Mist

Chapter 42: Who Am I

His reflection in the mirror didn’t look too great.
He silently looked at himself for a while and then turned around to find a bath towel and wiped himself down —- Ji Minyue would soon be here.

*

As expected, Ji Minyue was very punctual. He said that he would come before seven, but he actually came before six.

“You’ve become thinner.” Ji Minyue complained as soon as he entered the door, “One mission and it lasts for a month. What did those people make you do?”

Everyone who works at Tianqiong had signed a non-disclosure agreement. Information that could be disclosed was very limited, so family only knew that they had gone on a mission but nothing about the specifics. When Ji Yushi was transferred to Ning City, the original plan was that he would be back within a week, but it had instead lasted a month, so they were naturally worried, but they couldn’t do anything about it. As a result, his family knew nothing about the horrible experience of time and space hijacking, zombies, crevice in time and the likes, and they also naturally wouldn’t say anything.

Ji Minyue carried a cat carrier in one hand and some cat daily necessities in the other.
He spoke as he walked in and placed the carrier and other items on the floor.

One person couldn’t carry the things for three cats. Ji Yushi asked, “Why didn’t you call for me to go down and help?”

“Meow—-“”
In the carrier, an unfamiliar cry sounded.

“Is it necessary?” Ji Minyue said, “If you wanted to help, why didn’t you close the door? What would you do if it escapes?”

Ji Minyue went to close the door. When he returned, he saw Ji Yushi standing there in shock as if he had been struck by lightning and laughed, “Your little master may have gained a little weight but there’s no need to be so shocked.”

Cats are prone to extreme reactions and the Ji Yushi’s cat carrier wasn’t transparent.
He opened the carrier and was met with a round faced orange cat meowing at him sweetly. He didn’t recognise the cat.

But very quickly, just like when he saw Chief Qi and his car, memories flooded his mind.
Ji Yushi realised that his current self didn’t have those three familiar black cats.
One late night two years ago when he passed a garbage dump, he found a pitiful kitten covered in fleas. It was about ten days old and had been discarded by someone. Ji Yushi picked it up and gave it a very uncreative name —- Just like Big Black, Middle Black and Little Black, it was very simple.
He named it Little Orange.

Little Orange’s body was a lot plumper but the act of jumping out of the carrier was still very light.
“Meow.”
Seeing its official poo shoveler, it immediately started to act spoiled and rubbed its soft body against Ji Yushi’s calf. Its tail swept back and forth, trying to hook it around Ji Yushi. It was clearly a little excited.

Ji Yushi bent over and picked it up.
As soon as Little Orange was in his arms, it immediately meowed contently.

“Really a lot heavier.” Ji Yushi asked Ji Minyue, “What did it eat?”

Ji Minyue didn’t look like Ji Yushi. He was about two or three centimetres shorter than Ji Yushi and used to be thinner than him when they were younger, so he was always beaten whenever they fought but two or three years of married life had made him settle down and grow more flesh. If they didn’t say anything, others would think that he was Little Orange’s owner since pets tend to resemble their owners.

Ji Minyue slumped onto his younger brother’s sofa, “It steals the dog’s food every day so why wouldn’t it get heavier?”

Two memories played hand in hand.
The new memory played in Ji Yushi’s mind like a movie. He remembered that Ji Minyue raised a corgi.