I have few friends, but many childhood sweethearts.

Chapter 138. I found a cat.
The turmoil of the divorce quickly subsided, and life returned to normal. After the Lantern Festival, there were only ten days left before school started.

"Ningning's finished writing!" Lin Wanning capped her pen and raised her hands high.

"Here you go, a strawberry as a reward." Xu Qingfan reached out and picked up the biggest strawberry from the plate, offering it to Lin Wanning's lips.

"Hehe~" The little girl opened her mouth and took a bite, leaving a small piece of the strawberry head in his hand. "Brother Qingfan, you eat it!"

"You're being picky again. I won't eat what you left over. Give it to Xiaobai." Xu Qingfan gently flicked her forehead and placed the remaining half on a tissue.

"Brother, eat!" Zhang Yiyi rested her chin on her hand, watching the interaction between the two with a smile, and handed him her half-eaten strawberry.

"You two, hurry up and pack your things, we're going out to play." Xu Qingfan stood up and tapped each of them on the head.

"Great!" Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi's eyes lit up. After putting their winter vacation homework back into their schoolbags, they couldn't wait to run upstairs.

"Brother Qingfan, wait a minute, Ningning and Yiyi need to change their clothes!" Lin Wanning's voice came down from upstairs.

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the yard!" Xu Qingfan gathered the strawberry heads that the two of them didn't want to eat together, walked to the garden, and threw them into Xiaobai's dog bowl.

"It's dessert after dinner!" he reminded the puppy by knocking on the wooden doghouse.

"Woof woof!" Little White heard the noise coming from the rice bowl and sprinted out.

Perhaps it smelled of its little owner, because the dog sniffed it and quickly started eating.

You can't touch a dog while it's eating, because you don't know if it will become possessive of its food. Xu Qingfan gently kicked Xiaobai's butt and then squatted down to look at the four-leaf clover he had given to the two little ones last time.

The spot where the mugwort was originally planted was dug out into a small square, and a transparent semi-circular plastic shell was placed on top to protect this unique twin four-leaf clover.

With the arrival of spring, many small clover plants, only four or five centimeters tall, grew around the four-leaf clover, surrounding it like stars around the moon, protecting the four-leaf clover that had grown to almost thirty centimeters tall.

Xu Qingfan gently poked the two four-leaf clover leaves with his fingertip before getting up again. The little white dog, having finished eating the strawberries, was running around in the yard, seemingly looking for him to play, but it couldn't get over because it was tied with a rope.

The sun was shining brightly outside, and the sunlight warmed my black down jacket.

Xu Qingfan sat in a rocking chair in the yard, squinting as he enjoyed the free sunbathing.

He stared at the sun for a while, but the bright light stung his eyes. "I remember when I was a child, I could stare directly at the sun and see the smallest details clearly. I would examine the textures of even the smallest things and find pleasure in them." He recalled a classical Chinese text he had studied in junior high school in his previous life and murmured to himself.

Even though he had graduated from junior high school many years ago in his previous life, Xu Qingfan always thought that Shen Fu was bragging. Apart from a blind man, who could open their eyes to the sun?
Not long after, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi walked out of the house hand in hand. Both of them had changed into dazzling long dresses and wore coats over their upper bodies. The sunlight shone on the fish scales on the hem of their dresses.

"Tsk~ The way you guys dress makes me look like a coachman for a princess." Xu Qingfan said after admiring the outfit for a while.

"Hehe~ Brother Qingfan is not a coachman, Brother Qingfan is a little prince!" Lin Wanning smeared the skin cream from her hand onto his face.

"What is that?" Xu Qingfan asked, puzzled, as he felt the cold touch on his face.

"Face cream, let Ningning apply it for you!" Lin Wanning stretched out both hands and helped him spread the face cream evenly on his face.

Xu Qingfan closed his eyes and let Lin Wanning's palm slide across his face. He was usually quite lazy, and unless his skin was really about to crack, he was too lazy to apply moisturizer.

