Chapter 31: The Kitty Couldn’t Sleep

The cat kept meowing. The sound was not loud, thin and fine, but it sounded deliberately suppressed because Li You’s inner thoughts were very dense.

【I’m uncomfortable!】

【It feels so bad, aah!】

【Bro!】

【Brother!】

【Am I going to die again…?】

Li Ye held the cat in both hands, his heart tightening as he listened. He had never felt so helpless.

He kept stroking the cat with his hands and carried it to the lab area to find a solution. But once they reached the outside, the cat in his arms, which had been fussing, quieted down and stopped meowing. Its inner thoughts also ceased.

Li Ye looked down at the cat. The cat was kneading his chest vigorously, harder than any of the previous times it had kneaded. While kneading, it also nibbled at his clothes with its mouth.

At that moment, he was not wearing his military jacket, only a high-necked black fitted combat suit. The cat’s claws scratching against him hurt quite a bit.

This bit of pain meant nothing to Li Ye. But upon seeing this, he gradually realized that the cat seemed to be in heat.

Li Ye stared blankly at the cat diligently nuzzling into him. His gaze fell on the pair of ears flattened flat, and his brows slowly furrowed.

He shifted from his previous helplessness to a slight sense of bewilderment.

The cat was kneading, kneading Li Ye, focused and earnest. From its mouth, which held Li Ye’s clothes and gnawed and bit at them, came a low “wu wu” hum. Its eyes looked especially serious, even a bit fierce.

This continued for about ten minutes. Suddenly, the cat stilled, released its mouth, and stared dazedly at the clothes that were almost bitten through. It stretched out a paw to scratch at them twice. Its pupils shook, and its inner thoughts were even more shocked.

【What am I doing?】

Li Ye finally heard Li You’s voice again. He raised his gaze to look at the cat whose eyes were round and wide.

【No, Li You, there’s something wrong with you!!】

【Why did you bite his clothes, aah?】

【Just now… just now I wanted to…】

Li Ye narrowed his eyes, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

He guessed that Li You had noticed the abnormality in his own state.

The cat in his arms perked up its head, suddenly twisted away, escaped from Li Ye’s embrace, leaped down, and paced back and forth in the spacious lab area. It jumped onto the lab bench, leaped toward the table, parkouring nonstop until it tiredly flopped onto the floor, panting heavily.

【Much better…】

Li Ye, who had been watching the cat the whole time, walked over and half-squatted down. He placed a cup of water nearby.

The cat twisted its head to look. Upon seeing Li Ye’s face, it “whoosh” leaped up again and quickly slipped away, running to the highest platform indoors. It turned its back to Li Ye, faced the wall, and huddled motionless.

A flicker of loneliness passed through Li Ye’s heart for an instant. He looked at the cat’s fluffy back, his eyes darkening and brightening. He spoke out, “You’re ignoring me.”

The cat’s fur, which rose and fell gently with its breathing, completely stilled. Hearing what the person behind said, Li You slowly blinked. He twisted his head back to look at Li Ye, who was close at hand, and smacked his lips guiltily.

The cat nervously rubbed its paws together twice, hesitated, but still turned around and came to the edge of the platform.

This lab bench was indeed very high, but about the same height as Li Ye. Li You squatted on top, just level with his brother’s line of sight.

As they looked at each other like this, he grew even more nervous.

Li You pawed at his face with a claw, his inner thoughts a jumble.

But looking at Li Ye’s eyes tinged with loneliness, he felt even worse inside.

He slowly leaned forward, rubbing his face against his brother’s face, and let out a soft “meow meow.”

【I didn’t mean to ignore you.】

【I…】

【I did something bad.】

【I just wanted to be alone for a while.】

Li Ye did not move, feeling the fluffy rubbing against his cheek. His hand lightly pinched the paw the cat had placed on the lab bench.

【Brother.】

【How about when we go back to Prime Star, you still take me to get neutered.】

Li Ye’s expression cooled.

