Li Zhenruo was originally a human.
He was the fourth son of Li Jianglin, the chairman of Yunlin. He was young, promising, handsome and outstanding. Although he has three older brothers, he thought that was nothing to be afraid of, since he was the best.
However, that has become a thing of the past.
He was killed and turned into a cat, and now he was struggling to survive and to take revenge. He persisted until now and planned to live as a cat until the end of his life more than a decade1because an indoor cat’s life expectancy is around 13-17 years later.
He thought that when he was reincarnated, he had to make a good choice and not enter the path of beasts again2in Buddhism you have several paths in reincarnation, so he was saying he doesn’t want to be reincarnated as an animal next time. He still wanted to be a human being.
But one night, when he was tortured to the point of madness by the pain of the animal’s rut, he suddenly turned back into a human in the dark woods.
Furthermore, he was naked.
He stood up, panting slightly, and turned around blankly.
Why did he become human? Wasn’t he a cat? However, this question was like asking why he was reborn as a cat, and not a person. No one would answer him.
But he was turned back into a human! Surely God was giving him the opportunity to be reborn once again. God has not given up on him.
Li Zhenruo raised his head and laughed loudly. After laughing for a while, he quickly covered his mouth to prevent himself from disturbing others.
A cool wind blew and the leaves rustled. At the same time, he felt his body shivering, so he finally regained his senses and began to think about the real problem. That was; one, he has no clothes, and two, where should he go?
The first problem was not too difficult to solve, and now he need to consider the second problem because once he figured out the second problem, the first problem would also be solved.
In fact, he didn’t want to go anywhere, he wanted to go back to Li’s house. He became a man and had more ways to find out the truth and avenge himself. But he had changed back to Li Zhenruo, how could he go back to the Li family? Everyone knows that he was dead, and if he appeared again, he would only be regarded as a liar and no one would believe him.
What’s more, Li Zhenruo was not Li Jianglin’s biological son at all, and his existence would not even have any commemorative value.
“What should I do?”
Li Zhenruo raised his hand and felt that the collar on his neck was still there. He froze for a moment, then raised his legs and walked out of the woods.
It was very late at this time, but Li Zhenruo still had to be careful, because he had no clothes on, and he didn’t want to be seen by others as a naked pervert.
At night, the forest villa was dark and quiet, and the buildings around it emitted soft lights. The antique pavilion located on the lake was even more dimmed with a dusky silhouette, along with the steaming water, which created a strange effect.
The surroundings were completely silent. Only the chirping of insects and the sound of water from the waterfalls in the mountains could be heard. It was just for appearance and the sound was inaudible during the day, but it was clearly audible when it was quiet at night.
Li Zhenruo silently lowered his body and walked to the lake. He squatted down, stretched out his head and used the light next to him to create a reflection on the water.
The reflection in the water was not very clear, but the outline and facial features can already be seen clearly, Li Zhenruo couldn’t help but be startled when he saw the shadow in the water because it was not his own face.
To be precise, it was not Li Zhenruo’s face, but the face of an unfamiliar young man. The face looked very young, with a little childishness, with curved eyebrows and beautiful lines, like a lightly outlined ink painting, he looked delicate and elegant.
Li Zhenruo was at a loss when faced with this face. It was understandable that he did not change back to Li Zhenruo’s appearance, because he was a Garfield cat, but it shouldn’t be like this. No matter how he thought about it, the face should be a big round face, with facial features like being flattened by a pan and set on the disc face.
There was a mess in his head. He calmed down from the ecstasy at the beginning and thought more about his current way of handling things.
Also, he felt cold since he was not covered with fur, so he had to find some clothes to wear.
At this moment, Li Zhenruo suddenly saw the reflection of a person behind him in the water. Because he became a person, his alertness even dropped! When he saw the person, he immediately wanted to get up, but the person grabbed the collar around his neck.
The collar was suddenly pulled back and strangled Li Zhenruo’s neck. He had to reach out and grab the collar. The next thing he heard was Li Zhenran’s voice ringing in his ear, “Who are you? Where’s my cat?”
The collar was already very tight, and because it was password locked, Li Zhenruo couldn’t open or take it off by himself. Now because Li Zhenran pulled it hard, he couldn’t breathe. He tried to put his fingers between the collar and his neck and said with difficulty, “Let me go first… I can’t speak.”
