Chapter 59
Jiang Heng hadn’t been watching his show for long when a round, fluffy head squeezed through the small door in the wall.
The head looked around, only seeing Jiang Heng, not Lu Yichuan, and slowly inched its way inside.
Clearly, a door meant for humans wasn’t designed for semi-trucks.
The truck got stuck at the shoulders.
The white cat pushed and pushed, the small door creaking under the strain, and finally, with a pop, it tumbled inside.
Jiang Heng turned and watched as it shook its fur, padded towards him, and with surprising agility for its size, jumped onto the chair where Jiang Heng had placed his dried fish.
“Boss asked me to ask you, is the matter settled?”
Jiang Heng popped a potato chip into his mouth, crunch, crunch. “It’s settled. I’ve explained everything to Lu Yichuan. He won’t blame you.”
“Oh…” the white cat said distractedly, “Your dried fish looks delicious. Can I try some?”
Jiang Heng nodded. “You guys are so silly. The Divine Cat Lord isn’t that wooden statue. Actually, there’s no Divine Cat Lord at all, that’s not the Divine Cat Lord…”
The white cat, munching on a dried fish, crunch, crunch, asked, “Then what is it?”
Jiang Heng, munching on his potato chips, crunch, crunch, replied, “It’s a mountain god. He told me when I went there.”
“He said the temple on Sanqing Mountain used to be very popular, with many visitors every day, and the mountain god’s shrine was right next to it, so people would also worship Him. There’s a faint spiritual energy there, which awakened His consciousness, but unfortunately…”
Jiang Heng crinkled the bag of chips. “Sanqing Mountain has been abandoned for a long time. Without the power of faith, the mountain god has weakened, so much so that He could only maintain my human form for two hours.”
White cat, crunch, crunch: “Then what should we do?”
Jiang Heng, crunch, crunch: “Grandpa Mountain God said there’s nothing we can do. His decline is inevitable. People don’t need gods anymore, and He has lived long enough.”
The white cat rubbed its belly, suddenly feeling melancholic. “So we don’t have a Divine Cat Lord anymore?”
Jiang Heng, crunch, crunch: “In the eyes of cats, you are the Divine Cat Lord.”
White cat, continuing to crunch, crunch: “Aren’t you sad?”
Jiang Heng shifted his position, crunch, crunch. “It’s alright. Although He’s fading now, He’ll return when He’s needed again.”
Death isn’t the end, being forgotten is.
“Humans might forget the existence of the mountain god, but cats won’t.”
He added, “You guys are so silly. You didn’t even realize the truth after all this time.”
White cat, crunch, crunch: “You’re so smart.”
“Of course, I knew something was off from the beginning, but I’m modest, so I didn’t tell you. But now, I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer.”
White cat: “Crunch, crunch…”
Jiang Heng reached into the bag of chips, his paw coming up empty. He looked inside and saw only air.
He turned his head. The white cat was chewing on the last dried fish, swallowing it with a crunch under his watchful gaze.
Jiang Heng looked down at the fish crumbs on the chair, then at the empty dish.
“Achoo!”
He yelled, “Lu Yichuan!!!”
“My dried fish!!”
…
Lu Yichuan had just finished a virtual meeting, signing a multi-million dollar deal in under ten minutes, and was now mediating a dispute between two cats in the living room.
The small, silver-tipped Munchkin cat, his fur bristling, bared his teeth at the white cat. “It’s him! He ate all the dried fish you made for me!”
He emphasized, “Every. Single. One!”
The white cat, lying on the floor, said weakly, “I asked you first, meow.”
Jiang Heng was so angry he stomped his five-centimeter-long leg on the floor. “You asked if you could try some! Do you even understand what ‘try some’ means?!”
“I don’t know, meow.”
Jiang Heng: “…”
So angry! His education had failed him!
Lu Yichuan picked up his cat. “It’s just a plate of dried fish.”
“It’s not ‘just a plate’! I counted! Twenty-five pieces! Enough for two days! Is he a pig? He devoured them in minutes!”
He extended his claws. “I’m going to fight him to the death!”
Lu Yichuan retracted his claws. “You can’t beat him, he’ll crush you with his butt.”
Jiang Heng: “…”
White Cat: QAQ
Jiang Heng took a few deep breaths in Lu Yichuan’s arms and, as a mature adult, decided not to argue with a pig. “I don’t want to see him anymore. Next time, just send Black Cat.”
The white cat looked up, trying to explain again, its voice weak, “Boss has to work during the day, meow. He doesn’t have time.”
Jiang Heng was stunned. “He has a job?”
“There are many cats in the abandoned building waiting for Boss to feed them.”
Jiang Heng asked, “Then why don’t you work?”
The white cat was silent for a couple of seconds, then said sheepishly, “I eat too much; they didn’t want me. Boss doesn’t want to take care of me either. He always tells me to find my own food and only come back after I’ve eaten.”
Jiang Heng: “…”
“Can I ask…what kind of work does your boss do?”
The white cat answered honestly. “He carries bricks at a construction site. We don’t have ID cards, so we only get paid fifty yuan a day, but meals are included.”
He ate so much he was fired after a week.
Jiang Heng’s expression turned serious. He asked Lu Yichuan to find some clothes for the white cat and said he wanted to talk to him in his human form.
