After Turning Into a Kitten, I Was Adopted by My Father-Figure Childhood Friend - Chapter 30

“Meow awoo!”

The little calico lowered his brow fiercely. With the imposing air of a tiger descending a mountain, he lunged out from the man’s collar and leaped onto the kitchen island. With bared teeth and sharp claws, he pounced toward Gu Yingming, jumping up to deliver two firm punches straight to the man’s head.

Gu Yingming yelped from the feline assault. Cradling his head, he dodged left and right, wailing as he fled. “Lu Jingchuan! Lu Jingchuan! Look at your cat!”

“Meow meow!” Do not you dare call him Lu Jingchuan! You copycat! You Dolly the Sheep clone!

Cat Song was fuming. His brilliant gold-amber eyes blazed like two bright orbs of fire. He pricked up his tail, leaped from the man’s shoulder to the counter, and then took flight, spreading his arms to descend from the sky like a furry bolt of lightning.

“You-You.”

Lu Jingchuan raised a hand and caught the kitten steadily. He cradled the small belly in the crook of his arm while using his large hand to press down on the stubborn little head. He gave the cat two firm, forceful pets, flattening those two defiant, pointed ears. The “Bat-Cat” was instantly neutralized by his master’s move.

Cat Song let out a long, drawn-out cry, kicking his paws in frustration. “Meow!”

“Fierce cat! What a fierce cat!” Gu Yingming said with lingering fear. He beat a hasty retreat outside the door, his hair a mess. This usually upstanding young man was now peeking back inside like a thief, rubbing his chest and craning his neck. With a look of terror, he whispered to Lu Jingchuan, “Picking up a kitten from outside really is risky. They are too wild. Not good, not good at all.”

Hah! Nobody asked you to raise me!

Cat Song clung to the man’s arm and refused to let go. He craned his neck to hiss at Gu Yingming, opening his mouth wide to reveal four sharp fangs. His tail swayed like a prowling serpent; he looked as though he wanted to swallow the man whole.

Lu Jingchuan smoothed the fur on the kitten’s head to comfort him. He looked down to check on the cat’s condition, covering the kitten’s eyes with his large palm and pressing down its ears. “Not fierce, not fierce,” he whispered. “You-You is not fierce.”

He frowned as he looked at Gu Yingming, his tone of rebuttal firm. “You are the one who scared him.”

Gu Yingming was speechless. “Huh? Who? Me?” Was I not the one terrified by this cat?

It was absurd, but Gu Yingming was used to Lu Jingchuan’s double standards. After all, this was the man who could praise a piece of trash picked up by Song Xingyu as a work of performance art. His filters were incredibly thick.

“Let us just get back to talking about Xing-zai,” Gu Yingming said, waving it off. Seeing Lu Jingchuan’s frown, he quickly added, “Do not look at me like that. I am not speaking ill of him. Do you not want to know how Xing-zai fell out with his family after you went abroad?”

“I heard that Uncle Yunzhou went to see you, did you not?”

The Hidden Truth

These words did more than just hit Lu Jingchuan’s weak spot; they made Song Xingyu, who had been struggling wildly, prick up his ears.

What? Why did my brother go to see Little Lu?

The kitten instantly shifted from a state of aggression to one of extreme anxiety and unease. He clung to the man’s arm, his tail twitching nervously, and a low meow escaped his throat. The large hand resting on his head stroked him rhythmically, keeping his lifting head tucked into the palm. When the kitten’s tail curled around his wrist, Lu Jingchuan paused. He looked down and met the kitten’s worried gaze.

For some reason, Lu Jingchuan whispered a word of comfort. “It is nothing. Please tell me.”

He looked up, his gaze focused on Gu Yingming, his attitude more serious than ever before.

“Sigh.” Rare as it was to be asked so earnestly by his friend, Gu Yingming shook his head with an air of self-importance. “Since you have asked so nicely, I will tell you. Back when you and Xing-zai agreed to go abroad to study together, Xing-zai found out that the Song family had approached you.”

“It is not hard to guess.” Mentioning the past caused Lu Jingchuan’s lips to pull into a thin line. A heavy gloom momentarily flickered in his deep black eyes, though it was quickly hidden by his lowered lashes.

His studying abroad had been decided long ago; it was a tradition in the Lu family. However, the plan was only finalized during high school. When the topic came up back then, Xingxing had been lying on his bed reading comics. The innocent teenager had immediately kicked his legs and declared he would follow along to study abroad too.

“Best friends should always be together.”

Lu Jingchuan had been captivated by that bright smile. He remembered the brilliant sunlight and the elegant shade of the trees; the sound of the cicadas had not been as loud as his own heartbeat. He had agreed almost without thinking, nodding eagerly as he crowded close to Xingxing to echo, “Okay. We will go together. We will always be together.”

But the Song family did not agree. Song Yunzhou had come to him personally. He used reason and emotion, even pleading with him to tear up the agreement. They would never allow Song Xingyu to leave their sight.

Lu Jingchuan had stubbornly refused to agree, but as parents and guardians, the Songs had their ways. Ultimately, after the college entrance exam, his grandfather arranged for him to go abroad early and forbade him from returning until graduation. At some point after that, Xingxing’s attitude toward him had suddenly turned cold.

