1: The cub-raising mission
The summer sun filtered through the embroidered pattern of the gauzy curtain on the bay window, casting a warm, slightly scorching glow into the room.
Suddenly, the blaring ringtone of ‘Burn My Calories’ jolted in the air.
From the bed, Ye Susu emitted a dissatisfied, kitten-like grumble in protest. Her pale, slender hand dropped from the covers, firmly clamping over her own ears.
Before covering them completely, she instinctively wiped away a suspicious trace of liquid lingering at the corner of her mouth.
But a second later, she jolted fully awake.
Where were they? The symmetrical, elegant whiskers, so exquisite they could only belong to this century’s most beautiful feline?
And the soft, fluffy, downy fur on her cheeks, delightful to the touch?
She leaped up, only to tumble off the bed with a thud. As she fell, she caught sight of her long, slender legs slipping out from the beneath the lake-blue cotton quilt—legs that were pale and straight, with petite kneecaps…these were kind of magnificent, upright-walking legs that only a human could possess.
Had she… cultivated her way into a human form?
[The 100th life begins]
Ye Susu propped her head on her smooth forehead. Only upon hearing the notification sound did she jolt fully awake.
Ye Susu propped her head on her smooth forehead. Only upon hearing the notification sound she jolt fully awake.
According to the clan’s cultivation system, she had already lived through 99 lives as a cat. Just one final lifetime remained before she could cultivate into a great demon, attaining an indestructible deathless realm.
She had heard from her seniors before that this last life was necessary for experiencing the full spectrum of human emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, hatred and desire. Only after living out a natural lifespan could she transcend the cycle of reincarnation.
Thinking of this, she glanced around.
It was a tiny room, only about six or seven square meters. With a large bed and a dressing table crammed inside, it felt unbearable cramped. The ceiling above her head was peeling and mottled, crisscrossed with several crack lines…against the opposite wall an impossibly simple, small cloth covered rack, probably the original owner’s ‘wardrobe’.
Poor, every poor.
Having spent 99 lives as a cat among humans, Ye Susu instantly saw through the situation this body was in.
After three seconds of thoughts, she looked down.
A moment later, she pursed her lips. Trembling slightly and somewhat clumsily, she extended a single finger and poked her own chest.
Instantly, a soft, yielding sensation…
Ah!
She flopped face-down onto the bed, curled her fingers into small fists, and scratch at the bedsheet.
This feeling…she, Ye Susu, had finally, in all her cat lives, gotten to pet a human! And in this life, she could do it freely, as much as she wanted!
The cat who had been forcibly petted by humans for three hundred years had finally turned the tables!
“Burn your calories…”
The phone rang again.
Ye Susu, grinning, wriggled a few times on the bed before slowly finding the phone and answering with practiced ease. “Hello?”
As a cat with vast experience, having secretly observed and learned human skills, there was nothing she couldn’t do.
“’Hello’ what? It’s your cousin! Susu, I’ll pick you up in half an hour. For the lunch banquet, dress up pretty. Manager Li said he’ll introduce us to a few advertisers.”
Ye Susu was instantly flooded with memories from this body’s mind.
She had transmigrated into a novel for this life, becoming a cannon-fodder supporting female character.
This character was vain and status-obsessed, desperately scheming to marry into a wealthy family. As a result, she was manipulated by her cousin and agent, Ye Wan, who had always been jealous of her beauty. Not only was she pushed into becoming a public-facing live streamer, but for the sake of resources, Ye Wan also encouraged her to attend drinking parties, completely cutting off any chance with the male lead, Li Yinchen, the CEO of the live streaming company.
“Susu, remember to use that bottle of Enchanting perfume. Your streaming numbers are so low the company isn’t even planning to renew your contract. Success or failure rides on this!”
Ye Wan’s voice rose at the end, dripping with seductive undertones.
Sitting on the pillow with her feet dangling, Ye Susu tilted her head and blinked.
According to the plot of the novel in her mind, she had listened to Ye Wan before. She had gone to that party and traded on her looks, only to end up with nothing—neither person nor money gained.
