Cat's paw prints red paper blessings.

The next morning, after the boy had gone out, Xu You went out again through the small opening and followed him not far behind.

About a quarter of an hour's walk westward from the hut, there were more portals to be seen, and a number of village people with brooms were clearing the snow from their doorsteps.

Further down the road, you can see some stalls and stores on both sides of the road, there are shouting and selling, this is the village market.

Xu You see him walk over, guess he probably want to do something inside the marketplace, she will no longer follow, turned to yesterday's frozen small lake to see, no one came to fish, she looked carefully over the ice, also did not find a break in the place, only regret sigh, and walked towards the marketplace to see what the boy is doing.

The small market was quite crowded and a bit lively, with men selling sugar gourds, masters kneading clay figures, as well as fabric stores and liquor stores.

Xu You is not good at walking on the ground in a crowded place, and her view is blocked. In a less crowded place, she jumps on the wooden fence and looks around, finding the boy.

The distance is not too far, she can see him and a man selling ravioli gesticulating something, probably want to work as an odd-job, no money, a bowl of ravioli every day will be fine, the man looked quite honest a little difficult, but ultimately waved his hand to reject him.

As soon as he got out of the wonton stall, he saw an older woman holding a wooden basin containing clothes with a mallet pressed on top, obviously going to wash the clothes, and the boy stopped her, probably wanting to help her wash them for food or something like that, but the older woman was full of impatience and turned around and walked away.

The village was small, but not too small, and everyone in the village knew him, and when they saw him he would subconsciously circle around, accompanied from time to time by glances and verbal gestures.

The boy seemed so used to it that he didn't half react.

Xu You was puzzled, what on earth had happened that a ten year old child deserved to be avoided like this?

She jumped off the wooden fence and tried to make her way over to him, passing two girls and hearing them talking in whispers.

The girl in the gray dress said, "Eh? Isn't that Yier Li? I haven't seen him for more than a month. I thought he had left the village. He didn't come to the market for a long time, but why is he here again?"

The other girl said, "What left the village, my brother saw him hanging out in the hills a few days ago."

"His father and mother died early, the fields were sold, the home was sold, and his only sister who pulled him up until he was ten years old also went away, and he's almost thirteen now, I think, so it's not easy."

"You're so sympathetic that you don't see you helping him?"

"My father said that he has a fatal gas, grams close people, and call the next person bad luck, I dare not go, my father knows is going to curse me to death."

Xu You listen to the almost angry laugh, three people into a tiger, ancient remote village especially believe in ghosts and gods, the law of destiny, when all people believe in a certain idea, that will become the so-called facts and truth.

She didn't bother to listen any further, seeing Yier Li pass by a rather crowded baozi store, and was just about to go over there when she saw a boy run past him and shove something into his hand.

Xu You didn't react for a moment, and only thought that the boy running past looked a bit familiar.

The next moment, a snorting tirade sounded, "Aigoo, freaks, a few days gone, you still dare to come to the bazaar, last time's lesson was not enough, and now you dare to come and steal things?"

Xu You saw a group of boys of all sizes appearing behind Yier Li, and immediately remembered the group that bullied him at Yier Li's house last time, and the boys who ran past him were with them.

This kind of planting of evidence is extremely childish and clumsy.

The leader, a somewhat chubby teenager, kicks Yier Li over, who rolls to the ground, shielding whatever he's holding.

"Told you not to come back later, understand human language?"

"How dare you fucking steal, you stole a few buns, don't hand them over yet."

"Said I'd see one fight."

Punches and kicks landed on him one at a time, and he was helpless to do anything but shrink to the ground.

There was a lot of noise and a lot of eyes moved over, maybe some people knew that Yier Li didn't steal the buns, but no one came forward to stop her, and Yier Li, who hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time and had some speech impediments, couldn't defend herself at all.

Of course, the most important point was that those people were weak and deceitful when they saw that he had no father and no mother and no one to rely on.

