Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Incident

The sunlight was just right, and the shadows of the trees were dappled.

It was still sweltering at the end of August. Heat waves rolled beneath the sun, blurring the distant scenery.

On a large tree by the roadside in the residential complex, a small orange kitten was hanging from a branch to enjoy the shade. Beneath him, a fat, round orange cat was lying sprawled on the grass, cooling himself down.

The one in the tree was called Fluffy. He lived in the house directly opposite this tree. A little over a year ago, he had still been a human living in the apocalypse, but that was all in the past now. He had almost completely forgotten everything from his previous life and was now an excellent and pure little chubby cat.

The one below was a stray cat from the residential complex. He usually stayed at the café or at the homes of people he knew. His name was Egg Fried Rice, and he was a genuine cat.

The two round, plump orange cats seemed to always end up talking about food and weight whenever they chatted.

“Fluffy, a new fried-meat shop opened on the commercial street. I went to try it. The taste is pretty good.” Egg Fried Rice lay on his back with his eyes closed, chatting with the little orange cat.

“It’s all right. The chicken wing tips and chicken cartilage are pretty good. They’re fragrant and crispy, and there’s plenty of meat. There’s too little meat on the ribs, though. I have to hold them with my paws and gnaw on them, which gets oil all over my fur, and I still barely get any meat.” Fluffy yawned.

“You went out to eat again without telling me! You didn’t even call me!” Egg Fried Rice suddenly opened his eyes. He had caught the implication behind the little orange cat’s words.

“You didn’t call me either, did you?” The little orange cat flicked his tail unhappily.

He opened his eyes too. Egg Fried Rice was directly beneath him. The two cats stared wide-eyed at each other, then simultaneously snorted and closed their eyes again.

After a while, the two bored cats had cooled down and felt that they could continue being good friends, so they resumed their conversation.

“Have you gained weight lately? Looking at you, I feel like you’ve gotten even rounder. Be careful this branch can’t take your weight.” Egg Fried Rice always asked questions that hurt the enemy by a thousand while costing himself eight hundred.

Sure enough, Fluffy sneered. “Could it be that you’ve gained weight again yourself, so everyone looks fat to you?”

Strangely, Egg Fried Rice did not say anything in protest, because he really had gotten fatter.

It was strange when you thought about it. Everyone said that during summer, people naturally lost weight because their appetite was poor.

But that had not happened to Egg Fried Rice. He had actually gained weight.

And autumn was almost here, followed by winter, another excellent season for putting on fat.

Egg Fried Rice could not help feeling worried.

Looking back over his life, the only time he had ever been at his thinnest was when he had a fever and been sick. He wondered whether, when the weather suddenly turned cold this time, he would unfortunately fall ill again. If that happened, he could lose all the weight he had gained over the summer.

But being sick was not a pleasant thing.

Egg Fried Rice was conflicted.

Was being healthy better, or was losing weight better?

It was truly difficult to choose.

Egg Fried Rice frowned, shaking his head and swaying his body on the ground.

Fluffy glanced down. He was not surprised at all by the foolish Egg Fried Rice. He decided to stop paying attention to him and instead turned his gaze toward somewhere farther away.

When would his boyfriend, the calico cat, come back? Little Calico had gone out to work early in the morning. Judging by the time, it was almost time for a meal, so he should be coming back soon.

Fluffy became a cat waiting for his husband to return.

“Fluffy, did you hear something?” Egg Fried Rice suddenly became alert and stretched out his neck, looking around.

“Where?” The little orange cat curled his lips. Had Egg Fried Rice gotten old and started hearing things?

Standing this high up, he could clearly see everything below, yet he had not spotted anything unusual at all.

“No, listen carefully!” Egg Fried Rice insisted that there was nothing wrong with his ears. He had definitely heard something.

Although the little orange cat thought Egg Fried Rice’s words were unreliable, out of respect for him, he still calmed himself and pricked up his ears.

“Crack—!”

A hint of seriousness appeared on his round face.

What was going on? He had heard that unusual sound too, and it was strangely familiar.

It even seemed as though the sound had blossomed from somewhere nearby. He could hear it especially clearly.

“Crack—!”

“Ah, what sound was that again? Why does it sound so familiar? It’s like, it’s like... Ah, right! The sound of a branch breaking. Fluffy, don’t you think?” Egg Fried Rice racked his brains for a long while before suddenly having a flash of inspiration and finally remembering where that familiar sound came from.

That was it. It was the sound of a branch snapping.

Wait, a branch snapping?!

“Snap—!”

Egg Fried Rice hurriedly raised his head, only to see an utterly terrified cat face.

