Chong Yin’s footsteps halted. He clicked his tongue and finally waved a hand, summoning a servant to fetch a spirit healer to examine the kitten.
That night, the main hall was brightly lit. Chong Yin sat on the couch, his expression blank, watching the spirit healer examine the kitten.
The healer was drenched in nervous sweat under His Excellency’s stare. After finishing the examination, he let out a deep breath of relief.
“Reporting to Your Excellency, the kitten is in no serious danger. It’s simply gone without food for far too long. It needs to eat immediately, or if this continues, its life will be in grave danger.”
Chong Yin raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes, then coughed lightly and waved a hand. “Mm. You may go.”
The healer bowed slightly and hurried to wipe the sweat from his brow, about to leave, when something occurred to him. He turned back and added, “Oh, and Your Excellency, since the kitten is still so young, it needs to eat something easily digestible right now, things like milk, fish broth, and so on…”
Chong Yin frowned. “What a bother.”
The healer flinched, assuming His Excellency was displeased, and quickly fell silent, not daring to say another word. He bowed and retreated in haste.
Once the healer had left, Chong Yin’s thoughtful gaze settled on the kitten lying limp on the carpet.
The kitten’s eyes were shut, showing no reaction at all. A flash of displeasure crossed Chong Yin’s face. He rose from the couch, stepped over, and poked the kitten’s head with a slender finger. Only then did the kitten finally bare its teeth, as if trying to muster a fierce expression.
Unfortunately, on such a small, weak little thing, even anger only made people want to coo over it more.
This time, Chong Yin finally relented and waved for someone to prepare food for the kitten, his expression somewhat awkward as he gave the order.
Ever since learning the kitten had been starving like this, Chong Yin had connected it to all the odd little gestures the cat had made toward him earlier. Looking back on it now, it was simply that he himself had been too obtuse to realize the kitten was hungry. But of course, the mighty Demon Lord would never admit to being obtuse, and so the matter was simply left at that.
Hearing that food was on the way, the kitten immediately perked up, circling happily around Chong Yin’s hand, his round black eyes narrowing with delight.
Soon, several bowls of fish broth were brought in. The cooks stood before the table holding the trays, hesitating at the sight of the cat on the floor.
Should the dishes be placed on the floor for the cat, or set on the table?
While the cooks were still deliberating, the little kitten had already pushed himself upright, wrapping his short, plump front paws around Chong Yin’s leg, wriggling his rear end and swaying his tiny tail, tilting his fuzzy head up and meowing softly and insistently at Chong Yin.
“Meow, meow, meow…”
Hurry up and carry him to the table to eat.
The kitten was growing frantic.
Chong Yin paused for a moment, hesitated briefly, then bent down and picked up the white ball of fur clinging to his leg.
The cooks nearby looked as though they’d just witnessed something horrifying, their eyes going wide.
Chong Yin glanced at them and said flatly, “Set it on the table.”
The cooks snapped out of their shock, nodded hastily, and set several plates of fish onto the table one after another. As they walked away, the group of cooks still looked rather dazed.
The high and mighty Demon Lord had actually let a cat eat at his table.
Meanwhile, Bai Xiaonian was squirming anxiously in Chong Yin’s arms, desperate to get down to the food. His little belly had already caved in, if he didn’t eat soon, he’d starve.
But Chong Yin, of all times, chose this moment not to let him go.
“Xiao Niangao, you’ve shown me such disrespect today, and yet you still want to eat my food. Shouldn’t you show some kind of gesture in return?”
The kitten feigned complete incomprehension, tilting his fuzzy head to the side, his big eyes full of blank confusion.
The corner of Chong Yin’s mouth twitched. He tapped a curled finger against the kitten’s head. “You little cat, you really are good at playing dumb.”
Chong Yin simply refused to let the kitten go. The cat grew increasingly desperate, not knowing what to do, while the delicious aroma from the table wafted into his sensitive nose, making the little kitten swallow hard, again and again.
