Melting warmth.

The next morning, at dawn, Xu You woke up early and heard the sound of the boy's even breathing, so she didn't move, quietly nestled in his arms.

After a long time, the boy stirred, and Xu You sensed that he was awake, so he rubbed his head against his chest.

The boy stroked her head, sat up with her in his arms, and smoothed her fur again and again. They were quiet for a while, and the boy stroked her belly, and then, like yesterday, he made a little nest for her with straw before going out.

After a moment, Xu You stood up and circled the house to find the hole where the mouse had gotten in yesterday, which the boy had plugged with straw.

Xu You uses her mouth and claws to get rid of the straw, the hole is a bit small, the mouse can easily drill back and forth, but she has a bit of difficulty drilling, luckily the ground is soft, no hard stones, she uses her claws to dig the soil.

After half a day's digging, she managed to widen the hole a little bit, and Xu You drilled the hole, which was just stuck at the position of the back waist and back legs, she desperately drilled forward, and I don't know how many hairs she rubbed off, before she managed to drill out.

Outside the snow has stopped, the sky and the earth white into one color, the branches accumulated layers of snow, all over the ground is the size of the snow pile, there is a deep and shallow footprints.

Xu You slipped a little as she walked through the snow, noticing that the boy's hut was in a very remote location with no neighbors around, which made it stand out a little bit in the middle of a blanket of snow.

Not knowing which way to go, she went around the door and followed the boy's tracks, and when she got to the back and realized that his footprints were gone, she had to keep going in that direction.

Xu You looks around as she walks, taking note of the path she passes, and then notices a low spot down the road with many branches in the center, but she notices a frozen lake.

She walked down this little slope, through the branches, some of which couldn't carry enough snow on top of them to hit her, and she shook her fur off as she was chilled to the bone, shaking the snow off of her.

The surface of the frozen lake was as flat as a mirror, Xu You's feet slipped twice on it, and after stabilizing, he walked more carefully.

She saw an old man in a bucket hat fishing by the lake, he cut a palm-sized opening in the lake, hooked a bait with a hook and put it into it, and sat down on a small wooden bench to wait quietly.

Xu You walks up next to him and sees that he already has two big fish and a small one in his bucket. When the old man sees a cat coming up to him, he thinks she's going to steal the food, so he waves her away.

Xu You just had to go to the side, she looked at her paws and tried to dig at the ice, after half a day of digging, there wasn't even a notch.

She just gave up and waited in silence.

As the day slowly darkened, the old man caught enough fish for one bucket and left with it.

Xu You immediately came to the place where the old man had previously fished, looked inside and saw the shadow of a fish looming in the blue water, so she squatted next to this opening.

It was a little darker again, and all you could see were the shadows of the trees around you.

Although she had fur, in the freezing cold, on the extremely cold icy lake, the feeling of yin and coldness invaded her flesh and bones, freezing her to the point that her body stiffened.

Xu You realized that she was too close to the opening, and the fish were afraid to come up when they found her.

She took four or five steps back, ready to sprint and pounce.

Finally, a fish shows itself, and Xu You rushes over to it, but the fish slips away before his paws can touch it.

Next, she failed more than ten times, either her body was stiff and she didn't rush fast enough, or her feet slipped and she missed the best time, or she didn't bite decisively enough, and so on.

She was basically drenched in water, her fur wet and stuck together, and when the wind blew, it was even more piercingly cold.

Xu You was frozen senseless, but she couldn't give up, it wasn't easy to find food at a time like this, and the mouth of this lake would refreeze tomorrow.

Thinking of the way the boy scratched the flint over and over again, thinking of his thin, bony body, Xu You closed his eyes and resumed his squatting.

The sky was half a bright moon, the frozen lake was sprinkled with a silver glow, the snow was so white that it glowed slightly, and in the stillness of the scene that became a painting, there was a small wild cat repeating the pouncing and biting over and over again.

"Clatter-" the water erupted.

Xu You clenched her teeth hard and shook the water from her face, she finally caught a carp, although it was a bit bigger than the palm of her hand, but at least she got something out of her labor.

She took the fish in her mouth and headed back along her original route.

It didn't take long for her mouth to feel tired and sore, and to be honest, it was genuinely a bit tiring to always bite with her mouth if she didn't have hands.

