Extra 5

In late autumn, a stray animal rescue organization established a spot in a little park near Fei Du's company, placing some simple cat shelters for escaping the winter cold. The little park was surrounded by a ring of office buildings and commercial squares, and normally it was all city-dwelling white collar workers passing through; if an animal ever showed up, they would all come over like a swarm of bees to feed it. Gradually an inner-city village of stray cats took shape.

On this day, Fei Du went out early in the morning and took a little detour. After parking his car, he went to the stray cat village, carrying some cans of cat food.

The cans had been Luo Yiguo's. The night before, Luo Wenzhou and Luo Yiguo had had a major back and forth argument. As for why, Fei Du hadn't been able to work it out after a night of having Luo Wenzhou wrapped around him; he could only judge from Luo Wenzhou's unconventional manner of venting his anger that in this great human-cat war, the cat had gotten the upper hand.

Luo Wenzhou had taken all the packages of cat food cans out of the cupboard and then asserted that he'd rather eat them himself than let them go to that bastard Luo Yiguo.

Comrade Luo Wenzhou normally seemed presentable when he was outside, but at home, he could be unfeelingly childish. To keep Luo Wenzhou from keeping to his word and putting the cat food on his own plate, Fei Du had to personally take care of it for him, coming to deliver charity to the stray cat village first thing in the morning.

The cats living in the stray cat village were all vagrant "loafers" who relied on their talents and skills to beg for food; they weren't as domineering as Luo Yiguo. Smelling something good, a few cats carefully stuck their heads out of the cat shelters. When one big gray cat had taken the lead and completed an inspection, tasting the food, the other cats vied with each other to come eat.

Just then, Fei Du noticed a damaged, broken-down cat shelter in a corner. It was half-collapsed, with a roof that was about to fall off. An extraordinarily ugly white cat was sticking its head out of the "unsafe structure," its movements somewhat fearful. It was blind in one eye, and its ears were asymmetrical. There was an irregular scar over half its face where the fur didn't even grow. Perhaps a human had injured it, or perhaps a stray dog or another cat; in the open, conditions weren't at all friendly.

The big white cat showed its head. Its remaining pale blue eye met Fei Du's gaze. It didn't cry out, only looked at him ardently, giving him an odd feeling of an intelligence unusual in domestic animals.

Fei Du was still holding the last can. He could give it to anyone, so he walked over to the "unsafe structure" in the corner. When he'd walked close he discovered that the big white cat wasn't on its own; the "unsafe structure" also contained some kittens the size of mice. They were all downy-furred. One of them had fur colored something like Luo Yiguo's. They didn't know to be afraid seeing a human; they opened their eyes wide and stretched their necks out towards Fei Du.

Fei Du opened the can and put it next to the half-collapsed cat shelter, but the big white cat didn't eat it. It curled up and let out a dull roar, digging its claws into the ground, as though preparing to go to war against someone.

Fei Du looked up and saw some big cats soundlessly surrounding them, licking their lips as they greedily stared at the white cat's family of children and cripples. As soon as the human left, they would rush over to plunder it. The kittens inside the shelter crowded together into a ball, the size of rats, their squeaking cries also about the same as those of mice. The ends of their stuck-up tails were short little segments. They shivered together, whether from cold or from fear.

These little animals born in winter were like humans born during unrest; their lives were cheap, they died in batch after batch with nothing to pity.

Fei Du looked at his watch. Anyway, he was the boss himself and had no need to punch in, so he sat down next to the white cat's cat shelter.

Perhaps because of his aura, the stray cat criminal underworld seemed afraid of him. Their tails hanging down, the big cats coveted from afar, but they didn't dare to act presumptuously in front of him. Seeing he didn't intend to leave, they unwillingly scattered. After a good while, the big white cat finally relaxed and carefully licked at the can. Then it opened its mouth and gave a hoarse cry at Fei Du.

Fei Du had his headphones in and was checking his e-mail on his phone; he ignored it. Over ten minutes later, the white cat and its family had finished stuffing themselves. Fei Du glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw the little cat that looked like Luo Yiguo boldly climbing out of the cat shelter, swaying on its clumsy limbs, totteringly walking towards him and trying to rub against the hand laying on his knee.

Apart from Luo Yiguo, who he was used to living with, Fei Du still wasn't in the habit of getting close to small animals, and he wasn't planning on striking up a friendship with a cat less than a month old, so he stood up and avoided it.

