Chapter 28: Rendong Was a Bold Cat Part 1

The clearest proof: though Tantai Tian couldn’t see it, the cat’s ears had already been pressed flat by that oppressive aura, flattened and cowered, and yet even under all that pressure, Rendong had actually dared to reach out and tug at the human’s belt.

“I taught myself.”

The boy’s voice carried an odd bewitchment through its cool clarity, the trailing drawl sweet and naive. Two qualities that should have been at odds wove together perfectly, lending an inhuman, demonic otherness.

The cat had gone to the Library Pavilion for him again!

In that same corridor where the cat had found the picture album, it found even more books.

Paws slapped about wildly, knocking book after book off the shelves.

Books lay sprawled open on the floor, pages fallen open at random, trampled back and forth by one mischief-making cat.

So many, many books, and Rendong could barely read most of them.

But some had pictures, and for those, the cat could patiently linger a while.

Rendong draped himself over one book, reading the plump little characters with great relish.

“…Bone… hidden fragrance… breath like… threads… soft as a what’s softness… clothes half revealing, half concealing… heart something swaying…”

The System took one look: The body holds a hidden fragrance, breath fine as silk, movement soft as flowing gauze. Clothes half concealing, half revealing, enough to set any heart aflutter.

With no other choice, the System read the passage aloud once more, correctly, for a cat who only ever read half of each character, if only so the Host wouldn’t misunderstand the meaning entirely.

After sorting through what the book taught, Rendong gave a soft mew.

The cat understood.

It meant being nice and fragrant, dressed half-hidden and half-shown, and moving extra lightly, extra softly!

A furry paw reached to turn the page.

Turning pages with toe beans was no easy feat. Rendong put in tremendous effort!

The next page had even more plump characters it couldn’t read.

But fortunately, the cat had the System. Every character it couldn’t read, the cat poked the System into reading aloud.

Excellent. The cat had learned!

System: Yes. Learned it wrong, that is.

A System that should have been heartless felt, at this moment, something vaguely like human worry.

But Rendong didn’t care what the System was thinking. He had dashed straight for the Library Pavilion the moment the rain stopped, and now, as he prepared to leave, the rain was starting up again.

The cat eyed the sky and didn’t wait.

He plunged straight into the curtain of rain. First he went back for the clothes he’d hidden away, transformed and dressed, then ran through the rain toward the Hall of Blessed Tranquility.

When Yu Zeming saw the boy walking through the downpour, he was stunned, hurriedly grabbing an umbrella and rushing down the steps.

But the cat, soaked through, paid it no mind, asking excitedly instead, “Chief Steward, may I take a bath?”

Naturally.

Even without being asked, Yu Zeming would have prepared one.

After being caught in the rain, a good long soak was only proper.

Not just a soak, either. A big bowl of ginger soup was in order.

The cat, already in the bath, had no idea a terrifying bowl of ginger soup awaited him. With something fun dangled ahead, Rendong overcame his dislike of water, paddling several laps around the bath, determined to scrub himself fragrant.

Mm, one pump of this fragrant stuff. Ooh, and one of this fragrant stuff too… Ah-choo!

Too much. Rendong couldn’t take it and sneezed violently, again and again.

Meow heavens, the cat was going to be smoked to death!

In his panic, the cat’s foot slipped, and he tumbled back into the bath.

Splash! A tremendous commotion.

One bedraggled cat floated solemnly up from the water, and Rendong spat out a mouthful.

Maybe not so fragrant after all.

Otherwise Rendong would turn into a dreadful stink egg!

Abandoning artificial fragrance, Rendong stretched out a furry paw and fished from today’s collection a hibiscus in full, blazing bloom.

The hibiscus was stored in the System Storage.

It was a new function that had appeared once Rendong’s Points had grown.

The System Storage wasn’t large, but it could hold a few small treasures for the cat.

