Speaking with a Mouse

"Mother of mice, that scared me to death!!"

The Little Rat shrieked in response to the fat man's scream. Listening from the side, the black cat felt that it had two or three parts more breath behind its voice than the fat man did.

Following those two screams came the clamor of the other animals—the big cats' howls, the little cats' meows, with the occasional bleat from the Black Goat mixed in. For a moment, the scene was utter chaos, like chickens and dogs flying about while demons danced.

"That rat spoke? It can really talk? What kind of medicine did you feed it?!" Lin Guo's voice seemed somewhat weak amid the surrounding din, but the black cat twitched his ears and heard every word clearly.

He had finally recovered from his shock.

"Everyone, quiet down!" The black cat raised a front paw and swung it hard. The paw swelled against the wind, becoming the size of a millstone in an instant, then slammed heavily into a nearby bare plane tree with a dull thud, stirring up a fierce gust.

The plane tree shuddered violently. The few dead leaves that had stubbornly clung to its branches finally gave in to gravity, spiraling down with the wind.

The shouting fat man, the clamoring young wizard, the shrieking rat, and the cats and black goats joining in all came to their senses amid the gale and falling leaves. Seeing that millstone-sized paw, they all shut their mouths.

The black cat paused, withdrew his enormous paw, and strode slowly over to the Little Rat.

The rat was still held in the mouth of the cat guarding it, dangling in midair. If it had not been glaring with two round little black eyes and wearing an angry expression on its narrow face, Zheng Qing