Early September, Yuchuan.
All the windows on the third floor of the cat café were open, letting in a cool breeze carrying a faint floral fragrance. Yet even Pei Shiyi, who would normally find a poetic line for the slightest occasion, was frowning, completely oblivious to the subtle scent of osmanthus.
Dan Huang had reached a critical juncture in his cultivation. After centuries of practice, he had finally condensed his inner core. Once the demon core fully formed, it would mark Dan Huang as a mature demon, capable of maintaining a human form for extended periods without reverting back after just an hour or two.
But this stage was not easy to pass. Dan Huang seemed to be in great pain. His chubby little belly was taut, twitching occasionally, and his round face was scrunched up in distress.
Yin Zhou and Tong Qian, while worried, kept busy herding the curious kittens back behind the screen to their nests, preventing them from seeing Dan Huang and getting frightened.
Yet at this stage, even Pei Shiyi and Bo Jin couldn’t help. The demon core was one of the most vital aspects of a demon. So, during its formation, no external spiritual energy could interfere.
Pei Shiyi placed a hand on Dan Huang, his concern unmistakable in his eyes.
Bo Jin reached out, resting his hand on the back of Pei Shiyi’s, gently stroking his wrist in silent comfort.
Miss Penny, who came from a witch background, had never witnessed such a scene. Anxiously, she circled around Dan Huang.
Fondant pressed close to Yun Chao, too afraid to look, burying her little face in Yun Chao’s fur while perking her ears to listen.
Yun Chao whispered, “Don’t be afraid. Nothing will go wrong.”
Fondant looked up. “Has Yun Chao ever gone through this, too?”
Fondant had heard from Tong Qian that Yun Chao was the most powerful among them, able to maintain a stable human form even before coming to the cat café. She just never transformed. Was it because she didn’t like it?
Song Gao, Dai Dai, and Mao Mao were both nestled in Pei Shiyi’s arms, for there was no place more comforting to them than Pei Shiyi at this moment.
Mao Mao clung to Pei Shiyi’s sleeve, unconsciously biting the cuff. Dai Dai, though so tense his fur was standing on end, still mustered the effort to lick his brother’s fur twice.
Song Gao, seeing himself as the big brother, shielded the two siblings, though he himself was stiff as a stuffed toy.
Sensing the tension of the three furballs, Pei Shiyi belatedly realized he was showing too much emotion. Quickly smoothing the worry from his brows and eyes, he smiled and gently stroked the three little ones. “It’s alright. Don’t be scared.”
Dan Huang, in the midst of condensing his demon core, felt terribly cold. All his demonic energy flowed from his meridians toward the inner chamber where the core was forming. Even his blood seemed to flow more slowly.
He was desperately thirsty. Struggling to open his eyes, he found himself lying beneath a shrub in a flower bed, damp soil beneath him, pale yellow leaves dripping with cold rainwater.
Pain. An indescribable ache spread throughout his body.
He hadn’t felt such pain in a long time.
Dan Huang shook his head and tried to stand, but his limbs felt weak and useless. After taking two wobbly steps, he tumbled out of the flower bed, his fur soaking in a puddle.
This was strange. Wasn’t he supposed to be at the cat café?
Dan Huang rolled all the way to the roadside, where a speeding car brushed past the tips of his fur. Hurriedly, he pressed himself against the flower bed. Looking down at himself, he saw he was emaciated, the outline of his shoulder blades visible with every movement.
Suddenly, he remembered where he was. This was after he had left Tao Yang’s home, pursued relentlessly by human cultivators.
Jinhua cats have a rather poor reputation among human cultivators, often seen as symbols of “bewitching minds and taking lives”. Dan Huang, with his mediocre talent, remained much the same even after cultivating for a century or two. It was sheer luck that he managed to escape with his life from the hands of human cultivators.
Perhaps he needed to find Yun Chao. But Sijiu City was so far from Yuchuan.
The scenery before Dan Huang grew increasingly blurry as he collapsed in the middle of the road. His limbs twitched uncontrollably, and he stared blankly at the sky. Cars sped past him, but no one noticed or stopped.
Dan Huang felt himself growing drowsier. It seemed as though his blood was draining away, his body temperature dropping lower and lower. The cold was so intense that he instinctively curled up, even though he couldn’t move at all.
