Jin shuts the door of the car and lays back in the seat.

He has a few pictures in his hand too, which catches my attention. Then, Jin turns around only to see the bitter face of Liu Meiling.

"What? What is it now?" He asks, confused.

Liu keeps staring at Jin with a bitter look on her face. "Absolutely nothing… Fool."

Jin sighs.

Poor guy, though. He doesn't even know anything, and yet he's the victim.

"Anyways, I got some information on that 'cat' this guy mentioned, Liu. Apparently, this cat is so fast even the images taken from the security cameras are blurred."

Jin takes out the pictures and hands them out to us. I take two of those and check them thoroughly.

What he said is quite true. The cat's movements are blurred, and all we can see is a pitch black shadow of some quite large cat. This so-called 'cat' is apparently the size of a tiger.

"This is a cat?" I ask, looking up at Jin.

"The old man said the cat meowed. So, I guess it is?" Jin replies, grimacing with that cute face of Min Garou.

I ponder if an old man could hear that well. Probably not. And that'll probably turn out to be a spirit tiger, not a spirit cat. This is usually how shenanigans go wrong.

"Hmm… it doesn't matter," Liu adds her words of encouragement. "No matter the odds, we can defeat this thing. It's a cat… what could go wrong?" A slight tinge of fear echoes behind her voice.

I sigh, along with Jin.

"Well, we can never know until we get to it," I add.

All three of us are clearly nervous. But we didn't come this far just to back down. After all, to be on the top of the food chain, I must defeat the tigers too.

"Xin's right," Jin nods. "…and also –"

Jin stops speaking halfway through his words.

"Also?" Liu repeats, raising her eyebrow.

"I can't keep up this form for more than 1 hour. If I don't shift back right now, we can't change back to my mom… and I'll lose all my Qi."

Liu sighs. "Fine… Change back to your usual sucker self then."

She opens the door of the car and steps out. Suddenly, she turns her head again.

"Oh – what happened to the old geezer? Didn't he say he'll be of any help?"

"I told him I'd bring the head of the little cat," Min Garou smirks.

As they converse, I keep my eyes set on the breasts of Min Garou. But – I am easily weirded out when Jin smirks.

Liu closes the door and walks away from the car. Only I and Jin Garou's shifted form remains.

Jin turns to me. "You're a boy; you can stay."

I smile at him. 'Yeah, but I'm only staying because of one thing…' I say inwardly.

'I desperately need to see those breasts of this Min Garou. She seems hot.'

Jin turns around, and without taking his shirt off, he keeps his hands together. I wait intently for him to take off his clothes and –

"Release my form!" He cries out, and all of the Qi that surrounds him suddenly suppresses back into him.

Suddenly, smoke covers the entire vehicle. I cover my mouth with the back of my hand and gaze at Jin's mom taking off her shirt.

Though – all I see is a little boy wearing a huge shirt that's probably too heavy for him to wear.

The pants instantly fall down only for my eyes to perceive a small white ass. I open the door and step out of the car.

I'm not into that… no.

///

We three walk into the forest, flashing our torches to look out for snakes – and the very swift spirit cat.

Jin Garou has his Mom's sword sheathed on his belt. Liu Meiling's holding a long dagger in her left hand. And I'm cultivating my Qi to get ready to blast the spirit cat whenever I see it with my freeze spell.

"Wow, you gather Qi pretty quick," Liu says to me as we walk through the undergrowth.

I feel humbled upon fearing this. "Kinda… But I have my flaws."

"Everyone has flaws," she adds. Behind me, Jin is flashing the torch up on the trees.

"Keep your eyes on the tree tops too… It might be waiting for us," he says in a spooky way.

The moonlight escapes through the tiny spaces among the leaves. It looks like needles of light pinned into the forest itself.

As I go through these needles, I feel as if Mother Moon's watching over me. Of course. She must be.

'Hmm… I wonder what she'll think of me doing this stuff…' I think as I hop over a bush.

Now, we have gone pretty deep into the undergrowth. We were walking for quite a while, after all. The data signals in my phone are gradually dropping. That only meant we came quite a distance into the forest.

I check the time, and it's already 8.30 pm. If we catch this cat within the next 30 minutes, we'll have enough time to get home and act like we're good kids. But I wonder if we'll ever be able to find this thing in 30 minutes, judging from how things are going on right now.

"We're losing signals, huh?" Liu finally notices.

"Yeah," I reply. "Where is this cat…? I can't really feel any Qi near us. Do you think it's close?"

"I don't know… But I think spirit cats stick around where food is. The chicken coop was full, no? That means it's still here to feed on the remainders." Liu explains, flashing the torch on a bat that flies out of a tree.

She's done her homework on this. Spirit cats tend to stick around their prey until they have a need to move on. I've seen an article about these on the internet. They are a common threat in Xian. Especially near forests.

Suddenly, I feel a chilling feeling enveloping me. This feeling is far too familiar to me to leave it unnoticed.

"Mom…" I whisper under my breath.

"Huh?" Jin and Liu turn to me all of a sudden with confused expressions.

"Huh?" I hesitate for a bit, wondering if they actually heard me. Though, it seems that isn't the case. So, we continue on our way.

'Mom is here… for sure,' I say to myself inwardly. Every beam of moonlight that touches me makes me feel even colder. She is certainly watching over me, and she might just be mad.

'I hope she doesn't yell at me or something.'

"Yell at you?"

I stop in my tracks. 'That's – that's her voice!'

"It is my voice… but only my voice," Chang'e speaks. Jin and Liu continue their way into the forest as I seize all movement. They don't notice the voice of Chang'e.

"Don't worry. Only you can hear my voice. It's inside your head."

'My head? That's why you're able to hear my thoughts… wait – why are you able to hear my thoughts??'

"You are my child, dear. That means you're not entirely mortal. We share special connections, no?"

'I guess… but – are you mad?' I ask her, gulping.

"No, no… why would I be? I just came here and saw you wandering around in the woods. So, my dear… would you care to explain why in the name of God you are wandering in the woods alone at night?"

I grimace upon hearing this.

The two moving from the front suddenly turn around upon noticing that I have slowed down.

"Hey, Xin… is something the matter?" Liu calls out to me, shining her torch on me.

I shake my head. "No – just, you guys go on ahead. I just thought that it might be good to keep an eye on our back too, you know."

"Well… ok, be careful. Scream out if you see anything… ok?" Jin yells out from the very front.

"Ok…" I reply, walking on.

"Mister… are you going to explain to me or not?" Chang'e asks again. I can already feel that she's mad.

For the first time in my life, I've been a bad boy.

//Author's Note//

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