Let Me Ruffle Your Fur a Little

Soon, the topic revolves back onto Mu Mu’er.

“That kid really likes being with you. Summer holiday is almost over, and he’s still not going home yet.”

Mu Mu’er really looks young. He’s also short, so even though he’s almost twenty, he’s still getting called a ‘kid.’

Bai Yao replies with a smile, “the town is more interesting than the city is.”

Grandpa Xü laughs. He’s lived his whole life in Qiaohai, and has rarely ever left this quaint little seaside town. He has a deep connection to this place, “of course! Our town is quite the place to be. Better than all the concrete buildings and grey roads.”
“It’s almost school season, is it? Does Mu’er to one of those ‘special schools,’ what they call them? Those you can probably only find in cities,” he continues before Bai Yao can answer, “we’ll definitely miss him a lot when he leaves.”

Bai Yao pauses and is a bit slower to answer this time, which thankfully goes unnoticed by the couple.

“Tell him that when he comes back for his next long holiday, auntie Zhang will cook him a good feast,” grandpa Xü pats Bai Yao on the back of his hand.

Bai Yao leaves to buy the mobile phone soon enough afterwards. Heading towards the market on the gravel road, he finds himself mired in his thoughts more than before he met the couple.

Grandpa Xü was simply making a casual remark, but Bai Yao knows the veracity of the statement. Mu Mu’er has been in town for over two months now, and he’s told them he’s a relative who is spending his summer holiday here.

Now, though, school season is about to begin. Mu Mu’er’s actual age is around someone who should be going to university. It’d be odd if he doesn’t pack up for school soon. People will start to wonder why he’s still in town after so long.

Before he can think of a solution, Bai Yao is already at a general store near the north side of the town. He enters and greets the cashier.

It’s a pretty recently opened store that sells quite a lot of stuff, including simple household electronics. The girl behind the counter has her eyes glued on Bai Yao the moment he entered.

Assuming she’s another of those city girls that came for a part-time work in the summer holiday, Bai Yao ignores her gaze. She doesn’t look much older than Mu Mu’er, even.

The store may not be large, but it has quite the number of brands here, from cheap ones to more expensive ones.

Bai Yao is disinclined to buy the latest, most advanced models for Mu Mu’er. If he really did give Mu Mu’er a phone that can play all sorts of games, the little sea otter might become addicted.

He is quite hesitant on all the phones, while the cashier continues to explain all about them without getting impatient. In the end, he ends up still buying a rather new model. Simply because he felt like he wanted to give Mu Mu’er the best he could.

After that, he continues his way down south to replenish the fruit supply at home, and also to give some to grandpa Xü’s.

When he comes back, the couple aren’t back home yet. He leaves the bag outside their door.

While Bai Yao was out, Mu Mu’er has been waiting at the door like a loyal pup. So the moment Bai Yao opens the door, a Mu Mu’er jumps up and hangs onto the man’s body. Bai Yao tries to walk while having a Mu Mu’er hugging him tightly from the veranda in.

“Are you actually a koala?” Bai Yao ruffles the boy’s head in defeat.

“Mu’er was waiting for Yaoyao, for very, very long,” he finally lets Bai Yao go and greets him. ‘Very, very long,’ or otherwise known as ’40 minutes.’ Not even an hour has gone by.

Bai Yao pinches the boy’s cheeks before walking inside, “don’t just stand at the door next time. Little sea otters are really light, a breeze and you might be blown somewhere Yaoyao cannot find.”

Mu Mu’er follows with a spring in his step, and is quite clearly fixated on the bag in Bai Yao’s hand. He walks while looking to determine if they’re stuff he can eat. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear edible, so Mu Mu’er’s passion fades.

“What is this?”

“A present,” Bai Yao waves the bag at him.

Mu Mu’er hops a little at the word, repeating it, “present!”

He can’t wait to see what the present is, but it is packed in a box. He asks Bai Yao eagerly, “for Mu’er?”

Who else but him?

Bai Yao wants to tease him though, and smiles fiendishly while saying, “no. It’s for a little silly sea otter.”

Mu Mu’er visibly wilts at the response while watching Bai Yao walk. Then after a while, he suddenly seems to get it, and yells out, “Yaoyao is wrong! Mu’er is not silly!”

Huh, nice. He got it.

Bai Yao chuckles, and hands the bag over, “you are right. Mu’er is not silly. You can open it up.”

Encouraged, Mu Mu’er immediately opens the bag and then the box. With some help, he reaches the phone inside.

“The Rabbit!”

Mu Mu’er’s whole impression of phones is the game with the Moon Rabbit. A phone as a gift for Mu’er is basically just giving him the Moon Rabbit.

“Your gege is coming tonight. Mu’er, remember to ask for his WeChat, ok?” Bai Yao says, pouring himself a glass of water, then taking a glass of cranberry juice out for Mu Mu’er.

“Ok!” Mu’er sits down next to Bai Yao on the sofa. He always responds positively to Bai Yao’s requests before taking the time to think about if he understood what was going on. So after some thought, Mu Mu’er asks with furrowed brows, “what kind of food is WeChat?”

Quite the interesting, impulsive response. As it’s something Bai Yao asked him to get from his gege, he easily assumes it must be some tasty snack Mu Yi is bringing.

Bai Yao takes a bit of time to work out the logic, and suddenly remembers Mu Mu’er has probably forgotten what phones are, never mind WeChat or its usage. He takes Mu Mu’er’s hand, moves closer to him on the sofa, while putting his other hand naturally behind his head on the sofa’s back. His legs cross forward before him in a lazy pose.

Mu Mu’er has played games on Bai Yao’s phone, and has a vague idea that the small pictures open up stuff. Still, Bai Yao takes some time to patiently explain to Mu Mu’er what all these icons do.

In the new phone, there are only the system’s applications. Bai Yao puts a spare card he had inside, and installs WeChat on it. Then he also installs Moon Rabbit Adventures and a few other similar games on it.

Mu Mu’er is slower to learn than others, so Bai Yao tells him which icon is WeChat, what to do inside, and how to use the functions inside for quite a while.

Bai Yao is the first friend in Mu Mu’er’s new WeChat account. Bai Yao, meanwhile, changes Mu Mu’er’s nickname in his own WeChat client to ‘PileOfFur.’

He also has Mu Yi’s WeChat that he added a couple days ago. The man’s WeChat page is even more desolate than you’d expect. He does not use the posts function at all, while his profile picture could be mistaken for a passport mugshot photograph.

Bai Yao was first going to nickname him ‘old sea otter,’ but it might confuse Mu Mu’er if he sees it. In the end, he decides to nickname him the same way Mu Mu’er calls him, ‘ge.’