"Brother Qingfan, you're all right now!" Lin Wanning smiled and withdrew her hands, reminding Xu Qingfan that he could open his eyes.

"Brother, apply it!" Zhang Yiyi also took out a lip balm from her coat, adjusted it to the right length, and leaned over to help Xu Qingfan apply it to his lips.

"You two are treating me like a doll, aren't you?" Xu Qingfan pursed his lips, the strawberry-flavored lip balm smelled quite nice.

"Hehe~" Zhang Yiyi and Lin Wanning each took his arm on one side and happily went out the door.

"You two~" Xu Qingfan smiled and was pushed out of Bi Gui Garden by the two of them.

There aren't many places to play in Licheng. The bumper cars and carousels in the park square, and the various arcade games in Sunshine Paradise were things that Xu Qingfan could only watch others play during his childhood in his previous life.

Having been reborn was certainly a lot of fun, but you still need to have money in your pocket to avoid regrets about your childhood.

Bumper cars cost five yuan for ten minutes, and the three of them paid for half an hour at once, chasing each other to their hearts' content in the wide square.

"Brother Qingfan, slow down! You bumped into Ningning and hurt her!"

"Hehe~ I'll bump into you, I'll bump into you!"

"Quick, run him over!"

"Ah, Ningning, I was wrong, Brother Qingfan, please stop hitting me!" Lin Wanning vividly demonstrated what it means to be both bad at the game and love to play. She was forced to stop in a corner by Xu Qingfan's bumper car and kept getting bumped.

Half an hour later, Lin Wanning got off the bumper car, her butt still sore from the impact, and looked at Xu Qingfan with a pitiful expression: "Brother Qingfan is a big bad guy!"

"Hehehe~" Xu Qingfan laughed heartily, "So bad at it but loves to play!" He stepped forward and offered his arm for Lin Wanning to support him.

"Hehe." Lin Wanning showed her teeth and laughed shyly as well.

"Drink some water!" Zhang Yi handed his water bottle to Lin Wanning, seemingly implying that drinking water would relieve his bottom pain.

"Thank you!" Lin Wanning opened the stopcock and gulped down three big mouthfuls of water. "Brother Qingfan, do you want some?" She handed the water bottle to Xu Qingfan.

"Drink." Xu Qingfan took the water bottle, tilted his head back, and poured a few gulps. "Yiyi, drink up!"

"Hmm!" Zhang Yi smiled slightly and drank several large mouthfuls of water with gusto.

"I'll carry your backpack for you; three pieces of clothing are too heavy." Xu Qingfan put his hand on Zhang Yiyi's shoulder and helped her take off her backpack.

It seems to be a nationwide phenomenon that primary and secondary school students like to carry backpacks when they go out. Regardless of whether they have anything to bring, they just like to carry their backpacks. This also seems to be a good way to distinguish between high school students and college students. Xu Qingfan remembers that in his previous life, he stopped carrying his backpack when he went out shopping after he went to college.

"Brother Qingfan, Ningning wants balloons!" In the distance, there was a traveling NPC old man carrying a large bunch of helium balloons. Lin Wanning pointed in the direction of the man and said excitedly.

"Buy it!" Xu Qingfan waved his hand and took the two of them by the hand, jogging over.

The three stopped the old man selling balloons. After looking at them for a long time, Lin Wanning picked a kitten from Cardcaptor Sakura, while Zhang Yiyi chose Doraemon's sister, Dorami. "Brother Qingfan, aren't you going to buy one?"

After the two of them chose their balloons, they both looked at him.

"Then I'll buy one too." Although Xu Qingfan thought it was childish, he didn't want to spoil the fun. He chose a Black Cat Sheriff and handed over a ten-yuan note.

"Thank you, little friend, here's your change!" The old man happily took the ten-yuan note, found a red one-yuan note, and handed it to him.

