Chapter 52: How Do Kittens Meow?

Minnie tried to offer a final dissuasion: “Even if you kill him, I won’t pay you wages.”

“I don’t need it.” Wen Chu looked coldly at the corpulent Chief. “I’m volunteering for overtime.”

Since Minnie could only think of using wages to stop him at this moment, it meant that killing the Chief wouldn’t have any severe consequences.

I’ll find a time to do it tonight.

Wen Chu made up his mind and didn’t stay by Minnie’s side any longer.

The small black mist drifted back to the tip of the black cat’s tail and merged with the black cat.

Xiu turned his head to glance at the kitten on his shoulder.

Wen Chu was back.

He had run off to somewhere unknown again just now.

At the thought of this, a wave of irritability inexplicably rose in Xiu’s heart, which also made his tone toward the Chief very poor.

“Of course, you can come in and check,” Xiu said in an even voice.

“But you must be certain that you can bear the consequences of coming in to check.”

Hearing this, the Chief laughed out of extreme anger and pointed his gun at Xiu: “Are you threatening me?”

“I am merely stating a fact.” Xiu glanced at the sky. “There is one minute left.”

The Chief said arrogantly, “I don’t need a minute. No one on the entire surface can threaten me. Men, search!”

He pointed his gun at the people behind Xiu, pausing when he saw the only girl in the crowd.

The Chief pointed maliciously at Minnie: “Is this your lover? Start searching with this woman!”

The patrol officers behind the Chief surged forward upon hearing the order, surrounding the group. The leading officer looked at Minnie: “Please show your ID.”

Minnie: …

With so many people here, why did they target her, the only minor?

She’s grown so tall; no matter how you look at it, she shouldn’t be the one looking like a minor, right?

Minnie glanced at Xiu. The person under the black robe still had no reaction, turning a blind eye to her predicament.

If Sir had no reaction, then everything was definitely fine.

Clinging to her blind trust in Xiu, Minnie gave a dry laugh: “ID… I left it in the bedroom. Shall we go in and get it together?”

The patrol officer was skeptical and looked back at the Chief for instructions.

The Chief waved his hand expansively: “Go, go in and search! While you’re at it, find that little slut from the Central Plaza today. Half the police force of the district is here; are we afraid we can’t flatten a boiler room?”

The group understood his meaning and immediately pushed Minnie aside, preparing to file in.

Just then.

Boom—

An earth-shattering explosion rang out from the distant horizon. Firelight instantly illuminated the sky, lighting up this small courtyard as well.

This was followed by a succession of explosions.

Everyone was startled.

“What’s going on? An explosion?”

“Is someone stirring up trouble while we’re away?”

“Did another boiler room explode?”

While everyone discussed animatedly, Xiu gathered the little black cat on his shoulder into his arms. As if afraid the kitten would be scared, he stroked its head soothingly.

The Chief turned red with rage: “Quiet!”

He glared viciously at the black-robed figure holding the black cat. “It must be a diversion. Keep searching! No one is allowed to leave!”

“Chief…” a patrol officer spoke up weakly.

“Speak,” the Chief said.

The officer continued, “That direction seems to be the orphanage.”

The furious expression on the Chief’s face froze instantly.

The orphanage?

Everyone knew that the main tasks of the patrol officers were maintaining order and catching stray minors to send to the orphanage. These two items were also the main assessment criteria for the Chief’s reports to the City of Steam.

The commotion in the Central Plaza today, plus that cabbage that grew out of nowhere, was enough to cause a huge deduction in his performance review. If something happened to the orphanage too, he might as well just throw away his hat and leave.

As if echoing the Chief’s thoughts, a voice suddenly came from the walkie-talkie on his chest: “Chief, this is the orphanage. We have suddenly encountered an attack by an unidentified armed organization. Over a hundred children have already taken advantage of the chaos to escape. Requesting backup!”

The Chief’s face instantly became extremely ugly.

Clutching the walkie-talkie, he roared at Xiu, who remained incomparably calm: “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You knew someone would attack the orphanage and didn’t report it. You—”

“Woof-ow!”

The little black cat in the black-robed figure’s arms let out a crisp bark, baring its little sharp teeth fiercely at him.

Argue any more and I’ll shark you right now.

The Chief was stunned: “Why is this cat barking like a dog?”

Wen Chu was also stunned: Are cat sounds different from dog sounds?

Wen Chu wanted to ask, but this wasn’t a good time for a kitten to start talking.

The Chief didn’t dwell on this issue either. He made a quick decision: “Team One stays. Everyone else, come with me to the orphanage.”

