Inside the elevator, Xia Lening stood there, admiring his new “skin.”
As soon as the elevator doors opened, he was about to turn and walk out when a shrill scream erupted like boiling water.
“Cockroach!!”
The doors shut again. No one entered. The elevator descended on its own, and only the fading voice could be heard:
“It’s terrifying! Do you know that? I just saw the legendary Guangdong cockroach. No wonder people there ride cockroaches to school—they’re huge! And the guy in the elevator was holding up his phone taking pictures… not trying to kill it! He was taking photos!”
Xia Lening: “……”
What a successful cosplay.
He looked up at Gu Yucheng. Gu Yucheng avoided touching the antennae and instead patted his head, saying against his conscience, “It’s actually very cute.”
Xia Lening rolled his eyes. He hadn’t worn this outfit just to be called cute.
When they reached the first floor, Xia Lening dashed straight out of the elevator.
The snow wasn’t heavy—just a thin layer covered the ground.
Xia Lening ran wild across the snow. Gu Yucheng followed behind, staring at the perfectly formed paw prints in the snow for a couple of seconds before pulling out his phone to take a picture.
Xia Lening gathered snow into a pile with his paws and sighed. “It’s been so long since I played in the snow. The last time was… uh… last winter.”
He decided to build a snowman. Since there wasn’t much snow, a mini one would do.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t form a proper snowball. It was covered in paw prints, uneven and bumpy.
After staring at it for a while, he turned to look at Gu Yucheng.
Gu Yucheng immediately understood. He picked up the paw-marked snowball, kneading it repeatedly, then scooped up fresh snow from the ground and carefully filled in the dents.
Xia Lening watched those deft hands without blinking.
Before long, a perfectly round snowball appeared in front of him.
Satisfied, Xia Lening handed over his smaller, misshapen one.
Gu Yucheng quickly returned a flawless small snowball.
Xia Lening stacked the two together, found some appropriately sized twigs on the ground, stuck them in, and used his claws to carve out eyes.
Done.
Xia Lening jumped around proudly. The world was blanketed in white, and for a brief moment, he had the illusion that there were only the two of them in existence.
“Brother Gu?”
A confused voice cut in.
Just like that, Xia Lening snapped out of the illusion—and was startled by his own thoughts.
Ouyang Xun shrank under Gu Yucheng’s cold glance and said awkwardly, “Uh, Brother Gu, why didn’t you reply all day?”
“Didn’t check my phone.”
Ouyang Xun’s gaze landed on the phone in his hand.
Gu Yucheng explained, “Not this one. The other one ran out of storage, so I left it at home. I only check it occasionally at night.”
“Oh! I see.”
Ouyang Xun thought, I almost thought you’d finally gone insane and cut yourself off from the world. I rushed over to check on you, only to see you halfway through playing with a cat.
How does a perfectly fine phone suddenly run out of storage?
He paused, his expression a bit indescribable. “Brother Gu… did you buy that outfit for the cat?”
Gu Yucheng’s expression was equally complicated. “You could say that.”
Xia Lening glanced at them. “No taste!”
Seeing that Ouyang Xun seemed to have something to say, Xia Lening decided he’d played enough. The cockroach king led the way back home.
Behind them, Ouyang Xun watched as Gu Yucheng carefully picked up two lumps of snow.
“What’s that?”
“My cat’s snowman.”
“……”
Ouyang Xun hadn’t expected Gu Yucheng to unlock the identity of a cat slave in this lifetime.
Sitting on the sofa, watching Gu Yucheng carefully wipe the cat’s paws and comb its fur, he was still in disbelief, muttering under his breath, “I thought cats groomed themselves?”
“He doesn’t like to.”
“Oh!” Ouyang Xun was thoroughly shocked and blurted out without thinking, “Then the bag of cat food he gave you was actually a perfect gift.”
The moment the words left his mouth, both man and cat froze.
Gu Yucheng’s gaze toward Xia Lening turned cold.
Xia Lening also felt a chill in his heart, but he puffed up defensively. “Why are you looking at me?! That gift was from Xia Lening—what does it have to do with me, Pai Pai?!”
Gu Yucheng laughed in exasperation.
Ouyang Xun, meanwhile, felt his soul leave his body.
What had he just said?
