Huang Jialing debated on whether she should go in and help Senior Lin when Wen Zhihao arrived.

“Cultivator Huang,” Wen Zhihao greeted.

“Just on time. Disciple Wen, do me a favour and walk into the large enclosure,” Huang Jialing said.

Wen Zhihao raised his eyebrows. “Okay. No need for favours.” Technically, he imposed on her quite a lot... He handed the basket of food for the kittens to Huang Jialing and headed into the large cats’ enclosure.

Wen Zhihao was greeted with the sight of Lin Yijun standing on one side of the enclosure, while all the large cats and Zhou Sheng were standing on the other side. He was taken aback at Lin Yijun’s sudden desperate look his way.

“Disciple Wen!” Lin Yijun winced and then said in a calmer tone, “Disciple Wen, good morning.” He couldn’t help but stare as numerous beasts wandered over to Wen Zhihao. He took a few steps closer.

This time, the cats didn’t move far away, deciding that basking in Wen Zhihao’s aura was more important than avoiding Lin Yijun.

“Senior Lin, Senior Zhou,” Wen Zhihao greeted as he absently patted some of the cats’ furry heads. “Did you come to play with the cats too?”

Lin Yijun slowly walked towards Wen Zhihao. “Yes, Zhou Sheng likes to pet them a lot.”

Zhou Sheng snorted. It was clearly Lin Yijun who wanted to pet them, and he was using Zhou Sheng as an excuse. Zhou Sheng smirked. “Wen Zhihao, Lin Yijun would like to pet a beast too.”

Lin Yijun stiffened. “I…”

Wen Zhihao glanced between the two of them. Something was going on between them. Hmm, what happens when two protagonists meet? What kind of stories have dual protagonists…Buddy comedies? No, friends to enemies to lovers?

Wen Zhihao mentally shrugged. Either way, they had clearly worked out some of their problems and were many more steps away from qi deviation.

“In that case, don’t stand so far away, come closer. They’re not scary at all, are you?” Wen Zhihao directed the last part to a striped cat just as it yawned widely, revealing its sharp teeth. He leaned over and picked up the cat.

“Senior Lin, you can try feeding them food first. This way, you can be extra assured that they won’t hurt you.”

Lin Yijun nodded jerkily. He did have food in his spatial device because he knew that Zhou Sheng liked to eat. He approached the large creature in Wen Zhihao’s arms and held out a piece of meat with a pair of chopsticks.

The cat pouted, but none of the humans there recognised his facial expression. “Meow…” he said, aggrievedly. 

- Since Sleepy Human wants me to be nice, I’ll be nice...for now!

The cat accepted the food. At least it was delicious: rich meat, filled with a smokey flavour. He opened his mouth expectantly and received a second morsel.

“Now try scratching just under the chin first.”

Lin Yijun leaned in and lightly touched the furry chin. I knew it! This cat beast fur is softer!

“Now sit down next to Zhou Sheng.”

Avoiding Zhou Sheng’s eyes, Lin Yijun sat down. This time, he was prepared for the large demonic cat placed down on his lap. Following Wen Zhihao’s instructions, he was able to stroke that soft, soft fur.

Slowly, the cat started to grudgingly purr.

- Haha, traitor cat! You like the snotty human!

- No, it’s because of Sleepy Human, alright???? It feels good!

Lin Yijun was finally able to hug a cat. It was comforting and made most of his embarrassment go away. Look, Zhou Sheng was petting a cat too.

Zhou Sheng looked at Wen Zhihao with new eyes. Look at how easily he was able to deal with Lin Yijun!

“I can see why you like these cats,” Lin Yijun said stiffly to Zhou Sheng.

“They’re certainly different from how they used to be.”

“Yes, some things have changed since you left...”

Wen Zhihao looked at Zhou Sheng and Lin Yijun talking while petting a big cat each. Satisfied that they were conducting self cat-therapy, he moved away from them, laid out some cushions, and sat down.

Many of the cats followed him. With a convenient cat as a backrest, Wen Zhihao examined another defensive-talisman cultivation manual that he had obtained from Senior Qian Jiarui.¹aka Huang Jialing's girlfriend, and senior talisman cultivator (She had raised her eyebrows in askance at his request, as though she was surprised he wanted to study, but had let him borrow some jade slips with information.)

Wen Zhihao soon became engrossed in his work, while Lin Yijun and Zhou Sheng collapsed into an awkward silence. Zhou Sheng cracked first. He stood up.

“I’ll leave first,” he said.

Lin Yijun’s eyes widened. He then exhaled lightly. No matter how much he wanted to go with Zhou Sheng, he still had responsibilities in the Sect. He reluctantly rose to his feet.

