Berry Muffins

Chapter 1 The Boy and the Cat

01

The pouring rain almost blurred the sight in front of him, and Tao Lan walked through the crowd with an old light blue umbrella.The black and white sports school uniform on his body was a bit too big, which made him look extraordinarily thin.

Gusts of evil wind made the sudden heavy rain messy and disorderly. Tao Lan's whole body, except his face, seemed uncomfortable as if he was running through the water.

But across a wide road, on one side is the dilapidated and small old town, and on the other side are rows of shops and beautiful commercial houses.

Walking through a narrow alley with dark lights, you will arrive at the community where Tao Lan lives. There are some bright yellow and dark green trash cans piled up along the side, but the garbage sorting work here is not done well.

"Meow..."

Some thin and intermittent meowing continued to sound nearby.

The sound was on the left, so Tao Lan could hear it.

Tao Lan hesitated and stopped.The rain was too heavy, and it was really not the right choice to stop so hastily.

But he still squatted down slowly, and shouted softly into the gap between the two trash cans.

He imitated the kitten's onomatopoeia: "Meow..."

A dirty little orange cat came out slowly with trembling steps.

Tao Lan pursed his lower lip, and stretched out his hand in the direction of the cat.

Tao Lan shook the wet umbrella vigorously outside the door of her aunt's house, leaving all the excess raindrops on the umbrella surface on the concrete floor outside, and then opened the umbrella outside.

In fact, Tao Lan was hesitant to bring the kitten back along the way. My uncle never liked these small animals, and he didn't agree with his cousin who wanted to raise a Corgi so much.

But he couldn't ask Tao Lan to abandon this poor kitten.

Holding the dirty little orange cat in her arms, Tao Lan took out the key from her pocket and opened the door.

Today is Saturday, the school does not provide lunch, he always goes back to his aunt's house for dinner.

Uncle Luo Feng was really angry when he saw the kitten in Tao Lan's arms, blushing and slapping the table with a thick neck, cursing and getting out.

I don't know if I'm yelling at Kitten, Tao Lan, or both.

Cousin Luo Xiang routinely turns a blind eye and does not hear, while aunt Tao Hong routinely comes up to persuade and appease uncle's emotions.

Tao Lan pursed her pale lips, and her beautiful round eyes were a little listless: "I will put the kitten in the attic, and I will go to the owner immediately, and I will send it away when I find it."

In the end, he didn't even eat lunch, and went straight to the bathroom with the kitten.The school uniform on his body had already become dirty and wet, so he took off his clothes and threw them into the laundry basket in the bathroom.

He did the laundry anyway.

After the kitten was washed, Tao Lan slowly dried it with a hair dryer, gradually becoming fragrant and soft.

It was only at this time that Tao Lan realized that the little orange cat he had rescued was actually a very beautiful milky white short-legged cat. He thought it was a little native cat just now.

There is still a small loose collar hanging around the cat's neck, and the word "bean" is printed on the collar.

Tao Lan stretched out his fingers to scratch the kitten's round chin, and looked at it curiously: "Douzi?"

"Meow?" Douzi tilted his head cutely, and meowed in an unclear way.

"Did you run away by yourself?" Tao Lan smiled and rubbed Rua Maomao's belly, knowing that the kitten could not give him an answer but still talking to himself.

Tao Lan put the cat on a cushion as a temporary cat litter, tapped the cat's nose and said, "Be good, I'll get you something to eat."

Tao Lan has no experience in raising pets. After searching the Internet, he found that cats can eat boiled eggs, and then he went down the escalator and asked his aunt to cook an egg for him.

Unexpectedly, he was seen by his uncle who was sitting on the sofa watching TV. He immediately put on a serious face and scolded people: "Are the eggs for wild cats? If they want to eat them, they will be deducted from your breakfast. Every day, they know how to waste my house." food."

Tao Lan pursed his lips and was unwilling to refute anything. He took the egg boiled for him by his aunt and thanked him softly.

Douzi is very well-behaved, and the way he eats is also very well-behaved.Tao Lan took a photo and a short video of Douzi and posted it on Weibo to find the owner, then ruaed its back, planning to go to a nearby pet hospital to buy some cat food later.

Tao Lan hugged the pillow to the small wooden bed, and sat down at the old wooden desk to start doing homework.

The light in the attic was too harsh, so a layer of curtains that did not block the light was installed to slightly block the ultraviolet rays.

All Tao Lan's things are stored in this attic of less than five square meters.A small wooden bed, a wooden table and a wooden chair were all prepared by my aunt.The table is full of books, and there are also many books in the plastic box under the table.As for the clothes and so on, they are all put in a big suitcase, which is piled up by the window.

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What Tao Lan dislikes the most is when people stand on his right and talk to him.

He is deaf in his right ear, and he doesn't like wearing hearing aids most of the time, for fear of being rejected by his peers, as if stuck in an endless loop.

He could have heard voices normally.