【No no, forget it!】

【No neutering, I can endure it.】

Li You’s inner thoughts were extremely active, thinking this and that, muttering nonstop.

【Actually, just now, even I didn’t know why I would treat you like…】

His inner thoughts abruptly stopped again as Li Ye’s finger lightly scratched under the cat’s chin.

“Meow.” The cat bit his finger, then startled itself and quickly let go.

【No no!】

【I can’t do this!】

【This is my brother!!】

A flash passed through Li Ye’s eyes, gone in an instant. He looked at the cat’s eyes without blinking.

The cat no longer rubbed against him, but the paw on the lab bench pawed restlessly. Clearly, its condition had not improved.

Li You was still muttering inwardly.

When he had been going wild on Li Ye earlier, he had not been aware at all, acting purely on instinct. When he snapped out of it, even he was shocked.

Li You thought it over and suddenly startled himself.

【Oh no!】

【Did I mistake my brother for a female cat??】

Hearing this, Li Ye: “…”

【But…】

The little cat was a bit anxious.

【But I’m probably not a real cat, right? I’m not interested in female cats, and not in Li Ye either…】

The inner thoughts suddenly stilled again here.

Li Ye’s fingers curled slightly. His breathing grew heavy for an instant. He reached out and scooped up the cat.

The dazed Li You: “Mrr?”

Li Ye picked up the cat, tucked it against his body, and returned to the room. “It’s late. Playtime’s over. Go to sleep.”

Li You refused and struggled in resistance.

【No!】

【That wasn’t playtime for me!】

【That was me clearing my mind and suppressing my desires!!】

【Let me go, I don’t want to sleep!!】

Li Ye remained unmoved, expressionless, and carried the cat straight back to the room. He did not put the cat in its little nest but on his own bed instead.

Li You’s four paws pressed against the mattress and immediately sprawled to flee, but Li Ye easily caught him back.

“Meow woo!!”

Caught off guard with no resistance left in his paws, he was flipped onto his belly and held down. Li Ye’s hand rubbed and scratched his belly a few times. Li You instinctively wrapped his four legs around his brother’s hand and stared fixedly at him, motionless.

【I I I…】

【I don’t want to sleep!!】

【I can’t sleep with you!】

【Not tonight!】

The cat’s legs kicked at Li Ye’s hand but could not budge it. Extremely embarrassed and annoyed, it meowed from its mouth while screaming inwardly.

【Let go!!】

Li Ye sighed silently, released his hand, and picked up the cat. Seeing it about to run again, he gently held it down with one hand and took a thick notebook and pen from nearby.

He opened the notebook and drew a huge tic-tac-toe grid on the white paper. Then, with the black pen in his hand, he drew an “X” in the top-left corner of the grid. He said to the cat, “If you don’t want to sleep, come play a game.”

Li You stared dazedly at the notebook, blinked, stepped forward, and placed his fluffy white paw pad squarely in the center square. He looked up: “Meow!”

【Here!】

Li Ye found a red pen and drew a circle in the center for him, then used the black pen to draw an X in the middle of the left column.

Li You’s gaze instantly turned vigilant. He slapped a paw down on the bottom-left square to block his brother.

He looked up proudly, chest puffed: “Meow!”

Li Ye took the red pen and drew a circle for him, then set down the pen. “Pretty smart.”

Li You, who had been buried in studying the tic-tac-toe grid, stiffened upon hearing this.

【Wait.】

【I’m just a cat.】

【Should cats be this smart?】

Li Ye raised his eyes and continued drawing an X in the grid to divert his attention. “Your turn.”

Li You hesitated and looked up to observe. His brother was not looking at him, and his expression showed nothing unusual. The restless agitation in his mind surged again. He urgently needed to do something to distract himself.

Whatever. He was a smart little cat!!

He slapped another paw down on a square to block his brother.

The game ended in a draw. Li Ye flipped the page and drew another tic-tac-toe grid.

They played for over an hour, but Li You still showed no sign of sleepiness. He got really into it. Later, it was no longer Li Ye drawing the red circles for him; instead, Li You dipped his paw in the red ink pad Li Ye had found and stamped his paw print on the grid.

