Before Bai Jun could continue thinking, Qing Que blinked in confusion and curiously leaned against his shoulder. Just as she was about to move closer, Bai Jun suddenly tightened his grip on the Jade Omen in his left hand and crushed it into powder with a bang.
"Wah! What are you doing?!"
"Ahaha~ I accidentally crushed it."
Bai Jun gave an awkward laugh and scratched his cheek, while Qing Que anxiously held his hand. She did not actually care about what had been on the Jade Omen. What concerned her now was whether the shattered device had cut his hand.
Only after repeatedly confirming that there was not a single scratch on Bai Jun's left hand did Qing Que finally relax. She immediately scolded him, "How can you be so careless with your own body?! There are so many delicate components inside a Jade Omen. What if they got embedded in your flesh? That would hurt terribly!"
"It's fine. I wouldn't get hurt over something so minor."
"You still need to be more careful. But speaking of which, why did you crush the Jade Omen? And who was sending messages on the screen just now? Why do I feel like..."
"Ahaha~ The weather's nice today."
The moment she brought up that subject, Bai Jun immediately laughed it off, whistling as he began looking around at the scenery.
Qing Que opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Bai Jun asked again, "By the way, where did that cat beside you run off to? It looked pretty familiar."
As he spoke, Bai Jun took out the photograph Songyan had given him. Qing Que recognized at once that the cat in the picture was the one she had just seen.
"Huh? The cat I saw just now seemed to be the one in this photo!"
"Really?" Bai Jun had only wanted to change the subject and brush things over quickly, but he had unexpectedly stumbled across the cat from the commission. He immediately looked around impatiently. "Where?"
"It's there, it's there... Ah, over there!"
Following the direction Qing Que pointed, Bai Jun quickly spotted the white house cat lying atop the Lingxing Gate of the Divination Bureau.
"You little cat, you truly delight me!"
After confirming once more that the cat matched the photograph, Bai Jun tucked the photo back into his clothes. He raised the long blade at his waist, held his breath, and assumed the posture of someone about to throw a javelin. Just as he finished aiming and was about to throw it, Qing Que panicked and hurried forward to stop him.
"Wahhh! Are you trying to kill that cat?!"
"No. I know what I'm doing. I guarantee the force would be just right—dazed, but no brain damage."
Qing Que jumped up and snatched away his long blade, refusing to let Bai Jun do such a thing. Before she could finish speaking, though, the weight of the blade in her arms nearly crushed her. "Uwah, Qing Yan, your sword is so heavy!"
"Who told you to grab it?"
A trace of helplessness flickered through Bai Jun's eyes. He pursed his lips, stepped forward, took the long blade from Qing Que's arms, and leaned it against the gate.
"What a hassle..."
Since he could not knock the cat down, he could only use another method. Bai Jun rolled up his sleeves, picked a direction, and climbed up the pillar like the ancients had done.
The house cat sprawled across the Lingxing Gate's plaque was still lazily basking in the sun. Perhaps because it had long been pampered by its former owner, it had not sensed danger approaching at all. Just as it prepared to lick the soft pink pads of its paw, the warm sunlight above its head was suddenly replaced by shadow, and a voice rang out behind it. "Got you!"
"Meow—!"
Even the sturdy, massive local house cats of the Xianzhou were no match for Xianzhou superhumans, much less this pitiful, tiny cat that was barely enough to fill a tooth gap. It could only let out a miserable cry before Bai Jun easily subdued it.
Holding the scruff of its neck in one hand, Bai Jun lightly leaped down from the Lingxing Gate. He landed as silently as a dead leaf, so light that he seemed almost like a sheet of paper.
"That was amazing! Qing Yan, did you study qinggong?"
Qing Que, who had witnessed everything from the side, exclaimed in admiration at his nimble, graceful movements. Bai Jun merely shrugged and replied casually, "Born with it."
Any Xianzhou native with a little foundation could safely jump down from a height of ten meters. The truly difficult part was maintaining that lightness and landing steadily. Someone who had never trained specifically could never accomplish it. Qing Que understood that clearly, but seeing that Bai Jun did not wish to reveal more, she kept her questions to herself.
