Chapter 2

After finishing the show, they took a car back to the Shen family.

Yan Zhao leaned against the back of the car, holding a plush doll given by a fan, feeling a mess in his heart.

He was busy with his career and had never been in a relationship before. Now suddenly he had a “Gong” partner, how should he put it, it felt very delicate.

Shen Yuanting, in the original story, was positioned as the “white moonlight”. He was the male god that Ning Yunfan was obsessed with in his dreams, the one he cried for countless nights. But at the same time, he was also the obstacle that prevented Ning Yunfan from meeting his true love openly.Yan Zhao felt that in Ning Yunfan’s heart, rather than saying Shen Yuanting was the “white moonlight,” it was more accurate to say that he was the embodiment of all the beautiful fantasies of his youth.

The author may have also noticed this point and later directly tore apart the facade of the “white moonlight” – Shen Yuanting blackened.

He was not a pure and cold male god, but a gloomy and ruthless, vengeful lunatic. Shen Yuanting was mentally ill, he didn’t recognize his own family, and he took over both the legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

No matter how strong the antagonist was, he couldn’t stand in the way, so in the end, he was left alone, lost all interest in life, and committed suicide. Even in death, no one bothered to claim his body.

“Brother, we arrived home,” Zhong Ling’s voice interrupted his thoughts. The original body and Shen Yuanting had a secret marriage, and the assistant only knew that he lived in a villa area but didn’t know which building he lived in.

Yan Zhao got out of the car, told Zhong Ling to be careful on the way back, and then walked towards home.

He imagined dozens of scenarios for meeting Shen Yuanting, but none of them turned out.

Opening the door, he found various boxes stacked in the entrance, packed luggage that the original owner intended to take away today. However, now everything in these boxes needed to be returned to its original place.

In the spacious residence, only the living room was lit. Yan Zhao looked around but didn’t find Shen Yuanting. Instead, the housekeeper was sitting on the sofa, burying her head, her shoulders occasionally trembling, sobbing continuously.

Coming home late at night to find a stranger crying was quite unsettling.

Yan Zhao sat down next to her, handed her a tissue, and asked, “Aunt Chen, what happened to you?”

Crying so miserably, was she bullied, or did something happen at home?

The woman raised her head, her eyes swollen from crying, and her nose red. Seeing Yan Zhao, a glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes. She urgently grabbed his hand and said, “Xiao Yan, you must help Aunt Chen. Plead with Madam for my behalf. My son is about to study abroad, and I can’t afford to lose this job!”

Yan Zhao was puzzled, slowly realizing she must have been Aunt Chen, the long-time housekeeper who managed the house impeccably even with her eyes closed—a seasoned staff member who seemed like an NPC giving out quests in a newbie village.

He coughed, and dismissed that thought and said, “Stop crying. How did you upset Shen Yuanting?”

Aunt Chen took the tissue, wiped her tears, and said while crying, “I… I accidentally let out Yuanting’s cat.”

Oh, a cat… Yan Zhao nodded subconsciously.

A cat?!

Yan Zhao was stunned for a moment.

Yan Zhao shivered and exclaimed, “What?!!!”

It’s not surprising that he was so shocked because in the plot, this is a major catalyst for Shen Yuanting’s blackening!

#Shocking! The former male god has blackened because of a cat. The truth behind it is…!#

To explain this incident clearly, we have to mention Shen Yuanting’s family background.

Shen Yuanting’s biological parents divorced when he was in elementary school. Before Shen had a chance to recover, his father brought another woman home, along with a younger brother who was not much younger than him.

His father didn’t care about him, and his mother went abroad. Shen Yuanting, as a defenseless little boy, suffered from bullying at home. Fortunately, his kind-hearted grandmother took on the responsibility of taking care of him, and Shen Yuanting had a carefree time. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long. Less than a year later, his grandmother had a sudden stroke and was admitted to the hospital. Shen Yuanting had to return to that cold and distant home, watching his father, stepmother, and younger brother live happily while feeling like an outsider.

One day, there was a sudden downpour, and Shen Yuanting didn’t have an umbrella. He was trapped in a shelter on his way home. After calling his father, he was promised that he would be picked up immediately. However, he waited until it was dark and still didn’t see his father’s car.

With heavy rain pouring down and no cars on the road, Shen Yuanting grew tired of waiting. He took off his school uniform and used it to cover his head, then dashed out of the shelter.

After running a few steps, he suddenly heard a faint meowing sound from the bushes. The young boy pushed aside the grass and saw a skinny, trembling creature in front of him.

As for the rest of the story, he don’t need to say much.

