Chapter 85

Chapter 85

Chapter 85 — First Published on Jinjiang Literature City

Bai Si, who had rushed over from behind, wanted to take his younger brother, but he was too late.

“Sorry, I’ll excuse myself for a moment.”

Xie Chen said to the person he had been conversing with, then turned and carried Bai Li back to the bedroom.

Bai Li leaned against his chest, staring at him without blinking.

“Master, you’re so good-looking!”

Xie Chen lowered his eyes, glanced at the drunk kitten, said nothing, and strode toward the bedroom.

Behind him, Bai Si followed and said, “I gave him a bottle of goat milk—when did Li Li start getting drunk from milk?”

Xie Chen replied calmly, “He’s always reacted to goat milk. I remember I specially hid it.”

Bai Si frowned, “It was hard to find when I looked.”

Soon.

Bai Li was placed on the bed by Xie Chen. He looked at Xie Chen, then at his fourth brother, and suddenly hugged Xie Chen tightly.

As the saying goes, alcohol emboldens cowards—now, milk emboldens timid kittens.

Bai Li’s head was full of strategies Black Brother had taught him—such as, the forceful route!

“Li Li, wait a moment, I’ll get you some sobering water to drink.”

Bai Si was afraid his younger brother would start acting wild while drunk and quickly left to find water and prepare something to sober him up.

However, just as he stepped out, Bai Li got off the bed with a thump-thump-thump and locked the door with a click.

The dizzy little milk kitten knew that when it came to something like the forceful route, no other cat could be allowed to see.

Not even Fourth Brother.

Xie Chen looked at the drunken kitten, who stumbled and fell into his arms again, a trace of helplessness flashing in his eyes.

“Li Li, if your fourth brother sees you’ve locked the door, he’s going to panic.”

“It’s okay, I can ask him to step out for a little bit.”

Bai Li shook his head, trying to make himself a bit more clear-headed.

Too dizzy, and he wouldn’t be able to go through with the plan.

“Master.”Standing made him too dizzy, so Bai Li simply took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed.

He tilted up his fair, handsome face, and his beautiful eyes seemed to shimmer with starlight.

“I have something really important to tell you!”

Xie Chen stood in front of him, looking down and meeting his gaze. “Go ahead.”

Bai Li clenched his fists, imagining the decisive and sharp style of Brother Blackpaw, took a deep breath, and loudly commanded, “You have to lie down first!”

Xie Chen: “?”

Xie Chen was completely confused.

Lie down for what?

Bai Li obediently followed Brother Hei’s instructions: push Xie Chen down, sit on him, force him to kiss, and then make him agree to marry.

At the moment, the first step wasn’t quite working out.

Bai Li couldn’t push Xie Chen down, so he could only ask Xie Chen to lie down himself.

“Hurry up.”

The drunk kitten was completely unreasonable. Seeing that Xie Chen didn’t move, he even reached out and shook his arm.

Xie Chen pressed his temples and resigned himself to lying down on the bed with the milk kitten.

As soon as he got on the bed, Bai Li rolled over and sat on his waist, moving on to step two.

“Now we have to kiss!”

With his face flushed red, Bai Li fully lived up to his shameless little flirt reputation.

Xie Chen’s eyes darkened, and he no longer played along with the nonsense.

“Li Li, you’re drunk.”

He held Bai Li’s soft waist and sat up slightly.

“Be good, stop fooling around. I’ll go see if Bai Si has brought the hangover remedy.”

His voice was slightly hoarse, and he made to lift Bai Li off him. But Bai Li clung to him tightly, refusing to let go.

“No.”

Bai Li hugged him stubbornly and wouldn’t let him leave. “Don’t want soup. Want a kiss.”

Xie Chen closed his eyes, using sheer willpower to forcibly suppress every inappropriate thought.

He sat on the bed, maintaining a face-to-face position with Bai Li.

“Li Li, do you know what a kiss means?”

“It means I like you!”Bai Li answered without any hesitation. He liked Xiansheng—he had liked being with Xiansheng even before he turned into a human.

Because he liked Xiansheng, he wanted Xiansheng to kiss him.

But when Xie Chen heard the word “like,” there was no joy in his heart.

He continued to ask, “You like me—how is that different from the way you like your brothers?”

Bai Li froze.

Difference?

His beautiful amber eyes were filled with confusion. Faced with this sudden question from Xie Chen, he didn’t know how to answer for a moment.

He liked Xiansheng, and he also liked his brothers.

He tried hard to find words to describe the difference between the two, but with his muddled thoughts, he couldn’t form the answer.

Seeing his reaction, Xie Chen’s heart gradually cooled.

“That’s enough.”

He leaned in and planted a light kiss on Bai Li’s forehead.

“No need to answer,”

He said softly, “From now on, I’ll teach you how to tell the difference.”

Bai Li vaguely felt that something was off about Xiansheng’s expression—it made him uneasy just looking at it.

But he couldn’t figure out why.

“Xiansheng, one more kiss.”

Bai Li touched his forehead, unwilling to be brushed off. “Forehead kisses don’t count.”

Xie Chen paused, then kissed him lightly on the eyelid this time.

The warm touch brought a strange tingling sensation. Bai Li turned away and poof, transformed back into a curled-up ball of cat.

He was embarrassed.

Xie Chen looked at the snow-white kitty ball, but the usual smile was absent from his eyes.

Just a kiss on the eye, and the little milk kitten turned back.

If those deeper, hidden, and unspoken desires buried inside him were ever let out, wouldn’t they scare the kitten so badly he’d never turn back again?

