Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When you need someone's help, you naturally can't show up looking a mess. Urged on by Old Cat, Lu Maomao finally gave in and boiled water to bathe and clean himself. He meticulously washed his hair and body, somewhat regretting not having grown any baby shampoo, but then, do fish even need to bathe, since they're in water all day? After his bath, he laid out the clothes with the fewest patches and in the best condition that Lu Maoer owned by the bedside.

Early the next morning, Lu Maomao dressed in his clean clothes, placed the tiger penis wine in a straw basket, padding it all around with dry straw, hoisted it onto his back, and set out.

By then, many farmers were already at work in the fields and along the paths.

Many villagers knew of Lu Maomao's existence but had rarely seen him. They only knew that Hunter Lu had adopted a boy and, because he wasn't his biological son, didn't want to register him, raising the child in the mountains instead.

In previous years, it was common for people unable to pay taxes to flee to the mountains, so no one reported them, allowing the Lu father and son to live peacefully for many years. It wasn't until after Hunter Lu died that the officials began cracking down hard on unregistered households. Everyone felt Hunter Lu had been lucky, dying when he did. In contrast, Lu Maomao was naturally the one with the less fortunate fate.

Lu Maomao had no interest in delving into the complex father-son relationship between Hunter Lu and Lu Maoer. For a cat, when a problem arises, you solve it.

Everything else was unimportant.

However, because he had taken over this body, he felt deep sympathy for Lu Maoer.

"Mao'er, where are you off to?" The village chief's husband, returning from picking vegetables in the field, saw Lu Maoer looking like he was going on a trip and asked.

"Going to the county town to try and find a way," Lu Maomao said.

"You've found a solution?" the village chief's husband asked casually, not really believing Lu Maoer had a way to solve his own problem.

"Got some ideas," Lu Maomao said vaguely.

Lu Maoer, having lived in the mountains with little human contact, had developed a quiet, reticent personality. Lu Maomao wasn't much of a talker either.

The village chief's husband didn't mind and made small talk for a bit before letting him go. Watching Lu Maomao's brisk, disappearing figure, the village chief's husband couldn't help but sigh, pitying Lu Maoer for encountering such a disaster at such a young age.

The village chief had told his family about the County Clerk giving Lu Maoer a hard time when he returned that day.

Hunter Lu hadn't saved much money before his death. The funeral expenses took a portion, and Lu Maoer's attempts to grease the palms at the county office took another. The Lu family's money was already gone. Then, with the County Clerk turning hostile and demanding tiger skin on top of the wasted bribe money—how could someone with Lu Maoer's physique possibly hunt a tiger? They all thought Lu Maoer couldn't escape this time and felt sympathy for him.

Thus, when Lu Maomao did nothing at home for ten days, the village chief didn't visit again. Thinking this was probably the last good days Lu Maoer could have before being caught, they left him alone.

Returning home, the village chief's husband casually mentioned running into Lu Maoer.

"What solution could he have? He's not thinking of running away, is he?" the village chief's eldest son said while chopping firewood.

The village chief tapped his tobacco pipe. "Without household registration or a travel permit, where could he run to?"

Now, even hiding in the mountains wasn't allowed. Running deeper into the mountains was dangerous, and the officials would come to burn houses and confiscate grain, forcing those unregistered households down.

They said it was to capture rebels.

What rebels were there in their county? That high official had only bought a few hundred *mu* of land here, not even a tiny fraction of a hundred thousand *mu*, so how could he hide rebels here?

But for small people like them, when facing officials, even if they had reason, they couldn't argue.

The County Clerk said Lu Maoer's family had tiger skin, so he'd have to come up with it. Without tiger skin, he'd be sent to the mines. What could they do?

"Mao'er is a hunter too; maybe he knows who has tiger skin," the village chief's second son said.

"That County Clerk doesn't seem like he wants to pay for it himself," the village chief said.

Lu Maomao had no money; what good would that do? As for the possible dire outcomes, the village chief dared not even think about them.

Lu Maomao didn't know about other tiger skins, nor did he have any intention to harm others; his values wouldn't allow it. Considering himself beyond such lowly pursuits, he even disdained catching and playing with mice, let alone anything else.

He, the Cat King, would never give that corrupt official tiger skin to get what he wanted.

Once out of the village and no longer encountering familiar or unfamiliar people, Lu Maomao breathed a sigh of relief.

Another reason he felt out of place in this world was that it actually had three genders: men, women, and *ge'er*. *Ge'er* were individuals with a male appearance who could get pregnant like women. Unlike hermaphrodites with two sets of reproductive organs, *ge'er* in this world were a genuine human gender with their own unique physiology. The difference from men was the pregnancy mark on their wrists. The brighter the mark, the stronger the *ge'er*'s fertility.

When Lu Maomao first learned this, he was startled. He meticulously checked himself all over to confirm he was still a genuine male cat and hadn't had his gender changed before relaxing.

Transmigrating to another world was truly a grand adventure.

Who knew what novel things could happen to challenge one's existing values?

When bored from lying around, Lu Maomao would internally gripe about this world's preference for males, specifically creating a gender for men to give them more choices in marriage, but not creating a 'sister' category for women, allowing them to impregnate women while possessing a female appearance and male abilities, giving women more choices too.

Lu Maomao only dared to complain in his heart because whenever he wanted to voice these thoughts, he sensed a deep-seated sense of danger from the depths of his soul. So he wisely backed down.