The white cat, glancing at Lu Yichuan’s expression, took the clothes and went to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, the white-haired man emerged, nervously tugging at his clothes. “Wh-what do you want to talk about?”
Jiang Heng sat on the table in front of him, his tail swishing back and forth. “Repeat what you just said.”
The man could only stammer out his explanation about his job again, and Lu Yichuan frowned. “Fifty yuan a day, only meals included?”
“Boss and I searched everywhere, and that was the only job we could find. No one would hire us without ID cards.”
“You don’t have an ID card either?” Lu Yichuan’s frown deepened. “Then what was with the bank card you gave me before?”
“I found a phone, meow, and there was a card inside. Then I lost the phone, and the card was gone too.”
Lu Yichuan: “…”
No wonder Li An had found a different person based on the bank card information. The card he had transferred the money to had been deactivated a long time ago, even the registered phone number had been changed, which was why the three million yuan had been useless.
Li An had managed to retrieve the money, thinking he had caught a big fish, but after so long, he had only caught a fat cat.
Sensing the man’s cold gaze, the fat cat trembled. “I…I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Lu Yichuan rubbed his temples. “I’ll help you with the ID card issue. I’ll give you two…” He looked at the white cat and sighed. “Forget it, call your boss.”
This cat was clearly unreliable.
The black-haired, green-eyed teenager seemed much more dependable.
Jiang Heng politely brought out a box of biscuits to greet the guest, only to see the teenager open a 2-liter bottle of water and start chugging it.
“…”
Perhaps not that smart after all.
Both the cat and the two men looked at Lu Yichuan.
The man was still in the kitchen, making cat food. Ten minutes later, he came out with Jiang Heng’s food bowl, sat down opposite the black cat and the white cat with Jiang Heng in his lap, the aroma of the simmered cat food filling the air, the two men staring at it intently.
Jiang Heng pulled his bowl closer, eyeing them warily.
Lu Yichuan said, “There’s still cat food…” He looked at the two men and sighed. “Forget it, I’ll order some food for you.”
Little Black opened the box of biscuits, sharing it with Big White, crunch, crunch. “The people at the construction site didn’t want to hire me at first because I was small, but I can carry two bags of cement at once, I’m stronger than everyone else, so they finally hired me.”
“What?!” Jiang Heng was indignant. “You can carry two bags of cement at once, and they only pay you fifty yuan a day?!”
Big White, crunch, crunch: “But fifty yuan can buy several jin of cat food.”
Little Black said honestly, “We don’t have ID cards, and we’re not very educated, having a job is already good enough.”
He thought, if it weren’t for all the cats he had to feed, he wouldn’t want to work.
After hearing their story, Lu Yichuan finally understood the situation. He said, “I’ll give you two choices. One: I return the three million I promised you, you can do whatever you want with it, but from now on, you have nothing to do with me or Jiang Heng. Two: You return the money, and I’ll help you get ID cards and find you jobs that can support yourselves and the other cats.”
Little Black didn’t hesitate. “We want jobs.”
Lu Yichuan raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. “Why?”
He said honestly, “Because we didn’t intend to take so much money from you in the first place. Big White only wanted three hundred yuan for food. It wasn’t our money. We’re big cats, we can take care of ourselves.”
These cats were more principled than most people Lu Yichuan had met.
“But I don’t keep freeloaders. If you don’t perform well, you’ll be fired.”
The black-haired teenager sat up straight. “We’ll work hard.”
After a moment of seriousness, he scratched his head. “What kind of work is it?”
“Considering your…abilities, the only thing I can offer is a security guard position, same pay and benefits as the other guards, food and accommodation included.”
Thinking of their unique situation, Lu Yichuan added, “I’ll arrange a separate room for you two.”
The teenager slapped the man beside him. “Say thank you.”
The man, chewing on a biscuit, crumbs falling from his mouth, stammered, “Th-thank you.”
Lu Yichuan: “…”
“Our slogan is—”
“There are no rats we can’t catch, only cats who don’t try hard enough!”
“Our goal is—”
“A rat-free zone for miles around!”
“Very good.” Jiang Heng stood on a small mound of dirt, his fluffy tail swaying along with the weeds. “Say it loud, who am I?”
A dozen cats squatting below the mound meowed in unison,
“Sang—Biao—”
Jiang Sang Biao, standing proudly on the mound, declared, “From today onwards, the Sang Biao Rat Extermination Company is officially established! All members will receive a daily ration of cat food, two dried fish for every rat caught, and for every thief apprehended, a luxurious can of food!”
He raised his voice. “Do you want dried fish?!”
“Meow!”
Yes!
“Do you want canned food?!”
“Meow!”
Yes!
“Then what are you waiting for?!”
“Catch rats! Catch thieves!”
Jiang Heng jumped down. “Very good. But be careful. You can catch rats, but don’t eat them, they might be poisoned. Same goes for thieves, don’t confront them directly, report back to the organization immediately.”
The Meow Meow Squad dispersed to their designated areas around the construction site.
Jiang Heng, standing on the mound, declared silently in his heart: Lu Yichuan, look! This rat-free construction site is my gift to you!
A weed swayed in front of his face, and Jiang Heng raised his paw…
I’ll catch it! I’ll catch it! I’ll catch it!