The kitten cried out in disappointment. Just then, someone sighed quietly behind him. "It only likes you. If you're so hard-hearted, why are you favoring them?"

Fei Du's steps paused—there was a young man, both familiar and strange, sitting not far away on a stone bench. He was wearing an unassuming khaki jacket, his not very meticulously cared for slacks were a little wrinkled, and his hair was a little long. His features were still what they had been, but there seemed to be a different soul beneath them. At first glance, you couldn't recognize that this was the one-time famous Yan City son of the wealthy…Zhang Donglai.

Zhang Donglai met Fei Du's gaze and slowly stood up. The two of them looked at each other helplessly among the crowd of cats; everything had changed. For a time both were speechless.

In memory, whenever they had met, if the surroundings hadn't been drinking and gambling, then they had been luxury and dissipation, noisy laughter and the choking smell of perfume inseparable; who could have imagined that one day they would meet in circumstances like these?

Fei Du took off his headphones and spoke first. "It's been a long time."

Zhang Donglai looked at him with an indescribable expression and nodded almost over-cautiously.

Fei Du walked over beside him and pointed to the stone bench next to him. "Can I sit here?"

Zhang Donglai's gaze was firmly fixed on him; he didn't know why, when things had reached this stage, Fei Du was still so calm, as calm as though he'd never done those things.

On New Year's Eve that year, he'd climbed out of a sensual scene and, not yet fully sober, stepped into a freezing cold nightmare. He seemed to have mistakenly found his way into a bizarre parallel world; all these things he couldn't have imagined even in his dreams had crashed into him at once. Everyone around him had changed shape, each one becoming a demon dressed in human skin.

The father he had always honored and revered was a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer; on the hands of his uncle, so upright he was daily ashamed of bringing dishonor to his door, there was a vast debt of blood crying out for retribution; and then there was his friend…his friend Fei Du.

A drinking buddy was still a friend.

Fei Du was interesting, daring, able to get along with any group, and his views were like Zhang Donglai's, believing in making merry while you could, never disgraced by his own ignorance and incompetence, wholeheartedly acting the happy idiot. In the circle of Yan City's rich kids, he was the person Zhang Donglai most admired, the person he was closest to; even when he'd been in a foreign land, when he'd been alarmed and anxious, the person he'd instinctively asked for help and trusted had also been him.

He'd taken Fei Du as a soulmate in ostentation, but it turned out that only Fei Du had known his soul—while he had had ears but couldn't hear.

Fei Du stretched out his long legs and sat on the stone bench next to him. "I haven't heard anything from you in over a year. How have you been? Is Tingting doing well?"

Zhang Donglai asked in turn, "If it were you, would you be doing well?"

Fei Du looked at him quietly without comment.

Zhang Donglai found for the first time that he'd never looked carefully into Fei Du's eyes. In his memories, Fei Du was always careless, his pupils seeming unfocused; his gaze would sweep over in a flash, then retreat once more behind his lenses…or something else. He thought that if he'd noticed those eyes hiding abysses before, he definitely wouldn't have foolishly taken Fei Du for his own kind.

His voice somewhat sharp, he said, "I never knew you, President Fei, did I?"

"You could say that," Fei Du answered calmly.

Zhang Donglai was choked into a stumble, bloodshot eyes glaring fiercely at him.

"And you never knew your father or your uncle, or those people around them," Fei Du said quietly. "From the time you were born, there was a utopian casing placed around you with colorful decorations stuck to the outside of the glass. It dovetailed perfectly, and you never looked around outside it. Your father urgently heaped everything he'd wanted but couldn't have on you and your sister. He took you as extensions of his own life, as though this way he could attain compensation."

Zhang Donglai's breathing became rapid, and he subconsciously stuck a hand into his jacket pocket.

But Fei Du seemed to see nothing. He kept talking. "I ruined your utopia without a word of notice. I'm sorry. Did you come here today to settle things?"

"I had quite a lot of friends, but you were the one I took the most seriously." Zhang Donglai's voice was hoarse. "I believed everything you said. Really, Fei Du, I…I won't say I opened my heart for you, but near enough. I never thought to suspect you…but what did you take me for? An idiot who'd delivered himself to your door! Have I ever done anything to wrong you?"

"No, I'm the one who wronged you," Fei Du said. "But a chip is a chip. If I had to do it over again, I'd do the same thing."

