The setting sun was about to sink behind the city. With dusk descending, light snow began drifting down from the sky again.
Xi Nian headed home. As he passed the park, he deliberately glanced at the lawn.
The kitten that had been lying there that morning was nowhere to be seen.
"It's the middle of winter. Good luck, you poor little thing."
Xi Nian exhaled, touched the sausage in his pocket, wrapped his jacket tighter around himself, and walked away.
But when Xi Nian returned to the bottom of his apartment building and saw the elevator doors open, a bold line appeared over his head: "What are you doing here?!"
Xi Nian was utterly baffled.
Inside the residents' elevator, Little Orange Cat was curled up in a corner. Who knew how long she had been lying there.
When Xi Nian appeared at the elevator entrance, Little Orange Cat seemed to sense him. She yawned, rubbed her sleepy little eyes with her paws, and wore an utterly harmless expression.
Xi Nian was a little dumbfounded.
How did this cat know he lived here? No, this was probably just a coincidence!
Xi Nian pretended not to see her and walked into the elevator, pressing the button for his floor. Several residents entered along the way, and to keep anyone from stepping on the kitten, Xi Nian still chose to stand in front of her.
The elevator began to rise as people came and went.
During that time, Xi Nian secretly glanced at the kitten lying on the floor behind him.
Mm, obedient. Not a sound.
Until they reached the sixteenth floor where he lived.
Xi Nian had yet to move.
Little Orange Cat, who had been crouching in the corner and was now fully awake, suddenly got up before him. She slipped between his feet and walked out of the elevator.
"No way, right?" Xi Nian's lips twitched slightly. He stepped out of the elevator and looked at the kitten quietly sitting at his door.
What exactly was going on with this cat?
"You're back."
Inside the apartment, Diana froze when she saw Xi Nian enter with the kitten. Curious, she asked, "Did you pick her up?"
"Auntie, I was about to ask you that. Don't tell me you picked her up?" Xi Nian asked weakly.
"No." Diana shook her head decisively. "In all these years, aside from picking you up once, I've never picked up anything else."
"That's true." Xi Nian scratched his head and looked at Little Orange Cat, who had already made herself at home as she entered. Hesitantly, he asked, "Auntie, can we adopt her?"
Since she was already here, and it was freezing outside, he really could not bear to throw her back out.
"I don't mind." Diana nodded. "But you'll have to be prepared to take care of her from now on."
"Of course. Actually, I've wanted to raise a cat for a long time." Xi Nian smiled as he lifted Little Orange Cat into his arms and said without thinking, "From now on, your name is Little Huang."
Little Orange Cat blinked, completely unaware of how perfunctory that name was.
Aunt Diana radiated the warmth of a homemaker as she smiled and urged, "Go take a bath first. Dinner will be ready soon."
"Okay. Then let's bathe together, Little Huang." Xi Nian reconsidered and simply carried Little Orange Cat into the bathroom with him.
In the bathtub filled with warm water.
Little Orange Cat was unusually unafraid of water. She lay blankly against the edge of the tub, letting the naked Xi Nian rub body wash into her light orange fur. Before long, she was covered in white foam.
When he washed her belly.
Xi Nian turned Little Orange Cat over and rubbed the soft, pale fur on her lower abdomen. He could not help muttering, "Little Huang, so you're a female..."
"Meow!" The kitten, whose eyes had been half-closed all along, became inexplicably angry and fiercely bit Xi Nian's finger.
Her slightly sharp little fangs pierced his skin, and a drop of blood fell onto the bathroom floor.
"Little Huang!" Xi Nian cried out in pain and hurriedly pulled back his finger.
As if she knew she had done something wrong, Little Orange Cat looked at Xi Nian's bleeding finger and showed a humanlike trace of grievance.
"It's fine. I don't blame you. Just be careful next time—you can't bite people whenever you want." Xi Nian comforted and lectured her. Looking at his bleeding hand, now smeared with cat saliva, he was about to rinse it clean when his body suddenly shook!
"Wait, this feeling..." Xi Nian's eyes widened in alarm as a familiar yet alien sensation swept over him.
His brown human eyes suddenly shifted into cold, faintly glowing vertical pupils!
Lord of Kin, activated!
"Xi Nian?"
Hearing Xi Nian cry out from the bathroom, Diana swiftly pulled open the bathroom door.
Almost the instant the door opened.
A grotesque, barbed tentacle shot toward her face like a spear.
Diana reacted with incredible speed and dodged aside. Following the tentacle into the bathroom, she saw the naked Xi Nian standing in the bathtub. Several terrifying tentacles had grown from behind him, twisting and extending with savage violence, their edges covered in sharp little teeth like barbs.
In the bathroom corner, the kitten crouched on the floor and watched Xi Nian grow those strange, horrifying tentacles. Her eyes could not help lighting up.
"What exactly happened?" Diana asked uncertainly.
"I'm not sure either. Little Huang bit me, and then my body became like this." Xi Nian gave a bitter smile, looking at the wildly shaking and twisting tentacles extending from his back.
"Blood and saliva served as a liquid medium, triggering Lord of Kin's ability..." Diana glanced at the bloodstains on the floor, then at Little Orange Cat. She was still utterly astonished. "But how could a cat...?"
Whoosh!
A tentacle suddenly curled back on instinct. Like a gaping bloody maw, it bit down on Diana's back!
Diana's heart jolted. She felt the terrifying suction of a miniature Black Hole erupt behind her! With a powerful struggle, she broke free from the tentacle's Black Hole attraction range, but her clothes were instantly shredded, revealing a flawless body that looked exquisitely sculpted!
There was more than one tentacle.
Another seven or eight tentacles were twisting and lashing wildly, devouring towels, body wash, the mirror, and the water in the bathtub at a speed visible to the naked eye. In less than half a second, they had swept everything in the bathroom clean!
Little Orange Cat promptly leaped into Xi Nian's arms and escaped disaster.
One of the tentacles coiled around Diana's slender, supple waist. Xi Nian could clearly feel a wonderful sensation coming from the tip of his tongue.
Wait, why the tip of his tongue???
Diana used one hand to hold the tentacle down tightly, preventing herself from being swallowed by the Black Hole within it. She did not dare pull hard either, lest she hurt Xi Nian. After considering it, she quickly judged, "If this is that cat's ability, then it should now also be an ability you possess. Xi Nian, try to control it!"
"I'm trying." Xi Nian gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
Amid the darkness, the sensations brought by the tentacles became even more vivid and delicate.
Very soon, the tentacles extending from his back gradually calmed down, and the tentacle around Diana's waist slowly loosened as well!
Before you continue