And they also took Yier Li can not let go of the hand of that bun, anyway, will be beaten and scolded, it is better to endure, change the mouth to eat ......

Xu You was about to lose her temper, and rushed over regardless, taking advantage of the fact that the teenager in the lead was bending over to give Yier Li a punch in the head, she jumped up and clawed her way across his eyes.

"Ah--" the teenager cried out, covering one eye, "damn it, where'd the wildcat come from, get this beast."

The man tried to reach out and grab her, but Xu You stepped around him and used his small size and agility to claw and bite all of the men who had beaten Yier Li.

"Shit!"

"My hands are bleeding."

These people were annoyed by her and diverted their attention, picking up stones and wooden sticks on the ground and smashing them Xu You ran away and saw them chasing after her before continuing to run away.

Yier Li raised his head in a daze and looked in the direction they had disappeared, and for the first time in his life he felt defended under the malice of a scolding, from a kitten.

A certain part of the heart instantly caved in.

The ends of his eyes were red, after he hadn't shed a tear since the last of his loved ones had passed away.

--

Xu You easily got rid of those few people, and went back to the original place to look, and did not see Yier Li, slightly relieved, fortunately he is not so stupid, still waiting in the same place.

She glanced around to make sure Yier Li was gone, and left the little bazaar as well.

On the path outside the fairgrounds, in the middle of the silvered sky and earth, he stood there quietly, just looking too skinny to be a child of almost thirteen years old.

Yier Li's eyes were full of anxiety, when he saw the grayish-brown kitten taking a step forward, his eyes brightened slightly and he rushed over to pick her up, checking her body carefully to make sure that there was no injury before he breathed a sigh of relief.

He took her in his arms, stroked the fur on her back, placed her in the lapel of his coat, and raised his hand to shield her from the wind with the sleeve of his coat before he took a step in the direction of home.

Xu You pressed quietly against his chest, hearing his somewhat faster heartbeat and the crunching of his feet through the thick snow.

A good distance away, Xu You heard his chest vibrate slightly as he tried to make a sound.

"No need ...... You're small, careful ...... Far ...... Run."

Hard, vague words, laced with soft, light breath.

Xu You guess he's telling her to leave him alone in the future, to be careful with herself, to stay away and not get hurt.

Her heart warmed and she rubbed his chest.

All the way back home, Yier Li didn't put her down either, he took out the bun, which was trampled flat, with dark footprints on it, and a lot of dusty crumbs from the ground stuck underneath.

He shook that bun and patted it a few more times, then peeled off the dirty outer crust and ate it, handing her the rest of the clean part.

Xu You shook his head and pushed it back with his head.

He touched the bun, and there was longing in his eyes, but in the end he didn't eat it, and started the fire again, and set up the iron bowl filled with ice and snow.

And then the water boiled, and he put the buns in, and used the water to cook the buns hot, and then put them aside to cool, and when the temperature was just right, he handed them to Xu You again.

Xu You now understands, he thinks the buns are cold and hard, as a kitten she is not convenient to eat, so he cooks them hot and soft for her.

He lowered his eyes and looked at her gently.

A bloated, sour feeling wrapped itself around his heart, and Xu You gestured, signaling him to drink at least half of it.

Yier Li read it and drank half of it, then handed it back to her, his eyes lowered and eyelashes lowered as he stroked the fur of her back in one gentle motion after another.

Xu You hangs his head, taking small bites and licking the contents of the bowl.

--

For the next half a month, man and cat were dependent on each other.

After Xu You's guidance, Yier Li smashed two holes in the frozen lake, Xu You squatted down to catch fish and Yier Li fished with a simple homemade hook, sometimes they got one or two fish, sometimes three or four, and sometimes they got nothing at all.

Aside from fishing, Yier Li rarely takes her out, but doesn't restrict her access, knowing she will return.

When he wasn't fishing, he would go to the mountains to get food, sometimes catching some birds and digging up some yams.

There were frequent hunger pangs, but no more times when I was very hungry.