Li Zhenran was originally bending over to speak near his ear, but now he stood up straight and loosened his hands slightly, but still held on to the collar. He said once again, “I’ll give you a chance, where’s my cat? If you don’t say anything, I’ll call someone here. Where are you from, the pervert who runs naked in the middle of the night?”
Li Zhenruo finally caught his breath. He almost rolled his eyes, but he didn’t know how to answer Li Zhenran’s question. He turned his head quickly, thinking about what he should say.
Li Zhenran saw that he didn’t speak, and immediately released his voice and shouted, “Is there anybody?”
Li Zhenruo was startled, and he said quickly, “Don’t call anyone! I know where your cat is!”
Li Zhenran looked at him coldly.
Li Zhenruo said, “Can you let me stand up?”
Li Zhenran slowly released the fingers that were holding the collar.
Li Zhenruo put his hand on the ground and stood up, and turned to face Li Zhenran. He found that Li Zhenran was wearing pyjamas when he came out, but he himself was wearing worse than, so there was nothing to say.
He reached out to touch his neck, and Li Zhenruo remembered that the collar was positioned. No wonder Li Zhenran found him so quickly. The collar was never taken off for a day. No matter where he went, Li Zhenran could easily find him.
Li Zhenran was still waiting for his answer, and obviously he was starting to lose his patience.
Li Zhenruo didn’t have time to make up a perfect lie and then took Li Zhenran to find his cat. He knows how possessive Li Zhenran was to the cat. If he couldn’t give Li Zhenran back an identical Dumpling, the other party would definitely not let it go easily. He didn’t want to be treated as a pervert.
So, he took a deep breath and said, “I’m your cat.”
Li Zhenran looked at him impatiently at first, but now has a look of a psychopath on his face. He reached out and poked Li Zhenruo’s chest, “Give me back my cat.”
Li Zhenruo also felt that Li Zhenran was a psychopath. Wasn’t he just a cat? It was not like he was his wife?
He then took a step forward, almost sticking to Li Zhenran, and said to him again, “I’m really your cat, listen, meow~”
Li Zhenran suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.
Li Zhenruo was stunned for a moment and didn’t understand why he do that, but he didn’t expect Li Zhenran to take out his mobile phone and dial 110.
“Hey!” Li Zhenruo struggled for a while, and found that Li Zhenran’s hands were so strong that he couldn’t break free, so he could only rush to grab his mobile phone, “How can you trust me? If you call the police now, your cat will never be found back!”
He didn’t dare to let Li Zhenran call the police. He didn’t know what he was, nor how could he prove his identity. If he went to the police station, he couldn’t tell what would happen.
Li Zhenran grabbed the phone and swung his arm back, and Li Zhenruo almost hugged him. He tried his best to grab Li Zhenran’s hand that was holding the phone.
The 110 wasn’t dialled out. Li Zhenruo said anxiously in Li Zhenran’s ear, “I am Dumpling, you asked for me from Yu Bingwei, and I sleep beside your bed every night. The collar was custom-made for me, the inner ring has your name and phone number in case I get lost. My cat bed is red, and there is a cat’s head print on my rice bowl. I slipped out of your bath just now, not because I wanted to run away, but because I seemed to be in heat!”
“In heat?” He said a lengthy list, but Li Zhenran probably only caught these two words.
At the same time, a flashlight shone in their direction. Just now, Li Zhenran’s call was heard by the staff of the villa after all. At this time, the flashlight shone from a distance and asked, “Who?”
Li Zhenruo was startled and quickly hid behind Li Zhenran. He grabbed Li Zhenran’s clothes and said, “I’m not a pervert, help me!”
Li Zhenran stretched out his hand to pull him away, but the palm of his hand touched the smooth and slightly cool skin. After hesitating for a while, he said to the staff, “It’s me, Li Zhenran.”
The man originally wanted to shine a flashlight on their faces, but when he heard it was Li Zhenran, he immediately put the flashlight away and said respectfully, “So it’s Mr. Li, did you call out for someone just now?”
Li Zhenran glanced at Li Zhenruo and said, “It’s nothing. I’m just joking with my friends, I’m sorry to disturb your work.”
“No,” the man said, “I was worried that you encountered something, it’s good that nothing happened, then I’ll go to patrol first.”