Amidst the bone-chilling cold, a wave of warmth descended.
“Whose little kitten is this?”
A familiar, smiling voice rang out. Dan Huang struggled to lift his head. Was it the boss? Barely managing to open his eyes a sliver, he could only make out the exquisitely beautiful features of the person before him, which vaguely overlapped with the gentle image of the boss. But it wasn’t the boss.
No, it was also the boss. It was the first boss, the one who had saved him.
But why couldn’t he remember the name?
The person picked him up: “How did you get so dirty? And with so many injuries. Does it hurt? Come with me. If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as a yes.”
With this confusion in mind, Dan Huang was embraced in a warm hug. At that moment, the demon core within his inner palace, which had been gathering demonic energy, finally took shape. Demonic power surged back into his meridians, and the cold and pain faded away.
Dan Huang opened his eyes to find himself lying in the boss’s arms. Dai Dai and Mao Mao were perched on Pei Shiyi’s shoulders, their eyes filled with concern. He turned his head slightly to see all the cats gathered around, their gazes fixed intently on him.
Fondant let out a deep sigh of relief and slumped onto Yun Chao.
Yun Chao walked over, narrowing her eyes slightly with a hint of admiration in her gaze.
Miss Penny approached and gently nuzzled Dan Huang’s head: “That’s wonderful.”
Dan Huang, still dazed, nuzzled back clumsily.
Pei Shiyi scratched Dan Huang’s chin. The fluffy little one was staring at him with wide amber eyes, looking utterly bewildered. Amused, Pei Shiyi took Dan Huang’s paw and kissed it: “What’s wrong?”
Dan Huang murmured dazedly: “I remembered something.”
About Feng Huang, about the cat café.
Ever since the boss took over the cat café, his memories of Feng Huang had grown increasingly faint. He rarely even recalled that such a person existed. Yet the warmth and comfort he had once received from that person had seeped deep into his soul, buried in the recesses of his memory.
It wasn’t until today, when his cultivation broke through the seal on his memories, that the figure of that person became clear again in Dan Huang’s mind.
Dan Huang could roughly guess that Pei Huang was Feng Huang. Their auras were too similar, almost identical.
Perhaps, to spare him the pain of parting, he had allowed himself to gradually forget those memories.
Dan Huang felt tired. He shifted closer into Pei Shiyi’s embrace, burying his head in the crook of Pei Shiyi’s arm.
He had traveled through many cities and met many people, but partings had always outnumbered companionship. Finally, he had settled in this city. From now on, he didn’t want to go anywhere else.
He had found a home.
“I missed you all so much.”
Dan Huang’s voice was muffled.
Pei Shiyi paused for a moment, then smiled and hugged Dan Huang tighter: “I’m right here.”
“As long as you don’t grow up, I won’t go anywhere.”
Dan Huang’s human form was slightly different from his cat appearance. He’s just a bit plump, around twenty-five or twenty-six, fair-skinned and gentle-looking, with an extremely amiable smile. When the cat café manager wasn’t on duty, he would take on his human form and take the cats out for strolls.
Today, he was going to help out at a branch store with Miss Penny. A cat lady they had adopted a few days ago seemed to be pregnant. But the cat café was too busy, so Yuan Jing had to ask Dan Huang to pick her up. Coincidentally, Miss Penny was off today as well, so she came along with Dan Huang.
Miss Penny hadn’t taken on her human form in a long time and felt a bit uneasy walking on the street. As they passed the shops along Yingnan Square, she couldn’t help but glance at them a few times.
Dan Huang tentatively asked, “After we drop off the cat, want to go shopping together?”
Miss Penny brushed her hair by her ear and smiled. “Sure.”
Only then did Dan Huang relax the hand he had been clenching behind his back, happily pointing out the shops along the street to chat with Miss Penny.
Miss Penny wasn’t much of a talker. Most of the time, she just listened with a smile, enjoying Dan Huang’s gentle voice and the spring breeze brushing against her face.
It was only when they stepped into the branch store that she felt a bit dazed. She hadn’t expected to settle down in this unfamiliar country. She probably wouldn’t leave now, as there were too many things here that made her want to stay.
