One hour.
Xia Lening had already been in the next room for an hour.
From “Ahhh ahhh catch me,” to “Let’s analyze why Xiao Zhu was so gloomy yesterday,” to “How to successfully win over the calico cat next door.”
Gu Yucheng’s fists grew tighter and tighter.
Who was Xiao Zhu? Who was this calico cat they were trying to win over?
The sun’s shadow on the balcony moved at a snail’s pace. The doorbell rang again and again, and Gu Yucheng reluctantly left the balcony.
Relying on years of human experience, Xia Lening had devised a perfect plan to win over cats for Wangcai.
Wangcai was astonished. He had not expected this little dumb cat who could not even groom properly to have so many clever ideas.
Just as they arrived at the balcony, Wangcai narrowed his eyes and sniffed. “Whose cat food is that? It smells so good.”
Xia Lening clung tightly to his neck. “Can you even tell cat food from human food?”
“If you smell it enough, you can tell.” Wangcai jumped over to Gu Yucheng’s place and paused. “It seems like it’s coming from your house.”
“Impossible. He wouldn’t make cat food. At most he’d open a can for me—”
Wangcai gently turned his head. He immediately fell silent.
Before him was a feline feast.
Each bowl was larger than an entire cat.
Gu Yucheng was squatting in front of all those bowls, staring directly at him.
Xia Lening analyzed rationally. “This is my last meal. After today, you won’t see me again.”
Wangcai: “It smells so good.”
“It’s a trap. Traps are always designed to lure cats.”
Wangcai: “But he is your servant.”
“He used to be my enemy.”
“Smells so good!”
This time, it was not Wangcai who exclaimed. From all around them came waves of cat voices. Cat heads peeked out one after another, and even bold stray cats directly jumped from trees onto the balcony.
Xia Lening looked at the amount of food that seemed enough to last a week, then at the cats’ longing eyes, and made a heroic decision.
Risking being beaten to death by Gu Yucheng, he carefully crawled over. When he saw no reaction, he nudged one of the bowls onto the balcony with his head.
“Eat, eat,” the little orange cat stood up and looked at the increasing number of cats jumping onto the balcony. He patted his chest. “Eat as much as you want, but don’t go inside. Otherwise I can’t save you.”
After speaking, he went back inside, intending to push out the remaining dishes.
Unexpectedly, the moment he turned around, he bumped into Gu Yucheng’s leg.
Startled, he looked up. Gu Yucheng was holding two bowls in his hands. Under the wary gaze of all the cats, he slowly squatted down, placed the bowls on the balcony floor, and even patted Xia Lening’s head.
“Eat with your friends. There’s more later. I’ll go bring it out.”
Gu Yucheng really went to fetch more food. Xia Lening was surrounded by envious feline gazes.
“…It’s over. My servant has gone crazy.”
No—why was Gu Yucheng acting like this in front of cats too?!
Wasn’t he not pretending a few days ago? Why was he suddenly so into acting today?
Seeing Gu Yucheng win over even more cat fans, Xia Lening opened his mouth.
“You’re all being tricked! He’s very bad!”
“Explain.”
“He said I was noisy! He called me dumb!”
The cats: “Good food, good food!”
“He even dumped me at a pet shop for an entire day!”
The cats: “Smells so good, smells so good!”
“Hey!”
Wangcai, the largest but best-tempered cat, finished some chicken breast and stepped out of the battlefield, lazily flicking his tail. He reminded Xia Lening, “How did you hurt your paw? Paws are very important to cats. If it was your servant who did it, tell them. They’ll believe he’s a bad guy.”
Xia Lening stared at his paw and hesitated. After a pause, he said reluctantly, “Well… it wasn’t entirely his fault. I scratched him too.”
A soft chuckle came from above.
Both cats looked up and saw the man leaning by the door. No one knew how long he had been watching.
Xia Lening felt a little hot in the face. Even though he knew Gu Yucheng could not understand cat language, being “defended” in front of him still felt humiliating.
Xia Lening glared at him. “What are you looking at!”
Gu Yucheng smiled. “I like you too, Paipai.”
Xia Lening felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His whole cat body turned stiff.
Paipai.
His childhood nickname.
His deceased mother had often called him that. It was said that before he turned four, Xia Xiaoyao also called him that, until he reached the age when even dogs found him annoying, and Xia Xiaoyao gradually changed his name for him to “idiot,” “brat,” “dummy,” “hey.”
As for Gu Yucheng—
Gu Yucheng had lived across from his house since childhood. He definitely knew that name. And whenever he called it, it was usually to disgust him.
Those calls were paired with questions like: “Why did you shave your eyebrows?” “Did you deliberately lower your scores this time?” “It took a lot of courage to get that haircut, right?”
So every time Xia Lening heard that nickname from Gu Yucheng, he got furious.
He had not expected that even after he died, Gu Yucheng would still use that name on his cat body.
