I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

Walnut squinted its eyes, ready to enjoy itself, when Bai Xiaoqi grabbed it by the back of the neck and dragged it to the balcony for a lesson.

"How many times have I told you, you're not allowed to bend over and let people touch your butt. Girls should be modest. If you do this again, I'll..."

"Meow...."

"Can it understand you if you speak to it like a human? Are you talking to me...?"

Chen Shuo was halfway through his sentence when Bai Xiaoqi turned her head and gave him a quick glance, prompting him to wisely shut up.

After a pause, he couldn't help but ask, "Is it possible that it's in heat?"

"estrus?"

"Yes, kittens this age usually go into heat, otherwise how could they suddenly...?"

Chen Shuo thought about it more and more and it made sense. It was impossible that it had been hovering around Bai Xiaoqi for the past few days and now it was coming to him to touch its butt for no reason.

He took his phone out of his pocket. "Wait a minute, let me check it online."

As he spoke, he opened his browser and began searching for the symptoms of a female cat in heat, and found that it might actually be true.

Seeing that Bai Xiaoqi was still disciplining the kitten, he put his phone aside and said, "Alright, put it down. Walnut seems to be in heat."

"So, when you're in heat, you let people touch your butt?"

"That's how female cats are. You used to be a cat, don't you know that? You've never been in heat?"

"No."

"Oh..." Chen Shuo said "oh" and didn't continue the topic. If he continued, she would definitely bite him again.

And maybe she really never did this when she was a cat before. A cat that can worship the moon and cultivate must be different from an ordinary cat.

"The internet says that letting someone touch its butt is just the beginning of the symptoms. Later on, it will start meowing in the middle of the night. I know that. It's that kind of really shrill cat meow."

If Walnut keeps chirping like that late at night these past two days, then it means it's really in heat.

......

The cat's meowing came earlier than expected in the middle of the night, and Walnut meowed all night long.

The next day, Chen Shuo lay slumped on the sofa, looking somewhat tired, yawning from time to time, while Bai Xiaoqi squatted there to comfort Walnut.

The cat's mournful meows continued all night, conveying only the emotion of pain. She got out of bed several times to try and soothe it, but to no avail.

Then I searched online and found that if you want to prevent your cat from suffering this pain, you either need to find it a male kitten to mate with, or you need to get it spayed/neutered.

If you're looking for a male kitten, it's so small, only a few months old.

It seems like sterilization is the only option left...

Do you think I did something wrong?

Chen Shuo was stunned for a moment, "What did you do wrong?"

"That's the day the couple took it to get neutered. They were actually doing it for its own good. I thought I was saving it, but I wasn't. In fact, I even caused the two of them to break up."

Bai Xiaoqi hung her head, looking very downcast. She had always firmly believed that what she had done was a good thing, but now she realized that it might not be.

"There's no right or wrong here, it's just that you have different perspectives."

"......"

Seeing that she remained silent, Chen Shuo sat up straight and continued, "You see, although you are a person now, you used to be a cat. Cats are your former kind, or you still consider them your kind. In your eyes, saving a cat is equivalent to saving a person in the eyes of a human."

That's why I said you just have different perspectives. Plus, you don't know the benefits of spaying/neutering for cats, and you're incredibly stubborn, having a preconceived notion that spaying/neutering is pitiful and cruel, which is why...

In short, from your perspective, you didn't do anything wrong, but you didn't do anything right either.

"Then what am I?"

"A stubborn, silly girl who meant well but ended up doing something wrong,"

Chen Shuo characterized the matter as not being wrong, but being too stubborn. He said that she would argue back after he had spoken, and in the end, he couldn't win the argument.

However, it's understandable. If you look at it from another angle, if a human saw a child being taken to be sterilized, they would definitely try to save the child before they knew the benefits of sterilization.

It's not about right or wrong, it's just a matter of perspective.

"Then, shouldn't we return the walnuts and apologize to that couple...?" Bai Xiaoqi suddenly spoke up, conflicted. She had brought the little orange cat home to raise because she was afraid it would be taken to be spayed/neutered; she wanted to save it, but now...

"Stop for a moment."

Chen Shuo gestured for a pause, "Let's not even talk about whether you'd be willing to give it back. Even if we were to give it back, where would we find the person to return it to?"

“A few days ago, when I was shopping with Ya Ya, we passed by that pet hospital. There was a lost cat poster on the utility pole there. It was for Walnut, and there was a contact number on it.”

Bai Xiaoqi got up and picked up her phone from the coffee table. After seeing the lost cat notice, she wrote down the phone number, but after finding the number, she hesitated to press the dial button.

"Do you really want to return it?" she asked.

Do you want to pay it back?

"I don't want to, but it wasn't originally ours..." Bai Xiaoqi's voice trailed off as she spoke, and finally she stopped. After hesitating for a long time, she handed the phone to Chen Shuo, "Why don't you call it?"

