Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Chapter 118: First Released on Jinjiang Literature City

The car sped along.

Jinjin, who thought she had a very low presence, didn’t know that from the moment she stepped out, she had already been targeted.

Night was deepening.

Bai Li leaned against Xie Chen without saying a word, just dozing off.

Xie Chen held him with one arm, protecting him from slumping to the side.

Jinjin didn’t look at them, only stared at the scenery flashing quickly past the window.

Moments of such freedom were truly nostalgic.

Soon, the driver stopped the car. Bai Li rubbed his eyes, yawned, and led Jinjin out.

At the entrance of the Tan Yi villa, Bai Liu, dressed in thick plush pajamas, stood with both hands in his pockets, waiting for them to return.

“Sixth Brother!”

Bai Li pulled Jinjin and ran over in a few quick steps.

“Lili, slow down.”

The ground was a bit slippery. Bai Liu saw how fast he was running and was afraid he’d fall.

“This is Jinjin.”

Bai Li pulled Jinjin closer so his sixth brother could see better.

Bai Liu glanced at her, greeting her in a lukewarm tone: “Hello, I’m Bai Liu.”

“It’s cold outside. Come in with me.”

With Bai Liu taking over Jinjin, Bai Li was taken back by Xie Chen.

Back at home.

Bai Li thought of the older sister Jinjin mentioned today, and he seemed a bit down: “Sir, I miss my second sister too.”

His second sister was very beautiful—recognized as the number one beauty of Demon Mountain.

Many demons wanted to marry her, but none succeeded, because they couldn’t beat her.

Xie Chen listened to the little kitten talking about his second sister, and his expression showed little reaction.In his eyes, as long as his Lili was there, that was enough.

“Sigh.”

The little cat sighed in distress: “Big Brother said Second Sister is hard to find. She’s really busy with work. I don’t even know when I’ll get to see her.”

Xie Chen stroked his fur, coaxing him: “Be good and go to sleep. That way, maybe you’ll see Second Sister right away in your dreams.”

Bai Li: “……”

Bai Li reached out his little paw and scratched him lightly.

“I don’t want to sleep.”

The energetic little kitten in the middle of the night sprawled on his back and rolled around on the bed, refusing to sleep.

Xie Chen played with him for a while. Seeing that the little cat still wouldn’t settle down, he had no choice but to bring out his ultimate weapon—the cat teaser—and used it to make the kitten run for not even ten minutes.

With a plop, the little kitten collapsed, exhausted, onto the blanket.

“Meow.”

Couldn’t run anymore.

Seeing the kitten collapse, Xie Chen finally put away the teaser and pulled the little cat into his arms to sleep.

That night—

Bai Li really had a dream.

In his dream, there was no Second Sister, and no Xie Chen. His dream was filled with boundless, endless black fog.

He lifted his little paws and smacked at it with all his might. He smacked for a long, long time, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get rid of the fog.

“Meow-aargh.”

The little kitten, tired from smacking with his paws, stared wide-eyed at the loathsome black fog and let out a threatening mewl.

The little kitten was busy even in his dreams.

At this moment—

On Weibo’s trending list, a certain hashtag was slowly but steadily climbing up.

The hashtag included Xie Chen’s name.

#XieChenMeowMeowMeow#

Clicking into the tag revealed a flood of marketing accounts and personal V accounts.

Besides the V accounts, there were also many regular personal accounts.

Right now, they were all discussing one thing:

In an audio clip Xie Chen recently released, there was a segment with a meowing sound.The song with the meowing sounds was also different from Xie Chen’s usual style. It was a simple and catchy tune, with a light and cheerful melody, and even the meowing blended naturally into the latter half.

The number of comments kept surging, especially under Xie Chen’s post—it had far more than usual.

[Holy crap, this is amazing. I’m not even a fan of Xie Chen, but I’ve listened to this song so many times. And—can you believe it—I’m listening just for that meowing part.]

[Edited version with only the meowing part is on my homepage, feel free to grab it.]

[I was in a terrible mood today, but when I heard the meowing, I suddenly felt better.]

[That meowing part is so healing. I’m already looping it endlessly.]

That short meowing song stirred up a huge wave.

Meanwhile, the cat in question was curled up in his sir’s arms, completely unaware.

The next day.

