I Really Want to Pet My Wife's Cat Ears - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Two Cats

There’s good food!

Ji Mianmian immediately clenched her fist and decided to move closer to investigate.

Resources on Cat Island were extremely scarce. Delicious food was snatched up by burly, strong cats the moment it refreshed. Most of the cats here were adults who had developed solitary personalities; they weren’t particularly friendly to kittens. The male cats even harbored hostility toward Little White and Little Flower.

Although Ji Mianmian was quite large, she looked different from the other cats. Everyone else ran on four paws, while she was the only humanoid cat. Two fists were no match for four paws; while protecting the two kittens, she could never snatch the best food. This resulted in Little White and Little Flower—two kittens abandoned by their mother—becoming malnourished and stunted in growth.

The resources on the West Ear Coast had always been the most barren, consisting mostly of plants that couldn’t fill a stomach. One could only find a little something to nibble on when starving, but never hope to be full. Usually, cats were unwilling to come here.

Ji Mianmian also knew another reason they avoided the area: the beach here bordered the deep sea directly. Cats often got swept away and drowned while digging for small crabs or oysters. Most cats were terrified of water, but she wasn’t. She actually felt that the feeling of seawater flowing over her feet was comfortable and freeing—it would be even better if a layer of salt crystals didn’t form on her feet after playing.

The sand, having been baked by the sun all day, was hot underfoot. Ji Mianmian carefully picked her way through the shade. Her intuition told her the West Ear Coast was a bit different today, but she hadn’t discovered exactly how.

The gluttonous Little Flower had a much better sense of smell than her and was currently extremely excited: “The good food is just ahead!”

Ji Mianmian hid behind a coconut tree and peered in that direction. To her surprise, she saw a tin of minced meat and a fried chicken drumstick! The drumstick was coated in golden, crispy breadcrumbs, looking like something from Ken-Ji—it was mouth-watering!

Thinking of this, Ji Mianmian frowned. She had woken up on Cat Island two months ago, having forgotten many things, knowing only that she was a humanoid cat. Fragments of things that didn’t belong to Cat Island often popped into her mind, making her feel uneasy.

‘Ken-Ji Fried Chicken’ was exactly one of those things.

She tentatively asked the kittens: “There are two portions of food. Which do you want to eat?”

“The tin!” Little White and Little Flower answered simultaneously. The minced meat in the metal tin held an irresistible attraction for them. On the contrary, the fried chicken drumstick smelled too pungent; it didn’t seem like something edible at all.

Forced to accept the concept that she wasn’t just different in appearance but also in taste, Ji Mianmian pursed her lips and said: “Then I’ll eat the other one.”

Shuo Yu reached Level 3 halfway through chopping trees, and her stamina was fully restored. However, the drop rate for Shuyu Leaves was very low. She needed two to make a cat bed; she had collected one and had to keep chopping.

Finally, the second Shuyu Leaf was in hand. Suddenly, three flashing cat paw icons appeared in Shuo Yu’s field of vision. She immediately swiped the screen to switch the view back to the beach.

After seeing the image clearly, Shuo Yu froze on the spot.

Squatting there eating was actually a girl with cat ears on her head and a long tail behind her. The girl looked to be of high school age, with very fair skin and watery eyes. She wore a slightly dirty and torn white dress. Sensing someone’s presence, her gaze turned wary and anxious as she looked toward the sky.

She was very beautiful, and her movements were fluid. Out of fear, her ears had flattened back into “airplane ears.” The artist and modeler must have put a lot of heart into creating her.

Shuo Yu felt conflicted. She only wanted to raise a little kitten, not a cat-ear girl. The emotional and time costs humans invest in pets versus their own kind are different. When she was a student, she was the type to call mobile game characters “waifu.” Doing that as a kid was being true to herself, but now that she’d been working for a few years, doing that would definitely get her mocked by Shen Zhiyin!

After a moment’s consideration, Shuo Yu decided to cut her losses. She sighed: “Sigh, maybe I’ll stop the game here. I just want to raise cats, not a beautiful girl.”

