062: Learning as He Goes
Sang Zhao took a shower in the guest room. When he came out, his little orange hair was dripping wet, and steam still clung to his whole body. He towel-dried his hair as he walked toward the master bedroom on the third floor.
There was still the sound of running water coming from the en suite bathroom. Sang Zhao figured Tang Yu hadn’t finished showering yet, so he didn’t rush him and just wandered around the master bedroom.
This master bedroom was a whole suite, with a bedroom, washroom, sitting room, and walk-in closet, all linked together.
After walking one round, he thought, no wonder Tang Yu kept making a fuss before, wanting him to move in.
Even if Tang Yu’s place weren’t a villa, just this one suite alone was more than enough for one person and one cat to live in.
Look, even at the sitting room doorway outside the bedroom, right on the carpet, you could totally sleep a dog there. A Samoyed could move in with all its dog beds and still have room to spare.
Let alone in a house this big!
Wanting his boyfriend to move in was really just human nature. And yet, just earlier, Corn Bean had still been wearing that “my house is so small, I’m so guilty I couldn’t give you the very best” expression. When Sang Zhao thought back to it, he really felt that Tang Yu was just…
A little silly, the kind of silly he didn’t usually see on the surface. As if he were the one being loved by Corn Bean, and so, in Corn Bean’s eyes, he ought to have the very best of everything in the whole world.
A stubborn kind of seriousness. If things didn’t turn out exactly how he’d imagined, he’d feel like he hadn’t done well enough.
When love reached a certain level, the person almost started making himself suffer.
A little cat didn’t understand a human’s mental journey like that. He just always felt that humans had it hard. The love they poured out was clearly precious, but they were always afraid they weren’t doing enough.
Sang Zhao would never leave him. He wouldn’t leave because of a bigger house or a better yard. Those things humans cared about, in a little cat’s eyes, couldn’t compare to those hands standing at the kitchen counter, patiently peeling shrimp for him.
He wandered around for a bit, then took out his phone and sat on the edge of Tang Yu’s bed, playing on his phone for a while.
He scrolled through videos. Usually he liked watching videos of cats and other small animals, so the big data algorithm had him thoroughly memorized. It just kept pushing that kind of stuff to him.
One swipe was cats, the next swipe was dogs, another swipe and it was chubby little birds. Staring at the pale blue feathers of a little bird on the screen, Sang Zhao thought, he should put a little platform outside his own window sometime, sprinkle some millet or something out there and feed the birds.
Then he could get a one-way privacy film, so that he wouldn’t disturb the birds. He could curl up in a cat bed suction-cupped to the window, and treat the glass as his own personal bird-watching TV!
But, his place was pretty high up… could sparrows even fly that high…
He mulled that over for a while, then started swiping again.
Big data pushed him another video, this time a comic clip, a romance between a cat demon and a human.
Hugging his phone, Sang Zhao fell silent.
He always felt like phones were really scary! What on earth was this thing listening to every day? Or had something he searched, something he said on WeChat sold him out as a little cat yaoguai?
At most it could’ve sold out that he really liked cats, right?! So it was pushing cat-and-human romance comics to cat-loving humans? Bad phone!
Still, he honestly tapped in to watch the intro.
It was a rec video, a simple introduction of the plot. The person doing the rec was obviously afraid of being throttled by the algorithm or having the video taken down, so they left a lot of things vague.
Humans listened along all happily, but it left the real little cat completely lost in the fog.
“Long live kitties! I’ve unearthed a new cat-themed gem! Ahem, it’s got an underworld setting with a HE, but also high-H taboo content, dirty talk, plus that ever-popular xx-period plotline. Everyone, I can guarantee with my ten-plus years of watching anime, reading novels, and devouring manga, it’s really delicious!”
Sang Zhao: …Huh? Why did that middle part sound like it suddenly switched to triple-speed foreign language? His English wasn’t good!
“Who else gets it, right, the fact that a cat’s tongue is covered in barbs! That whole ‘cat tongue licking’ play had my blood boiling, stamina doubled, I went out to the track to run a dozen laps in the middle of the night! So exciting! We cat lovers have to read this!”
Sang Zhao: Mm, humans really like being licked by cat tongues, huh.