After saying that, the man hurriedly turned and left.
Li Zhenruo let out a long sigh of relief, and his head was almost touching Li Zhenran’s shoulder. During this period of time, he was so used to sticking to Li Zhenran, and he didn’t seem to feel anything wrong.
Li Zhenran still grabbed his wrist and said, “You make it clear to me now.”
Li Zhenruo moved his hand, “Can you let go?”
Li Zhenran refused mercilessly, “Want to run?”
Li Zhenruo said, “I don’t want to run at all, can we go back? Don’t you see that I didn’t have any clothes on? Where can I run?”
Li Zhenran did not agree with him immediately and looked around.
Li Zhenruo knew that he still didn’t give up and wanted to find the cat, so he said: “No need to look for it, you can’t find it. Or, just look at the collar, how do I take it off and put it on my neck unless I cut it with scissors? Besides, I’m not sick in the head. What’s the use of robbing the cat’s collar?”
Li Zhenran was really uncertain, he took Li Zhenruo’s hand and said, “Let’s go back.”
Li Zhenruo was pulled by him and almost fell. He was embarrassed to walk too far without wearing pants. He almost trotted all the way and was taken back to the villa by Li Zhenran.
As soon as he entered the room, Li Zhenruo pleaded with him, “Give me some clothes to wear, second… Ran ge.”
He originally wanted to call him second brother subconsciously, but then he immediately changed his words when he felt it was wrong3二哥 = Èr gē. He was about to call him er ge but changed it to Ran ge, and went down to call him Ran ge4a way to call someone older than you (male).
Li Zhenran glanced at him, not knowing what to think, then went to get him a bathrobe to wear.
Although he didn’t even have any underwear, it was better than running naked all the time. Li Zhenruo immediately put the bathrobe on the outside and wrapped his body tightly.
Li Zhenran sat on the sofa, raised one leg and looked at him without saying a word.
At this point, Li Zhenruo was too lazy to make up stories. He planned to tell Li Zhenran the truth. As for whether Li Zhenran believed it or not, he didn’t care. But there was one thing he would not reveal, that was his original identity.
Li Zhenruo sat down on the sofa, told Li Zhenran about his physical condition in the past two days, and then said, “I was so anxious when you went to take a bath tonight that I couldn’t help running out. As a result, I fainted in the woods and woke up like this.”
Li Zhenran asked him blankly, “Have you found a female cat?”
Li Zhenruo shook the hairy buttocks image in his head. He frowned and said, “How can there be a female cat? I don’t want to find a female cat.”
Li Zhenran didn’t speak and just stared at him.
Li Zhenruo looked at Li Zhenran, “You don’t believe me?”
Li Zhenran sneered this time, “From what point do you think you look like a cat? Do you think I believe you?”
Li Zhenruo knew the problem with what Li Zhenran said. He really didn’t look like a cat, because he wasn’t a cat at all, his language and other expressions were too human-like. He was uncomfortable when he was naked and was looking for clothes to wear everywhere.
But if he really was a cat who had just become a human, he wouldn’t be like this. He should still act like an animal, not a human right away.
He could tell Li Zhenran that he was originally a human soul attached to the cat, but that would lead to other troubles. Li Zhenran would definitely figure out his original identity. He might have accidentally revealed the purpose of his visit to the Li family.
The situation in front of Li Zhenruo was really difficult to understand. For a while, he had nothing to say to Li Zhenran.
After a while, he heard Li Zhenran say, “But Dumpling doesn’t look like an ordinary cat.”
Li Zhenruo didn’t understand what he meant and looked up at him.
“Turned into a human?” This is too absurd, Li Zhenran sneered, and he said to Li Zhenruo, “Why do you think you became a human?”
Li Zhenruo shook his head, seeing Li Zhenran’s unpleasant expression, and said, “Maybe it’s because of the rut…”
“Okay,” Li Zhenran said, “Twenty days is enough for a cat to be in heat, right? I’ll give you twenty days. You can change back and return to me after you’re in heat. I won’t care about anything. But if you are still a person by that time, I will dispose of you directly.”
Dispose of me?
Li Zhenruo’s eyes widened in amazement, was he a rubbish?
However, with that said, Li Zhenran did not seem to believe him at all and made a phone call to inform the manager to help him find his cat within the mountain resort.
