After jumping down from the camphor tree, the white cat did not approach Shen Wuqiu. Instead, she stood far away.
The two of them stared at each other for quite a while. Lacking any further cat-coaxing skills, Shen Wuqiu simply stood up, dusted the dirt off her pants, and prepared to head back.
The moment she took a step, the white cat immediately followed suit.
After walking for two minutes, Shen Wuqiu abruptly turned her head and saw that the big cat, which had been keeping its distance, pulled back its little paws as if startled, awkwardly turning its head away.
That aloof little expression and those indifferent little eyes made her look precisely like a wronged cat.
She was simply too adorable.
Suppressing a smile, Shen Wuqiu continued forward. Every few steps she turned around, and the white cat, which had been on guard against her, reacted much more quickly each time.
Shen Wuqiu called her bluff. “Stop pretending. You just want to come home with me, don’t you?”
“Meow.”
That haughty meow was also damnably sweet, sinking straight into the depths of Shen Wuqiu’s heart.
“Meow two more times, and I’ll take you home.”
The white cat had a lot of backbone and refused to meow.
Shen Wuqiu shrugged. “Fine, I guess I’ll just go home by myself.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
The white cat stood in place, watching as the human walked all the way to the street corner without looking back. Unable to hold back any longer, she let out a couple of soft calls. “Meow. Meow.”
Shen Wuqiu chuckled inwardly, but pretended not to hear. She deliberately quickened her pace around the corner, and the moment she turned, her figure vanished from the white cat’s field of vision.
Panicking now, the white cat hurriedly trotted over on her little paws to chase after her.
“Boo!”
Just as she reached the corner, Shen Wuqiu suddenly darted out from behind a large tree, raising her voice to shout at the white cat.
“Meow!”
Clearly, this was completely beyond the white cat’s expectations. She had never imagined that the mature, elegant-looking woman before her would pull such a childish and boring stunt, and it startled her so much that she jumped straight up in the air.
“Hahahaha. Little dummy, did I scare you?”
Seeing the white cat’s frightened and flustered look, Shen Wuqiu laughed heartily.
“Meow.” The white cat bared her teeth and spun around in circles on the spot, her fur practically standing on end.
The little thing looked somewhat exasperated. A dog will jump over a wall when driven to extremes; surely a cat wouldn’t bite someone out of desperation, would she?
Looking at the ruffled white cat, Shen Wuqiu stopped laughing. “Meow. I was just joking with you.”
“Meow.” The white cat lifted her head and bared her teeth at her with a wail.
Now the joke had gone too far. Shen Wuqiu looked around, and taking advantage of the cat’s guard being down, she quickly picked up a dry tree branch from the side to keep on hand for any emergencies.
The moment the white cat saw the dry branch in her hand, she grew even angrier. “Meow!”
“Meow. I promise I won’t scare you anymore.”
“Meow.”
It seemed she couldn’t be appeased anytime soon.
Of the thirty-six stratagems, running away is the best.
Shen Wuqiu turned on her heel and sprinted back.
The white cat never expected her to run. She stayed frozen in place for two full seconds before finally giving chase.
How could Shen Wuqiu possibly outrun a cat? After sprinting at top speed for less than five minutes, she was completely out of breath. Seeing the white cat already darting right up in front of her, she abandoned her struggle, braced her hands on her knees, and panted heavily.
The white cat sat squatting before her, tilting her head up to look at her. Her blue eyes still held a lingering trace of anger, but she showed no intention of attacking.
“You also managed to scare me. We’re even now.” Shen Wuqiu hadn’t caught her breath yet, and her words came out in stuttering fragments.
The white cat tilted her head, looking as though she understood part of it, yet didn’t quite get it at all.
Having run far too fast, Shen Wuqiu felt a tightness in her chest as if it were about to burst. Too exhausted to speak further, she simply stayed braced against her knees, gasping for air.
A moment later, the head-tilted white cat suddenly executed a spinning leap. Her nimble front paws latched onto both of Shen Wuqiu’s shoulders, and her entire feline body hung right on her.
Shen Wuqiu didn’t even dare to breathe for a split second. She widened her eyes to gaze directly into those blue feline eyes, and then watched helplessly as the whiskered little cat muzzle inched closer and closer to her own.
Closer and closer.
Closer and closer.
