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Chapter 1.1
In the alleys of Nancheng's shantytown, the biting winter wind whistled through the narrow walls.
(Shanty towns are slums on the outskirts of many cities)
Lu Yu'an moved his numb hand and added the final stroke to the painting.
This painting had been delayed for a long time. In the meticulous gongbi style, a woman in a white cheongsam embraced two children in her arms. With just a few strokes, the woman lowered her eyes, exuding a gentle warmth on the paper, while the children in her arms were innocent and adorable.
Since being diagnosed with terminal gastric cancer, he had apologized and withdrawn all his unfinished paintings.
The doctors had been clear with him: it had already metastasized, and there was no point in treatment.
Only this painting remained. He had started and stopped, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and repaired it.
This painting was different. It was the unfinished work of his mother.
It was also going to be the only and final piece they would create together.
To be honest, he didn't do a good job of completing it. He hadn't received proper training in painting. He had only learned sporadically from a peculiar neighbor during his childhood. Later, his right hand was injured, and even though he had struggled through rehabilitation with determination, its function never fully recovered. Painting was never an easy task for him, and especially now, after the diagnosis of gastric cancer, his condition was deteriorating.
And repairing a painting was far more difficult than starting a new one.
But he managed to do it.
The young man rarely showed a faint smile, his features naturally handsome with a touch of fierceness. There was a hideous scar about the width of a thumb between his eyebrows. He wasn't fond of smiling and always stood apart with an unruly disposition. His temperament exuded aggression, making people either find him difficult to approach and keep their distance or consider him wanton and violent, an irredeemable deviant.
However, with this smile, the hostility that clung to him seemed inexplicably diluted. Even on the excessively gaunt cheeks of the young man, there was a fragile hint of gentleness.
It was the coldest time of winter now.
The room was only slightly warmer than the outside.
The old wooden house didn't provide much insulation, and Lu Yu'an was wrapped in layers, making him look somewhat bulky. Yet, his fingertips still felt numb from the cold.
The outdated electrical wiring in the shantytown couldn't handle the power consumption of air conditioning or other heating devices. It was easy to trip the circuit and posed a safety hazard, so the landlord strictly prohibited their use.
The neighboring couple in the shared building often used high-power devices, almost causing a fire. The girl who lived with them got into an argument with the foul-mouthed couple, but she couldn't win against them. Instead, the man in the couple threatened her, leaving her sitting by the door, teary-eyed and aggrieved. At that time, Lu Yu'an's condition wasn't as severe as it is now. He found an opportunity to corner the man in the alley, and since then, that family treated the young girl with much more courtesy.
"Meow..." A tiny meow sounded from outside the weathered glass window, with its brown-red paint peeling off.
Through the glass, an orange cat was covered in a thin layer of snow, staring at the window with big almond-shaped eyes, foolishly rubbing against it.
"Click." Lu Yu'an had just opened a crack in the old wooden window when the orange cat couldn't wait and squeezed its way in. It shook off the snow from its body, crouched on the windowsill, and curled its front paws with its tail, affectionately rubbing against Lu Yu'an's palm.
However, Lu Yu'an furrowed his brow and pushed the orange cat away a bit.
This orange cat belonged to the previous tenant, who had let it roam freely and neglected it after moving out.
Not only was the orange cat far from cute, it was arguably one of the ugliest cats Lu Yu'an had ever seen. It had a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, and it wasn't good at fighting. It either had injured legs from being bitten by other cats or scratched-up facial markings. It carried injuries all year round, making it both ugly and bald.
Its intelligence was lacking as well.
It didn't even notice when there was a change in residents in the house.
Being close to stray cats outside wasn't a good thing because they never knew if the person approaching them was a human or a devil.
Lu Yu'an didn't want to give it the wrong impression, so he always pushed the little orange cat away.
But each time, the orange cat persistently approached, rubbing its dirty body against Lu Yu'an's clothes, making coquettish sounds to please him, oblivious to how it only accentuated its pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks.
If it had a somewhat delicate appearance when not acting spoiled, when it did, it became excessively greasy.
"You're really foolish," Lu Yu'an couldn't help but mutter softly.
After he dies, what will happen to it? What will the next tenant be like? What if the stupid cat still approaches and what should be done?
It's both foolish and ugly, and it's not even good at being cute. How can it deceive the next sucker?
It can't even fight. Lu Yu'an has seen it a few times in the nearby alley, and it seems that even its own kind despises it. It is always chased and beaten by different groups of cats, completely defenseless, only able to cry out in pain.
A rare look of concern appeared in Lu Yu'an's eyes.
Who will take care of the clown cat after he dies?
He has thought about the "what if" scenarios, but he never dared to hope for the kindness of fate.
His twenty years of life have been like a cruel joke of fate, divided into two completely different parts.
Before the age of five, he was the long-awaited youngest child of the Lu family, a little tyrant who ruled the house. His parents were loving, his older brother cared for him, and he was showered with love and adoration. Fuzzy memories from long ago are filled with toys scattered around the house, and various nameless snacks and cakes.
But everything took a sharp turn when he was five years old. He accidentally fell into the water, narrowly escaping death, and drifted downstream. He was picked up by a childless couple who, seeing his young age and good health, had ulterior motives and wanted to raise him as their own. At first, those people had some patience with him and were willing to indulge his stubbornness, until they tried to make him call them "mom and dad."
Because of his young age and hazy memories, he couldn't remember many things clearly, but he was absolutely certain that those people were not his parents. He vaguely remembered his mother's gentle voice and his father's strong and reliable back, and he always insisted that those people were not his mom and dad.
Even when everyone around him told him that they were his real parents, he never wavered.
The impatient family grew tired of him, seeing him as a useless burden who couldn't be thrown away. They locked him up in a storage room for a long time.
But despite his spoiled nature, he had a strong will. He refused to change his words no matter what.
The pitch-black and icy storage room left a deep impression in his memory.
The cramped space had only one window that was so high he had to tilt his head back to see it. That was the only source of light in the room.
It happened to be a snowy day, and the cold from the cement floor stole away all the warmth from his body. The sunlight shining through the glass window created small squares of warmth on the cold cement floor, and he tried to curl up in that small patch of sunlight, like a stray puppy.
He was actually quite delicate and couldn't stand the cold or pain.
But he refused to change his words. He kept shivering and repeating in his mind that his mom was the gentlest mom and his dad was an invincible hero, and that his dad would come to save him soon.
He just needed to hold on a little longer.
He curled up, holding onto his own icy cold body, and kept staring at the twisted branches of a tree outside the window. He tried to deceive himself, pretending that nothing had happened, and that in the next second, his parents would lovingly pick him up.
But unfortunately, nothing happened.
There was only the coldness that seemed to freeze his blood inch by inch.
But in the end, his consciousness became blurred.
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Poor baby my heart hurts and it's only the first chapter
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