When Bai Li woke up, for once, Xie Chen still hadn’t opened his eyes.

He changed back with a plop, tilted his face up, and kissed Xie Chen’s chin.

A bit of stubble had come out on Xie Chen’s chin. When he rubbed his face against it, it tickled.

“Sir.”

The tickling made Bai Li giggle, amused by himself.

Xie Chen was woken up by his antics. With his eyes half open, he lowered his head to find the little kitten’s lips.

Soft lips.

The kitten who’d been messing around just moments ago became very obedient once kissed.

After a gentle, lingering kiss, Xie Chen lifted the little cat up slightly, and the two faced each other.

“Why are you up so early?”

“I had a dream.”

Bai Li explained: “It was an exhausting one.”

Maybe it was the peacefulness of the morning that made Bai Li, nestled in Xie Chen’s arms, suddenly want to talk to him like this.

“Sir, did you know… there’s a lot of black fog in this world?”

Xie Chen’s eyes shifted slightly.

His arms around Bai Li tightened a little: “What black fog?”

“The really filthy kind… It clings to humans and amplifies their negative emotions. If it gets serious, it makes people want to die.”

Xie Chen let out a quiet “Mm,” prompting him to continue.“I can smack those black fogs apart, but there’s just too much of it—I can’t finish smacking it all.”

His little paws were tiny—each time, he could only smack a bit of the fog.

As for this particular "skill" of the kitten, Xie Chen didn’t really know how to comment.

He wasn’t like his little kitten—so pure, so innocent. To him, this kind of world-saving burden wasn’t something he wanted to shoulder like some saint.

After sharing his biggest secret, Bai Li felt a little more at ease inside.

The two of them stayed in bed a while longer, and then Bai Li was finally carried up by Xie Chen and sat on the edge of the bed to get dressed.

“Sir, it’s almost New Year.”

Bai Li looked at Xie Chen squatting in front of him, putting thick socks on his feet, and sighed emotionally: “I’ve never spent New Year down the mountain before.”

“When the New Year comes, we can write Spring Festival couplets together, put up matching banners, eat New Year’s Eve dinner, watch the Gala, and see fireworks.”

Xie Chen explained all the customs of the New Year one by one. The little kitten, who had never seen the world, listened with longing.

Once the chubby feet were snug in thick socks—

Bai Li had a meal at home, then wandered over to Third Brother’s house next door.

Jinjin and Sixth Brother happened to still be there.

“Sixth Brother.”

Bai Li asked him, “Where are you and Jinjin going today?”

“To the lab.”

Bai Liu ruffled his little brother’s hair and told him, “I’m working—he’s keeping an eye on me.”

Bai Li nodded and turned his gaze toward Jinjin.

He remembered Jinjin had mentioned looking for her older sister.

Jinjin lowered her eyes, her long lashes fluttering like butterfly wings, and didn’t say much more.

“I’m heading to the cat café for work.”

Bai Li informed Sixth Brother: “I’ll come find you after my shift.”

“Alright.”

After finishing their chat, Bai Li waved and said goodbye to his sixth brother.

Once Bai Li left, Bai Liu glanced at Jinjin. “You’re coming with me to the lab today—no objections, right?”

Jinjin shook her head and said softly, “None.”

After saying goodbye to Sixth Brother, Bai Li remembered how drunk Third Brother had been last night and worriedly gave him a call.

The phone rang a few times and was picked up.“Meow?”

A dazed meowing sound came from the other end of the phone.

Bai Li froze: “Third Brother, where are you right now?”

“Meow meow.”

In bed.

Tan Yi hadn’t realized anything was wrong. He hadn’t even opened his eyes yet. The only reason he forced himself to pick up the call despite being half-asleep was because he had set a special ringtone just for his little brother—so he knew it was his precious little brother calling.

“Third Brother, you’re not with the fake Third Sister-in-law, are you?”

Bai Li was a bit confused. Last night, Third Brother had been carried away by the fake sister-in-law.

Now, this morning, Third Brother had just woken up and was already a cat.

In this situation, Bai Li was a little flustered. He thought that with Third Brother turning into a cat, it’d be very easy for someone to find out.

After Bai Li finished speaking, Tan Yi also fell into a mysterious silence.

Fake Third Sister-in-law.

Wait a minute… Where exactly was he right now?

