Dream Pet Shop

Xia Ji stood behind the window and stared blankly at his grandfather's back. At this time, his grandfather looked very healthy, exactly as Xia Ji remembered.

Grandpa sat on the back steps basking in the sun, holding an egg wrapped in a blanket in his arms.He gazed benevolently at the egg in his hand, and kept rubbing the eggshell with his rough, wrinkled palm.Suddenly, the egg bathed in the sun cracked without warning.

A small black and fluffy head slowly protruded from the cracks in the eggshell. On the small head, a pair of pointed ears trembled, black curly hair, a pair of small black wings on the back, long Xia Ji's eyes widened, it was... a newborn Long Wei, he was still a little Pixiu at that time.

Grandpa picked up the little Pixiu, and a happy smile bloomed on his old face: "Amazing, amazing, you little guy is actually a legendary beast."

Little Pixiu blinked and tilted his head to look at Grandpa. It obviously didn't quite understand what Grandpa said, but it could feel the joy from Grandpa's expression, so it also opened its mouth and showed a big smile.

The dream suddenly changed, and the figure sitting at the back door disappeared without a trace. After a while, there was a small sound coming from the pet shop.

Xia Ji turned around and went back to the store, this time he saw Grandpa sitting in front of the counter with the little Pixiu in his arms.

There was a thick old dictionary spread out on the counter, and Xiao Pixiu curiously sniffed around, stretching out his little paws to grab the thin, yellowed paper.

"Let me take a look." Grandpa put on his reading glasses, and began to flip through the dictionary slowly, carefully reading line by line: "Well, what name should I choose?"

Little Pixiu didn't understand what grandpa was doing, and thought that the dictionary was some kind of toy. Whenever grandpa turned a page, it would playfully hug grandpa's hand.

Sunshine came in from the window and sprinkled on the counter. The whole store and even the whole street were extremely quiet, and time seemed to stand still here.

After an unknown amount of time, Grandpa suddenly said, "Hey, this word seems to be good."

Little Pixiu, who was curled up in a ball and snoozing by Grandpa's hand, shook his ears, opened his eyes, and looked at Grandpa in confusion.

"Wei, the meaning of luxuriant, has the meaning of vitality and thriving." Grandpa was very satisfied with this word, he closed the dictionary, and picked up the little Pixiu.

"Then I will name you Long Wei. I hope you will live a long life and thrive. From today on, you have a name. Remember your name is Long Wei." Grandpa looked into the eyes of little Pixiu and said.

"Little guy, do you like the name?"

Little Pixiu's eyes widened with excitement. From today on, it also has its own name!The little guy was so happy that he kicked his short legs indiscriminately, kept licking his grandpa's palm, and rubbed his fluffy head against his grandpa's arm to express his love for the name.

……

The scene of the dream changed again, and the shadows of the sun became longer. It seemed that summer turned into winter in the blink of an eye. Only then did Xia Ji realize that Long Wei's dream was to reproduce all the memories of being with his grandfather.

Grandpa put on a heavy cotton-padded jacket, and the little Pixiu has grown up a bit, and has learned to hide a pair of small wings on its back. It looks similar to a black cat in appearance.

There are a lot of new friends in the pet shop, all of them are stray pets picked up by grandpa from various places, each of which Xia Ji used to be very familiar with.

Grandpa bowed his waist and struggled to lift a heavy bag of pet food to feed the pets.He took apart the old cotton clothes and made them into small cushions and put them in the pet cage to keep the pets from freezing.

Grandpa is getting old, so it's a little difficult to do these things, and he has been busy for a long time.Little Pixiu, who had been left out for a long time, started to get jealous, biting the leg of his grandfather's trousers, and pulling him towards him, his angry appearance seemed to say: Leave them alone, come and play with me.

Xia Ji has been hiding in the corner and peeping, and couldn't help laughing when he saw this. He didn't expect Brother Long to be so cute and mischievous when he was a child, almost like Ah Feng and the others.

The little Pixiu's ears are very sensitive, it shook the tip of its ears, and suddenly turned back to look at the corner where Xia Ji was standing, Xia Ji's heart tightened, and when his eyes met, Xia Ji thought that his existence had been discovered by the little Pixiu.But at this moment, the dream changed again, and the grandpa and little Pixiu in front of the pet cage disappeared.

……

Outside the window, the spring is warm and flowers are blooming, and birdsong can be heard from time to time. The stray pets in the pet shop have survived the winter, and most of their bodies have recovered.

But the grandfather, who took off his heavy cotton coat, looked very thin, his back, which was always straight, suddenly became a little hunched, and he couldn't lift a bag of ten catties of pet food.

Xia Ji's heart seemed to be scratched by a blunt object, and he remembered that Grandpa was ill at this time.

Sure enough, the next moment, Grandpa sat back on the chair with difficulty, took out his mobile phone with shaking hands, and called Xia Ji's uncle, Xia Guozheng. Little Pixiu worriedly stood by Grandpa's feet.

After Grandpa hung up the phone, he wanted to bend down to pick up the little Pixiu, but found that he couldn't use the strength, so he leaned back on the chair, patted his legs and said, "Long Wei, come here."

Little Pixiu jumped onto Grandpa's lap obediently and looked at him worriedly.

Grandpa caressed the little Pixiu, his voice sounded tired but still gentle: "Long Wei, you have to grow up quickly. When you become a human, you will definitely be able to live alone. Then help me take care of the shop. Poor little guys here."

