Chapter 44.3

Proofreader: Lore

Trigger Warnings: animal abuse?

The kidnappers have already pushed and shoved him until he was in front of the ATV’s door. Xia Rong’s mind continued to surge, before finally deciding he should not just head into danger alone like this. After all, as long as the verdant mountain remains, where should one fear the lack of wood to burn¹Where there’s life, there’s hope.. Although turning into a cat in the full view of everyone would be greatly himself a lot, he didn’t have any better options right now—

“Meow ao—!”

Just at the moment, he made his decision, a sudden shrill, mournful cat cry sounded from behind him.

However, rather than calling it a cat’s cry, it was more accurate to call it a cat’s roar. The sharp hiss pierced into the group’s eardrums, of which only Xia Rong could understand this cat’s intentions: “Hurry and run!”

“F★ck, what the f★ck★ng h★ll is this!”

“F★ck, this is that cat I said that was chasing the car! Look, it mad dashed the entire way following our car, even its paws are all completely bloodied!”

“Has this cat gone crazy?!! F★ck, its claws are so sharp!!!”

Xia Rong quickly turned his head back and just so happened to catch the kidnapper, who had blood all over his face from being clawed, land a heavy kick on the silver kitty, who immediately flew from the hit and rolled a few meters away.

Several of the kidnappers sported a bloody face, though it was unknown whether it was from being scratched by the cat or that it was the blood from the cat’s paws. This group of people had already been the sort that lived on licking blood off the tip of a knife, so now that their aggressiveness had been incited by the cat, taking advantage while the cat was still paralyzed and without any strength to get up, they went over and one of them ground the cat’s paw under his shoe.

And the cat actually didn’t make a sound at all, instead, a cold light flashed through its big eyes as it stared at the kidnappers who were surrounding it.

“What kind of cat is this, how scary!”

“It even has a pink bag on his back, isn’t this a domestic cat? Why’d it act so crazily?”

“Doesn’t matter, this pain is killing me, I’m going to kill it today!”

…

Xia Rong gritted his teeth tight, unconsciously a layer of heat seemed to spread over his eyes. However, despite all this, he didn’t forget to pay attention to the kidnapper who was right next to him. Taking advantage of the moment that the other’s attention had been completely attracted by the other side and their hand had relaxed, he rammed into them and used all of his accumulated strength to shake off the other’s hold, then ran three steps in two to the back of the off-road vehicle—

“Not good, he’s running!”

“Hurry up and chase!”

“Did he get scared stupid, why’s he running off to the back of the car?!”

…If this had been the Xia Rong from two months ago, it would have already been his limit being able to gain five or six seconds before getting recaptured after relying on such an instant of explosive force to break away from these strong and sturdy kidnappers. But the current Xia Rong had long become a different person to the Xia Rong from two months ago. Five seconds, to the him now, was enough!

“F★ck, how come the person’s gone???”

“Why is there only the clothes left?!”

“Qiang-zi, don’t f★ck★ng worry about the cat right now! That star’s run away!!”

…

The kidnappers shouted and yelled, calling their companions over to the back of the ATV. The four or five people just stood around that pile of clothes stunned, dumbfounded and at a loss for words, without a clue on what to do.

“Are people with Pure Yin born knowing how to use spells? This- this- Why the f★ck is there no one now?”

“That cat’s disappeared too, this is too terrifying!”

“Don’t worry about this anymore. Bring the clothes to the car first. Hurry, call Master Wang quick!”

“Get in the car and search along the road. Hurry up!!”

…

The kidnappers all jumped into the car. The ATV gave an eager roar, and within a few seconds, it vroomed away.

The small orange cat, who was lying in some underbrush nearby, didn’t turn his head back around until the off-road vehicle got farther and farther away, disappearing from the road. With tears “pattering” down, he started licking the wound on the paw of the silver gradient British Shorthair next to him.

“…Xia Rong, there’s no need.” The British Shorthair seemed a bit ill at ease and shrank his paws uncomfortably. “I had already recorded down their license plate number and the route they had taken and had sent it to Xiao Wu, telling him to call the police. You go take a look at how that’s progressing. The cell phone is in the bag.”

The pink bag had gotten rather dirty from having been kicked. Fortunately, the phone itself was still rather sturdy and still tenaciously continued to function. Xia Rong clawed and pulled the cell phone out of the cloth bag and used his paw pad to turn on the screen. “…He said that the police are already on their way, so you can rest assured.”

“En, they’ll be delayed for some time on this road in order to find you, so they should be able to be caught.” Su Chi felt he could now sigh in relief. It then seemed as if he wanted to give a comforting pat to Xia Rong with his paw pad but ended giving up because of the mottled traces of blood on it. “…Everything’s fine now. Why are you still crying? Does turning into a cat mean you can just arbitrarily cry now? A crybaby cat²Raw: 花脸猫 [huā liǎn māo] The last character is the same character as “cat.” The phrase itself, however, is used to address someone with a messy/dirty face (usually children), usually from playing too hard (dust/dirt) or from crying too hard.?”

“You don’t need to tease me so deliberately.” The little orange cat paused his crying with a slight smile, then took the initiative to hold the other’s paw and patted. “Why did you use a cat’s body to chase ah?”

“By the time I sensed it, I felt it would be too late if I were to get the car from the garage.” Su Chi hissed. “Moreover, they were driving towards the outskirts. With it so open and deserted, it would be too obvious if I were to bring the car.”

“…In fact, it also would’ve been fine if you didn’t follow over. I could’ve just turned into a cat by myself to run away.” Xia Rong saw that it seemed as if his handling had triggered pain for Su Chi and quickly extended his tongue to give a few licks.

“Who knows if you would’ve been scared silly, or if the person who kidnapped you could limit your ability to transform?” Su Chi laughed a bit. “For example, it was already quite silly just now.”

“Just now, just now I was only hesitating whether to go straight to their old nest…” Xia Rong said rather guiltily. “Later on, I still felt that my small life was more important. Then just as I was about to turn, you already arrived…”

“Saying it like that, then I’m only extra?”

“No, no! If it wasn’t for you, how would I have had the time to remember their license plate or route. Also, if I did turn into a cat, then I won’t have a trump card for next time…”

The little orange cat muttered only about half of the sentence when raised his eyes and saw that the British Shorthair’s dark brown eyes were gazing at him ever so soft and gentle. His heart fluttered and he suddenly forgot what he was going to say.

“I’m sorry.” Su Chi suddenly opened his mouth to say.

“Ha?” Xia Rong had a face full of confusion.

Su Chi said in all seriousness. “…I wasn’t able to stay three meters away from you.”

“…” Xia Rong silently recollected for a while before finally fishing out from some corner of his memory how he had asked Su Chi to “stay three meters away from me, if you come over again then I won’t consider it anymore” in anger…

“…Do you mean to scold me by this?” The little orange cat’s eyes narrowed.

No, it was a vain attempt to draw out some regret from your heart.

Su Chi coughed. “…Isn’t it about time for us to go to the hospital? I seem to feel a bit of pain from my paw…”

YinYue has something to say:

Sorry about this~ Still looking for an editor~ Thank you for reading~

• 1
  Where there’s life, there’s hope. ↩︎
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  Raw: 花脸猫 [huā liǎn māo] The last character is the same character as “cat.” The phrase itself, however, is used to address someone with a messy/dirty face (usually children), usually from playing too hard (dust/dirt) or from crying too hard. ↩︎