Before she could completely turn to stone, Shen Wuqiu felt a strange, indescribable new energy infuse her stuffy, oppressed chest. Following that, the energy rapidly spread throughout her entire body, making her tense muscles feel light and revitalized, as if restored to life.
The sensation was simply too wonderful; so wonderful that it made her forget the bizarre experience brought by the white cat’s kiss, allowing her to truly experience the feeling of absolute transcendence.
Who knows how long passed before Shen Wuqiu finally blinked her eyes, which were aching from staring for too long. The white cat’s whiskered little muzzle had already pulled away from her lips, and she was currently extending her tiny pink tongue to lick her own lips.
Looking at that tiny pink tongue, Shen Wuqiu once again had an untimely thought: a cat’s little tongue is truly adorable.
With that thought in mind, she involuntarily voiced her inner monologue: “Your tongue is really cute.”
The white cat’s lip-licking motion paused, her expression turning hesitant. After a brief moment of hesitation, she tentatively poked her little tongue out toward Shen Wuqiu. Seeing that Shen Wuqiu didn’t speak up, she briskly gave Shen Wuqiu’s lips a lick all the way around as well.
Her tongue wasn’t slippery at all. The feeling of being licked wasn’t slick; it just had a slight, prickly, tickling sensation. It still didn’t feel particularly pleasant, but to her surprise, she didn’t feel any disgust or aversion either.
Looking at the white cat, who was lifting her head up with a look as if awaiting praise, Shen Wuqiu felt a somewhat complicated mix of emotions. After pondering for a long time, she finally managed to utter: “Is your anger gone?”
The white cat twisted her head slightly, and after a good several dozen seconds, let out a meow.
That fierce and vicious tone was gone, but it wasn’t crisp or bright either, leaving a lingering sense that some emotions remained.
Shen Wuqiu rubbed the cat’s head. Sensing that the paws hooked over her shoulder were climbing higher, she simply scooped up the entire cat into her arms. “If you behave yourself, from now on my home is your home.”
The white cat still seemed somewhat unconvincing. She poked her head out from against Shen Wuqiu’s chest and protested with a meow. “Meow.”
Refusing to argue with her, Shen Wuqiu continued talking to herself: “The white cat I saw on the road last night was you, wasn’t it?”
The white cat immediately buried her head back into Shen Wuqiu’s chest and began playing dead.
Shen Wuqiu hadn’t really expected the cat to give her a human-like answer anyway. On the contrary, in her view, a cat that didn’t take your words seriously was behaving like a true cat.
As noon approached, the temperature steadily rose. Without the shade of the trees, walking along the main road grew rather warm, and holding a furry ball made it even hotter.
Unfortunately, the white cat had zero intention of getting down, so Shen Wuqiu had no choice but to carry her all the way home.
“Where on earth did you pick up a cat?”
Su Yunzhi was sitting in the courtyard trimming vegetables. The moment she caught sight of the cat in her daughter’s arms, her brow furrowed deeply; she had never been fond of furry creatures.
Shen Wuqiu maintained her usual unbothered tone: “Saw it on the side of the road. It followed me all the way, so I brought it back.”
“Nobody in our village keeps cats. Who knows what kind of wild thing this is running loose from? Bringing it back is so unhygienic.”
“Meow.” The white cat clearly disapproved of this remark.
Shen Wuqiu soothingly stroked the cat’s head. “I’ll just keep her in my room.”
“That’s not what I mean. The main thing is that stray cats aren’t clean; who knows what kind of germs they carry? Keeping it in your room isn’t good for you either, and besides, your dad hasn’t been feeling well. There’s an old saying in our parts: ‘A dog brings wealth, a cat brings misfortune.’ I don’t think this cat following you is any good omen.”
“Mm, I know what I’m doing.” Without arguing back, Shen Wuqiu cradled the white cat and walked indoors. Reaching the doorway, she seemed to remember something and turned back to ask Su Yunzhi, “Auntie, did you hear a cat meowing last night?”
“A cat meowing? What cat meowing? I already told you, hardly anyone in our village raises cats. At most, you hear a dog barking occasionally.”
Shen Wuqiu found that baffling. Could it be that last night’s cat meow was genuinely heard by her alone?
With that thought, she looked down again at the white cat in her arms. Could this be retribution; retribution for disrupting your lineage?