If only he could go back two minutes and shut his own mouth.
But speaking of Xia Lening…
“Oh right, did that summoning doll work?”
Xia Lening’s pupils shrank in shock. A summoning doll???
Could it be that thing that broke his nail?
He shot a look at Gu Yucheng.
Gu Yucheng remained calm. “After I found it, I kept it at home for a day. The next day I took it to a temple and had professionals handle it. It’s fine now.”
Ouyang Xun was full of questions, but under Gu Yucheng’s warning gaze, he didn’t dare ask further.
Xia Lening understood. Gu Yucheng had actually been helping him—yet at the time, he had suspected Gu Yucheng of trying to harm him.
Good thing Gu Yucheng couldn’t understand cat language.
Ouyang Xun had come today with a purpose. After hesitating, he asked, “My brother wants me to ask—what are your plans moving forward?”
Gu Yucheng folded the cloth he had used to wipe the cat’s paws and set it on the table. He casually picked up a toy mouse from the sofa and handed it to Xia Lening. “Pai Pai, go play in the room for a bit.”
Ouyang Xun shivered.
Pai Pai?
Wasn’t that Xia Lening’s nickname? He’d heard Gu Yucheng call him that before.
Xia Lening slapped the toy mouse away. “What, are you trying to send a kid away?”
“Once the guest leaves, I’ll make you shrimp oil rice,” Gu Yucheng said, even in front of the guest, handing him a carrot plush.
Xia Lening was displeased. What kind of conversation needed to be kept from him?
Yet Gu Yucheng clearly wouldn’t speak if he stayed. Successfully annoyed, Xia Lening huffed and walked off, muttering, “Who cares!”
Then he hid by the door.
If he wasn’t allowed to listen, he was definitely going to listen.
Gu Yucheng cast a subtle glance at the eavesdropping cat and deliberately spoke loud enough for him to hear. “I have my own plans.”
Ouyang Xun didn’t notice their little actions and grew somewhat agitated. “What plans, bro? My brother already offered you early promotion, and you quit the firm anyway. Don’t tell me your dad is forcing you to go home and inherit the family business?”
“No. My own issue. He can’t force me.”
Ouyang Xun gave a dry “oh.”
The law firm where Gu Yucheng interned belonged to Ouyang Xun’s brother, Ouyang Feng. When Gu Yucheng first resigned, he wasn’t in a good state, so Ouyang Feng hadn’t asked much.
“But seriously—after you came back saying you wouldn’t quit and wanted to take on that case to send the animal abuser to prison, why resign again after winning? Use it and toss it aside? Uh… that’s my brother’s exact words.”
Back then, when Gu Yucheng said he wouldn’t resign, Ouyang Feng agreed immediately.
But after the case was won, Gu Yucheng submitted his resignation and went completely silent, not replying for days. According to Ouyang Feng, after winning the case, Gu Yucheng seemed detached from the world—as if ready to cut off all connections and leave at any moment.
So Ouyang Xun had been sent to “collect the body.”
Gu Yucheng looked fine now—perhaps he had come out of that dark period?
At least, that was what Ouyang Xun thought before hearing him call the cat’s name.
Now… the truth might be far more terrifying.
“If you use that method, it’s dangerous. You must truly wish for him to return. Even a trace of hesitation will attract something else.”
Maybe the summoning doll hadn’t worked, and Gu Yucheng believed it was because he hadn’t been sincere enough. Maybe he’d gone off the rails and was treating Xia Lening’s cat as Xia Lening himself.
Or worse… something else had attached itself to Gu Yucheng.
Ouyang Xun shuddered.
He needed to find that old master as soon as possible. Brother, hang in there!
Gu Yucheng suddenly spoke, “When I first resigned, I planned to travel.”
Ouyang Xun was confused. Why was he bringing this up?
Still, he replied, “And then?”
Then he discovered that the cat by his side was Xia Lening.
“I wanted to take the cat with me, but at the time, the cat didn’t really like me. Plus various things happened, so I didn’t go.”
“Uh-huh,” Ouyang Xun responded.
“Do you think after the New Year, he’ll be willing to go with me?”
Gu Yucheng looked at him.
A chill ran down Ouyang Xun’s spine.
He had a strange feeling that Gu Yucheng wasn’t actually asking him.