Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Bai Li lowered his head and carefully studied the paper. The Cute Pet Live Streaming Incubation Base was located in a city village, quite a distance from here.

It said that owners could send their cats and dogs there for training. Pets trained there would become especially obedient and well-behaved, very suitable for live streaming to make money.

Nowadays, in various short videos, cute pet videos and live streams were extremely popular.

This incubation base could indeed be tempting for many people.

Seeing this, Bai Li more or less understood the situation.

“Meow meow.”

He no longer feared the stray dog but sincerely thanked him.

The dog heard the meowing and felt an itch to paw at the little white cat but restrained himself.

“Where are you going? I’ll take you,” the dog asked, lowering his head.

“To the city village,” Bai Li answered honestly.

“I’ll carry you there.”

The dog wagged his tail, lay down on his front legs, letting Bai Li climb onto his back.

“If I’m going to the city village,” Bai Li didn’t rush to climb up, stepping on the paper as he spoke, “it’s very far, it would take a long time to run there.”

The city village was on the outskirts of City A, with the lowest rent in the area. Compared to life and consumption levels in the city, it was essentially a slum.

The dog heard this and barked, “People who come here drive small trucks.”

“Get on. If you look for them on foot, your legs will be broken.”

This little cat’s legs were short and probably not very fast at running.

Hearing this, Bai Li no longer hesitated and climbed onto the dog’s back.

“Dog brother, I need to go back under the overpass first to arrange things with my little brothers.”

“Woof.”

Settled in, I’ll take you there.

The dog’s four long legs ran fast and knew shortcuts. Soon, they arrived under the overpass.

Without Bai Li’s orders, Diandian and Da Hui dared not run around. Besides, with Meimei missing, they were also afraid of losing anyone.Bai Li prepared cat food for them, left some change, and patiently instructed, “Behave and sleep here. I’m going to find Meimei and come back.”

“Meow.”

The two little ones nodded together, watching their big brother sit on the dog’s back and leave.

“Meow meow.”

Big brother is so majestic. The two little ones admired him deeply. Cats and dogs are naturally somewhat oppositional, but their big brother, so small, could sit on such a big dog.

Really impressive.

Clutching the dog’s fur with his paws, Bai Li bounced on the stray dog’s back for a long time. When they finally arrived at the city village, the sky was already brightening.

“We’re here.”

The dog was panting heavily from running but still had energy.

Bai Li jumped down, thanked him again, and walked straight forward.

The dog was stunned: “Kitty, you’re going in there?”

“Yeah!”

Bai Li’s tone was firm: “I want to get into the base.”

There must be many little cats like Meimei and the big boss, tied up in sacks inside the base. He wanted to rescue them all.

The dog looked at him, pure white all over, with round, bright eyes. Even if the dog didn’t take him there, just circling outside, he guessed the people in the base would tie him up in a sack too.

“Alright then.”

The dog was very self-aware about his image: “I can’t go with you.”

“If you get inside, remember to look for Black Brother in time.”

Black Foot Cat Brother, being a wild feline, wasn’t to be underestimated in combat. Last night when tied up in a sack, Bai Li saw that besides being caught off guard, Black Brother had some kind of counterplan.

Bai Li nodded, already very grateful to the dog brother who brought him here.

The dog didn’t leave; he lingered nearby, preparing to wait for the little cat and Black Brother to come back.

He was a fan of Black Brother. He had been wild and arrogant but after being disciplined by Black Brother, he willingly called him “Brother” from then on.

Just as the dog predicted, Bai Li had been running into the village for less than ten minutes when a short man coming out of the incubation base to dispose of cat poop spotted him immediately.

Besides taking in cats and dogs sent for training, the incubation base also trained their own cats for live-stream profit.

However, cats and dogs chosen by them had to be quite striking in appearance.

“Little kitty.”

The short man tossed the cat poop away, smiled as he approached, and took a cat treat from his pocket: “Come, want to eat this?”

Bai Li didn’t want it.He didn’t like these snacks; he preferred eating human food, like fried small dried fish.

But when the man held out the cat treat to lure cats, Bai Li tilted his head, stared at him for a few seconds, then voluntarily walked over, pretending to want to eat the treat.

A few minutes later, Bai Li was successfully kidnapped.

“Cousin, come quickly, I caught another cat!” The short man carried him into a large courtyard. The courtyard was secured and spacious. Beyond the courtyard were several rooms, where cats usually lived; outside in the yard lived dogs.

A man who usually slept with the cats in the rooms rubbed his eyes and came out.

“What breed is it?”

“Can’t tell yet, it’s still a kitten. The fur is as soft as a Ragdoll, but not fluffy. Those round eyes and that face — perfect.”

The man, still sleepy, rubbed his eyes, then, after clearly seeing the snow-white kitten in his cousin’s arms, suddenly woke up: “Damn, you really found a treasure.”

The incubation base was run by these two brothers. They came from a remote place; the elder cousin was Wang San, and the younger cousin was Wang Wu.

They usually raised and trained cats themselves to earn money. All the cats were obtained by scavenging, kidnapping, stealing, or bagging—beautiful cats.