Suddenly, Qing Que noticed the house cat in Bai Jun's hand. She had expected it to keep resisting in a panic, but it had somehow become strangely docile. It vigorously sniffed the air, as if it had caught the scent of something blissful, then buried itself in Bai Jun's arms with an expression of enjoyment. Its obedient behavior made it seem like an entirely different cat from before.
"When going out on assignments, you should always bring a few tools. As an attendant, it's perfectly normal for me to carry some catnip with me, right?" As though he had seen Qing Que's confusion, Bai Jun mysteriously took out a small sprig of catnip from his pocket.
He had specifically asked a colleague who kept cats for it when he left the Earth-Balance Commission Public Office. He had not expected it to come in handy so quickly.
As the catnip sprig swayed slightly, the house cat in his arms immediately put on an utterly intoxicated expression, sticking out its tongue and rolling its eyes.
"Uh, all right. It seems catnip for local Xianzhou house cats is a little too effective."
To prevent things from heading in some strange direction, Bai Jun put away the catnip. He also wrapped a handkerchief around the house cat's nose. Once he had finished all that, Bai Jun indicated that it was time for him to head back and turn in the commission.
Only then did Qing Que clap her hands and belatedly ask, "Right! I still haven't asked why Qing Yan came to the Divination Bureau!"
"Is that the sort of question you ask when we're about to part ways..." Bai Jun held the cat in his arms and sighed helplessly. Even his complaint came out much quieter. "What else could it be about? The card game you played with me yesterday."
"T-Then the Master Diviner didn't do anything to you, did she?!" Qing Que immediately became nervous. She leaned in and felt Bai Jun's arms, then his shoulders, like a factory worker inspecting goods about to be shipped overseas, terrified that Fu Xuan had secretly removed a few of his parts.
Bai Jun felt that her reaction was a little overboard. He lightly flicked her forehead with his finger and said with a smile, "Relax. She only scolded me a little. It's not like she could eat me. You, on the other hand, should watch that attitude of yours, or Fu Xuan might drag you away later."
"How could that happen?! I'm the most rule-abiding person in the entire Divination Bureau. If I wanted to, the Master Diviner definitely wouldn't be able to find any reason to punish me."
"Stop talking, Qing Que. Do you realize you're already covered in invisible death flags...?"
"No way. That counts too?"
Qing Que, who loved browsing the internet at high intensity on ordinary days, naturally understood what he meant. But she simply refused to believe it.
"Let's hope so. All right, I'm done chatting nonsense with you. I need to go turn in the commission, and you should get back to work too." As he was about to leave, Bai Jun suddenly added, "Oh, right. I'll be moving in the next few days. If you have time, could you come help? I'll treat you to a meal."
"No problem! I'll definitely come!"
To Xianzhou people, moving house was a very serious and proper matter. Qing Que agreed without hesitation. Or rather, she was incredibly excited that Bai Jun had invited her.
Only after Bai Jun had walked far away did Qing Que cheer happily. Her cute little face flushed with alluring excitement, while her heart felt as sweet as though she had eaten honey. "Yay! He invited me to help him move!"
After spinning around several times on the spot, Qing Que skipped toward the Divination Bureau's gate with the exuberant steps of a young girl.
Perhaps because she was in such an especially wonderful mood, she somehow felt that even standing guard at the gate was much happier, and her days had become something to look forward to. This was what they meant by a joyous occasion lifting one's spirits!
That wonderful feeling came to an abrupt halt when she saw Fu Xuan standing at the entrance of the Divination Bureau with a gloomy expression.
...All right, she admitted that Bai Jun's jinxed mouth was a little too accurate.
Also, if she stuffed a little more candy into the Master Diviner's hands right now, could she muddle through this?
A tally of the bounty results so far
From September 17, when the bounty began, through September 22.
From: 65 monthly tickets / 1,314 recommendation votes / 4,652 tips / 32 blades
To now: 1,071 monthly tickets / 5,223 recommendation votes / 32,364 tips / 306 blades
These correspond to: five updates / one update / three updates / three updates
Twelve updates in total, or 24,000 words. Everything can be settled within this week after release.