Gu Yucheng! Pure villain!
Whatever malicious intentions he had, Xia Lening could not even imagine.
Yes. He had always found Gu Yucheng’s thoughts impossible to read.
Even if he did not want to admit it.
Xia Lening did not move for a long time, leaving only a twisted cat expression. Wangcai was confused. “Stinky Biao, it looks like he’s calling you.”
Xia Lening rolled his eyes. “What does him calling Paipai have to do with me, Stinky Biao?”
Wangcai did not know Lu Xun and Zhou Shuren.
Wangcai came to a sudden realization. No wonder their master-servant relationship was so bad—this servant did not even understand Stinky Biao’s name!
Wangcai glanced at the man with mild disdain.
This foolish human looked like he was in a good mood.
He shook his head helplessly and prepared to lick Xia Lening’s fur as comfort.
Unexpectedly, just as his tongue was about to come out, Xia Lening was picked up.
Xia Lening was confused, his four paws hanging in the air.
“I just checked,” Gu Yucheng said. “When cats lick each other, it means marking scent. Are you very close with him?”
“What does it have to do with you!”
“I can brush your fur every day. Can you stop him from licking you?”
Xia Lening did not care about fur grooming, but since Gu Yucheng asked, he deliberately went against him. “No!”
“Okay, then it’s settled.”
“Who agreed with you?! Don’t translate things however you want, Gu!”
“If I see him licking you again, I will—”
Xia Lening thought: You don’t have anything that can threaten me.
Gu Yucheng calmly finished, “I’ll lick you too.”
Xia Lening froze, staring at him in disbelief.
He lowered his head and asked Wangcai in a trembling voice, “Did you hear what he just said?”
Wangcai: “He said he would lick you.”
Wangcai added, “I have never seen a human lick a cat before.”
Xia Lening felt like the sky had collapsed.
Gu Yucheng’s cleanliness obsession was gone?! This was terrifying!
He flipped over Gu Yucheng’s hand and saw several horrifying scratch marks. He panicked. “He got scratched by me today. Is he sick? Something like rabies?”
The cats who had finished eating chattered around them.
“Probably not. My human gets scratched by me every day and is fine.”
“Nope, only dog bites make people go crazy. I’ve seen it.”
Xia Lening was still uneasy.
Gu Yucheng: “Hiss… suddenly the wound feels hot.”
Xia Lening was shocked. “I didn’t get vaccinated!”
Gu Yucheng: “Paipai can play with his friends first. I’ll go rest for a bit.”
Xia Lening snapped angrily. “Sleep, sleep, sleep—you trying to die?!”
Gu Yucheng looked confused, as if he did not understand why his cat suddenly got angry.
Xia Lening muttered “idiot,” jumped down from his hands, sent the group of cats away, and bit onto Gu Yucheng’s pant leg, trying to drag him toward the coffee table.
Before leaving, Wangcai looked back and saw a faint curve at the corner of the man’s mouth. A strange feeling rose in his heart.
Xia Lening had no idea. He was jumping around the living room, trying to find the medical kit he had seen earlier that morning.
Suddenly, there was a “clunk.”
He turned around and saw two bowls placed beside him—one filled with various cat dishes, and the other with goat milk.
Gu Yucheng smiled gently. “You didn’t eat earlier, right? I secretly saved you a portion.”
Xia Lening had indeed not eaten. He was not used to squeezing in with a group of cats to eat from one bowl.
Even now that he was a cat, he still could not accept it.
But he had no mind for food at all. He jumped onto the coffee table and pulled out a tablet. Under Gu Yucheng’s expectant gaze, he turned the volume to maximum and pretended to accidentally click a video.
A male voice came from the tablet: “What should you do if you are accidentally bitten by a stray cat? Doctor Li explains…”
Gu Yucheng paused, then laughed softly.
“Paipai really cares about me,” Gu Yucheng said, patting his head. “I’m fine. Just disinfect it.”
Xia Lening was speechless. He silently recited “Buddha saves the destined,” then jumped down to eat.
He truly felt Gu Yucheng had gone crazy. The man actually watched a medical science video as background music, smiling faintly the entire time while watching him eat.
What he did not know was that Gu Yucheng, while seemingly listening to the video, was thinking about something else.
When Xia Lening had opened the tablet earlier, Gu Yucheng immediately recalled yesterday at the pet shop, when Xia Lening had snatched Li Zheng’s phone and tried to type.
So he had actually wanted to tell Li Zheng his identity. At the funeral, he had also clung to Xia Xiaoyao, trying to leave with her to find a way to turn back into a human.
Then what about him?
Li Zheng could know. Xia Xiaoyao could know. Even Lin Yangchun, whom he had not seen for years, could know.
But what about him?
They had been together for so many days. Why had Xia Lening never tried to tell him?
Just moments ago, he had almost thought Xia Lening was going to trust him.
But it was not. Xia Lening had never intended to let him know.