Chapter 42 part 1

Almost all accidents happen in the blink of an eye. Kong Bi looked at the empty fishhook with disappointment, feeling utterly heartbroken.

When a tiger catches its prey, it roars, appearing to be declaring victory. However, this is actually to drive away other carnivores, warning them not to come near and disturb its meal. Therefore, if Miao Miao couldn’t help but cry out when she ‘caught’ something successfully, it would be completely normal.

Of course, a simple roar wouldn’t necessarily scare the fish away. The more likely possibility is that the fish itself didn’t bite the hook firmly, which is why it got away halfway.

Just now, Kong Bi’s attention was entirely on the fishing rod, and she didn’t hear what Miao Miao was calling out. Turning her head at this moment, she saw Miao Miao suddenly stand up.

Miaomiao stood imposingly in place, her eyes fixed warily on the creature in the distance. Xinghe, who was nursing beneath her, was directly overturned by her sudden movement and let out dissatisfied growls around Miao Miao’s legs, completely oblivious to her surroundings.  

Following Miao Miao’s gaze, Kong Bi then saw Chuchu not far away. She had an innocent little expression, with only her tail slightly puffed up. On the other hand, Coal Boss next to her had his ears completely flattened, and his medium-length, smooth fur stood straight up, making it look like a sea urchin.

Seeing these two cats, Kong Bi was a little surprised. She thought that Hua Jiao and Wang Tianba would come over at this time, but she didn’t expect it to be Chuchu. This bold little guy seemed to be born with a lack of heart. She was never afraid of people or animals.

Kong Bi threw away the fishing rod and quickly comforted Miaomiao. The two cats were no different from food delivery to Miaomiao. If she really angered her, Kong Bi was not sure if they could escape by themselves.

Miao Miao flicked her tail. Of course, she didn’t think Chuchu and the other cat’s size posed any threat to her, but her cubs were different. Being newly born, they were easy prey for creatures that even they wouldn’t look at once they grew up. What’s worse, Xinghe was very mischievous and didn’t like staying by her side at all. Miao Miao was terrified that she might be careless for even a moment and something would happen. Therefore, she would scare away any creature that tried to approach.

So, even with Kong Bi’s soothing words, Miao Miao didn’t take her eyes off them.

Such a gaze was truly unfriendly. Coal Boss didn’t even dare to puff up and meow like he usually did, only rubbing his body against Chuchu, signaling her to leave quickly.

However, Chuchu didn’t heed the warning. Instead, she lay down on the ground, then rolled over, her four paws in the air, her round head facing Miao Miao as it let out soft “meow meow” sounds.

This cry was very different from Chu Chu’s usual meows—though still high-pitched, it was even shriller, like the sound a newborn kitten makes to call its mother for milk, full of “helpless and pitiful but still very hungry” energy.  

Coal Boss was utterly shocked: “Meow meow meow?!”

How did my big wife turn into a kitten?!

Miaomiao also froze for a moment.  

After hesitating for a while, spurred on by Chu Chu’s increasingly urgent cries, she finally walked over.  

Coal Boss desperately nudged Chu Chu with his head “Wife! Get up! A big cat is coming this way!”

Chu Chu glanced at Coal Boss, kicked him away with one paw, then immediately rolled over and stood up. She scampered toward Miaomiao, her little legs bouncing excitedly, before throwing herself at Miaomiao’s feet, clinging to her leg and meowing nonstop.

As they got closer, the scent of Kong Bi on chuchu became more obvious, which made Miaomiao more relaxed. She held Chu Chu in her mouth and returned to Kong Bi. She lay down safely, stuffed Chu Chu under her belly, and then stretched out her tongue to comb its hair.

Chu Chu immediately sucked the milk happily, and the tail behind her couldn’t help but stand upright and tremble quickly, very happy.

Xinghe: “???”

She opened her mouth and looked at Miaomiao in shock.

Mom, did you recognize the wrong cub? !

Miaomiao seemed to be unable to feel Xinghe’s shock, and lowered her head to lick Chu Chu.

Kong Bi was both annoyed and amused, and couldn’t help but pick up Chuchu, saying, “So, you little rascal,you have already become a spirit, haven’t you?”

Seeing the delicious food moving away from it, Chuchu immediately howled towards the sky.

“Woof woof! —”

Upon seeing this, Miao Miao couldn’t help but nudge Kong Bi with her head, gently biting Kong Bi’s wrist and lowering her head to signal her to put Chuchu down. Kong Bi released her hand speechlessly. Miao Miao quickly picked up Chuchu, turned her back to Kong Bi, and then put Chuchu down, preventing her from taking it away again.

Nursing mother animals harbor great hostility towards other creatures that invade their territory. However, there is one exception: accidentally intruding young animals. During their lactation period, when they see young animals of a similar size to their own offspring, they are easily inclined to extend their affection, even if they don’t particularly like them. They won’t actively attack unless the other creature does something to harm their own young.

This kind of miraculous maternal instinct is quite common among animals with gentle temperaments. Back when Kong Bi was in school, she once witnessed a ridiculously devoted mother cat nursing 14 kittens—not a single one her own. The poor thing was utterly drained, yet she still dutifully cared for them all.  

“My silly Miao Miao, she tricking you.” Kong Bi now looked at Miao Miao and felt it had a similar air of being a sucker, just like Coal Boss.

“Rrrow?”

Miao Miao looked at her innocently and then lowered her head to lick the kitten again.

Such a weak little one would easily die without its mother. Anyway, their family was well-off, so feeding it wouldn’t be a problem.

Kong Bi shook her head helplessly, picking up Coal Boss who had quietly approached from the side. “Your wife is simply a social terrorist!”

To get some food, it wasn’t even afraid of Miao Miao, that big tiger. Kong Bi was truly impressed.