The orphanage was far away in the East District, a drive of over an hour from the West District. The Chief was burning with anxiety: “Are there any aircraft in the vehicles? Hurry up and let the flight squadron go first. If something happens to the orphanage, we’ll all be in deep trouble!”

The patrol officers immediately mobilized, and the scene instantly began to turn chaotic. Minnie finally remembered what was happening at this moment—

It was her cooperation with the South District leader.

She was responsible for inciting the masses and leading the West District to tie down the patrol officers. Since the South District was closest to the East District, they would take the opportunity to attack the orphanage.

According to their original plan, she was supposed to settle the children tonight, then use information about Dorothy to actively provoke and draw away most of the firepower, sending a signal to the South District before they acted.

That disrespectful old geezer actually sold her out directly to draw firepower, almost getting her killed!

Minnie secretly cursed a few times in her heart, but her face remained impassive. She looked at Xiu, who was holding the cat, with even more admiration.

Sir must have anticipated all of this long ago, which is why he wasn’t anxious at all.

The Chief had already begun to withdraw with the patrol officers. As one steam car after another left, the entrance became much emptier.

Only a little over a hundred people remained.

If this were a normal boiler room facing over a hundred armed patrol officers, there obviously wouldn’t be any chance of winning.

But this was the West District, the base camp of the West District Rebel Army.

Minnie gave a signal to the people around her, and everyone immediately understood.

Under the cover of darkness, James and Claude silently brought the latest improved steam robots to the gate.

Although the large-scale transport of Steam Hearts wouldn’t start until tomorrow, the parts they had brought back intermittently were enough to power dozens of robots.

Now it was their turn to surround the patrol officers.

As the last steam car left, the remaining patrol officers still hadn’t sensed anything wrong. They continued to point their guns at Minnie arrogantly: “Did you hear that? The Chief told us to continue searching. Take us inside.”

A smile appeared on Minnie’s face.

Only when the last steam car was completely out of sight did she say, “I heard.”

“Claude, turn on the signal jammer.”

As her voice fell, everyone quickly scattered to the sides. The remaining patrol officers realized something was wrong and immediately raised their guns to shoot.

Clang—

The sound of bullets hitting metal rang out.

Steam robots stepped forward with heavy footsteps. Their brass reflected cold light under the moonlight, steam gears turned, and the robots raised their arms, revealing machine guns armed on their limbs.

“Why are there steam robots here?!?” The patrol officers were horrified.

Isn’t this something only found in the City of Steam? Why would they suddenly appear in a tiny boiler room??

Minnie’s expression was a coldness that didn’t match her age: “Fire.”

Bang—

In front of steel machines born for war, all armed forces appeared frail and laughable.

The cold wind blew, figures fell in response to the sound, and blood splattered on the dry, pitch-black earth.

At the same time, tiny snowflakes drifted down.

It was snowing.

Minnie looked up, no longer looking at the mess on the ground, and reached out to catch a snowflake.

Ice cold.

It was the early winter snow, exactly as Sir had predicted.

Minnie took a deep breath, regained her sobriety amidst the pungent smell of blood, and ordered the others coldly: “Clean up the bodies. We continue with the original plan tonight—James, don’t vomit.”

Minnie walked forward and grabbed the collar of James, who was pale and dry heaving.

“You are the children’s teacher; you have to set a good example for them.”

“There is no rebellion without bloodshed. You must get used to it.”

After speaking, Minnie subconsciously turned around to look for the figure in the black robe, wanting to get validation for her views from him.

But she didn’t find Xiu.

“Where is Sir?” Minnie asked, looking at the spot where Xiu had just been standing.

“Sir left with the cat just now,” Claude said while picking up bullets from the ground. “He said the food was getting completely cold.”

Minnie: …

The tyrant and the demon cat!

.

On the other side, Wen Chu and Xiu returned to the small stone tower.

“Wait a moment, the food is cold. I’ll reheat it,” Xiu said.

Wen Chu agreed obediently: “Okay.”

Long before Minnie took action, Xiu had taken him away first, so Wen Chu’s appetite wasn’t affected by the smell of blood. he looked forward eagerly at the table.

Bang—

Bang—

Several gunshots rang out one after another from outside. Wen Chu’s ears perked up, and Xiu’s movement of heating the food paused.

“Don’t worry about it,” Xiu said before Wen Chu could ask. “Just a small conflict. It will be fine by tomorrow morning. Don’t you want me to go to the amusement park with you tomorrow?”

