Aim

Maomao's face stung under Xue Jing's nearly mocking gaze. She wanted nothing more than to jump off the table immediately, but her body refused to obey her.

"..."

After two or three seconds of silence, she pretended not to understand Xue Jing's look at all. With a "meow," she lowered her head and took a big bite of white rice.

It wasn't like there were no cats that ate whatever their owners ate. As an ordinary Maomao, eating the same things as her owner was perfectly reasonable and logical. There was nothing strange about it.

Eating the same food as humans ≠ being human.

Having convinced herself, Maomao completely ignored Xue Jing's increasingly teasing gaze and dug in! First, she took a bite of rice, then popped out her claws and used them like chopsticks to hook a piece of spicy stir-fried beef from the plate. Hoo, hoo... Xue Jing watched speechlessly as Maomao, afraid of the heat with her cat tongue, blew on it.

After blowing on it a few times, Maomao cautiously bit the beef into her mouth.

The delicious flavor spread across her lips, teeth, and tongue. Having gone two full days without food, Maomao involuntarily revealed an extremely humanlike expression of bliss.

The first bite awakened her taste buds, opened up her stomach, and completely shattered the bottom line in her heart. Maomao sped up, taking a bite of rice, then a bite of food, another bite of rice, another bite of food, eating with utter delight.

Sometimes, she ate too quickly to blow on the food in time and got burned, letting out a "rua."

"Eat slower. No one's going to steal it from you."

Xue Jing smiled helplessly. Seeing how hard it was for her to hook food with her claws, he helped place food into her bowl so she only had to eat without using her claws. He even served her a bowl of meat soup filled entirely with meat.

By the time the meal was over, the dishes on the table were empty. A third of it had gone into Maomao's stomach. For her size, that was an astonishing appetite.

Not a single grain of rice remained in the bowl. She had licked it completely clean. The whole cat lay on her side atop the table, her belly stretched round as if she were pregnant.

After Xue Jing cleared away the dishes, wiped the table, and washed his hands, he picked Maomao up from the table and placed her on the sofa.

Watching Maomao lick her paw as if she were a human picking her teeth, Xue Jing coughed and said, "So? You've completely exposed yourself now. We can talk, right?"

Maomao's ears twitched, and she stopped licking her paw. She looked at Xue Jing with an innocent expression.

"Meow?"

I have no idea what you're talking about. After all, I'm just a harmless little kitty.

"..."

"What, you freeloaded off me and now you're refusing to acknowledge it?"

Xue Jing laughed in exasperation.

He reached out, pinched Maomao's cheeks, and scratched her face with all ten fingers.

This was also one of the spots cats loved being petted the most. It felt great.

"Meow~"

Maomao immediately gave in. Her eyes narrowed beneath Xue Jing's fingers, and she meowed in pleasure.

She had made up her mind anyway. Pretend. Just keep pretending.

As long as she didn't speak and didn't communicate, no problems could arise.

"..."

Seeing that she still stubbornly refused to admit it, Xue Jing had no good options for the moment.

"Forget it. Let's take a bath first."

Although he had washed up earlier, bringing Maomao home had gotten grime on many parts of him. He had also cooked several oily dishes, so he was hardly clean now.

At the thought of bathing, Xue Jing glanced at Maomao, who was lying on the sofa and had already rubbed it dirty. His lips twitched, and he reached out to pick her up.

"Come on. You're bathing with me."

Maomao froze upon hearing that. Then she put both paws together in a French salute, shook her head like a rattle drum, and flattened her ears back into airplane ears.

"Meow meow meow meow meow!"

"What the hell are you meowing for? You're taking this bath no matter what. Even Jesus can't stop it—I said so!"

Xue Jing snorted, picked Maomao up, and headed toward the bathroom.

"Meow!!!"

Inside the glass shower stall, Xue Jing brought in a small stool and sat on it. He squeezed body wash into his hands, then began rubbing and scrubbing the thoroughly soaked Maomao.

Maomao had already tried resisting, but it had been completely useless. All she could do was wear a dead-inside expression and let Xue Jing's hands roam up and down her delicate body.

"Meow meow meow meow meow..."

She spoke in cat language while Xue Jing continued rubbing and scrubbing earnestly, unmoved.

I have no idea what you're saying. After all, I'm just a harmless and terrifying upright ape.

During the process, Xue Jing tried to remove the Platinum Tail Ring from Maomao's tail. It did not seem tightly fitted, yet it was as if embedded into her tail, utterly immovable.

He did not use much force, afraid of hurting Maomao. He understood now that it could not be removed. After all, it was Divinity Substance certified by the panel. It was no surprise that it possessed some supernatural properties.

Only after every part of Maomao's body had been thoroughly rubbed and scrubbed without the slightest omission did Xue Jing nod in satisfaction, turn on the showerhead, and begin rinsing her off.

