Xuan Bai

“Snap—”

A crisp sound echoed from the rat’s skull.

This was followed by a series of delicate crunching noises as tiny bones shattered, interspersed with the wet, tearing sounds of flesh.

Once silence descended, the cat licked a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth.

Her gaze fixed on the severed rat tail remaining on the ground, the cat’s muddled thoughts churned with an unknown purpose.

Ultimately, she decided to follow the direction pointed by the tip of the rat’s tail.

Hah, who could ever predict the whimsical workings of a cat’s mind?

Following the direction of the rat tail, the young white cat gracefully bounded through the forest.

She observed the clear stream, inhaled the earthy scent of the soft soil, and felt the wind rustling through the trees.

The cat’s pupils contracted as she focused, suddenly halting her run and leaping a step to the left.

In the very next instant, a startled patterned snake darted out from the tall grass to her right.

The cat paused, tilting her head to observe the snake.

She let out two soft “click-click” sounds, then licked the corner of her mouth.

Just as she crouched low, a realization struck the cat: she had just eaten her fill.

With an air of nonchalance, she simply rolled over, completely disregarding the ‘spicy stick’ before her, and continued on her journey.

Fortunately, the cat’s luck held true.

The direction she chose led directly towards the nearest town.

While this might not be ideal for a wild animal, for the cat, it was a stroke of good fortune.

Having traveled about ten kilometers, the distance wasn’t particularly far for the cat.

She was accustomed to running similar distances daily while hunting and finding water in the forest.

However, covering such a distance in one continuous stretch still left her feeling weary.

Thankfully, the cat could now discern sights distinct from the familiar forest: gray square shapes were neatly arranged on a treeless plain.

She could even make out various moving dark specks and wisps of rising smoke within.

The cat tilted her head in confusion.

This was a landscape she had never witnessed since birth, a place holding far more information than the jungle ever could.

A wave of novelty washed over the young cat’s heart.

“Meow~ Ooo-goo~”

Even the typically silent cat couldn’t help but let out a joyful cry.

With a vibrating, magnetic purr, the cat tucked her paws beneath herself and settled on the ground.

She rested while gazing intently at the human town, basking in the warm sunlight and absorbing the flood of incomprehensible information filling her mind.

Unbeknownst to herself, the cat drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke again, night had already fallen.

The cat struggled free from a hazy dreamscape of large cats, metallic food, and block-shaped trees.

The distant town glowed with lights, thrilling the cat even more.

Fueled by an unparalleled curiosity, the well-rested cat embarked on the final leg of her journey.

How did the saying go? ‘Looking at a mountain makes a horse run to its death.’

Indeed, the town, which had seemed to be right at the foot of the mountain, was still a considerable distance away.

The cat walked no less than the entire journey she had made from the mountains, finally reaching the outskirts of the city just before dawn.

The cat panted heavily, feeling both thirsty and exhausted.

There seemed to be nothing to eat or drink nearby.

She shook her head, looking around.

A gray building she had seen on a nearby hill earlier looked like it might be accessible.

Cautiously, the cat took steps closer.

The building appeared somewhat dilapidated, and its main door wasn’t sealed shut.

The cat easily squeezed through a broken hole in the corner.

Inside, the house was empty, with only a mud-sculpted idol in the center of the vacant hall standing out so conspicuously.

The idol’s wide, majestic eyes startled the cat, but the clever feline immediately realized that this object was immobile, much like the stone formations resembling other cats she had seen on the mountain.

“Sniff, sniff…”

The cat spotted a fruit plate on the table before the idol.

It held two somewhat shriveled but unrotten apples.

These were new, curious things the cat had never encountered.

She leaned forward to sniff them.

Hmm, the scent was acceptable.

Still somewhat perplexed, the cat tilted her head, once again focusing her gaze and contracting her pupils to scrutinize the red, round fruit.

A flash of light and shadow revealed a tall figure kneeling prostrate before the table.

She saw someone consume this fruit, someone offer, someone pray, someone call it “apple.”

Ultimately, she witnessed the apple’s fate: to rot, be discarded, and turn into soil.

The cat grew even more bewildered; this was even harder to comprehend than the things in the mountains.

But the good news was that this fruit was edible—that was the most useful piece of information.

Since no other creature was around to enjoy it, the cat decided she would consume the apple, preempting its eventual decay!

Joyfully, the cat used all four paws to secure the apple, rolling it back and forth on the table as she bit down hard with her wide-open mouth.

Such was the trouble of being small, yet being able to eat such a large piece of food was also a kind of happiness.

“Meow-mm~”

The apple was soft (due to being shriveled).

While it didn’t smell fragrant (like meat), it was cool and tart, and it quenched her thirst.

There was a peculiar sweetness to it (the cat was not sensitive to what humans called sweet; here, ‘sweet’ referred to the rich vitamin taste).

The delicious apple made the cat purr.

After gnawing through a little less than half an apple, the cat felt almost full.

However, only eating this much wouldn’t do.

The cat decided to save some room and find some mice after resting.

She hadn’t rested for long when the cat’s ears twitched.

She heard sounds from outside.

Noisy, boisterous, shrill.

The commotion was remarkably different from the forest.

The cat was a little afraid, yet intensely curious, and couldn’t help but let out a call for companions.

“Meow-aoww~~”

“Meow-aow-aoww~”

She stopped after just two calls, as the cat suddenly realized her companions weren’t around.

Just then, the hall door opened, and a middle-aged man walked in.

The cat had never seen such a creature… No, she had.

The cat remembered that when she saw the apple earlier, the one who had placed it there and prayed was also this kind of creature.

‘So big… it seems I can’t win against them…’

Realizing this, the cat squatted down in front of her half-eaten apple, feeling a little guilty.

She pondered whether she should flee.

As she pondered, the man had already walked up to the cat and crouched down to look at her.

The cat felt nervous, her pupils contracting as she stared back at the man.

‘Ah, this is bad now.’

More things the cat had never seen before instantly flooded her mind.

‘Cat brain, crashed.’

The stunned cat lost her ability to escape.

She was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and lifted.

A strange, uncontrollable sense of security washed over her.

The cat, having just snapped back to her senses, instinctively curled her body, her prepared movements halting.

When she was free again, she found herself tucked inside an outer jacket pocket.

‘It seems… there’s no danger?’

The cat hesitated, then looked up at the man.

This time, the cat didn’t broadly scan, but consciously looked for information related to herself.

‘Meow-oh… Meow-yah… What is this?’

The cat saw that he would give her many things she had never eaten before!

The cat decided not to run.

She would follow and see what happened.

‘This pocket is quite comfortable, by the way.’

Liu returned to his stall with the cat tucked away.

The time was nearing, and he gradually began to get busy.

Because he wore an apron, most people didn’t notice the cat peeking her head out of his pocket.

However, the cat seemed to bring good luck nonetheless, as business was exceptionally good that morning.

They sold out of the prepared dough even earlier than expected.

Greeting his regulars, Liu tidied up his stall, preparing to go back and rest for a bit.

There was no rush to pack up the stall completely; he could still sell some more in the afternoon.

“What’s that you’ve got stuffed in your clothes?” Liu’s wife, who had arrived halfway through the earlier rush, asked now that things had quieted down, wondering what was bulging in her husband’s pocket.

“Oh, I picked up a kitten at the temple earlier,” Liu said, opening his pocket to look.

The cat had already fallen asleep.

…………

And so, the cat successfully arrived in the old town.

Incidentally, she also received a brand-new name, a simple and straightforward one based on her fur color.

Xuan Bai.