chapter 137

Lu Li followed Paopao along the road as he walked after his Reincarnation.

He watched Paopao stop at the glass door of a small shop on the street, stare blankly at his reflection for a few seconds, spin in circles on the spot, then look at the fourth leg visible in the glass.

The cat’s tail stayed lifted in a constant, cheerful curl.

Lu Li was happy too. Bosi had said that because the Paopao Lu Li drew on paper had turned out quite well, and Paopao’s performance in the Instance clear was outstanding, Paopao’s Reincarnation had been specially approved to keep his memories.

The road they were on now was the route Paopao was taking to go find his owner.

Lu Li stood beside Paopao, who was admiring himself in the glass, and set the Collar on the ground. He spoke to Paopao, who could not see him: “This Collar is too heavy. You should return it yourself.”

Paopao’s ears twitched in Lu Li’s direction. He turned around, saw the Collar that had appeared out of thin air, and jumped back two steps in fright.

After a long moment, something seemed to occur to him.

He grabbed the Collar in his mouth and anxiously paced back and forth several times at Lu Li’s side, only to pass straight through Lu Li’s body every time.

Lu Li reached out and, through the empty air, patted Paopao.

Suddenly, he was enveloped in shadow; the back of his hand pressed against satin-smooth Black Robe.

“Unlike the last Instance, you weren’t personally written and invited by that Instance’s Boss, so this cat can’t see you.”

Lu Li mused, “So that’s how it is.”

In the last Instance, he had attended the wedding between Sean and the Sea Demon.

His name had been written on the wedding invitation.

Bosi asked him, “Do you want to pet this cat?”

Lu Li looked over with eyes full of hope. “You have a way?”

Bosi opened his right hand, fingers spreading. In an instant, thick Black Mist surged up from his palm.

“Grab something the Black Mist is attached to, and you can temporarily wield the power of the Underworld.”

With his other hand, Bosi tore open a spatial rift.

Next, they needed to find something to coat with Black Mist, so Lu Li could hold it.

Lu Li watched the shifting Black Mist intently.

Then he reached out.

His hand slid along Bosi’s wrist, kept going until it found Bosi’s long fingers, and then closed around them.

Lu Li asked, “Like this?”

Would this let him pet Paopao?

“No!”

Even through the glove, Bosi felt burned by Lu Li’s warmth. Flustered, he pulled his hand away.

Technically, having Lu Li touch him directly would work too, but his original intent had been to create indirect contact between them.

He hadn’t expected Lu Li to boldly grab him like that.

“But there’s Black Mist on my hand now too.” Lu Li earnestly showed him. “Does this work?”

Not far away, the two who had just followed them over were whispering to each other.

Luo Jia Bai said, “That’s Lu Li up ahead, right? Finally found the kid. What’s he squatting on the ground for? And a cat-shit! Isn’t that Paopao? Looks exactly like Paopao! Am I seeing things?”

Mirella analyzed the scene. “The Man in Black Robe standing next to him should be the ‘new friend’ Lu Li mentioned. He’s very tall and his presence is very gloomy. We can feel the cold rolling off him even from here. He’s probably the Evil God Lu Li is bound to, one who controls cold.”

Only Fenny’s heart was quaking.

What was going on!

For the first time, he utterly loathed his own eyes.

Why did he have to see so clearly that the King and a human had their fingers interlaced!

He hadn’t wanted to see it!

But the King had just sent him a message insisting he didn’t need to hide, or it would make Lu Li’s two friends suspicious, and told him to just follow along openly.

And now this was what he saw!

Anxious, Fenny yanked out a feather, trying to hypnotize himself into forgetting what he’d just witnessed.

By nature, he was a Crow who loved listening to and telling stories.

He worked under the King, gathering information in the human world and carrying it back to the Underworld.

Now he had a piece of gossip this huge stuck in his throat with no way to talk about it.

It was agony!

No ghost would understand.

–

Wang Rui was a freshly graduated college student.

She’d bounced between jobs for several months. After circling around and around, she ended up back in the first city she’d left.

It was also the city where she’d found the first cat of her life.

Her first encounter with Paopao had been in a small Park near her School.

That afternoon, the sun was lovely. Children were running across the grass flying kites. Other kids were holding bubble machines, flooding the Park with great shimmering clouds of bubbles lit by the sun.