Xu Qingfan tied the balloon to Zhang Yiyi's schoolbag and took their hands again for a walk in the park.

The three of them were like children who never grew up, carefully avoiding stepping into the gaps between the paving stones, walking on a log bridge across the cement railings by the greenery, walking in the shade to avoid the sunlight, and stepping on each other's shadows under the sun.
"It was right here last time, that old... old..." Lin Wanning momentarily forgot how to say that word.

"You old bastard!" Xu Qingfan reminded him from the side.

"Hehe, right, that old bastard is sitting right here!" Lin Wanning let go of Xu Qingfan's hand and ran over, then sat down and imitated the old woman's actions from last time, patting the floor. "My old woman is over seventy years old, she wouldn't lie!"

Xu Qingfan and Zhang Yiyi were amused by her and burst into laughter. Lin Wanning patted her and then laughed along with her.

Xu Qingfan stepped forward, reached out as if to hit Lin Wanning, and shouted, "You old bastard, let go of me!" After making a fool of himself, he pulled the little girl up again.

"Brother, you're so cool!" Zhang Yiyi said, mimicking his waving gesture.

"Brother Qingfan is so handsome!" Lin Wanning said after patting the dust off his butt.

"Little handsome, little handsome, let's go! Are you hungry? Let's go have afternoon tea." Xu Qingfan stretched out his arms and put his arms around the two of them, saying as they walked.

"I want to eat wheel cakes!" Lin Wanning's eyes lit up when he remembered the red bean wheel cakes he had at the old market last time.

"Egg waffles!" Zhang Yiyi also said what she wanted to eat.

"Eat them all!"

The three walked for more than ten minutes to the old market, bought wheel cakes and egg waffles, and then found a nearby Green Tea Island milk tea shop to sit down.

In the days before CocO, it seemed that all milk tea shops were called Green Tea Island, and Xu Qingfan didn't know why.

"It feels so good to finish my homework!" Lin Wanning said after taking a bite of the hot wheel cake.

"Be careful not to burn your mouth. And please correct me, it really feels good to have finished copying the homework." Xu Qingfan used a tissue to wipe the red bean paste off Lin Wanning's lips.

"Hehe~ They're all the same. It would be nice to have a kitten."

"Kitty, so cute!" Zhang Yi nodded repeatedly.

“If you like it, just get one. Ningning’s house is so big.” Xu Qingfan said without thinking.

"No, Dad says he gets dizzy when he smells cat poop, so Ningning's family can't keep cats," Lin Wanning explained to him.

“Oh, cat poop really does smell bad.” Xu Qingfan nodded in agreement. Having raised cats in his previous life, he knew that cleaning up after his feline overlords was always an ordeal, especially after it had piled up for several days. The smell was so strong that you could smell it even with ten masks on, and it could really make you faint.

"How can a cat's poop smell so bad when it's so cute!" Lin Wanning said, annoyed.

"Haha~ Well, there's nothing I can do about that then. But my mom's been thinking of getting a cat to catch mice at the shop lately. Wanning, you can come over and pet it then." Xu Qingfan remembered Yao Jinping complaining about the rats on the street that came to the shop to steal sausages. "Okay, when you get a cat, Qingfan-gege, remember to tell Ningning. Yiyi and I will go pet it together!"

"Kitty, together!"

"Okay~ I'll definitely tell you later." Xu Qingfan patted the two of them on the head. "Let's go after we've finished eating. Let's go see a movie at Guagreen Square!"

Finding Nemo!

After the three paid, they walked out of the store. As they passed a sewage ditch, Zhang Yiyi suddenly pointed inside and exclaimed, "Cat, there!"

The two looked closely in the direction the finger was pointing, and sure enough, there was a scruffy little gray cat squatting in the dirty and smelly sewage ditch.

"Meow, why are you squatting in the water? It's cold, come out!" Lin Wanning jogged forward, but the little gray cat didn't run away because of its arrival. It remained squatting in place without moving.

