The cat spoke…
The cat actually spoke?!
This was probably the strangest thing Chen Ji had encountered since coming to this world.
In the main hall of the clinic, the flickering light cast shadows on the black cat’s face, making its expression seem as uncertain as Chen Ji’s.
He cautiously circled the clinic, first making sure no one was in the backyard, then confirming that the dark street outside was also empty.
Only then did he turn his attention back to the little black cat perched on the counter. “Just now… I mean, just now, were you speaking?”
The black cat stared at him motionlessly, not making a sound.
But Chen Ji was absolutely certain that it was this little black cat that had spoken!
Could it be because of the cat-hiring ceremony? Did it have some kind of magical effect?
“Why aren’t you speaking now?” Chen Ji examined the little black cat curiously. “Can you say something again? I need to confirm what’s going on.”
But the little black cat just held its head high, looking serious, and didn’t make a sound.
Chen Ji thought for a moment. “If you speak, I’ll save up money to buy you buns.”
The little black cat: “…”
Chen Ji: “How about dried fish?”
The little black cat: “…”
Chen Ji took a deep breath. “Today, Yun Fei’s white cat must have beaten you pretty badly, huh?”
The little black cat stiffened its neck and said, “It didn’t fare much better either!”
Chen Ji looked at the little black cat with a half-smile, while the cat instinctively shrank its neck.
He asked, “Why didn’t you speak earlier?”
The little black cat was silent for a moment. “I didn’t expect to suddenly be able to speak.”
Chen Ji was both amused and exasperated…
So, the little black cat had just subconsciously responded to him in its mind, accidentally making a sound.
And during this time, the little black cat had actually been responding to many of Chen Ji’s words, but he just couldn’t hear it.
Chen Ji said, “Earlier, in the hiring document, I named you ‘Dark Cloud.’ Did you know that?”
Dark Cloud said disdainfully, “What a terrible name!”
Chen Ji changed the subject. “When did you gain intelligence?”
He liked cats and knew a bit about them, so he knew that most cats weren’t very smart and were actually quite foolish.
But Dark Cloud had clearly been intelligent even before it could speak.
It could understand human speech and even respond, something many humans couldn’t do.
Dark Cloud replied, “When did I gain intelligence? I’ve always been like this.”
“Since birth?”
“Since birth.”
Chen Ji pondered for a moment. “Can you open your mouth and let me take a look inside?”
Dark Cloud took a step back, its sharp claws extending slightly. “Why should I?”
Chen Ji sighed. “Don’t be so stubborn. Let’s have a little more trust in each other!”
Dark Cloud thought for a moment. “…Fine.”
“Come over to the oil lamp and open your mouth… say ‘ah.’”
Dark Cloud reluctantly opened its mouth. “Ah…”
Chen Ji peered inside and muttered, “One, two, three, four… ten ridges?”
In ancient times, cat lovers had written about their experiences: when hiring a cat, one should first look at its mouth.
The upper palate of a cat’s mouth has shallow grooves like ridges.
Two ridges meant the cat was foolish, eating and sleeping all day.
Nine ridges were the best, indicating a cat that was intelligent and could catch mice and protect the home.
In other words, a cat with nine ridges in its mouth was the best, but Dark Cloud had ten.
Beside the oil lamp on the counter, Dark Cloud opened its mouth and spoke from its throat. “Are you done yet?”
“Yes, yes,” Chen Ji said thoughtfully.
Could the ten ridges in Dark Cloud’s mouth be its special trait?
“I’m tired,” Dark Cloud said naturally, lying down with its head resting in Chen Ji’s palm, warm and cozy.
But it quickly felt something was wrong.
How could such a noble creature lie in someone else’s palm?
Should it get up?
Forget it, just a little longer.
“Wait, don’t sleep yet,” Chen Ji said. “I haven’t given you the bead yet. I don’t know if it will still repel you. Get up and try.”
Dark Cloud sprang up, all sleepiness gone. “I almost forgot I came for that bead… Give it to me, quick, quick, quick!”
Chen Ji handed over the crystal bead, and this time, the bead didn’t reject Dark Cloud.
The pitch-black Dark Cloud slurped up the bead and swallowed it, then slipped out of the clinic through the door crack, leaving Chen Ji alone and bewildered.
It just left like that?!
At that moment, Chen Ji felt a warm current coming from the direction Dark Cloud had gone!
The warm current was like magma from deep within the earth’s mountains, scorching and boiling, or like a torrential rain in August, powerful and overwhelming.
Finally, it entered his body through his forehead, permeating his limbs and bones, and slowly gathered in his chest.
Chen Ji was stunned.
This was a power he had never experienced before.
Unlike the violent and swift ice current, this molten current flowed slowly.
Moreover, the ice current was something he couldn’t control, but with his own will, he could actually move the molten current.
As the molten current flowed through his dantian and into his bloodstream under Chen Ji’s control, he felt an extraordinary comfort in the areas it passed through, like soaking in a hot spring during the coldest winter.
In the midnight of Qing Shan Mental Hospital, Chen Ji felt that his life had no more regrets.
He no longer planned his life, no longer dreamed of the future, and whether the food was good or the clothes were nice didn’t matter much anymore.
Now, for the first time, he truly felt the mysterious new world and was a part of it.
And Chen Ji was no longer alone; he had a cat.
……
……
In the night, Luo City fell into a deep sleep.
