Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Chapter 78 — First Release on Jinjiang Literature City
On a dark, windy night, when cats gather.
The snow-white little kitten sat in Xie Chen’s arms, wrapped in a coat with only its furry head exposed.
“Meow.”
They had arrived.
Bai Li stretched out his paw and tapped Xie Chen to remind him.
This place was very remote; nobody knew why that black-footed cat chose this spot to meet Li Li.
They didn’t wait long before the black-footed cat crouched nearby.
“Meow-ow.”
He let out a kitten’s cry but didn’t come closer, seemingly wary of Xie Chen.
Regarding humans, the black-footed cat was always very cautious, even if the human was trusted by the kitten.
“Sir, put me down.”
Bai Li knew Black Brother was wary of Sir, so he proactively requested.
Since Xie Chen had brought the kitten all this way, he naturally wouldn’t refuse to let the kitten down.
He bent down and placed the little kitten on the ground.
Fearing the cold outside might chill the kitten, Xie Chen even put the cat clothes he had brought onto the kitten.
The cat clothes were made by Xie Bo—bright red and green padded jacket with big flowers.
Bai Li liked this pattern, so wearing the floral jacket, he walked proudly.
“Black Brother!”
The little kitten in the floral jacket pitter-pattered to the black-footed cat and subtly showed off.
His way of showing off was presenting the flowers on his jacket from all angles to Black Brother.
Black Brother’s expression was complicated; obviously, the cool cat didn’t appreciate such big floral patterns.
“Little kitten.”
Black Brother earnestly raised a paw to stroke his head: “If I’m not dead later, I’ll buy you two sets of nice clothes.”Bai Li was momentarily stunned, sensitively catching the key point.
“Die?”
The cat nodded: “There will be thunder today.”
“I was smuggled here, the person who smuggled me has been caught, I ran away.”
“When I was wandering here, I met a mysterious person who said he was the last old Taoist of some sect. Before he died, he taught me something about shapeshifting.”
Before, Black Brother didn’t care about shapeshifting.
He didn’t want to be human, only wanted to be a free cat coming and going like the wind.
But the human he tamed...
Black-footed Brother’s gaze grew firmer: “I asked you to come because I want to entrust you with something. If I’m not struck dead by lightning, I’ll probably be very weak. Then you drag me away.”
“If I die, just throw me far away—don’t let others see.”
Bai Li was stunned.
He hadn’t expected that Black Brother’s shapeshifting could involve the risk of death.
“Black Brother.”
Bai Li anxiously urged him: “How about... not shapeshifting then?”
“Thunder is scary. Let’s go back. I can find my brothers and sisters—they’re all powerful.”
Black-footed Brother, however, was very clear-headed.
“Little kitten.”
He said calmly, “If they had a solution for shapeshifting, they wouldn’t have let you leave the mountain.”
The little kitten had told him about the difficulty of shapeshifting.
Seeing that his advice didn’t work, Bai Li was almost crying in panic.
Cats’ ears are especially sensitive to sound; too loud noises make cats fearful and instinctively want to avoid them.
And thunder—one can imagine how terrifying that is to a cat.
Black-footed Brother was determined to endure the lightning strike. He found the spot, a high mound at the very front.
The old Taoist calculated that lightning would strike the mound tonight.
“Go back. When the thunder is done, come pick me up.”
After he said this, Black-footed Brother turned and darted far away.
Xie Chen saw Black-footed Brother run off, then stepped forward and scooped the crying little kitten into his arms.
“What’s wrong?”He lowered his head, looking at the tearful little kitten, and slowed his voice to ask.
“Black Brother is going to be struck by lightning.”
Bai Li watched Black-footed Brother run away, telling Xie Chen the conversation he just had with him.
“Cats are all afraid of thunder.”
Bai Li said, “Black Brother must be scared too.”
This was their instinctive fear.
Xie Chen looked at the little cat’s back, then thought about Yan Cen.
