Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Two: The Cat Clan (I)

“The Director’s looking for me?” Chu Ge was taken aback. “How come?”

“He didn’t say,” Yan Jin said.

Chu Ge didn’t ask any other questions and left.

“Is he going to buy it?” Xiao Yu was concerned.

“That depends on Du Fengchen,” Yan Jin said.

“Du Fengchen? Is that Director Du? When did you contact him?” Xiao Yu had been by Yan Jin all this time, and he hadn’t seen Yan Jin make any call or send any text messages.

“I signaled him with my eyes,” Yan Jin said with a straight face.

Xiao Yu: “…”

They might as well hurry up and steal the pendant.

……

Chu Ge obediently went to the director’s office. “Senior, is something the matter?” he asked.

Du Fengchen looked at him blankly at first. Then, an understanding look dawned over his face. He snorted, “You don’t know? No wonder why others grind you under their feet like a used rag.”

Chu Ge thought, Huh? Is this a joke?

“Well, seeing as you’re already here, you might as well help me deliver these documents to the President.” After Du Fengchen tossed a stack of documents in Chu Ge’s direction, he looked down and began working on his other tasks.

More confused than ever, poor Chu Ge took the documents to the President. It just so happened that the old President was feeling bored with nothing to do. He ended up keeping Chu Ge around to chat with him for as long as he could.

Half an hour later, Chu Ge managed to escape from the President’s office. His head was so swelled with anger he felt he could float up to the heavens. Hungry from the lack of lunch, he went to go find Yan Jin. Soon though, he discovered that not only had Yan Jin left already, Yan Jin also wasn’t answering his phone.

YAN JIN, COME HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!

……

“It’s Chu Ge.” Since he was driving, he gave the vibrating phone to Xiao Yu.

“Don’t pick up. He might overreact if we tell him right now. Let’s tell him after she wakes up.” Xiao Yu rejected the call and turned Yan Jin’s phone to do-not-disturb.

Yan Jin didn’t comment.

“Hey, can you really not see the little box inside the pendant?” Xiao Yu waved the pendant around in front of Yan Jin.

“I really can’t. Looking at it more won’t help.” It was at least the tenth time Xiao Yu had asked him to take another look after they’d left the hospital.

“*Sigh*, the world’s full of strange things.” As he said this, Xiao Yu tapped the pendant on the steering wheel a few times. “Let me use the steering wheel for a second.”

“You should find a better place—”

“—Nah, don’t worry about it. You’ll know once you see.” Before Yan Jin could finish, Xiao Yu cracked the pendant on the steering wheel like an egg. Xiao Yu whistled at the scattered fragments. He found the small case and held it out in front of Yan Jin. “Can you see it now?”

Yan Jin had mixed expressions of irritation and wonder. “It’s a small paper box?”

“Yep, a little different from my small scroll, but it serves the same purpose. Let me see what it says…” Xiao Yu opened the case to find a small scrap of paper the size of his palm.

“Dear future generations, we hadn’t planned on leaving a message-meow, but those mice next door left one, so we definitely have to leave one too, meow. The most important thing to remember is that only cats are eligible to rule the world, meow…” Xiao Yu couldn’t bring himself to read any further. In any case, Yan Jin was guffawing so hard he had pulled over to the side of the road.

Clearly, it was the work of some evil cult to teach hamsters how to meow. Even Yan Jin couldn’t resist laughing.

“Hey, we’re trying to save someone. Can you be a little more serious?” Xiao Yu said, dissatisfied.

“Ah, okay, okay.” Yan Jin arranged his face into a more neutral expression and started up the car again.

Xiao Yu cursed Yan Jin internally. Nevertheless, he continued reading aloud, “If you have accidentally transformed, both cat and human bodies will have similar life expectancies. The consequences are unimaginable if you don’t return to your human form… Note the two steps to conquer the world. The first is to find a chairman who controls a sizable chunk of the world’s finances. The next step is to—”

“—Roll over and present your white belly.” Yan Jin was quite familiar with the line now.

……

There wasn’t much on the little scrap of paper. But, other than the nonsense about conquering the world and squabbling with the hamster clan, the rest of the information was very valuable.

There weren’t too many differences between the cat and hamster clans, but those small differences were vital. Because of the hamster’s shorter lifespan, the body reunification had to happen before the hamster passed away. However, a healthy cat could live ten or even twenty years. The limitation was instead on the human. The reunification had to happen before the human body failed.

Another interesting point was the time travel. Just like the hamster clan, the worst case scenario of the time travel leaving the cat unable to return to the original time was possible. In addition, the transformation had a small chance to cause total memory loss. The cat could forget it had been a human and its intelligence would regress to that of an infant.

