When winter comes in cities in the north, people who suffer from severe cold will always think of the famous saying in Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind": "Winter is coming, can spring be far behind?".
I also think so: after the winter solstice, the weather should get warmer. The coldest day has passed, the longest night is also over, we just need to wait for the spring flowers to bloom.
But this winter made me understand my naivety.
Even though the winter solstice has passed, the cold weather has not subsided. A severe cold wave shattered all hopes that things might get better, and the whole city suddenly turned into an ice cellar of steel and iron.
The one who can truly feel the sadness is Xiao Hei, this pretty stray cat.
It is not surprising that it will freeze to death on the street. For most residents here, it is not unusual to wake up on a cold winter day and see one or two stray animals frozen on the concrete floor.
I think it will be a matter of time before this disabled kitten curls up motionless on the street one day.
Maybe? Its fate was determined from beginning to end.
This black cat named Xiao Hei is only two months old and is still a kitten.
Its disabled right hind leg may have been born, or it may have been broken by a child, and it is bent in a weird arc. It often wanders in garbage dumps, sewers, ditches and other places, and has a
It has an unpleasant smell. Moreover, part of its fur is still bald. I don’t know if it was a scar left by other animals when it was snatching food.
Xiao Hei's condition makes it difficult for him to be adopted.
All in all, this is a little wild cat who has a very difficult life and will die on the street at any time.
The fate waiting for it is to curl up in a ball after death and be thrown into the trash can by the cleaners. Finally, it will be cremated into fertilizer along with many other wastes in the garbage cellar.
Maybe it looks too pitiful? People who meet it in the park always throw some food to it.
Of course I am no exception. I remember once I accidentally threw all my breakfast to it. Although I felt a little pity at the time, after seeing the cat carefully licking the rice grains and meowing at me, I didn’t feel it was a waste.
What.
But my feelings for this cat only ended there. It was basically doomed that the cat would die in the winter, and I was so busy with work every day that I had no time to pay attention to it.
On the winter solstice, many newly planted saplings froze to death that night, and there were also several carcasses of animals that had not survived the longest and coldest night of the year on the frosty road. There were many people standing by.
While watching, I also went up to take a look. There were a few people I was familiar with, but I didn't see the little kitten.
Just because I didn’t see a cat’s body in the morning doesn’t mean it survived. It might freeze to death in an inaccessible corner until it rots and becomes a breeding ground for bacteria in the spring. But when I took a walk at noon, I saw the cat dragging its tail again.
The kitten with two legs was begging for food from passers-by. At that time, I also
I was happy for such a strong little guy and gave it all the fish in my lunch. Seeing it lowering its head and eating happily, I suddenly wondered if I was missing a pet. But I gave up this idea on the spot.
, I am not a person who has the energy to raise pets.
I think the most difficult day has passed safely, and I believe everything will be fine in the spring.
But I found that I was wrong. The sudden cold wave froze the water pipes in the apartment and caused a thick layer of ice to form on the street. When I came up in the morning, I thought: Oh no!
When I went downstairs to take a look at the situation, a group of people were already surrounding a section of the stinking ditch and pointing.
It turned out that there was a cat frozen inside.
I recognized Xiao Hei from the hair loss in several places on his skin. This cat was frozen together with the ditch, turning into an amber-like ice sculpture.
Maybe it was taking a nap in the smelly ditch as usual, picking up edible garbage to eat. But the cold wave came so fast, and when the water started to freeze, it couldn't escape. Its location was like this
Approaching the side edge of the ditch, it was almost able to reach it. However, it held its hind legs, which made it slow down. In fact, what if it could reach it? The height of the side edge of the ditch is that of a normal cat.
Can't jump out either.
So, Xiao Hei died. After surviving the most difficult time, he died on the way to the coming spring.
Others say it is pitiful, but I say it is happy.
Freezing to death is not a painful way to die. On the contrary, when you are close to the end, you will feel unusually warm.
The cold wave came very quickly, and the time for death was also short-lived. He might have been thinking about whether he was leaning against the stove eating dried fish at the end, right? In short, Xiao Hei no longer has to interact with other cats and dogs.
