I Really Want to Pet My Wife's Cat Ears - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Before going to sleep, Shuoyu had activated the “Visual Follow” feature for Ji Mianmian. Thus, even without her manual control, the system took her place in locking onto the girl’s figure, pinning her firmly to the center of the screen.

Ji Mianmian felt a twinge of regret after her sudden outburst at the kittens; after all, this was the usual time for their meal. The two kittens were crying for food, unable to endure hunger, and the adult cat was recovering from a serious illness and needed nutrition. The cats still in the medical station had robotic arms to care for them, but these three had no one else to rely on but her.

Having a healthy appetite was a good thing; she shouldn’t have been so harsh. Seeing them pinning their ears back, looking at her timidly with tucked tails wanting to approach but not daring to Ji Mianmian’s heart softened completely.

After a thought, she intentionally put her hands on her hips and said, “When we were training, you all complained that my hands lacked fur for protection. Now that it’s time to eat, do you see how great it is to have flexible fingers?”

This remark, coupled with the smile playing at the corners of her eyes, easily broke the awkwardness. The three cats let out a collective sigh of relief and trotted over to rub against her fair calves.

Little Flower looked like a total glutton: “Sister, we didn’t mean anything bad! Your paws just look very fragile, so you must protect them well! That way you can prepare food for us! I’ve already picked out the food I want today; I’m just waiting for you to help me open it!”

Little White had a look of guilt on its face: “I’m sorry, Sister Mianmian. I’ll never say your paws aren’t as powerful as ours again…”

A-Jin, being the only adult cat, felt the most pressure from the lecture. It added unnaturally, “Yes, Mianmian’s paws aren’t weak at all. They can easily pull a bow to shoot the evil spirits away, swish-swish.”

Surrounded by the joyful cats, Ji Mianmian walked toward the kitchen. As she walked, she suddenly sensed something different. She looked up the image of Shuoyu, with her long, dense curled lashes and closed eyes, was still hanging in mid-air! Unlike before, Shuoyu didn’t disappear when Mianmian moved to a different location!

That means as long as I look up, I can keep seeing Shuoyu! Realizing this, Ji Mianmian became involuntarily excited, her heart thumping so hard her chest felt a bit sore.

Although the blackout curtains were drawn, Shuoyu still sensed a few glints of light in her sleep. It was a gentle, non-piercing light that kissed her eyelids fitfully along with the rhythm of the waves, not disturbing her slumber. The light waxed and waned according to Ji Mianmian’s surroundings.

Because the game remained open, when she woke up fully rested, the first thing she perceived was the sound of the waves hitting her auditory nerves.

“Shuoyu, good morning!”

The girl’s voice reached her ears immediately—clear and sweet, like the first cup of honey water at just the right temperature in the morning.

“Mianmian? Mm, morning.”

Shuoyu’s eyelids fluttered. Upon opening her eyes, she saw Ji Mianmian floating on the water, wearing the dark blue wetsuit from the last interaction card. Seeing the woman’s gaze lingering lingeringly on her, Ji Mianmian’s face heated up.

She explained with a normal expression, “I used the bow too aggressively last night, and my joints feel a bit uncomfortable. Soaking in the water helps relieve it a bit.”

“Mhm, it’s like hydrotherapy. Don’t go too deep while I’m not around. Is the water cold right now?” Shuoyu asked while putting on her nightgown and stretching.

She was amazed to find herself feeling incredibly comfortable. According to human habits, sleep quality is usually better in darkness and silence. She had kept the game on all night, and the white noise from the earring seemed to never stop, yet she had just had the most comfortable sleep in recent memory. She touched the grain-sized cat-head earring. Is it related to this?

“It’s not cold; it’s very comfortable!” Wearing the dark blue wetsuit, Ji Mianmian stretched her arms forward, moving agilely through the water. Watching her swim so joyfully, like a fish in water with graceful and skilled strokes, it was clear this wasn’t her first time.

Shuoyu thought she knew Cat Island inside out, but this was the first time she learned that Ji Mianmian went swimming to improve her joint discomfort. Her “baby” was so good, answering obediently when asked. But normally Mianmian almost never shared things proactively, and for a moment, a layer of loss rose in Shuoyu’s heart.

However, she was still very happy that Ji Mianmian arranged her own schedule when she was offline. Just as a pet owner worries about their pet being bored when they aren’t home, finding that Ji Mianmian could find her own fun reduced much of Shuoyu’s guilt about keeping her in the safe zone.

She smiled: “Baby, I didn’t even know you had the habit of coming out to swim. Is there anything else you haven’t told Sister? I’m a bit curious.”

Ji Mianmian thought seriously, her eyes bright: “Hmm… I take Little White and the others to the training ground, go into the forest to collect materials, pick up crabs and shells at the beach… and occasionally, I do some drawing.”

The first few items were similar to how Shuoyu imagined the cats on the island spent their time. But the last one truly shocked her; she could barely maintain her calm expression: “Mianmian can draw too!”

Ji Mianmian nodded and kicked the water: “Mhm. Drawing is very interesting and relieves stress. There’s no paper or pens at home, so I draw on the ground in the backyard.”

Shuoyu, interested, said with curiosity dancing in her eyes, “Quickly, take me to see! I haven’t witnessed your masterpieces yet.”

“Sure.” Ji Mianmian happened to have finished her swim.

