Unexpected Arrivals

Lin Yi was just about to eat when the door was suddenly pushed open. Lin Yiting walked in from outside, carrying a pink and white plastic cage. Lin Yi put down his plastic fork and looked up at Lin Yiting, his eyes full of confusion.

“Sister, did you take the cat out?”

Lin Yiting placed the cage on the sofa and nodded.

“Yes, I took it to the pet hospital.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi’s mouth twitched involuntarily. So, Lin Yiting had gone to the pet hospital; he had worried for nothing.

“Sister, why did you take it to the pet hospital?”

“See for yourself.”

With that, Lin Yiting left on her own.

Lin Yi scratched his cheek, then leaned his face closer to the cage. Inside the pink and white cage, the small tabby cat lay as if asleep.

Beside her, two tiny kittens, one white and one orange, lay nestled. From their appearance, they seemed to have just been born, their eyes still closed.

At this sight, Lin Yi’s entire body stiffened. How had he spent so much time with the tabby cat and not noticed she was pregnant?

Subconsciously, he turned his gaze towards Lin Yiting, wanting to ask his sister what was going on with these two kittens.

“She’s been pregnant for quite a while, about two months and a week. She only carried two.”

“Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed she was pregnant.”

Before Lin Yi could even speak, Lin Yiting had already provided the answer. She knew her brother well, able to guess his questions with barely a glance.

Spreading a cloth over a fluffy cushion, Lin Yiting took the cage and gently placed the kittens onto it.

Meow!

Meow~

Mew~ Meow?

The three sleeping kittens were startled awake, and suddenly, the rental room was filled with their cries.

The tabby cat, clearly a first-time mother, didn’t immediately tend to her kittens. Instead, she rubbed against Lin Yi’s leg.

Looking at her shrunken belly, Lin Yi recalled her previously plump figure. He had thought the good food was making her fat.

However, her current physique was exactly the same as before she came to Lin Yi’s home. It hadn’t changed at all.

Feeling a slight pang of frustration, Lin Yi picked up the cat. He rubbed his face against her fur.

The soft fur brushing against his sensitive skin only deepened Lin Yi’s affection for the cat. Though he hadn’t managed to make her plump, her fur was noticeably better than before, which offered some comfort.

Meow~ow~

Meow!

Meanwhile, the two kittens, unable to find their mother, loudly called out from the cushion. However, the mother cat in Lin Yi’s arms seemed oblivious to their distress, still absorbed in his petting.

“Sister, are these two kittens… did you pick them up from the roadside? To me, they don’t look like her biological children.”

“Hurry and put her down! What if the kittens catch a cold? Newborn kittens are very fragile.”

Chuckling, Lin Yi placed the tabby cat back onto the cushion. The two kittens, having found their source of warmth, immediately quieted down.

Yet, before long, the little tabby cat jumped off the cushion again. She seemed quite disdainful of her offspring.

It was the first time Lin Yiting had ever seen a cat so disdainful of its own kittens. A normal cat would have already protected her young.

But this one simply ignored them. If she were a stray, Lin Yi could understand.

Stray cats often struggled for food, sometimes unable to feed themselves, let alone raise kittens. If a stray cat gave birth, the kittens would almost certainly meet a grim fate.

Even if a rare mother cat was willing to nurture them, she would likely exhaust herself. Their only hope was the kindness of strangers or the intervention of rescue organizations.

Only by being taken in could they survive.

Lin Yi, his expression stern, once again placed the tabby cat back on the cushion. He spoke with utmost seriousness.

“Lazy cat, if you don’t take care of your kittens, don’t blame me for cutting off your food.”

She blinked her cat-like eyes, seemingly pondering what Lin Yi had said.

Lin Yi didn’t wait to see if she understood; he simply took out a bag of cat food and poured it into a bowl.

This time, the little cat was surprisingly obedient. After eating her fill, she dutifully lay back on the cushion.

Shifting his attention from the cats, Lin Yi picked up his fork and twirled the golden noodles. The plump strands, interspersed with green vegetable leaves, looked incredibly appetizing.

Before he could even take a bite, a slender hand grasped Lin Yi’s arm.

“Junk food, it’s not good for your health.”

“Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine. I’m only eating it a few times.”

Lin Yi dismissed her concern, heartily slurping his noodles. Seeing how much his brother enjoyed it, Lin Yiting couldn’t help but swallow.

“Um… there should still be instant noodles in the fridge, right?”

Lin Yi furrowed his brow in thought for a moment, then stuffed another mouthful of noodles into his mouth. He spoke as he chewed.

“There are still a few cups. The water’s in the pot; it should still be hot.”

After the two finished dinner, their evening became more leisurely.

Observing the tabby cat and her kittens, a trace of doubt stirred in Lin Yi’s heart.

The cat hadn’t shown any unusual signs recently, so how could she have given birth so unexpectedly?

It couldn’t be that the few times he took her out had led to a ‘spark’ with another cat, could it?

Was it because they slept in the same bed? That was even more impossible; they were different species.

Perhaps she had been pregnant before he even found her. Calculating the time, it aligned perfectly with two months.

Yet, there was no one to provide Lin Yi with answers to these questions.

In any case, he decided to simply accept the situation. The kittens had already been born.

Lin Yi couldn’t bear to abandon them. The thought of two more mouths to feed, however, gave him a slight headache.

“Sister,” Lin Yi began, “don’t you think having three cats upstairs… is a bit much?”

Lin Yiting nodded. The rental apartment truly wasn’t spacious enough. It was already cramped with just the two of them; adding these cats would surely cause chaos.

“How about this,” she suggested. “In a couple of days, we’ll go back to our hometown and take them with us.”

“Mom’s always complaining about mice in the warehouse, right? This time, Dad can take them back; they’d be quite effective.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi saw potential. The parents of the original male lead owned a supermarket, and his grandparents lived in the countryside where mice were abundant.

Surely these kittens wouldn’t struggle to find a good home there?

However, Lin Yi felt a pang of reluctance regarding the white kitten; its fur was truly beautiful.

Aside from a single black stripe along its spine, its entire body was pure white. Even though it had just been born, one could already glimpse the charm it would possess when grown.

“Sister,” Lin Yi asked, “can this white cat… stay here?”

Lin Yiting shot a glance at the white cat. She had noticed it when it was first born. It was quite unique-looking, and a female kitten at that.

Truth be told, Lin Yiting was also quite fond of this one. If Lin Yi didn’t keep her, she would find a way to take her home herself.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “They’re yours anyway. You decide what to do with them.”

Returning the power of choice to Lin Yi, Lin Yiting stood up to clear the table.

Lin Yi pondered for a long time, his heart in a tangle. Keeping it would likely increase his expenses, but letting it go felt incredibly regrettable.

Between the cat and his finances, Lin Yi ultimately decided to keep the white cat. ‘Why worry so much?’ he thought. ‘Since she’s mine, I’ll keep her.’