A Bloody Incident Caused by Tribute

How to be a cat king—waiting online, urgent...

Deep within the small woods by Linzhong Lakefront, Zheng Qing's black cat form sat atop a low tree stump with its paws tucked beneath it, gazing mournfully at the dozens of cats of varying sizes and breeds surrounding him. It felt as though ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through his heart.

They said cats were sadistic, forever finding new ways to torment their litter-scooping servants and never tiring of it.

But Zheng Qing had not noticed any sadistic tendencies in the cats before him. On the contrary, he had merely beaten up the biggest cat, and then all the rest had crowded around to be beaten by him—honestly, he had been rather pleased with himself for a little while. After all, having a huge crowd of underlings flock around him wherever he went was quite imposing.

But he quickly grew tired of it.

Cats were not truly social animals, after all. Though he did not know why the cats at the school had gathered together and even chosen a leader, most of them still maintained a delicate distance from one another—like a blooming dandelion puff, gathered together and responding to one another, yet scattered in every direction when the wind blew.

This was not the kind of cat king Zheng Qing wanted to be.

Complaints aside, before this group of cats scattered, Zheng Qing still enjoyed the highest "treatment" among them—for instance, if a cat caught a sparrow, it would bring him the thickest piece of breast meat as tribute; if two cats fought, one look from him would make the little brats settle down peacefully; and the prettiest Persian Cats and Ragdoll Cats in the group were now lying obediently around the black cat.

One point needed emphasizing: the black cat