ITOTIABSAM | Interstellar Orcs | 116
The transformation between human and cat, while sounding similar, was vastly different in reality.
At least in Gu Cong's understanding, an animal form was just that—an animal form. The genetic barrier between animals and humans was like an insurmountable chasm, and the planet Gu Cong was from even had legends of "monsters."
So, was this encountering a monster? Or a fairy?
Surely it couldn't be the real Xie Ye...
Standing stiff in place, Gu Cong's brain instinctively began to ponder the incomprehensible situation before him. With no response from the young man who hadn't yet responded, Xie Ye raised his voice and repeated:
"I'm hungry."
—A fairy.
Lowering his gaze to the slender white fingertips clutching his trouser leg, Gu Cong was certain: the CEO reported in the news could never stoop to this level for food.
Moreover, the latter's eyes were black.
"Let's go to the couch first." It was perfectly normal for a cat to roll around on the carpet, but for a human, it would be somewhat strange. Gu Cong tried to squat down and communicate with the young man at a slower pace as usual, but the young man either didn't understand or couldn't comprehend. He lay there, his gaze following Gu Cong's every move.
With only a dozen centimeters separating their noses, far beyond the usual social distance, Gu Cong finally felt the magical power of those long, narrow emerald eyes.
The curled eyelashes sheltered it, reflecting a tiny, inverted image in the very center.
Utterly pure.
Quite uncharacteristically, he softened.
Though he clearly disliked any unnecessary physical contact, Gu Cong willingly changed positions, reaching out to hook the other's knee and lifting the young man up entirely.
Familiar heartbeat echoed in his ears as Xie Ye slowly closed his eyes.
His thoughts were incredibly chaotic, a jumbled mess where he couldn't even remember who he was, only responding strongly to the most basic physiological needs.
And there was something noisy in his head.
‘Weird Thing’ 1101: ...
At this moment, Xie Ye's consciousness was almost completely unguarded, allowing it to clearly hear the host's heartbeat. In the original work, during the process of the body metabolizing drugs, his alter self had also shown similar reactions, shifting between human and cat.
Different from Xie Ye, his alter self always remained vigilant towards the protagonist Xia Bai, retreating into corners every time it sensed limb pain or the onset of sleeping beauty syndrome, greatly delaying the time for the secret to be discovered.
But as for its host...
Glancing at the white-haired youth who was now nestled comfortably in Gu Cong's arms, unwilling to let go even when they reached the sofa, 1101 sighed silently.
The trust in Gu Cong was practically ingrained in his bones.
"I'll get you something to eat," the young man's neck was gently held by Gu Cong's skillful hand, as Gu Cong balanced himself on one knee on the sofa, trying hard not to press down on the other person. "You're hungry, aren't you? Be good."
Food.
Something to eat.
Reluctantly, the young man frowned and slowly released his grip.
The faint scent of lemon lingering in the air confirmed to Gu Cong even more that the other person was indeed his cat. It was the scent of the pet shampoo he personally bought, lighter than the one he used.
The lamb milk cat food obviously wasn't suitable for the young man at the moment. Fortunately, there was leftover fish from before. Gu Cong didn't have time to boil water, so he simply fried it quickly in hot oil, serving it up just before the other person could cry out for hunger again.
With a keen nose, the young man who had been feigning sleep with his hands over his stomach suddenly sat up straight, pushing up his cat ears that were perked up warily, poking his head out from behind the sofa.
Watching the whole scene unfold, 1101 commented silently: "Help."
As cute as it was, it began to fear the expression on its host's face once he regained consciousness.
However, as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. Gu Cong no longer seemed surprised like when he first entered. Seeing that the other person had regained some strength, he waved to the young man. "Come to the dining room."
"Come over and eat."
Half of his body was lying on the back of the sofa, the young man tilted his head in confusion.
Very good.
When becoming human, he was not as smart as when he was a cat.
Feeling a mixture of amusement and helplessness, Gu Cong took a long step, covering three steps in two, and placed the plate and chopsticks on the coffee table in the living room.
"Careful, it's hot." Seeing the young man reaching out, he quickly held down the arm wrapped in the shirt.
The silver cat ears drooped down.
But the young man didn't cry out for hunger again, probably feeling it was useless, just curled up further into the sofa, seeming to lack a sense of security.
"I'm afraid you'll get hurt," knowing that the other person might have difficulty understanding, Gu Cong patiently explained, "I'll feed you with the chopsticks, okay?"
To show that he had no ill intentions and wasn't lying, Gu Cong slowly relaxed his grip, picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of fish from the top, blew on it to cool it down, and offered it to the young man's lips: "Ah—-."
As it turned out, he didn't need to teach this last action at all. With a slight parting of his red lips, his snow-white teeth flashed by, and in the blink of an eye, the entire piece of fish vanished without a trace. The young man with cat ears closed his mouth and chewed very politely.
The temperature of the fish was just right for humans, but for him, it was still a bit hot. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but there was no sign of wanting to spit it out. A bulge formed on the right side of the young man's face, like a squirrel storing food.
After finishing the first piece of fish, his gaze shifted back to the chopsticks held by Gu Cong.
Being his own cat after all, Gu Cong dutifully continued his role as the feeding tool, sitting at the edge of the sofa and feeding him earnestly.
Perhaps feeling happy or accepting his own identity, the young man gradually stretched out his limbs from the curled-up position, and his head "took advantage" by resting on Gu Cong's leg. His fluffy tail was even more excessive, like vines growing in the corner, silently wrapping around Gu Cong's empty arm bit by bit.
