Chapter 60

Summoning

"Little black dumpling — it's you."

Chao Musheng recognized the cat from the path. He stepped off the bridge, handed the vase of lotus flowers to one of the bodyguards, and crouched down in front of it with his hand extended. "Are they still chasing you? Come with me for now."

From the bridge above, Xu Chenzhu listened to Chao Musheng's voice soften into its cat-coaxing register and looked at him with an expression he made no effort to move.

"Meow." The black cat glanced sideways at the man behind Chao Musheng, then reached out a paw and placed it in Chao Musheng's palm, leaving a muddy print.

"Good cat." Chao Musheng rubbed its head without any sign of minding the dirt, gathered it into his arms, and stood. "Are you hungry? I'll find you something to eat."

"Mrrr~" The black cat looked at the paw-shaped stain it had left on the human's clothing, paused, and — upon concluding that the human genuinely didn't care — settled comfortably into the warmth and began its quiet, contented noises.

Only a sufficiently powerful human could be trusted to go and hunt for it.

Inside, Chao Musheng toweled off the cat's fur and paws and found a wound on one of its feet. Fresh — still seeping slightly.

"Sit here and don't move. I'm getting the first aid kit." He set the cat on the sofa, found the kit in the cabinet, turned around — and found the cat had followed him.

"Your foot is hurt and you're still running around?" He scooped it up one-handed, carried both cat and kit back to the sofa, and disinfected the wound.

The cat did not struggle. Its uninjured paw rested on Chao Musheng's knee with the grave dignity of a general reviewing troops.

Downstairs in the small kitchen, Xu Chenzhu opened the refrigerator, found beef, fresh fish, and shrimp, and rolled up his sleeves.

"Mr. Xu — are you hungry?" Chao Musheng appeared in the kitchen doorway, cat in arms, watching Xu Chenzhu cut the meat.

"There's no cat food here. I'm putting together something fresh for it." The knife work was practiced. The forearms visible below the rolled sleeves were clean and steady.

"Thank you."

Oh. He's doing this for the cat's sake. Chao Musheng felt warmly toward Mr. Xu.

"Mr. Xu — you know how to cook?" He noticed the diced meat was almost perfectly even in size, and drifted closer to look into the bowl. "Among all the wealthy households in the world, with their armies of kitchen staff — you actually learned to cook. That's a rare thing."

"Some." Xu Chenzhu transferred the meat into the water and turned up the heat, then looked back at him. "Interested in my cooking?"

"A little." Chao Musheng nodded honestly. Who wouldn't be curious?

A quiet sound that might have been a laugh. "I'll cook for you when we get back."

"Seriously?" Curiosity about the boss's cooking had now fully eclipsed any professional deference. His eyes went to the pot. "Really?"

"I'm not teasing you." Xu Chenzhu stirred gently with the ladle. "Cat food needs to be low in oil and salt. Tonight's batch won't taste like much."

"I wasn't planning to compete with the cat for it." Chao Musheng realized he'd been misread and scratched the cat behind the ears. "I'm just surprised that you can cook at all."

"When there's nothing else to do, you learn things." Xu Chenzhu skimmed the surface with the ladle, head slightly bowed, voice even. "Gradually, there's more and more you know how to do."

Even if there's no one to appreciate it.

The pot bubbled softly. Chao Musheng looked at him with something close to admiration. "You're remarkable. My own cooking is very basic — simple home dishes."

"You study hard and take part in everything the university has going. Being able to cook home dishes at all is already impressive." Xu Chenzhu noticed Chao Musheng still had the cat. "This cat hasn't been dewormed."

"That's fine — I'll take a thorough shower and clean up afterward." Chao Musheng looked down at the small animal pressed against him. "I ran into it on the path just now while the Chen servants were chasing it. It must have been terrified."

"Chasing it?"

"Yes." Chao Musheng nodded. "I'm not sure what their reasoning is — they say black cats are inauspicious. But if I recall correctly, in our own traditional understanding, the black cat is an auspicious guardian creature that wards off evil and protects the household. The Chen family is this devoted to superstition and yet they'd do something like this?"

Xu Chenzhu was at the sink, washing his hands. Long legs, straight posture — even bent slightly forward like this, he looked like the subject of a fashion photograph. "There were some Western traditions linking black cats to ill omen. Those came to this country within the last century and took hold with certain people."

"Old Master Chen is so invested in traditional culture — surely he'd know better." Chao Musheng looked at Xu Chenzhu's profile for a moment before quietly shifting his gaze away.

My boss is cooking cat food for me at midnight, and I'm sitting here quietly appreciating how he looks. I'm appalling.

The meat came off the heat. Xu Chenzhu arranged it on a plate to cool. "I don't know the cat's condition well enough, so I didn't add fish oil."

"Thank you, Mr. Xu." Chao Musheng lifted the cat's uninjured paw. "Come on — say thank you to Mr. Xu."

The black cat: "Meow!"

Human. Your servant is obedient.

The cat ate with focused enthusiasm, tail flicking.

The servant's cooking is also acceptable.

"It's late." Xu Chenzhu checked the time. Eleven fifty-five. "I've arranged a vet to come and check the cat in the morning."

"Wonderful!" Chao Musheng's smile reached his eyes.

"Do you want to keep it?" Xu Chenzhu set his sleeves back down. He was technically speaking about the cat. His eyes had not moved from Chao Musheng.

"I..." Chao Musheng hesitated. Little Black was a wanderer — and he was worried it would find its way to someone else who thought black cats were bad luck and meant it harm.

But he was a student. He couldn't be there with it every day.