“Later when the two of them have a fight, the little cat lets out a meow in bed, oh my god it drove me feral! I wanted to meow along with him, come on, learn to meow with me, miu miu miu meow meow meow awoo awoo awoo~”
Sang Zhao: Got it! I’ve memorized all of it, all secretly written down!
He actually really wanted to read this comic, so he went to the comments to find out how to read it. With painstaking character recognition and guessing at pronunciations, he scrolled for a long time before he finally found someone willing to tell people which site it was serialized on.
Of course, you still had to slither into the DMs like a little snake, private, private, private.
Sang Zhao sent a private message to ask, but after waiting for a while, there was still no reply. Made sense. With so many people DM-ing, it’d be impossible to reply to him right away.
With his mind stuck on that, he didn’t feel like scrolling anymore. His head was full of the two moves he’d just learned.
How convenient! The world really was good to little cats. It knew little cats didn’t have any experience, so it had kindly rushed two moves over to teach him.
Thinking about cat tongues and cat meows, Sang Zhao turned around and noticed there really was a popcorn machine sitting on Tang Yu’s bedside table.
A big transparent rectangle, with a small cylinder inside connected to a power cord, all set on the nightstand.
Even though this little cat had only been a person for a bit over three months and didn’t have much “being human” experience, he still knew that a popcorn machine like the ones in movie theaters appearing in a bedroom was very strange.
He sat there, hesitating.
So there was a popcorn machine. Then the “popcorn” Tang Yu had mentioned really was popcorn. So what did the “shower” stand for? Were they actually supposed to shower or not?
Now he was confused.
He half-squatted by the nightstand, leaning on it as he studied the popcorn machine.
The sound of running water from the bathroom stopped. After a bit of rustling, he heard the door open and footsteps coming toward him from behind.
There was steam in Tang Yu’s breathing. He came out of the bathroom and saw Sang Zhao crouched beside his bed, wearing the plaid pajamas he’d prepared for him earlier, his orange hair still damp.
He was just squatting there, his gaze never even turning back, just focused on the popcorn machine. From Tang Yu’s angle, all he could see was his back.
But Tang Yu’s heart was already pounding, as if his blood had started flowing backwards, every nerve in his brain firing off a sharper heartbeat.
His breathing turned fast, and he had to stand there taking slow, deep breaths to steady himself. But Sang Zhao was wearing the pajamas he’d picked, in his bedroom, right beside his bed. That really was… a bit much.
Even if nothing had happened yet, he already felt happy.
Without looking back, still staring at the popcorn machine, Sang Zhao could sense the footsteps behind him getting closer and closer. Until Tang Yu’s fingertips brushed through his hair, then rubbed the top of his head.
He was like a little cat being petted along its fur. He let Tang Yu pet him very cooperatively, not struggling at all.
There was none of that “you’re not allowed to touch my hair” sulking. On the contrary, he looked delighted. Tang Yu couldn’t help but chuckle, helping him smooth his hair. Strands twined around his fingertips, a blazing golden orange, bright and dazzling.
Sang Zhao just let him touch. It made the back of his neck tingle and go numb, so comfortable that he almost started purring on the spot.
Tang Yu stared at his hair. He’d long since gotten used to seeing that little orange fluff on Sang Zhao’s head, but this was his first time so close, actually combing through it strand by strand with his fingers.
And only at this distance could Tang Yu make out things he never saw clearly from afar.
His tone was clearly curious: “How come there isn’t even a little bit of dark roots?”
Using his fingers, he parted Sang Zhao’s hair and peered closer, realizing that this head of little orange hair really was orange from top to bottom.
He was looking this carefully, and still he couldn’t see a single hint of black roots. From tip to root, every bit of it was orange, that bright, blazing gold.
Especially… Tang Yu wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. The longer he looked, the more it seemed like it wasn’t just one shade of orange. Like if you flipped the hair and checked inside, there were faint stripes, some parts deeper, some lighter.
Dyed hair could look like this? At first glance it was fully orange, but on closer inspection it was deep orange and, tucked between the strands, even deeper orange?
What kind of red tabby stripes were these supposed to be? No human styled their hair like that.
Tang Yu fell into doubt, but didn’t voice it directly. Instead, he first seized on the no-roots issue to ask,
“You dyed it that thoroughly?” Tang Yu said. “Not even a little bit of dark roots.”