His eyelids were heavy with drowsiness as the young man mechanically opened his mouth, chewed, more like a reflexive action driven by pure hunger than enjoying the food.
As the plate of fish remained unfinished, Xie Ye, with something in his stomach, fell into a deep sleep once again.
Gu Cong was taken aback. "Snowball?"
"Ball?"
With muffled syllables emanating from his throat, the young man's cat ears, tipped with silver, pressed down firmly, showing that he could be awakened by external stimuli but chose not to respond.
Relieved that the other hadn't lost consciousness, Gu Cong breathed a sigh of relief.
He opened the LightBrain and quickly inputted the keywords for the search: "Xie Ye, photos."
Countless web pages popped up.
He first filtered out the part after the rise of Ark Technology because, in Gu Cong's memory, Xie Ye was formally interviewed after severing ties with the Xie family, sporting a pair of black eyes.
The focus was on Xie Ye during his teenage years, when he was still young.
Being a illegitimate child, yet coincidentally attending the same classes as the legitimate children, it was said that his school life was very unpleasant. Photos of him that could be found online were very scarce. Gu Cong carefully sifted through many pages until he found the figure he was interested in, in a large group photo uploaded by a blogger.
Just like all the candid shots in later news and gossip, Xie Ye had a cold face, standing in the farthest corner. Even though separated by a virtual screen and nearly a decade of time, the viewer could still pick up the signal to keep away from him.
Most importantly, his black eyes.
Unable to determine whether he felt relieved or disappointed, Gu Cong followed his browsing history, clicked on the news article he had once shown to the cat, saved the accompanying image, zoomed in, and compared it with the young man resting on his legs, feature by feature - eyebrows, nose, mouth, bone structure - except for the eye color, they were practically identical.
Had he seen Xie Ye's photos when he was a cat, and even been tied with the same small ponytail by himself, so that's why he ended up resembling Xie Ye?
After pondering over it, this seemed to be the only plausible inference. Gu Cong cleared the keywords and re-entered the search:
【Cat becomes human.】
【Cat demon.】
The vast star network spanning the entire federation yielded thousands of links related to these terms. Gu Cong quickly scanned through them, most of which were dreams, fantasies, and novels with cats as the main characters. There was hardly any useful information.
No one could explain the anomaly he encountered tonight after returning home from work.
Yet, the young man gave him an extremely harmless impression.
His index finger hovered over the emergency call button in the lower left corner of the LightBrain for a few seconds. Gu Cong lowered his gaze, looking at the tranquil side profile of the young man and the large tail wrapped around his arm, ultimately dismissing the idea of calling for help.
Sending a cat that did nothing but eat and sleep to official agencies for dissection and research without any reason or harm seemed too cruel.
He didn't want to betray Snowball's trust in him.
1101, with no intention of intercepting communications, chimed in: It knew.
Gu Cong was indeed Gu Cong.
Before the effects of the medicine completely metabolized, Xie Ye probably wouldn't be able to freely change his form. Today, for example, he likely transformed into a "cat demon" unknowingly and unconsciously during a sleeping beauty syndrome episode.
Otherwise, its host would never be lying on the carpet in human form.
The only trouble was that during the sleeping beauty syndrome episodes, the other person would behave strangely, their mental faculties regressing, resembling a newborn beast or child.
This was also the root of the self-loathing for his alter self, apart from their animal form. Some actions might seem innocent and cute when done by a child, but what about by an adult? An adult who had lost their common sense, lost the most basic understanding of society, and acted solely on instinct would only be seen as foolish.
During the first few years after returning to the Xie family, his alter se;f had been mocked and teased countless times because of this.
But he couldn't control it.
He couldn't control when he fell asleep, nor could he control his behavior upon waking up halfway through. Locking himself in his bedroom became the most effective solution.
Currently, he should have been enduring hunger, waiting to wake up alone, but instead, he was sleeping soundly on Gu Cong's lap. Gu Cong took off his jacket and covered the young man with it, then gently smoothed out the fluffy and soft tail that had gradually fluffed up after Gu Cong withdrew his arm.
The greatest advantage of the new LightBrain was its lightweight and speed. With his left thigh occupied and fearing he might disturb the other, Gu Cong leaned against the sofa and continued searching for legends and information related to the cat demon and genetics.
But soon, a video call from "Assistant Manager Anna" came through.
Subconsciously, Gu Cong pulled up the jacket covering the young man, blocking the face that resembled his new boss's.
"Gu Cong?" The video call connected, and on the other side was a sweet-faced yet professionally dressed woman. From the background, it seemed she was still at the office. "I'm sorry to disturb you during your personal time, but a client suddenly needs you to take care of..."
The woman didn't manage to finish her sentence.
In the space of a breath, the confined space created by the fabric became too stuffy. The young man with cat ears felt annoyed and stood up, causing the jacket to rise up as if it were standing on its own in the eyes of an outsider.
With his graceful nose and scattered white hair, he unexpectedly intruded into the frame. Even though most of his face was covered, Anna's pupils still contracted, and she exclaimed:
"Boss?!"
Author's note:
Gu Cong: Not the boss, just my cat.
Anna: What nonsense are you talking about? I'd recognize you even if you turned to ashes.
Jumping around on the edge of falling off, hhh.
1 Comments
Thanks for the update
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