Grandpa panted for a while, then looked at Long Wei carefully and said: "You look like a black cat now, so beautiful! I have a grandson who likes cats the most. He will definitely I like it, but he's too busy with work."

As soon as the words fell, there was a screeching sound of brakes outside the store. Xia Guozheng hurried in and shouted anxiously: "Dad, I'm here!" Panicked, her voice trembled.

Xiao Pixiu jumped down from his grandfather's lap, looked at Xia Guozheng who was helping his grandfather on the chair in a panic, and said, "Dad, don't scare me! I, we will go to the hospital right away."

Little Pixiu also panicked, growling in a low voice, biting Grandpa's trousers tightly.

Grandpa looked back at it with difficulty, and said, "Good boy, don't worry, I'll be back in a while."

Little Pixiu had no choice but to let go, watching his grandfather being helped into the car by Xia Guozheng, and left the pet shop in a daze.

……

From the day grandpa left, little Pixiu has been squatting at the door, waiting for grandpa to come back, but one day, two days, three days... Half a month has passed, and grandpa still hasn't come back.

The pet food in the store has been eaten up, and Xiao Pixiu and the pets are all hungry.Little Pixiu had no choice but to go out to find food by himself. It was like a wild cat rummaging through trash cans. When it found food, it had to bring it back and feed it to the pets in the shop. After all, Grandpa had asked him to take good care of them.

The scene in front of Xia Ji began to change rapidly, which even made him feel a little dizzy. After a while, he realized that the scene in the dream was from Long Wei's perspective.

Long Wei wandered around, looking for food to wrap his belly, and trying to find the trace of his grandfather, but he couldn't find anything.

I don't know if it's because of the relationship in the dream, Xia Ji felt that he seemed to be able to feel the changes in Long Wei's mood. Although he didn't speak, Xia Ji could feel the uneasiness and anxiety in his heart.Now it is too weak and not strong enough, it really wants to become stronger quickly.

One day, the door of the pet shop was suddenly opened, and Long Wei was awakened from her sleep. She immediately stood up excitedly, thinking that her grandpa had finally returned.

However, it was Xia Guozheng who came in.

For some reason, at that moment, Long Wei suddenly understood that even if he kept waiting, Grandpa would probably never come back.

Under great grief, Long Wei finally turned into a human being, but without his grandfather, life in human society is even more difficult.

At the beginning, he didn't understand anything, no one told him the common sense necessary for survival, he could only slowly grope and comprehend through other people's strange eyes, verbal abuse, and even chasing and beating.

He understood that people need to wear clothes, and buying clothes requires money, but he has no money. Fortunately, he found a used clothes donation box on the street, which contained various clothes donated by others.He couldn't tell the style of the clothes, so he pulled out one at random and put it on.

He wandered the streets day and night, observing humans, imitating humans, and learning all kinds of common sense.Slowly, he will no longer be cast a strange look when he walks on the street, because his behavior has become the same as that of ordinary people.

He picked up a mobile phone with a broken screen on the side of the road and found that it was still usable, so he started to get all the information he needed from this phone.He tried to work to earn money, like his grandfather once said, trying to live alone, and then guarding his grandfather's pet shop.

When Xia Ji saw Long Wei wandering in front of the pet shop over and over again in the dark, he finally couldn't help himself, covered his mouth and wept.

Xia Ji suddenly remembered how he looked when he first met Long Wei. At that time, he was wearing the clothes he picked up in the donation box and holding a mobile phone whose screen was cracked into a spider web to apply for a veterinary doctor.At that time, Xia Ji felt that he behaved well and had a calm personality, but no one knew how much he had suffered to make himself like this.

The more powerful a person looks, the harder it is to imagine what he has experienced.

Xia Ji was so distressed that he planned to exit Long Wei's dream first, but the scene in front of him changed again, and he suddenly saw himself.

Looking at the surrounding mountains and water, Xia Ji immediately recognized this as the observation deck in the mountains, where he confessed to Long Wei for the first time.

The scene in front of me was the most thrilling moment at that time. I accidentally climbed over the railing of the watchtower, and Long Wei was struggling to hold him.

Xia Ji heard himself saying: "Brother Long, I like you, do you want to be with me?"

After asking this sentence, Xia Ji felt his heart tightened for a moment. Although he already knew the answer, he still felt scared and sad when he heard it again.

Long Wei was silent for a moment, then said, "Okay."

Hearing this answer, Xia Ji froze in place.

Answer...how is it different from then?

Before Xia Ji could figure it out, suddenly a swarm of angry bees came from all directions, surrounded Long Wei and Xia Ji on the observation deck layer by layer, and countless bees sting on their hands.

With a scream, Long Wei let go of Xia Ji's hand at some point, and Xia Ji fell into the abyss.In the dream, Long Wei jumped down and stretched out his hand to catch the falling Xia Ji, but he couldn't.

"Brother Long!" Seeing Long Wei jumping down, Xia Ji exclaimed subconsciously.

The fallen Long Wei heard his voice and turned his head in confusion. The moment his eyes met Xia Ji, all the scenes in front of him disappeared instantly.

When Xia Ji opened his eyes again, he found that he had returned to the bedroom.

This means... Long Wei is awake?

The author has something to say: Xia Ji: "Oh, ╮(╯▽╰)╭ It turns out that there are people who have been regretting in their hearts, but dare not say it."

Long Wei: "..."