Chapter 88: Side Story 3 (5/6)
The scratches on Li Yong’s face were deep. He went to the hospital for a tetanus shot, and his father, worried, also had him get a rabies shot. He ended up with several stitches on his face and back.
That night, his father, armed with a cleaver, searched the area where the three cats had been seen, pacing back and forth for over an hour, but found nothing.
Meanwhile, the three cats he was looking for had climbed the mountain on the edge of the urban village.
A crescent moon hung in the sky, stars twinkling silently above, the wind rustling the grass, the world vast and open.
The Maine Coon lay on a dry rock, the small, white dumpling of a kitten perched on its back, a ginger cat curled up at its feet.
Although it was late at night, the young kitten was full of energy.
Little Jiang Heng stood up on the Maine Coon’s back, howled at the moon like a wolf, “Awooo!”, the wind ruffling his fur, and felt himself transforming into a werewolf.
Werewolf kitty, his butt sticking up in the air, prepared for takeoff, jumped, and rolled into the soft grass.
Small, nameless wildflowers, their newly bloomed petals, were mercilessly bitten by the cat.
Little Jiang Heng’s tail swayed like a rattlesnake as he darted around in the grass, gathering a small bouquet of flowers, and brought them to the Maine Coon.
“Big Meow Lu, flowers for you!”
Big Meow Lu opened his eyes, glanced at the offering, and swept the flowers closer with his tail.
A few seconds later, Little Jiang Heng darted off again.
“Big Meow Lu, I found the prettiest leaf for you!”
“Big Meow Lu, a perfectly round stone for you!”
“Big Meow Lu, I found a toad!”
Big Meow Lu’s swishing tail stopped, his voice exasperated. “Little Jiang Heng, come back! Stay away from the toad!”
Little Jiang Heng reluctantly watched the toad hop away, then disappeared into the grass again.
A few minutes later…
“Big Meow Lu, I found a cricket!”
Before Big Meow Lu could react, Little Jiang Heng was back, a cricket dangling from his mouth. “Big Meow Lu! Big Meow Lu! Does a cricket undergo complete metamorphosis?”
Big Meow Lu: “…”
The cricket, having just emerged from the ground after a long winter, twitched feebly in the kitten’s mouth, its tiny eyes filled with terror.
Although tempted to just agree, his dedication to scientific accuracy wouldn’t allow it. “It undergoes incomplete metamorphosis. Incomplete metamorphosis has one less stage than complete metamorphosis. First, it starts as…”
Blah, blah, blah… Little Jiang Heng only caught a few words. “I understand, it’s not as weird as a butterfly.”
Big Meow Lu: “…”
Little Jiang Heng ran over and nudged the sleeping ginger cat awake. “Big Yellow, look! I caught a not-weird bug!”
Big Yellow groggily opened its eyes.
Little Jiang Heng dropped the cricket from his mouth. “Big Meow Lu said it undergoes incomplete metamorphosis, which means it’s not weird! We can play with crickets from now on!”
Big Meow Lu: “…”
I really should send you to school.
Little Jiang Heng spent the rest of the evening searching for crickets. It wasn’t cricket season yet; he didn’t even know how he had managed to find that one earlier. After searching for a long time, finding nothing, he eventually fell asleep beside the big cat without even realizing it.
When he woke up, it was already noon.
Big Meow Lu was gone. A soft layer of dry grass had been placed under him, and the ginger cat was grooming itself.
His stomach growled, reminding him that it was time to eat.
Little Jiang Heng stretched and got up, then saw the Maine Coon emerging from the woods, its body radiating a murderous aura, probably returning from a hunt.
Little Jiang Heng’s small teeth couldn’t handle bones, so Big Meow Lu didn’t catch any for him. As for the ginger cat, it wasn’t his responsibility.
He licked the blood from his mouth, expertly picked up the kitten by the scruff of its neck, and took him down the mountain to find food.
The path down the mountain wasn’t the same as the one they had taken up. They had ascended from the urban village side, but now they were descending into the industrial area.
It was another sunny day, but the smoke from the factories had covered the sky in a gray haze, the sunlight dim and weak.
The asphalt road was wide, filled with heavy trucks, the air thick with the smell of gasoline.
Big Meow Lu put Little Jiang Heng down and listened to him declare confidently, “We’re changing our begging location today.”
Across the road was an orphanage. It seemed to be lunchtime, judging by the faint sounds of the caretaker’s shouts and the children’s laughter.
Little Jiang Heng looked towards the orphanage. “This is on our backup list, but crossing the road is too much trouble, so we’ll skip it today.”
A few days had passed, and a faint silver sheen had appeared on Little Jiang Heng’s fur, his tail fluffier now, thicker.
The small, fluffy dumpling led the way, his head bobbing with each step.
Several restaurants lined the road, none of them seemed to be doing very well.
The first one they passed, Little Jiang Heng looked up. “Whoa! Flower Arm Big Brother!”
Nope, not begging there.
The second one. “Scary Uncle, with the big belly!”
Nope, not begging there either.
