0-0-3 The Little She-Cat, Tuantuan
[…There are rumors in the Bureau that the planar barriers might be loosening again…]
[…A new generation of ‘Demon Progenitors’ might descend from the other-planes…]
[…The coordinates of the breach in the planar barriers are in Rongcheng…]
…
Bai Jie’s words from noon replayed in his mind with increasing clarity. While Qin Ren was still in a daze, somewhat bewildered, he heard a click. The crisp sound pulled him back from his reverie.
Smack—
Qin Ren slapped away the small hand that was turning the key, trying to open his apartment door.
“What are you doing?”
“Ow!”
The little girl who called herself “High Immortal” pouted, rubbing the back of her hand, then her little tummy.
It was empty. So hungry…
“Mortal, what’s your name?”
“Qin Ren.”
“Qin Ren…”
She mumbled the name, first glancing at the dried fish and cat food in Qin Ren’s hands, then raising her head.
“Qin Ren, Qin Ren, there must be food in your Grotto-Heaven, right?”
“…”
Qin Ren didn’t want to answer. He sized up the little girl again, trying to find something extraordinary about her besides her appearance, but found nothing.
“You say you’re from another world. What proof do you have?”
“Proof…”
The little girl thought for a moment, then reached a hand into her collar and started rummaging around, making the corner of Qin Ren’s mouth twitch.
Trying to pull something out of her cleavage?
Heh, as if you have any.
He sneered, curious to see what kind of treasure this kid could excavate from a barren desert as flat as a runway.
“Here.”
To his surprise, the little girl actually did pull something out and handed it to Qin Ren.
Qin Ren took it. It was a hexagonal black token, neither metal nor jade. Its surface shimmered with tiny specks of light, somewhat resembling the USB drive from the movie Lucy.
“What is this?”
Qin Ren held it in his palm. It was warm to the touch. He gave it a sniff; it had a faint, sweet scent of milk.
Of course, he wasn’t a pervert.
It was just that after years of exorcism, he had developed some unique habits for identifying things, much like a hunter identifying animal tracks and droppings.
“This is the token of the Flowing Cloud Sect. It contains a wisp of our Sect Master’s spiritual energy.”
The little girl introduced it as such. Qin Ren played with it for a moment but couldn’t make heads or tails of it, only sensing that it was indeed not something that could be created with Earth’s current technology.
So, after taking a deep breath, Qin Ren returned the token to the little girl. His heart was in turmoil, but he had to start accepting a certain fact.
Namely, Bai Jie’s speculations about the planar barriers might not have been baseless rumors after all.
“From another plane…”
Damn, what do I do?
This feels like a big deal…
Qin Ren felt very strange right now.
The planar barriers loosening, beings from other worlds reappearing… if this was really happening, it should have been something that would absolutely move or even shock him.
But for some reason, the “High Immortal” in front of him, who had already started drooling over the cat food, couldn’t stir the slightest ripple in his heart.
Speaking of which…
With all her talk of spiritual energy and Grotto-Heavens, she must be from a xianxia plane, right?
So she might be a cultivator?
Myriad Demon Continent, Flowing Cloud Sect…
Sounds like that plane is overrun with demons and monsters, which is why there are many immortal cultivation sects like her “Flowing Cloud Sect” to slay demons and enforce the will of heaven?
In that case, this little girl is sort of a colleague.
And she called herself a great-grandmother earlier. Could she actually be a powerful, old cultivator…
But if she’s so powerful, why is she in such a sorry state? And why did she end up at my door?
…
A flood of questions rushed into his mind. Just as Qin Ren was considering whether to let the little girl inside to ask her properly, she herself couldn’t hold back any longer. She reached out and tugged on Qin Ren’s clothes again.
“Qin Ren, Qin Ren, stop staring blankly at this eminence. Hurry up and go in. This eminence can’t take it anymore.”
When the little girl was unhappy, she would purse her lips. Her thin lips would glisten with a line of moist color, looking quite pitiful and evoking a sense of protectiveness.
“What’s the rush? I’m opening it now, aren’t I?”
Qin Ren heard her stomach rumbling; she really did seem to be starving. He finally turned the key and pushed the door open with his knee.
Creeak—
The door opened. The uninvited guest was the first to duck under Qin Ren’s arm, her little bare feet pattering inside.
From her sparkling eyes and slowly opening mouth, Qin Ren could tell she let out a gasp of “wow.”
But immediately after, this kid clasped her hands behind her back and began to inspect Qin Ren’s “Grotto-Heaven” as if no one else was there.
“Where’s the food?”
“…”
“Where are the drinks?”
“…”
“There’s only one bed? Then where will you sleep tonight?”
“…”
Did this kid come here to be the lord of the manor?
Qin Ren suddenly had the feeling he’d let a wolf into his house.
“Hey, you, High Immortal.”
“Hm~”
“Have you ever heard the old saying, ‘Put on your socks before your shoes, be a grandson before you’re a lord’?”
“Old saying? Who said that?”
“Lu Shuren.”
The little girl was already hungry, and hearing this made her even hungrier.
“Lu what?”
“Lu Shuren. A… well, you can think of him as an ancient sage.” Qin Ren, drawing on his experience from reading web novels, threw out a term he thought she might understand.
But in reality, the little girl didn’t care at all.
