The Flower Of The High Mountain Turns Into A Cat And Is Picked Up By A Human Chapter 58
byA new educated youth arrived in the village.
That’s how the rumor spread, full of mystery, claiming this person had an astonishingly powerful background, was chauffeured by leaders, and upon his arrival, too many people wanted to curry favor with him—even the village chief couldn’t get an appointment.
Tong Youchun watched from afar and saw the educated youth. He was quite tall, but too pale and handsome, completely lacking in masculine vigor, a total pretty boy.
In his words: “Why would a mighty river dragon insist on crossing a shallow stream? Be careful, you might arrive alive but never leave.”
It snowed.
A heavy snowstorm.
Tong Youchun rubbed his arms, exhaled a puff of air, and wiped a circle on the windowpane, seeing a vast expanse of white outside.
He pushed the door open. It didn’t budge at first, so he used more force. As the door swung open, he heard a cat’s meow.
“A cat?”
A trembling white cat was huddled behind the door, covered in snow.
Seeing him appear, the white cat meowed sweetly and delicately, begging for food, clearly starving.
Tong Youchun spat on the ground.
“A pretty boy came to the village, and a white-furred beast came to the door.”
He suddenly remembered something.
“Little beast, you must be hungry.”
Tong Youchun went back inside, fetched a broken bowl, and poured in some leftover food that had been sitting for who knows how many days. The oily broth had changed color and emitted a foul odor.
As a bachelor, he only had himself to feed, so he was willing to eat well, and the leftover soup base still contained oil, though it had unfortunately spoiled.
Tong Youchun nudged the white cat with his toe.
“Stupid thing.”
He set the bowl on the ground.
“Chop, chop, eat up.”
“Mr. Heng, I’ve already had the broadcasting station staff write the script; it will air shortly. The people in our village are simple and kind; even if they see a stray cat, they’ll feed it. You were right to come to our Lishi Village!”
The village chief of Lishi Village finally got the chance to fawn over Mr. Heng, the leader from the capital. He bowed and scraped, terrified of saying the wrong thing and displeasing the man.
He heard that this leader had gone to great lengths, all to find a white cat.
Searching from Wei Village to Liu Village, he finally arrived at their Lishi Village. The town mayor and city leaders had all visited, instructing him to help wholeheartedly and ensure no neglect.
Heng Yuze hurried along, searching house by house.
The village chief was getting on in years, but his body was still sturdy. He struggled to keep up with Mr. Heng’s pace, still trying to persuade him: “Mr. Heng, I’ve already sent people to help search. Please be careful not to overexert yourself.”
Heng Yuze had heard too much of this chatter over the past few days. The initial anxiety of not finding Bai Chendeng had gradually taught him the skill of ignoring these people, focusing only on the search.
“Have you asked all the households in the village that keep cats?”
The village chief carefully replied: “We’ve sent people to ask everyone.”
Heng Yuze narrowed his eyes, reaching into his pocket to grip a bamboo slip—the one the person in the sedan chair had given Bai Chendeng half a year ago.
Somehow, this slip had accompanied him here, and he had transformed, gaining the identity of a high-ranking official in the Administration Bureau.
Heng Yuze looked at the heavy snow still falling, swirling and scattering, making the landscape shimmer with silver light.
The snow fell abruptly.
As if foreshadowing something.
Heng Yuze asked, “Are all the households in the village located here?”
The village chief paused: “There are a few households that live further out.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier? Take me there now!”
Heng Yuze was thoroughly disgusted with the old man. When he arrived in Lishi Village yesterday, the chief had been evasive, trying every way to persuade him: it was getting late, better to rest and search the next day. As a result, it snowed overnight, and this morning the wind was bitterly cold.
Where was Bai Chendeng now?
He dared not dwell on it, afraid that pity and heartache would overwhelm him.
The white cat was starving. It had smelled the faint scent of meat and oil coming from the bachelor’s house and had waited by the door all night.
After Tong Youchun set down the bowl, the white cat instinctively lowered its head to the broken dish, about to swallow the spoiled food.
“Bang—”
The broken bowl was swiftly snatched away by a hand and thrown directly at Tong Youchun’s face.
How dare he?
How dare you?!
Heng Yuze had run over almost desperately, red blood vessels spreading across his eyes like a spiderweb.
After taking only a second to deal with Tong Youchun, Heng Yuze’s attention was entirely focused on the miserable, dying little white cat.
Seeing the cat look confused after the bowl was yanked away, he rubbed his trembling hands on his clothes, then cautiously extended his hand toward the white cat.
The white cat had frozen, showing no intention of fleeing. It merely sniffed the hand Heng Yuze offered.
Heng Yuze said in a shaky voice, “Don’t be afraid…”
He carefully and reverently picked up the white cat, pulled open his cotton coat, placed the cat against his warm chest, and then tightened his clothing around it.
Just as he had tucked the white cat into his coat years ago.
Snow had fallen on the white cat, and it quickly melted, bringing a damp chill.
But Heng Yuze felt as if he had found his lost heart, finally looking somewhat alive again.
Bai Chendeng.
Heng Yuze thought.
I found you.
Tong Youchun was hit by the broken bowl; his face and chest were splattered with the spoiled oily broth. His cheekbone was even bruised, swelling into a circle on his face, looking utterly ridiculous.
At that moment, he didn’t care about the leader from the capital. Seeing Heng Yuze clutch the cat to his chest as if possessed, malice welled up in him. He clenched his fist and charged forward.
The village chief, panting heavily, had just reached the courtyard gate. Seeing this scene, he yelled at the top of his lungs, “Tong Youchun, stop right there, damn you!”
