Cats can roll their eyes? Zhou Zihao, you're worse than an animal!

The sun hung low in the west, and the breeze along Weiming Lake carried a hint of moisture.

Lin Bei strolled beneath the willows with his hands in his pockets.

Ruan Qingwu walked beside him, cradling the little orange kitten they had just picked up.

After eating the Intelligence-Opening Pill, the little thing had become far too clever.

It nestled in Ruan Qingwu's arms, but kept nudging its head toward Lin Bei.

This kept drawing Ruan Qingwu closer to Lin Bei as well.

Their arms brushed from time to time.

Ruan Qingwu's cheeks were faintly flushed, but she didn't move away, simply walking with her head lowered.

"What should we name this cat?" Ruan Qingwu stroked the orange kitten's back.

"Its fur is orange, and it looks like a little meat bun. Let's call it Orange Treasure," Lin Bei said, making something up offhand.

Orange Treasure meowed, seemingly protesting the slapdash name, but immediately started purring comfortably again.

The mood was just right.

Footsteps suddenly sounded on the path ahead.

Lin Bei lifted his eyelids for a glance, and the curve of his lips flattened.

Enemies really did meet on narrow roads.

Zhou Zihao was heading toward them with Zhang Liang and several other lackeys.

The guy had clearly dressed himself up carefully again: limited-edition Air Jordans, a printed Gucci shirt, and a flashy pair of sunglasses perched on his nose.

Only that half-missing front tooth looked ridiculous no matter how you looked at it.

Zhou Zihao had been bragging to Zhang Liang when he looked up and spotted Lin Bei and Ruan Qingwu.

Seeing their shoulders almost touching sent a blaze of anger shooting up inside Zhou Zihao.

All the humiliation he had suffered lately was thanks to Lin Bei.

Now even the goddess he had been pursuing for half a month was laughing and chatting with this broke bastard.

"Well, well. Look who it is."

Zhou Zihao spoke with biting sarcasm, swaggering over to plant himself across the middle of the path and block their way.

He took off his sunglasses, swept his gaze over Lin Bei, then finally settled on Orange Treasure in Ruan Qingwu's arms.

Seeing the filthy cat with a piece missing from its right ear, Zhou Zihao frowned in disgust.

"Qingwu, has your taste gotten this unusual?"

"Hanging around some poor kid in bargain-bin clothes is bad enough, but now you're picking up trash cats off the street and treating them like treasures?"

He deliberately raised his voice, drawing the attention of several students strolling nearby.

"That stray is crawling with fleas and parasites. It's filthy as hell. Aren't you afraid of catching rabies?"

At those words, every trace of a smile vanished from Ruan Qingwu's face.

More than anything, she hated people who threw their weight around just because they had a little filthy money.

Besides, Orange Treasure was her precious darling now.

Ruan Qingwu clenched her fingers until her knuckles turned white and was about to curse him out.

But a hand suddenly settled on her shoulder.

Lin Bei gently drew her half a step back.

He neither acknowledged Zhou Zihao nor made any threats.

Because just an instant earlier, Lin Bei's spiritual sense had clearly picked up an emotion.

Anger.

Intense anger.

It hadn't come from Ruan Qingwu, but from the cat in her arms!

The Intelligence-Opening Pill had not only awakened Orange Treasure's intelligence, but also given it the comprehension of a seven- or eight-year-old human child.

Orange Treasure understood Zhou Zihao's words, "trash cat."

Lin Bei lowered his head and glanced at Orange Treasure.

A flash of remarkably human irritation actually crossed its amber eyes.

"Lin Bei..." Ruan Qingwu sounded a little anxious, thinking he was about to get physical.

"Don't rush. Enjoy the show." Lin Bei stepped half a pace back, leaving the stage clear.

The next second.

"Meooow-!"

Orange Treasure suddenly wriggled free of Ruan Qingwu's arms.

It flipped nimbly through the air and landed steadily on a waist-high ornamental stone pedestal beside them.

Now Orange Treasure's gaze was exactly level with Zhou Zihao's.

Zhou Zihao froze for a moment, then cursed at the filthy stray in front of him. "Fuck, what kind of crazy cat..."

Before he could finish, his voice caught in his throat.

The students watching nearby all widened their eyes in unison.

Orange Treasure sat on the stone pedestal, its head tilted slightly upward.

Its round feline eyes actually rolled upward.

Revealing mostly the whites!

A textbook eye roll!

The expression was so vivid it was even more expressive than a human's.