After a long moment,
he held the cat in one arm, took out his phone with the other, and dialed a number he hadn’t called in a long time.
“Can you still move around?”
Xie Chen got straight to the point: “Your cat is in serious danger right now.”
On the other end came heavy coughing, then the sound of a wheelchair being pushed.
“Give me the address, I’m coming now.”
On Yan Cen’s way over, Xie Chen started a video call so Yan Cen could see with his own eyes the black-footed cat running up the hill, waiting for the lightning strike.
Black-footed Brother was small, but that little cat was really willing to risk everything for a human.
Bai Li paid no attention to Xie Chen and Yan Cen’s call, focusing all his attention on Black Brother.
After an unknown length of time,
Yan Cen seemed to be almost there, and just then, the lightning finally came.
“Meow!!!”
The little kitten tensed all over, eyes wide, helplessly staring at the distant hill.
On that hill, the normally cold and powerful Black-footed Brother was being struck by lightning again and again.
Painful meowing sounds shattered the silence of the night.
Bai Li’s paw hooked Xie Chen’s clothes, tears shining in his beautiful amber eyes.
Black Brother must be in terrible pain now.
Not only Bai Li’s heart ached; on the other end of the video, the gentle man’s eyes also reddened.
“Xie Chen, save him.”
“I’m begging you.”Yan Cen’s temperament looked gentle, but Xie Chen knew that behind that gentleness was a strong will.
This kind of humble plea was the first time he had heard it.
“Okay.”
Xie Chen replied with just this one brief word.
The next moment,
he put down the little kitten wearing the floral padded jacket, took off his coat, and wrapped it around him.
“Li Li, sit here quietly, don’t move.”
After giving this instruction, Xie Chen strode toward the hill, ready to save the cat whose life was still uncertain.
On the hill, Black-footed Brother was in so much pain his consciousness was fading.
When Xie Chen arrived, he saw him completely blackened by lightning strikes, unable to move.
Being in the midst of lightning, it was dangerous even to approach, let alone rescue the cat.
Bai Li couldn’t sit still and ran after him quickly.
“Meow meow!”
“Sir, wait for me!”
Xie Chen didn’t wait for him.
If the little kitten got too close, it might cause trouble.
Xie Chen decisively took a risk, trying to use a long branch to pull the cat over.
But before the branch could reach him, Xie Chen was hit by the erratic lightning.
For a moment,
Xie Chen almost cursed the reckless lightning.
Bai Li, still not having caught up, saw that his master looked like he was wrapped in lightning, his head buzzing as if it was exploding.
“Meow aoo!!”
The little kitten’s distorted wail was an unprecedented fear.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Xie Chen didn’t feel the expected pain; his whole body was indeed numb, and his consciousness was pulled into darkness.
But at the end of that darkness was a soft light.
The light fell on him, points sinking in and disappearing.
The lightning that had been striking wildly stopped; it seemed to realize it had struck wrongly…Or perhaps, it struck the wrong person.
All the arrogance instantly withdrew and slunk away.
The black-footed cat was blackened from the lightning. Xie Chen had only fainted on the ground, with no marks from the lightning on his body.
Bai Li stumbled over at last, collapsing onto Xie Chen, tears falling heavily.
“Sir.”
“Don’t die.”
Bai Li’s chubby little body shook violently. Seeing that Sir wasn’t moving, he felt it was over.
A human struck by lightning couldn’t possibly survive.
The night was dark.
Bai Li raised his paw to wipe his tears, then suddenly transformed into human form, changing his clothes with his fur.
“We’re going to see a doctor.”
Bai Li picked up the black-footed cat beside him, tucked him into his arms, and then forcefully dragged Sir, shifting him onto his back.
The demon pill activated.
With strength regained, the little kitten carried Sir and held Cat Brother, crying as he walked out.
