Aliens on Earth [Interstellar]

Chapter 1: Stray Cat 1

"Ah Choo-" Ji Lin sniffed and looked up at the ceiling above.

　　The ventilation pipes are placed under the ceiling. Along the two sides of the pipes are two rows of fluorescent lamps. The pale lights cast the shadows of the pipes on the surface of the ceiling, making the mottled ceiling look even darker.

　　This is the receiving office of Lefu Supermarket.

　　Like other large supermarkets, Lefu Supermarket is built on the basement floor, with a large shopping mall upstairs. It's just over half of July, the hottest day in summer, how muggy it is outside, how cold the receiving place is, and the coolness will go straight to the bones after staying for a long time.

　　In front of the receiving area, facing the unloading entrance is a wide platform. The platform is raised to facilitate the loading and unloading of trucks. At the back is the staff lounge and warehouse. In the middle is an iron mesh door for supermarket employees. in and out. On the open platform, near the iron mesh door, there was a half-new desk with a teacup and two walkie-talkies on it.

　　Ji Lin is now a loss prevention officer in a supermarket, and his usual job is to stay at this half-new desk. When the supermarket arrives, help the staff who unload and check the goods, and when returning the goods, check the entrained and private returns. The morning and evening shifts are rotated, eight hours a day, one day off, and basically no overtime unless there are special circumstances.

　　As described above, this is a very easy job. When you have nothing to do, you can sit in a daze or use your mobile phone to check the news, and the working hours are easily passed. Compared to working overtime in the laboratory day and night, this may be considered a good job, at least he is satisfied.

　　"Ji Lin, shift change."

　　As soon as 2 o'clock arrived, two colleagues from the evening shift came over.

　　Ji Lin nodded to them, picked up the teacup on the table, got up, walked through the iron mesh door, and walked towards the staff lounge. This teacup belonged to Lao Zhao, who worked with him. Based on the experience of working together these days, Lao Zhao probably went to the staff lounge to wait for get off work.

　　"Xiao Ji, thank you!" Old Zhao took the teacup Ji Lin brought out for him, and said with a smile, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were wrinkled, "I'm getting older, after all, I'm not as good as you young people, I really can't bear to accept it." It's cold in the warehouse."

　　Ji Lin responded, but he didn't intend to chat with him, Lao Zhao Na talked there for a while, feeling bored, touched his nose, and silently closed his mouth.

　　This new young colleague is good-looking and has a good temper, but he doesn't like to talk, the expression on his face is always indifferent, and he doesn't show much emotion. Talking to him, he really loses interest every minute.

　　After Lao Zhao finished his off-duty card, he went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner. Ji Lin also clocked in to get off work, and then walked to the exit of the employee passageway, and he was going to go home directly.

　　The sun was hanging high outside, and the oncoming heat wave left a hot touch on the surface of the skin, as if being in a stove. After hesitating at the door for a while, Ji Lin was covered in thin sweat.

　　Ji Lin didn't stay long at the door of the staff passage, and quickly stepped into the sunlight, went up the stairs, crossed the square, walked across the road, and arrived at the bus station.

　　Ji Lin is now renting a house in the old city, which is quite far away from the Lefu supermarket. Fortunately, there is a direct bus. In the air-conditioned bus, after wandering around for about an hour, Ji Lin arrived at his place. place.

　　The houses in the old city are old-fashioned tube buildings with narrow and dark corridors, and small advertisements are everywhere on the walls and escalators.

　　Ji Lin lived on the second floor. It was a one bedroom and one living room house, but the space was not very large. The furniture and electrical appliances were all old, and only the decoration was barely clean.

　　Ji Lin walked into the room, turned on the air conditioner, and waited for the old machine to start humming before he went to the bathroom to take a shower. The bathroom is very small and can only take a shower. When Ji Lin came out of the shower, the air conditioner in the room was struggling to work, but it hadn't achieved any obvious results. At least Ji Lin couldn't feel the temperature of the room now compared to when he came back. difference.

