It was the night of the Magic Ban Festival.
Monday night, in other words.
Zheng Qing turned into Black Cat and paid his first visit to the Cat Fruit Tree in quite some time, inspecting his territory to keep anyone from usurping his place. As he recalled, several of the bigger cats on the tree were unruly sorts, always coveting Black Cat's throne.
Of course, the greatest threat was still his Shadow Cat.
The last time he visited the Cat Fruit Tree, he had caught Shadow Cat in the act of "stealing his home"—worse still, that night Shadow Cat had little female cats from the tree keeping it company on either side. Utterly shameless.
Today was Monday of the sixth week of term, a full sixteen days since he had last turned into a cat that Saturday in the third week. Who knew what mischief Shadow Cat had stirred up in the meantime?
Although Zheng Qing had turned into Black Cat every Friday over the past few weeks to meet with the devils of the Seven Deadly Sins, time was limited, and he had never had a chance to visit the Cat Fruit Tree. After every meeting, he had to hurry back to his dormitory and squeeze in some rest or finish his Petites Mains Mission.
Until today.
His class had not organized a spring outing for the Magic Ban Festival, unexpectedly giving Zheng Qing a little free time. By a little after seven that evening, he had already finished his planned studies ahead of schedule and even exceeded the requirements for tomorrow's Petites Mains Mission. Eagerly, he turned into Black Cat and headed for the Cat Fruit Tree under the moonlight.
Just as he expected.
His throne had been stolen again.
Shadow Cat lay sprawled brazenly across the platform