Sang Zhao made a vague noise, brushing him off. “Yeah…”
Tang Yu still wasn’t convinced and kept flipping through his hair, but he really couldn’t find even a speck of black.
He bent down, gathered some of Sang Zhao’s hair, and brought it to the tip of his nose to sniff.
It smelled like fruity shampoo, a light, airy scent, not overly thick or sugary, lingering and gentle. There was absolutely none of that sharp dye smell. Tang Yu inhaled carefully several times, but still didn’t catch any hint of dye chemicals.
Feeling embarrassed, Sang Zhao turned his head and knocked him lightly. “Gege, you’re sniffing me.”
Tang Yu fell silent, let go of his hair, tugged at his own pajama top, and cleared his throat.
He stared at Sang Zhao’s face, his features especially bright and striking here in the dim room, beside the bed.
Tang Yu couldn’t control the sudden pounding of his heart, his fingertips trembling. He looked away and turned to leave. “I’m going to get something.”
Oh, maybe he’s going to get that contracep something, Sang Zhao thought. Wow, Corn Bean is really afraid of getting pregnant.
He clearly doesn’t even have that function. What’s he so scared of? Sang Zhao grumbled to himself.
But instead of a condom, Tang Yu came back holding a bottle of oil and a bag of popcorn kernels.
Then he plopped down right beside Sang Zhao, leaning on the nightstand with him, both of them staring at the machine together.
He unscrewed the lid, poured a bit of oil inside, then added a handful of popcorn kernels. After that he switched on the power, and he and Sang Zhao watched the machine together.
“Corn Bean,” Sang Zhao called once. He himself wasn’t sure if he was calling Tang Yu, or the kernels that Tang Yu had just poured in.
Tang Yu went with the second interpretation and corrected him: “They’re corn kernels.”
Sang Zhao ignored that. He sniffed, catching the smell of caramel quickly spreading through the air.
What they’d poured in were caramel-flavored popcorn kernels, so of course what came out would be caramel popcorn. This was the same kind of machine movie theaters used, high-powered and fast. In less than a minute, the smell had already bloomed.
Sang Zhao sniffed hard twice. Ever since he’d become human, this little cat had developed a real sweet tooth. He was instantly hooked by the smell.
He couldn’t get enough. Right this instant, he wished he could press his whole face up against the glass and stare at the popping inside.
“I put this in the bedroom because I knew you’d definitely like watching it,” Tang Yu said leisurely, sitting just off to the side instead of crowding in.
He sounded like everything was going exactly according to plan, clearly very pleased with himself.
It was that kind of “hmph, got you right where I wanted you” tone, full of confidence.
Maybe inviting your lover into your bedroom to watch a movie-theater popcorn machine pop popcorn was a ridiculous, absurd thing to do.
But Tang Yu knew that Sang Zhao liked it, and Sang Zhao truly did like it.
So he’d do it for him. He sat behind Sang Zhao, turning his head to watch him press both hands to the glass, face practically plastered against it, eyes wide and unblinking as he stared inside.
Tang Yu’s heart was as soft as cotton candy, stretchy and sticky, sweet like molten sugar.
Sang Zhao stared into the machine. He watched the little inner cylinder filled with oil and kernels. As the caramel smell grew stronger, the kernels in the center started popping, blooming into puffed clouds of corn.
At first it was just one or two. Then three or four. Soon the machine got hotter, every kernel in the cylinder turning into popcorn. When the cylinder couldn’t hold them anymore and kept heating, the popcorn burst out, clattering against the glass walls of the clear outer case.
And through that glass, they hit right in front of Sang Zhao’s eyes, where his face was pressed to the side.
He watched, entranced.
In that instant, those bits of popcorn jumping in the box were like fireworks blooming in the night, beautiful beyond words.
Popcorn sparkling like starlight, caramel scent filling the whole room. Sang Zhao turned to look at Tang Yu. Tang Yu sat behind him, his gaze so gentle it seemed like water could drip out of it, quietly watching him.
Sang Zhao raised his hand and caught Tang Yu’s wrist. Under Tang Yu’s surprised gaze, he tugged him closer so they could watch the popcorn fireworks together.
“Smells so good,” Tang Yu said. He could smell the caramel, and up close, the scent of Sang Zhao’s body wash. It was hard to say whether he meant the popcorn or Sang Zhao.