　　The mobile phone that was casually thrown on the bed rang, and Ji Lin bent down to pick up the mobile phone while wiping his hair. An unfamiliar number was displayed on the screen. After a moment of hesitation, his fingertips landed on the answering line.

　　"Ji Lin, I'm Zhang Wen, about your resignation..."

　　The person on the other end of the phone, before finishing his opening remarks, Ji Lin hung up the phone neatly. The other party persistently called again, Ji Lin skillfully blocked the number, and threw the phone back on the bed.

　　He has given up the position of researcher in Section 2 of the Institute's laboratory as he wished, so what else is there to talk about now?

　　After turning off the humming but ineffective air conditioner, Ji Lin pushed open the small window at the end of the bed. Now that the sun has not set in the west, opening the balcony window will only make the room hotter. Outside the small window is the small alley between the two buildings. The mottled walls of the old building next door block the view and the light is not good. The only advantage is that The coolness brought by the passing wind makes people feel very comfortable in the hot summer.

　　Cats are one of the most enjoyable animals.

　　In this hot season, the stray cats near the neighborhood gathered in twos and threes in this cool alley. Ji Lin stood by the window and saw the stray cats as soon as he lowered his head. Different colors, or sit or lie down, or play with each other.

　　Of course, in this old community, there are many such alleys between buildings. These stray cats will choose to gather in this one outside his window. Another reason is that the retired old lady who lives on the first floor of the next building , is also Ji Lin's landlord, and she will regularly feed these stray cats with three meals a day.

　　It's been almost half a month since Ji Lin moved here. Every day when he opened the window, he could see these little guys in the alley. Although he didn't take the initiative to get close to them, he still recognized them half-familiarly. But today he saw a new face among this group of stray cats.

　　It was a black cat whose whole body was pitch-black with no trace of variegation. He was squatting on the window sill on the first floor opposite, with his soft tail tucked beside him, looking down at the alley with an elegant posture. A playful stray cat looks free.

　　And-

　　this is a very sensitive cat!

　　As soon as his eyes stopped, the black cat raised its eyes vigilantly, and its eyes met Ji Lin's.

　　Ji Lin was taken aback.

　　That black cat has a pair of very beautiful eyes, which are clear ice blue. It looked up at itself, with a haughty scrutiny in its eyes, looking extremely human.

　　However, it didn't take long for Ji Lin and the black cat to stare at each other before he was distracted by the stray cats in the alley. He glanced back at the electronic alarm clock on the bedside. It was 5 minutes before 5 o'clock, and it was almost time for his landlord to feed.

　　Ji Lin also felt a little hungry, he left the window and went to the kitchen to prepare his own dinner. What he didn't know was that after he left, the black cat stared at his window for a long time.

　　Ji Lin is on the morning shift the next day, clocking in at 7:00 am, and he has to go out by early 6:00 am. Ji Lin, who was wearing the uniform of a loss prevention officer, opened the door of his house and was about to lift his foot to step out of the porch, but was startled by the dark mass at the door. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was a squatting black cat. The pair of arrogant ice blue eyes were obviously the one he saw in the alley yesterday.

　　Ji Lin was a little baffled, what was the black cat doing squatting outside his house early in the morning? Are you hungry?

　　"I didn't make breakfast." After looking down at the black cat for a while, Ji Lin pursed his lips and said.

　　The black cat remained motionless, still looking up at him.

　　"There's nothing to eat at home." Ji Linyou explained to the black cat.

　　The black cat still had no intention of moving away.

　　Ji Lin didn't expect the black cat to understand what he said, so he hurriedly closed the door, passed the black cat, and walked downstairs quickly. He still had to catch the bus.

　　It wasn't until the sound of Ji Lin's footsteps disappeared in the corridor that the black cat stood up, flicked its tail, and walked away from Ji Lin's house with silent steps.