Chapter 17: Teasing the Cat

The doctor could not find any symptoms of a heat cycle, so he could not give Mu Jingyi a definite answer.

His cat was still deep in sleep, so he couldn’t ask him either.

‘His kitty was an omega; he would surely tell him if he were in heat.’

Mu Jingyi finally convinced himself of this, so that the long wait wouldn’t be quite so agonizing.

Ning Jiu slept in a daze for a long time, showing no signs of waking up.

The medicine from the IV made his arm icy cold, and it only felt a bit warmer when tucked against a hot water bottle.

His face was deathly pale, like a fallen god with broken wings, looking so frail he seemed on the verge of losing his vital signs.

A face without a trace of color did not look like one in the midst of a heat cycle; Mu Jingyi was more inclined to believe it was a severe cold.

He refused to believe it was because he hadn’t earned the cat’s trust.

He felt an unprovoked sense of irritability, a feeling he had never experienced even when facing the company’s most difficult projects.

Ning Jiu finally woke from his stupor, staring blankly at the hospital ceiling.

Everything before his eyes was a blank white, the “beep beep” of the heart rate monitor echoed in his ears, and the smell of disinfectant was particularly pungent.

The hospital was a place branded with the mark of nightmares for the cat; whenever he remembered it, there were only bloodstains, pain, and death.

The monitors detected the patient’s change in state and let out a prompting sound.

The noise made Ning Jiu even more reactive, the fur on his cat tail and ears standing on end as he turned into a literal “bristling cat.”

He propped himself up, pressing one hand over the needle in the back of his hand, making a move to pull it out and run away.

“Ning Jiu!”

A hand pressed down, stopping Ning Jiu’s impulsive attempt to pull the needle.

Mu Jingyi had been outside listening to the doctor explain the cat’s condition.

Hearing the equipment alarm, he ran in immediately and saw this scene.

“It’s safe here. Don’t pull the needle.”

“Sir…”

Ning Jiu’s dry voice was raspy.

He was a bit dazed.

It was only at the moment he saw Mu Jingyi that he realized this wasn’t the demon’s den of a hospital from his memories; he had long since left the omega fusion factory.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s alright. I’m here, no one will hurt you.”

Mu Jingyi gathered the reactive cat into his arms, patting his back lightly to soothe his emotions.

He smoothed down the bristled fur and gently stroked the cat’s ears.

The cat quieted down, the look of terror gradually fading from his face.

He was gently laid back onto the bed by Mu Jingyi and tucked under the comfortable hospital quilt.

This place was indeed different.

It was clean and tidy, the high-end equipment screens displayed letters he didn’t understand, and there were no bloodstains in sight.

Except for the smell of disinfectant, which was exactly the same.

“Roughly when can he be discharged?” Mu Jingyi asked the doctor who had rushed in anxiously with him.

The doctor glanced at the chart.

“Once he’s awake from the coma, there isn’t much of a problem. The high fever hasn’t recurred. He’s a bit weak, but there isn’t much difference between recuperating at the hospital and at home.”

Mu Jingyi motioned to Assistant Jiang behind him.

“Help handle the discharge procedures. I’m taking him home.”

Only after settling everything did Mu Jingyi calm down from his tense state.

His heart had been racing since the moment he saw Ning Jiu trying to pull the needle; it was only just starting to settle.

He rubbed his aching temples and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Ning Jiu reached out his hand—the one without the IV drip—from under the covers and tugged at Mu Jingyi’s sleeve.

“Sir, I’m sorry…”

Mu Jingyi’s face as he kept watch by the bed did not look good; there were dark circles under his eyes, and his exhausted state made it clear he hadn’t slept well for several nights.

The faint scent of coffee pierced through the pungent smell of disinfectant, mellow and heavy.

The cat felt a bit guilty and was also a little afraid that the man was angry.

He still scooted toward the edge of the bed, trying to get closer to Mu Jingyi.

He pulled the thick quilt up until only his beautiful blue eyes were left exposed.

The sick cat’s voice was soft, and his heavy nasal tone made it sound more like he was acting spoiled, like a little cat tail scratching at a person’s heart.

“Sir, don’t be angry, I didn’t do it on purpose. I only caught the cold because I wanted to bring Coal Ball home… I’m not familiar with hospitals, that’s why I wanted to pull the needle and run…”

Ning Jiu’s voice grew smaller and smaller.

The more he explained, the more he felt he was indeed in the wrong.

Just as Mu Jingyi was about to speak and explain, he saw the cat blinking his eyes and pleading in a clingy tone:

“I’ll teach Sir kitty language. Sir, don’t be angry with kitty, okay?”

Mu Jingyi’s heart skipped a beat, then began to race.

No one could resist teasing the cat at a time like this.

Mu Jingyi was indeed angry because the cat had tried to hurt himself, but he was even more curious to see just how far the cat would go.

Mu Jingyi tried his best to control the corners of his mouth that desperately wanted to turn up.

With a slight lift of his brow, he sat by the bed and glanced down at the little cat huddled in the blankets.

“You think you can just gloss it over like that?”

This stern appearance was exactly the “President Mu” image Aunt Chen always talked about.

