Gu Yizhou returned to the sofa, carrying his takeout dinner.
He placed the takeout on the coffee table, casually picked up the nearby remote, turned on the TV, and switched it to the finance channel.
When he was alone, Gu Yizhou liked to sit on the sofa, watch the financial news, and eat. It was a habit he’d developed in his past life, one that was hard to break.
Or rather, he didn’t want to change it!
After all that, Gu Yizhou opened his takeout container.
Instantly, the rich aroma of beef curry filled the entire living room.
Yan Luoxi, who had been huddled in a corner of the sofa, smelled the aroma, and her stomach suddenly let out a loud "RUMBLE."
It was already 8:30 in the evening. She had been too busy to eat lunch, and although she could have grabbed a few bites at the banquet she was rushing to, she had instead inexplicably turned into a cat!
As a result, she hadn’t had a single bite to eat since noon!
Earlier, she had been so overwhelmed by nervousness, fear, and panic that she’d completely forgotten about it!
But now, smelling the fragrant food, a wave of hunger washed over her. She stared at the beef curry rice in Gu Yizhou’s container and couldn’t help but swallow hard.
Sensing a pair of eyes on him, Gu Yizhou turned his head. He found Xiaobai, huddled in the corner, staring intently at the takeout in front of him. Thinking she was hungry, he said, "Xiaobai, are you hungry too?"
"I almost forgot to put out some cat food for you. Hang on a sec!"
With that, Gu Yizhou put down his container, stood up, and walked toward the balcony.
He tore open the new bag of cat food, poured a scoop into a new bowl, then walked back to the sofa and picked Xiaobai up.
"Meow~"
’Let go of me, you dog man!’
Yan Luoxi meowed, struggling relentlessly to break free from Gu Yizhou’s grasp.
However, once Gu Yizhou had her by the scruff of the neck, she couldn’t escape his large, firm hand, no matter how much her four limbs struggled.
"Xiaobai, settle down~"
Gu Yizhou chided, putting on a stern face.
’This is ridiculous,’ Yan Luoxi thought, utterly speechless. If cats could roll their eyes, she would have rolled them so hard at this dog man Gu Yizhou that it would have killed him!
"Here, Xiaobai. This is cat food. You’ll be eating this from now on, got it?"
Gu Yizhou placed her on the balcony floor. Pinning her gently with one hand, he pointed at the food bowl with the other as he spoke.
"Huh?"
After trying to coax her for a while, Gu Yizhou saw that Xiaobai still wouldn’t eat the cat food. He asked, puzzled, "Why aren’t you eating? Are you not used to cat food?"
He thought for a moment. ’Xiaobai was probably a house cat before, so she should be used to eating cat food!’
’Could it be that she’s scared to eat while I’m here?’
Gu Yizhou muttered to himself, "Alright then, Xiaobai. You eat here by yourself. I’m going to go eat now, okay?"
With that, he let go of Xiaobai, leaving her to slowly get used to the new environment.
However, the moment he let go, Xiaobai darted under the sofa to hide.
"Uh..."
Gu Yizhou felt a bit awkward.
’It’s probably just because this is a new environment that she’s so timid,’ he thought. ’She’s a cat, after all. She’ll probably be fine after spending some time getting used to her new home.’
He decided not to worry about her anymore, got up, returned to the sofa, and started chowing down!
’Gotta say, this place’s beef curry over rice is pretty damn good!’
Other than being a little pricey, he couldn’t find any fault with it.
Meanwhile, Yan Luoxi, hiding under the sofa, watched Gu Yizhou wolf down his food with gusto. In her heart, she cursed him up and down all over again!
’This dog man is over there feasting on meat and rice, and he wants me to eat cat food!’
’Is he even human?’
’You dog man! You might not be an actual dog, but you really are a dog!’
Yan Luoxi seethed with anger, gritting her teeth.
Staring at the fragrant beef curry rice, she couldn’t stop the pathetic tears from streaming from the corners of her mouth...
If Gu Yizhou knew what Xiaobai was thinking at that moment, he would’ve cried foul at the injustice of it all!
The reason he wasn’t giving her anything else wasn’t because he was stingy. Back at the pet hospital, the vet had warned him repeatedly that cats can’t eat rich, oily, or salty foods, otherwise they could easily get sick.
Even if he wanted to give her meat, it would have to be something like plain boiled chicken breast!
Since she had shown up so suddenly, Gu Yizhou didn’t have any chicken breast in his fridge, which was why he was feeding her cat food!
But how could he possibly know that the stray cat he’d brought home, Xiaobai, was actually a transformed human!
After all, something that absurd was impossible for anyone to imagine.
However!
If Gu Yizhou knew his cat was a transformed human, he could probably bring himself to accept it. After all, he himself had been reborn into this world from a parallel Earth’s China and had even inexplicably activated a System. If something that ridiculous could happen to him, what couldn’t he accept?
But the reality was, he didn’t know his cat was a transformed human, so he could only treat Xiaobai like an ordinary cat.
*
*
*
「A dozen minutes later.」
"BURP~"
Gu Yizhou had finished every last bite of his takeout. The container was spotless, not a single grain of rice left. He was a firm believer in the clean plate movement!
Meanwhile, Yan Luoxi, lying under the sofa, had fallen asleep at some point without realizing it.
It was understandable.
Perfectly normal, even.
After all, she hadn’t had any proper rest lately. Combined with everything that had happened today, her nerves had been stretched taut. Now, huddled in the secure-feeling space under the sofa, the moment she relaxed even slightly, she naturally drifted off to sleep.
After finishing his meal, Gu Yizhou packed up the takeout container and trash, then sat back down on the sofa.
He didn’t see Xiaobai anywhere. Thinking she had been hiding under the sofa this whole time without coming out, he turned on his phone’s flashlight and bent down to peer underneath.
There, curled up in the corner right against the wall, was Xiaobai. Her closed eyes and the steady rhythm of her breathing showed that she was fast asleep.
Furthermore, her sleeping position screamed of her profound lack of security.
Seeing this, Gu Yizhou shook his head with a resigned sigh.
’Looks like it’ll take some time for her to warm up to me. I’ll have to slowly build a bond between us.’
Still, despite the current situation, Gu Yizhou was confident he could get Xiaobai to slowly grow to like and trust him. He was just that self-assured!
...