Three parts mockery, seven parts the disdain of looking at an idiot, all written across a cat's face.

"Holy shit..." Zhang Liang rubbed his eyes, his jaw nearly hitting the ground. "Young Master Zhou, did that cat... just roll its eyes?"

Zhou Zihao was dumbfounded too.

In all his years, this was the first time an animal had looked down on him.

Before he could react.

Orange Treasure suddenly made a rumbling sound deep in its throat, gathering strength atop the stone pedestal.

Then its little head thrust sharply forward.

"Ptooey!"

A small mouthful of crystal-clear spit landed with flawless precision on the uppers of Zhou Zihao's newly bought limited-edition Air Jordans.

Dead silence.

An eerie, deathly silence fell over the shore of Weiming Lake.

Everyone was dumbstruck.

Rolling its eyes was one thing, but this fucking cat could spit too?!

Zhou Zihao looked down at the puddle of suspicious liquid on his shoe, and the string in his head snapped completely.

"You're fucking dead!"

Maddened with rage, Zhou Zihao raised his foot to kick Orange Treasure off the stone pedestal.

The instant he lifted his foot.

Orange Treasure calmly shifted back a little.

It raised its right forepaw.

Before everyone's disbelieving eyes, Orange Treasure curled in all the other pads on its paw.

Leaving only the longest middle one sticking high up.

Aimed at Zhou Zihao.

It flipped him the middle finger!

The watching students erupted.

"I'm not fucking seeing things, right?! That cat flipped him off!"

"It's become a spirit! It's definitely become a spirit!"

"A finishing blow! That taunt is maxed out! Whose stray cat is this streetwise?!"

Several male students immediately pulled out their phones and started recording like mad.

Zhou Zihao froze on the spot, his kicking foot stopping dead in midair.

Looking at the orange cat flipping him off, he suddenly felt an inexplicable chill rise from deep inside.

This cat was far too uncanny.

He instinctively tried to step back and put some distance between them.

But he had forgotten he was standing right at the edge of Weiming Lake.

That backward step landed on a slippery, moss-covered stone slab.

"Hey! Young Master Zhou!" Zhang Liang cried out, reaching to grab him.

Too late.

Zhou Zihao flailed his arms wildly twice, completely losing his balance.

Splash-!

There was an enormous splash.

Water sprayed more than two meters high.

Zhou Zihao plunged straight into Weiming Lake.

The lake wasn't deep, only chest-high, but the bottom was covered in mud.

Zhou Zihao thrashed in the water a couple of times, ruining his freshly styled hair. Strands of waterweed hung from his head, and he swallowed two mouthfuls of foul, fishy lake water.

"Help... cough, cough! Pull me up!"

Zhou Zihao struggled wretchedly in the water, his mouth with its half-missing front tooth opening and closing, looking just like a turtle that had become a spirit.

The shore descended into chaos.

Zhang Liang and the other lackeys sprawled at the water's edge in a flurry of limbs, some grabbing his arms and others tugging his clothes, using the strength of nine oxen and two tigers just to drag Zhou Zihao toward the bank.

The students around them were already laughing themselves silly.

"Hahaha! Is this guy here to do comedy?"

"A cat drove him to jump in the lake! His nerves are way too weak!"

"Well, there you go. Forget rabies-go get a tetanus shot first. That lake water is filthy!"

Standing nearby, Ruan Qingwu stared blankly for a moment at Zhou Zihao's miserable, drowned-dog appearance, then clutched her stomach and laughed, shaking like a flowering branch.

"I can't... Lin Bei, what's going on with this cat? How does it know how to insult people?!"

Lin Bei looked at Orange Treasure, still leisurely licking its paw on the stone pedestal, and the corner of his mouth twitched too.

The effects of this Intelligence-Opening Pill really had gone a little sideways.

The little thing had not only gained intelligence, but had also mastered the essence of mockery without a teacher.

Lin Bei offered no explanation, merely extending his right hand lazily.

He gave Orange Treasure a big thumbs-up on the stone pedestal.

Nicely done.

Seeing Lin Bei's gesture, Orange Treasure immediately dropped its unruly, defiant expression and jumped back into Ruan Qingwu's arms with a high-pitched, affected meow.

It rubbed its head against Ruan Qingwu's chin, then turned to roll its eyes once more at Zhou Zihao, who was still dry-heaving in the water.

You little punk. With that pathetic level of skill, you dare fight this lord for a poop scooper?