Chong Yin was insisting on some kind of gesture, but the kitten had no idea what sort of gesture he wanted.
In his desperation, the kitten suddenly grabbed hold of Chong Yin’s long, elegant finger and licked it over and over with his little pink tongue.
Chong Yin’s whole body went rigid, his pupils constricting slightly. “You little cat…”
The finger the kitten was licking so earnestly happened to be the very one he’d bitten earlier that day. It seemed the cat was apologizing.
But what Chong Yin actually wanted from the gesture was simply for the cat to explain why it seemed to understand human speech.
Chong Yin disliked being touched by any creature. Enduring the discomfort, he pulled his finger from the kitten’s mouth with a dark expression, took a handkerchief, and carefully wiped away the damp saliva on his finger. His voice came out cold and commanding. “Foolish cat. From now on, you are not to touch me with your mouth, or I’ll toss you to the tigers in the Beast Garden.”
The kitten let out a sullen meow in response, more or less agreeing.
As if he had any interest in touching Chong Yin with his mouth, Bai Xiaonian scoffed inwardly in disdain.
Chong Yin finally, magnanimously, set the kitten down on the table. The kitten lunged excitedly at the large fish in front of him, but he charged so eagerly that he couldn’t stop in time and ended up plunging headfirst straight into the food.
When he lifted his head again, his whole face was smeared with grease, but the kitten looked utterly delighted, even baring his teeth in something like a grin, a cat grinning was, admittedly, a bizarre and comical sight.
Then the kitten dove right back in, gnawing hungrily at the fish.
Watching from the side, Chong Yin’s mouth twitched repeatedly, but after much restraint, he ultimately said nothing to scold the kitten for its thoroughly undignified table manners.
The little ball of fur cradled several empty bowls, his belly swollen round from eating, and was still going for more when Chong Yin grabbed him by the neck. Frowning, Chong Yin poked the kitten’s bulging stomach with one finger and asked, puzzled, “Won’t this belly of yours burst?”
Embarrassed, the kitten tried to cover his round little stomach with his front paws, but his paws were too short to manage it, so he had no choice but to endure Chong Yin’s teasing.
Today had been a miscalculation on Bai Xiaonian’s part. From now on, he absolutely would not humiliate himself like this in front of Chong Yin again.
But that fish had been so delicious. Perhaps it was because of the cat’s body, but for the first time, Bai Xiaonian found fish to be utterly delicious.
Chong Yin had the rest of the fish cleared away, then tossed the kitten back into the cage, saying, “Behave yourself in there. Don’t go wandering off.”
With that, he smoothed the rumpled cuff of his sleeve and rose to return to the inner chamber.
This time, Chong Yin didn’t lock the cage, meaning Bai Xiaonian was free to move about as he pleased.
Naturally, the kitten had no intention of staying put in the cage. Once Chong Yin was gone, he crawled right back out.
Having eaten far too much, the kitten’s entire midsection had swelled up, round and plump, making him waddle unsteadily as he walked.
No matter how you looked at it, Bai Xiaonian had once been the Demon Lord himself, accustomed to a life of luxury and comfort, how could he possibly tolerate living in a cage? Besides, this palace had been his own residence before his rebirth, and his bed was right there in front of him. There was no reason he shouldn’t sleep in it.
And so the kitten wobbled his way toward the inner chamber.
Inside, Chong Yin had gone to bathe again. Under the warm, golden candlelight, the man’s flawless silhouette was faintly visible through the screen.
Who knew how many times a day this man bathed.
The kitten yawned, entirely uninterested in Chong Yin’s bathing habits, and made a beeline for the large bed.
By the time Chong Yin emerged in his crimson robe, striding out on his long legs, and lifted the blanket, he found a little cat curled into a tight ball, hidden beneath the covers. The kitten was snoring softly, its round body rising and falling with each breath, utterly endearing.
Chong Yin watched for a moment, then frowned, reached out, grabbed the kitten, and without the slightest hesitation, tossed it straight off the bed.