Even just a cat café filled with memories made Miss Penny reluctant to leave.
“Will Miss Penny stay here in the future?”
Dan Huang nervously clenched his hands.
Miss Penny looked at him. “What about you?”
Dan Huang: “The boss mentioned that a separate shelter will be set up in the future. I’d like to work there.”
Taking advantage of a gentle breeze, Miss Penny lifted her hand to brush her hair aside and smiled. “I think I will, too.”
Tong Qian stealthily made his way to the second floor, nudging aside the girl playing with Yin Zhou, then curled up next to Yin Zhou and let out a string of meows, which roughly translated to: “Don’t you think the manager has been acting strange lately?”
Yin Zhou was fully focused on swatting at the feather wand in a customer’s hand, completely ignoring Tong Qian’s words as he spun and leaped after the toy.
Tong Qian let out a few more meows, realizing Yin Zhou was entirely absorbed in the feather wand. He simply leaped up and snatched the wand from the customer’s hand, earning an annoyed glare from the girl, who huffed and stood up to leave. “Tong Qian is not cute at all.”
Yin Zhou: “…”
He wondered for the umpteenth time how this cat managed to survive in the cat café without being beaten to death by Sister Yun Chao.
Tong Qian insisted on squeezing onto the same cushion as Yin Zhou. “Look at the manager.”
Yin Zhou tilted his head. “What about the manager?”
“Ugh,” Tong Qian said urgently, “don’t you think the manager has been especially happy lately? Yesterday, I chewed up the sofa cover, and he didn’t even scold me.”
Yin Zhou: “… Last week, you broke the fifth cat bowl this year, and he didn’t say anything either, did he?”
The boss said raising the manager cost food, and raising Tong Qian cost cat bowls. Fortunately, Tong Qian rarely broke anything in the first or second-floor business areas. His mischief was mostly confined to the third floor.
Tong Qian scratched his ear. “No, listen to me. Yesterday, I chewed up the manager’s little shirt, and he caught me, scolded me, and even told the boss to dock me a day’s worth of snacks.”
Yin Zhou’s expression gradually went blank. “Then whose snacks did you eat yesterday?”
Tong Qian said matter-of-factly, “Mao Mao’s! Hey, the point is, do you know who made that little shirt?”
Yin Zhou tilted his head. “Who made it?”
Tong Qian: “It’s Miss Penny… Meow meow!”
The scruff of his neck tightened. He hastily turned around, his paws going numb with fright. It was Director Bo!
Standing behind Bo Jin was the little girl whose cat teaser had just been snatched by Tong Qian. Clearly, she had gone to find someone in charge to complain to.
In fact, the little girl had first found Pei Shiyi, pouring out her grievances about Tong Qian’s “misdeeds”: “It’s fine if he bullies me, but how could he bully Yin Zhou? Yin Zhou was having so much fun playing with me.”
Pei Shiyi was pouring dried fish for Mao Mao. Hearing this, he nudged Bo Jin with his elbow and chuckled, “Aren’t you going to go deal with it? Leave your son with me.”
Director Bo, who was ordered around both at the Supernatural Management Bureau and the cat café, had no choice but to put down his son and head upstairs with the little girl.
Disturbed from sunbathing and petting his son, Bo Jin narrowed his eyes. “Then go face the wall, or go be a beckoning cat at the bar.”
Tong Qian wailed, “No, no, I don’t want to! Boss, save me! Boss, save me!”
Pei Shiyi, holding a plate of dried fish with one hand resting on Bo Jin’s shoulder, smiled and said, “I heard you bullied a girl earlier and even snatched Mao Mao’s dried fish?”
Tong Qian curled his paws, looking timidly at his boss and letting out a weak meow. “Meow.” I didn’t, I wouldn’t dare.
Pei Shiyi turned to Bo Jin. “Facing the wall is too harsh.”
Tong Qian nodded vigorously: Yes, yes, yes.
Pei Shiyi leisurely added the next line. “Throw him to Yun Chao.”
Bo Jin: “Hmm, good idea.”
Tong Qian: “Meow.”
I’d rather face the wall.
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GhostCloudd On WBICDPH Chapter 93