Last night, he and Li Li had gone to Zhou Zhi’s place. He got drunk. Li Li took him away. And then…

“Meow-aow!”

Shit.

The sleepy haze vanished instantly. The blue-and-white cat’s fur bristled as he suddenly fluffed up. He hung up the phone and turned his head—his gaze crashing directly into the eyes of the man beside him.

“Xiao Yi, you’re awake?”

Awake your ass!

The blue-and-white cat fiercely glared at the handsome face moving toward him. He raised a paw and clawed down.

“Hiss—”

A sharp intake of breath.

The fluffed-up cat let out a satisfied snort.

Late morning.

A big sun hung lazily in the sky. Warm and cozy, much hotter than usual.

At the cat café entrance, Bai Li saw the rare sunlight, so he turned into a cat. Taking advantage of the low customer traffic, he lay at the entrance with the other cats, all basking in the sun together.

“Meow.”

Sunbathing feels so good.The tiny milk kitten lay sprawled out on a newly spread blanket at the shop entrance, all four paws stretched out, snowy white belly exposed. Its relaxed appearance almost made passersby stop in their tracks.

Mei Mei and the others followed their big brother’s lead, all revealing their bellies in turn.

At that moment, a young woman was hurrying past on the main street outside the shop.

When she saw the row of cats, she was so overwhelmed by their cuteness she nearly passed away on the spot.

“Mimi~”

“You all wait for me to come pet you after work, okay?”

Leaving behind those words, the young woman rushed off again toward her company.

Sigh.

There was no helping it.

In order to afford spending money at the cat café to enjoy some cat therapy, she had to work even harder.

Especially since she dreamed of owning a cat of her own someday.

Her goal was to work hard and make money, striving to ensure that in the future, her cat could live the life she dreamed of. For that goal—charge!

“Big Brother, humans working jobs seems so exhausting,” Mei Mei said while sunbathing, squinting as she whispered into Bai Li’s ear.

Bai Li reached out a little paw and patted him: “Us cats working jobs is hard too.”

It was just that they hadn’t been making deliveries lately, and had moved into the cat café, so things seemed more relaxed.

The cats lay napping in the sun at the entrance, sleeping until the afternoon.

Bai Li was woken up by Hei Ge.

Hei Ge had taken his original form and was crouched in front of him, pawing at his fur.

“Meow.”

Bai Li felt like he was about to be plucked bald and meowed urgently.

Hei Ge’s wedding was only a few days away. At a time like this, he should logically be very busy.

Bai Li asked him curiously why he had come here.

“Taking you out to run a loop with me,” Hei Ge explained briefly and clearly. “I lost several dogs under me. I suspect it was the same people who tried to kidnap Silly Dog last time.”

Bai Li: “……”

There were too many holes in that statement, he didn’t know where to begin correcting it.

“Hei Ge,”

Bai Li meowed, “Lang He isn’t a Silly Dog, he’s a Silly Wolf—no wait, he’s a scent-tracking wolf.”“The ones who took Lang He last time were a bunch of bad yaoguai. They’re all gone now.”

After saying this, Bai Li came to a conclusion: “This time and last time are probably two different things.”

Upon hearing that, Hei Ge licked his paw and said roughly, “Doesn’t matter if it is or not. We’ll only know if we go look.”

In the dead of winter, several dogs had gone missing in a row, and Hei Ge was furious.

Bai Li followed Hei Ge running through the city in search of the dogs. When they couldn’t find them, they expanded the search area.

“Hei Ge.”

As dusk approached, Bai Li looked at a dog meat restaurant they passed by and got a little anxious.

“Could the dogs have been stolen and cooked into dog meat?”

There were several dog meat restaurants in the city, and Bai Li saw that quite a few people were dining there.

“No.”

Hei Ge withdrew his gaze from the dog meat restaurant, his voice steady: “I’ve already investigated the dog meat restaurants. None of our dogs are in there.”

However, there were indeed stolen dogs, including pet huskies and golden retrievers raised by humans.

Hei Ge had released all the stolen dogs. Coincidentally, the owner of one particularly valuable dog happened to be searching nearby.

The dog-stealing shop owner was likely in for a rough time.

They searched until twilight.

Bai Li and the black-pawed cat stood on a high slope, looking around.

“Meow.”

Hei Ge, are we still looking?