There are also the promised twenty updates, or 50,000 words, which I guarantee will be repaid next week.
The bounty ends this Friday. I'll tally it again then and guarantee that however much I owe, I'll make up for it.
Feels like I set the goal a little too high, but I'll do my best to write, meow!
Such a Big, White... Trotter?
"Seriously? You really managed to find this cat?"
Inside the Earth-Balance Commission, Songyan sat by the window with a lit cigarette somehow clenched between his lips. Smoke rose from the tobacco as he held the house cat by the scruff of its neck, looking as though he had seen a ghost.
He had given the commission to Bai Jun purely because he wanted to give him half a day off to clear his head. Yet he had not expected Bai Jun to actually find the cat. Songyan himself had been searching for it for an entire week!
The coincidence was honestly absurd. If it had happened in a movie, he would definitely have mocked it. Yet this was not a movie, but undeniable reality.
Sigh. He had originally hoped to coast on this commission for a few more days. Well, that was ruined. If he wanted to slack off in the future, he would have to find another way.
Songyan leaned back with a melancholy expression and took a deep drag from his cigarette. The bitterness and warmth of the tobacco mingled together and spread across his tongue. Only after he exhaled did his tightly furrowed brows gradually ease.
Smoke drifted through the air, drawing disgusted looks from the female coworkers around him as though he were trash. They moved even farther away from him in distaste.
Songyan never cared about such things. Instead, he turned and asked Bai Jun, who was busy with something near the Public Office hall, "Hey, Qing Yan, where did you find this cat?"
"At the Divination Bureau." The answer was brief and clear.
Songyan's expression became even stranger upon hearing that. He lightly stubbed out his cigarette and brought his gaze level with the cat he held up. "The Divination Bureau? How did this stupid cat end up there..."
"How would I know?"
Bai Jun had gotten some cat food from another colleague. However, because of the differences between house cat breeds, he first needed to carefully crush it into powder in a bowl before feeding it. He mixed in a little fresh milk and meat jelly evenly, turning the large chunks of cat food into something easier to digest.
After preparing the cat food, Bai Jun carried the bowl over to feed it. When he saw Songyan's face pressed right up against the cat, he kindly warned him, "House cats are temperamental. Be careful it doesn't scratch you."
Songyan did not care in the slightest. He even moved his face a little closer and boastfully said, "Ha ha, it's just a cat, and such a tiny one at that. How could it possibly—Wah!"
Before he finished speaking, the cat's sharp claws had already left three clear scratches across his face. Then it kicked off his chin with its hind legs and leaped swiftly and lightly out of Songyan's hand.
"Oh~ What a good little darling! That's exactly how you should treat smokers!" Sparse applause rang out around them, while Songyan clutched his face and howled miserably, unable to recover for a long while.
The little cat haughtily licked its paws. When it saw Bai Jun approaching, it immediately burrowed into his arms. Its fluffy head affectionately rubbed against him again and again, displaying an extremely humanlike expression of bliss.
Bai Jun thought the catnip scent might still be affecting it, so he lowered his head and sniffed his collar. He could not smell anything, though, so he pulled the cat out of his arms and placed it on the ground beside the bowl of food.
Who would have thought that the cat had no interest at all in the carefully prepared meal? It lazily stretched, then returned to Bai Jun with elegant, light steps. It gently rubbed its head against his leg and let out a low purr.
"This little fellow really likes you. I've kept cats for years, and mine have never been this close to people," remarked a coworker who owned cats.
"Is catnip really this effective?"
Bai Jun crouched down, his palm gently sliding over the cat's back as he softly stroked its smooth fur. The cat comfortably narrowed its eyes, nestled beside his hand, curled into a ball, and radiated an especially satisfied air.
"This damned cat has some seriously strong claws."
Bai Jun held the cat in his arms and looked at Songyan as he approached. Teasingly, he said, "I thought you'd definitely be furious."
"Would I really bother competing with a cat?" Songyan vigorously rubbed his hair and muttered irritably, "Besides, this isn't an ordinary cat. It belongs to someone, and we still have to return it to them later."