"You…"

Fei Du spread his hands towards Zhang Donglai. His hands were long, slender, and pale; spotless shirtsleeves showed at the smooth cuffs of his jacket. "What's in your pocket? A knife, or a gun?"

Zhang Donglai's lips trembled fiercely. "You think…you think I wouldn't dare?"

"If you wanted to kill me to take revenge, a paper cutter would be enough." Fei Du sighed and quietly said, "That way, if you regretted it when the moment came, you'd have some leeway. But if you brought a restricted cutting tool or…"

Zhang Donglai gave a roar and seized Fei Du's collar. The stray cats acutely sensed that the atmosphere was wrong and all hid, silent as cicadas in winter. Only the big long-haired gray cat that had eaten the first can stood up and cautiously walked a few steps forward, like a sentry on patrol, attentively watching the activity.

There was a chill at Fei Du's neck, a paper cutter pressing to the side of it. Whether because the skin of his neck was too tender or because Zhang Donglai's hand was trembling too fiercely, a small wound quickly appeared under the blade. Fei Du made a gesture at the bristling big gray cat; the odd thing was, the big gray cat's ears went back; as if it had understood something, it looked around, then lay down again.

Fei Du glanced down and smiled. "It really is a paper cutter."

Zhang Donglai said between his teeth, "You used me, destroyed our family!"

"I used you once, and I've apologized. If you want, in the future I can use any means within my power to make it up to you. If you don't want, that's fine, you can wave that knife here." Fei Du slowly held down Zhang Donglai's ceaselessly trembling hand. "It's best if you find something to shield yourself from the blood, or else you'll get covered in it. Make a firm cut, and in five or six minutes at most, we'll be through—don't worry, cats don't know how to call an ambulance."

At this point, he suddenly pressed down on Zhang Donglai's hand, and more blood flowed out, staining his shirt collar red. Zhang Donglai was after all only a pampered child who'd grown up in a land of warmth and tenderness; he was nearly scared out of his wits by Fei Du's unprecedented desperado manners. He loosened his hand and dodged, as though he couldn't get away from Fei Du fast enough, opening his eyes wide in alarm.

Fei Du returned the paper cutter to its plastic sheath and tilted his head, wiping the blood with his collar. "You're a good person. The worst slip-up you've ever made is clipping an electricity pole while speeding. Even when you got into fights, you still never seriously injured anyone. Donglai, you aren't like us. I'll take this knife as a parting gift. Take Tingting and go live a normal life."

Zhang Donglai looked at him with a peculiar gaze. He finally determined that he didn't know Fei Du. His friend was a wastrel who didn't even wear a helmet to race motorcycles in open country in a rainstorm at night; he didn't know the frightening man in front of him who was expressionlessly playing with the paper cutter as though he had no consciousness.

"That time at West Ridge, we came along for the fun and helped the police look for a missing little girl. The girl's photograph flooded our social media, everyone reposted it whether they knew us or not. Sadly we didn't find her in the end. The police only dug up her body," Fei Du said. Zhang Donglai began to tremble as he spoke. "When it got out, I saw you all post about her again. You even posted three candles. Later everyone forgot about it. I think you ought to know the truth by now."

Zhang Donglai did know. He'd spent over a year searching, recalling, listening, looking… He knew that the little girl who had briefly appeared on his phone had been taken away on a muddy, rainy night and had died a violent death in extreme terror; her body had been chopped up, and she'd been buried with a grievance in the graveyard his father had personally bought. He'd been unable to sleep for a time, feeling that that girl was still hidden like a shadow in his phone, watching in satisfaction as he woke from his hateful ignorance, was tormented daily by the truth, living a state of constant anxiety.

"I didn't destroy your family," Fei Du said. "Your so-called 'family' was a lie from the start. A lie can't last for long."

Zhang Donglai knew that what he was saying was the truth, but his plight was so awkward that it seemed he would be wrong whether he accepted it or not. He was blank and helpless. Suddenly he felt drowned by the overpowering wrong; unable to endure it, he began to cry.

When a person is born, the doctor delivering him makes him cry, and he leaves his mother's body and begins to breathe on his own.

Then he's hit by the unfeeling truth countless times and gradually leaves his childhood, leaves the calm "village of novices" and goes towards a more distant, less beautiful, more unfathomable future.

Today, the belatedly-developing over-aged boy Zhang Donglai finally opened his mouth and began to wail.