Now that we have enough food, we no longer need to worry about the next winter. It is undoubtedly happiness to be able to die without worries.
But it suddenly occurred to me that the time of this black cat has been fixed in winter forever, and it has always stopped on the road waiting for spring, praying for the arrival of spring with hopes that can never be realized - this is a black cat who lives from birth to death.
The cat who doesn't know what spring is.
Isn't this a kind of sadness?
My life is just like it, there is no so-called spring.
So I am actually not qualified to discuss this life.
A certain day of a certain year and a certain month
Ke Xiaotian's Notes
This is winter, a time when people are reluctant to leave their beds. The sun seems to have delayed its rise because of this. It seems that even time has been frozen into ice by the cold and cannot move.
"Get up! Get up!"
A cold female voice broke the ice-like silence, with an emotionless tone that was harsh rather than charming.
"Open your eyes, Ke Xiaotian!"
This cold voice buzzed close to his ear. Seeing that this posture was going to get worse, he simply started chattering in his ear.
"Ah...ah..."
He opened his mouth slightly, and his dry vocal cords rubbed against the dry air, making his voice very hoarse. After all, his sleep yesterday was not very good. While his body was weak, his eyelids were also extremely heavy, and he could not open them for a while.
"There are still many things waiting for you! If it ends here, how can you sleep peacefully? Get up!"
The voice did not calm down because of his state, but instead scolded him more mercilessly.
"I'm asking for leave today... I guess. Anyway, I don't have to go to the company..."
The air was very cold in the winter morning. When he yawned, a puff of white mist rolled in the air.
"You already have a new job, right? You're a working-class person..."
The owner of the voice did not listen to his excuse and still scolded him in a cold tone.
"Well……"
He finally opened his eyes, but was pierced back by the dazzling light.
"It may rain recently, remember to bring an umbrella..."
After a while, he didn't know where the voice went, but he didn't care.
"Didn't you turn off the lights last night? It was kind of... bad."
Sighing, he turned to look out the window. There were ice flowers on the glass windows, and it was still dark outside. It was clear that the night had not passed, and there were even a few pale stars scattered here and there.
"You still have to... ah!!"
Still turning onto his side, he grabbed his right hand towards the source of the sound beside the bed, only to hear a "bang" sound, and the sound suddenly stopped.
"It's so noisy..."
He was finally clean, and the voice alarm clock that had been noisy for a long time was thrown back to the bedside. The incandescent lamp hanging from the ceiling was hanging above his head, and he immediately became dizzy. Coupled with the slight dizziness in his head caused by insomnia, he had to start again.
Lie down.
"Yesterday...didn't you change into pajamas?"
Only then did he realize that he was still wearing the same brown shirt from yesterday. Because he had not taken it off when he went to bed last night, it had a lot of wrinkles.
"I'll take it to the dry cleaners next time..."
He muttered to himself that there was nothing he could do about sending the shirt to the dry cleaners if it was wrinkled like this.
After his body finally recovered and the light was no longer dazzling, he stood up and took off the coat hanging on the lounge chair. He first put the coat on his shoulders, like a cloak. Then he shook his shoulders twice and shook it.
Open the sleeves and pass your hands through the sleeves.
This strange way of dressing was inherited from his father. After twenty years, the habit has become ingrained in his bones. Muscle memory forces him to be inseparable from his father's shadow in his daily behavior. Of course, he does not need to worry about this.
Worry about the minutiae.
"Brush your teeth and wash your face? Although I have nothing to do today..."
While buttoning his coat, he walked to the desk. Opening the second drawer on the left hand side of the desk, he took out a notepad from between the two folders. Looking through the notepad, he found that the part about today's schedule was exactly what he thought.
Like that - blank.
Indeed, there are no plans for today, and the most important thing came to an end last night.
When he arrived at the narrow bathroom, he turned on the light, quickened his pace, and walked to the wash basin. He turned the knob to the left, and the aluminum alloy faucet slowly poured hot water into the wash basin. It was now 5 o'clock in the morning, and even though the doors and windows were closed tightly, there was no
Even with the heating on, it's still freezing cold.