Xu Qingfan and Zhang Yiyi followed closely behind. Judging from its appearance, it was a white cat with heterochromatic eyes, one blue and one yellow, somewhat resembling a lion cat from Linqing.

The black sewage flowed slowly in the ditch, wetting the big cat's legs and fur, but it remained as indifferent as a meditating monk.

"Brother Qingfan, why is it sitting in the water? Aren't cats supposed to hate water?" Lin Wanning asked, puzzled.

Zhang Yiyi also looked at him, thinking that Xu Qingfan's wisdom would surely provide the answer.

"It probably knows it's about to die, so it's too lazy to move," Xu Qingfan explained.

"Huh?" The two little girls opened their mouths in surprise.

"Many small animals can predict their own death. When they are about to die, they will find a corner to stay in and quietly wait for death to come." Xu Qingfan remembers that the big yellow dog in Lianhua Courtyard was like that. It ate the wrong rat poison and thought it was going to die. It hid outside, dug a hole, and quietly waited to die. After being found by the neighbors in the courtyard, it was taken to the veterinary hospital for an IV drip and eventually recovered.

"So pitiful." Lin Wanning's eyes welled up with tears as she listened to Xu Qingfan's words. "Brother Qingfan, can you please save Mimi?"

"Brother, save Mimi!" Zhang Yiyi also shook his wrist and pleaded.

To be honest, Xu Qingfan wouldn't have saved it in his previous life. There are too many stray cats like this in the world. If he rescued every stray cat he saw on the street, he would only make a mess of his own life.

Born in spring, dying in winter—that's the life of too many stray cats. Those that manage to survive the harsh winter continue to breed, while those born without any sense of social responsibility continue to abandon their young. They can never be saved.

And most importantly, rescuing a stray cat costs a lot of money. If you're unlucky enough to encounter feline infectious peritonitis, feline distemper, or other diseases, you won't be able to leave the vet without spending at least 10,000 yuan. This is why many stray purebred cats are sick.

However, in this life, Xu Qingfan could lack everything except money. Not only was he not short of money, but the two little girls were also not short of money. "Let's save this cat!" he said to the two girls with a big wave of his hand.

"Great!"

"Brother Qingfan is the best!"

The two little ones jumped around excitedly and each kissed him on the cheek.

"Alright, alright, you two stay here and watch over the cat. I'm going to buy a duffel bag and I'll be right back. Remember not to talk to strangers, and definitely don't go with strangers!" The two were both eight-year-old second-graders. Although Xu Qingfan wasn't too worried about leaving for a while, he still carefully reminded them.

"Brother Qingfan knows, Ningning isn't stupid!" Lin Wanning pouted and said.

"Phone, Mom!" Zhang Yiyi also took out her phone, indicating that she would call her mother if there was any danger.

"I'll be right back, remember not to leave!" Xu Qingfan reminded him again before jogging away.

Fortunately, the old market had everything, and Xu Qingfan quickly arrived at a shop selling backpacks and luggage bags after a short run.

"How much is this?" he asked, picking out a black fishnet-patterned tote bag.

"50 yuan!"

"I'm in a hurry. Will you sell it for 25? If not, I'm leaving," Xu Qingfan said directly, not wanting to play games with the other party.

"Sell!"

After paying, Xu Qingfan grabbed his bag and ran back, feeling that he had been taken advantage of because the boss had agreed so readily.

"Brother Qingfan!"

When he ran back to where he started, the two little ones and the cat were still there, and Xu Qingfan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's put the cat in the bag first, and then take it to the vet."

"Uh-huh!"

"Does Brother Qingfan need Ningning's help?" Lin Wanning squatted down and asked.

“No need. You need a rabies vaccine if you get scratched by a stray cat. I’ll catch it. You guys hold the bag open up there.” Xu Qingfan stepped on the red bricks on the wall with his left foot, reached out and bent down to pick up the cat.