Fluffy had not yet realized what was happening. By the time he understood, he was already clinging to the branch beneath him and rapidly descending.

“Meowww—!” Calico, help me!

At the very last moment before hitting the ground, Fluffy let out a shriek.

“Bang!”

The commotion was enormous. Everyone and every cat inside the residential complex café beside the tree instinctively looked up.

“Was that an earthquake?” A customer nervously picked up the phone and bag from the table, hesitating between running outside and hiding beneath the table.

“No way. It doesn’t seem like an earthquake. It sounds more like something falling from a great height.” Another customer offered his opinion.

“Little Tomato, I just heard Fluffy’s voice. Your dad was with Fluffy, wasn’t he? Go see what happened to the two of them.” The black-and-white cat Little Xin, who worked at the café, had a solemn expression.

Tomato was the cream-colored kitten adopted by Egg Fried Rice. The moment he heard this, he immediately rushed outside.

Little Tomato had barely taken two steps when he saw the extremely conspicuous large orange lump lying on the green grass.

“D... Dad...” Little Tomato shakily returned to the café, his voice already breaking with tears.

“Dad and Uncle Fluffy... d-died!”

The news was so shocking that even Little Xin, who devoted himself wholeheartedly to the café business, had no choice but to stop all the work in his hands.

His mind went completely blank.

D-Died?!

They had both been perfectly fine that morning. Egg Fried Rice had eaten two eggs in one go and had even tried to snatch Little Xin’s. As for Fluffy, he had caused a huge commotion in the residential complex only yesterday, all because he wanted to catch a mouse.

How did they suddenly die?

Little Xin still could not understand, but he also decided not to place his hopes in Little Tomato, who could barely speak coherently. He decided to go outside and take a look himself.

The moment he stepped outside, he saw the calico cat charging toward them from the end of the road.

It seemed he had already returned from work.

“Where’s Big Sister Little Qian?” When the calico saw Fluffy lying on the ground with his tongue hanging out and all four paws sprawled in the air, his heart nearly stopped.

Fortunately, the calico was a calm and responsible adult cat, unlike a little kitten like Little Tomato, who was prone to panicking at the slightest thing.

He immediately walked over and checked the breathing of the two cats, discovering that they were still alive.

Although he had no idea what had happened, the best thing to do now was get the two of them to the hospital as quickly as possible.

The Big Sister Little Qian he mentioned was the owner of the café. She normally managed all the stray cats in the entire residential complex.

“Big Sister Little Qian went out because something came up two minutes ago. She said she’d be gone for a while, but I don’t know when she’ll be back.” Little Xin was usually calm and composed, but this time, even he could not avoid panicking.

If there was no one around, how were they supposed to get these two cats, each one heavier than the other, to the hospital?

“I’ll go find someone.” Little Xin’s mind was a complete mess.

He was thinking about who to ask when he saw that the calico cat had already nimbly climbed up the large tree. With a light leap, he jumped back into his home. Only three seconds later, he came flying directly down from the balcony with a skateboard in his mouth, landing steadily on the ground.

He first placed the skateboard on the path in the residential complex, then picked Fluffy up by the scruff with his teeth and prepared to skate away.

“You forgot Egg Fried Rice!” Little Xin screamed.

The calico stopped. He hurriedly put Fluffy down, then dragged Egg Fried Rice onto the skateboard.

“Egg Fried Rice’s tail is still on the ground!” Little Xin screamed again.

The calico kicked Egg Fried Rice’s tail onto his body with one paw.

The calico did not waste any more time. He placed one foot on the skateboard and the other on the ground, then gave a light push.

The skateboard immediately shot forward at an incredible speed.

...

“Have you bought your autumn clothes yet? Or are you waiting a few more days until there’s a sale? I’m just worried that this weather might suddenly turn cold.” The two security guards at the entrance were chatting.

Before the other security guard could answer with his plans, a gust of wind suddenly howled past them, bringing with it a hint of coolness.

They took a closer look, but all they could see was an orange blur.

Someone capable of running at that speed should have been none other than that legendary male calico cat. But hadn’t the calico cat just returned to the residential complex? Why had he gone out again?

...

The calico cat had been skateboarding for several months, but this was the first time he had ever reached such a speed. After all, he still had two heavyweight cats being dragged behind him.

He was frantic with worry. No matter how hard he thought about it, he could not figure out how Fluffy had suddenly fainted, taking Egg Fried Rice down with him.

Had Fluffy accidentally stepped into empty air when jumping from the balcony to the tree?

As he thought, he recalled where the hospital was located.

He had been traveling for about a minute when a cry of pain suddenly came from behind him.