"You want to keep it, but you're afraid you can't look after it properly?" Xu Chenzhu came closer. His shadow fell across the space. "My home is large. There are people there who look after the house. Whenever you're busy, you can leave the cat with me."

"You like this cat too, Mr. Xu?"

Xu Chenzhu looked at him steadily. "Yes."

Chao Musheng smiled with his whole face. This worked out perfectly.

*

"Two minutes until midnight." Master Xuan looked down at the young man lying on the bed, his expression grave. "Master Chen — when the array activates, there must not be a single black cat anywhere in Chen Garden."

This was a corrupt array — one that drew living energy from a person and transmuted it into fortune. If a black cat, a creature with innate protective power, remained anywhere in the estate, the array wouldn't merely fail. It could rebound onto both Master Xuan and the Chen family.

"Don't worry." Master Chen's eyes were cold. He lit the oil lamp on the table. "A pity this young man was expelled from Jinghua recently — it cost him a share of his scholarly fortune."

He had expended considerable effort getting this useless creature into Jinghua University. He hadn't anticipated that Chen Er would get himself expelled for bullying, sit in a detention facility, and come away with a permanent record.

A person with a good fate who acquired a government case number would see their fortunes diminish by at least three measures.

"Nothing in life is ever perfect — no use insisting on it." Master Xuan glanced at Master Chen's unusually ruddy complexion. "Midnight."

He bit into his index finger, wrote an invocation seal on the paper charm in blood, and pressed it to the head of the bed where Chen Er slept.

Not a bed. An altar.

The candles on the altar moved without wind. Master Xuan took a needle and pressed it into Chen Er's chest, drawing blood to pour into the incense burner. A column of black smoke rose from the burner, curling upward in the still air, waiting for something to answer the call.

[Ding! S-rank anomaly incoming!]

The players scattered across Chen Garden saw the emergency alert in red, oversized text and broke into a cold sweat.

Day two of the instance. They were doing a supernatural horror chase this early?

"Oh no." Curly Hair sat bolt upright. "There really are ghosts in this world!"

She emptied every talisman in her system inventory, threw open the door, and ran for Chao Musheng's building.

When a malevolent entity arrived, it didn't just hunt players — it also drained life energy from any NPC in range. She had to protect Xiao Chao's health bar.

"Wang Xiaozhuan!" You Jiu had been keeping a close eye on Curly Hair as his competition. Watching her run toward the anomaly when an S-rank entity was descending, he called out. "That's an S-rank entity. You want the points that badly? Is your life worth nothing?"

"Get out of my way!" Curly Hair had one objective and no patience. She kept running.

"Curly Hair!" Tiger burst out of a corner, soaked with sweat. "I'm coming with you!"

You Jiu watched the two of them sprint away and was silent for several seconds.

"Idiots."

He turned in the opposite direction. Took a few steps. Stopped.

"...Fine. I want to see what you think you can do against an S-rank entity."

*

"Ink Blob is so impressive — all finished already." Chao Musheng looked at the perfectly clean plate and broke into enthusiastic applause. "You are without question the most remarkable cat in the world."

"Meow!" The black cat lifted its chin with pride.

"Oh, oh my." The small creature's self-satisfaction was so charming that something in Chao Musheng's chest went warm and itchy, and he couldn't stop himself from pulling it into his arms again. "General Ink Blob, magnificent and invincible — with you around, nothing evil can get close. Anyone who says you're bad luck clearly has no idea what they're talking about. You're the luckiest creature there is."

"Meow! Meow!"

Even from within the embrace, the black cat kept its chin elevated.

Human. You have excellent taste. I am exactly this magnificent. I am the Cat King.

*

The clouds covered the moon. Every insect sound across the entire Chen Garden went silent at once, as though the garden had been placed inside a jar and sealed.

Wait. An anomaly wouldn't have this kind of range. The system notification had been wrong.

Someone in this estate was summoning a malevolent god.

You Jiu looked at the sky — a blood moon, the last of its light bleeding through a gap in the clouds — and felt the miasma rolling out from every corner of the garden pressing down on his lungs.

He looked at Curly Hair and Tiger ahead of him, moving fast.

Was this pressure only landing on him?

That made no sense.

*

Master Chen was breathing hard, watching the black smoke coil in the air above him. It was working. The divine presence was descending.

But just as the smoke began to take shape — the clouds parted.

Moonlight fell through the window.

The smoke, which had been building into something, thinned and dissolved in a moment — a few wisps of ordinary gray dispersed across the center of the room.

Master Chen choked. He nearly vomited.

"Where is it?" His voice came out strange. "Where is the divine presence?"

Master Xuan had gone the color of old paper. He couldn't feel a trace of anything divine in the room anymore.

No — it was more accurate to say it was as though the divine presence had never been there at all.

"What happened?" The redness had left Master Chen's face, replaced by the tired lines of his age. "Why did it fail?"

Master Xuan suppressed the blood that had risen to his throat and looked at the person on the altar.

Someone has to take the blame.

"Chen Er's fate wasn't sufficient."

*

"Curly Hair." Tiger had been running flat-out when he noticed the atmosphere shift. He opened his system panel — the anomaly alert was gone. "I think... the anomaly disappeared."

He looked up at a sky that was now clear and full of stars, then at the fish jumping in the pond.

"Who in their right mind summons an entity halfway and then stuffs it back?"

You Jiu — who had just spent a considerable number of points on an emergency protective charm:

"..."

I am a civilized person. I do not use profanity.

Tui.

The one who summoned the evil entity is a COMPLETE AND UTTER DUMBSCALLOP.