to finish all this meat today?” he guessed.

Fei Yan immediately wagged her tail again.

Even if Gu Wu came over to celebrate New Year’s Eve with them, the three of them could never finish it all. Chen Miansheng was clearly going to waste food.

But he just smiled softly. “Don’t worry, Little Orange. It’ll all be eaten.”

Fei Yan: “?”

Was Chen Miansheng delusional, or had her cat brain miscalculated something so simple?

But with her current body, there wasn’t much she could do to stop him. She simply gave up and curled up in a clean corner of the woodshed, waiting to see him get proven wrong later.

Chen Miansheng wasn’t exactly a great cook, so he wasn’t going to whip up anything fancy with that meat.

After working all morning, he only managed to prepare a few basic boiled and braised dishes.

Then Fei Yan watched him pack the meat and some portioned rice into a prepared food box. He added a flask of water, then gently rubbed her head with his large hand. “Little Orange, want to come out with me?”

Out? In the middle of the day on New Year’s Eve, when everyone else was home celebrating?

She was puzzled but still got up lazily and followed behind him in slow, steady cat steps, curious to see what he was up to.

Chen Miansheng wandered with Fei Yan through quiet alleyways until they arrived at a dilapidated temple.

It was Fei Yan’s first time here, and from the outside, the place looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.

She tilted her head in curiosity. Why had Chen Miansheng brought meat and rice to such a deserted place?

Without changing expression, he placed the food box on the ground, then took two steps back and gently picked Fei Yan up into his arms. “Let’s go home,” he said softly.

Fei Yan frowned, unable to make sense of what he was doing.

But when he walked away and she climbed onto his shoulder for a better view, her pupils narrowed in shock.

Several children, no more than ten years old, emerged from the temple. They were filthy from head to toe, their eyes sunken deep into their skulls, and they were emaciated to the point of being unrecognizable. Each wore thick winter clothing—clothes Fei Yan recognized as ones Chen Miansheng had previously worn. The garments hung loose on their small bodies, revealing glimpses of horrifying scars beneath.

They glanced warily in the direction Chen Miansheng had left, but hunger got the better of them. They threw themselves at the food box, yanked off the lid, and began grabbing meat with dirty hands and shoving it into their mouths. They didn’t even notice the meat juices running down their arms into their sleeves.

They were clearly starving, like wolves who hadn’t seen food in several lifetimes.

“Do you remember those customers who came to the medicine hall and spoke about the war?” Chen Miansheng’s voice cut in suddenly.

Fei Yan forced herself to look at him, trying to suppress the shock she felt.

“They’re probably refugees,” he explained. “I came across them by accident when I was shopping for your New Year’s gift. I don’t know where they came from, how they got here, or what happened to their families. I don’t even know if there are others like them hiding in Dongfeng Town.”

“No inn wants to take them in, and even if the higher authorities care, they can’t reach this place for now.”

“Today is New Year’s Eve, a time for families to be together—and yet they can only hide here, barely surviving, with nowhere to call home.”

He stopped speaking, and the two of them fell silent again.

What he didn’t tell the little orange cat was that when he first discovered these refugees, their condition had been even worse.

Their bodies bore scars of varying depth, their clothing was barely enough to cover them, and they had been so hungry that they’d stripped bark from the old trees near the temple to eat. The mud from the ground and the wild grass that had overgrown the area were also part of their meals.

Without warm clothing, several had frozen to death. The ones left were either starving, injured, or both—barely clinging to life.

Chen Miansheng had considered trying to send them elsewhere, but no one in Dongfeng Town was willing to take them. Whatever trauma they’d suffered had made them unwilling to approach people. They’d become so guarded they avoided all human contact.

Even toward him—who had brought them clothes and food for nearly half a month—they still kept their distance.

There was no one else around, so logically Chen Miansheng’s words were meant for her. But Fei Yan felt like he was speaking more to himself.

She knew Chen Miansheng was different. He always had a kind of quiet compassion in him. Even though the word “compassion” carried a weight too heavy for most, he bore it anyway.

She licked her lips and turned to look back at the temple one more time.

For some reason, she felt that even though Chen Miansheng looked calm, he was probably feeling quite troubled inside. Because when she saw those children, she had also felt a tightness in her chest.

And more than that, she felt like she had come to know and understand Chen Miansheng a little more.

She flicked her tail, instinctively snuggling closer to him. Her fluffy little head nestled into the warm curve of his neck, rubbing gently, comfortingly.

That heavy mood lingered even after they returned to the courtyard, and Fei Yan found she could hardly taste her food at all.

Chen Miansheng allowed the little orange cat to eat on the square table. When he looked up, he saw her pause after only two bites, looking dazed as if her thoughts had drifted far away. He couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and helplessness.