When he was in elementary school, his parents quarreled violently but accidentally injured him, which caused Tao Lan to fall down the stairs accidentally, leaving him with the sequelae of deafness in his right ear ever since.

Whether the relationship between parents is good or not is actually best known to children in their hearts.

Tao Lan is also very good at observing words and expressions. Even if his ears are injured, he tries hard to be a good boy who works hard in front of him. He sees many things but treats them as if he didn't see them. He tries his best to help his parents maintain the superficial peace and precarious marriage.

Maybe they wanted to divorce a long time ago, but they just didn't grasp the time well, and procrastinating over and over again brought their lives to a dead end.

When Tao Lan was in the third year of junior high school, his father died in a car accident. Not long after, his mother also chose to leave, leaving Tao Lan to his elderly grandmother.

In fact, Tao Lan also understands that maybe it is because he is more like a stumbling block to his mother as a disabled person, and it may be difficult to remarry with him as a drag.

During that period of time, Tao Lan was shrouded in gloom and became reticent. Even the studies he had been insisting on had been wasted a lot.

It can be said that his grades plummeted, and his performance in the final high school entrance examination was mediocre, and he only went to a very ordinary high school.

In the No. [-] Middle School of S City, the teachers are mediocre, the quality of the students is mediocre, and even the school management is loose.

The only advantage is that it is very close to Tao Lan's house and there is no need to live on campus, and there is a famous university S University near No. [-] Middle School.

Grandma took Tao Lan over to take care of her, and because she felt distressed, she always blatantly favored her.

Tao Lan's mother gave him a certain amount of child support, which was stored in a card, and the money would be transferred one after another every month.

At least Tao Lan, who had been in a daze for the whole third year of junior high school, finally woke up, and decided to treat his high school life well and those who loved him well.

After all, he still has some background as a top student, picked up the studies that had been neglected for a long time, and seemed a bit out of place in this idle high school with a very ordinary learning atmosphere.

Later, the mother immigrated with her new husband, and after remitting the last sum of money to Tao Lan, she completely disappeared from Tao Lan's life.

Grandma was very kind to Tao Lan, and the time when she lived with her was also the time that Tao Lan missed and cherished the most.

Even though the little house has only one bedroom and he can only sleep on the folding bed in the living room, he feels very happy.

But grandma is getting old, and her health is not very good, and she has some big and small problems.

When Tao Lan was a sophomore in high school, her grandma passed away due to illness. In fact, her grandma had already had a premonition before that, otherwise she would not have withdrawn a sum of money and remitted it to Tao Lan's card, saying that it was reserved for Lan Lan to go to college.

Tao Lan's aunt Tao Hong and uncle Luo Feng organized grandma's funeral, and because of grandma's request, they also assumed the responsibility of taking care of Tao Lan.

Uncle quickly sold grandma's old house and cashed in a sum of money, saying it was for my cousin's college tuition and living expenses.

My cousin did well in the college entrance examination and was admitted to a three universities in the province with expensive tuition fees.

In this way, Tao Lan moved into her aunt's house with a small amount of luggage.

Although my aunt's house is also in the old town, it is much closer to the No. [-] Middle School than my grandmother's place, and Tao Lan doesn't have to get up early in the morning to catch the bus as before.

The house is not too big, with a layout of three bedrooms and one living room, but there are two children in the family. If the aunt's house was not on the top floor, Tao Lan might have to settle on the balcony.

Cousin Roger has a desktop computer in his room, but Tao Lan doesn't go to his bedroom.

Most of the information that Tao Lan needed to look up online was resolved with his mobile phone, and if it really didn't work, he went to a small Internet cafe nearby.

The money left to Tao Lan is just that, how much he uses, and he saves all the money in the card in Alipay, because Tao Lan once witnessed his uncle rummaging through his things, and I don’t know what he was looking for...

Tao Lan eats too little. She eats a boiled egg at her aunt’s house for breakfast, and then goes to a nearby convenience store to buy a bottle of milk. Lunch and dinner are all taken care of at school. Perhaps because of malnutrition, she looks too thin. He is not tall either.

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After Tao Lan finished her homework, she went to buy cat food and came back to feed beans.

The cat-hunting announcement posted on Weibo was quickly answered. Someone posted a picture of a cat under that Weibo. Tao Lan squinted his eyes and looked at it for a while, feeling a bit like the beans he picked up. When he saw it Only after the collar on the cat's neck can I be sure.

Tao Lan sent a private letter to the blogger, and the two finally added WeChat to each other.After the two parties confirmed the appearance of the cat, Tao Lan confirmed that this boy was the owner of Douzi.

They also exchanged phone numbers with each other. Unexpectedly, the owner of the number called them soon.Tao Lan bit her lower lip and hesitated for a while before picking it up, habitually placing it by her left ear.

"Hello." The other party was also a boy, and his voice was a little low, nice and a bit sullen.

Tao Lan gave a soft ah, and responded somewhat awkwardly: "...Hello."

He is always used to speaking slowly, because his soft juvenile voice has been prejudiced by many boys.