Rebirth: Once Again With You

"Come here, boys and girls. Say hello to our first customer today!" Shao Jingfei crouched down while opening his arms wide.

Li Chunhua was stunned when she saw those cats obediently walking toward him while meowing. She was even more surprised when she noticed the goofy smile on his face as the cats rubbed their body on him.

"Okay, okay. Everyone will get a pat from me."

Truth to be said, Li Chunhua had never seen so many cats in the same place like this before. She reckoned about a dozen cats were running around him, and he enjoyed their attention.

All of them seemed to be cats that could easily be found on the street, and few walked limply too, as though they were injured before.

The cafe manager must have loved cats so much if he had adopted so many cats and even made a cafe for that.

"Why are you just standing there? They are really warm and fluffy. Here, hold one." Shao Jingfei stood up while cradling a clean white kitten in his hand before shoving it into Li Chunhua's hand.

"H-Hey, wait!" Li Chunhua yelped in a panic because this was her first time holding a cat in her arms.

"Haha, no worries. She is very docile and friendly to strangers." Shao Jingfei chuckled.

"That's not the point! You can't just shove a living being into another person's hand like that so suddenly. What if I dropped the cat?"

"Oh? You are more caring than I thought. You look like a spoiled princess from a wealthy family, so I expected you to be more disgusted." Shao Jingfei rubbed his chin with an approving look, which irritated her.

"How rude. I don't remember ever saying I dislike cats before!"

"Haha, yeah, you sure are. If it's like that, then I don't have to worry about you." Shao Jingfei had a mischievous glint in his eyes, and Li Chunhua suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

She jumped a bit when he moved closer and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm sure your boredom will go away after you play with these children."

There was something unsettling about his smile that made Li Chunhua shudder. Her intuition was proven right because in the next second, dozens of cats suddenly jumped up at her simultaneously, as though she was a cornered rat and they were going to eat her.

"Eeek!!!" Li Chunhua yelped as she tried to duck, but the few cats who caught her hips made her lose her balance. She fell unceremoniously on her butts while the cats climbed on top of her, making her even more flustered.

"W-what happened to them? Hey cats, where do you think you are touching me?!"

Shao Jingfei laughed hard, seeing Li Chunhua suffer like that. "Don't you want to kill your boredom? Now let the cats kill it for you."

"Shao Jingfei! You are going to regret this!" Li Chunhua shouted at him angrily.

"Oh? So you do actually remember my name. It only takes a cat's army to make you call me by my name. Not bad, not bad at all."

Li Chunhua tried to get up, but these cats were heavier than they looked from outside. Left with no other choice, she could only reach out her hand to the young man. "Help me! How can you just watch me getting attacked like this?"

"I'll help you if you promise to call me by my name from now on. Like seriously, who do you think you are calling other people by 'you' or 'hey'? I'm not a cat, you know?"

Li Chunhua couldn't believe he did this just for that reason. But then again, he had always been an obnoxious guy from the start. She should have expected this!

"I get it, I get it! I won't call you like that anymore, so hurry and get them off of me!"

"Hmm? I can't hear you. There is a girl who doesn't seem to know the situation well here."

Li Chunhua gritted her teeth and swore she would get back at him someday.

"Please, Shao Jingfei. Help me!"

Shao Jingfei chuckled as he clasped Li Chunhua's hand and pulled her up in one swift motion. The way he did it looked so effortless, which took her aback.

"That's better. You have cleared your first lesson."

Next, he pulled out something like a toy from his pocket and threw it to the other side of the room. "You want this? Then get it!"

All cats, including the kitten in Li Chunhua's arm, immediately dashed, chasing the object he had just thrown. Thanks to that, Li Chunhua could finally have some space to breathe.

"What is that? The thing you just threw?"

"It's a cat toy with a catnip smell. Cats are crazy about them."

Li Chunhua's brain worked in a split second. She turned her head to glance at her shoulder suspiciously. "Don't tell me you rubbed some catnip on my shoulder earlier?"

He flicked his finger in amazement. "Bingo! You are a smart one to notice that immediately."

"How dare you play with me? Don't you think you have gone overboard with your prank? I demand an apology right now!" Li Chunhua stomped her feet angrily. If gazes could kill, Shao Jingfei probably had been killed a few times already.

"You should be thankful to me instead. I just gave you your first lesson." Shao Jingfei flicked her forehead lightly, which invited a deadly glare from the girl.

However, he just giggled at her silly puffing face before continuing, "If you want to understand your sister better, then learn how to not take people's indulgence for granted."

Li Chunhua was seething with anger up to a second ago, but at the mention of her sister, her face color changed completely. It was like she had forgotten what had happened before and looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"It's exactly as I said. Looking at you, I can tell that you grow up under many people's indulgence. It must be nice to have people always catered to your needs. Nevertheless, too much indulgence can be a boomerang because that way, you eventually can't appreciate the little things people have done for you."

"That's not true. Xiaoyi and I understood each other and always tried to fill in each other's weaknesses. We just don't need such superficial words between us." Li Chunhua argued.

Shao Jingfei sighed. "Can you please stop bringing up that 'we understand each other' idea every time I try to point out your mistake? Even the closest sibling will still need some kind of common ground between them. You are the one who asked me to teach you how to understand your sister better, right?"

Li Chunhua had a lot of things she wanted to say, but listening to his comeback, she swallowed all those words back. Suppressing the feeling of unfairness within her, she asked him again.

"Then what do you suggest me to do?"

"Just be like a normal person. Don't take her kindness for granted and properly thank and apologize to her when it's necessary. Listen to her words properly, and don't force your idea onto her. Earlier, you also didn't like it when I forced my idea of 'having fun' on you, right?

That's basically what you have done to your sister all this time, by keeping people away from her. And don't even try saying 'we understand each other' crap again because you certainly understand nothing."

His explanation rendered Li Chunhua speechless. "That's it? Is it really that easy?"

Shao Jingfei raised his brows as he stared at her weirdly. "What do you mean by 'that's it?' You didn't even understand something as simple as that until a few minutes ago. Besides, of course, there are still lots of things you have to learn before you can completely understand your sister's feelings. This is just the beginning."