The Night His Tail Brushed Mine - Chapter 2

I lived on the very edge of the old district.

The houses here were ancient, their walls blotched and peeling from years of rain.

One corner of the stone step by the door had broken away. You had to watch your footing or you could easily twist an ankle.

My landlady was sitting outside picking through vegetables. The moment she saw the beastman behind me, her eyes went round.

“Where did you pick him up?”

“The black market.”

The leaf in her hand dropped back into the basin.

“Have you lost your mind? You can barely pay your own rent, and you bought a beastman?”

Guiltily, I said, “I’ll pay on time.”

She clearly did not believe me.

She looked from me to the tall, brooding beastman behind me and lowered her voice. “He isn’t going to tear my house apart in the middle of the night, is he?”

Before I could answer, a faint scratching sound came from behind me.

The beastman’s claws had left three gouges in the wall.

Me: “…”

My landlady: “…”

He did not seem to have expected the wall to be so flimsy either. His body went still.

A moment later, he casually drew back his hand while secretly tucking his tail behind him.

I hurriedly blocked the marks from view.

“He won’t. He’s very well-behaved.”

My landlady looked at me as though I were an idiot.

Fortunately, her bark was worse than her bite. After lecturing me for ages, she merely told me to repair the wall and did not actually throw us out.

My room was on the second floor.

When I opened the door, the entire place was visible at a glance.

The bed stood against one wall, with an old table beneath the window.

A tiny kitchen had been partitioned off in one corner, and unwashed dishes were piled beside the stove.

I suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

“It’s a bit messy.”

The beastman stood in the doorway without entering.

He did not seem accustomed to a door without a lock or chains. His gaze swept around the room and finally settled on the window.

It was a very small window.

But through it, you could see the sky.

I opened the door all the way and stepped aside.

“You can leave whenever you want.

“I may have the contract, but I won’t stop you.”

The system immediately reminded me,

【You spent all your savings to buy him.】

【You should at least make him work to repay you.】

I replied silently, “He’s injured. How is he supposed to work?”

The system fell quiet.

The beastman could not hear it.

He stared at the open door for a long time. In the end, he came inside and sat on the floor as close to the exit as he could get.

I found a thin blanket in the cupboard.

The moment he saw me approach, his shoulders tensed.

I could only set the blanket within his reach.

“It gets cold at night. Cover yourself with this.”

He ignored me.

I went to rummage through the medicine box.

It held only half a bottle of disinfectant, one roll of gauze, and two packets of fever medicine.

They were left over from when I had fallen ill last month.

I crouched a short distance away and pointed at his tail. “That wound needs to be rebandaged, or it’ll get infected.”

He hid his tail behind him.

“Will it hurt badly?”

Still he said nothing.

I had not heard him speak a single word since leaving the black market.

I did not know whether he refused to talk or simply could not speak the human language.

After thinking for a moment, I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the old wound on my arm.

A few days ago, a shard of broken porcelain had cut me while I was washing dishes at the restaurant.

The cut was not deep, but I had not wanted to spend money on a doctor, so I had just wrapped it haphazardly in cloth.

“Look, I’m hurt too.

“Let’s change our bandages together, all right?”

At last, he raised his eyes.

I unwrapped my arm and poured on a little disinfectant.

The wound stung so fiercely that I could not help sucking in a breath.

The beastman’s ears twitched.

Pain had brought tears to my eyes, but I still tried to look unconcerned. “It doesn’t actually hurt that much.”

He watched me for several seconds, then held out his tail.

The filthy bandage fell to the floor.

The injury was worse than I had imagined.

A patch of fur had been burned away. The wound had split open again and again and was already showing signs of infection.

My nose prickled.

Afraid he would misunderstand, I quickly lowered my head and began tending the wound.

“This might hurt a little. Bear with me.”

He did not struggle.

Only when the disinfectant touched the injury did his tail suddenly curl around my wrist.

His grip was not tight.

It was as though the pain was too much, and he simply needed something to hold on to.

I slowed my movements and blew gently over the wound.

“Almost done.”

After his tail came his leg.

He refused to let me touch it, offering me only his tail to bandage.

I did not force him.

By the time I finished, it was very late.

With the last of the flour, I cooked two bowls of flour-drop soup and chopped up half a wilted cabbage.

He stared at his bowl without moving.

“Go on. Eat.”

Afraid he was worried, I tasted mine first again.

Only then did the beastman pick up his bowl.

He ate silently, but with astonishing speed.

My bowl was only half finished when his was already empty.

I rubbed my still-hungry stomach and pushed the rest of my food toward him.

“I had bread this afternoon. I’m not hungry yet.”

It was a lie.

I had given him that half piece of bread.

But with injuries that severe, he ought to eat more.

The beastman did not take it immediately.

He looked down at my bowl, then up at me.

At last, he pushed it back.

“Don’t want it.”

His voice was hoarse.

Those were the first words he had spoken.

I stared at him for so long that I almost forgot how to react.

But he had already turned his back and curled up by the door with the thin blanket in his arms.

As though he had not been the one who spoke.

I ate the flour-drop soup in small bites, washed the dishes, then gave him the old pillow from my bed.

“My name is Sang Ning. What’s yours?”

He closed his eyes and did not answer.

After waiting for a while, I climbed into bed alone.

In the middle of the night, the rain woke me.

Sure enough, the roof was leaking again.

Water dripped through a crack and landed right beside the bed.

Still half asleep, I got up to set out a basin. As soon as my foot touched the floor, it brushed something soft and furry.

The thin blanket that had covered the beastman had somehow been placed beside my bed.

He was sitting beneath the leak.

His tail stretched over the battered washbasin, shielding me from the splashing water.