Just as he spoke, Pure Ink Steward happened to walk over and called out to them, "I've already contacted the client. She said she'll arrive soon. Bai Jun, go outside and return the cat to her. As for Songyan... come deal with the documents left over from this morning."
Songyan let out a miserable wail. Even having his face scratched up earlier had not dealt half as much damage as those words.
"Right, Jing Yan!"
Just as Jing Yan was about to leave, Bai Jun suddenly called out to stop her. Holding up the house cat in his arms, he smiled and said, "When I was looking for the cat, I accidentally broke my Jade Omen. Can the Public Office reimburse me for it?"
"Yes. We can have one delivered to you this afternoon." Jing Yan nodded, then dragged Songyan away to deal with other matters.
"Long live reimbursement!"
Upon hearing that, Bai Jun happily picked up the cat and went outside the Public Office to wait for the client.
He found a quiet bench beside the Chahai in the plaza. He placed the cat in his lap, then took out the chronicle he had just gotten from Fu Xuan and began casually flipping through it.
Just as he became absorbed in reading, the cat in his arms seemed to notice something and began fidgeting uneasily. Bai Jun raised his head, and a figure looking around anxiously in the plaza outside the Earth-Balance Commission quickly caught his attention.
She was a young woman with shoulder-length white hair streaked with peach-red highlights. Delicate crimson eyeshadow adorned eyes as blue and clear as autumn water. Her refined, otherworldly features carried both glamour and purity. She wore only an ordinary white shirt and black suit trousers, but her exquisite curves and long, straight legs were impossible to conceal.
If a perfect score was ten, she was easily a nine—a beautiful young woman one would never forget after seeing once on the street. At this moment, she nervously held her hands before her chest, seemingly searching the plaza with great concern.
When her anxious gaze met Bai Jun's, her eyes went blank for a brief moment before filling with intense surprise. The clear, endearing eyes flashed with the purest joy—she had seen the white cat in Bai Jun's arms.
"Little Eight—I finally found you!" Her fragrance seemed to drift through the air before her gaze had already arrived. Dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, she ran toward him, bright and charming as peach blossoms on a spring branch.
The impressive bosom hidden beneath her shirt rose and fell heavily with each step, stretching the shirt high and making Bai Jun's eyes widen in an instant. He had intended to quickly look away, but for some reason, his gaze remained locked there.
So white and so big... a trotter? Wait, a trotter?!
Only then did Bai Jun realize that the girl was holding a strange, large white trotter in her arms. The trotter seemed to notice his gaze and leaped out of her embrace, spinning rapidly through the air like a whirling top.
"Puffer—!"
In the end, beneath the horrified gazes of both the girl and Bai Jun, it delivered a precise flying kick straight into the side of his face.
"Pwah—!"
With a dull thud, Bai Jun fell to the ground once again.
Do You Need a Dog? The Talking Kind?
"Wuwu~ I'm truly terribly sorry. It's all my fault for not disciplining Zhang Zhang properly..."
On the bench, the white-haired girl sat with her hands properly placed on her knees. Seeing Bai Jun's cheek swollen from Zhang Zhang's kick, she lowered her head in deep self-reproach and pleaded apologetically for forgiveness.
Her name was Elena, and she belonged to Market Group 166 of the Strategic Investment Department of the Interstellar Peace Company. Since she had recently completed a major deal, her team leader had specifically granted her two months of vacation. She had thus taken a spaceship to the Xianzhou Luofu for a holiday.
Life here had originally been quite pleasant and leisurely. She had even adopted a new little animal here, supposedly a cat from the ancient Xianzhou people. It had indeed been true: its cuteness had captured her heart the moment she saw it. She had named it Little Eight, but the good times did not last long. After only a few days, she could no longer find it.
Being able to find it again was certainly something worth celebrating, but Zhang Zhang had kicked the kind person who had found Little Eight—and it had kicked him right in the face!
Elena secretly glanced at Bai Jun. Seeing that he was so handsome, she felt even more guilty.
Really, she could not keep indulging Zhang Zhang in the future!
Before you continue