After the chaos in Jing Fei’s Wan Xing Garden, Jing Wang’s residence had returned to peace.
Jing Wang hadn’t returned to the residence for over ten days, reportedly because the war with Jing Dynasty was intensifying.
The northern cavalry had already reached Shanhai Pass, pressing close to the city.
Jing Wang was stationed in Luo City, the hub of the southern Grand Canal, and needed to raise a large amount of military provisions in the south to be sent north via the canal.
Under the moonlight, a small black cat silently walked along the wall, its steps light.
A surging power stirred within its body.
After swallowing the crystal bead, Dark Cloud’s muscles rapidly reconstructed and grew, increasing its strength by a whole cat’s worth!
When Dark Cloud jumped onto the eaves of Jing An Hall, if someone looked up from below, it almost overlapped with the crescent moon in the sky, as if standing on the moon’s hook.
At that moment, a palace guard sensed something and suddenly turned around.
His armor clattered as his hawk-like eyes scanned the glazed roof of Jing An Hall, but there was nothing there.
The guard hesitated for a moment, then climbed onto the wall, holding his halberd, and searched in the direction of his suspicion.
The next moment, the guard leaped down from the wall, his massive shadow like a night owl, full of pressure.
He searched around, then crouched down, using the moonlight to check the ground for fresh footprints, but found nothing.
“Strange, was I just being paranoid?” the guard muttered as he slowly left.
Only after a long time did Dark Cloud, curled up in the corner and blending into the shadows, stretch its body and continue deeper into the palace.
It passed Ming Zheng Hall, passed Wan Xing Garden, avoided patrolling guards and night watchmen, traversed mountains and rivers, and finally arrived in front of Yun Fei’s Fei Yun Garden.
Dark Cloud hooked its claws onto a wooden pillar and resolutely climbed to the second floor of the pavilion.
The window was open, so it stealthily perched on the windowsill, peeking inside.
Inside, the white cat opened its eyes and stared straight at Dark Cloud!
Dark Cloud: “Tsk!”
It turned and ran.
Seeing this, the white lion cat leaped out of the window and chased Dark Cloud into the backyard.
But it was puzzled.
This defeated opponent… why was it both cowardly and brave?
The white lion cat chased Dark Cloud through the backyard, past a rock garden, and through a grassy field, finally losing track of Dark Cloud in front of the famous Fei Bai Pond in the palace.
Jing Wang’s Fei Bai Pond was famous for resembling calligraphy.
The so-called “Fei Bai” referred to the dry brush strokes in calligraphy.
The shallow pond had rocks standing in it, and the water flowed intermittently, like dry brush strokes, creating a transcendent atmosphere.
Jing Wang’s Fei Bai Pond, Ting Lei Pavilion, and Guo Hua Garden were all topics of conversation among the literati of Luo City.
At this moment, the white lion cat sniffed the air, only to be shocked to find that the scent came from behind!
In an instant, the white lion cat’s fur stood on end.
Just as it was about to turn around, it was too late.
A black cat pounced from behind, flipping it over with a single swipe.
The white lion cat couldn’t understand how, in just a few hours, this defeated opponent had turned the tables.
Its small body now had more strength than its own.
In the midst of their tussle, Dark Cloud found an opening and pinned the white lion cat to the ground, forming its paw into a fist and banging it on the cat’s head, delivering a fierce beating!
Chen Ji didn’t know, but Dark Cloud was proud, and it had the right to be.
Its combat instincts far surpassed those of its peers, with a much stronger fighting intuition.
Even if their strength was similar, the white lion cat could only take the beating.
The white lion cat began to whimper and beg for mercy, but Dark Cloud didn’t care.
It had endured countless beatings.
Every time Yun Fei visited Wan Xing Garden, it got beaten.
Revenge was now!
Dark Cloud flipped the white lion cat over, extended a claw, and gave it a sharp flick between the legs!
It let out a long sigh, one front paw resting on its old opponent, and looked up at the moon, feeling triumphant.
But Dark Cloud still felt it wasn’t enough…
It quietly returned to Fei Yun Garden and licked all the pastries the servants had left in the side room, only then leaving satisfied.
Back in the clinic’s main hall.
Chen Ji was flipping through a book when he saw the black cat return with elegant steps.
He asked curiously, “Where did you go just now?”
Dark Cloud lifted its head proudly. “Victorious!”
Chen Ji: “…”
Quite proud, huh.
Chen Ji closed the book. “Did you go beat up that white cat?”
“You get me, I beat it up good!” Dark Cloud lifted its head even higher.
“Did anyone see you?”
“No.”
“Did you kill it?”
Dark Cloud hesitated. “…No.”
Chen Ji looked a bit disappointed.
Dark Cloud quickly added, “But I licked all the pastries in their Fei Yun Garden!”
Chen Ji nodded. “That’s something.”
“Hehehe.”
“Hehehe.”
As they spoke, a rustling sound came from the backyard.
Chen Ji turned to see Liu Quxing, wrapped in a coat, peeking into the clinic. “Chen Ji, I just heard you talking. Who were you talking to?”
Chen Ji was silent for a moment. “I was just talking to myself, Senior Brother Liu. Did you hear anything else?”
Liu Quxing frowned. “A cat’s meow. It seems like a stray cat got into our yard. Did you see it?”
By then, Dark Cloud had already disappeared from the counter.
(End of Chapter)