The Beautiful, Strong, and Tragic Female Lead is Mine [Transmigration Into a Novel] - Chapter 32

Perhaps it’s not a person who’s talking?

Thinking of Cheng Yiyi’s words, Xie Zhitian’s eyes dimmed. She pulled out a dagger from her space and hid it behind her back, then used the hand holding the lamp to push the door open.

The light from the oil lamp instantly filled the small side room, revealing everything inside.

A black shadow was perched on the table, and a pair of yellow vertical pupils stared straight in her direction.

It was a cat.

Its fur was pitch black, but its eyes were a bright yellow, like two points of light in the darkness, giving it an eerie feel. It was large for a cat, about the size of a small dog.

Only a cat was here? So the voice from before… was it really coming from this cat?

Thoughts swirled in Xie Zhitian’s mind, but she didn’t show it. She calmly put the dagger back in her space and reached out to stroke the black cat’s soft fur. “Oh, there’s a little cat here, how cute.”

Her tone was light and natural, her smile one of surprise, just like any young girl who loves cats.

The black cat stared at her, motionless, like a statue, and didn’t make a sound. But Xie Zhitian felt that because she acted as if she hadn’t heard the voice, the cat’s tense posture relaxed a bit.

Xie Zhitian placed the oil lamp on the table and started looking for the oil can. She turned her side to the cat, her movements deliberately slow. Even though she wasn’t making eye contact with it, she could clearly sense that its gaze was scrutinizing her before slowly moving away.

She acted completely unguarded, and after grabbing the oil can, she nonchalantly petted the cat a few more times before leaving the side room.

Back in the main house, a few simple home-cooked dishes were already on the table, and the three girls were busily tidying up the kitchen. Xie Zhitian’s mind was filled with what had just happened. She quickly finished stir-frying the vegetables and then sat down at the table with the others.

Xia Fufeng and Cheng Yiyi were starving and were eating ravenously without a care.

Luo Yang noticed the look on her face, didn’t touch her chopsticks, and asked, “Tiantian, what’s wrong? You’ve been distracted ever since you came back.”

As soon as she spoke, Xia Fufeng and Cheng Yiyi’s movements stopped, and they both looked at her.

Xia Fufeng swallowed the food in her mouth and asked nervously, “What’s wrong?”

Xie Zhitian had wanted to wait until everyone had eaten before talking about what happened, but Luo Yang was looking at her with concern, and she knew she couldn’t hide it. So she put a piece of food on Luo Yang’s plate and said, “Let’s talk while we eat.”

She briefly described what had just happened, and explained that she hadn’t shown any suspicion in front of the cat to avoid alerting it.

The lamplight on the dining table flickered, casting shifting shadows on everyone’s faces. The night grew deeper outside, and the cold wind howled, causing the not-so-sturdy wooden door to occasionally creak, creating a perfect horror movie atmosphere.

Xia Fufeng’s small face turned pale with fright. “A cat… a cat can talk? Xie Zhitian, maybe you were too stressed and misheard?”

Xie Zhitian shook her head. “Absolutely not. I was wide awake.”

She had long thought that cats had a good talent for language. A long time ago, she had seen a post on a website titled, “Has anyone ever heard a cat talk?” The original poster described how they heard their own cat speak, and many people commented that they had also heard similar things. Furthermore, when cats are in heat, they sometimes make indistinct sounds that resemble a baby’s babbling.

At this point, Cheng Yiyi, who had been quiet, spoke up. “I believe you.”

Xie Zhitian looked at her. “Has something similar happened before?”

“Well, kind of.” Cheng Yiyi recalled. “Lately, I’ve heard Little Black make some strange, incomprehensible sounds. They’re not like a cat’s meow at all… Oh, Little Black is that cat.”

Cheng Yiyi’s dog and cat were named Big Black and Little Black, a casual naming style last heard from someone named “Wang Er.”

Xie Zhitian chuckled. “What did Little Black say before?”

Cheng Yiyi said, “I couldn’t hear it clearly. It’s the first time I’ve been able to make out what it was saying, like today.”

She paused, then added, “Little Black is a stray cat I found more than two years ago. I’ve been raising it in the yard. It’s very well-behaved, never a picky eater, and it helps catch mice at home.”

Xie Zhitian thought about what Cheng Yiyi had said, and a sense of doubt began to creep in.

According to Cheng Yiyi, the dog, Big Black, had been raised by their family since it was a puppy, and the black cat had arrived two years ago. For a long time, both the dog and cat had behaved normally.

It was only about ten days ago that Cheng Yiyi noticed something was wrong.

So what happened around that time that caused the animals to change?

Luo Yang pondered. “It said ‘dead, all dead.’ Could it be trying to express something? Yiyi, has anyone died in the village recently?”

Cheng Yiyi said, “No, this area is very peaceful. Nothing major has happened for a long time.”

Luo Yang was puzzled. Could the cat just be spouting nonsense, or did it not understand what “dead” meant and was just mimicking a sound it had heard by chance, like a parrot?

As she was thinking, she heard Xie Zhitian ask, “If no one has died, has anything else died, like an alien creature or another animal?”

Cheng Yiyi froze for two seconds, then let out a soft “Ah.”

She said, “Oh right, a lot of animals in the village did die, about a month ago.”

Xie Zhitian pressed her. “How did they die?”

Cheng Yiyi recalled, “Around that time, I don’t know what happened, but animals in several nearby villages got sick and died one after another. But in the apocalypse, that’s normal, so even though people were sad, no one investigated the cause.”