Directly behind the small house was a patch of flat land. Shuoyu hadn’t wanted to plant cat grass on it, so a large portion was still empty. Aside from fresh, vigorous wild grass, there were only the two roses she had “stolen” from No. 001’s doorway. Without the Little Cloud Person, Shuoyu could only play the game in third-person view; when she came to plant the roses, she hadn’t noticed anything different about the ground.

Seeing it today, her eyes went wide, her lashes trembling slightly, and she couldn’t stop herself from taking numerous screenshots. Despite using the earth as paper and a wooden stick as a pen, Ji Mianmian had completed several masterpieces using the most primitive and simple materials.

Cat-eared girl versions of “The Last Breakfast,” “Mona Lisa’s Cry,” “Girl with a Shell Earring”… The oil paintings of historical masters were now recreated and moved to her backyard. Besides those, there were some original drawings, mostly showing the cat-eared girl playing with the kittens. Every drawing was full of detail and vividness; Shuoyu didn’t know how Ji Mianmian did it, using only simple earth tones to create clear shifts in light and shadow.

Shuoyu zoomed in to check the details. She found the brushstrokes natural and seamless, completely lacking the stiffness of AI art they looked remarkably like the work of a professional! Since she drew for fun and not for profit, there were no copyright concerns. And changing the subjects from simple humans to cat-eared girls made these oil paintings very interesting!

Shuoyu was utterly puzzled. Did the programmers love Ji Mianmian too much? Otherwise, why would they give her such hardcore artistic skills that a player would never know about unless they proactively asked?

Seeing Shuoyu’s expression freeze, her gaze going blank and her lips turning down, worry rose in Ji Mianmian’s heart. Since Shuoyu’s arrival at Cat Island, more and more things not belonging to the island had surfaced in her mind; these drawings were the clearest part. She couldn’t resist transcribing them, but now she seemed to have scared Shuoyu. Perhaps things that don’t belong to Cat Island should remain forever in the mind.

Ji Mianmian’s heart tightened. She stepped quickly to “Mona Lisa’s Cry” and rubbed the ground with her toes. Her voice trembled as if she were about to cry: “Sister, if you don’t like it, I won’t draw anymore… don’t be angry…”

“No! I’m not angry!”

Shuoyu hadn’t expected the girl to do something so drastic. Moving as fast as lightning, she managed to stop Mianmian after half of the Mona Lisa’s face had been erased. “Baby, calm down!” Shuoyu selected Stroke, forcing the screen to zoom in on Mianmian and pausing her actions so she couldn’t kick the dirt anymore.

“I just feel for you.” Shuoyu took a deep breath, a pure black mist in her eyes. “I feel for the fact that you have these skills but can only stay on Cat Island. The other cats have no sense of artistic appreciation; you must be very lonely like this…”

The cat-eared girl was a unique character in Cat Island Diary; Ji Mianmian was the only cat with a human form. Without a player joining the game, her life would truly be like a desert island, forever without a kindred spirit. Thinking that if she hadn’t asked today, these dirt paintings might have been destroyed in a single rainstorm or hurricane… and Ji Mianmian’s painstaking creations would never have had a single admirer, Shuoyu felt a dull pain in her heart, as if it were being squeezed.

A wild thought sprouted in her mind and quickly spread. The online world is so developed now; no one knows who is behind each account. What if she published the drawings on Ji Mianmian’s behalf? What if she found an audience for her?

Shuoyu pursed her lips, her eyes filled with complex emotions. She smiled, her laughter clear like raindrops falling into a water jar. “Mianmian, I want to ask you a question. Do you like drawing, and do you want your work to be seen by more people?”

Ji Mianmian blinked, unsure if continuing to express the drawings in her head was good or bad. In the two months since she woke up, she had been trying hard to be a good cat; drawing didn’t seem like something a cat could do. But under Shuoyu’s encouraging gaze, the girl on the screen spoke slowly: “Yes. I think I do.”

Since Shuoyu’s arrival, her survival crisis had been solved, and when bored, she would instinctively look for paper and pen, wanting to draw something. Shuoyu’s eyes crinkled, her tone uncharacteristically cheerful: “Then from now on, I’ll be our Mian-bao’s manager! There are many painters and people who appreciate art in the human world; many people will surely love your work.”

Next, she went to the research lab and added papermaking and dye-making to the research list. Since her “wife” liked to draw, she naturally supported it with both hands the first step was upgrading the art materials!

She had an appointment to meet the new photographers, the Li brothers, in the afternoon. Shuoyu petted all the cats and collected a wave of Meow Power. She lingeringly touched the synthesized Hot Spring Card and Flower Sea Roaming Card.

“Mianmian, let’s make a pinky promise to use both cards when I get back. At that time, I’ll allow you to speak in that ‘sweet and sultry’ voice…”

Ji Mianmian, sometimes unsure of her preferences, had a helpless smile on her face: “Okay. Go to work, Sister.”

After making a “date” appointment with her “wife,” Shuoyu finally felt willing to log off. The designated restaurant was very close to her home, and she strolled there, arriving early.

The Li brothers were from a neighboring city and stayed in Yunxi after graduating from university. The two inherited a family recipe and opened a braised chicken shop together; business was good. Strictly speaking, they weren’t professional photographers, but they were very good at portraiture. They had won several awards, and it would be perfect if she could recruit them as regulars for the Fourth Definition district.

When the two arrived, before they even spoke, Shuoyu’s internal alarm bells went off as she watched them pushing and shoving each other an abnormal behavior pattern. Intuition told her these brothers didn’t want to collaborate with her.

But why?

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