If the cats obviously had owners, they would raise them for a while then secretly resell them or pretend to have found a stray cat to ask the owner for money. They kept the extortion subtle so as not to leave evidence.

As for cats and dogs sent by others for training, additional fees applied.

To make money, the brothers put a lot of effort into the cats and dogs.

“Lock him up.”

Wang San ordered his cousin, “It’s still early. We’ll train after dinner.”

“Okay, I’ve cooked. You eat first, brother. By the way, which cage should I put this kitten in?”

“Cage 7. Put him with the one we caught yesterday.”

Following Wang San’s instructions, Wang Wu grabbed Bai Li and efficiently locked him inside.

There were already two cats in cage 7, one of which happened to be Black Foot Cat Brother, the one bagged last night.

Black Foot Cat Brother frowned when he saw Bai Li: “You got caught by them?”

“I came here on my own,” Bai Li explained, “I came to find you and Meimei.”

Black Foot Cat Brother was silent. After being bagged, he could have resisted, but he didn’t because he wanted to come here.

Since arriving, he had already seen Meimei and had planned to leave with her today. But now, there was an extra little kitten tagging along.

The cat brother looked helplessly at the kitten who had walked into a trap himself. With that size and appearance, being cute might work, but relying on him alone probably wouldn’t.

Bai Li didn’t understand Cat Brother’s worries. Sitting in front of him, he was asking about the situation here.

The cat cages were placed one next to another, and the current scale wasn’t very large.“Boss.”

Bai Li looked at the cats in the other cages: “They all look so listless.”

“Too tired.”

Black Foot Cat Brother said calmly, “The training here is exhausting. If you don’t complete it, there are punishments.”

Few of the cats were truly obedient, but locked up and trained, they all had to obey.

For the whole next day, Bai Li finally experienced the daily routine here.

The two brothers split duties—one in charge of cats, the other dogs. Besides them, there were a few hired outsiders.

They all lived in the urban village, poor, so hiring them didn’t cost much.

“See this hand signal? When I stretch my hand out, you come over and rest your chin on my palm.”

Wang San first pinched a cat and forcefully demonstrated. After the demonstration, he put the cat back and started making the other cats follow.

Bai Li glanced at his hand, then at the other motionless cats.

Training like this wouldn’t make them obedient at all.

His doubts didn’t last long before the man suddenly grew fierce: “Hurry up! If you don’t listen, do you believe I’ll stew cat meat?!”

To make the cats ready for streaming, these people didn’t hit much. Injuries would cost money to heal and would be bad for streaming.

But the cats didn’t get beaten—they got starved.

The food here was either poor-quality cat food or cheap white steamed buns that cost just a few cents each.

Scolding and withholding food forced the unwilling cats to either go berserk or submit.

Cats that went berserk were locked up; the submissive ones endured the scolding and were given poor food as a consequence.

Bai Li and Meimei followed behind Black Foot Cat Brother. He was proud and disdainful of cooperating with such training.

Bai Li poked him with his paw, meowing, “Boss, please cooperate with them. I want to save everyone.”

He could see that the cats locked here were in very poor condition—both physically and mentally.

If they stayed here any longer, they would all die.

The brothers didn’t care about their deaths, but Bai Li didn’t want to watch them die.

If they could be freed, cats with owners might find their owners.

Cats without owners could try to scam someone into adopting them, or at worst, learn from Diandian to scavenge—better than wasting away here.

Black Foot Cat Brother showed some confusion at Bai Li’s words.

“How do we save them?”

Though confident in himself, Black Foot Cat Brother could only guarantee bringing Meimei and Bai Li out.After acting cooperatively for half a day, Bai Li spent a lot of time meowing and talking with the other cats.

Now, he leaned close to Cat Brother’s ear and said seriously and quietly, “We can start a collective cat rebellion!”

If only a few cats rebelled, the effect would be small.

But if all the cats, plus the tied-up dogs, rebelred at the same time, no one in this room, this yard, or these treacherous humans could stop their cat uprising!

Black Foot Cat Brother: “...”

Cat Brother sized up this little guy who still seemed unweaned: “The cat’s small, but the idea’s big.”

Bai Li blinked his pretty eyes and stared back at him.

Cat Brother was touched by this obedient look. He paused, “Not a bad idea. Then rebel. I’ll notify all the cats and dogs to cooperate.”

“Thank you, Boss!”

With Cat Brother’s support, Bai Li felt confident about the upcoming rebellion.

“Just this little kitten then.”

As they meowed, Wang San grabbed Bai Li: “You did well today, come, let’s put you on camera.”

Wang San had an account registered on a livestream platform, though his followers weren’t many.

He put Bai Li in front of the camera to start filming.

“Little cutie, come, show some charm. Lots of people are watching you through this now, say hello to them.”

During the livestream, Wang San’s voice changed from harsh to extremely gentle.

Bai Li’s little ears twitched, catching the phrase “lots of people are watching you.”

He tilted his head and moved closer to the camera.

Then—

“Meow, meow meow! Meow meow meow!”

The kitten’s meows still had a baby tone, rapid and urgent. Translated, it was a straightforward message:

“Save the cats! The cats are locked up by bad people!”