ABFMV Chapter 4 Part 2

And yet, with that fluffy ball sitting primly on the pale pink sheets, it only struck her as comical.

She couldn’t resist reaching out to rub its small head.

Xu Linlang had always loved cats. Whenever she visited her best friend, she would spend ages playing with her cats, and in her daily life, she often donated to animal shelters.

If not for her mother’s cat-hair allergy, she surely would have adopted one long ago.

Thinking of her mother, her mood dimmed.

In this reality, she must have died in that car accident—otherwis,e she wouldn’t have ended up inside this game.

Her parents must be heartbroken now…

Gazing at the kitten before her, she let out a quiet sigh. “We’re both without a home now.”

She reached out again, wanting to stroke the little cat.

But the kitten swiped at her with its claws.

Qi Ye watched coldly as faint red scratches appeared across the back of her hand.

He would not be fooled again by fleeting moments of gentleness.

Now that he had scratched her, surely she would finally show her true colors.

Just wait—this seemingly gentle young lady would soon toss him aside in disgust and contempt.

And then she would abandon him completely.

It had only ever been a fleeting novelty.

But when no reaction came, Qi Ye lowered his head. How boring. What was he even expecting?

To her, he was nothing more than a plaything.

A pet that bared its claws at its master. A pet that injured its master. He already knew what the outcome of that would be.

He had heard of Xu Linlang’s violent temper as well.

His fate could only be one of two things: either thrown out and beaten to death, or turned into a taxidermy specimen for the young lady’s amusement.

If it ended here, so be it. Death, to him, was a kind of release.

Since being cast aside was inevitable, why wait? Better to ruin everything first himself.

That thought should have steeled him—but instead, a bitter ache burst open inside his chest.

And then, all at once, he was gathered into a soft embrace—

“You don’t have a home, and I can’t go back to mine. From now on, this will be our home. Stay with me, always.”

Xu Linlang clasped her scratched hand behind her back, not wanting the little cat to see and feel guilty.

She didn’t know if the kitten could understand her words, but she wanted to pour her honest feelings into them anyway.

It was only a single sentence, yet Qi Ye found himself replaying it in his mind again and again in a daze.

Once he was sure it was real—that he hadn’t misheard—he blinked.

The sting of heat and sourness in his eyes felt unbearably foreign.

He had already prepared himself for her fury, for the order to have him disposed of.

But instead, the girl before him showed no anger at all. She wasn’t even afraid of being scratched again—she only held him gently in her arms.

Her voice was soft as she told him that from now on, this was his home.

Something he had long since given up on hoping for… had suddenly appeared before him.

Qi Ye stopped struggling and let his body sink into her embrace.

Xu Linlang instantly felt the tension leave the kitten’s body, and her heavy mood lightened just a little.

So cats really could understand the emotions carried in human speech.

After she finished cleaning his ears, a rumbling sound reached her. At first, she thought she was imagining it, but when it came again, she realized—was that the sound of his empty stomach?

The arena must have withheld food before fights to stir up the animals’ bloodlust.

That way, they would fight more savagely once inside the pit.

The kitten in her arms was curled against her chest, its snow-white fur shining silver under the sunlight.

Its eyes were half-shut, as if it were dozing.

But Xu Linlang knew it was only pretending—that the sound of hunger hadn’t come from anyone else.

In just this short time together, she had learned a little about its nature: proud, stubborn, and unwilling to admit to weakness.

Coaxing would be the only way.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Kitten, are you hungry?”

The little cat stayed perfectly still, body stiff as a statue.

This girl was doing it on purpose—he could hear the smile in her voice.

Qi Ye instantly felt humiliated. For someone to notice his hunger—it was shameful.

He hadn’t eaten in three days, his belly constantly gnawing with emptiness. Now that he had finally relaxed a little, his body had betrayed him with a sound.

The tiny snowball shrank in on itself completely, face hidden in embarrassment.

But Xu Linlang only kept asking, “What do you like to eat? Little dried fish? Beef? Or something else?”

She had no idea what cat food looked like in this interstellar era, or whether the Marshal’s estate even stocked any. Her mind raced, calculating how she might feed the kitten.

In modern times, many people no longer rely on commercial cat food; instead, they prepare fresh raw or cooked homemade meals for their pets.

If there were no cat food available here, perhaps she could make something like that too.

Qi Ye looked up at her fussing over him and said coldly, “Don’t bother with me.”

Unfortunately, those three icy words reached Xu Linlang’s ears as nothing more than a string of soft, adorable meow-meows.

Hearing the sound, she assumed the kitten was excited by the mention of food.

So she rubbed his little head. “Alright then, let’s eat that!”

At that, the kitten immediately went limp, pretending to be dead.

Xu Linlang gazed at his sulky act and only found him cuter, leaning down to look him in the face. “Oh, right, you don’t have a name yet. Let me give you one.”

She studied the fluffy snowball in front of her. “I’ll call you Snowball.”

Qi Ye lifted his face: …

When the kitten didn’t object, Xu Linlang took it as silent acceptance. Delighted, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

From today onward, she was officially a cat owner.

“Meow!!!”

The little white cat’s fur stood on end as it stared at her in shock, backing away several steps.

She—she actually kissed him out of nowhere?!

So… so shameless!