Ch23 - Awareness of Supporting the Family

Raising a human is so taxing. 

Editor: Vez 

If Miwu has no money, will he have no food to eat?

Sparta thought about it for the first time. Miwu was very powerful. He could always make a can appear out of thin air. What was even more amazing was that he could open the cans. Sparta spoke from experience. He had once tried opening cans with his teeth and claws, and every attempt ended in failure. Such a powerful human. Sparta had never worried about his food. If Miwu is hungry, he could also open a can to eat! Until Dai Mochi told him that most humans do not eat cans that it dawned on Sparta that his human might be starving. This insight quickly made Sparta nervous. First, he needed to understand what humans ate, so he decided to monitor his human’s eating from today on.

Xin Qin noticed that his Dragon Li suddenly became interested in his food for some reason. He had been studying books in regards to caring for cats and learned that in most cases, cats could not eat human food. He had always been careful in this regard, but Sparta had never shown interest before, so he did not go out of his way to hide his food. But at breakfast today, Sparta was surprisingly not absorbed in the cat food in his bowl. Instead, the cat jumped onto the table and began to pace around his breakfast. Xin Qin’s breakfast today was egg pancake roll and millet porridge with pickled veggies on the side. He had bought the still steaming food from a breakfast stall by the neighbourhood’s entrance.

Hmm…it doesn’t smell very delicious, and there is no meat! Sparta hesitantly stretched out his paw and padded at the container holding the human’s food. Very hot, very soft looking. Sniff, there is a strange smell. I don’t really want to try it, but I am curious about its taste. 

Xin Qin had been focusing on Sparta’s every action. Just as the Dragon Li opened his mouth for a bite of the egg pancake roll, he reached out and took the plate away. “You cannot eat it.” Xin Qin used a very firm tone to tell Sparta that cats could not touch people’s food at will. But the Dragon Li mewed softly and leaned over to rub his arm, as if insisting on a taste. It was hard for Xin Qin to refuse as he scooped a small spoonful of millet porridge, blowing it to cool it down before putting it under the cat’s nose. “You can lick this, but I am sure you will soon find that your cat food tastes much better.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Sparta tilted his head. The smell of this thing is too mild, I want to taste the other one. Meow, oh well. I will give this one a try for now. He twitched his whiskers as he found the best angle and gave a gentle lick to the food handed to him by his human. Well, it does not taste very good.

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Sparta jumped off the table and came to his bowl. This cat food that Miwu bought him smelled very good. His favourite. It contained chicken, yum. Now that he had the concept of money and procuring, he realised that such delicious cat food must be costly. His Miwu must have spent a fortune to take care of him, leaving himself nothing to buy delicious food. If this continues, will Miwu starve to death? Sparta became more dejected the more he thought. He stared at his cat kibbles quietly for a long time. Then he bumped his head to the ground with a dong and the big gold chain on his neck clanged on the ceramic tile, getting lost deep into his thoughts.

After eating breakfast, Xin Qin found Sparta lying strongly in front of his food bowl and it appeared not one bite was taken on the cat food. This surprised him. Sparta always ate well and cherished food. There was never a time when the cat did not eat. He squatted down in worry, caressed Sparta’s back and asked, “Why didn’t you eat? Are you not feeling well? Or you don’t like this one anymore?” The Dragon Li remained motionless and continued to lie face down on the ground. Frowning with worry, Xin Qin got up and looked for a can. Canned chicken and salmon, Sparta’s absolute favourite. Holding the can, he walked up to Sparta and shook it in the cat’s face, trying to attract the Dragon Li’s attention. Surprisingly, Sparta raised his head, glanced at the can before quickly running away, leaving a confused Xin Qin. 

Miwu, I will not eat cans! Cans are so expensive! I will never eat cans again!

Sparta had thought this through and was forming a plan to even catch mice for his human. Mice are delicious and nutritious. His mother told him that kittens need to eat mice to grow strong teeth. Miwu could be healthy after eating mice as well! Unfortunately, they lived in the city. He also noticed when he first came to Miwu’s house that there were very few traces of mice. At that time, it did not bother him as there was food to eat and water to drink, as well as fake mouse toys to play with daily. But now he had a headache wanting to catch a fat rodent for his human. Where can I catch a mouse for Miwu!?

Once evening arrived, Sparta surfed the internet in secret and came across Dai Mochi, who was also a night owl. He brought up his doubts and seeked the black cat’s help. Unexpectedly, after listening to him, Mochi just chuckled and did not provide the help he had expected. “Don’t you go out wasting your energy on hunting mice. Your human can’t eat mice.”

Sparta was even more anxious. “Then what can he eat? Could he eat sparrows? Hmm, sparrows are delicious as well. If I can go out, catching a rabbit for him is doable as well.” 

Inside, Dai Mochi thought about how rabbits could be eaten, but he doubted Sparta’s human would eat it. He yawned, stopped the frantic Sparta and asked, “Have you forgotten the main purpose I told you before?”