Xie Chen gently rubbed the soft white fur of the milk kitten, picked him up, and got ready to coax him to sleep for a while.

Footsteps sounded at the door.

Xie Chen held the cat in one arm and reached to open the door with the other.The door opened.

Bai Si handed over a cup of water. “Feed this to Li Li.”

Just moments ago, Bai Li was still trying to carry out his forced-marriage plan, but now he had completely worn himself out—belly up, little paws twitching, head tilted as he fell asleep.

Xie Chen was worried that if he slept without sobering up, he’d wake up with a headache, so he roused him and made him drink the water before letting him sleep.

The little milk kitten drank until he was full, even burping out a milky hiccup that still smelled like goat milk.

Xie Chen rubbed his belly, and only after making sure he was sleeping soundly did he lift his gaze to look at Bai Si.

Seeing his younger brother asleep, Bai Si didn’t even glance at Xie Chen before getting straight to the point: “Someone spiked the wine in your glass. Luckily, Li Li took it and didn’t drink it.”

“You should look into it.”

Originally, Bai Si planned to go himself, but with a comfy bed and Li Li here, the temptation was too strong.

Already exposed in front of Xie Chen, Bai Si simply gave up pretending and poof, turned back into his original form.

A graceful long-haired cat leapt lightly onto the bed, grabbed his little brother by the scruff, and scanned the room. Then, he found a cardboard box.

Cats love boxes. It’s instinct.

The long-haired cat carried the snow-white little milk kitten into the box and disappeared inside—not planning to come out.

Xie Chen: “……”

Watching this whole scene, Xie Chen had a very complicated expression.

If Bai Si’s habit of “stashing cats” ever extended to humans one day…

Li Li would probably end up tearfully trying to bail his fourth brother out from the police station.

“You two... you two rest in the room. I’ll go handle the issue with the wine.”

“Meow.”

Go on, then.

Bai Si licked his paw, eager for him to leave.

The little milk kitten was still sleeping, so it wasn’t convenient for Xie Chen to bring him out again. Besides, Bai Si was his blood brother, so Xie Chen couldn’t exactly wear his wariness on his face.

“Uncle Xie.”

Outside the room, Xie Chen called Uncle Xie over. “Li Li’s sleeping in the room. Without my permission, don’t let anyone in—not even a cat.”

“Don’t let a cat carry him off.”

“Don’t worry.”

Uncle Xie chuckled. “I’ll guard Li Li here. You go handle your business.”

Xie Chen nodded and quickly walked away.Inside the room, the cat flicked his tail, seemingly considering whether to carry his little brother away.

There were too many people outside, and it was noisy.

This place seemed pretty good.

Bai Laosi, who spent most of his day sleeping, felt his eyelids grow heavy and thought to himself, forget it, I’ll carry him off after I wake up.

In the dream, the little milk kitten was currently lying on a large rock on a mountaintop, eyes full of longing, waiting for something.

An elder’s voice beside him coaxed, “Li Li, don’t wait anymore, let’s go back.”

The little milk kitten on the rock shook his head, unwilling to leave, still waiting with unwavering eyes.

Even one day when it rained and the elders couldn’t find the kitten, they finally found him again on that same rock at the mountain’s entrance.

At that time, on the cold stone, a snow-white little milk kitten sat upright with a big lotus leaf on his head, his chubby body steady—though occasionally tilted by the wind.

The family elders who came looking for him had red eyes from heartache.

Someone scolded, “That little bastard, we never should’ve let him in back then.”

Someone else cursed, “Ungrateful brat, does he really think our Li Li cares about him? Let’s go, he’ll forget all about him soon enough with that lousy memory of his.”

The little milk kitten, who sat under the lotus leaf in the wind and rain, was eventually carefully carried back home, wet and wilted.

After returning, just as the elders predicted, forgetful Li Li really did forget that little bastard.

Forgotten or not, Li Li would still occasionally go sit on that big stone on the mountain.

His older brothers would ask the dazed kitten sitting on the rock what he was doing there.

The little milk kitten would think hard for a long time but couldn’t answer, so he would just meow, “Sunbathing.”

And just like that, year after year, the sunbathing kitten completely forgot the one he had waited for with such longing.

The dream felt so vivid that when Bai Li opened his eyes, he still remembered it clearly.

“Meow.”

He let out a soft meow. That person buried deep in his memory, the one he had forgotten for so long—was that Mister?

Outside the room.

Xie Chen calmly ordered all the wine to be replaced and a full investigation of the surveillance to begin.

Diao Ling, who hadn’t seen Xie Chen in a while, looked somewhat pale. She nervously clutched her dress, unable to imagine what would happen if her bold gamble failed.

Just as she was feeling anxious, Diao Ling caught sight of Xie Chen alone from the corner of her eye.

Her nerves suddenly tensed. After making up an excuse, she started walking toward him.

If—if Xie Chen had drunk that wine, then upon seeing her, he would surely take her back to a room.By then, what might happen went without saying.

Diao Ling had even calculated her ovulation period—if she could have just one night with Xie Chen and luckily end up pregnant, it would basically mean she’d secured a meal ticket for the rest of her life.

Her heart was pounding like a drum, eyes filled with a mix of anticipation and fear as she took step after step toward Xie Chen.

“Brother Xie, are you feeling unwell?”

Seeing the poor look on his face, Diao Ling instinctively assumed the drug was starting to take effect.

She reached out, nervously trying to grab Xie Chen’s arm. “I... I’ll help you back to your room?”

“No need.”

“Meow!”

Don’t touch him.

Two voices rang out at the same time. Xie Chen reflexively looked toward the sound of rapid footsteps—at the little milk kitten running over.