Wen Chu immediately threw the recent events to the back of his mind and nodded vigorously: “Right, go to the amusement park.”

The amusement park was a place for dates. He was going to confess his identity to Xiu there. If Xiu’s favorability rating reached ninety after seeing his face, he would invite Xiu to be his mate.

Then mate.

Then wait for the Rebel Army to achieve victory, and from then on, he and Xiu would live a happy life.

—Oh right, I also need to ask Minnie for four boxes of gold coins.

Wen Chu licked his paw happily, having already planned out a wonderful future life.

Xiu brought the reheated dishes to the table and served a small bowl of rice for the little black cat, glancing doubtfully at the exceptionally excited Wen Chu.

He took a seat and chose his words carefully: “Do you feel like the house is missing anything?”

Wen Chu shook his head: “It’s not missing anything. Don’t buy anymore.”

He had originally wanted to prepare a set of things for Xiu on the same scale that Xiu had prepared for him, but Xiu had simply bought too much.

He wouldn’t be able to use it all in two lifetimes.

Xiu nodded and continued, “That’s good. I still have a bit of money left behind the bookshelf on the second floor. If you need anything in the future, buy it yourself.”

“Remember to ask the price before buying things, calculate the change you should get clearly, and don’t get scammed.”

Wen Chu lowered his head to continue gnawing on his small portion of cabbage-wrapped meat, saying confidently: “I won’t. I’m very good at math.”

He learned math, physics, and chemistry instantly.

Xiu chuckled, saying no more, and accompanied Wen Chu in eating, taking bites occasionally.

Tomorrow, he would have James come over to modify the stove, knit a few sweaters for Wen Chu tonight, and then accompany Wen Chu to the amusement park.

Then… everything should end.

He had felt that he should die without a whole corpse remaining, but Wen Chu still needed to eat him. For Wen Chu’s sake, he had to leave his body behind.

Thinking this, Xiu couldn’t help but nag one more time: “You have to eat well in the future. Don’t be reluctant to eat.”

Wen Chu tilted his head, looking at the food on the plate in puzzlement.

He was very willing to eat; it was Xiu who kept stopping him from eating too much.

Xiu was so strange.

Wen Chu opened his mouth, intending to ask more, but just then, rustling sounds came from the backyard, and the big yellow dog started barking “Woof, woof.”

“What’s going on?” Wen Chu was alert.

“Burying bodies, probably,” Xiu said very calmly. “After all, for the surface, this is rare nourishment. It should be used as fertilizer for reclaiming new wasteland.”

Wen Chu had been educated by Xiu about the circle of life in the first world. Hearing this, he just gave a plain “Oh” and continued eating.

So it’s just a small matter like using corpses as fertilizer.

As Wen Chu ate, he suddenly realized something was wrong. He abruptly looked up at Xiu: “Xiu.”

“Hm?” Xiu looked at him in confusion. “What’s wrong? If you don’t like them doing this, I’ll go say something now.”

“No.” Wen Chu looked serious. “Xiu, don’t cats go ‘Woof woof’?”

Xiu fell silent for a moment, feeling guilty for the first time: “…They can call like that too.”

Wen Chu looked at him with round cat eyes: “Really? Are you really not lying to me? That Chief today said I shouldn’t call like that. Are cat sounds different from dog sounds?”

Xiu: “…”

Xiu’s silence explained everything. Wen Chu condemned him, looking like he was about to cry: “How could you lie to me?”

And he had barked “Woof woof” in front of so many people for so long.

Xiu turned his head away, daring even less to meet the kitten’s aggrieved gaze: “You actively called like that yourself.”

Wen Chu turned into mist, stubbornly drifted in front of Xiu’s eyes, and rubbed against the tip of his nose in dissatisfaction: “You’re bullying the mist.”

Xiu’s nose was suddenly touched by icy moisture. Being rubbed like that, he couldn’t help but pursue his lips in a smile: “Who told you to be stupid?”

Calling him stupid again.

Just like the System—lying to him and not admitting fault.

Wen Chu drifted away, humming and whining: “I’m ignoring you.”

Xiu looked at the small drifting ball of black mist and said helplessly, “Ignoring me? Are you not going to eat either?”

Wen Chu didn’t speak, silently continuing to drift away.

He drifted leisurely to the bedside table, curled into a ball with his back to Xiu, using his attitude to state his position:

Ignoring, not eating.

Xiu waited for a few minutes. Not receiving an answer from Wen Chu, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Really not eating?

Then it seems he’s quite angry.

Xiu thought for a while, then said to the ball of black mist, “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I apologize to you. Come eat first?”

