Chapter 24: Downstairs

Xia Chan put the cage on the passenger seat and walked around to the driver's side. Before she had settled in, He Huaisheng opened the passenger door, picked up the cage, dropped it on the back seat, got in, closed the door, straightened his jacket, and said, "Let's go."

Xia Chan stared ahead.

"Huaiyin Road."

"You don't pay me a single penny," she said, "and you expect me to moonlight as your driver."

She started the car and turned onto Huaiyin Road.

---

Aunt Shen came out to meet them. Xia Chan saw them in and was turning to leave when Aunt Shen said quickly, "Miss Xia, please eat before you go."

"I'm fine, I'll eat at home."

He Huaisheng reached over and extracted the car keys from her hand, pocketed them. "Eat first."

Xia Chan looked at him. Aunt Shen was right there, so she said nothing. She went inside.

Shen Xuefei was at the dining table with her laptop open. She looked up when they came in, greeted them both, and gestured toward the sofa. "Miss Xia, please sit."

Aunt Shen brought tea. Xia Chan thanked her and sat down.

Shen Xuefei signed something to He Huaisheng. He nodded, put the cage on the floor, and went with her to the dining room. Shen Xuefei sat at the computer; He Huaisheng stood behind her looking at the screen. After a moment they began conversing in sign language.

Xia Chan watched for a while, then looked away. She put down her cup, sat for a while doing nothing in particular, then got up, crouched down, and opened the cage.

The cat had been contained too long and was in a difficult mood. She lifted it into her arms and stroked its fur slowly. Something about the warmth — or something about her specifically — settled it. It stayed without fighting, which wasn't its habit.

From the kitchen, Aunt Shen's voice carried out: "Xuefei, if you have something to discuss, come to the living room. You can't leave your guest waiting in there alone."

"Coming!"

A few moments later Shen Xuefei and He Huaisheng came back. Shen Xuefei smiled apologetically at Xia Chan. "I'm so sorry, Miss Xia — I hit a problem in my research and completely lost track while talking to Huaisheng—" Her eyes fell on the cat. "Oh. This is—"

"It was sent by President He's sister," Xia Chan said, with a glance at He Huaisheng.

Shen Xuefei came forward immediately. "May I?"

Xia Chan passed the cat over.

Shen Xuefei stroked it for a moment. The cat made its own assessment of the situation, found it unsatisfactory, and jumped down.

Shen Xuefei looked at He Huaisheng. "What's its name?"

"Tangtang," Xia Chan said, before he could.

"Female?"

Xia Chan didn't answer.

He Huaisheng nodded and signed.

Shen Xuefei listened and said, "No objection from me, but I'm out during the day. My mom is here more. I'll check with her."

She went to the kitchen.

He Huaisheng sat down across from Xia Chan and glanced at her.

Xia Chan's expression was even and disclosed nothing.

Shen Xuefei returned. "She says it's fine. She's just worried she's never kept a pet before and might not do a good job."

He Huaisheng nodded and signed again.

Xia Chan couldn't follow it. She took out her phone and played on it.

After a few minutes, something warm moved against her leg. She looked down. The cat had finished its survey of the room and returned, jumping onto the sofa and arranging itself on her lap as though this had always been the plan.

Xia Chan felt something ease, slightly and without permission. She stroked the cat's head. It closed its eyes and began to produce a low, steady sound.

"Tangtang really likes Miss Xia," Shen Xuefei observed.

Xia Chan made a sound of acknowledgment.

"Have you kept cats before?"

"Yes."

Shen Xuefei looked at He Huaisheng. "What if we asked Miss Xia to look after it for a few days? My mother's walking is difficult, and she's never done this before. I'm a little worried she might inadvertently spoil Xiaoqin."

He Huaisheng looked at Xia Chan.

Xia Chan said, with complete calm: "My place is small. The cat would feel cramped."

The room became very slightly charged. Shen Xuefei smiled. "Then we'll leave it here."

---

Dinner was quiet. Xia Chan said a few things to Aunt Shen and then not much else. When the meal was finished, Shen Xuefei went to help with the dishes, and Aunt Shen walked them out slowly, her gait uneven.

He Huaisheng watched her. He stood for a moment, then went back inside, put the cat in its cage, and brought it out.

Xia Chan had already started walking toward the alley entrance. She said nothing.

"...Xia Chan."

She stopped.

He Huaisheng came level with her and said, with some effort, as if the words required more searching than usual: "The cat... could you..."

"How long."

"Two weeks."

Xia Chan reached out and took the cage. "If you haven't come for it in two weeks, I'll put it outside."

She didn't wait to see if he'd read her lips. She picked up the cage and walked toward the car.

At the car, she held out her hand without turning around.

He Huaisheng looked at her back.