A cat and a man were barely getting by, but the cabin was no longer dead, it was warm.

......

The melon rinds in his head form little piles, and Xu You can't stand it any longer: "Don't knock melon seeds in my head and make them crunch."

Nanashi crossed his legs and ignored her at all.

There's a comparison that hurts, and it's telling that she's staging an existential crisis on this side and it's laid back and cozy on the other.

"Have we got the wrong person for the mission?" Xu You was skeptical.

Seven Eight: "How so?"

"Don't you think the name of this mission's subject is random," Xu You was extremely suspicious, "Any random cannon fodder runner's name is better than this, even you, at least, are called a lucky number."

"......" It felt insulted to.

Seven eight said: "His parents are farmers, can not read a few words, the last name do not need to take, his name is the day of birth."

Xu You froze, one or two, the second day of the first month, that day happened to be the day Yier Li went out on the street and was falsely accused of stealing buns, he came back and did not show the slightest bit of expectation or resentment, just a soft gaze and she finished the bowl of bun water.

Today Yier Li is out again, supposedly going to the mountains to get food and look for something to use as bait.

Xu You also went out the door and headed towards the bazaar, she wanted to find out if there were any gifts she could give to Yier Li.

The market is more lively than usual, buying and selling and the number of people to and from the obvious increase, because it is close to the New Year, many stores hang out paper cuttings, couplets, red lanterns and other things, a festive fire red.

"How much is this red paper selling for?"

"Hey, the price of meat has gone up quite a bit, and the greens have gone up two cents."

"Ma'am, I'll buy more, cheaper no, next time I'll come back to buy from you."

"How's your house coming along?"

"It's only just been cleaned up and I'm getting ready to put up the couplets."

Xu You from a wooden pillar-like legs around the side of the walk to the gray painted cabin, a little sharp point of color are not, but also almost New Year's Eve, the ancient quite pay attention to this kind of, how about .......

She went back and forth in the store selling red paper couplets, the most head of an old man on the spot to write couplets, the words written strong, very nice, many people gathered around to see.

Xu You squeezed through the gap between people's feet and into the store, sneaking underneath the wooden table where she picked out a palm-sized piece of red paper.

Paraphrasing the words around him, it was probably that the old man had taken the examination for Xiu Cai when he was young and was quite famous in the village, so he wrote the couplet to get everyone's attention and approval.

Seeing that no one is paying attention to her, Xu You secretly dabs a bit of ink on her paw and draws a very muddled Chinese character for "福" (福字) on the red paper, with a cat's paw print on it, which she can't get off by rubbing it with her other clean paw so she has to give up.

"Eh? Why is there a cat down here."

Someone had already noticed her, so Xu You gave up on the idea of rewriting it and leapt out with the red paper in her mouth.

Xu You runs home, and Yier Li is organizing the bamboo strips he got back to make a basket or something.

As soon as she appeared, he immediately noticed her and stopped what he was doing.

Xu You handed over the red paper in his mouth, and Yier Li took a look, an irregularly shaped piece of red paper with the word "Fu" written on it, and a cat's paw print on it.

He lowered his eyelids, making it difficult to see his emotions, and after looking at him for a while, Xu You suspected that he had made a mistake, but the streets were full of the word "Fu", and Yier Li should be familiar with it, even if he couldn't read or write.

Xu You leaned in close to his feet and saw his slightly wet eyes, bright and clean, like falling moonlight.

"Meow-" Xu You purred, lifting her inky paws and flicking her tongue out at him again.

Yier Li retracted her gaze to see that quite a bit of her fur was stuck to the ink, and the white hairs on her tongue and around her mouth were stained with the red color from the red paper, making her look funny and adorable.

His brow stretched and the corners of his lips lifted in an arc.

Xu You froze, it was the first time she had ever seen him smile, a warm and pure smile, as if a box of glass blobs was slightly illuminated by sunlight.

Even if the box of glass blobs had been buried out of sight, even if they had a number of cracks.

She also hopes they will always have their moment to be illuminated.