Wang Rui had been preparing for the graduate school entrance exam, so stressed she’d wanted to come out for a walk to clear her head. But even seeing all of this, not a ripple stirred in her heart.
Until a falling bubble dropped onto the nose of a stray cat that was sprawled on the grass, dozing.

The bubble popped.

The cat woke up.

She met the cat’s gaze.

Then the cat walked over to her on its own and rubbed against her, circling her again and again.

She looked down, thinking: I’m not even holding any food. Why is this cat rubbing on me?

She was clearly someone who didn’t like cats-she was even a little afraid of them. And yet, as if possessed, she started spending what little time she had outside her heavy coursework looking for that cat-at the Park, on the streets near the School.

Until a traffic accident took one of the cat’s legs.

With only three legs left, it would be hard for the cat to survive the winter as a stray.

Her own life wasn’t going well either. She’d failed an exam, kept running into walls during fall recruitment, and every day she felt so low she didn’t even want to go outside. Just as she was about to face the future alone, lost and uncertain, she made the boldest decision of her life.

She adopted the cat and named him Paopao.

–

In the two days since stopping the meat truck, Wang Rui had been suffering from severe insomnia. The moment she closed her eyes, the image of Paopao’s unbearable Corpse would rise up in her mind.

In the early hours of the morning on the day they stopped the truck, she sent Paopao to be cremated. By that afternoon, the Paopao who had been so big had become a handful of ash, sealed inside a tiny urn.

She thought maybe a person’s good luck and bad luck in life really did have to balance out.

Just a few days ago, she’d received the good news that she’d passed an interview.

And now she’d received the news of Paopao’s death.

If this was the kind of “balance” she had to pay for, she would rather not have the job.

Today, she came again to the place where she first met Paopao. She’d sat in a daze on a bench in the Park for an entire afternoon, holding Paopao’s urn and stroking it over and over.

“Wang Paopao, you really are careless. How could you lose the Neck Collar Mom gave you?”

Tears dripped onto the ground one after another as she spoke to the urn:

“With your leg, you’ve always been most afraid of climbing up high at home. I never even dared buy you a cat tree to play on. So how did you end up all the way up there on that truck? Were you caught and hauled up with one of those animal-catching poles…?”

“Wang Paopao, Mom went to find one of those mystic fortune-tellers online today. They said animals have reincarnation too, and if we’re lucky, we’ll meet again someday. What day do you think it’ll be? How long do I have to hold on until then?”

The sun sank little by little. Children ran past her, laughing, a bubble machine in their hands sending up a huge spray of bubbles.

One bubble landed on Wang Rui’s knee.

Another wobbled as it drifted down.

It landed on the tip of a kitten’s nose.

A kitten that looked exactly like Paopao stood proudly in front of her. Around its neck was the missing Neck Collar.

Wang Rui almost couldn’t speak. “Are you Paopao?”

—

[Two years later]

A man had just been released from prison.

He was the driver of the meat truck back then. Even after getting out, he still wouldn’t behave. He figured he could go back to the old way and still make money.

But as he walked forward, the road ahead of him suddenly turned into an endlessly long, narrow black path.

Someone was chasing him from behind.

He began to run-run without end-while glaring, stabbing beams of light kept sweeping around behind him, searching for him.

Then a massive Net Bag fell from the sky and swallowed him up whole.

“Caught another one! Selling him will bring in several thousand!”

In his terror, the man watched animal fur sprout across his Arm. Then he turned and finally saw the face of the person who’d caught him.

It was himself.

How could it be himself?

He was dragged out of the Net Bag.

A cold blade sliced into the back of his head, and his skin was peeled off cleanly, in one complete sheet.

The one who killed him… was himself.

—

Pingping knocked its beak against the neighbor’s door.

“Paopao, come out and play.”

The door opened, and a kitten came bounding out, tackling the Parrot in delight. Wang Rui followed after it.

Paopao turned his head and meowed at her twice.

Pingping tilted its head as it watched them. Then, suddenly, it cleared its throat and said:

“He says he loves you.”

“He says, I love you.”

—

Crown of Happiness.

Crowned with love.

I’ve spent my whole life trying to learn your language, trying to understand the words you wrote.

Today.

Did you hear what I wanted to say to you?