"Such a human form has its own origins and profound meaning."

Reality couldn't be changed, and speaking recklessly was inadvisable. Lu Maomao could only try his best to adapt.

Soon, Lu Maomao and Old Cat arrived at the county town gate. Old Cat leaped over the city wall into the town, while Lu Maomao had to pay two copper coins as an entry fee.

Fortunately, they only collected money and didn't check household registration here, or else Lu Maomao felt life would truly be impossible to get by.

"Follow me."

Seeing Lu Maomao enter the city, Old Cat led the way, heading west through the county town.

Lu Maomao followed closely.

"This Old Master Yu's residence is quite large," Lu Maomao remarked when he and Old Cat arrived at the Yu family's main gate, both somewhat out of breath—after all, cats were animals not known for their stamina.

Today's physical activity was more than they were used to.

"Just what you'd expect from a rich family."

Old Cat urged Lu Maomao to step forward and knock.

Lu Maomao trudged forward, step by step, and solemnly pulled the door knocker. Having never asked for favors before, only using various means to make humans beg him, Lu Maomao had finally embarked on the path of a cat's moral decline. And this was just the beginning; he would become more and more degenerate, less and less like a cat.

"Who is it?"

A Yu family gatekeeper opened a crack in the door and peered out.

Seeing a young boy wearing patched coarse clothes, carrying a straw basket on his back, with an old cat at his feet, he asked gruffly, "What do you want?"

"Good day," Lu Maomao said with a standard smile. "My name is Lu Maoer, son of Hunter Lu. Twenty years ago, your family's Old Master Yu bought a tiger skin from my father. I still have tiger penis wine from that same tiger, that goes with the skin. I wanted to ask if Old Master Yu would be interested."

As he spoke, Lu Maomao brought the straw basket in front of him.

The gatekeeper craned his neck to peek into the basket, wanting to see what tiger penis wine looked like, but only saw thick dry straw and Lu Maomao's smiling face. He gave Lu Maomao a sidelong glance. "Wait here. I'll inform the steward."

Then he slammed the gate shut with a bang.

Lu Maomao kept his polite smile plastered on his face, telling himself, *Don't get angry, don't get angry.*

The gatekeeper found the steward, Yu Liang. Twenty years ago, Yu Liang was already a junior steward in the Yu household and still remembered the tiger skin purchase, recalling how the hunter had refused to part with the tiger penis back then. If they hadn't paid so much, the hunter would have kept half the tiger bones as well.

The steward was quite tempted by the tiger penis wine. He went to report the matter to Fifth Master, who had just returned from attending to the old master, thinking that if neither Fifth Master nor the old master wanted the wine, he could buy it himself.

"Tiger penis wine?" Fifth Master Yu Changan became intrigued. Though he was not yet at an age requiring aphrodisiacs, he understood the unspoken things between men. If this twenty-year-old tiger penis wine were sent to the capital, countless people would surely come sneaking around to beg for it.

However, "What did you say the boy's name was?"

"Lu Maoer."

"Cat and Fish—sounds like a pair of natural enemies."

Then Yu Changan thought of something and strode over to Old Master Yu's study. "Grandfather, there's a young man named Lu Maoer at our gates."

Old Master Yu looked at his grandson.

"You mean... *him*?"

Before returning to his hometown, Old Master Yu had taken his ailing grandson, Yu Xiaoyu, to seek guidance from Huaizhen Daozhang at the Sanqing Temple. After divination, Huaizhen Daozhang offered the prophecy, "When cat and fish meet, both find joy," and said nothing more. Old Master Yu had been trying to decipher its meaning—the fish likely referred to their Xiaoyu, but the cat was harder to interpret.

To fulfill the prophecy, they had even raised a large white cat for Xiaoyu. Though Xiaoyu occasionally held it, his condition remained unchanged, with no sign of improvement.

Now, suddenly, a young man named Lu Maoer had appeared. Was it fate or coincidence?

"Grandfather, whether it's him or not, we can just put it to the test."

"How do you plan to test it?" Old Master Yu looked at his grandson.

Lu Maomao waited for a quarter of an hour before the Yu family's gate opened again. Steward Yu Liang came out and invited Lu Maomao inside to meet the Old Master.

This suited Lu Maomao perfectly.

Earlier, Lu Maomao had been wondering how to meet the head of the Yu family to ask for help if the tiger penis wine wasn't enough. To his surprise, before he could even try, the Yu family members had taken the initiative to see him.

Was the tiger penis wine that powerful?

Did someone in the Yu family suffer from impotence, making them value it so highly?

If they wanted more tiger penis wine, he'd be out of luck.

These thoughts flashed through Lu Maomao's mind. Then he straightened his collar and followed the steward into the mansion with a serious demeanor.

Walking through the Yu family's grand courtyard, Lu Maomao saw a young man in flowing white robes approaching from a distance. The youth had an elegant figure, a casual gait, and a cool, delicate face that exuded an untouchable aura, like a Little Fairy Boy who had strayed into the mortal world. Behind the Little Fairy Boy followed a matron and a maid, but Lu Maomao noticed none of them. He only felt his heart beat faster with each step the Little Fairy Boy took.

Thump—thump—thump—

Lu Maomao, who had been single for nearly a hundred years, felt as though he had fallen in love.