Wen Chu slowly turned back into cat form.

Xiu pressed on: “I’ll allow you to eat two candies tomorrow?”

Wen Chu turned his head and looked at him: “So how should a cat meow?”

Asking Xiu to imitate a cat was obviously a bit too difficult for him. He paused for a moment, then said, “I’ll go out and borrow Dorothy’s cat for you.”

Wen Chu turned his head back: “No, I want you to meow for me to hear. Otherwise, I won’t forgive you.”

He had barked “Woof woof” for so long; what was wrong with Xiu meowing once?

Xiu: “…My meow doesn’t sound good.”

Wen Chu: “I just want to hear it, otherwise I’ll never talk to you again.”

As he spoke, he floated up, drifting all the way to the window on the third floor, looking as if he would run away from home immediately if Xiu didn’t meow.

Difficult cat to coax.

The tips of Xiu’s ears were bright red. He turned his face away and meowed very softly: “…Meow.”

The man’s voice was very low, completely different from a delicate cat meow, yet Wen Chu’s scalp inexplicably tingled.

After meowing, Xiu didn’t get a response from Wen Chu. He bit his lower lip awkwardly, wishing he could find a black robe to cover himself.

“I told you I don’t sound good—”

His words were interrupted by a black shadow rapidly falling into his arms.

It was Wen Chu, who had transformed directly back into a cat, free-falling from the third floor and landing precisely in Xiu’s arms.

“Do it again.” Wen Chu looked up, staring at Xiu with burning eyes.

Caught off guard, Xiu was hit full in the chest by this ten-catty chubby kitten. Before he could react, he met Wen Chu’s expectant gaze.

Xiu’s sense of shame bottomed out, turning into embarrassment and anger: “Don’t push your luck.”

Wen Chu extended a small cat paw, rested it on his arm, shook it as if begging, and looked up at him with sparkling eyes.

“Meow one more time. Please, pretty please.”

Xiu looked away.

Wen Chu was obviously not sad anymore, and perhaps hadn’t been truly sad from start to finish. He wouldn’t continue agreeing to the other party’s unreasonable requests that took advantage of the situation.

Before Xiu could make up his mind, he felt a coolness by his ear.

A light and childish voice rang out:

“Meow—Meow meow, meow wu ow.”

Wen Chu openly meowed chaotically in Xiu’s ear, then continued to stare at Xiu: “I meowed too. Let’s exchange. I meow once, you meow once. It’s very fair.”

Saying this, he started meowing and whining in Xiu’s ear again, looking as if he would meow all night if Xiu didn’t agree.

The sounds coming from his ear made Xiu feel a wave of numbness. Uncomfortable, he wanted to tilt his head back to avoid Wen Chu’s calls.

But how could the mist give him such a chance? That small ball of mist stuck directly to Xiu’s ear, the voice so sweet it sounded like they were doing something indescribable.

This was too…

The base of Xiu’s neck turned red. Especially with a kitten looking at him with innocent round eyes on his lap, it made him feel that his thoughts were too dirty.

“Stop meowing.” Afraid he would really have some reaction to the calls, Xiu stopped him with a trembling voice. “I’ll meow for you.”

Goal achieved, Wen Chu let go of Xiu with satisfaction and said seriously, “I meowed at least a hundred times just now. I’ll count it as one hundred times for you. You have to meow one hundred times too for it to be fair.”

Xiu felt Wen Chu was cooking the books and looked at him suspiciously: “Was it really that many times?”

Wen Chu was self-righteous: “My math is very good! And you didn’t count how many times I meowed just now.”

Xiu: …

So he really is cooking the books.

But since he had agreed, he obviously couldn’t go back on his word, nor could he continue to let Wen Chu make those overly suggestive sounds in his ear.

Xiu reached out to cover Wen Chu’s eyes, stopping him from looking at himself, and made sounds very lightly and quickly: “…Meow.”

“Meow.”

“Meow.”

…

Wen Chu silently grew eyes from the top of his head, looking at Xiu, who was flushed from his ears to his neck, even his fingertips turning red. He really didn’t understand why Xiu made the unnecessary move of covering his eyes.

But if Xiu didn’t want him to look, he wouldn’t look.

He liked hearing Xiu meow like this.

It would be great if Xiu could meow like this during mating too.

Thinking this, Wen Chu retracted the eyes, grew them back in the normal place, and extended the tip of his tongue to lick the black energy on Xiu’s palm.

Craving it, lick lick.

Halfway through meowing, Xiu suddenly felt a numbness in his palm, followed by the rough texture of a cat’s tongue.