“Back on the Myriad Demon Continent, this eminence has tasted all sorts of ancient delicacies…”
She muttered things Qin Ren didn’t understand and couldn’t be bothered to. Meanwhile, after turning on the air conditioner, Qin Ren was searching the shoe cabinet for a pair of slippers for the little girl.
He only had one pair of summer slippers for himself and no extras prepared. So, after a long search, Qin Ren finally found two pairs of light-fleece slippers for spring and autumn.
One pair was blue with little bears, left behind by Qin Ren’s ex-girlfriend a long time ago.
The other was a pair of pink caterpillars, left by his sister Gu Qing during the New Year.
“Here, put these on first.”
After comparing the sizes, Qin Ren tossed the pink caterpillars to the little girl. She cluelessly slipped them on her feet. They were a pretty good fit, just a tiny bit too big.
Looks like Sis isn’t just small, her feet are really tiny too…
Qin Ren mused to himself, then beckoned with his hand.
“You, come here.”
The little girl, who had been wrinkling her little nose and sniffing around at who knows what, walked over. Qin Ren pointed to a chair by the dining table.
“Sit here. Don’t move. I’ll go make something to eat.”
“Oh.”
She nodded obediently, wiggled her little bottom onto the chair, and began to wait.
Qin Ren, however, wasn’t in a hurry to cook. First, he opened the cat food and dried fish he’d bought and poured them into a small, fish-shaped food bowl on the floor with a rustle.
“Meow…”
At that moment, a ball of silver and white fur appeared from nowhere, striding with bewitching steps, and leaned against Qin Ren with a coquettish cry.
“Meow~”
“Tuantuan, don’t be naughty.”
The little she-cat named Tuantuan insisted on being naughty. She stretched out her paws to hug Qin Ren’s calf, rubbing against him with a swishing tail.
“Alright, alright.”
Qin Ren crouched down to stroke her little head and laid his cards on the table.
“I couldn’t get the Mrs. Cat brand of dried fish today, so I got a different brand. Just make do.”
“Meow?!”
Tuantuan was shocked. She stopped rubbing.
“It’s true. I searched the entire supermarket. They were out of stock.”
Unlike ordinary cats, Tuantuan had a favorite brand of dried fish. Sensing that Qin Ren wasn’t lying to her, she became slightly disappointed, and her soft ears drooped.
“Meow…”
Although she looked like a British Shorthair, Tuantuan had the large, sapphire-blue eyes of a Ragdoll. She stared at Qin Ren with wide, round eyes, whimpering pitifully, like an innocent sixteen-year-old JK who had her first time taken away, aggrievedly hoping to be coaxed by the boy.
“Good Tuantuan…”
He might curse her for being a little slut behind her back, but when she really acted cute, Qin Ren would still gently pick her up and place her on the sofa.
“There was nothing I could do today. As compensation, how about I get you another bag of little biscuits?”
“Mrow…”
Tuantuan moaned listlessly.
“Two bags?”
“…”
Tuantuan lowered her head, her paws gently kneading the sofa cushion.
“Three bags? All peanut-flavored. That should be fine, right?”
“Meeow~~”
Only then did Tuantuan give an obedient reply. She squinted her eyes and rubbed her fluffy, round rump against Qin Ren’s arm. Qin Ren smiled knowingly and stroked her little head.
“By the way, I know that kid at the dining table. Mind your attitude.”
“Meow~”
Hearing this, Tuantuan peeked her head out and meowed at the little girl by the dining table.
But the little girl didn’t seem very interested in Tuantuan. Besides looking around, she would occasionally glance at the dried fish and cat food in the bowl.
“Alright, I’m going to cook. You can eat first.”
Cats were truly creatures that brought peace to the soul. After giving his instructions, Qin Ren headed to the kitchen, unaware that the moment he turned around, a flash of smugness and cunning, as if a plan had succeeded, flickered in the she-cat’s beautiful big eyes.
Evidently, Tuantuan was not as harmless as she appeared on the surface, but a scheming cat who had her poop-scooping officer wrapped around her little paw.
As the saying goes, a cat who knows how to act cute has the best life.
By her calculations, it had been over three years since Qin Ren picked her up. Tuantuan had learned a lot. She knew exactly when to act cute and coquettish with her poop-scooping officer to maximize her benefits.
…
After settling his master, Qin Ren finally tied on an apron. He checked the fridge; there was only a block of mushroom hotpot base and a little less than half a box of beef slices left.
Paired with the dried noodles, it would be enough to make a meal for two.
First, he heated the pot, stir-fried a small piece of the mushroom soup base until it melted, and added boiling water. He put in the dried noodles, cooked them for a bit, added a splash of cold water, and continued to cook until done. Then he drained them and placed them on a bed of lettuce.
He blanched the beef slices in the mushroom broth until they changed color and poured them into the bowl as well. A little white vinegar was added for fragrance, along with a handful of chopped green onions. He scraped a small piece of lard, fried it until fragrant, and drizzled it over the top. This not only brought out the inherent umami of the soup base but also made the beef richer and more succulent.
The little girl’s eyes were already shining from the aroma. She sat on the chair, restlessly swinging her two fair, slender legs.
“Do you know how to use chopsticks?” Qin Ren called out from the kitchen.
“I do, da~” the little girl replied in a sing-song voice.
Qin Ren brought over two bowls of Golden Soup Beef Noodles, lowered the air conditioner’s temperature by one degree, and began to have a late lunch with this mysterious creature.
“So, what’s your name?”
Qin Ren had many questions earlier, and now it was time to start asking.