Ji Mianmian was still wondering why a bright and beautiful woman had appeared on the floating screen in the air. Hearing these words, she suddenly grew anxious. The girl flicked her tail, thinking of a strategy. She lowered her head to pretend to keep gnawing on the chicken leg, subtly turning her body to reveal the two kittens, Little White and Little Flower.

At the same time, she counted in her heart: ‘Three, two…’

Before she reached one, the woman on the screen let out a low cry: “Such cute kittens! Quick, let auntie give you a kiss!”

Her reaction upon seeing the kittens was so frantic that Ji Mianmian felt a surge of inexplicable annoyance. Clearly, they were all cats—why were the ones walking on four legs more likable and popular? She couldn’t understand it.

Ji Mianmian finished the chicken leg slowly, stood up, and threw the bone into the sea with force. Then, she grabbed a handful of sand to rub the grease off her hands before walking to the water’s edge to wash them.

Having tidied herself up, she looked up to lock eyes with the woman on the screen across the void: “Hello, my name is Ji Mianmian. These are Little White and Little Flower. May I ask how I should address you?”

She saw the woman’s eyes light up, followed by her muttering: “This must be the game guide spirit. I was wondering why there was no naming phase even at level three… Eh? Why can’t I call up the chat box?”

She couldn’t fully understand what this sudden woman was saying, but in the two months since she woke up, this woman was the only variable. Ji Mianmian didn’t want to miss out. She clenched her fist slightly and said nervously, “Just say your name directly, I can hear you.”

The girl’s sweet voice came through the speaker. As if worried she hadn’t heard, a dialogue bubble also popped up over Ji Mianmian’s head.

Shuo Yu didn’t expect this game to be so intelligent—it actually had built-in AI voice! It sounded very natural, better than many smart voices on the market! Delighted by the discovery, she immediately replied: “Hello Mianmian, my name is Shuo Yu. ‘Shuo’ as in ‘shimmering,’ ‘Yu’ as in ‘feather.'”

Nodding to show she understood, Ji Mianmian knelt down and picked up Little White and Little Flower—who had chin-fulls of minced meat from hugging the tin—one in each hand. She showed a lively smile: “Hello Shuo Yu, these are Little White and Little Flower. Welcome to Cat Island. Do you like cats very much?”

Shuo Yu: “I do! But I have a very severe allergy to cat fur in real life, so I can only pet cats in games.”

She tapped the screen to select Little White, and several interaction options popped up over the kitten’s head.

“Greet, Pet, Pick up, Kiss, Rub belly, Change outfit…”

Currently, only “Greet” was lit up; the other options showed insufficient favorability. Shuo Yu clicked “Greet”.

The little white cat immediately noticed and looked up, letting out a soft “meow” toward the sky. A system prompt appeared: [Little White Favorability +2, added to Cat Encyclopedia].

Powerless against a kitten’s acting cute, Shuo Yu excitedly rubbed her hands and did the same for Little Flower.

“Little Flower Favorability +1, added to Cat Encyclopedia.”

The “Greet” option for each cat had a 24-hour cooldown, and the favorability needed for other interactions was still insufficient. However, Master Shuo, after the hard work of chopping trees, finally heard a kitten meow and felt very satisfied.

Meanwhile, Ji Mianmian was listening to Little White and Little Flower describe the eerie feeling of being touched by thin air. She waited patiently for a long time but never felt the sensation they described. The girl pursed her lips, unhappy with Shuo Yu’s “breed discrimination.”

Then, Shuo Yu saw a new bubble pop up over the cat-ear girl’s head: “Why don’t you greet me? I’m a cat too.”

She hadn’t expected the cat-ear girl in Cat Island Diary to have this kind of setting!

Shuo Yu cried out “cute” in her heart. she had always liked straightforward “2D” characters. She immediately clicked the screen and gave Mianmian a greeting as well.