The third one…
Before Little Jiang Heng could even approach, a bucket of water was thrown at them from inside, narrowly missing them. The Maine Coon instinctively took a step back, then growled at the woman who had thrown the water. “Where did this little beast come from?! So big, and so dirty! Don’t ruin my business!” (Too many swear words to translate accurately)
Little Jiang Heng, unfazed, meowed loudly.
The Maine Coon lowered its eyes and swore under its breath (untranslatable).
The small, fluffy dumpling glared at the woman defiantly. The woman, hands on her hips, yelled, “What are you looking at? I’ll kill you!”
The kitten retorted, “Your kitchen will be infested with rats tonight!”
“You’ll find rat droppings in your food!”
“Owner!” A furious voice came from inside the restaurant. “What’s this in my food?!”
The woman rushed inside. Two or three people were sitting there, their faces grim, pointing at their plates. “Why are there rat droppings in our food?!”
The woman’s face turned pale. “That’s impossible! My restaurant doesn’t have rats!”
“I saw it with my own eyes! So many cats around here! Of course you have rats! Serves you right! Your business is going to fail! You’ll lose all your money!”
“Compensate us! Now!”
…
“Ha!” Little Jiang Heng said proudly. “I’m so powerful! My words are like magic!”
The Maine Coon put him down and patted his head with its large paw.
“Indeed, Cat Lord. Very powerful.”
Little Jiang Heng’s tail stuck straight up.
He glared at the woman arguing with her customers and continued walking.
The next restaurant was empty, except for a white cat eating by the entrance.
Little Jiang Heng boldly stood in the middle of the road, observing the white cat, as a woman emerged from the restaurant.
The woman wiped her hands on her apron and, seeing the three cats, paused, a look of apprehension in her eyes as she looked at the large Maine Coon.
Little Jiang Heng said confidently, “This lady is definitely a good person. Let’s ask her for food.”
The Maine Coon sat under a tree by the entrance, watching him.
Little Jiang Heng approached the woman and squatted down, repeating his tried-and-true begging tactic.
Su Ye glanced at the Maine Coon, slightly intimidated by its size, but seeing it make no aggressive moves, she bent down and petted the clean, fluffy kitten.
“Little guy, whose cat are you?”
“Meow!”
Big Meow Lu’s!
“Are you a house cat or a stray?”
“Meow!”
A brave adventurer, exploring the world!
After a few moments of this chicken-and-duck conversation, Su Ye touched its belly with her damaged hand. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
“Meow…”
Yes.
A faint smile appeared on the woman’s usually worried face. “So you’ve come to me for food. Well, I don’t have much to offer, and this restaurant is about to close down.”
She pointed at the white cat by the entrance. “This is what the last customer ordered. He didn’t even touch it. If you don’t mind, I’ll share some with…uh…” she then noticed the ginger cat. “…with you.”
Little Jiang Heng looked at the food. “Meow.”
That’s fine.
Su Ye, surprisingly, seemed to understand. She went back inside and found a disposable bowl, scooping more than half of the egg fried rice into it.
“There are two of you, so I gave you a bit more.”
The ginger cat nudged Little Jiang Heng with its butt, urging him to eat first.
Little Jiang Heng turned to the Maine Coon. “Big Meow Lu, I don’t like spring onions.”
The big cat, which had been sitting under the tree, walked over and ate the spring onions from his bowl.
The big cat ate the spring onions, the kitten ate the fried rice.
“I got an egg!”
“I got a big piece of ham!”
“Ah! Big Meow Lu, I got a spring onion! Spit, spit!”
“…”
Little Jiang Heng had never lacked food, so after a few bites, he was full. He gave his bowl to Big Yellow and curiously went to look at the other white cat.
The Maine Coon was intimidating, even to cats. The white cat was clearly afraid of him, but it was reluctant to abandon the fried rice, so it ate while trembling, its timidity evident.
Little Jiang Heng greeted it. “Hi, I’m Little Jiang Heng, a brave adventurer cat.”
The white cat glanced at him, saw no malice, and replied, “H-hello. My owner calls me Lucky.”
“Lucky? That’s a strange name.”
The white cat corrected him, “It’s Lucky, not…whatever you just said.”
“Is there a difference?”
White cat: “…”
Ignorance was truly terrifying.
“Forget it,” Little Jiang Heng said. “I’ll call you Little White. We’ve formed a cat adventure team, do you want to join us?”
The white cat hesitated. “What…what is that?”
Little Jiang Heng puffed out his chest. “It’s a grand undertaking! We’re going to write a great literary masterpiece – The Adventures of Little Jiang Heng! If you join us, your name will be in the book! You’ll be famous!”
His grand vision captivated Little White, its eyes shining. “C-can I really?”
“Of course!” Little Jiang Heng declared. “But you have to acknowledge me as your boss. As the boss’s underling, you’ll have plenty of…screen time.”
“I want to join!”
“Okay, then call me Boss.”
“Boss.”
“Hee hee!”
“Boss, who are they?”
“Big Yellow is my Fortune Cat.”
“Big Meow Lu…Big Meow Lu is my Bodyguard Cat.”
“What’s a Bodyguard Cat?”
“He protects my…chub, so I can stay nice and plump.”
“So cool…”
“…”