What main purpose? Sparta’s ears twitched.

“Making money. If you can make money for your human, you won’t have to think about catching mice or sparrows for him. He could buy food with that money.”

Sparta thought for a moment and asked, “Can money buy cans that humans eat?” 

Dai Mochi nodded. “I am pretty sure.”

“Then I want to make money!” Sparta puffed out his chest and meowed loudly, “I am going to buy a lot of cans for my human till he is plump and happy! He already lacks fur. If there is no meat on him, he will freeze to death in winter.”

Dai Mochi was not in a hurry to correct the Dragon Li cat, instead, he swayed his tail and encouraged him, “You can ask your human to take more pictures of you. This will help you gain more popularity.”

Sparta’s eyes shined as he held his head high with confidence. Then as if he remembered something, he lowered his head and quietly asked Dai Mochi, “But in the past, when humans from the shelter took pictures of me, they did not look very happy with them, and I could not find a human family by relying on my picture. Does that mean my picture is not good-looking? If so, will Miwu be made fun of by other humans with my picture? I do not want him to be laughed at by other humans.” 

Dai Mochi’s whiskers twitched and pondered. “Hmm—no way. As long as you show a super meng pose, you will soon be more popular and famous than you are now.”

“What is a super meng pose?” Sparta asked modestly.

“That is—” Dai Mochi scratched the back of his ear. “Oh, aren’t you going to primary school soon? They will teach you how to be meng.”

Two days later, Sparta received a new mail from Mr. Jay: The admission notice of Cat Primary School. Mr. Jay shouted congratulations to the Dragon Li cat, and then read out the primary school’s appendix for him. 

—Cat Primary School, the lower stage of Cat School, mainly teaches selling meng, acting coquettishly, and captivating humans, so as to guide and control humans to achieve the cat’s goal. 

Mr. Jay also brought the prepared lesson. All cats attending the primary school were required to learn the specified three movements before the class starts: showing belly, stretching paws and tilting head. None of these are very difficult or foreign to cats. However, cats needed to determine the best time to execute these three movements to their human and summarise the human’s reactions before and after. The first class would be a class discussion under the teacher’s guidance. Everyone had to share their experience and what they learned.

Sparta internally huffed, this is not very difficult. That night, he found the opportunity to finish his homework. He even thought about streamlining them, breaking down the three actions and then integrating them into a set of actions. This was going to be easy, meow. 

Xin Qin turned off the headlights in the living room, planning to take Sparta to the gaming room. Sparta had a sudden loss of appetite before and then suddenly got better, like that never had happened. Feeling troubled, Xin Qin found an online platform with paid consultation and specially asked about it to a pet doctor. Online doctor could not give him a reason, but if other indicators were normal, the cat’s appetite would return. Generally speaking, this should not be a serious problem. Sometimes cats have some unexplained anomalies. Owners should pay more attention and spend more time with their pets. 

So Xin Qin decided to take his Dragon Li with him when playing games every day and let the cat stay with him. Fortunately, Sparta was very sensible. Except for occasionally naughty and mischievous behaviours, the cat stayed well-behaved most of the time, playing with his toys by himself or napping.

When the light suddenly went out, Sparta turned his head curiously. He heard the human was talking to him so he meowed back. The floor lamp was still on, illuminating the room in its dim and warm yellow light. His Miwu stood in the warm light and gently called him. Sparta suddenly wanted to purr. He fell to the ground and rolled, revealing his pale-coloured belly with faint stripes. The big gold chain followed his movement and was instantly buried in his fluffy furs. He stretched out two round paws and folded them closed to his chest, opening his paws and grabbing the air. Then he tilted his head and looked at his human. Inside, he gave himself a full mark.

Miwu, come and take a picture of me. This way, we can have popularity and buy cans for you to eat. 

Sparta watched the man walk towards himself, squat down and rub on his belly. Meow, ticklish. Sparta wanted to laugh. He rolled over and pressed the human’s hand under his belly. Miwu picked him up, caressed his fur more softly than usual and talked to him. He felt so comfortable in Miwu’s arms. Arching his mushy body up, he bent his neck and got a perfect view of the window. The curtains were not drawn completely, letting light come in. He stared at the bright gap in a daze. Then, he noticed that the moon today was beautiful, just like the moon he often saw in his abandoned factory in the countryside. He meowed out unconsciously. 

Xin Qin found that his cat was distracted. Following the cat’s eyes, he found that the moonlight was particularly bright tonight. Out of the blue, he went to the window and opened the curtains with his cats in his arms. The moonlight was like water, casting its light on the Dragon Li cat’s fluffy body. Sparta seemed very happy, rhythmically waving his tail.

Miwu, look, there is moonlight on the tip of my tail. Sparta purred.

Xin Qin lowered his head and looked at his Dragon Li cat.

“I love you as well, my darling.” 

Jiu!