As for why Yan Zhao knows all this so clearly, it’s because this is the beginning of the protagonist falling in love at first sight with Shen Yuanting!

The aloof teenager found an abandoned cat, such a cliché but always effective plot! It’s like a must-have storyline in early Japanese dramas!

It can be said that this cat was raised by Shen Yuanting with his own hands, not just a pet, but his friend. Aunt Chen, who has worked in the Shen family for over ten years, cannot be unaware of the cat’s importance to Shen Yuanting!

Yan Zhao furrowed his brow and asked, “Did you do this because of Madam?”

“Madam” refers to Shen Yuanting’s stepmother, Tang Jingyan. Because the Shen family does not recognize the original body as their “daughter-in-law,” he doesn’t even have the qualification to call her: ‘mother-in-law’.

Aunt Chen choked and said, “I had no choice. Madam told me to do it, how could I refuse?”

In order to seize the family property, Tang Jingyan has used many despicable means. She can be considered experienced and skilled in scheming. As a veteran of domestic conflicts, she noticed Shen Yuanting’s deep affection for the cat and instigated Aunt Chen to get rid of it. It was a fatal blow, directly causing Shen Yuanting’s blackening to skyrocket by fifty percentage points.

Regardless of whether Shen Yuanting treated the cat as a friend or a son, in the eyes of others, it was at most a cute furry little creature.

Aunt Chen wiped her tears and began to recount the process of abandoning the cat. The more Yan Zhao listened, the colder his heart became.

The old cat that Shen Yuanting had raised for over ten years was stuffed into a cardboard box and given to an elderly person who collects scrap. Since the elderly person didn’t want to keep the cat, she told her to find a remote place to abandon it. And the reward for all of this was a recommendation letter for Aunt Chen’s son to apply for a graduate program overseas.

After explaining the whole story, Aunt Chen tried to justify her actions, “This cat was well-groomed and shiny. Children would surely be attracted to it and it was definitely going to be picked up.”

“But the weather is so cold, and it has been raining these days. Pedestrians are busy going home, how could they spare attention for a cat?” Yan Zhao’s expression darkened, and his speech quickened, “Have you ever thought that instead of being adopted, it is more likely that it won’t survive for a few days and would die?”

“Even if it died, there was nothing I could do. After all, it’s just an animal. No matter how well it was raised, it couldn’t live for more than a few years!” Aunt Chen muttered, “”How could Yuanting be so heartless? Just because of a cat, he wanted to fire me. I had been with the Shen family since he was in junior high! And he was even installing surveillance cameras at the doorstep; he was too paranoid…”

Yan Zhao couldn’t understand this person’s thought process. In terms of time spent together, the cat had been with Shen Yuanting for over ten years. In terms of loyalty… at least the cat wouldn’t betray people, but she was turning her back on it.

Yan Zhao frowned, “Aunt Chen, according to what you’re saying, the cat is just an animal, not as smart as humans, and when it saw an open door, it would run out. Even if it couldn’t find its way back home, it deserved to die. But no matter how foolish or clumsy it was, was it your cat? What right do you have to abandon it?”

Aunt Chen defended herself, “But if I didn’t do this, Madam would be unhappy—”

Fine, it turns out you’ve been on Tang Jingyan’s side all along. Tang Jingyan is also impressive, with one Aunt Chen and the original body, both buried around Shen Yuanting.

“Even if Madam gets so angry that she floats up like a balloon, she has no right to touch Shen Yuanting’s cat, and neither do you,” Yan Zhao said displeased. “Since you chose to harm him to please Madam, don’t use years of friendship to blackmail Shen Yuanting. He didn’t owe you anything, and neither did the cat.”

Doing a bad deed and trying not to offend anyone, dream on.

Aunt Chen cried even harder, “Yan Zhao, how could you be so heartless? I knew that the cat was his treasure, but if the cat was gone, he could just buy another one!”

Yan Zhao coldly stated, “If the job was gone, you could find another one too.” It’s just that the new job may not have as good pay and treatment.

Aunt Chen stared at him with wide eyes and burst into loud sobs. Yan Zhao had only known her for less than half an hour, so how could he fall for her emotional manipulation? After calling a car to forcefully send her away, he took an umbrella and left the house.

…

The rain continued to fall. Raindrops cascaded down the umbrella, forming a string of beads.

Yan Zhao exhaled, and the white mist drifted away.

“Wang Zai, are you there?” he shouted loudly, but the only response was the sound of rain from all sides.

Yan Zhao held his breath and poked the trash bin with a tree branch, only hearing the sound of garbage rubbing and colliding with each other, but no meowing of a cat.