“Meow!” The coal boss looked melancholy, and he also wanted to know Why is my wife so ridiculously fearless?

Miaomiao’s ears twitched, and she glanced over at the source of the noise. The inky-black Coal Boss didn’t appeal to her at all—unlike Chu Chu, who at least had a hint of orange in her fur. Displeased, Miaomiao turned her head away with a dismissive flick.  

This one? Not worth feeding.

Coal Boss: ???

Kong Bi set him down, finally piecing together why Chu Chu and Coal Boss had escaped during mating season without ending up pregnant. So it wasn’t Coal Boss’s fault after all—it was Chu Chu’s doing.

This little troublemaker had found Kong Bi even earlier than Hua Jiao and the others, yet she had acted like any ordinary kitten the whole time.  

But today, she’d finally slipped up.

Kong Bi had clearly sensed the shift in its aura just now. Undoubtedly, this was its innate supernatural ability: the power to freely alter its own presence. While such a talent couldn’t be labeled strictly good or bad, for Chu Chu, it was nothing short of devastatingly effective, making mooching food laughably easy.  

No wonder Coal Boss was utterly smitten. On one paw, Chu Chu, as a calico, was already a ‘top-tier beauty’ in the feline world. On the other, the pheromones she’d leaked to Coal Boss likely perfectly matched his preferences, which is why Coal Boss was so willing to work hard and hunt.

If it hadn’t been for its sudden change in aura today, Kong Bi would have almost been completely fooled. After all, there were so many spiritual kittens. Apart from being able to eat and being affectionate, Chuchu didn’t seem to have any other issues. Unless it actively exposed itself, Kong Bi wouldn’t have thought to specifically examine Chuchu carefully. In this way, given the secrecy of Chuchu’s abilities, it usually didn’t even have a trace of demonic energy. Discovering the fact that it had already become a spirit would probably have taken forever.

However, Chuchu probably wasn’t intentionally doing this. It was just instinctively disguising itself as weak, pitiful, and helpless. Creatures that appear non-threatening are often not rejected anywhere they go.

yāoguài, or demons/spirits, who haven’t specifically gone to school wouldn’t understand that their situation is abnormal. Most of them are the same after gaining sentience as they were before. This is recorded in many ancient books and stories: the old yellow ox that diligently plowed the fields every day only displayed its divine power when the family suddenly encountered bullies; the carefully raised watchdog that dutifully guarded the gate every day only revealed its special abilities and fought when another demon suddenly targeted its master.

These demons born into ordinary families rarely think about their own special abilities. On the contrary, animals raised in scholars’ homes, Buddhist temples, or Taoist monasteries inherently possess excellent learning conditions and often achieve greater things than the former.

After all, being taught and not being taught are two completely different things.

No wonder Chuchu eats so much every day but still isn’t as fat as Coal Boss.

It’s just that it’s really too unambitious, having such good talent and using it only for eating all day.

Still, this was far better than causing chaos and ending up dissected in a lab. Kong Bi had initially found it odd that Chu Chu, who usually begged for food nonstop hadn’t pestered her lately while she was delivering meat to Miaomiao. Now, though, it made sense: the little schemer must’ve been observing from the shadows, honing its mimicry until even its aura was flawless.  

After all, Kong Bi rarely indulged it. Why waste effort begging from her when you could just bribe the actual eater? Once Miaomiao willingly shared, who was Kong Bi to interfere?

Seeing that Chuchu had only come to freeload, so she ignored it and put bait on the hook again and threw it into the pond.

This time, without their interference, Kong Bi was confident that she could successfully catch a fish.

Xinghe stood alone in the same place. Seeing that not only Miao Miao ignored her, but even Kong Bi didn’t pay her any attention, she suddenly felt like crying.

She was clearly here first!

Xinghe wasn’t one to suffer a loss in silence. She let out a ‘fierce’ baby cry, bit Chuchu’s tail, and dragged her outwards. She was always the one snatching things from others; no one else could even think about snatching her things!

This time, however, Chuchu didn’t immediately let go. After all, in Chuchu’s eyes, Kong Bi was the absolute authority of the zoo and couldn’t be provoked. But Xinghe clearly wasn’t the one in charge, so she wasn’t going to let go!

Sure enough, as soon as she saw Xinghe coming, Miao Miao immediately lowered her head and picked her up. She knew exactly how bossy her cub’s personality was. The second cub usually got beaten up by her quite a bit, so Miao Miao immediately tucked Xinghe under her belly as well.

Chuchu ‘obediently’ scooted to the side. This mother wasn’t her biological mother, so of course, it had to give way to the biological offspring for sustainable development.

After comforting her own cub, Miao Miao resumed licking Chuchu. The scent on it was really too complicated, and she didn’t like it very much.

Kong Bi glanced at them out of the corner of her eye and immediately felt sorry for Kang Kang. The poor little guy, sandwiched between these two food-obsessed cats, probably wouldn’t get a drop of milk when he went back later. After all, Miao Miao didn’t have much milk to begin with. Although it had increased somewhat these days due to the plentiful food, it was obvious how much Xinghe and Chuchu could eat. There was absolutely no way there would be any left for Kang Kang.

Fortunately, Kang Kang was already used to drinking formula. After all, even among tiger cubs who hadn’t been born long, there was a strict hierarchy. In Kang Kang’s eyes, since the eldest sister had monopolized Miao Miao’s milk, he wouldn’t be able to get any back unless he one day defeated Xinghe. Since that was the case, drinking formula was fine.

In fact, judging by the interest Xinghe had shown in meat these past few days, although she hadn’t reached the weaning stage yet, she could clearly reduce her milk intake and eat more meat. If it weren’t for Chuchu, Kang Kang would probably still be able to drink his fill of milk.