Fei Du didn't bother him again, only sat quietly on the stone bench, waiting until Zhang Donglai had exhausted himself crying and walked away without giving him another look. Fei Du knew that Zhang Donglai wouldn't come back again. He felt the side of his neck; the blood had already clotted. Fei Du sighed and pulled out the paper cutter from earlier.

"Has he left?" Lu Jia and Zhou Huaijin, looking grave, walked out of the thicket behind the stray cat shelters. Zhou Huaijin bent down and stroked the big gray cat's head. The big gray cat seemed to know him. It stuck up its tail, haughtily rubbed against his hand, then idly stood up and walked away.

Fei Du gave an affirmative, pulled apart the paper cutter's plastic sheath, and pulled out a small slip of paper with an address written on it.

"It must be a part of the Chunlai Conglomerate that slipped through the net." Fei Du gave the slip of paper to Lu Jia. "Find someone to get their eyes on it, then anonymously report it."

Lu Jia agreed, took the slip of paper, and ran off. But Zhou Huaijin bent down and stared at the blood on Fei Du's collar, frowning. "Are you dizzy? Are you going to throw up? Hurry up and go to the hospital."

"It's just a scratch. I haven't reacted that badly to blood in a while." Fei Du waved his hand, but when he stood up, his steps wavered—he didn't react that badly, but there were still some after-effects.

"What did I say!" Zhou Huaijin helped him get his footing. "Playing around with a knife? Can you just play around with a knife like that…"

"Zhou-dage," Fei Du said helplessly.

Zhou Huaijin looked at him sternly.

When the Zhou Clan and the Chunlai Conglomerate's major case had concluded, Zhou Huaijin had gone to drift around somewhere for a few months before returning to the country alone; the one-time heir to a multi-million dollar concern had now become Fei Du's chief financial officer. At first everyone had called him "President Zhou," but later, "President Zhou" had somehow become "Zhou-dage." From top to bottom, male and female, young and old, everyone at the company called him that. On coming back, the usually outwardly lofty and coldly elegant talent had become a fussy big brother overflowing with compassion, as though the whole world were his trouble-making, unreliable little brother.

The police force's reaction to the words "Chunlai Conglomerate" was extremely quick; as soon as they received the report, they hurried over to the overlooked den as suddenly as a flash of lightning, taking them unawares and rounding them all up at one fell swoop. Zhang Donglai had come to Yan City silently and he left silently, never returning again.

The ceaseless resentments that had pestered two generations had finally scattered.

In the afternoon, Fei Du sat in his car, looking helplessly at a palm-sized little stray cat.—When he'd just gotten into the car, before he'd turned on the ignition, a white shape had suddenly leapt onto the hood of his car; the big white cat with one blind eye had looked at him and put the little cat that looked like Luo Yiguo onto his car. Then, not waiting for Fei Du to react, the big white cat had turned and run, forcing the sale.

The little cat was sticking up its tail; as though afraid of the cold, it kept crawling into his arms.

Fei Du picked the cat up by the scruff of its neck and pulled it off. "Go back and tell your mom that I'm not planning on adopting a cat."

The little stray cat answered, "Mew."

Fei Du said, "We already have a cat. If I take you back, it'll knock you over with one swipe."

The little stray cat stretched out its neck and sniffed at him with narrowed eyes, then looked at him abjectly.

Fei Du said, "…Luo Wenzhou is going to claw me to death."

The little stray cat gave a deeply moving series of meows, then batted his jacket with its little claws.

Fei Du looked at the cat that didn't know how to retract its claws yet, touched the band-aid on his neck, and was struck by sudden inspiration. "Fair enough."

The little cat tilted its head, raising itself up. It moved its limbs uneasily, looking on uncomprehendingly as Fei Du squeezed its little paw and, pointing to the wound on his neck, said, "Remember, you scratched me. If you don't give me away, I'll adopt you."

The little stray cat trembled amid the sound of the motor vehicle's engine, as though it had had an ominous premonition.

Just then, Fei Du's phone vibrated; the sudden sound of the Fives Rings Song startled the little stray cat into a shiver. As Fei Du slowly drove out of the parking lot, he picked up. "Hi, I've gotten off work, I'm on my way… Tonight? I want to eat steamed prawns… No, I want you to make them…"

The person on the phone grumbled something.

Fei Du smiled craftily. "Oh, yes, I'm also bringing you a 'present'… Hm? I haven't been throwing money around.

"You're definitely going to like it."