Alien creatures were completely different from any existing life on this planet. Their elemental composition, structure, and secretions were very different. So during the alien creature rampage, the ecosystem was constantly changing, and animals and plants getting sick and dying was commonplace.

It wasn’t until the alien creatures gradually disappeared that agriculture slowly began to recover. But every inch of land in this world had been corroded by the blood and body fluids of the alien creatures, leading to complex physical and chemical reactions with the external environment, so animal and plant deaths still happened from time to time.

Xie Zhitian had read about these things in books, and her mind was racing. A month ago, this time frame, was before Cheng Yiyi said her family’s animals started acting strangely. Could there be a connection between the two?

Were the animals that died in the nearby villages really just dying because they couldn’t adapt to the current ecosystem, as in the past?

“Our family used to have several chickens and a sheep,” Cheng Yiyi’s voice was filled with regret. “A lot of them got sick and died last month. Now we only have two chickens, and then there’s Big Black and Little Black.”

Xie Zhitian secretly thought to herself, also recalling what her mother had said about District 14 feeling off. Many natural and man-made disasters have signs before they happen, like how some animals get anxious before an earthquake.

Could the unusual behavior of Cheng Yiyi’s animals also be a sign of something, or a consequence of something? If so, following this lead would surely yield some results.

The group discussed it for a while but couldn’t come to a definite conclusion. They simply didn’t have enough information. They decided to wait and see, letting the two animals lower their guard, and then try to test Big Black and Little Black again tomorrow.

Time ticked by, and it was soon approaching ten o’clock.

Xia Fufeng yawned sleepily. “Let’s go to bed. I have to work tomorrow.”

Xie Zhitian nodded. “Okay, let’s get some rest first.”

She was going to stay at Cheng Yiyi’s house anyway, so she could observe the two animals more. With more time together, they were bound to show some clues.

Cheng Yiyi’s face showed a bit of embarrassment after hearing this.

She whispered, “Sisters, I have clean bedding, but we only have two bedrooms, so I’m sorry to make you all squeeze in together.”

Their family of three usually had her parents in one room and her in the other.

“Oh, what’s there to be afraid of? I’ll sleep with you, and let them two sleep together.”

Xia Fufeng smiled and patted Cheng Yiyi’s shoulder, then gestured toward Xie Zhitian and Luo Yang. “These two sisters usually sleep together, just like your mom and dad!”

Xie Zhitian: …

She saw Cheng Yiyi’s eyes become visibly strange. She thought about what to say, but Luo Yang seemed to not find anything wrong and had happily taken the bedding from Cheng Yiyi to make the bed. She could only follow to help.

The bed was a bit narrow due to Cheng Yiyi’s family’s limited space, a bit smaller than the large bed Xia Fufeng had provided them.

After the two of them finished washing up, they stood by the bed, looking at each other.

Xie Zhitian hesitated and asked Luo Yang, “Do you want to sleep on the inside or the outside?”

One side of the bed faced the door, and the other was by the window. The window was a decent size, and the windowsill was only a few inches higher than the bed. The thick curtains were drawn, blocking the view of the room.

Luo Yang thought for a moment. “I’ll sleep on the outside. I’m afraid you’ll fall off the bed again.”

It had been so long since that incident, how did Luo Yang still remember it?

Xie Zhitian rubbed her forehead. “I told you that was an accident…”

Seeing Luo Yang’s serious expression, she smiled helplessly. “Okay, I’ll sleep by the window then.”

The bed, which was already not spacious, became even more cramped with two people lying on it. Xie Zhitian felt that if she moved just a little too much, she would touch the person next to her.

It was silent in the darkness, and Luo Yang’s breathing was very close. Xie Zhitian had never been this close to anyone and felt a little uncomfortable, so she leaned closer to the window.

“Tiantian, you can lean on me.”

Luo Yang’s voice was soft, but it exploded like a thunderclap in Xie Zhitian’s ears. “It’s too cold for you to be pressed against the wall. You’ll catch a cold.”

Xie Zhitian was still hesitating when she was pulled over by the other person. The distance between them suddenly shortened, and she could even feel Luo Yang’s warm body temperature.

What’s wrong with me, getting nervous just from sleeping with a girl.

Xie Zhitian composed herself and reached out to tuck the blanket around the person next to her. “Okay, go to sleep. Goodnight.”

Luo Yang hummed in response, and her breathing soon became steady.

Even for Luo Yang, after a long day like this, she must be exhausted. Besides, Luo Yang had insisted on doing all the dirty and tiring work today, so she was much more tired than herself.

If I have time tomorrow, I should make some of Luo Yang’s favorite dishes.

As Xie Zhitian was thinking, she soon fell asleep.

However, she hadn’t been asleep for long when a few soft sounds reached her ears. Her long-term life in the apocalypse had made her sensitive to sounds, and she was instantly woken up.

“Click.”

“Click, click.”

Xie Zhitian’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up silently in the darkness.

“Click, click.”

“Click, click.”

The sounds continued. Xie Zhitian listened intently and quickly identified the source.

She carefully pulled the curtains open a little and her expression instantly froze.

From the window, she could just see the main door of the house.

In the dim moonlight, a dark figure stood in front of the door, its shadow stretched long on the ground.

It was the big black dog.

It was standing on its hind legs like a human, one of its paws resting on the doorknob, clumsily fumbling with it, trying to turn the round handle.

“Click, click.”

The doorknob turned, making a soft sound.

Xie Zhitian’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the dog for a few seconds.

When she realized what it was trying to do, a chill went down her spine.

It wanted to come in.

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