Not long after, Ye Wan had even tricked her into getting plastic surgery. The operation failed, resulting in disfiguring complications, and she was left with a massive debt to the company for the procedure.
Hmph.
“What did you say… Meow meow meow, ah, there’s a cat causing trouble, I can’t really hear you clearly… Meow… Oops!”
Click.
Ye Susu decisively hung up the phone.
For 99 lifetimes, she had endured all sorts of feline hardships—illness, being hit by a car, abandonment, wandering homeless… meeting tragic ends in every possible way.
In this lifetime as a human, she absolutely refused to be miserable or to dance to anyone else’s tune!
She tossed her phone onto the bedsheet and then, in a flash, leaped off the bed, rushing to the dressing table where her streaming camera was set up.
She looked up into the round-framed mirror on the table and saw her appearance for this lifetime.
A dark black slip nightgown set off her snow-white skin, smooth as fine jade, and her lips were like brilliant peach blossoms.
She picked up the mirror, holding it higher, turning sideways to see more.
All she saw was a waterfall of black hair, long and straight. As she turned, it swayed in the air, creating a small ripple before settling softly against her back.
Ye Susu’s expression immediately turned serious. She used the pad of her right finger to lift a lock of hair, twirling it with extreme focus.
“Hmm, the hair quality is passable.”
This human form was satisfactory to her!
Thud—
But just as she was admiring herself, a faint sound suddenly came from outside, as if something had fallen to the floor.
Ye Susu raised an eyebrow, put down the mirror, and walked out of the bedroom.
The one-bedroom, one-living-room layout meant she could see straight into the narrow kitchen across the hallway. A small, fuzzy head was just peeking an inch above the countertop.
He seemed to have heard the door open and turned his head in a panic, revealing a slightly frightened, jade-carved, powder-sculpted little round face. His large, dark eyes were as clear and pure as obsidian, but his small nose wrinkled nervously.
On top of his dark little head, two curly strands of baby hair stuck up, quivering slightly in the air.
Ye Susu froze.
“Mom…my…”
The child’s soft voice held a clear note of timidity.
Hearing this, Ye Susu stood stunned.
Many images floated up from the depths of her memory.
Mommy… this was the son of the supporting character Ye Susu.
He was four and a half years old, born from a one-night accident.
The father… unknown.
Because of this child’s arrival, Ye Susu had to suspend her university studies, and her life went off the rails from then on.
Recalling all this, Ye Susu was dumbfounded on the spot.
[100th Lifetime Mission: Experience familial love. Raise the cub to healthy adulthood.]
Hearing the voice in her head, her expression immediately turned peculiar.
Soon, a stream of information appeared in her mind.
This fatherless child, subjected to years of abuse and abandonment by his birth mother, had severe psychological issues.
As an adult, he spiraled into complete darkness. Not only did he despise women, he also harbored a deep hatred for the wealthy elite his mother had desperately tried to marry into. Leveraging his high IQ for crime, he stole and sold corporate secrets on the black market, causing the collapse of numerous companies and driving several tycoons into consecutive bankruptcy.
After amassing a fortune surpassing hundreds of millions, on the night of Mother’s Day—which also happened to be his twenty-fifth birthday—he took his own life inside his luxurious villa.
His short life was spent entirely in pain and hatred, with no release even at the moment of death.
[If the child turns to darkness, parenting fails. All cultivation from the previous 99 lives will be erased.]
Ye Susu’s lips twitched involuntarily.
As a cat aspiring to become a great demon, she had dedicated all 99 of her lives solely to cultivation. She had never once intended to mate with ordinary cats, let alone have kittens.
And now, in this life, she had to raise a human child.
While she was lost in thought, the little boy in front of her, misunderstanding her silence as anger over the dropped bowl, hung his fair-skinned head low. He bit his lip tightly, his expression tinged with loneliness and wariness, as he slowly lowered the small hand that had been clutching the cooking spatula.
One hand gripping the seam of his trousers, he stepped off the small stool onto the greasy, yellowish-gray tiles.
“The… the bowl isn’t broken…” His soft, childish voice trembled slightly. He even hunched his shoulders, retreating a step until his back pressed against the kitchen cabinet behind him—nowhere left to go. His posture was that of a child accustomed to frequent beatings.
