Chapter 123: Cat Cares

Chapter 123 The Cat Cares

Back in the real world, Meng Shu immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Lake had been waiting for a long time, and just when he finally appeared, he got blood splattered all over his face, stunned speechless.

Meng Shu covered his mouth, blood gushing out endlessly.

Damn, I really overdid it this time.

Lake frantically wiped the blood off his face and lunged over, "Brother Meng Shu! Ahhh! You stayed there for a full eleven days straight this time!"

He handed Meng Shu some tissues, nearly in tears from anxiety, "How could you stay so long? And you keep coughing up blood..."

Meng Shu took a while to recover, barely steadying his breathing, and slowly explained, "Ran into a few small accidents... nothing serious..."

"What exactly happened!" Lake lost his temper. "Do you even know you stayed for eleven full days! An outsider staying more than three days will rapidly burn their life force. Are you crazy? I told you, you must come back within three days at most. With a body like yours, do you think you have an infinite supply of life force to burn?"

Meng Shu closed his eyes wearily, the taste of blood rising in his throat.

He had no strength to argue, and remained silent.

Seeing his attitude, Lake trembled with anger, "Are you even listening to me! Do you know this will kill you! You have less than a month left now!"

"...I'm not dead yet, am I?" Meng Shu said softly. "It's no big deal."

"Meng Shu!" Lake, usually good-tempered, couldn't help but explode, "Are you trying to get yourself killed!"

"Don't be mad." Meng Shu's temples throbbed with pain, his eyes dully staring at the gray ceiling. "This time was really an accident. I got trapped in a dungeon and couldn't get out."

"To ensure the hero's safety, the hero's teleportation circle is above all else. No dungeon can trap you! Don't lie to me!"

Meng Shu sighed, "Really, it was Ling Qingjue's Demon King coronation dungeon. The embodiment of the Law appeared, and even Ling Qingjue was forced back to his original form."

Lake's brain short-circuited.

"What Demon King?"

Meng Shu was surprised, "You didn't know Ling Qingjue was the Demon King?"

Lake was even more shocked, eyes wide open: "I didn't know! He's the Demon King? I thought he was just a Dark Mage!"

"The most talented being in the world is chosen by the Law to become the Demon King. Ling Qingjue was tricked by the Law because of his gluttony."

It all started with those three fish.

After hearing the whole story, Lake pondered for a moment, "So that's how the Demon King is born? I thought he was born a Demon King, not chosen by the Law."

"In short, Ling Qingjue doesn't want to become the Demon King, and I don't want him to become one either. To fight the Law, we battled it in the dungeon. That bastard is thick-skinned and tough as nails—no matter how much we hit it, it wouldn't die."

Lake's anger cooled a bit. He sat beside Meng Shu and tucked the blanket around him, muttering, "That's the Law, how could it possibly be killed? If you can't win, you should run."

"If I run away, Ling Qingjue will have to become the Demon King. That's too pitiful."

Lake shot back irritably, "If you don't run, you're just asking to die!"

He reached out and took hold of Meng Shu's wrist, "Let me see how many days you have left to live... Really, you don't take care of yourself at all. I've only known you a short time, and you've already gotten yourself into such a state."

Meng Shu's eyes moved sluggishly.

It seemed... he couldn't see clearly anymore.

"Why is your body deteriorating so quickly?" Lake briefly checked his condition, his face went pale. "What else are you hiding from me? Have you died multiple times?"

No way to hide it.

Meng Shu dared not look at him, and stammered guiltily, "Just... died a few times by accident..."

"How many times? Exactly how many?!"

"Maybe... like a hundred or so times..."

Lake nearly passed out.

Over a hundred times! Even a healthy person would fall seriously ill from dying that many times in a row.

For Meng Shu, who already had one foot in the grave, dying over a hundred times in a row was practically suicide!

Lake's eyes turned red, whether from anger or worry, "You, you, you..."

Meng Shu silently pulled the blanket over his face.

Like a child who had done something wrong.

"You can only stay there a few more times at most, and..." Lake paused, "Your internal organs must already be damaged. I think you don't have much longer to live."

"...No wonder I was coughing up blood just now." Meng Shu was surprisingly calm. "So my internal organs are damaged."

"Can you stop being so nonchalant!" Lake threw off the blanket, not allowing him to hide anymore. "This is a matter of life and death! How can you not care at all?"

"Only a few more times?"

Meng Shu really had no energy to argue, his voice hoarse. "I haven't even said goodbye properly to everyone..."

Lake's nose turned red for no reason. He hunched his back slightly, lowered his head—this big guy, sitting helplessly by the bed, hands pressed on his knees, struggling to hold back his tears.

After a long while, Lake finally spoke, "How are things between you and Ling Qingjue?"

Meng Shu opened his mouth, then swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue.

He remembered Ling Qingjue's tears—so hot, falling endlessly onto his cheeks.

He was crying.

Someone like Ling Qingjue actually cried.

He was only hurt a little; he could be revived. It was just a bit of pain—he could endure it. There was no need for tears.

Why did Ling Qingjue cry?

Didn't he say he didn't like him?

Meng Shu curled his slender fingers into a fist, his chest trembling slightly.

He wanted to trick himself, to pretend he knew nothing, and to shamelessly say that Ling Qingjue didn't like him, that he meant nothing to Ling Qingjue.

That way, even if he abandoned Ling Qingjue, he wouldn't feel guilty. After all, Ling Qingjue didn't like him either; they were just messing around.

Ling Qingjue didn't care about him at all. To Ling Qingjue, he wasn't even worth a single cat treat.

Excuses like these—Meng Shu wanted to come up with them to fool himself, but he clearly understood that Ling Qingjue liked him.

The cat was clumsy and awkward, tentatively testing the waters, showing his love.

Meng Shu had played deaf and dumb for so long, but as the countdown of his life began, he couldn't help but admit that Ling Qingjue truly loved him.

Yet this love came at the wrong time.

He turned his face away, his voice very soft, like a breeze.

“I… regret provoking him. If I disappear, he might really fight against the laws.”

Meng Shu covered his eyes with his hand. “How can I make him give up on me? After I die, don’t come looking for me, just forget me like this.”

No use,

Lake said, “If you can’t make it to the end, then say a proper goodbye. Brother Mengshu, your time is really running out. Say goodbye to everyone properly and don’t leave any regrets.”

Meng Shu slowly curled the corners of his lips into a faint smile, almost self-deprecating: “Damn, couldn’t love me earlier, couldn’t love me later, but of all times you love me now. No wonder he’s the Demon King, always messing with people.”

According to his plan, he had imagined quietly finding a corner to die, waiting to be discovered and then cremated to ashes, with no one caring about his departure.

But Ling Qingjue is a cat.

He was the cat Meng Shu had raised for so long.

The cat cares. The cat loves you.