22 Chapter 29 Part 3

As the Second Male Lead of the original story, Tantai Tian's fated path was to ascend the throne, harden into a tyrant through years of hardship, and end up as a stepping stone for the Male Lead.

Yet through one accident after another, the Crown Prince who was supposed to take the throne was still a poor, pitiful little thing.

To salvage the plot, the System bound to... a cat to carry out the mission.

A cat has a cat's code of honor. The cat would see the job done properly.

Human, this cat has come to save you.

Except, why did Tantai Tian, whom the System had promised would be gentle and refined, already show the first outlines of a tyrant?

The cat was shaken. System, you lied to the cat!

~~~

Tantai Tian kept a cat.

A black, ill-omened cat, much like himself.

It had been given a name as well: Rendong.

Rendong was a wild thing, with claws to match, but a cat's claws were always reserved for outsiders. Toward Tantai Tian, the cat offered only soft little pads going pat pat pat.

Rendong was well-behaved, too. Even if not much of a clinger, it would still purr and roll about at Tantai Tian's side.

Little by little, Tantai Tian grew greedy. Five years of companionship, ten years, were no longer enough. He wanted more!

So what if it was an ill-omened black cat? Anyone who had a single complaint about his cat would be killed. Every last one of them.

***

One day, the cat asked the System: System, the human fed the cat pills. Is this cat sick?

The System answered drily: Tantai Tian has lost his mind.

He actually dreamed that a cat could live to a hundred years old.

Rendong said worriedly: But the human looks even more likely to die young first, though.

***

Ever since Rendong learned that Tantai Tian was ill, he had racked his brain trying to cure the human. But why on earth were all these remedies so bizarre?

Having transformed into a human and now wobbling along in a serpentine slink, Rendong fell silent.

For the cat to cure the human, the plan went like this: frighten him, get close to him, bewitch him, whip up his emotions and desires, then let the Cultivation Base rise so the illness could be treated... Wasn't that exactly the wicked Demon Spirit from the stories!

Rendong was horrified. Would a Cat Demon be burned at the stake?

And so Rendong lived one life as a cat while secretly living another as a human, and daily life turned exceptionally thrilling and perilous.

***

After enough time had passed, it seemed the human had discovered that the cat was a demon.

Rendong: Farewell, human. This cat will run off for a while, lie low until the storm blows over, then come back and look after you.

Just as Rendong bundled up his bedding, ready to slink away in the most cowardly feline fashion, the tail sticking out behind him was seized in a firm grip.

Rendong twisted his head around to look.

Whoa. What a gloomy, terrifying expression.

Tantai Tian stared at him, dark and menacing, like an evil ghost clawing its way out of hell.

"And where, exactly, do you think you're going?"

Rendong: Wait, when on earth had his cat tail slipped out?!