Little boy: “I’ve seen you before, you were feeding cats with someone else.”

Olivia Carter suddenly understood. Sometimes she and Sarah Young would make cat food together and go feed the stray cats in the neighborhood. They even used old fabric to build cat shelters, hiding them in corners so the wild cats would have a place to spend the winter.

Olivia Carter looked at the black cat on the ground and asked curiously, “Can you walk a cat too?”

“You can, but you have to bathe it, deworm it, and put on a leash.” The little boy thought carefully and added, “Some cats are afraid to go outside, so you can’t walk those.”

The black cat seemed to catch the keyword “bathe.” It immediately made a slightly disgruntled sound and turned its head to the side. A cat’s language isn’t just meowing—more often it’s purring, or even sounds humans can’t hear.

Olivia Carter stared at the black cat for a while and said, “It doesn’t seem to like wearing clothes?”

Little boy: “Whether it likes it or not doesn’t matter. I don’t like wearing a down jacket either, but my dad insists I wear it.”

The black cat made another faint sound, as if complaining to its little owner, probably something like, “I have fur, you don’t, it’s just ridiculous.” Forced to wear clothes, it couldn’t even lick its own body, and was clearly full of resentment.

Seeing Olivia Carter kept looking at the cat, the little boy moved a bit closer to the iron fence and suggested, “You can pet it.”

Olivia Carter reached her small hand through the fence, but still couldn’t touch the black cat that was so close. The black cat seemed to notice her predicament, slowly walked forward two steps, lowered its head gentlemanly to let her pet it, then retreated to the boy’s feet.

Olivia Carter looked at it in surprise. She found the black cat to be quite elegant and reserved, completely different from the stray cats in the neighborhood. When she used to feed cats with Sarah Young, all she could ever hear was “food” or “so hungry,” followed by the sound of vigorous chewing.

Little boy: “Its name is Liszt, and I’m Henry Lee.”

Even the black cat’s name was artistic—named after the Romantic pianist Liszt.

“I’m Olivia Carter.” Olivia Carter hadn’t unlocked her music skills yet, so she looked puzzled and asked, “Why isn’t it called Liangsite, but has the surname Li instead?”

Henry Lee blinked, covered his mouth and thought for a moment, then replied, “Good point.”

Henry Lee: “Then from now on, let’s call it Liangsite.”

Olivia Carter: “Hello, Liangsite.”

Black cat: ?

The black cat seemed unable to tolerate the idle chatter of these human cubs and started to walk home. Halfway there, it tugged at its leash, as if reminding its little owner to hurry up and walk.

Henry Lee pulled the leash and waved goodbye to Olivia Carter: “Xiaoxiao, I’m going home now, bye.”

Olivia Carter: “Bye.”

Watching the boy and the cat leave, Olivia Carter couldn’t help but feel it was the cat walking the human, not the other way around. She wandered around the yard a bit longer, noticed it was getting quite dark, and finally went back inside.

During the Spring Festival, it was the first time in five years that Ethan Carter had returned home, which brought quite a few changes to the family’s life. According to past custom, Grandma, Great-Uncle, and Great-Aunt would return to the old city after New Year’s Eve dinner. The three elders had their own routines and couldn’t spend the holiday with the younger generation.

However, since Ethan Carter had finally come back, no one dared to leave casually, all planning to stay until he left first. The family hosted him eagerly every day, which put a lot of pressure on Ethan Carter, who could only respond politely and gently to everything. It was a strange situation—Ethan Carter felt less like he was home and more like he was staying at a relative’s house, treading on thin ice and not daring to cause any trouble.

No one mentioned the past, as if memories had been easily turned over, leaving only harmony in the family and among people.

Ethan Carter’s most relaxed moments were when he was alone with Olivia Carter. Neither of them had to put on an act, nor did they need to make polite small talk. If the elders noticed Ethan Carter being quiet, it would become a big deal—they would definitely try to chat with him, afraid he’d feel left out.

To avoid this, Ethan Carter wished he could stick to the little one all the time, almost to the point of annoying Olivia Carter. Olivia Carter had now learned a new skill: she could treat her cheap older brother like a puff of air—no matter how much he floated in front of her, she could ignore him completely.

Ethan Carter used Olivia Carter as a tool to escape awkward conversations with the elders, while Olivia Carter treated Ethan Carter as an invisible, colorless, but smelly fart (?).

But Ethan Carter’s overuse of the same tricks made the parents notice something was off. David Carter saw the siblings sitting in the living room in silence, so he tried to warm up the atmosphere, hoping they’d get to know each other better, and suggested, “Xiaoxiao, do you want to show your brother your foreign language lessons?”

David Carter always felt it wasn’t good for them to be so quiet, so he wanted to pick something his children were good at to help break the ice.

Ethan Carter didn’t say anything, pretending to look down at his phone, avoiding eye contact with his father. Olivia Carter was watching her iPad and refused without even looking up: “No.”

David Carter said good-naturedly, “Then do you want to listen to your brother sing? He’s really good at singing and dancing.”