Once she was rinsed clean, Maomao's wet fur clung tightly to her body, making her look rather funny.

"Meow."

Maomao began shaking water off herself furiously. Just as she was about to leave the bathroom, Xue Jing stopped her.

"Wait."

Xue Jing quickly rinsed himself as well, then picked Maomao up and stepped out of the glass shower stall.

At the bathtub, he turned on the hot water, adjusted the temperature, and filled it.

Then, holding Maomao, he stepped into the bathtub.

"Meow~~" "Ah~~"

The water level rose and overflowed as the man and cat both let out sounds of pleasure.

Xue Jing lay in the tub with both hands braced against its sides, only his head above water. Maomao lay across his chest, her head resting against the rim of the tub. Her tail swished beneath the water, sending ripples across the surface.

She contentedly narrowed her eyes and began to purr.

"Hmph, and you still say you're not human."

Xue Jing spoke casually.

What kind of cat enjoyed soaking in a bath this much?

"Meow~~"

Maomao could not even be bothered to keep pretending anymore. She simply gave a perfunctory meow in response and remained utterly unmoved.

Lying on Xue Jing's chest and feeling his strong, powerful heartbeat, Maomao's mind grew a little dazed.

How long had it been... since she had felt this safe?

This guy looked slim in clothes, but he actually had quite the physique without them. Those pecs...

Perhaps because she had finally relaxed, Maomao began to notice that the boy before her was indeed rather handsome.

And once she realized that, it was like a tiny ant hole collapsing a thousand-mile dike. Thoughts began flooding out uncontrollably.

Unable to resist, Maomao secretly glanced at the boy's little cock...

While soaking in the bath and idly browsing the Skill Panel, Xue Jing suddenly saw a notification pop up.

Someone has developed favorable feelings toward you. Charm Technique EXP +1

"Hmm?"

He turned his gaze toward Maomao, his expression subtle.

After the bath, Xue Jing stepped out of the tub and first dried himself with a towel. Then he wrapped Maomao in another towel and rubbed her down.

He carried her into his room, took out a hair dryer and comb, plugged them in, and began drying her fur.

As he combed through her fur, he carefully dried every corner with the hair dryer. By now, Maomao had completely given up resisting and simply let Xue Jing do as he pleased.

"Meow~~"

Things were already like this, so what else could she do? Just let him have his way.

Once she was dry, a glossy black cat with excellent fur appeared before him.

Her emerald-green slit pupils, paired with long white eyeliner-like markings, somehow made that cat face seem delicate and alluring.

Xue Jing nodded in satisfaction. "Factory settings successfully restored~"

At that moment, he noticed that the patches of missing fur on Maomao's body... seemed to have all grown back.

And her belly, which had been round and bloated from eating too much, had already gone flat again.

"Interesting."

Maomao seemed to realize she had exposed something else. She lazily stretched, turned around, and refused to let Xue Jing see her belly.

"Meow~"

Xue Jing said nothing more and left the room for the living room.

In one corner of the living room wall hung a plastic dartboard covered in dense little holes. The surrounding white wall was also full of scratches and pinpricks, clearly evidence of behavior that would earn a beating from one's mother.

Xue Jing took three or four darts from the hanging tube beside the dartboard, then walked to the front door. This was the point furthest from the dartboard in a straight line, nearly five meters away.

He picked up a sharp dart, gripped its barrel with three fingers, and aimed for a while.

Whoosh!

The dart left his hand and slammed into the dartboard with a loud thud. It sounded powerful enough to create the illusion that the dartboard had been pierced through.

It did not hit the bullseye, but at this distance, merely hitting the board was already quite accurate. It could be considered proficient.

Xue Jing flung the remaining darts in his hand one after another. Every one hit the dartboard, and one even landed close to the bullseye.

Over the past week, he had spent some time practicing darts every night, hoping to develop a skill related to throwing.

Thud, thud, thud echoed continuously through the living room. During that time, Maomao padded out of the room and into the living room. She lazily glanced at Xue Jing, jumped onto the sofa, pressed the remote with her paw, turned on the TV, and found an animated show through a streaming app.

Having completely given up, aside from not talking, she was no longer even pretending.

Xue Jing merely glanced at her, suppressed the urge to throw a dart at her, and continued repeating the motions of throwing and retrieving darts.

About forty or fifty minutes later, as Xue Jing raised a dart to aim, he suddenly felt an intense premonition.

This dart would definitely hit the bullseye.

There was no reason for it. It absolutely would. Easily!

His eyes lit up, and the dart flew from his hand.

Thud! The unprecedentedly loud impact startled Maomao, who was watching TV nearby, making her fur bristle slightly.

On the dartboard, the dart was deeply embedded in the bullseye—right at its central point. It had sunk in to the hilt, completely piercing the dartboard.

Xue Jing looked at the panel.

Conditions met. Skill activated: Aim

Aim Lv1: (0/300)

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