Li Zhenruo heard him call and whispered, “It’s really me, you can’t find it.”
Li Zhenran ignored him and went back upstairs to sleep after the phone call, regardless of the commotion outside. When he went upstairs, he glanced at Li Zhenruo, “Aren’t you going to sleep?”
Li Zhenruo’s cat bed was not brought here, because he has always been able to sleep beside Li Zhenran’s bed.
Now that Li Zhenran asked him to sleep, in order to prove that he was Li Zhenran’s cat, he could only follow him to the bed.
Li Zhenruo lay down at the end of the bed, but he was used to curling up in a ball. Unfortunately, his body was not as flexible as before, and he could only form a half ball. Fortunately, the bed was still very big, so it didn’t look very crowded, but after lying down, Li Zhenruo raised his head uncomfortably and said to Li Zhenran, “Aren’t you uncomfortable with two men sharing a bed?”
Li Zhenran asked back, “Aren’t you my cat?”
Li Zhenruo was speechless for a moment.
He literally lay on Li Zhenran’s legs all night. When he woke up in the morning, his body didn’t feel so sore. It seemed that it had something to do with his cat’s body.
Just when he woke up, Li Zhenruo was a little dazed. He thought he was still a cat and wanted to scratch his face with his claws, but after licking it, he realized that it was fingers instead of claws.
Li Zhenran had woken up and was lying on the bed with his eyes open watching his movements.
Li Zhenruo shook his head, rolled over and got out of bed. He walked to the cat toilet on the first floor for two seconds, turned around and walked towards the bathroom.
Li Zhenran sat by the bed for a while when he heard someone knocking on the door.
He put on his pyjamas, went down to the door, opened the door, saw the villa manager standing outside, and respectfully apologized to him, “I’m really sorry, Mr. Li, we couldn’t find your cat.”
Li Zhenran asked him, “Is there nothing anywhere?”
The manager said, “I searched and found nothing. Later, we adjusted the monitoring and found that at around eleven o’clock in the evening, your cat ran from the vicinity of the villa to the woods, because there was no monitoring in the woods, it was not known where it went, and there was no trace after that.”
Li Zhenran pondered for a moment and asked, “So did you see a man without clothes coming out of the woods?”
The manager shook his head when he heard the words, “I don’t know which direction it was from. There are no cameras in some locations.”
Li Zhenran asked again, “What’s behind the woods?”
The manager said, “There is a mountain behind the woods. This hillside is very steep and has no vegetation. It was not easy to climb up.”
Li Zhenran thought for a while, “But it’s a cat.”
The manager nodded again and again, “Yes, okay, we’ll find someone to look up the mountain.”
Li Zhenran said, “Don’t worry too much, just ask if there is any family on the mountain that has a female cat, and just go and find out if they have seen my cat.”
The manager replied, “Okay, Mr. Li.”
Li Zhenran nodded and said to him, “I will give some allowance to the staff for finding the cat. Sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s okay, it’s no trouble,” the manager said. “It is our honour to serve Mr. Li.”
Li Zhenran didn’t want to listen to him anymore, so he thanked him and closed the door.
Li Zhenruo had finished going to the toilet by this time. He looked at him next to the bathroom door, and said, “You can’t find it, so don’t waste manpower and resources.”
Li Zhenran ignored him.
Li Zhenruo went back by himself, took a new toothbrush prepared by the villa, unpacked it and started brushing his teeth.
Notes:
It’s long right? It’ll be this long for the next 3 chapters
Also I know there are quite a lot footnotes on this chapter but I hope the footnotes can help to make things clearer~
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Security Guard A: Oh you’re back, did you see what that noise was?
Security Guard B: Yeah one of the guest was out on the pier with a guy wearing nothing but a cat collar.
Security Guard A: Wh—Again?!
The first meeting as a human again! Went about as well as it could have considering the characters involved. Good luck, Zhenruo!
Thanks for your hard work translating!
GYaHaH! Finally became human again, plus the gong is so downright nasty *fans self*, and by that I mean kinda hot for being that possessive. To quote Zhenruo, he’s his cat, not wife lol. Don’t worry Zhenruo, soon you’ll be upgraded kek. At least Zhenran isn’t that rude to his future hubby in this chapter, and for that I’m happy heheheheh (>‿◠)✌
Thanks for the update, mochi!!