Ye Susu’s heart clenched.
If she still had fur at that moment, it would have been standing completely on end.
Had the original cannon-fodder woman been abusing this child?
The fear in this child’s eyes as he looked at her was palpable.
Four or five years old—in cat terms, that was the age of a tiny kitten still learning to hunt.
When she was a kitten, she had no idea how many of her human’s glasses she had broken.
“It’s fine if it broke,” Ye Susu hurriedly waved a hand, signaling it didn’t matter.
She took a few steps forward but stopped just outside the kitchen entrance.
She was afraid getting too close might frighten the child even more.
But seeing him up close, Ye Susu’s heart sank.
This human cub looked worse off than many younglings she had seen.
His little gray-checkered linen shirt had cuffs so frayed the original pattern was nearly invisible, and there was a thumb-sized hole over his chest.
The matching black shorts were clearly a size too small, ending well above his ankles and revealing his black socks and pale, slender calves.
The cooking spatula in his hand seemed larger than his small, delicate fist.
And the little stool beside him was precisely the right height for him to stand on while cooking—clearly not his first-time preparing meals like this.
Was this… using a cub as child labor?
Ye Susu pressed a hand to her forehead, unable to believe it.
She had never raised a cub before, but back when she was a stray cat, she had fiercely protected the young ones within her territory, never allowing any harm to come to them.
Because respecting the old and cherishing the young, that was a principle her very first human had taught her.
“N-noo… noodles are almost ready…” The little one quickly lifted his head, stealing a cautious, fleeting glance at Ye Susu.
Seeing no trace of anger on her face, his tense expression eased slightly, and his small chest rose and fell with a quiet sigh of relief.
But under Ye Susu’s steady gaze, he seemed to grow restless again. He quickly stepped back onto the small stool, reaching for the pot.
In his haste, though, his foot slipped off the edge. His tiny body, which only came up to Ye Susu’s waist, wobbled dangerously in the air.
A cold sweat broke out on Ye Susu’s skin as she rushed forward, but the child had already steadied himself. With movements that were clumsy yet methodical, he added the noodles to the pot, sprinkled in salt, cracked an egg, tossed in some greens, and finally, stretching his short arms as far as they would go, managed to lift and clumsily place the lid on top.
A pang of sadness shot through Ye Susu’s heart, pulling up the memory of her 33rd life—the wretched existence after being abandoned by her human, when she had to rely entirely on herself.
This cub… reminded her of those most difficult, most terrifying and helpless days.
A wave of melancholy washed over her, making her lose focus for a second.
But a moment later, she took a deep breath, strode forward, and deftly plucked the oversized spatula from the little one’s struggling grip with her right hand.
Hesitating briefly, she then raised her left hand and gently placed it atop the child’s fluffy head.
The boy, who had been about to hop off the stool, froze instantly.
His soft little head seemed to go still.
On the wall behind the stove, a reflective oil-proof sticker was pasted.
At that moment, it clearly mirrored his pair of pitch-black, beautiful eyes—wide, dazed, and slightly lost.
Squinting, Ye Susu used two fingers to press down and smooth the unruly cowlick sticking up from his head.
“I’ll do it.”
Silly cub!
Where there’s a grown cat, a little one never needs to hunt!
Steam gradually rose in the kitchen.
Ye Susu’s heart swelled with emotion.
Since this was her human-world trial, she would take good care of this child and raise him healthy and happy!
She was just solemnly making this vow to the heavens when, the next moment, a timid, soft voice, almost inaudible, whispered by her ear.
“Mommy… noodles are a-already done… wait for water to boil… then can eat.”
Ye Susu: “…………”
Already done?
Her cheeks flushed slightly.
On her very first day, she had let the little kitten cook for her?
While she was still wrestling with this thought, a soft chime suddenly sounded in her mind.
[Daily Mission Activated!]
[1. Have the cub eat a satisfying meal.]
[2. Engage in a loving interaction with the cub.]
[Reward: Parenting Points +1.]
Ye Susu blinked.
**