He felt he should never have agreed to the family’s plan to study abroad. But based on Gu Yingming’s mysterious tone, that was not the whole story.

“Is that all?” Lu Jingchuan asked, his clear eyes seemingly able to see through everything.

Song Xingyu could not help but want to cover his ears, folding them back into humiliated airplane ears. No! No! Of course not! Song Xingyu screamed in his head, lowering his gaze and praying that Gu Yingming would stop talking. This was not like him at all!

The rest of the story was a downward spiral. Song Xingyu was a late-born child. His parents had been business powerhouses in their youth, and as they aged, they wanted nothing more than to enjoy family life. Furthermore, the Song parents had strong personalities, and his brother, Song Yunzhou, was excessively protective.

They crushed Song Xingyu’s dream of studying abroad and tampered with his university applications. Each of them had a copy of his university class schedule. They would call him almost to the minute if he was not home on time. Once home, they would interrogate him about his day at school. Even for club activities, if he failed to answer his phone, the call would go straight to the club president’s mobile.

When Song Xingyu left the elite private school environment where all his classmates were familiar acquaintances, everyone in the Song family fell into a state of chronic anxiety that something might happen to him. It only grew worse over time. Song Xingyu began to argue with his family frequently. He ran away from home multiple times and begged his roommates to hide his whereabouts. Eventually, he accidentally discovered that Song Yunzhou had met with Lu Jingchuan to talk him out of the pact.

In a fit of rage, he fled the country, leaving the Song family in a frantic search for days before he finally dragged his luggage back home. From then on, the Songs did not dare to openly control his movements anymore, but he lived at school and rarely went home. The relationship with his family had turned completely cold. Without Lu Jingchuan by his side, he had not been doing well at all.

But he was supposed to be doing great! He was supposed to be fine without Lu Jingchuan, surrounded by friends and being the center of attention! Song Xingyu felt a sudden surge of guilt and irritation. He blamed Gu Yingming for bringing this up. What did any of this have to do with anything? He did not dare to imagine Lu Jingchuan’s reaction. Anyway, this guy has so many friends, my business should not matter to him, right?

Song Xingyu let out a disgruntled huff, only to suddenly feel something wet fall onto him. He lifted his head in confusion, his furry face brushing against the man’s palm. When his beautiful cat eyes peeked out, his pupils dilated. He pressed his pink nose against the man’s palm in disbelief.

Was Lu Jingchuan crying?

The Eighth Ocean

“Why?”

Lu Jingchuan spoke, his voice sounding as though he could not bear the weight of the words. He seemed unable to accept the truth. It took a long time for his trembling fingers to find the strength to continue.

The sensation was incredibly strange. The man was brooding and handsome; his thick brows and deep-set eyes usually made him look cold and distant. His sharp, chiseled features carried a natural gloom, creating a sense of dangerous distance. Yet, this cold, hardened man now had wet eyes. It was as if a salty eighth ocean had flowed into them, and he could not stop the droplets from falling.

“Was Xingxing not their treasure? Song Yunzhou clearly said, he promised, that he could never accept Xingxing suffering even a fraction of harm. Why did they bully him like that?”

Lu Jingchuan asked repeatedly. He took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress a chest full of rage. His usually calm features were finally colored by a panicked, desperate anger. He clenched his fingers tightly. This felt like the sky was falling; he was no longer even willing to address Song Yunzhou with a respectful title.

Gu Yingming was startled by his reaction and hurried to hand him some kitchen paper. “Hey! Do not cry! You are giving me goosebumps!”

Heavens, did Lu Jingchuan even know how to cry? Back in high school, when he had performed a heroic act by disarming a man in a mall, he had been stabbed in the abdomen. He had not shed a single tear even while getting dozens of stitches.

“It is not that big of a deal. It is all in the past now.”

Yes. It is just a small thing. It did not break me.

Cat Song stared up blankly. He watched the man, who usually stood as straight as a green bamboo, hunch his shoulders slightly as tears fell one by one onto the kitten’s heart. He realized, somewhat belatedly, that Lu Jingchuan actually cared about him very much.

When Lu Jingchuan did not hear from him for a few days, he tried every possible way to find him. Lu Jingchuan would cry like a naive child just because Song Xingyu had been treated unfairly. Lu Jingchuan was crying for him.

Cat Song suddenly became agitated. He scrambled up the man’s arm, standing on his tiptoes and frantically patting the man’s face with his paws. The man submissively lowered his head, his wet eyes looking directly at him. Song Xingyu felt a sudden wave of shyness and could not help but let out a soft meow.

As soon as he made the sound, he coughed twice. He could not believe that such a soft, sweet sound had come from him. Song Xingyu began to wipe the man’s tears with his paws. No matter how he wiped, they would not stop, so he simply pressed his paws against the corners of the man’s eyes. Perhaps because he was happy, his tail wagged back and forth. His fluffy, adorable little face looked incredibly serious as he leaned in.

“Meow.” Stop crying. I am right here. You are not allowed to cry anymore. I am Song Xingyu. Do you know?

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