In the original story, the cat died. If it didn’t die, how could the cat become one of the triggers for Shen Yuanting’s transformation into a villain?

And to make Shen Yuanting darker, the author heartlessly arranged a scene where Shen Yuanting found the cat, but it was already gasping for breath and died in his arms.

The place where Shen Yuanting found the cat was near the trash can in a certain residential area. As for which residential area, well, would the author write it in such detail? Even if he did, Yan Zhao would have long forgotten.

Fortunately, the cat couldn’t fly, and those who collect scrap materials wouldn’t deliberately take it across half the city before disposing of it. The search range was considerably narrowed.

However, in this continuous cold winter rain, how long the cat could hold on was a question.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off. Please try again later…”

Whether it was because the phone ran out of battery or Shen Yuanting blocked him, Yan Zhao couldn’t reach Shen Yuanting’s phone. Helplessly, he could only send a text message to Shen Yuanting:

[My friend said he saw a cat near a trash can in a certain residential area that looked a lot like Wang Zai, but he didn’t remember the name of the area.]

After clicking send, Yan Zhao lowered his head, his jeans soaked by the rain, the color deepening a few shades, clinging to his legs, cold and wet, particularly depressing.

Marking the location on the map on his phone, Yan Zhao continued searching for Wang Zai’s traces in order.

The rain was getting heavier, the cars and people on the street were diminishing, and the streetlights cast a dismal white light, resembling a scene from a horror movie.

After searching in the wrong place once again, he wiped his face, the rainwater that had splashed on him making his hands cold and icy.

It was already 3 a.m., and he was both tired and cold, but he hadn’t even caught a glimpse of the cat’s shadow.

Under normal circumstances, he might have given up on finding the cat long ago. A person’s compassion has its limits, and the cat wasn’t his to begin with, nor was the mistake his fault. He had already done his best, but there were no results.

But now was a great opportunity to improve Shen Yuanting’s favorability. To put it in a more practical way, such opportunities didn’t come by often, and it would be a shame to give up.

Gritting his teeth, Yan Zhao got into the car, and the headlights instantly illuminated the dim ground.

As the tires rolled, just as he was about to leave the area, a small yellow light flashed by. It wasn’t inside the trash can, but inside a truck near the trash can!

The truck was very old, covered in a thick layer of rust, and a dirty cloth was draped over the cargo area. Rainwater gathered along the fabric, flowing down with a splashing sound.

“Wang Zai?” Yan Zhao got out of the car and shone his flashlight towards the cloth. The small copper bell-sized yellow light flickered on and off.

It was the cat!

Yan Zhao quickly pulled back the curtain, and a black cat was lying inside. Its fur was wet and clumped together, and the white fur on its belly had turned dirty gray.

Even the cow-patterned cat had turned into a solid color!

As he got closer, he could faintly hear a weak and pitiful meow, intermittent and drowned out by the pouring rain.

Upon seeing Yan Zhao’s face, the cat’s meow suddenly intensified, it’s so heartbreaking, but that high-pitched tone quickly diminished, turning into a soft, breathy sound.

Luckily, the cat’s eyes reflected light; otherwise, this little fellow might have been left here!

Tossing the bothersome umbrella aside, Yan Zhao placed one foot on the car’s metal plate and leaned down to scoop up the cat.

The moment he touched it, Yan Zhao’s hand trembled.

The cat’s limbs were stiff, cold as ice, more resembling a corpse.

— Please don’t be gone, or else what would be the point of all this effort to find you!!!

…

Unable to find a towel, Yan Zhao could only turn the car’s heater to the maximum, use tissues to wipe off the rainwater from the cat’s fur, and hold it between his coat and sweater, like a kangaroo with its joey.

Just as he was searching for a 24-hour pet hospital, an incoming call interrupted.

The only person who would call at this time was probably Shen Yuanting!

Before he could say “hello,” the other person asked, “What’s your friend’s phone number?”

Shen Yuanting’s voice was hoarse, filled with fatigue, clearly showing he had been worried about the cat.

Knowing what he wanted to ask, Yan Zhao straightforwardly said, “I found the cat, it’s with me.”

“Yan Zhao, don’t joke with me,” Shen Yuanting said, “I’m not in the mood right now.”

Even through the phone, Yan Zhao could imagine the man’s anxious and tired demeanor.

“I’m not joking with you,” he softened his tone, attempting to make his voice more resolute, “I found Wang Zai. I’m at XX community. Trust me, okay?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end. “Wait for me, I’m very close to you, I’ll be right over.”