“Ow, ow, ow, my tail is about to catch fire.”

It turned out that Egg Fried Rice’s tail had somehow fallen onto the ground again. It had been dragging along for a while, and the pain had directly woken up the delicate fat cat.

He pulled his tail onto the skateboard, and only then did he have the presence of mind to see what was going on.

“Has Fluffy woken up?” the calico hurriedly asked.

“No.”

“We’re going to the hospital now. Sit properly.” The calico continued.

“Oh, oh. There’s a new hospital that just opened near our residential complex. Turn right at the road ahead and you’ll be there. It’s very close.” Egg Fried Rice quickly reminded him.

Sure enough, the calico turned at the next intersection. After going another two steps, they arrived at a pet hospital.

The moment the skateboard stopped, the calico had already grabbed Fluffy by the scruff with his teeth and rushed into the pet hospital with the little cat.

Fortunately, there were no other patients at this time. The calico quickly jumped onto the examination table and placed Fluffy directly in front of the doctor.

“Meow, meow, meow!” Take a look at him!

As though he had thought of something, he hurriedly untied the small pouch around his neck and opened the drawstring. He bit the pointed corner at the bottom of the pouch and gently tipped it over.

A red banknote fell out.

This newly opened pet hospital had never seen anything like this before. Every staff member in the hospital stood there with their mouths hanging open.

W-Were the pets here all coming to see the doctor by themselves?

Author’s Note:

Pre-collection Novel: The Villain Relies on Cat Petting to Extend His Life

Lu Qiao, a cat demon, had lived in seclusion deep in the mountains for many years. Every day, he stayed in his cave doing nothing but lying around, becoming a famous housebound cat throughout the surrounding mountains and forests.

Lu Qiao thought he would spend the rest of his life lying around like that, until one day, he was hunted down by a Taoist priest and fled into the villa of wealthy big shot Gu Yu—

What kind of low-level lying around and amateurish staying-at-home life had he been living before?!

So this was what true staying-at-home life was supposed to be like.

The little black cat ate delicious but nutritionally worthless junk food every day, woke up in the afternoon to play video games, stayed up late at night binge-watching shows, and when midnight came, rolled himself up in his blanket and slept until noon the next day!

Wonderful!

In his previous life, in order to fulfill his useless father’s grand ambitions, Gu Yu’s father had hired someone to place a curse on him, transferring all of his luck to his twin younger brother, Gu Xu.

After being reborn, Gu Yu’s curse was even stronger than it had been in his previous life. He nearly got himself killed immediately after being reborn and had to start a third life. Fortunately, the little black cat who was fleeing for his life took on part of the curse for him, allowing him to barely survive.

The condition for the exchange was that he provide the little black cat Lu Qiao with food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.

Gu Yu, who had received a revenge-story script, wore a gloomy face that looked as though everyone owed him eight million and tried to establish a serious atmosphere.

Gu Yu was routinely punished by being confined to the mountain villa for disobeying his father’s orders:

Gu Yu’s Father: “What has Gu Yu been doing lately? Has he finally realized his mistake?”

The nanny keeping an eye on Gu Yu: “...He just bought a Nintendo Switch and a Sony PlayStation 5.”

Gu Yu’s father’s expression changed.

With so much incomprehensible English, Gu Yu was surely planning to rebel, wasn’t he?

Nanny: “Five days ago, he bought a new projector and also had me submit these things for reimbursement.”

Gu Yu’s father took the bill and looked it over.

Coco-Cola, Lay’s chips, Babi ice cream, KOC fried chicken, Wei Wei extra-spicy strips...

Total: 2.05 million.

What kind of snacks cost 2.05 million?!

Gu Yu’s father hurriedly looked further down and discovered that Gu Yu had actually called for a helicopter.

His expression changed drastically. “What did Gu Yu call a helicopter for?”

Nanny: “To deliver takeout to the mountain villa.”

Gu Yu’s father looked again. Sure enough, the bill also contained all kinds of delicacies from all over the country. He silently used his phone to search for what a Nintendo Switch and a Sony PlayStation 5 were.

Gu Yu’s Father: “............”

Later, Gu Yu finally managed to straighten out the story’s tone and worked hard at taking revenge. His father actually hired a Taoist priest to perform a ritual and assassinate him directly. The little black cat, whose belly was round and bulging from eating, fled everywhere in terror and kicked out violently in panic.

The other party was GG.

The little black cat was stunned. So I’m actually this strong?!

Gu Yu: “............”

Gu Yu looked at the kitten laughing uproariously toward the sky and coldly wiped a hand over his face.