It’s So Hard For A Cat To Repay Your Kindness - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Deep Mountains and Old Forests

It was a pitch-black and eerie night. An owl shrieked weirdly as it circled in mid-air, its bizarre cooing echoing continuously through the quiet valley. The distant mountains were reduced to a stark, black silhouette, resembling a prone giant serpent winding up and down.

Looking up, a few thick layers of clouds could barely be discerned in the ink-black sky, sealing the moon away without letting a single ray of light through.

On this windless and moonless night, the weather was exceptionally cold. The moment Xie Yun stood still, he felt a piercing chill pierce right through his clothes, stabbing savagely into his body.

Involuntarily shivering, he coughed twice and raised his head, looking around at his surroundings with some bewilderment.

It was a dense forest where the branches resembled phantoms, clawing and waving in the darkness as if they were dancing. The towering mountains in the distance stretched out continuously, seemingly without end. It was very obvious that he was currently in the depths of a remote mountain range.

“It hurts…” A sudden rustling sound came from behind him. Xie Yun turned his head and saw a girl wearing a school uniform, holding her head as she slowly crawled up from the ground. Upon seeing Xie Yun and then noticing the place she was in, a terrified and alert expression surfaced on her face: “Who are you? Where am I?”

Waking up to find oneself in a deep mountain and old forest with an unfamiliar man of unknown intent nearby would terrify anyone.

Xie Yun hastily raised both hands to show his innocence: “It’s a misunderstanding. I just woke up too, and I’m completely clueless about the current situation.”

Hearing this, the girl sized him up with some suspicion: “Really?”

“Really.” Xie Yun also felt that his words weren’t very convincing. The night coupled with the cold, along with the completely unfamiliar environment, made him feel very insecure. He stopped talking and instead looked around, finally discovering that the only path out of this forest seemed to be the narrow, bumpy, and muddy trail in front of them, which was covered in leaves and branches.

He turned his head and said to the girl: “I know you don’t trust me, but the urgent matter right now isn’t suspecting each other. It’s hurrying to get out of this forest and finding a place where we can pass the night. If this keeps up, we will both freeze to death here.”

As he spoke, he took the first step forward: “You can follow me, or you can choose not to. Decide for yourself.”

The girl froze. The temperature in the forest was indeed still dropping. While it was barely bearable right now, what about when the night grew deeper? She didn’t want to freeze to death in this ghostly place for no rhyme or reason!

Grit-ting her teeth, she followed the unfamiliar man ahead.

Hearing the footsteps behind him, Xie Yun silently let out a sigh of relief. He had spoken so coolly just now, but in reality, actually leaving a young girl behind in a barren mountain and wild forest was far too difficult on a moral level.

Perhaps because the rainy season was arriving, the forest was filled with an indescribably gloomy, cold dampness. The road was narrow and difficult to walk. The two of them stumbled and bumped along the path, but after walking for over ten minutes, they still couldn’t see the end of the forest. Because of this, their hearts inevitably began to feel hairs stand on end, wondering if this forest actually had an end.

Aside from the weird shrieks of the owl, the only sound by their ears was the cracking noise of their soles stepping on crushed leaves and dead branches.

A very terrifying thought suddenly popped into Xie Yun’s mind, completely inappropriate for the occasion.

Come to think of it, was the thing currently following behind him really still that girl?

How come he couldn’t hear the other person’s breathing sound at all??

It was said that humans have three soul fires, located on both shoulders and the top of the head. If the fires are blown out, it is easy to attract Yin energy. Therefore, when walking on a night road and feeling that something is amiss, one must absolutely never turn their head around, lest the soul fires extinguish. Coincidentally, Xie Yun couldn’t muster up the courage to turn around at this moment either, so he simply decided to strike up a conversation first to test the waters.

He said: “Um… little sister, do you still remember where you were and what you were doing before you came here?”

Fortunately, the girl’s replying voice really did come from behind him.

She was clearly still on guard, but she wasn’t as defensive against him as before: “I remember, I should have been taking a class at the cram school. I suddenly felt very sleepy during class, and then… I woke up and was here.”

Xie Yun felt a heavy weight lift from his heart and nodded: “Me too. I was originally on a train when I suddenly felt so sleepy. As soon as I closed and opened my eyes, I ended up here.”

The girl fell silent for a moment, then hesitated: “Where on earth is this place? How did we get here? Can we… still go back?”

Xie Yun couldn’t answer a single one of these questions. But facing a girl who was so much younger than himself, a sense of responsibility inexplicably welled up in his heart. He comforted her: “We definitely can.”

We definitely can.

It was unclear whether this phrase was meant to comfort the girl or Xie Yun himself. All in all, after their brief conversation, the two of them rallied their spirits and continued to walk forward.

Fortunately, they hadn’t chosen the wrong direction. After walking for roughly another five minutes, they finally reached the end of the forest.

Without the obstruction of the trees and branches, the true face of their destination was at last revealed.

At the end of the road, there was actually a large building! This building was a mix of red and white, painted very cleanly, looking as though it had been recently renovated. There even seemed to be some words written in the middle of the building, but unfortunately, under the shroud of the night, being able to distinguish the building’s exterior was already the limit.

Xie Yun’s eyes widened in astonishment: “Wait, how can there be a place like this in the deep mountains?”

The girl stepped out a moment later. Upon seeing the scene before her, she was also shocked speechless: “Th-this is a school?”

Hearing her say it, Xie Yun only then realized that the building in front of them indeed looked very much like a teaching building.

“Yes, it’s a school, you know.”

Suddenly, a naive, childish voice rang out without any warning. Xie Yun and the girl turned their heads together, looking toward the source of the sound.

However, there was no child as they had expected. There was only a tattered, dirty Teddy bear plushie slumped by the side of a tree, splitting open its large mouth stuffed with cotton towards them.

Two glass beads acting as eyeballs were embedded in its brown fur. The childish voice came precisely from its mouth: “Congratulations to the two of you for successfully escaping from the forest. Now! Welcome to Teddy bear’s Death Game World!”

“Next, please allow Teddy bear to begin explaining the game rules to the two of you!”

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