Siamese

Luo Ruzhuo raised her head slightly. The person before her looked young. His skin was dark, though the parts of his arms exposed by his team uniform were much lighter than his face. His round blue eyes made no attempt to hide his curiosity about her.

"Hello, Luo Xi." Luo Ruzhuo couldn't resist glancing at the information on her optical computer.

Name: Luo Xi

Mental Entity: Siamese cat

Sex: male sentinel

Rank: B

Contamination level: 85%

Team: District One · Desert Squad

His age wasn't listed, and the boy looked so young that she couldn't help asking, "Are you an adult?"

"I'm already nineteen!" Luo Xi had been asked that question plenty of times, but in front of Luo Ruzhuo, he particularly didn't want the guide to think he was young. He hurriedly added, "I'm a reliable adult sentinel!"

With that, he took off his team uniform and somewhat shyly showed off a body that didn't match his face.

Underneath, Luo Xi wore a black, high-necked, short-sleeved base layer. His pectorals stretched the fabric into full curves, his waist was narrow, the grooves of his abs were faintly visible, and the muscles on his arms looked like stacked stones. The shirt fit him like a second skin, every fold hugging the lines beneath it.

His eyes darted away, and a blush spread from his neck to the tips of his ears.

Wow.

Luo Ruzhuo gave a little exclamation of surprise inwardly.

It really was unexpected. His face looked young, but his body was sizzling. His innocence paired with that physique made for a striking contrast.

Although the patient had stripped at the drop of a hat, his body was easy on Luo Ruzhuo's eyes, so she could overlook the offense for now.

Luo Ruzhuo smiled, her eyes curving. "You've trained your body well."

"I-it's nothing!" It was Luo Xi's first time showing off like this, and his face belatedly began to burn. "I'm very reliable. So... Miss Luo, you can come to me whenever you need anything!"

Unfortunately, the guide in front of him seemed not to understand his hint. She didn't pause for a moment as she cuffed his hands.

The cold metal rings clicked shut around his thick wrists, cuffing the sentinel's hands behind him to the sofa. Luo Ruzhuo admired his well-defined back muscles for a while and couldn't help feeling a little envious.

She would have to train harder when she got back to the dorm! Luo Ruzhuo made a silent resolution without stopping what she was doing.

Once the bite guard was fitted over the boy's face, his obedient-looking features took on an inexplicably aggressive edge.

After putting all the restraints on him, Luo Ruzhuo returned to her desk and tapped her fingers lightly on it. "You can release your Mental Entity now."

The fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose suddenly receded, and Luo Xi needed a moment to adjust. He hunched forward and settled himself, and a kitten with a black nose and ear tips and snow-white legs appeared on the sofa.

As the only member of the Desert Team whose Mental Entity was an artificially bred animal, Luo Xi felt a little inferior. Most sentinels' Mental Entities were birds of prey, and when such rulers of the natural world became Mental Entities, they often reflected the sentinel's own strength.

Because of his face and Mental Entity, Luo Xi had heard plenty of ridicule from his peers growing up. That was also why he had trained his physical strength so hard. If his Mental Entity wasn't fierce enough, he would make up for it with sheer physical power.

Luo Xi had worked hard and received his due reward.

He had joined the Desert Team at a younger age than anyone else in his sentinel academy class and cleared countless contaminated areas. He had indeed grown into the reliable adult he had looked up to as a child, and had let go of his childhood fixation on his Mental Entity not being powerful enough.

But now, facing the guide he admired, he couldn't help feeling those old insecurities well up.

Would she think a Siamese cat was too weak?

Among the guides Luo Xi knew, quite a few admired strength when it came to sentinels' Mental Entities.

That was only natural. After all, the number of bonded sentinels was limited, and guides themselves lacked the fighting power to combat contamination, so they tended to favor powerful sentinels who could protect them.

So even though he was very embarrassed, Luo Xi had shown her his body first without hesitation.

