Incurable Chapter 5 Part 1

Before going home, Mu Wan and Lin Wei stopped by a pet shop first.

Mu Wan had never raised cats before and didn’t know where to start. The shop assistant eagerly suggested all kinds of supplies, and Mu Wan agreed to everything, ending up with enough to fill two big boxes.

After everything was packed, Lin Wei helped the shop assistant carry the boxes to the car. She returned just as Mu Wan was paying.

Lin Wei leaned on the counter, watched Mu Wan pay, and let out a dramatic sigh. “You’re not even married yet, and you’re already a mom.”

The cashier was a young girl. Hearing that, she laughed and said, “That’s nothing. Every employee in our shop has cats.”

“You like them that much?” Lin Wei asked.

“Of course.” The girl smiled, her eyes shining as if she remembered something wonderful. “Your kittens are still tiny now, but when they grow up, they’ll wait for you at the door, meowing to welcome you home. Having pets makes you feel less lonely.”

“My three are still a long way from that,” Mu Wan said.

She tried to imagine three cats waiting for her at the door, but it felt unfamiliar. It had been a long time since anyone had waited for her. And since this was her first time raising cats, she still felt unsure about everything.

“Cats grow fast,” the shop assistant said. “In less than two months, they’ll already be running all over the place.”

Taking the receipt, Mu Wan thanked her with a smile and got into the car with Lin Wei.

After Lin Wei dropped her off, someone from the studio called her away. Mu Wan put the kittens on the sofa, unpacked the boxes, set up the cat bed, mixed the goat milk formula, and got the kittens settled before going to the bathroom.

She had not been home for two days, and the bathroom was still a complete mess.

The blood mixed with water had dried on the floor, leaving stiff, dirty marks on the tiles. Living alone meant that even after being taken to the hospital and treated, Mu Wan still had to come home and clean up the mess herself. Mu Wan turned on the faucet and let water soak the floor. The stream hit the tiles with loud splashes.

And in the middle of all that noise, she heard a soft little meow.

Almost instantly, she shut the faucet off.

A few lingering drops fell from the tap onto the ground, nearly soundless.

“Meow~”

This time, Mu Wan heard it clearly.

It was as though a wave of water had overturned her heart. She hurried out of the bathroom at once.

She had left the kittens in the bedroom, near the foot of her bed. They were so small that even the smallest cat bed looked huge with the three of them inside, like a universe around three tiny stars.

Their eyes were still closed. When they heard Mu Wan’s footsteps, they lifted their heads and climbed over each other with their little pink paws, as if searching for something.

Mu Wan took over the baby’s bottle filled with goat milk formula. The little things had already been fed once, but the moment the nipple reached them, they began sucking again.

Wouldn’t that be too much?

Mu Wan pulled the nipple away.

All three kittens immediately began meowing and scrambling upward in protest, clearly one hundred percent unwilling to accept this.

Mu Wan quickly gave the bottle back.

After all the fuss, she fumbled with the kittens. She started out crouching, but soon just sat on the floor. The tiles felt cool, but she was still sweating.

The three kittens had come from the same litter, but they looked completely different. One was orange, one was orange-and-white, and one was black-and-white.

The orange kitten had the biggest head and seemed the strongest, probably the oldest. The orange-and-white one had a white face and body, with just two orange spots on its back and tail. The black-and-white one had black fur running over its head, split at the forehead, almost like a center part.

Mu Wan lined the three kittens up in order and gave them names: the eldest was Da Tou, the second was Er Tong, and the third was Zhong Fen.

After naming them, Mu Wan put the bottle away. The kittens were full, their bellies round as they lay in the bed, meowing softly. She put her hand in the cat bed, and the kittens sniffed her before resting their heads on her hand and falling asleep.

Her hand cushioned inside the bed felt soft.

The three tiny heads resting on it felt warm.

Outside, the light grew brighter and the sky cleared. Mu Wan felt something quietly start to grow inside her. Looking at the kittens, she could finally picture what the shop assistant had described: the three cats waiting for her at the door.

They were very much like her.

Born without a father. And after their mother died, left alone in the world.

“But the three of you are luckier than I was.” Her fingers moved a little and her lashes trembled. “I had no one, but you have each other—and me as your stepmother.”

She couldn’t help but laugh as soon as she said it.

When Monday came and Liu Qianxiu arrived at work, a young nurse immediately told him, “Doctor Liu, the calico you often fed died a few days ago.”

The hand holding his pen paused. Liu Qianxiu looked up and asked, “How did it die?”

“It was hit by a car.” The nurse sighed. “I heard it from the head nurse. She also said the calico left behind a litter of kittens. She was planning to take them home after work and find people to adopt them, but by the time she went over that evening, they were already gone.”

As she finished speaking, the nurse looked worried. “Do you think someone took them? Newborn kittens are really hard to keep alive. If someone adopted them, that’s one thing, but I’ve seen news stories about twisted people who specifically look for kittens just to abuse them...”

Closing the medical chart, Liu Qianxiu’s expression barely changed. “Prepare for surgery first.”

The nurse, who had been completely immersed in her own worries, came back to herself and hurried after him with an “Oh.”

She had assumed that since Liu Qianxiu often fed the calico, he must have been rather attached to it. But after she told him the cat was hit by a car, his expression had hardly changed at all.

She knew people called him Daoist Liu, and moments like this made him seem as calm and detached as a real Taoist priest.

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