Its current inventory: a pastry with a meow-sized bite taken out of it, six or seven flowers of different colors, two pretty stones, the Cat Teaser Wand, a broken branch, Tantai Tian’s mysteriously vanished handkerchief, Tantai Tian’s mysteriously vanished writing brush, Tantai Tian’s mysteriously vanished jade pendant, Tantai Tian’s mysteriously vanished…

Far too many of Tantai Tian’s things had “mysteriously vanished”!

The cat didn’t care.

Whatever the cat picked up belonged to the cat!

Rendong turned the hibiscus over in his paw, as if the vivid red bloom brought to mind the human he was raising.

The cat stood up and told the System, “System, the cat wants to redeem some clothes.”

The books had spelled out the basic requirements for charming a human. Of course Rendong could do it!

The cat carefully, carefully redeemed an outfit.

[This is a skirt.]

The cat looked up. “Is it not pretty?”

[…It’s pretty.]

Rendong was insufferably smug.

A cat looked good in anything!

System: .

The cat then fussed with his hair, but no matter how he fussed, he couldn’t manage that long, silky mane, which troubled him.

If a cat couldn’t groom its own fur properly, what use was it!

The System, unable to watch any longer, quietly diverted a bit of energy to tidy the cat’s messy long hair.

Rendong stared at himself in the bronze mirror and declared solemnly, “What if the human gets too clingy?” After all, today’s cat was this perfect!

Rendong was confidence itself.

A cat never doubted itself.

And at this very moment, Rendong could feel that never-before-noticed vitality.

It proved, beyond a doubt, that the cat’s Bewitchment worked!

So why did the human’s expression still look so terrifying?

Rendong tilted his head. That pure, clean face spoke words that beguiled the heart.

“Don’t you like it?”

Tantai Tian closed his eyes.

A violent, maddening fire boiled in his veins. It wasn’t the first time he had heard such dreadful, overflowing desire in that voice, but it was the first time he had lost control to this degree, so much so that if he didn’t master himself, the next instant he might truly destroy the danger-blind boy before him.

But with his eyes shut, every other sense sharpened.

He could hear the faint patter of footsteps, catch that elusive fragrance, and with the boy’s clear, curious voice, all of it turned into some shrill shriek in his ears.

Dong.

Dong, dong!

Like a bell tolling in truth, ringing and ringing in Tantai Tian’s ears alone.

Years upon years of restraint, a barrier washed away day and night, finally burned to nothing in that moment beneath the raging fire.

Suddenly, Tantai Tian opened his eyes again.

Rendong, up on his toes and preparing a sneak ambush, jumped in fright.

The human’s eyes were terrifying!

In that thick, fathomless black, a scarlet gleam seemed to surface.

Like a fierce beast locking onto its prey, baring its fangs!

A dreadful sense of danger froze the cat mid-motion, and he instinctively backed away. But Rendong had forgotten he wasn’t a cat anymore; a human body couldn’t leap backward the instant it sensed danger the way a cat could. He teetered and toppled over backward, straight into a strong, solid embrace.

The cat, still trembling from fright, hung off the human’s arm, both paws pressed against Tantai Tian’s skin.

Hot, hot, hot!

How could the human’s temperature climb so high!

In Rendong’s memory, the human ran sometimes cold, sometimes warm. Never this feverish.

The cat instantly raised his head, and at that very moment a scalding hand cupped Rendong’s face.

Huh? What was this?

Rendong felt heat press against his lips, something touching his mouth.

It was a kiss.

Only belatedly did Rendong realize the fact.

He had seen one on television.

Kisses were gentle. Tender.

Compared with that burning hand, the kiss was restraint itself, almost a question.

The whole cat went rigid. Eyes wide with novelty, he found the sensation strange and interesting.

So this was a kiss?

Curious, Rendong nuzzled closer. His lips parted, and like a cat testing the waters, the tip of a vivid red tongue peeked out, clumsily licking Tantai Tian’s lips.

Dancing, without a thought for its life, upon the man’s already crumbling reason.

The next moment, Rendong’s eyes went wide.

Eaten. His… his…

The human had swallowed his tongue!

Rendong’s body trembled. Frightened, he squirmed in Tantai Tian’s arms with muffled whimpers, but the man’s thick tongue pushed brazenly into his mouth, nimble as a little snake, claiming Rendong’s tongue tip without mercy.

