The cat had spoken...
The cat had actually spoken?!
This was probably the strangest thing Chen Ji had encountered since coming to this world.
The lamplight flickered in the medical hall's main room, casting shifting shadows across the black cat's face. Chen Ji's expression was just as changeable.
He cautiously made a circuit of the medical hall, first making sure no one was in the courtyard, then checking that the dark street outside the door was deserted as well. Only then did he turn back to the little black cat perched on the counter. "Just now-I mean, just now, were you talking?"
The little black cat stared at him without moving, making no further sound.
But Chen Ji was certain that the little black cat was the one who had just spoken!
Could the cat-hiring ceremony have had some magical effect?
"Why have you stopped talking?" Chen Ji studied the little black cat in puzzlement. "Can you say something else? Then I can figure out what's going on."
But the little black cat merely held his head stiffly, looking solemn, and made no further sound.
Chen Ji thought for a moment. "Say something, and I'll save up to buy you buns."
The little black cat: "..."
Chen Ji: "I'll buy you dried fish."
The little black cat: "..."
Chen Ji took a deep breath. "Consort Yun's white cat must have beaten you pretty badly today!"
The little black cat craned his neck and said, "It didn't fare any better!"
Chen Ji looked at the little black cat with a faint smile, and the little black cat instinctively drew his neck in.
He asked, "Why didn't you say anything just now?"
The little black cat was silent for a moment. "I didn't expect to suddenly be able to talk either."
Chen Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry...
In other words, the little black cat had instinctively answered him in his mind just now, only to make a sound by accident. And during all this time, the little black cat had actually responded to many of the things Chen Ji said; Chen Ji simply hadn't been able to hear him.
Chen Ji said, "I named you 'Dark Cloud' in the letter of appointment just now. Did you know that?"
Dark Cloud said disdainfully, "It sounds awful!"
Chen Ji changed the subject. "When did you gain sentience?"
He liked cats and knew a thing or two about them, so he knew most cats weren't actually very clever. In fact, they were quite stupid.
But Dark Cloud had clearly gained sentience before he ever spoke. He could understand human speech and even respond to it, something many humans couldn't do.
Dark Cloud answered, "When did I gain sentience? I've always been like this."
"Since you were born?"
"Since I was born."
Chen Ji pondered for a moment. "Could you open your mouth and let me take a look inside?"
Dark Cloud backed away, the sharp claws on his paws extending a little. "Why should I?"
Chen Ji said helplessly, "Could you stop being so stubborn? Let's have a little more trust in each other!"
Dark Cloud thought about it. "...All right."
"Come over by the oil lamp and open your mouth... ah."
Dark Cloud reluctantly opened his mouth. "Ah..."
Chen Ji peered inside and murmured, "One, two, three, four... ten ridges?"
In ancient times, a cat lover had written down his experience of raising cats: when hiring a cat, one had to examine its mouth first. A cat's upper palate had fine ridges like shallow furrows. A cat with two ridges was the dullest, eating and sleeping in a daze; nine ridges were best, a sign that it understood people and could catch mice and guard the home.
In other words, a cat with nine ridges in its mouth was the best, but Dark Cloud had ten.
Beside the grease lamp on the counter, Dark Cloud kept his mouth open and spoke from the back of his throat. "Are you done yet?"
"Yes, yes." Chen Ji fell into thought. Could the ten ridges in his mouth be what made Dark Cloud special?
"Sleepy." Dark Cloud lay down naturally, his head settling right into Chen Ji's warm palm.
But he soon realized something was wrong. How could a noble cat like him lie in someone else's palm?
Should I get up?
Forget it. I'll lie here a little longer.
"Wait, don't go to sleep yet," Chen Ji said. "I haven't given you the bead. I don't know whether it'll still bounce you away. Get up and try."
Dark Cloud sprang to his feet, all trace of sleepiness gone. "I only just remembered I came for that bead... Give it to me, quick, quick, quick!"
Chen Ji held out the crystal bead. This time, it really didn't resist Dark Cloud.
The pitch-black Dark Cloud slurped the bead into his belly, then shot through the crack in the door and out of the medical hall, leaving Chen Ji alone in disarray.
He just left like that?!
Just then, Chen Ji sensed a warm current coming from the direction Dark Cloud had gone!
The warm current was scorching, like magma deep beneath the earth and mountains, and vast and powerful, like a torrential rainstorm in August.
At last, it entered his body through the spot between his brows, soaking into his limbs and bones before slowly gathering at his heart.
Chen Ji stood stunned. It was a power he had never experienced before.
Unlike the violent, swift icy current, this molten current flowed only slowly.
What was more, he couldn't control the icy current, but when he urged the molten current with his will, it actually stirred.
When the molten current flowed out of his dantian along with his blood under Chen Ji's control, every part it passed through felt wonderfully comfortable, like suddenly sinking into a hot spring in the depths of winter.
At midnight in Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital, Chen Ji had felt that he had no regrets left in life.
He no longer made plans for his life or looked forward to the future. Whether food tasted good or clothes looked nice no longer mattered much.
Now, for the first time, he truly felt the mysterious new world and found himself within it.
And Chen Ji was no longer alone. He had a cat.
Under the night sky, Luo City had fallen asleep.