The black energy wrapping his palm had been eaten by Wen Chu, and this patch of flesh, which would turn red upon contact with air, directly connected with Wen Chu’s tongue.

This was the first time his skin had been directly licked by Wen Chu.

Xiu’s last “Meow” went completely off-key.

He withdrew his hand quickly as if scalded, looking at the innocent little black cat. His heart was racing, yet he couldn’t say a word of condemnation.

What could this mist understand? It’s just me constantly having physiological reactions to Wen Chu.

Wen Chu looked up at Xiu, asking knowingly, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Xiu put his hand down, letting the black energy cover it again. “I’ve meowed enough for a hundred times. Can you forgive me now?”

“How could that be enough?” Wen Chu questioned.

Xiu raised an eyebrow at him: “Did you count just now?”

Wen Chu: …

Cooking the books only to be tricked by cooked books.

Wen Chu meowed and whined for a while. In the end, unable to find words to refute, he could only say dejectedly: “I forgive you.”

But he didn’t give up on making Xiu meow.

Xiu meowed nicely; he liked listening to it. Later, he would definitely make Xiu meow it back.

Xiu chuckled lightly, the heat on his ears fading. “Alright, continue eating. Otherwise, it really will get cold.”

Wen Chu watched eagerly as Xiu finished the meal.

After eating, it was time to sleep. Wen Chu climbed onto the bed as usual, only to see Xiu bring over three large balls of yarn and two long needles.

Wen Chu looked puzzled as Xiu wound the yarn onto the needles. Xiu turned his head, met his gaze, and explained, “It’s snowing outside. I’m knitting a few winter sweaters for you. Go to sleep first.”

Wen Chu was confused: “What is snowing? What is a sweater?”

Xiu explained, “Snowing is water vapor condensing into ice. I’ll take you to see it when we wake up tomorrow. A sweater is a type of clothing—go to sleep first. You’ll know everything when you wake up tomorrow.”

Seeing Wen Chu now reminded him of the extremely shameful meowing just now; he just wanted Wen Chu to sleep quickly.

Wen Chu looked at Xiu, who was leaning against the headboard holding knitting needles under the dim small lamp. Although very reluctant to close his eyes, he obediently lay on Xiu’s lower abdomen and slept.

He also had things to do.

A small ball of black mist separated from the tip of the kitten’s tail.

Xiu’s knitting motion paused. He lowered his eyes, the corners of his mouth turning down.

…Even on the last night, does Wen Chu want to leave him?

Wen Chu had thrown a tantrum with him today. He thought their relationship had actually gotten closer.

Or was it because his response was too cold, pushing them further apart instead?

Distracted, Xiu made a mistake in the knitting and had to unravel it to start over.

He looked at the kitten on his body.

Wen Chu just wanted to hear him meow.

If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have refused Wen Chu. Otherwise, that debt of a hundred meows could have at least kept Wen Chu a while longer.

On the other side.

Wen Chu didn’t know Xiu’s thoughts had reached the point of learning to meow. He had just squeezed out of the stone tower through the door crack and was looking up at the snowflakes drifting down from the sky.

“So this is snow.”

Wen Chu couldn’t resist tasting a mouthful.

Bitter.

He spat out the snow he had just eaten. While quickly looking for Minnie, he thought, Snow is like me, both white.

Pretty. I like white.

“Transport this batch of coal to the South District. Claude, tomorrow you go with Sir to the amusement park—”

Minnie’s voice came from below.

Wen Chu looked down and saw Minnie had changed into winter clothes. She was standing in the snow directing everyone’s actions, her face red from the cold.

Wen Chu dropped down directly.

He turned into a human again, appearing abruptly beside Minnie.

“Mommy!” Minnie was startled by the white figure that suddenly popped up and instinctively went to draw her gun.

The people around also looked in astonishment at this white-haired youth who appeared suddenly, dressed in thin clothes.

“Minnie, give me four boxes of gold coins, and the location of that Chief,” Wen Chu said straight to the point.

After seeing clearly who it was, Minnie clutched her chest and put away the gun. She looked at Wen Chu in confusion: “What do you want the Chief’s location for now?”

Amidst the vast white snow, the eerily beautiful white-haired youth curved his innocent round eyes, smiled at her, and said in a matter-of-fact tone:

“Going to slaughter him, to make fertilizer for Xiu’s vegetable patch.”

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Author’s Note:
While writing this chapter, my brain was constantly looping between “Let’s learn to meow together” and “Younger gong is good, younger gong is wonderful, making the older shou meow” ()