“Feral Cat, Feral Cat, hurry up and wake up. I’ll bring you shrimp every day.”
“Feral Cat, wake up and I’ll apologize. I shouldn’t have said you were a useless little cat.”
“Feral Cat Prince…”
“Xia Lening, if you still don’t wake up, I’ll post all those melodramatic 8 p.m. soap operas you watched into your brothers’ group chat.”
A devil’s whisper.
Xia Lening suddenly opened his eyes in anger and immediately started cursing, “How did you get into my brothers’ group chat?! Which traitor betrayed me! Execute them!”
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a screen full of cat faces, each bearing different sizes of wounds.
“You’re awake!”
“What were you muttering just now? Skirt? What skirt?”
“He said he wanted to wear a skirt. I was close, I heard it.”
Xia Lening’s head throbbed violently. He thought helplessly: It’s over. Even in dreams I’m being threatened by Gu Yucheng. That guy is basically a demon!
The cats were shooed away. Then Xia Lening saw the demon’s cold face—and heard the demon’s equally cold voice.
“You’re awake, hero cat?”
That didn’t sound like praise at all.
Xia Lening didn’t respond—he couldn’t. His throat was too dry.
Gu Yucheng’s face stayed icy as he took out a syringe and fed him water.
“Fractured hind leg. Dislocated shoulder. Liver bleeding.” Gu Yucheng paused, his voice slightly trembling. “You’re just a one-month-old kitten right now, do you understand? Do you think cats have nine lives? How many lives do you think you have? How many times do you want to die?”
A barrage of questions came down like a storm.
Xia Lening lowered his head more and more, then muttered softly in defiance, “But I’m still alive…”
Gu Yucheng stopped speaking. His face was so cold it looked like frost could form.
“I’m full,” Xia Lening said, curling back into the bed and presenting Gu Yucheng with a fluffy little cat backside.
“…”
“Just kill me already.”
Gu Yucheng left after saying that.
Hearing the door close, Xia Lening’s ears twitched and he opened his eyes again.
Under the bed, the cats began chatting as soon as Gu Yucheng left.
“So scary!”
“Don’t say that. He’s the one who brought us here to treat us.”
Xia Lening was aching all over. He weakly asked, “What happened after that?”
Wangcai replied, “After you fainted, he knocked out the bad guy. Then he brought all of us here for treatment. Later a lot of people in hats came to find him, Xiao Zhu’s owner came too, and Xiao Zhu also came. But none of us went back yet. They still come to visit us sometimes, and Xiao Zhu took a lot of photos of us.”
“Good thing he was reported. Bad people should go to jail.”
The tortoiseshell cat, whose voice had improved but was still weak, said, “You were unconscious for two days. Your owner sat here for a long time. The doctors in white said you might die… his eyes were very red.”
“It’s servant,” Xia Lening corrected.
“I… I’ve never seen him eat anything…” the tortoiseshell cat continued weakly. “It was terrifying for a cat!”
“Alright, stop talking,” another cat said.
After hearing everything, Xia Lening understood the general situation: Gu Yucheng handled everything well.
That deserved praise—but not eating was absolutely unacceptable.
Wasn’t it just two days of sleep?
“We all thought you were going to Cat Star,” Wangcai said quietly. “I even saw him cry twice in secret.”
Xia Lening sat up. “No need to cry. I’m lucky no matter what happens. If I really die, don’t cry either. Just bring cat strips to my grave and tell me stories. I can see you guys anyway. Be happy.”
Clack.
The door opened.
Gu Yucheng walked in expressionlessly.
“You guys go eat,” he said to the cats.
When the room was left with only him and Xia Lening, he took out a prescription canned food, opened it, scooped a little into the bowl.
“Eat.”
“I still want water,” Xia Lening said, pouting.
Gu Yucheng gave him some water.
Xia Lening drank guiltily while Gu Yucheng watched silently.
As long as he could hear Xia Lening’s cat noises, his mind automatically produced Xia Lening’s voice.
He had stood at the door for a long time.
That “pseudo-last-will” wasn’t the first time he had heard it. Years ago, Xia Lening had said similar things—always joking, always careless. As he said, his friends would bring alcohol and tell jokes in front of his memorial portrait, and his older sister would even play “Good Luck Comes” at the funeral to make things less sad.