The cat gave a little shake and headed directly to Wen Zhihao’s side.

- Sleepy human! I humoured the snotty human, praise me!

Wen Zhihao reached out one absent hand and petted the cat on the head, resulting in a happy purr.

Meanwhile, Lin Yijun took out a rare magical treasure from his spatial device: a pair of connected transmission discs. These discs were capable of secure communication thousands of li apart.

“Before you go, please accept this.” He held one out to Zhou Sheng. “In this way, you can contact me whenever you need help, or whenever you’re nearby.”

Zhou Sheng stared at the golden discs suspiciously. “And so you can track me?” he said drily.

Lin Yijun winced. “As long as you keep it in a spatial device, it won’t be traceable. And you can track me.”

“Fine, whatever.” Zhou Sheng accepted one disc and immediately put it away.

“I’ll escort you out,” Lin Yijun offered. The two of them farewelled Wen Zhihao and left.

Wen Zhihao immediately felt cosier. But he valiantly kept his eyes open: he needed to write good talismans for Xiao Yu!

 

---

 

Around noon, Huang Jialing came back to the enclosures after dealing with some administration elsewhere in the Sect. Wen Zhihao’s cart flew overhead.

Huang Jialing was about to head into the main building when she saw a demonic cat opening one of the gates.

The cat paused, blinked innocently, and slowly closed the gate.

With a deadpan face, Huang Jialing strode forward and undid the clearly useless magical array on the gate that was supposed to keep the beasts in. She opened the gate and gave the cats a stern look. “If you want to go after Disciple Wen, then go as you please,” she said. “Some of you are big enough to head out into the world by yourself.”

The cats had the grace to give her a guilty look. Not bothering, Huang Jialing left them.

Aside from Wen Zhihao’s frequent visits, along with his charges, Disciple Wang Li Wei would always come before and after any stressful event, and Cultivator Zhang Wu would drop by whenever he was starting to get angry. And now, Wen Zhihao had taught Zhou Sheng and Lin Yijun how to enter as well.

At this rate, she should take down the walls altogether and permanently install a pavilion for all these visitors. Normally, this would be dangerous for the cultivators...but with Wen Zhihao’s influence, these demonic beasts no longer had such violent tendencies.

---

One week later, when Zhou Sheng returned, he found that the lattice wall of the enclosures had drastically decreased in height and had become a frame for curling plants instead. He strolled right through the open gate.

A pavilion, a fish pond, trees, climbing frames...these new additions were all visible. There were also many demonic cats and many humans.

“Ahh! Uncle! Little Uncle!” Ah-Yi ran towards Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu who were reclining in the shade of a tree.

“Watch out—” Xiao Bai followed behind him, worried.

Too late, Ah-Yi tripped over a cat’s tail and face-planted right into golden fur. The tail curled up and patted him on the back. Ah-Yi giggled and pushed himself upright. “Little Uncle, someone else is here!”

“Your uncle is sleeping,” Sun Fuyu said.

“I’m awake now,” Wen Zhihao said, yawning. He soon spotted Zhou Sheng. “Senior Zhou, Senior Lin is just behind the pavilion.”

“...Yes. First, let me give this to you: the completed talisman copier you wanted.”

Wen Zhihao’s eyes lit up. “Good, good,” he accepted the sleek box. He grinned. It even looked like a printer! “Li Fanghua is a genius,” he said.

Zhou Sheng left Wen Zhihao to explain the magical treasure to Sun Fuyu and curious children. Behind the pavilion, Zhou Sheng found Lin Yijun with a demonic wolf with a swishy tail on his lap and an equally dark-furred cat staring at them, looking like she’d pounce on that wagging tail any moment now.

Lin Yijun straightened his back, his relaxed expression becoming serious. “Good afternoon, Zhou Sheng. I can prepare some spiritual tea.”

“Just tea?” Zhou Sheng made a face.

Lin Yijun quickly added, “I also have dumplings, if you’d like.”

“You gave me dumplings the entire time last week, I want something different,” Zhou Sheng said.

Lin Yijun froze. “...Oh,” he said in a tiny voice. He had latched onto the one dish that he knew Zhou Sheng had liked and didn’t know anything else. But it was too late to ask Wen Zhihao…

“There is no need, I bought some food.” Zhou Sheng’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Have you ever tried fried stinky tofu?”

“I can’t say I have.”

“Then you have to try.”

The wolf and cat: QAQ!!

The demonic wolf and demonic cat fled from the scent, noses twitching. They’ll find some other humans to fulfil their petting needs, thanks!

 

 

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Lin Yijun, staring after the fleeing wolf and cat: No...don’t leave me alone!!

Zhou Sheng: *evil smirk*

Author after this chapter: *hiding emoji*