"Are you sure you want to pay it back?"

"Ah."

"alright."

Chen Shuo took the phone and went to the balcony. He pressed the dial button, and after ringing for a while, the call was answered. A girl's voice came from the other end, "Hello, who is this?"

"Oh, is that so? You lost a cat, right? Well, your cat is with me."

There was silence on the other end of the line, and you could vaguely hear a man asking who made the call.

Then the girl replied that it seemed to be a kidnapper, who said that the rotten egg we had lost earlier was in his hands.

Someone kidnapped a cat? The man's voice sounded quite surprised.

A dozen minutes later, Chen Shuo hung up the phone, came out onto the balcony, and said to Bai Xiaoqi, "Now I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"...What's the good news?"

"The good news is that the couple who broke up got back together a couple of days ago and got a new cat. I talked to them about it, and they agreed to give the cat to us."

"Really?" Bai Xiaoqi's downcast eyes suddenly lit up, and then she asked, "What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that we may not be able to sleep well for many days to come. The girl said that Walnut's heat cycle lasts for ten days, so even if we want to get it spayed, we have to wait until this heat cycle ends."

Chapter 236 Everyone is conflicted.

As April approaches, the lingering chill of the past few days has completely dissipated, and pedestrians on the street have all changed into spring clothes.

After breakfast, the two of them left home with Walnut in their arms and headed towards the pet hospital.

Cars came and went on the road, and Walnut huddled in Bai Xiaoqi's arms without moving, looking very well-behaved.

But a few days ago it was still irritable and restless, howling in the middle of the night. The sound was so loud that the whole building could hear it, and neighbors came to complain almost every day.

Fortunately, with just a minor surgery today, everyone can say goodbye to pain from now on.

"If I get neutered, I'll feel really bad for Walnut." Even though she had mentally prepared herself, Bai Xiaoqi felt inexplicably conflicted as she looked at the pet hospital that was already in sight.

She paused, then added, "But not spaying it seems like I'm doing it a disservice, since it cries out in such pain every night."

Chen Shuo asked, "So you're struggling with this?"

"People are always conflicted because they find it hard to choose. I think that statement is very true."

"It's just a minor surgery, don't act like a philosopher."

As you walk through the glass doors of the hospital, you can already hear the meows of cats and dogs, and you can smell the distinctive disinfectant odor of the hospital.

Which floor?

"Third floor."

"Here, give me the walnuts to hold."

Carrying the cat, they went up to the third floor, knocked on the door, and entered. The doctor inside stood up when he saw them and asked, "What brings you two here...?"

"I called you before to make an appointment to have this cat spayed/neutered."

"Oh, I remember now."

The doctor skillfully grabbed the walnut by the back of its neck and lifted it up to examine it. "It looks quite healthy, but we still need to do a complete blood count and six biochemical tests before we can administer anesthesia and perform the surgery."

The doctor placed the walnuts on the table, casually plucked a handful, and then asked, "Come on, can someone help hold them down so I can draw blood?"

"I'll do it." Chen Shuo stepped forward to help hold him down, deciding to play the villain.

Seeing the doctor approach with a syringe, Walnut meowed uneasily and began to struggle. Bai Xiaoqi, who was next to it, meowed a few times to comfort it and tell it not to move.

The doctor was stunned. "This is..."

Chen Shuo pointed at her with one finger, then at his own head, and finally gave the doctor a knowing look.

“She has a problem; she always thinks she can talk to cats.”

"Oh..." the doctor exclaimed in realization.

"..." Bai Xiaoqi remained silent, secretly clenching her little fists, deciding to endure it for now and deal with him properly when they got home.

"But your girlfriend's call really worked; the cat did stop moving. Maybe she really can talk to the cat."

The doctor smiled and patted Walnut's head, then picked up a syringe and began drawing blood from it, while Bai Xiaoqi continued to soothe it by meowing softly.

After the blood test results came back and all the indicators were normal, they started administering anesthesia and preparing for the surgery. Once the anesthesia was injected, Walnut really stopped moving. His eyes were glazed over, and his little tongue limply stuck out of his mouth. He lay slumped on the operating table, looking like he had been played with.

"Has it gone mad?" Bai Xiaoqi couldn't help but ask.

"Don't talk nonsense, this is just a normal reaction to the anesthesia," Chen Shuo replied from the side.

"So you're still like this even after you've been given anesthesia?"

"Why would I need anesthesia? Are you trying to cut my kidney?"

At this moment, a young woman who looked like an assistant came over and said, "The surgery is about to begin. You can go outside and wait."

"Can't we just stand by and watch?" Chen Shuo had originally planned to take a look, but he had never actually seen a cat being spayed or neutered before.

"No, Walnut is a female cat, you can't look at her."

Before the female assistant could answer, Bai Xiaoqi pulled him outside. Although she also wanted to stand by and watch, she felt it was more important not to let Chen Shuo see.