She turned just enough to look at him. "The key."

He took it from his pocket and gave it to her.

She unlocked the car, and was about to get in when she noticed the car parked ahead — He Huaisheng's Lexus, which she hadn't seen for a while.

"Mr. Ding came to pick you up?"

The driver's door opened. Fu Ruyu got out.

Something hot and immediate moved through Xia Chan. She said nothing. She got in the car.

"Xia Chan—"

She put the cage on the passenger seat, started the engine, turned out of the space, went around the car in front, and drove away.

She watched their figures in the rearview mirror shrink and disappear.

She was still angry well past the point where it made sense to still be angry.

This woman. Someone was already coming to pick him up, and she had still made the trip.

By the time she was near her building, she had remembered the problem in her car, which reset the anger at a higher level. She sat with it for a while, then exhaled, turned around, and drove to the nearest pet supply store.

She didn't know what the cat usually ate. She stood in the aisle and reasoned: He Qin was raising it, which meant it was probably fed well. She selected several imported cans. When she saw the total at the register, she felt a specific pain that settled in and did not leave.

---

Zhou Lan was not pleased about the cage.

Xia Chan was still in a mood and they argued about it. She took the cage to her room and closed the door.

She sat on the floor for a while doing nothing useful, and opened the cage when she heard the cat making noise.

She put the litter box on the balcony, spread a blanket on the floor, and addressed the cat directly. "You sleep here. You don't leave this room. If you scratch anything, you're going to sleep outside."

The cat's tail moved. It walked over her slippers.

Xia Chan looked at it.

She got up, opened one of the cans, and held it. The cat came forward immediately. She lifted it out of reach. "Also. Your name is not Tangtang anymore. It's Fugui. Do you understand?"

The cat watched the can.

"Fugui." She waited. "Did you hear me?"

The cat meowed.

Xia Chan put the can down.

Fugui ate two bites and then looked up and meowed at her twice.

"You've developed a conscience," she said, and went to find something to wear for the shower.

Afterward, sitting on the bed drying her hair, she felt the bed vibrating under her and reached down. She had been sitting on her phone.

She looked at it.

A long sequence of messages from He Huaisheng.

The first explained that he had arranged for Ding Yonggui to pick him up at seven, and then had forgotten to cancel after running into her. Ding Yonggui had something come up and delegated to Fu Ruyu.

The rest explained his plans for the next two weeks — traveling frequently between two locations, which made it impractical to keep the cat with him, and Aunt Shen's condition made it impractical to leave it there. He had planned to leave it with Shen Xuefei's household for the time being.

Xia Chan read through all of it. She kept her finger on the screen for a while without typing anything.

She put the phone down and finished drying her hair.

It vibrated again. She let it.

When her hair was mostly dry she picked it up.

Downstairs. Come down.

She looked at the message for a long time.

Asleep, she wrote.

He Huaisheng: Don't be angry.

Xia Chan sat with this.

What was she angry about. She turned it over. He was using her as a convenience — a spy, a driver, a temporary cat owner, and occasionally she was required to perform the role of devoted secretary for external consumption. And she had gone along with all of it, because she had told herself that being deaf must make things difficult for him in ways she could help with.

She put the phone face-down.

He didn't send anything further.

Whether he actually came to her building that night, she didn't check, and didn't know.

---

Two weeks went quickly.

Fugui had settled into the apartment as though it had always lived there. It ate well, slept well, and its only significant flaw was a habit of appearing on Xia Chan's bed in the middle of the night and walking on her. She had said nothing about this. She had also refilled the imported food three times, and she had stopped calculating the damage.

The two weeks ended. He Huaisheng didn't come.

She waited a day, then sent a message.

He replied quickly: Back in Chongming day after tomorrow. I'll come then.

Xia Chan looked at Fugui, who was working at the blanket with focused determination. She picked it up. It meowed twice and made a move toward the floor. She held on.

"You're leaving day after tomorrow," she said. "After that we go back to our separate lives."

---

The day arrived. After work she put Fugui in the cage, put the cage in the car, and drove to the meeting point.

She saw him from some distance away, standing by his car, smoking.

She took her foot off the accelerator slightly and let the car slow. She watched him while she drove toward him.

He Huaisheng looked up.

Their eyes met for a moment. She looked away and pulled in.

He looked worse than when she had last seen him — not dramatically, but visibly. Travel fatigue, probably. The kind that collects over days and doesn't clear easily.

She got out, took the cage from the back seat, and handed it to him without much preamble. "I have somewhere to be."

He Huaisheng glanced at the cage, took it, set it down by his feet.

He looked at her.

Xia Chan held the look for a moment, then turned and opened the car door.

She smelled smoke — and then his arms came around her from behind, pulling her back against him, holding on.