But Gu Yucheng couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t smile at that black-and-white photo.
Xia Lening took a bite of the prescription canned food and immediately scrunched up his face, tears shimmering in his eyes.
“Disgusting. I’m not eating.”
Gu Yucheng squeezed out some paste. “Then this? Nutritional paste for cats.”
“Also disgusting.”
“Eat a little. You can’t not eat.”
“I won’t.”
Gu Yucheng put the spoon down, his gaze cold.
Xia Lening struck first. “You haven’t eaten these past two days either! You’re not allowed to scold me!”
Gu Yucheng sighed, then looked into his eyes and carefully wiped away his tears.
“Does it hurt?”
Xia Lening nodded, then shook his head. “It hurts, but I’m definitely not crying because of pain! No—this isn’t crying, it’s physiological saline! It’s because of the nutritional paste smell!”
“Mm.”
Gu Yucheng sniffed the paste. It had no smell at all—nothing that could affect a cat.
Seeing that, Xia Lening trembled. “You understand what I’m saying?”
Gu Yucheng then picked up the canned food and sniffed it too, as if he intended to inspect everything in the pet hospital.
“Gu Yucheng?” Xia Lening tested him. “You’re afraid of ghosts! Afraid of pain! And petty!”
Gu Yucheng said nothing.
Those methods didn’t work on him.
“The person you like doesn’t like you!” Xia Lening fired the final blow.
Gu Yucheng remained unmoved.
Fine. He really couldn’t hear.
Just then, someone knocked.
Gu Yucheng stood up, gritting his teeth slightly as he went to open the door.
It was Xia Xiaoyao.
She glanced at him strangely. “If your wisdom tooth hurts, go to the hospital. There’s no treatment for you here.”
“…”
She walked in. “Where’s the cat?”
Gu Yucheng smiled. “What brings President Xia here?”
“I came to see the legendary one-month-old hero cat.”
The cat abuse case involved a man named Li Yongzhi, a psychopath who enjoyed torturing cats. He had installed surveillance in the room. After Gu Yucheng reported it, the police searched the entire place and confiscated the footage as evidence.
The rescue scene of the cats had somehow gone viral online.
Now the internet was either calling for stricter animal cruelty laws or praising how smart and cute the cats were—especially the one that distributed keys.
Xia Xiaoyao approached Xia Lening and stared at him.
“I think the way it directed others in the video looks like someone I know.”
Gu Yucheng: “…”
Xia Lening: “…”
She really could tell?
“Sis, you’re my real sister!” Xia Lening was moved.
Xia Xiaoyao concluded firmly, “This cat must be raised by Xia Lening. Birds of a feather.”
“Hey!”
“This cat is coming with me.”
Gu Yucheng: “No.”
Xia Xiaoyao: “I wasn’t asking.”
She crouched down. “Cats rely on scent stimulation, right? I can give you things Xia Lening has used since childhood.”
Xia Lening: “I am literally covered in Xia Lening’s scent. Can we be more practical?”
Gu Yucheng: “He said he doesn’t want to go with you.”
Xia Xiaoyao: “Shut up.”
“…”
She reached out her hand. “Touch me if you want to come. I can give you better pet hospital care.”
Xia Lening: “Xia Xiaoyao, I didn’t expect a dictator like you to negotiate with a cat. I’m starting to rethink you. I think I just saw your long-lost childhood innocence.”
Seeing no reaction, she turned to check whether Gu Yucheng was acting pitiful behind her.
“You’re not coming with me? Weren’t you willing to come with me before?”
Only then did Xia Lening realize—right, he originally planned to go with Xia Xiaoyao.
It was Gu Yucheng’s illness and refusal to take medicine that delayed him.
Now, though, Gu Yucheng looked perfectly fine. He could totally leave with Xia Xiaoyao.
If he couldn’t turn back into a human, he could still live comfortably as a cat prince.
Gu Yucheng: “My stomach…”
Xia Xiaoyao waved it off. “Your stomach is fine. Xiao Lin, do it.”
Lin Yangchun suddenly appeared and covered Gu Yucheng’s mouth.
Gu Yucheng: ?
Xia Lening: ?
Where did Lin Yangchun come from?
When did she become Xia Xiaoyao’s subordinate?
That sesame bun really was something.