This fully explained why Qiao Yutang never regained consciousness. The next step was clear — they needed to find the kitty where her soul resided.

At first glance, this seemed like a herculean task. Was the cat even in City S anymore? And, was it a wild cat or someone’s pet? Unlike with normal lost pets where they could post pictures and descriptions online, they had no idea what the cat would look like. They could spend years searching for the cat without any results.

However, Xiao Yu wasn’t concerned. In his heart, he already knew where this cat was.

The cat had been right in front of them this whole time.

If Xiao Yu and Yan Jin’s guess was correct, Qiao Yutang was their pet white cat, Faye.

If they had to explain why it had to be Faye…

It was a little complicated, but there were some clues.

First, Faye was indeed a special cat. She could understand humans. If that wasn’t concrete enough, Xiao Yu could understand her.

But, was this actually that noteworthy? After all, Xiao Yu was special as well. It was quite understandable if Xiao Yu could understand animals. Not only that, Yan Jin could also understand Faye…

Setting aside Yan Jin for a moment, Xiao Yu had tested this ability by picking up some other dogs and cats in the villa district. Throughout all their hissing and scratching, Xiao Yu hadn’t been able to understand what they were saying. The only animal he’d ever been able to understand was Faye.

Next, Faye had already been in contact with a lot of people close to Qiao Yutang. Consciously or unconsciously, Faye had initially tried to return to her original body. Unfortunately, she had probably given up after repeated failures and homelessness.

Even Xiao Yu thought this was too much of a coincidence. However… he felt it was the truth.

Regardless, Yan Jin’s complete approval gave Xiao Yu confidence in this possibility.

Xiao Yu walked nervously towards Faye. Perhaps Faye sensed her owner’s seriousness because she set aside her love for trouble-making and sat still, elegantly licking her front paw. She silently watched Xiao Yu approach.

Xiao Yu opened his hands and showed the scrap of paper and a fragment of the aquamarine pendant. “Faye, listen carefully…”

……

When they returned to the hospital, Xiao Yu ran into a large obstacle.

He had only realized upon arriving that the hospital forbade pets.

On second thought, this was pretty reasonable. All hospitals forbade pets.

“Uhh… I’m not going in… just passing through… there’s no need to look at me like that…” Xiao Yu hastily apologized and retreated under the security guard’s suspicious expression. He kicked himself mentally for not realizing this sooner.

Xiao Yu had proudly declared earlier that he could take care of this himself while Yan Jin went to go park the car. Now, Xiao Yu shamelessly buried himself into Yan Jin’s chest to ask for help.

“…You’re unbelievable.” Yan Jin really had no other words to describe Xiao Yu’s empty-headedness.

In the end, they packed Faye into a box with vents. They packed the box into a duffel bag and covered the top with fruits and flowers to disguise it. To avoid the security guard’s suspicions, they entered through the back door.

Once inside, Xiao Yu regained his pride and confidence. He rushed ahead towards the ward, closing the door behind him.

Yan Jin didn’t mind and stood outside to wait.

It wasn’t that he was fooled by Xiao Yu’s lies of how he would trigger the body reunification. He just didn’t want to see Qiao Yutang, especially an awake Qiao Yutang.

It had already been ten years.

Unlike Xiao Yu who was impatient to save a life, Yan Jin wasn’t actually sure if he wanted Qiao Yutang to wake up.

Probably…

He didn’t want her to.

Yan Jin was in such a bad mood that he was tempted to take out a pack of smokes.

Just when he’d put the cigarette into his mouth and was beginning to take out his lighter, someone rushed over and yanked the cigarette out from his mouth.

“What do you think you’re doing smoking in a hospital?”

It was Chu Ge.

Yan Jin blinked innocently a few times and dropped the lighter back into his pocket. “I didn’t smoke. I just took it out to look at.” Technically, this was true, since he hadn’t actually started smoking.

Chu Ge rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me that bullshit. I haven’t even returned you the favor for tricking me earlier. What are you doing here?”

The moment Yan Jin had entered the hospital, someone had informed Chu Ge. Chu Ge had dropped everything and anxiously rushed over to Yan Jin. When he found Yan Jin ready to start smoking, he’d felt the urge to beat Yan Jin up so badly that Yan Jin would actually belong in the hospital.

Fortunately for Yan Jin, the spell he had used to make Chu Ge work for him was still functioning after twenty years.

No matter what, Chu Ge would still be his lowly servant.

“Long time no see! I came to visit you…,” Yan Jin said in a falsely cheery tone.

“Tell me the truth! Otherwise, I’ll have security throw you out.” Chu Ge wasn’t in the mood.

Yan Jin didn’t have any other choice. “…Actually, I came to give you a surprise.”