I Really Want to Pet My Wife's Cat Ears - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Fourteen Cats

Shuoyu’s proposal struck a chord deep in the hearts of Meng Xu and Shen Zhiyin. Once they reached the gallery, they immediately began brainstorming how to arrange the trend district, using the existing decor as a springboard.

Some people find that “a single word is too many if the conversation isn’t right,” and they have nothing to say after a simple greeting. Others, in order to seize a spark of inspiration, can roll up their blankets and live in the studio together, pooling their wisdom and constantly discussing details and proposing ideas.

Shuoyu belonged to the latter.

This gallery was very close to Meng Xu’s home. They simply went back to fetch bedding and stayed in the gallery for three full days. With so many niche cultures to choose from, they eventually decided to divide the two-story gallery into four zones: Y2K subculture, Gothic culture, Lolita culture, and Cyber-Future culture. All of them were visually striking, and while each would be considered “eccentric clothing” on its own, they were very harmonious when placed together.

Driven by sheer passion, they managed to hammer out the “what,” “how,” “recruitment,” and “promotion” for the four cultural districts within those three days. If it weren’t for the fact that Shen Zhiyin’s leave was strictly limited to three days, the three of them would likely have continued staying there.

Having not engaged in such a large-scale brainstorming session in a long time, Shuoyu’s brain was still buzzing with excitement when she returned home. Over the past three days, she had been so busy her feet barely touched the ground; she could only log in to Cat Island Diary during meals to say a few words to Ji Mianmian. The feeling of being too busy with work to accompany the cats on the island was quite painful.

But if she didn’t make a change before this month’s vacation ended, that was likely the life that awaited her in the future. Shuoyu had worked so hard and desperately on this side hustle precisely because she hoped to have other ways to make money, thereby escaping the heavy burden of photography work.

As usual, Shuoyu took a hot bath first, letting the rich scent of roses wash away the fatigue of the past three days. She changed into a comfortable silk nightgown, the smooth texture feeling like a constant massage against her skin. Taking a deep breath, she turned on the TV with anticipation and projected Cat Island Diary onto the screen.

It was currently late at night. On Cat Island, aside from the safe zone on Xier Beach, there were almost no obvious light sources. This made the moonlight and stars appear exceptionally bright, and the night exceptionally dark. Over the past few days, Shuoyu had only hurriedly cleared her stamina and chatted briefly with Ji Mianmian before logging off, so she had no idea if anything special had happened on the island.

She moved the controller, enjoying the movie-quality graphics, and switched the screen to Ji Mianmian, the cat she had marked with “Special Follow.” The young girl was currently at the medical rescue station, staying with the other three cats. On the screen, she was squatting on the ground, busy with something, and didn’t immediately look up to meet Shuoyu’s gaze.

Shuoyu actually found herself a bit unaccustomed to this.

Frowning, she used Greet and Stroke on Ji Mianmian one by one, then tried the Pick Up action that had recently been unlocked when their favorability reached 200. She performed a whole sequence of interactions.

The Cat-Eared Girl was very familiar with the first two actions, but since she couldn’t stop the work in her hands, she just pursed her lips and let the transparent hand controlled by Shuoyu stroke and pinch her here and there. It wasn’t until her body was lifted into the air, held around the waist by the transparent figure, that she gave up on the idea of continuing to endure.

She wrapped her arms around the transparent neck, kicking her legs in a mix of shame and fear. Her eyes were watery as she looked up at the beautiful woman in the sky, her voice soft and sweet as she complained: “Shuoyu, put me down quickly! Shuoyu! If you keep doing this, I’m going to get angry!”

“I thought you didn’t know I was here.” Shuoyu’s tone through the screen sounded a bit jealous. However, she obediently ended the Hug interaction. She decided to “vault” this action and only use it to hug other cats in the future. The feeling of being able to hug her as a transparent figure or a Little Cloud Person, but not being able to personally hold her, was just too frustrating!

Shuoyu thought to herself that unless this game developed a sense of touch one day, allowing her to feel the sensation of touching Ji Mianmian with her own hands, she would definitely not use this interaction lightly.

After being put down, Ji Mianmian didn’t speak; she just looked down at the center of her right palm with a sense of loss. However, Little White, who had been playing nearby, rushed up angrily. Without a second thought, it hissed at Shuoyu, and her favorability even dropped by 5 points.

The dialogue bubble floating in the air showed it was meowing out curses: “It’s all your fault for interrupting! Sister’s talent awakening failed! Bad woman! So bad!”

Since when had Shuoyu ever been scolded by a kitten! She rubbed her nose with a slightly embarrassed expression. “I was just playing with Mianmian. Don’t be unhappy. Are you talking about talent skills?”

The game update logs had mentioned that all cats on the island would awaken talent skills to gain the ability to contend with evil spirits and malicious cats. When she played the game a few days ago, she hadn’t found this new feature at all; it turned out it was a delayed implementation.

Feeling helpless against Shuoyu, Ji Mianmian let out a light sigh and raised her right hand, showing Shuoyu a hollow cat-head pattern in the center of her palm. “No. 001 said that eating cat grass for three days would form this pattern, and by holding it, one could know what their talent is. I’ve been giving everyone a large plate of cat grass every day, and today is the third day. They’ve all obtained their talent skills, but I’m the only one who hasn’t…”

Shuoyu zoomed in on the image and discovered that the pattern looked just like the overall map shape of Cat Island. It was likely an ability bestowed upon the islanders by this magical island.

She pondered for a moment and clicked on the safe zone resident cat list, finding that the talent data had been updated here.

Little White Talent Skill: Spiritual Drain. Can perceive the presence of evil spirits within a hundred-meter range and drain their mental power for its own use.

Little Flower Talent Skill: Damage Reflect. Can taunt evil spirits during battle, attracting them to attack itself and reflecting the damage back.

A-Jin Talent Skill: Sharp Cat Claws. Claw tips can tear through an evil spirit’s protective layer, making it unable to expand its spiritual space.

They all sounded quite impressive, as if any one of them could suppress an evil spirit completely. However, after Shuoyu read the detailed descriptions, she realized these descriptions referred to the effects after the talent was fully formed. Currently, having just obtained them, they could only exert about 5% of their power. In the future, they would need to eat cat grass repeatedly to consolidate them and cultivate awareness during battle to slowly reach 100%.

Shuoyu felt that their team-up right now might struggle to even fight a single evil spirit. However, since everyone had just obtained their talents and morale was high, it was certainly not a good time to state this tragic fact.

Shuoyu used Stroke on Ji Mianmian once more. This interaction was on cooldown and didn’t increase favorability, but it was perfect for soothing Ji Mianmian’s low spirits. “Their talents can both attack and defend; as a small team, it’s enough to resist the erosion of evil spirits. Mianmian, don’t feel too much pressure.”

Her voice was husky and gentle, like a mountain stream flowing quietly over mossy rocks. It was the kind of spring water warmed by the summer sun touching it, one’s hand wouldn’t feel cold at all, only wanting to touch it again and again. Her gentleness successfully dispelled the thoughts in Ji Mianmian’s heart about failing to awaken a talent and dragging everyone down in the future.

The young girl hummed in agreement, looking down and clenching her hands. “I understand. Even if I can’t awaken a talent, I’ll be responsible for making delicious food for everyone and laying a good foundation in the rear.”

Compared to the other cats, perhaps her hands which were as flexible as a human’s were her greatest talent.

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