After the turmoil at Consort Jing's Evening Star Court, Prince Jing's Estate had returned to peace. Prince Jing had not returned to the estate for more than ten days in a row. It was said that the fighting with the Jing Dynasty had grown desperate, and northern cavalry had reached Shanhai Pass, their troops at the gates.
Stationed in Luo City, the southern transport hub of the Grand Canal, Prince Jing needed to procure large quantities of military provisions in the south and send them north along the canal.
In the moonlight, a little black cat moved silently along the top of a wall, his steps light. Surging power churned through his body. After he had swallowed the crystal bead, the muscles in Dark Cloud's body had rapidly rebuilt themselves and grown, increasing his strength by a whole cat's worth!
When Dark Cloud jumped onto the upturned eaves of the Hall of Tranquil Peace, anyone looking up from below would have seen him almost overlapping the crescent moon in the sky, as though he stood upon its curved hook.
Just then, a guard of the estate sensed something and whipped his head around. His armor clattered as his hawk-like gaze swept over the glazed roof of the Hall of Peaceful Tranquility, but there was nothing there anymore.
The guard hesitated for a second, then sprang onto the wall, holding his long halberd in a reverse grip as he pursued in the direction that had aroused his suspicion.
The next moment, the guard leaped down from the wall, his huge shadow as imposing as a night owl.
He searched the area, then crouched down to check the ground for fresh footprints by moonlight, but still found nothing.
"Strange. Was I being paranoid?" The guard slowly left.
Only much later did Dark Cloud, who had curled up in the corner and blended into the shadows, stretch out and continue deeper into the estate.
He passed the Hall of Bright Rectitude and Evening Star Court, evaded patrolling guards and formidable servants keeping watch, crossed mountains and rivers, and hacked through thorns and brambles, finally arriving in front of Consort Yun's Flying Cloud Court.
Dark Cloud dug his claws into a wooden pillar and climbed resolutely toward the second floor of the covered building. The window was open, so he sneaked up onto the sill and poked his head inside.
The white cat in the room opened its eyes and stared straight at Dark Cloud!
Dark Cloud: "Ptooey!"
He turned and ran.
Seeing this, the white lion cat leaped out of the window and chased Dark Cloud toward the rear garden. But it was a little puzzled. How could this defeated underling be so cowardly and so bold?
The white lion cat chased Dark Cloud all the way into the rear garden, through a rock garden and across a lawn, until it finally... lost sight of him in front of the estate's famous Flying White Pond.
Prince Jing's Estate's Flying White Pond was famous for its resemblance to calligraphy. The term "flying white" referred to the dry-brush strokes in calligraphy. Rocks stood in the pond's shallow water, with the flow broken here and there, like the marks of a dry brush, creating a transcendent scene.
The Flying White Pond, Listening to Thunder Pavilion, and National Flower Garden in Prince Jing's Estate were all places Luo City's scholars loved to talk about.
The white lion cat sniffed the air, only to discover in astonishment that the scent was coming from behind it!
In an instant, the white lion cat's fur stood on end. It tried to turn around, but it was already too late. A black cat pounced from behind and knocked it head over heels with one paw.
The white lion cat couldn't understand how, in just a few hours, this defeated underling had turned the tables. His little body now held even more strength than its own.
As their figures crossed, Dark Cloud spotted an opening and pinned the white lion cat to the ground. Curling his paw into a fist, he hammered its head, landing one brutal blow after another!
Chen Ji didn't know that Dark Cloud's pride naturally had something to back it up. His fighting instincts far surpassed those of his kind, and he had a much stronger intuition for battle.
Even when their strength was nearly equal, the white lion cat could only take a beating.
The white lion cat began to whimper and beg for mercy, but why would Dark Cloud care? He had lost count of how many beatings he'd taken lately. Every time Consort Yun came to Evening Star Court, he got beaten up.
The time for revenge was now!
Dark Cloud flipped the white lion cat over, extended a claw between its legs, and flicked it hard!
He let out a long breath, planted one forepaw on his old opponent, and raised his head to look at the moon, high-spirited and proud.
Even so, Dark Cloud still felt he hadn't vented enough of his anger...
He sneaked back to Flying Cloud Court and licked every one of the pastries the servants had left in a side room before departing, completely satisfied.
In the medical hall's main room.
Chen Ji was leafing through a book when he saw the black cat return with an elegant stride. He asked curiously, "Where did you just go?"
Dark Cloud lifted his head. "A triumphant return!"
Chen Ji: "..."
He was quite proud of himself.
Chen Ji closed his book. "You went to beat up that white cat?"
"You understand me. I beat it up good!" Dark Cloud held his head even higher.
"Did anyone spot you?"
"No."
"Did you beat it to death?"
Dark Cloud hesitated. "...No."
Chen Ji looked a little regretful.
Dark Cloud hurriedly added, "But I licked all the pastries in their Flying Cloud Court!"
Chen Ji nodded. "That'll do."
"Heh heh heh."
"Heh heh heh."
As they were talking, a rustling came from the courtyard. Chen Ji turned to see Liu Quxing wearing a padded jacket, peering cautiously into the medical hall. "Chen Ji, I just heard you talking. Who were you talking to?"
Chen Ji fell silent for a moment. "I was talking to myself. Senior Brother Liu, did you hear anything else?"
Liu Quxing said, puzzled, "A cat meowing. It sounds like a stray got into our courtyard. Have you seen it?"
By then, Dark Cloud was nowhere to be seen on the counter.