He hoped the guide he admired could see his hard work and determination in the signs of all that training.

The sentinel's thoughts were in a jumble, while Luo Ruzhuo had eyes only for the kitten.

Siamese cats were outgoing and lively. Without waiting for Luo Ruzhuo to call it over, it ran up to her as though they were old friends.

Its round blue eyes stared steadily at her for a second. Then, like a little black cake melting, its whole body tipped over without warning and landed on the desk with a plop.

It rolled onto its back, its four black-tipped paws gently hooking around Luo Ruzhuo's hand and the tip of its tail curling around her wrist. It wriggled and squirmed, enticing her to scratch its little belly.

Compared with it, even Heisha's black-footed cat seemed aloof.

Luo Ruzhuo had never seen anything like it. She had been dirt poor for the first part of her life and had rarely been around small animals. Later, she had barely begun earning money after graduating from university when the apocalypse arrived. Right up until the zombie horde outside the base surrounded and killed her, she had never been to a cat café.

Seeing that Luo Ruzhuo wasn't moving, it rolled from the left side of the desk to the right, then back again, circling around her as it went. All the while, it kept purring, so loudly it sounded as though it had a little motor in its throat.

Luo Ruzhuo obliged. The moment her hand touched its fluffy fur, the Siamese cat gave a soft "Mmm," the sound curling at the end. Its tail rose high, and its back arched into her palm like a soft wave.

As she continued petting it, it rolled over again, exposing its soft belly. Its half-black, half-pink paw pads curled loosely in the air, its front paws pressing down in turns as though kneading an invisible cloud.

This behavior was once again beyond Luo Ruzhuo's knowledge.

She initially wanted to ask Luo Xi for an answer, but the sentinel on the sofa was so red in the face that she could have steamed an egg on it.

Oh well. He's probably too embarrassed to say.

Luo Ruzhuo was an eager learner. She opened the Star Network and typed in: Why do cats knead the air?

Her previous search was still there: Why does a cat keep making noise?

...Skipping past a pile of definitions and explanations, Luo Ruzhuo spotted the most important line: In short, it means the cat sees you as the person it trusts and depends on most, and has returned to the feeling of safety it had in its mother's arms.

Luo Ruzhuo's heart went soft, and in a second she accepted the fallacy that she had given birth to a kitten.

Scratching the chin of the soft animal beneath her hand, Luo Ruzhuo was in no hurry to enter Luo Xi's mental domain.

After she had petted it enough, Luo Ruzhuo picked up the Siamese cat. It was like lifting a puddle of melted water, its white fur spilling through her fingers.

Luo Ruzhuo met its round blue eyes, and when she opened her own again, she was in the sentinel's mental domain.

The cat in her hands was gone. Luo Ruzhuo didn't rush, patiently surveying her surroundings.

Unlike the mental domains of the red-crowned crane and the black-footed cat, Luo Xi's mental domain was a sealed room.

It was filled with all kinds of equipment, including some exercise machines Luo Ruzhuo recognized and some interstellar-world devices she didn't. They all showed signs of long use. Overall, it seemed to be a training room.

An enclosed space.

It was Luo Ruzhuo's first time seeing this kind of mental domain.

So where would the contamination be?

Suddenly, what sounded like a cat's cry came from not far away. It wasn't the soft meow Luo Ruzhuo had heard before, but a sharp screech forced from the throat, like a rusty nail scraping across glass.

Luo Ruzhuo's heart tightened, and she quickened her pace toward the sound.

The farther she went, the dimmer the lighting became, until only a few faint lights remained in the once-bright training room.

A small figure was curled up in the corner at the far end. Its fur, clean and tidy just moments ago, was disheveled and dotted with blood. Its cries had turned into a string of short whimpers, each weaker than the last.

Several dark figures were over it, some kicking it and others bringing down the clubs in their hands, striking the figure in the corner again and again-

For the first time in this world, Luo Ruzhuo felt the urge to kill.