Ji Mianmian only felt a warmth on her head as an invisible palm gently stroked her. Shuo Yu was too good at petting; the girl felt her bones go a bit soft. She couldn’t help but let out a dainty “meow” herself.

Hearing the strange sound coming from her own mouth, Ji Mianmian’s cheeks instantly flushed. She put Little White and Little Flower back in front of the cat food, looked up at Shuo Yu, and waved at her shyly.

“Ji Mianmian Favorability +5, added to Cat Encyclopedia”.

Shuo Yu looked at the text popping up on her phone, her face full of surprise. She had thought a special cat like Mianmian would be hard to win over, but her favorability had actually increased the most! Moreover, the cat-ear girl’s reaction was much cuter than the other two kittens. Shuo Yu instantly took a liking to her.

Since her stamina hadn’t overflowed yet, she wasn’t in a hurry to move the view back to tree-chopping. She patiently held her phone, watching the cat-ear girl take care of the two kittens eating the tin. She wanted to see what the cats would do after finishing their meal.

The kittens’ appetites were limited; they couldn’t finish even half the tin. Mianmian wanted to pack up the tin and take it with her, but due to system restrictions, the tin was as if welded to the ground and couldn’t be moved. Several animated thinking bubbles popped up over her head.

Shuo Yu watched quietly. The little creatures in the phone seemed as if they truly lived on Cat Island; she couldn’t get tired of watching.

Time in the game seemed to synchronize with reality. Half the red sun sank into the sea, and evening soon arrived on Cat Island. Ji Mianmian looked toward the sea, a red “prohibited” bubble appearing over her head, and gave up on taking the unfinished cat food.

She placed Little White and Little Flower back into her small woven back-basket and waved to Shuo Yu: “Evil spirits might appear after dark, I have to go now.” Seeing that Shuo Yu didn’t speak, she waited a few seconds, then turned and ran. Several big cats had their eyes on her hiding spot; it would be bad if she got home late and found her place stolen.

After replying to Shen Zhiyin’s message urging her to go out, Shuo Yu switched back to the game page and was dumbfounded. It had been so lively just now, but now there was only a trail of footprints on the beach. Shuo Yu felt like she had suddenly become a lonely elder left at home; without the cats, Cat Island Diary wasn’t as fun.

With a wooden face, she continued to collect materials, emptying her stamina bit by bit. Then, following the crafting steps, she swiped the screen to finish the cat bed and placed it next to the cat food tin. Since the food wasn’t finished, Mianmian should bring the kittens back tomorrow; she would invite them to stay permanently then.

Setting an alarm for when her stamina would be full, Shuo Yu turned off the game to change clothes and prepare to go out.

Ji Mianmian had lingered too long on the West Ear Beach. By the time she rushed back to the sand pit under the reef, it had already been occupied. An old cat named “One-Eye,” with a crippled left front leg and a cloudy right eye, arched its back and hissed at her. Wandering outside after dark meant being caught and tortured by evil spirits; this was a spot it had found with great difficulty.

One-Eye was a tortoiseshell cat; its fur color looked like it had rolled in hearth ashes. Its vocal cords were very raspy, and the whole cat exuded a deathly aura, as if it were at the end of its rope: “Sorry Mianmian, the evil spirits tortured me until I couldn’t take it… I got here first today… I don’t have the strength to find a new safe point…”

A safe point could only hold one adult cat and several underage kittens. Ji Mianmian knew that if she chose to take it by force, One-Eye’s current physical condition meant it couldn’t beat her. If any other big cat had stolen the safe point, she would have bared her claws to fight to the death.

But forget it for the old, weak, and sick like One-Eye.

She took the kittens out of the basket and dropped them by One-Eye’s paws, hissing at it with false bravado: “You stay here today, but you have to help me look after Little White and Little Flower. I’ll come pick them up at dawn tomorrow.”

Seeing One-Eye pull the kittens under its belly to hide them, Ji Mianmian felt relieved. No matter how the kittens cried, she left the sand pit alone.

Support I Really Want to Pet My Wife’s Cat Ears