Kitty: Half Cup

Do cats drink wine?

There's a regular cat near the tavern. When the staff start their shift, they set a bowl in front of it, filled with who knows whether water or wine. So there are always customers asking: do cats drink too? Has it come to drink its troubles away as well?

Drink its troubles away? Why would a cat need to drink its troubles away? Half Cup has only ever seen people do that.

There was a burly man with a scar slashed across his face. He ordered a jar of strong liquor and sat in the corner, looking at no one. Halfway through, his face turned red, and so did his eyes. He scooped Half Cup over and buried his face in it, crying. Crying like a little child, his chest heaving with sobs. He mumbled something, the gist of which was that he had wronged someone.

There was a young man in a blue cotton robe washed pale, who always ordered the cheapest wine. Coming in, he would hold his head high and stride boldly, saying that one day he'd go somewhere great, do great things, and make a name for himself. But on his way out his steps were always unsteady, and his smile looked worse than crying. Half Cup saw him come every day, and he never did get anywhere great.

And there were opera singers, peddlers, boatmen and sedan bearers; they bought different wines and looked different when drunk. Perhaps this was what people meant by drinking their troubles away.

Half Cup only watched, then unhurriedly took a lick from the bowl before it. Whether it held water or wine, who knows.

But in the end, whoever sits here, person or cat, must have a bowl before them. As if, once they drink what's in the bowl, they can say things they normally can't.

But what cat likes that bitter, burning water? Only people like it.

No, maybe people don't really like it either, Half Cup thought, licking the water in its bowl.

Otherwise, why do they always drink and then cry, and cry and then drink?

Translated by AI from the Chinese game text. It is replaced automatically when the official English text ships.