He looked back at the popcorn, then at Sang Zhao’s profile. His gaze stopped there. He didn’t look at the popping in the box anymore and just stared at Sang Zhao.
“You’re so pretty,” he said.
Sang Zhao looked back at him. Their eyes met, and it was only natural that they leaned in for a light kiss in front of those popcorn fireworks.
Their breaths brushed together, soft and shallow. Then the kisses grew hungrier.
Sang Zhao was always greedy. If there was something to eat, he’d be the first to happily gobble it down.
But right now, he was holding Tang Yu’s jaw, stealing his breath. They traded a kiss, and Tang Yu still managed to ask,
“Aren’t you going to eat the popcorn?”
The popcorn was done, the caramel smell thick in the room.
Grabbing his arm, Sang Zhao said, “Let’s not eat the popcorn made from corn kernels yet. I want to eat the popcorn made from Corn Bean first.”
He was spouting nonsense, but Tang Yu indulged him. Even though his ears reddened and his heart filled with embarrassment, his movements were gentle and steady. He pulled Sang Zhao into his arms, and together they tumbled onto the bed.
They kissed there for a while. Clinging to Tang Yu, Sang Zhao wished he could roll all over him.
Tang Yu kissed back while his own hands worked at the buttons of his pajama top. He inwardly cursed himself for having no brain. Why had he bought button-up pajama shirts?!
Sure they looked good, but were such a hassle. He fumbled forever before he finally got three buttons undone, barely exposing his chest.
Sang Zhao didn’t know what he was doing, hadn’t done any homework, and wasn’t taking off his clothes. Purely on dumb determination, he just clung to Tang Yu and kissed him, all while the caramel scent hung in the air.
In no time at all, the hair tie in Tang Yu’s hair had disappeared to who-knows-where.
Without the tie, his hair fell loose. It was already a bit long. Spread out over the bed now, it looked like silk.
When Sang Zhao leaned closer, Tang Yu let out a soft sound. “Baby, you’re lying on my hair.”
Sang Zhao froze.
Tang Yu glanced at him and saw his face red as he held himself up, clearly thinking who-knows-what.
“What’s wrong?” Tang Yu asked.
Sang Zhao didn’t know what was wrong either. But that one sentence “Baby, you’re lying on my hair” had made his heart twitch several times. He couldn’t even suppress the smile at the corners of his lips.
“I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. He buried his face in the crook of Tang Yu’s neck and gave it a lick. “Gege’s words just now sounded really nice. I don’t even know why… but is it spring right now?”
Tang Yu was baffled. “It’s summer, isn’t it? Though autumn did just start, so I guess it’s autumn?”
Sang Zhao nodded. His fluffy hair rubbing at Tang Yu’s neck made it itch.
Still confused but full of confidence, he asked, “It’s not spring? Then how come I’m hard?”
Tang Yu opened his mouth but nothing came out.
Excuse me?? What kind of question was that?!
They’d both showered already and been kissing and touching in bed for quite a while. Even if it were thirty below in winter, a corpse could get hard by now. How was that strange? Why even ask! What did it have to do with spring!
Tang Yu took a deep breath and let out a half-exasperated laugh. “What, is that thing of yours seasonal or something?”
Sang Zhao clammed up. Afraid of getting caught out as a little cat, he stopped talking and busied himself with kissing Yumi Dou.
But he still remembered the two tricks he’d just learned! Ha! He’d learned them especially for this, and now he was going to use them!
When Tang Yu was already dizzy with desire, Sang Zhao secretly changed his tongue back to a cat’s tongue and tugged open his shirt, licking down his chest.
Tang Yu had been floating in a haze, and then wham, he sobered up instantly.
He yelled, “What the hell is that!!”
What was going on here? Weren’t they supposed to be having sex? Who’d brought out sandpaper and started exfoliating him instead?!
Under Tang Yu’s shaken stare, Sang Zhao looked up at the ceiling guiltily and hurried to change his tongue back. His mood dimmed. “…Oh. If you don’t like it, then forget it.”
So the trick they taught online wasn’t that good after all! Not only did he not get praised, he got a screech instead.
Sang Zhao had thought Corn Bean’s breathy little moans sounded great, but that terrified scream just now really didn’t.
Clearly that move wasn’t going to work.
So after that, they just followed their instincts, exploring one another. It didn’t matter that they had no experience. When it came to this, your lover really was your best teacher.