Using the other end of his bamboo chopsticks, he gently tapped the bowl in front of her and said in a warm voice, “Come on, eat. It won’t taste good once it’s cold.”

Though to be fair, it wasn’t all that tasty to begin with.

Only then did Fei Yan come back to her senses. Her watery eyes blinked twice, and she slowly started to roll the food into her mouth with her tongue.

After the meal, the man and cat had nothing much to do at home.

Fei Yan lazily sprawled out on the stone steps to bask in the sun for a while. Once she’d had enough, she wandered back into the study to find Chen Miansheng and sleepily curled up in his arms again.

Chen Miansheng looked down. Under his care, the little cat was getting plumper by the day. Even just lying on his lap like this, her weight was not insignificant.

He briefly thought about her daily routine: sleep, eat, then sleep again. Given how rarely she moved, he considered whether he should start taking her out for walks.

But the little orange cat was sleeping so soundly in his arms. Her tiny body rose and fell with a steady rhythm, and her pink tongue peeked faintly from her mouth. If he listened closely, he could even catch the soft, rhythmic purring coming from her throat.

This was a sign of complete trust in him.

Chen Miansheng really couldn’t bring himself to wake her. He sighed quietly, shook his head with a bit of helplessness, and shifted his attention back to the rice paper on the table.

When he finally noticed what he’d unconsciously drawn, he froze for a moment.

In the corner of the paper, there was a tiny sketch of a cat’s head—
almost identical to his little orange cat.

Fei Yan slept straight through until nightfall. By then, Chen Miansheng had lit all the candles in the room. She slowly opened her eyes, instinctively rubbed her face with her paw pads, and let out a couple of soft meows without even thinking.

The scent of meat wafted into her nose, immediately waking her up. With her tail raised high, she leapt down.

Chen Miansheng had brought the food into the study just for her. At that moment, he was resting his head on one hand while reading a scripture. Perhaps sensing her gaze, he looked over at her and said softly, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, “I’ve already eaten.”

Only then did Fei Yan bury her head and begin to eat heartily. After quickly finishing her food, she fumbled her way toward the inner room again.

Before she could get far, Chen Miansheng swiftly grabbed her by the scruff and pulled her back. He bent his finger and tapped lightly on her forehead. “Going back to sleep again?”

Fei Yan waved her paw at him in protest and let out a soft, grumpy little growl.

There was no TV, no phone, no computer—she couldn’t read books like Chen Miansheng either. What else was she supposed to do besides sleep?

But then Chen Miansheng said,
“It’s time to stay up for the New Year.”

Fei Yan blinked in surprise. After two seconds, she finally realized—
Right, how could she have forgotten that tradition?

Staying up for the New Year, also known as shou sui, is a custom on New Year’s Eve. It’s a way to bid farewell to the old year, welcome the new one, and carry hopes for the future.

Fei Yan forced herself to shake off her drowsiness, sat up straight, her fluffy tail curled around her, and perched in front of Chen Miansheng.

The red candlelight reflected on his face, highlighting his features in perfect detail.

For some reason, in this atmosphere, Fei Yan couldn’t help but think of the refugees they’d seen earlier in the ruined temple.

Those people—separated from their loved ones, without a home to return to.

She suddenly realized that New Year’s Eve didn’t have to be loud and festive, nor did it have to be spent with a house full of relatives and friends.

Sometimes, having one person sitting across from you, someone who can keep you company, was already more than enough.

Time passed by the second, the moon hanging high in the sky.

Across from her, Chen Miansheng was lightly tapping the table with his fingertip, counting down the time.

In this era, there was no tool to track exact seconds. He could only roughly estimate the countdown.

“Ten seconds left.”

“Nine.”

“Eight.”

The next moment, he paused, his brows lifting slightly.

The little cat had suddenly leapt onto his shoulder, her fluffy head moving close to his ear.

He didn’t move, just continued counting.

“…Six.”

“Five.”

Fei Yan called out to Thirteen, “I want to switch to human speech mode.”

[Acknowledged, host. Successfully switched.]

“Four.”

“Three.”

Fei Yan cleared her throat. “Ahem.”

It was her own voice now—the soft, delicate tone of a young girl.

“Two.”

“One.”

Right on cue, the midnight bells rang out, echoing faintly from a distance.

Fei Yan’s fluffy little head was still pressed next to Chen Miansheng’s ear.

If anyone else had seen this, they might have thought it was an unusually intimate gesture.

But Fei Yan was completely unaware.

She licked her lips and softly spoke.

“Chen Miansheng, Happy New Year.”

After all, hadn’t he said that the way you spend New Year’s Eve would determine your fortune for the coming year?

And on this New Year’s Eve, she had spent the entire day with Chen Miansheng.

So please, please—
let her spend the whole of the coming year with him too.