Chapter 176: Kitty Guidelines

Chapter 176: Kitty Rules

The stars fell back into place. The Astrolabe emitted a flash of light before finally settling into stillness.

Jia Zhao's eyes stopped bleeding. Shivering, he turned back into human form and wrapped his eyes with white cloth again. "The backlash isn't over yet. I might be blind for a while yet."

Meng Shu helped him sit down right there. "Don't get up yet. You guys scared me to death."

Jia Zhao's voice sounded pretty steady. "Everyone should remember you now. Check your class level—what level are you now?"

Meng Shu summoned his interface, his face lighting up with joy. "Max level."

"Did your equipment come back?"

"All of it." The Cat Sword appeared in Meng Shu's hand. He swung it a couple of times. "It feels normal too."

Jia Zhao said, "Good."

Meng Shu stared at the cat head on the Cat Sword's hilt for a long moment before speaking. "I left in too much of a hurry back then. I never had a chance to properly thank you."

"Cheesy." Jia Zhao shuddered in disgust. "Between brothers? That's just gross! You're way too sappy, it's disgusting!"

Meng Shu laughed softly and put the sword away. "Anyway, you'd risk your neck for cash, you bastard."

"By the way, where's Ling Qingjue?" Jia Zhao sensed that only the two of them remained in the house.

Meng Shu remembered a second too late and quickly turned around to look. "Cat?"

He wasn't inside.

Jia Zhao said, "Crap. With all those memories flooding his mind, and his bad temper—he forgot you before, and when you died, he didn't hold it against you. Now that he remembers, he's not going to run off and destroy the world, is he?"

It was meant as a joke, but it made Meng Shu break out in a cold sweat.

"We need to find him."

"Where is he?"

Meng Shu regretted it immediately. "I should've pinned him down too."

"You couldn't even hold me down. How could you hold him down?"

Meng Shu sighed. "How are your eyes doing?"

"They're fine for now." Jia Zhao paused. "But you still owe me money."

Meng Shu's mind was already with Ling Qingjue. His mind was full of Ling Qingjue, wanting only to bring him back quickly.

He'd been too busy tending to Jia Zhao's bleeding to pay attention to Ling Qingjue.

Knowing Ling Qingjue's petty nature, he might hold a grudge and do something bad.

Doing something bad was one thing, but destroying the world was off the table. The thought made Meng Shu's head ache. He hurried upstairs. "Jia Zhao, wait here. I'll go find him. He shouldn't have gone far."

Jia Zhao's voice came from behind him. "He knows Space Magic. If he wanted to run, he'd be long gone. How will you find him?"

"I..." Meng Shu stopped mid-step, half-joking. "Maybe he's crying right outside the door."

Jia Zhao's expression was deadpan. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

Meng Shu didn't explain. "Wait here. The cat knows Healing Magic. If I coax him back, maybe I can treat you."

He left the basement. On the surface, he seemed calm, but inside he was already going crazy.

He went to the first floor of the Adventurers' Guild and looked around the room. No one.

"Did you see Ling Qingjue?" Meng Shu asked the guild master.

The guild master thought for a moment. "I just saw a black cat dart past here. Could be him."

Meng Shu sighed in relief—at least he hadn't used Space Magic. He must still be nearby.

He stepped out of the Adventurers' Guild. The sky was overcast, with a drizzling rain.

Where could he go in this rain?

His class level had returned to max, enhancing his senses. He perked his ears and caught the faint sound of crying.

More precisely, it was a cat's mewling.

Meng Shu's eyelids twitched. He followed the source of the sound and soon spotted a dark mass curled under a tree.

He didn't dare approach, standing still in the distance.

He was really crying.

Meng Shu couldn't understand. Why was he crying? It had only been a few minutes since he'd been ignored! Did it warrant crying like this?

After a moment of hesitation, Meng Shu steeled himself and walked over. The moment he took a step, the cat startled and darted behind the tree.

Meng Shu softened his voice. "Cat, it's me."

Ling Qingjue was even less willing to show himself now. He frantically wiped his tears—how could he let Meng Shu see him like this?

Meng Shu approached slowly, racking his brain to reflect on his mistakes. "Don't hide from me. I was too anxious just now. I neglected you. I'm sorry."

The cat still didn't come out.

Thinking he was still angry, Meng Shu continued his self-criticism. "I won't ignore you next time. Does it hurt? Let me rub it for you?"

"..."

"Cat," Meng Shu coaxed gently, "come out. Why are you hiding from me? If it hurts, just tell me."

"Go away." Ling Qingjue's voice sounded very muffled. "I don't want to see you."

Meng Shu's heart sank. He looked down. "Are you mad at me?"

"No," Ling Qingjue said.

"Then why don't you want to see me?" Meng Shu took another step forward. "I really won't ignore you. He was bleeding just now. I thought he might die. Animals can't be resurrected, so I didn't look at you."

Ling Qingjue hadn't been jealous before, but hearing this, he belatedly realized—Meng Shu had only gone to comfort Jia Zhao, not him!

He was inferior to that damn fox!

That set Ling Qingjue off. He leaped out with his fur bristling. "You only know how to comfort him! What about me?!"

Meng Shu lunged forward and grabbed him, pulling him into his arms and rubbing his face against Ling Qingjue's regardless. "Don't be mad, don't be mad. I like you the most. I love you so much."

Ling Qingjue was both embarrassed and angry, "That stinky fox is dead, so what? You only care about him? I ran away and you didn't even notice?"

Meng Shu drooped his eyes at just the right moment, "I was just too worried, okay? He was bleeding nonstop, it was really scary."

Just as Ling Qingjue was about to throw a tantrum, he suddenly remembered that the day before Meng Shu left, he had also thrown a tantrum, leaving their last meeting full of regret.

Being with him, Meng Shu didn't seem happy.

He was a terrible little cat.

Ling Qingjue's anger cooled significantly. His eyes were still a bit red as he gently buried his head in Meng Shu's lap, "Being with me... are you unhappy with me?"

Meng Shu was taken aback, "How could it make me unhappy?"

"I have a bad temper, I'm too impulsive, I always cause trouble, and I like to be difficult."

Ling Qingjue said, "I'm a terrible little cat. I didn't make you happy."

As a little cat, he was raised to laze around and act spoiled and arrogant.

He was a cat. In the future, there would be a gentle and kind owner to raise him.

All he had to do was drink from his owner's cup, knock over his owner's bowls, shed fur all over the house, and deliberately jump on his owner's bed with dirty paws.

He would ignore every word his owner said, go east when told to go west.

But when his owner was unhappy, he had to cheer him up.

Yet Meng Shu was unhappy.

Meng Shu picked him up, held him face to face, "No, it's not like that. The day I met you, I knew I really liked you. Being with you makes me happy no matter what I do."

"How much do you like me?"

Meng Shu thought for a moment, then smiled, "It's like it rained carrots in a little rabbit's world."

He could only make such a simple analogy, crinkling his eyes in a childish, innocent way, "I just want to smile whenever I see you, and I want to give you the best things in the world."

Ling Qingjue was silent for a long time. Suddenly, he transformed back into human form, wrapping his arms around Meng Shu's shoulders in a hug that felt very secure.

"Then in my world, it rained a lot of Deep Sea Dragon King Meat."