The page was full of plum blossom cat paw prints.

Red smeared on the cat’s body and the bedding. Li Ye’s pants had some too.

The cat still had no intention of sleeping. Li Ye continued to accompany him in play.

Until the latter half of the night, when Li You finally grew tired. Only when he closed his eyes and lay down did he vaguely realize that he no longer felt uncomfortable.

Li Ye put away the notebook and simply cleaned up the scene. To avoid disturbing the cat that had finally fallen asleep, he did not clean thoroughly. He pulled up the covers and went to sleep first.

The effects of the extract Qi Yu had given him were slowly fading. Now it was his turn to be unable to sleep.

He turned his head and buried his face in the cat’s belly. His narrow eyes had vertical pupils. He closed his eyes and gently inhaled.

There was a faint kitten scent.

–

Early in the morning, Qi Yu woke up early. After a simple wash-up, he went to prepare breakfast without disturbing Li Ye’s rest. He went straight to the lab to check the signal reception.

By mid-morning, breakfast had long gone cold. When Qi Yu came out to get water, he noticed the door to that room was still tightly shut, a thread of worry hanging in his heart.

He went over and lightly knocked on the door with the back of his hand twice. “Your Highness, are you alright?”

There was no sound from inside. General Qi began to consider forcing the door when two “meow meows” came through the door, followed by Li Ye’s voice: “We’re fine.”

Qi Yu breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I’ve prepared breakfast. You and the little cutie come out and eat something. I’m heading to the lab.”

He turned and had not taken two steps when the door behind him opened. Looking back, he saw Li Ye holding the cat at the doorway. Red prints covered both the cat and the man, startling Qi Yu. “…What happened?”

Li Ye glanced at the cat. “It’s from the ink pad.”

Qi Yu blinked slowly and gave a wry smile. “That’s really alarming.”

Last night, the cat, whose sleeping posture was not great but who had slept soundly, had kicked all the ink from its paws onto Li Ye’s face and neck.

When Li You woke up and turned over, he saw red patches all over his brother’s usually expressionless face. Startled, he retreated several large steps. Realizing what happened, he lifted his own paw to look—it was clean.

Nestled in Li Ye’s arms, Li You felt extremely guilty and let out a low “meow woo.”

Li Ye stroked the cat and carried it toward the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Qi Yu watched man and cat walk away, shrugged helplessly, raised his brows, and returned to the lab.

In less than ten minutes, General Qi rushed out from the lab again. “Your Highness! We’ve received a message from the Signal Tower!”

Li Ye, who was wiping the cat’s face, looked up upon hearing this. He remained relatively calm. “What is it?”

“A string of garbled code, and two sentences.” Qi Yu calmed himself and took out his fully charged, restarted Light Brain wristband. He pulled up the video he had just recorded.

The video showed the lab’s large screen. Garbled code slowly popped up on the screen, followed by the first question after a segment.

-Are you trapped there?

Then more garbled code.

Followed by another sentence.

-I have a way back, but you need to help me get Gar’s rabbit.

The message stopped there, with no further messages coming.

Qi Yu frowned. “This isn’t a response from the Imperial Military to my request for support.”

It seemed more like a personal reply, and from someone who knew this place existed.

Li You stared with a cat face, thought of something, and his inner thoughts shook violently. He looked up in shock at Li Ye, who was also looking at him at that moment.

–

At the same time, in the Empire, upon learning of Li Ye’s disappearance, Peisengke quickly issued orders to repair the Space Teleport Station on Anjiel. He handed over his work overnight to Kris, gathered his subordinates, and teleported to Anjiel.

After several exhausting days, Peisengke investigated to the orphanage and pushed open the door upon entering. He did not find Lude. Instead, a boy with purple eyes blocked his path.

The boy held a teddy bear doll in his arms. A small mirror glowing white hung from the doll’s neck. He looked at General Peisengke and held out the doll with both hands. “Sir, do you like the teddy bear?”