So fierce…

Rendong whimpered, thin shoulders shaking, back arching like a cat’s.

But the arm around his waist was iron. Every inch of the space he struggled to open was pressed closed again, tighter and tighter, until not a sliver remained between them.

Tantai Tian’s voice came low and rough.

“Why run?”

He was smiling, and yet the sound pulled an involuntary whine from Rendong’s throat.

Like a small beast facing danger, knowing it was hopeless, and still trembling out a hiss.

“Isn’t this what Suisui wanted?”

Suisui… Suisui didn’t want this!

Suisui’s whole mouth had been eaten!

Midnight. Time to be asleep, yet the Hall of Blessed Tranquility blazed with light.

Deep in the night, Emperor Taichu had called for water.

But as the Emperor departed, the main hall was locked down tight. Imperial Dragon Guards visible to the eye, Shadow Guards invisible to it, ringed the entire hall three layers deep. Short of immortal arts, nothing could escape this place.

Such drastic measures, all to ensure the person inside could not leave.

The Emperor could certainly have kept the boy at his side, but he understood better that only slack and pull together could ease a nerve already bristling with guard.

Just so, the cat still lying on the dragon bed was nervously licking his own tail.

After the human left, and the System confirmed no Shadow Guards remained in the hall, Rendong, flushed pink all over, down to his bare wrists and ankles, everywhere faintly red, transformed back into a cat in a flash.

Rendong parkoured madly across the dragon bed, treading it every which way, wrecking the already-tangled bedding further, then shoved at the quilt with his little cat head until the whole cat shot inside, as if it were a mighty fortress, as if that would keep the terrifying human out.

Hugging his own fluffy tail, the cat gave a pitiful mew.

The human was so fierce.

So scary.

Rendong had nearly believed the human really would eat his tongue.

Those sharp teeth had even nibbled lightly at the tip, the tiny sting like a punishment for struggling.

Tantai Tian’s movements had been clumsy at first, but he learned fast.

Only the kiss.

Long, and agonizing.

By the time it stopped, Rendong’s lips were swollen!

Rendong stared blankly at Tantai Tian, tears half-clinging to his lashes, a purely physical reaction, the red at the corners of his eyes tinged with a bewitching flush. He shivered in fine ripples, and on that exquisite face there was an intoxication he himself didn’t recognize.

By then they were sitting at the edge of the bed, Rendong straddling Tantai Tian’s lap.

The human’s large hands held Rendong’s waist, then slid down, pressing against his thigh.

A crisp smack rang out. Rendong yelped and nearly meowed out loud.

The cat couldn’t believe what had happened. Beautiful eyes snapped up to Tantai Tian, whose deep gaze glinted fierce.

The human struck again.

The force was light, but Rendong burst into struggle all the same.

“You hit me!”

The cat shoved furiously at the human’s chest.

“Shouldn’t Suisui be spanked?” Tantai Tian’s pupils dilated, a sinister fury churning in his eyes, a violence on the verge of spilling over. “Hm?”

His voice curved faintly upward. It sounded amused, and colder for it.

“Very badly behaved.”

The badly behaved Rendong was held down and struck several more times.

Even now, with the human gone to bathe, the cat remained paranoid, terrified the human would spring from some corner and smack him again the moment he wasn’t looking.

Detestable, detestable! Where exactly had Rendong misbehaved!

The cat had been very good. He hadn’t even run during the kiss!

Rendong selectively ignored the fact that he couldn’t have run anyway.

The cat licked his fur some more.

After a brief frenzy of grooming, the Fluffy Big Bread gradually deflated into a comparatively smaller bread.

Fur no longer standing on end, Rendong curled into a ball, tucking his damp tail under his paws.

The cat felt heat in his belly.

This skittering warmth had come once before, when the cat took the Demon Blood. Only then, the heat had swiftly turned to agony, beyond the cat’s ability to hold.

Now, the cat felt that strange warmth again.

The System spoke up abruptly.