It had started to snow again, and with the wind mixing with the snow on her cold, wet fur, Xu You felt like she was turning into an ice sculpture.

After about half an hour, Xu You finally saw the cabin, and vaguely saw a person crouching on the ground and shrinking into a ball on the path outside the door.

The moonlight fell on him, stretching his lone shadow.

Xu You thought for a moment of Min Duan waiting for her to come home under the streetlight, and her heart palpitated as she quickened her steps and walked over.

The boy's exposed face, hands, and feet were red and blue from the cold, and the misanthropic grayness in his eyes faded away as he saw the kitten run back, his eyes lighting up slightly.

He picked the kitten up, swept the snow off her with the clothes on his back, wiped the water off, and carried her inside.

Xu You froze, so really waiting for her, for her a cat?

"Meow- (Are you waiting for me?)"

"Meow-(why don't you go inside and wait)"

Xu You continued to painfully educate him, "Meow meow meow!!!! (What if you catch a cold?)"

The boy just thought she was cold and rubbed her head, holding her a little tighter.

Xu You ：I hate the language barrier.

What she didn't know was that the boy came back in the evening and didn't see her, thought she had left, and never came back for fear that she would freeze out there and starve if she couldn't find food, or find her own home.

He thought he could have nothing, deserved nothing.

Like fate, those close to him will leave.

But it came back, it was just hungry for food, it wasn't trying to leave him behind, even if it didn't understand any of this, but it was good that it came back.

The boy puts her in his lapel, and Xu You peeks her head out from his collar to give him the fish, but seeing as how he's so busy, she has to continue to hold the fish in her teeth.

The boy was busy for a while before he managed to start the fire. Xu You thought he was going to cook a fish for dinner, but he ended up holding her in the palm of his hand and moving closer to the fire to help dry her wet fur.

Xu You bends her head and puts the fish in his hand, he shoves it towards her mouth again, Xu You shakes her head and pushes the fish towards him.

The boy obviously froze, half a long time did not come back to God, he knew that the kitten is very hungry, are not eating anything, that is why he ran out to find fish to eat, did not think in the mouth of the food, it can bear not to eat, bring back is ...... for him.

There was a sudden warmth somewhere in my heart, like a warm wind blowing on an ice field that no one had ever reached.

A man was wrapped in ice-like malice, and just a little bit of that, or the warmth from a kitten, pried a crack in that ice.

"Ah ...... Ah ......."

He hadn't spoken in so long that he couldn't make complete statements, only muffled sounds.

Xu You listened carefully for a while, he was speaking too hard, plus his voice was sandy and muffled, it was hard to understand what he was trying to say.

She had to push the fish again, signaling him to eat quickly.

The boy then took the iron bowl, filled it with fish, and with a rusty knife cut the fish open, removed the entrails, and scraped the scales, and finally poured in some snow, and set it on the fire to cook.

He wiped his hands, reached close to the fire to warm them, and picked her up to roast her again.

As the snow melts off his body and the cat's fur slowly dries, Xu You finally stops shivering and his stiffness eases.

Not long after, the fish soup was also ready, and with the steaming heat, a light fragrance wafted out.

The boy rummaged through the straw and found a porcelain bowl with a big break and a pair of shoddy chopsticks, with which he split the fish in half, pinched half of it into the porcelain bowl, and poured some soup into it.

Xu You thought the small ceramic bowl was hers, and just as she reached her head over, the boy placed the iron bowl in front of her.

She paused and looked up at him.

He stroked her head and made a hard, muffled sound, "Ahhhh ......"

Xu You still didn't understand what he said, and probably guessed that he wanted her to eat more of this.

She lowered her head and tasted it, there was no salt, but it was better than the tender fish, it tasted fine, and the somewhat scalding broth went into her stomach, quickly spreading warmth into her limbs.

The cold was chased away a little, and his body gradually warmed up.

The snow outside the house was getting heavier, blown by the wind and drifting randomly, and the dark silence was joined by the silvery moonlight.

Mars erupted from the fire inside the cabin making a soft sound as the boy looked down at the sleeping kitten in his arms.

He didn't realize how soft his gaze was, and he didn't notice the corner of his curved lips.