"—No one's around."
The Black Cat let its tail droop as it ambled slowly along a narrow crack in the Bluestone Path. Though winter had already arrived, the trees and shrubs lining both sides of the shaded road remained thick with leaves. Some had turned red, some yellow, while others were still green. Their colorful clusters made the place seem even livelier and more vibrant than in summer.
But the Black Cat paid no attention to the dead branches and fallen leaves, nor to the Two-Tailed Squirrels and Tree Spirits hiding among them. It felt it ought to have loftier pursuits.
As a newly freed thought.
The Black Cat had been assigned by its True Self to be stationed at the Cat Fruit Tree.
It was a somewhat extravagant arrangement.
But its True Self currently had an abundance of "thoughts." Even if he squandered a few carelessly, no one had the right to criticize him—those who could keep him in line, such as his teacher, had gone beyond the heavens; the Upper Councilor beneath the moon was busy in her laboratory; and the Young Lady of Zhong Mountain was wholly devoted to the task of elevating the Xuanhuang Small World. Besides, who said having a cat guard the Cat Fruit Tree was a waste? Perched in the tree every day, it could hear plenty of news carried on the wind!
Much of it was the sort of thing Legendary Wizards ordinarily neither heard nor saw.
For instance, two witches passing by at noon had whispered to each other about someone digging up a stone in the Herbal Medicine Class garden. It supposedly recorded a secret recipe claiming that rubbing sliced ginger on one's scalp could prevent hair loss. Or there was a kappa by Linzhong Lake that had exposed itself