Tang Yu was a top student to begin with. Not only had he done his preview, his learning speed was also very fast. Testing, twining together, the encouragement in his lover’s gaze was the best reward.
Coming apart in love, then thinking and learning even as they broke apart again.
Sang Zhao felt like it was time to use the second move he’d learned earlier. He cleared his throat and, right by Tang Yu’s ear, next to the tears that had leaked from sheer sensation, he let out a clear, round little, “Meow.”
Tang Yu laughed out loud. “Don’t make me laugh, I’m nervous.”
Now he was unhappy.
How had both attempts failed! Wow, Yumi Dou, you’re so hard to please!
He scratched him in indignation, hand raking over Tang Yu’s body while Tang Yu trembled, and grumbled, “…I wasn’t trying to make you laugh. I heard this was very sexy, that’s why I meowed.”
Tang Yu was wonderfully gentle. He wrapped an arm around his back and leaned up to give him a deep kiss.
“What’s sexy about meowing in bed? You’re not allowed to learn nonsense,” he scolded.
And that was that. Both of the moves Sang Zhao had just learned turned out to be duds. He’d never liked studying in the first place. Now he went straight into rebellion.
Study? Study my ass! He tossed every thought of “learning” aside and focused on playing with Corn Bean.
As expected of a cat yaoguai, the little cat kept going until past four in the morning before he finally stopped. Because at that point, he wanted popcorn.
“It’s probably cold already,” Sang Zhao said, leaning over to tap the machine. The popcorn inside was completely cold now, even the caramel smell had faded.
Tang Yu told him to go shower with him. “Don’t fuss with that, come on and rest. Once you wake up I’ll make you another batch.”
Sang Zhao gave a grudging little “oh” and reluctantly settled down to sleep.
It wasn’t their first time sleeping in the same bed. They’d slept together once before, so he considered them experienced. Mainly, he didn’t have any issue with unfamiliar beds. He patted the pillow, tugged a bit of Tang Yu’s blanket over, lay down, and fell asleep just like that.
Propped up on one arm, Tang Yu watched him for a while, then pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips.
“Good night,” he said sweetly. “My kind of strange, but really adorable… boyfriend.”
Because it was Saturday and they had nothing else to do, they could sleep straight through to the afternoon.
When Tang Yu woke up, he was still a little dazed. He stared at the ceiling in a daze for a bit before remembering what had happened before.
He turned his head, wanting his first sight to be his boyfriend’s beautiful face… only to find the space beside him empty.
He hesitated for a moment, his senses gradually returning. Besides the soreness in his body, there was also a strange sensation that was impossible to ignore.
His head felt weirdly itchy.
Tang Yu raised a hand and touched his head and froze. There was a cat on his head.
He shot up in shock, sitting on the bed and staring at the cat. Then he realized, wait, it wasn’t a stranger. This was a very familiar cat.
“Little Orange Bean?” he said in disbelief.
This was his house. This was Sang Zhao’s cat. But Sang Zhao hadn’t brought the cat over yesterday, so…
The red-tabby little orange cat was fast asleep, purring away like a motorcycle or tractor. Even so, when he heard Tang Yu call him, he still answered with a rounded “meow,” just to show he’d heard.
Hearing that meow, Tang Yu thought of the one Sang Zhao had tried out in bed last night.
Orange roots, orange fur, orange cat ears, a slightly dopey little head… Piece by piece, it all added up, and Tang Yu finally let out a heavy sigh.
He sighed again, long and slow. “…So that’s how it is.”
Feeling complicated, he reached over to pinch the little cat’s hind leg and dragged him off the pillow to lie at his side.
The little cat slept on, not the slightest inclination to wake up.
Tang Yu stared at him for a while, then pulled the blanket up over him.
Ever since he was little, Tang Yu had never had much luck with animals. Cats didn’t like him, either. But right now, he suddenly realized: he had a cat. And a boyfriend.
Damn. How was this not terrifyingly sweet…
For someone timid by nature, he found that, right now, he didn’t feel all that scared.
On the contrary, he started seriously thinking… well then, with a little cat boyfriend, if this didn’t count as winning at life, what would?
Author’s Note:
Waaah, I didn’t adjust the update time, sob sob (sigh).
Okay, we’ll leave it like this for now. Your helpless Juanjuan qaq
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