“My bed is not something a filthy cat like you gets to sleep on.”
Jolted awake by the fall, the kitten lay dazed on the floor, meowing a few disgruntled protests. Then, as if annoyed by the noise, he covered his head with his two stubby front paws, curled himself into a round white ball, and promptly fell back asleep right there on the floor.
Chong Yin pressed his lips together, glaring in displeasure at the outrageously bold kitten who’d dared sneak into his room. After a long moment, subscribing to the principle of out of sight, out of mind, he climbed onto the couch and paid the kitten no further attention.
The next morning, Chong Yin woke to find something warm and fuzzy pressed against his face, nearly smothering him.
He swept the fluffy little bundle off his face and flung it aside. Sitting up, he glared coldly at the kitten sprawled on the floor, groggily trying to get up, his voice laced with irritation. “Foolish cat!”
After scolding it, he called for someone to come take the cat away.
Once tossed outside the hall, Bai Xiaonian was fully jolted awake by the cool breeze.
His current body was simply too frail. He’d exhausted so much energy the day before that even a full night’s sleep hadn’t been enough to recover.
Now his stomach was growling with hunger again. He glanced toward the main hall and let out a dejected sigh.
These people had forgotten to feed him yet again.
Once cultivators reached a certain level of cultivation, they stopped needing to eat altogether. Everyone in this Demon Palace was of exceedingly high cultivation, so hardly anyone bothered to eat on a regular schedule, which meant no one thought to feed a little kitten on time either.
So getting something to eat right now seemed like it would be somewhat difficult.
Still, Bai Xiaonian decided to fend for himself and try his luck in the kitchen.
Before his rebirth, even though he too had abstained from food, he’d still loved all kinds of delicacies, and the palace kitchen had always kept food on hand. He wondered how things stood now.
When Bai Xiaonian slipped into the kitchen, he found it nearly empty, the stove cold and quiet, looking rather shabby.
The kitten pursed his lips, silently cursing Chong Yin for not knowing how to enjoy life, he’d taken what used to be a perfectly good little kitchen and reduced it to this desolate, barren state.
Only a few people sat together chatting in the kitchen. The kitten pricked up his ears to listen and discovered, to his surprise, that they were talking about him.
“I heard a new kitten arrived at the Beast Garden yesterday and really got on His Excellency’s bad side.”
“Wasn’t that cat supposed to be beaten to death, then?”
“It was supposed to be, but for some reason His Excellency changed his mind and kept it alive, even had the kitchen send food for the cat.”
“Our kitchen barely has any use as it is, and now we’ve sunk so low we’re cooking for a cat…”
“Ugh, don’t be upset yet. This cat only won His Excellency’s favor for a moment, didn’t we hear it got tossed out again this morning, once the novelty wore off?”
“Tossed out, does that mean he doesn’t want it anymore?”
“That, I couldn’t say… Oh, look, isn’t that the cat right there!”
Suddenly, everyone’s gaze turned at once, landing on the little white ball of fur perched on the stove, licking its paws while listening to the gossip.
Slightly embarrassed, Bai Xiaonian lowered his paw, but he quickly composed himself, lifting his head with haughty confidence, his tail swaying lazily behind him, every bit the picture of a cat lording over his domain.
The kitchen staff bristled with quiet resentment. Their little kitchen was already looked down upon as the most useless, low-ranking place in the Demon Palace, and now even a cat was lording itself over them. Their pent-up grievances suddenly boiled over.
A cook, somewhere in his thirties or forties, rose from his little stool and looked over the palm-sized white kitten on the stove, a flash of contempt crossing his face.
A spirit beast without a shred of spiritual power, no wonder His Excellency had tossed the thing aside.
“Little cat, you’ve come to our kitchen because you’re hungry, haven’t you?” the cook asked, raising an eyebrow.
The white kitten let out a soft meow and licked one of its little pink paws.
Seeing this, the cook assumed the cat was indeed hungry, so he turned and fetched a small dried fish.
The other cooks watched him with dissatisfaction and confusion, but the cook simply winked at them, signaling them to stay calm.
The cook brought the dried fish over to the kitten. The kitten opened its mouth, took hold of it, and swayed its little tail as it slipped out through the window.
Climbing down from the windowsill, the kitten stumbled and tumbled onto the ground, rolling over twice, fortunately, no one saw.
The kitten scrambled back up, shook off the dust, and trotted off briskly, pretending nothing had happened.
Famished, Bai Xiaonian carried his dried fish back to the main hall and, unable to wait any longer, began devouring it eagerly.
…
“Where’s Xiao Niangao?”
Chong Yin swept into the hall in his flowing crimson robes, his stride unhurried, when he suddenly realized he hadn’t seen the troublesome kitten all morning, and found himself puzzled.
His personal attendant, Liu Huan, trailing behind him, glanced around and said, “This morning we saw him carrying a dried fish into the hall, but no one’s seen him since…”
Chong Yin’s brow furrowed slightly. He made a small sound of acknowledgment and thought nothing further of it, turning to head to his study to attend to business. But before he could even step over the threshold, he suddenly spotted a small, furry shape curled up by the door, twitching faintly.
Chong Yin’s footsteps stopped. He turned on his heel and walked toward the kitten in the corner.
He’d already reached the kitten, yet it remained curled up in a ball, showing no reaction at all. Just yesterday, the cat had been full of vigor, baring its teeth and hissing at him, today it looked as good as dead.
Chong Yin clicked his tongue, lifted his foot slightly, and nudged the kitten’s rear end with the gilded toe of his black boot. “Foolish cat.”
He called out to the kitten again, but it only twitched, giving no other response.
Chong Yin’s expression darkened. He waved a hand, motioning for the servant beside him to pick the kitten up.
The servant obeyed at once, gently scooping up the kitten and cradling it in her palms, presenting it before Chong Yin.
Only once lifted up did the kitten show a faint reaction. It raised its head, ears drooping pitifully. At the sight of Chong Yin, its little face seemed to carry a hint of wounded sorrow, its round black eyes brimming with tears.
“Meow…”
The kitten mewed weakly, its body trembling.
Chong Yin’s brow furrowed, the air around him instantly turning cold. He looked up at the attending servant, his phoenix eyes narrowing. “Who has been looking after this cat?”
Liu Huan, who was holding the kitten, and the other attendants behind her, seeing the Demon Lord’s fury, dropped to their knees in a wave, Liu Huan’s voice trembling. “Y-your Excellency, no one has been looking after Xiao Niangao. We don’t know what’s wrong with him either…”
Chong Yin’s face darkened further as he silently studied the kitten dying in Liu Huan’s hands. The hall fell so silent one could have heard a pin drop.
In that unnervingly tense silence, the kitten suddenly stirred, letting out a soft, feeble meow. “Meow, meow…”
Then, step by struggling step, the kitten crawled toward Chong Yin, whose face had gone grim with fury. Afraid the kitten might fall, Liu Huan kept moving her hands wherever the kitten crawled, until it finally managed to reach the hem of Chong Yin’s robe.
The kitten stretched out its tiny paw, clung to Chong Yin’s robe, and, inch by inch, struggled to climb up his body.
Everyone watching held their breath. After all, the Demon Lord was still in the middle of his fury, yet this cat seemed utterly oblivious to reading the room, climbing straight onto him. Wasn’t it afraid he might crush it with one hand?