You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

"Let's go." Jiang Che stood up, brushing the dust off his knees. "We're going to be late for class."

"Um."

Su Qinghe reluctantly withdrew her hand, stood up, and glanced back at the kitten that had curled up back in the pile of dead leaves.

"You must wait for me here tonight."

After saying that, she took Jiang Che's arm again, and the two walked towards the teaching building.

After walking a dozen steps, Su Qinghe suddenly looked up and asked, "Do you think it will still be there tonight?"

Jiang Che thought for a moment and said, "It's highly likely. Once a stray cat has found a relatively safe place to stay, it won't easily move to another location in the short term."

"And since you fed it in the morning, it remembers the taste and will wait in the same spot to be fed again."

Su Qinghe nodded in relief, a smile returning to her face.

"Then I'll think of a name for it, calico cat... what should I call it?"

"You can take it as you see fit. You're its owner, so you get to decide."

"Then what are you?"

"Me... I'm the one who's paying, so I'll be your sugar daddy."

Su Qinghe was amused by him and slapped his arm: "You're so annoying."

The two walked into the teaching building laughing and joking.

……

The afternoon of classes passed by in the blink of an eye.

Su Qinghe was already packing her things before the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class.

She stuffed all her books and notes into her bag, and as soon as the bell rang, she immediately grabbed Jiang Che's sleeve and pulled him up to leave.

Jiang Che was pulled out of the teaching building by her, and only when the cold wind blew did he realize that the sky had already darkened considerably.

In November, the sun begins to set in Beijing around 5 or 6 a.m., and the gray sky carries a sense of desolation.

Su Qinghe walked very fast, or rather, half-jogged, pulling Jiang Che along as they passed through the Ginkgo Avenue, the leaves falling in the wind making a crisp sound under their feet.

After arriving at the boys' dormitory, Su Qinghe calmed her somewhat rapid breathing, then ran to the bushes, squatted down, and eagerly scanned the spot where she had fed the cat that morning.

Everything looked exactly the same as when I arrived in the morning.

The cat is the only one missing.

Su Qinghe paused for a moment, then reached into her bag and pulled out a new sausage from her pocket.

Use your fingernails to pry open the package, break it into small pieces, and place them little by little at the base of the bushes.

She thought the little calico was hiding, so she tried to lure it out with food.

"Mimi?"

Su Qinghe called out twice in a low voice, then peeked into the depths of the bushes.

There was no response; not even a leaf twitched.

Su Qinghe pursed her lips, and anxiety gradually surfaced on her face.

She moved the shredded ham from one end to the other, then squatted down and took two steps, bending down to look at the gap at the bottom of the grass.

Seeing that there was still no movement, Su Qinghe was still unwilling to give up and peered deeper into the bushes.

A dead branch accidentally snagged her scarf, but she didn't notice and softly called out again, "Mimi?"

The cold wind blew into her collar, and her slender, fair neck visibly turned red from the cold wind.

Seeing this, Jiang Che immediately walked behind her, bent down and took her cold fingers, pulling her up from the ground.

"Don't worry, the fact that it came here to find food means its activity range is nearby. Let's search slowly."

Su Qinghe looked up at him, her eyes showing obvious unease.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but then swallowed it back, and finally nodded vigorously.

The two circled the area again, but still found nothing.

Back at the dormitory entrance, Su Qinghe took out her phone and hesitantly tapped the class group chat on the screen.

She edited a message—

"Hi everyone, I'd like to ask if anyone has seen a very thin calico cat near the boys' dormitory area? If anyone has seen it, please let me know, thank you."

After she finished writing, she stared at the screen for several seconds, her finger hovering over the send button for a long time.

Jiang Che stared at her with a puzzled look.

Su Qinghe bit her lip and turned to meet his gaze, muttering softly, "Wouldn't this be too much of a bother for others? After all, it's just a stray cat... Won't people think I'm weird...?"

As she spoke, her finger slowly slid towards the delete button.

Jiang Che quickly grabbed her hand and, meeting Su Qinghe's bewildered gaze, explained gently, "It's not shameful to want to help it."

"Kindness doesn't have to be done secretly."

Upon hearing this, Su Qinghe lowered her eyelashes and looked at the screen for a while, took a deep breath, and sent the message.

He then edited the same content again and posted it on the Kyoto University campus wall.

Jiang Che wasn't idle either; he took out his phone and sent a message in the dormitory group chat.

Jiang Che: "Hey guys, remember that calico cat downstairs this morning? It's gone now, and Qinghe's a bit worried. If you have time, could you help look for it? I'll definitely reward you handsomely afterwards."

Xu Wenbin replied instantly: "Okay, I'm in the cafeteria right now. I'll look around the area."

Song Mingxuan: "I'll look at this side of the library."

Lu Ziang: "I'm in charge of Building A of the teaching building and the express delivery station."

The five-person team then split up and began searching in various parts of the campus.

Xu Wenbin had never done anything so outrageous in his life.

A burly man over six feet tall, he was hunched over, rummaging through the trash cans near the back door of the cafeteria while calling out, "Mimi? Mimi, where are you, Mimi?"

Two girls passing by stopped in their tracks and stared at him for several seconds with looks that seemed to say, "Is there something wrong with this guy?"

Xu Wenbin felt his entire back burning.

He forced a smile at the two girls: "I...I'm looking for the cat, looking for the cat."

The two girls didn't believe him and quickly walked away, muttering under their breath, "How could there be such a strange senior at Peking University?"

Xu Wenbin wished he could stuff himself into a trash can.

But remembering Jiang Che's pleading tone, he gritted his teeth and squatted down again, prying open the cardboard box to look into the shadows.

Meanwhile, Song Mingxuan walked around the perimeter of the library, looking in all the places stray cats liked to hang out, such as the bushes and under the bicycle sheds, but he still couldn't find it.

Lu Ziang searched along the route from the teaching building to the courier station, but found nothing.

After leaving the dormitory area, Su Qinghe and Jiang Che searched eastward, looking along the green belt by the playground, under the benches next to the convenience store, and so on...

They went to every place they could think of where the cat could hide, but they couldn't find even a trace of Little Three-Colored Cat.

Su Qinghe felt increasingly uneasy, and she began to think about all sorts of terrible possibilities.

Was it chased away by someone? Was it hit by a car? Was it killed by someone with malicious intent...?