The cat's expected resistance did not occur. Even after he put the cat in the suitcase and zipped it up, the big cat did not react at all.

This feeling is like, like a wife in a Japanese film being threatened by her husband's boss, lying on the bed like a corpse, at his mercy.

The three of them set off again with the big cat. In the early 2000s, there were no pet hospitals in Licheng, but there were many veterinary clinics that helped treat cows and dogs.

Xu Qingfan followed the address in his memory for seven or eight minutes and found Licheng Veterinary Hospital.

"Uncle, this cat is sick. Can you take a look at it?" Xu Qingfan put the bag on the ground, unzipped it, and showed the cat's head to the vet.

"It has feline panleukopenia, kids. Did you pick this cat up? It's beyond saving. Just throw it away." The doctor knew what was wrong just by glancing at the cat's sickly eyes. He had encountered far too many students who brought stray cats and dogs to him for treatment, but these people had no money, and he wasn't running a charity, so he couldn't save them all.

"Uncle, we brought some money. Can you take a look for us? This is a Linqing Lion Cat, right? It's very rare. My mom really likes it!" Xu Qingfan took out a few red 100-yuan bills from his pocket and showed them to him.

"If we have the money, we can treat it," the doctor said to the three of them after putting down his newspaper. "Wait here while I go find some test strips to see if there's any feline panleukopenia or other diseases."

Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi looked at Xu Qingfan with worried expressions.

He patted the two of them on the shoulder, "Don't worry, they can definitely be cured."

"Ok!"

The owner soon came out of the room with a few cotton swabs and test strips. "These are all imported. It costs twenty yuan per test. Are you sure you want to do it? You can't back out after you open them." The owner said this in advance, worried that they might try to renege on their promise.

"It's alright, boss, go ahead and do it. We're not short of money, it's just after the New Year!"

"Haha, sure!"

After tearing open the test strip, the doctor took out the matching cotton swab and inserted it into the cat's anus.

"Meow~" The white cat finally stirred, letting out a pitiful cry.

All three were novices, so they could only stand aside and watch the doctor perform the procedure.

Not long after, the doctor collected the sample, dropped the cotton swab into a small tubular container soaked in some unknown solution, and finally dripped the liquid onto the test strip.

[It's exactly the same as the nucleic acid test.] Xu Qingfan thought to himself.

The three of them remained silent, waiting quietly for the doctor's diagnosis.

After a while, the doctor said to the three of them, sounding both surprised and disappointed, "All negative, nothing serious. I suspect the cat has gastroenteritis. The test strips cost 60, but you can leave the cat with me for three days, 100 per day. I guarantee I'll return a healthy white cat to you in three days!"

The two women breathed a sigh of relief and high-fived in celebration.

"Great!"

"Thank you for your help, doctor. Here's the total: 360 yuan. We'll come back in three days to pick up the cat." Xu Qingfan hadn't expected to be able to negotiate the price for pet veterinary care, so he took out 360 yuan and handed it to the doctor.

"Haha, no trouble at all!" The shop owner happily took the money; he would earn at least 340 yuan from this order.

Gastroenteritis in cats is the easiest to treat. Just spend a few dollars to buy some human anti-inflammatory medicine, dilute it, and feed it to the cat with a syringe. If the cat isn't eating, give it a glucose solution. The total cost for three days should be less than two dollars.

After paying, the three of them held hands and left satisfied.

three days later.

When the three little ones and Xia Xiaoxiao went to the vet to pick up the big white cat again, the cat had already regained its vitality, and its fur had been groomed clean by the owner.

It turns out the boss felt a little embarrassed about making too much money on this order, so he cleaned the cat for them for free.

The white cat, after its bath, is incredibly beautiful, just like a Disney princess cat that has escaped.

Xu Qingfan got another rabies vaccine and some kind of protein from the boss, and the four of them happily left with the big white cat.

With this, Yao Jinping's convenience store has gained another new member.

(End of this chapter)