Chen Jingle was still a bit groggy from just waking up.
By this time, the system had already begun scheduling his daily tasks.
[Study time has arrived. Smart babies love studying the most! Little Chen Jingle, please choose one of the four compulsory subjects—Language, Mathematics, Foreign Languages, or Calligraphy—to begin your study. The time limit is one hour. You can definitely do it, baby!]
"Is the first period theoretical knowledge again? Fine," Chen Jingle yawned, preparing to keep slacking off by watching foreign travel videos to pass the time. However, he suddenly paused, remembering something. "By the way, system, does cat language count as a foreign language?"
The system seemed to freeze for a second before answering.
[Cat language can be considered a foreign language, although it is not a language in the traditional sense. Cats usually communicate through body posture, tail movements, and scents. While they sometimes express their emotions and needs through specific sounds, this is vastly different from the complexity and structure of human language. If Little Chen Jingle feels that learning cat language will help you better care for cats, meet their needs, and enhance the bond between humans and pets, then the system deems learning and understanding cat communication to be of certain value.]
Chen Jingle’s eyes lit up. "Great, then I want to learn this!"
Besides planting some Huahua and grass at home, Chen Jingle also kept a cat. It wasn’t some expensive breed, just a regular Dragon Li, and a male at that. He sported white gloves, white socks, and a white bib. Having been raised for half a year, he was usually quite well-behaved. Besides guarding the house against mice, he also served as a proper pet. He was vaccinated, and Chen Jingle regularly dewormed him.
Facts proved that when one’s mental state was poor, keeping a pet could indeed relieve stress. This was exactly why Chen Jingle wanted to learn cat language.
Cats are actually very intelligent creatures, especially the Dragon Li, which can understand human speech. However, most of the time, they are too lazy to acknowledge you unless they are hungry or there is good food. To some extent, cats are also very exasperating creatures. Aside from being cute, they often give you headaches and send your blood pressure soaring.
The Dragon Li that Chen Jingle kept was named Tiger Cub. Even though he wasn’t even a year old, he was already huge and chubby with a beautiful coat, looking exactly like a miniature tiger. Hence the name, Tiger Cub.
He didn’t actually feed him that much—just one meal in the morning. After eating, the cat would run outside to play wildly, then return around five or six in the afternoon for a second meal. It had already become a habit. When raising a cat in the countryside, don’t expect to keep them tied up.
His food wasn’t some pricey kibble or canned wet food, but rather minced chicken and duck. During Chen Jingle’s own meals, he would also toss him some green beans and corn kernels. He even drank soup. Well-fed and watered at home, there was no fear of him eating poisoned rats or other unclean things outside.
Chen Jingle had previously scrolled past videos on short-video platforms where people communicated with stray cats using meows, and he had been very envious at the time. With just a few MEOW MEOWs, the kittens would happily run over to rub against them and cuddle, letting the person pet and stroke them freely. This was way cooler than any obscure minor languages from Africa or South America.
He wasn’t the only envious one; the netizens in the comment section were just as jealous.
"This is practically a Great Druid!"
"If I knew cat language, wouldn’t I be able to pet the senior guys at school however I want?"
"Blogger, blogger, how do you say ’go to work and make money’?"
"Can you release an audio track that teaches cats to do chores?"
It was just that this language was too difficult to learn. The pronunciation was complex, and there was absolutely no phonetic alphabet to speak of. Even with careful differentiation, it was still hard to grasp the basics. Without outstanding talent, it was truly impossible to learn. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
The old Chen Jingle definitely wouldn’t have been able to learn it either. But things were different now—he had the system. The learning state bestowed by the system was profoundly mysterious, more magical than popping a limitless pill.
"Let’s try it out first. If it really doesn’t work, I’ll figure something else out," he told himself, not daring to claim he would definitely master it.
Although cat language wasn’t currently a scientific and systematic language, some enthusiastic bloggers online had summarized and organized some simple pronunciations, complete with their translated meanings. It was at least better than groping around in the dark by himself.
"Let me see... The pronunciation tutorial collection has ten videos, the phrase communication collection has six, and with the other daily conversation vlogs, it should be enough."
So he studied. He dove in without a word.
Entering the learning state, Chen Jingle quickly became immersed in it. With the system’s help, he fully utilized his subjective initiative to learn a language that was entirely new to him. This included, but was not limited to, greetings, feeding, expressing affection, scolding, and provoking. However, it wasn’t exactly easy.
It felt like a long time had passed, and when the lengthy hour was finally over, the system prompt sounded once more.
[What a good baby! Learning task successfully completed. Reward: the removal of one acne scar on your face.]
"It’s over?"
Snapping out of the learning state, Chen Jingle rubbed his aching temples, feeling that he had now grasped the basics of cat language.
"Hiss, understanding a cat’s meaning is even harder than speaking cat language myself. After all, if I can’t understand it, I can’t exactly make the cat use a mobile translation app to express its true thoughts."
As for the system reward... acne scars?
Chen Jingle looked in the mirror. Well, he was still just a decent-looking goblin. He had no idea which scar had been removed. Relying on system rewards to improve his image would require long-term accumulation.
"Whatever, I’ll find a cat to test it out on first."
During his study session just now, he had attempted the correct pronunciations and felt pretty good about his efforts.
He headed downstairs.
He didn’t see Tiger Cub anywhere in the yard. Who knew where the cat had run off to.
After looking around, Chen Jingle’s eyes lit up. He spotted a large Dragon Li resting on the edge of the neighbor’s flowerbed not far away. If that wasn’t his Tiger Cub, who was it?
Chen Jingle subconsciously shouted, "Tiger Cub! Come back!"
Hearing the call, the cat glanced back at Chen Jingle before turning his head away again, flicking his tail as if to say, "Don’t bother me."
Chen Jingle was exasperated. He was absolutely certain that this little rascal had heard him and understood him perfectly well—he just chose to ignore him.
Therefore, he decided to employ his cat language.
"AH-AWOO~"
The pitch of the "AH" was slightly raised, meaning "come here." Coupled with Chen Jingle’s somewhat heavy tone, it carried a hint of a command.
And then!
He watched Tiger Cub WHOOSH his head around, his eyes wide as he stared at Chen Jingle in utter shock.
Hmm...
This level of shock was roughly equivalent to your own pet cat suddenly speaking human language and saying to you, "You! Go to the kitchen and cook me two dishes, then bring me twenty thousand bucks!"
Putting oneself in the cat’s shoes, it was completely normal to be frightened.
With one hand on his hip, Chen Jingle pointed an accusatory finger at Tiger Cub with the other and uttered another phrase: "PURR-WAH~"
This meant, "Come play with me."
Already reeling in shock, Tiger Cub DASHED into the weeds. He didn’t even look back, as if he had made some firm resolution.
Chen Jingle was stunned for a moment before he started cursing angrily, "Damn it, you won’t cooperate with me, huh? Don’t even think about coming back for dinner! What was the point of even raising you!"
However, he shouldn’t have learned the cat language wrong. He would experiment a bit more later; if there was one thing the village wasn’t short on, it was cats. He just didn’t know if those cats would be as terrified as his Tiger Cub.