"Hey...my face still hurts a little."
He faced the mirror and gently wiped the left side of his face with a hot towel. He wanted to see the injuries on his face, but there was a thick fog on the surface of the mirror, and only a blurry figure could be reflected.
Keji, Keji...
His palms with a layer of hard horny surface passed across the cold mirror surface. He stretched out his hand and wiped the mirror surface repeatedly. After a while, large and small water droplets swam around on the smooth mirror surface, and finally a small area of smooth mirror was cleared.
mirror.
"call……"
He breathed a sigh of relief. In the mirror, the injured part of the skin had basically returned to its original state. The red marks scratched by the long nails had faded, leaving only some inconspicuous swellings.
"The girl also has long nails...and even wears nail polish?! Ha, it seems she has indeed grown up."
Yesterday, the girl proved to him with this slap that she was no longer a follower hiding behind his back. Even thinking about it now, he couldn't help but feel emotional.
After thinking about it, the movements of his hands did not stop. After a while, he finished washing. Finally, he patted his cheek in the mirror, then turned and headed to the main hall.
"It's breakfast time now, please have breakfast."
The electronic female voice that had been causing trouble for a long time sounded again, but the set content was already a normal reminder.
He walked back to the bedroom to turn off the alarm clock, and then put this boxy thing on the dining table, so that he would not have to run back to the bedroom the next time the alarm went off. I don’t know who gave this voice alarm clock. It was a bit old, so he
I have almost forgotten about it. But I have to say that this thing is very useful. Compared with ordinary ringtones, this kind of voice alarm clock that can customize the alarm content can "wake up the dreamer" better.
Thanks to this alarm clock, his life remains as regular as ever.
Today's breakfast is not rich, it can be said to be monotonous and meager: only a bowl of white porridge, a boiled egg and some leftovers from the night before. Seeing this meager breakfast, he planned to go downstairs to buy a few steamed buns to enrich it.
If not, you have to have a fried dough stick.
But seeing the cold wind outside and thinking that the nearest convenience store was not open yet, he had no choice but to swallow these things. This was his problem in the first place. Who told him that he didn't prepare the ingredients yesterday? It's time now
Although there was, it was hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. Staring at the empty refrigerator, he decided that he would have to make up for it at noon.
(Diary - In Memory of a Cat)
When winter comes in cities in the north, people who suffer from severe cold will always think of the famous saying in Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind": "Winter is coming, can spring be far behind?".
I also think so: after the winter solstice, the weather should get warmer. The coldest day has passed, the longest night is also over, we just need to wait for the spring flowers to bloom.
But this winter made me understand my naivety.
Even though the winter solstice has passed, the cold weather has not subsided. A severe cold wave shattered all hopes that things might get better, and the whole city suddenly turned into an ice cellar of steel and iron.
The one who can truly feel the sadness is Xiao Hei, this pretty stray cat.
It is not surprising that it will freeze to death on the street. For most residents here, it is not unusual to wake up on a cold winter day and see one or two stray animals frozen on the concrete floor.
I think it will be a matter of time before this disabled kitten curls up motionless on the street one day.
Maybe? Its fate was determined from beginning to end.
This black cat named Xiao Hei is only two months old and is still a kitten.
Its disabled right hind leg may have been born, or it may have been broken by a child, and it is bent in a weird arc. It often wanders in garbage dumps, sewers, ditches and other places, and has a
It has an unpleasant smell. Moreover, part of its fur is still bald. I don’t know if it was a scar left by other animals when it was snatching food.
Xiao Hei's condition makes it difficult for him to be adopted.
All in all, this is a little wild cat who has a very difficult life and will die on the street at any time.
The fate waiting for it is to curl up in a ball after death and be thrown into the trash can by the cleaners. Finally, it will be cremated into fertilizer along with many other wastes in the garbage cellar.
Maybe it looks too pitiful? People who meet it in the park always throw some food to it.