Cat Brother and Sir were both quietly still; in the whole wilderness, only the kitten’s sobbing could be heard.
After a few minutes, a car nearby turned on its lights.
The man sitting in the wheelchair hurriedly approached Bai Li.
“Where’s my cat?!”
Bai Li stopped, looking at the man in front of him.
“Are you… looking for Black Brother?”
The man nodded.
Bai Li struggled to free a hand and handed over the blackened cat to him.
As he passed him the cat, Bai Li’s tears fell even harder.
“I don’t know if Black Brother is still alive.”
“Sir was also struck by lightning; I have to carry Sir to the hospital.”
When Yan Cen took the blackened little cat, his hands were trembling.
“Xiao Xi.”His voice trembled as he called out softly.
Foolish cat.
Just because of that superstitious “bringing luck by sacrifice,” this foolish cat actually ran out to get struck by lightning and still wanted to transform.
Yan Cen had lived long enough to have long since accepted his own fate.
If he lives, he lives; if not, it’s just destiny, no forcing it.
But…
This foolish cat was still struggling for him.
Yan Cen’s eyes reddened, and Bai Li’s tears also fell.
At this moment, the two facing each other were immersed in the same sorrow.
Seeing Yan Cen’s car, Bai Li wiped his tears and, choking with sobs, pleaded—
“Can you take me to the hospital? I’m afraid I’ll get lost at night.”
Xie Chen had been dragged into this because he tried to save his cat; Yan Cen had no grounds to refuse.
Soon,
Xie Chen was sent to the hospital, and Yan Cen took the pitch-black Cat Brother somewhere unknown.
Bai Li didn’t know what to do alone, so he called his eldest brother.
As soon as Bai Lin answered, he heard his younger brother crying and thought something serious had happened, so he hurried to drive over.
“Li Li.”
Bai Lin lost his composure, rushing anxiously to the hospital; when he saw his brother was intact and okay, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“What happened? Don’t cry, just tell your big brother properly.”
Earlier on the phone, Bai Li had cried so much Bai Lin couldn’t hear clearly.
Bai Li threw himself into his big brother’s arms, looking up and finally explained everything clearly.
“Will Sir, will Sir die?”
Bai Lin hugged his brother, soothingly patting his back and comforting him: “It’s okay, he won’t die. Xie Chen won’t die.”
The two brothers waited outside the hospital room.
Inside, Xie Chen lay with eyes still closed, while Bai Li tearfully prayed that he wouldn’t die.
Bai Lin grew anxious. After careful thought, he decided to try to contact Bai Si.
His fourth younger brother was lazy to the extreme but had one good trait: he knew medicine.
The initial reason Bai Si studied medicine was straightforward and simple, for two reasons.He loved sleeping, but his family thought that sleeping all day like this was bad for his health.
Bai Si studied medicine by himself to prove his health, then examined himself.
The checkup results naturally showed that his sleeping habits were fine, so the family couldn’t use that as a reason to force him to be active.
The second reason was for Li Li. Li Li’s health was poor. Bai Si saw how lazy he was, with no extra expression for anyone, but no one doubted how much he doted on Li Li, who was always carried away by him.
Bai Lin comforted his tearful youngest brother and finally managed to contact Bai Si.
The moment the call connected,
Bai Li held his big brother’s phone and called to his fourth brother with a choked voice, “Fourth brother.”
At the sound of “Fourth brother,” the cat, who had been squinting and sleepy, immediately straightened up.
“Li Li?”
The familiar voice made Bai Li’s pent-up grievances flood out like a dam breaking.
“Fourth brother, come quickly.”
Bai Li tried to hold back his sobs, but in front of his fourth brother, he couldn’t hold it in.
The younger brother’s sorrowful voice in Bai Si’s ears made him unable to sit still for even a second; he hung up and rushed here as fast as possible.
On the way,
Bai Si licked his lips, already thinking about where to hide his brother.
Hide him and comfort him well.