When Mu Jingyi kept a cold face, he was very intimidating.

His sharp gaze carried a deep chill; the calmer and more steady he was, the more terrifying he seemed.

The cat, however, did not notice the fingers Mu Jingyi had clenched tightly under his sleeve.

Terrified, the cat pulled the quilt over his head, leaving only a pair of cat ears with pink insides poking out, twitching occasionally.

The bed now held only a round lump of a quilt, from which a muffled voice drifted out:

“Even that won’t work…?”

The cat inside the quilt sounded dejected, his ears flopping outward slightly.

“This is a secret of the Kingdom of Cats, after all…”

The President Mu who was straining to hold back his emotions could no longer find the heart to tease the cat.

He patted the bulging quilt lump on the bed.

“Of course it works. Come out, it’s stuffy inside the blankets.”

Ning Jiu cautiously peeked his eyes out.

After confirming that the Sir he was facing had returned to that familiar, gentle look, he let out a long sigh of relief and poked his whole head out.

“You clearly weren’t angry. Sir was scaring me, you’re not a good cat…”

Mu Jingyi’s smile grew even more gentle as he flatly denied it.

“I wasn’t scaring you, and I wasn’t angry.”

His gaze lingered for a moment on Ning Jiu’s sickly, haggard eyes.

“The only thing I feel for you is heartache; I’m only angry at myself. I brought you home, I should have protected you. If I had been the first thing you saw when you opened your eyes, you wouldn’t have been scared enough to want to run.”

Mu Jingyi always found it strange.

He clearly intended to raise the cat well, yet he always seemed to let his kitty get hurt or sad.

“Coal Ball is recovering faster than you. He’s already running all over the house. Yesterday, he even got himself tangled up in yarn…”

Mu Jingyi remembered the time Ning Jiu had been tangled in yarn.

He stroked the cat’s pink ears and chuckled.

“Just like you.”

The cat was teased until a flush of pink appeared on his face.

It had been some time since that embarrassing incident, and it had almost faded from his memory, only to be brought up again by Mu Jingyi.

He turned over and mumbled, “Sir is bullying the cat. I’m not teaching Sir kitty language anymore…”

The cat was likely complaining, but with his clingy voice, one couldn’t tell he was angry; one would only think he was adorable.

Mu Jingyi rubbed his head, trying to coax the cat into giving up the secrets of the Kingdom of Cats.

However, his kitty was unwilling to reveal kitty language to him no matter what.

“Sir, I want to go home. I want to see Coal Ball…”

The cat, with his back turned to Mu Jingyi, mumbled softly.

“Alright, let’s go home.”

***

Aunt Chen met Ning Jiu as he returned home from the hospital, grabbing his hands and looking him over.

“Oh my, how did our Ning Kitty lose so much weight? I heard you were awake, so I brewed some chicken soup. I’ll go get you some right now.”

“Wau!!” (Boss!!)

A black shadow jumped out from nowhere and bounded onto his hand.

Coal Ball meowed, saying “I missed Boss so much” countless times, busily rubbing against his palm.

Coal Ball’s spirits were very high.

He had filled out quite a bit compared to right after the surgery, and the bald spots were starting to grow fine fuzz.

The only exception was a patch on his left ear where the fur had not grown back after the wound healed.

Ning Jiu pinched the kitten’s ear, looking it over carefully.

“The vet said that spot will probably stay bald forever,” Mu Jingyi explained.

Ning Jiu smiled and responded, “It’s okay, he can’t see it himself.”

Coal Ball couldn’t understand their conversation, but he felt like the two of them were talking bad about him right to his face.

He meowed anxiously, wanting Ning Jiu to translate.

Ning Jiu poked the bald spot on the kitten’s ear and laughed.

“Miao ma ni, wa‘ao miiu.” (I’m talking smack about you, I’m not telling.)

“Ao?”

Coal Ball froze for a second, confirming that the kitty language his ears had heard was correct.

‘How could a cat so rightfully take advantage of being bilingual to admit he was using human speech to gossip about another cat to his face!’

Coal Ball protested loudly: “Wau! Wa‘ao ma!” (Boss, bad cat!)

He turned to look at Mu Jingyi, including the human in his denunciation: “Wuii wa’ao!” (Human is bad too!)

“What is Coal Ball saying?” Mu Jingyi asked, curious as he watched Coal Ball meowing at him.

“He’s cursing you.”

Mu Jingyi froze for a second, pointing at Coal Ball in Ning Jiu’s arms.

“You little thing, you’re quite fierce when it comes to cursing people.”

Coal Ball couldn’t understand either, but he could vaguely sense something from Mu Jingyi’s tone and meowed back loudly, refusing to be outdone.

The two of them talked to each other in their own worlds, regardless of whether the other understood.

Only Ning Jiu, who knew they were talking past each other and that neither was actually responding to the other, kept his secret.

He sat between them, laughing happily.

Mu Jingyi looked at Ning Jiu and naturally knew the “bad cat” was right in front of him.

But since his Ning Kitty was rarely this happy, he didn’t point it out, simply playing along with him.

As long as the cat was happy, that was enough.