After Cat A Saved the Wrong Female Lead - Chapter 51

Chapter 51:  What Stays Behind

The heater was still broken the next morning.

Tang Li didn’t say anything.

Just made congee and left a bowl on the table for Qin Shiyang before disappearing back into her room.

A few minutes later, Qin Shiyang sat down.

The bowl was still warm.

Her name wasn’t written anywhere.

But it was unmistakably hers.

….

Later, she found Tang Li folding laundry in the living room.

Calm. Unhurried.

Like she’d always done this.

Like this wasn’t new.

Qin Shiyang leaned against the doorframe.

Watched for a while.

Then asked,
“Do you miss your old place?”

Tang Li didn’t pause.

Didn’t look up.

Just said:
“It didn’t miss me.”

Qin Shiyang frowned, quietly.

Tang Li added, even softer:
“Some places feel like waiting rooms. I think I stopped waiting.”

….

She lifted a towel.

Folded it into a square.

Then paused.

Held it in her hands like something breakable.

“I think this place started to feel like something I could keep.”

She didn’t look at her.

Didn’t need to.

The words were already too much.

….

That night, Qin Shiyang found a book on her pillow.

One she had mentioned in passing, weeks ago.

She picked it up.

Inside the front cover, there was a folded note.

Not a letter.

Not even words.

Just a small pressed leaf, golden and dry, placed carefully between the pages.

Something that had once fallen, but hadn’t been discarded.

Something that had been kept.

….

She didn’t ask about it.

But the next morning, she placed the leaf in a small dish on the table.

Right where Tang Li would see it.

Visible.

Acknowledged.

Not returned.

Not refused.

Just—kept.

….

Sometimes, love doesn’t announce itself.

It just begins to remain.

In bowls of congee.

In towels folded twice.

In leaves that don’t get thrown away.