Although Heng Yuze had his back to Tong Youchun, it was as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He dodged the incoming punch with a swift movement.
He glanced at the village chief, then looked at Tong Youchun, who nearly stumbled after missing his punch, and a smile appeared on his face.
“You intend to strike me?”
The smile didn’t reach his eyes.
The village chief was simultaneously cursing and telling Tong Youchun to stop. Tong Youchun’s sudden burst of courage instantly dissipated. He shrank his neck and fearfully said, “Chief, the… the chief…”
Heng Yuze addressed the village chief: “You saw it, didn’t you? He tried to attack me.”
The position of village chief was not easy to hold, and those who managed to keep it were quick to understand things. One second, two seconds—the chief stopped, his nostrils flaring. He took a deep breath, his eyes slowly shifting to look at Tong Youchun.
No matter how many times Tong Youchun saw it, he felt the village chief’s gaze was like that of a wolf descending from the mountains in winter, sending shivers down his spine.
“Tong Youchun!! You heartless beast, have you eaten the guts of a bear and a leopard! How dare you attack Mr. Heng without provocation!”
Tong Youchun was slapped with a major accusation of defiance, leaving him utterly bewildered.
“No… no, Chief, he was the one who first…”
The village chief’s gaping mouth almost swallowed Tong Youchun’s faint voice.
“Shut up! Are you still arguing! Still arguing?!”
Without needing Heng Yuze to lift a finger, the village chief had already picked up a piece of firewood from the yard and began heavily striking Tong Youchun’s back, blow after blow.
Throughout, Tong Youchun did not resist. Facing the village chief, whose authority had long been established, he was like a quail, huddled in place, begging pitifully for mercy.
Seeing him like this, Heng Yuze suddenly lost interest.
The white cat gradually regained consciousness in his warm embrace, curling itself up.
Heng Yuze saw tufts of white fur trembling with its breathing through the gap in his coat.
This is wonderful.
I found you.
Tong Youchun was not a brave man. He couldn’t find a wife and couldn’t integrate into the main village community. For him, the few families in the village, led by the Wang family in the west, were already a group he couldn’t afford to provoke, let alone the village chief.
He dared to harm a cat in this cold winter.
Yet, when facing the village chief, who wrongly accused him and beat him with a stick, he could only grovel, unable to muster the slightest thought of resistance.
He was merely a man like this.
Just a man like this.
Heng Yuze stroked the cat through his cotton coat, gently coaxing, “Bai Chendeng, my dear, let’s go…”
Seeing Heng Yuze’s back disappear, the village chief also put down the firewood.
After steadying his breathing, he didn’t even look at Tong Youchun, turning instead to chase after Heng Yuze.
Tong Youchun was left lying in the snow, watching the snowflakes fall.
It hurt so much.
Inside the house, a warm stove fire dispelled the cold.
Heng Yuze skillfully managed the earthen stove, using the meat, eggs, and flour stored at the village chief’s house to prepare food. The aroma drifted out, making the neighbors swallow hard in envy.
The white cat was wrapped in a jacket and placed in a spot with a comfortable temperature.
After seeing the white cat regain some vitality after eating, Heng Yuze used a sparse wooden comb to gently groom its fur. When he encountered tangles, he used his hands to rub open the matted sections.
It took a full two hours before the white cat’s long fur became smooth and soft.
They sat by the charcoal basin to warm up, and Heng Yuze used a damp towel to gently wipe Bai Chendeng.
The moisture quickly evaporated in the dry and warm room. Soon, a beautiful, pristine white cat appeared before him.
Heng Yuze whispered, “My dear.”
“Mine, my dear.”
As he uttered the word “mine,” Heng Yuze’s ears immediately flushed red.
The white cat lay on his lap, its sapphire eyes brighter than the sky.
“Meow…”
Under Heng Yuze’s skilled petting, the white cat narrowed its eyes and purred in its throat, but quickly stopped, refusing to make another sound no matter how hard Heng Yuze tried.
Heng Yuze held the cat, gently lifted it, brought it close, touched its nose, and softly murmured, “My dear, I’m here.”
Bai Chendeng’s paws moved slightly, letting out a faint “meow.”
The new high-ranking leader in Lishi Village had found his cat.
When the village chief delivered meat and vegetables, he saw the cleaned-up Bai Chendeng. Its fur was fluffy and soft, concealing its thin body. It had no stray hairs, a white and pink little face, and eyes that were a deep blue, more beautiful than any cat in a calendar painting.
“No wonder, it really is a cat from the capital. It’s so beautiful.”
Heng Yuze didn’t correct him. Let him misunderstand.
The village chief pondered, then whispered, “Tong Youchun made a mistake, Mr. Heng, what do you think…”
Heng Yuze didn’t turn his head, merely sorting the ingredients: “Follow the village rules. Do whatever needs to be done. I am not a tyrant.”
The village chief understood.
The white cat stepped onto the edge of the stove, looking like a cloud, much more energetic. It was a world of difference from its dirty, pitiful appearance in the snow.
And perhaps it was just his biased perspective, but he felt the cat had changed. It was as if before it was just an ordinary, muddled cat, but now it possessed a hint of spiritual energy. With just one look, one knew it was extraordinary, like the animals rumored to have gained sentience in the Remote Mountains and Forests.
So, when the village chief returned home, he told his wife that the cat was not simple, that it might have become an immortal and was undergoing tribulation.
In the following days, when Heng Yuze held Bai Chendeng to sunbathe, he noticed more people passing by the courtyard.
Bai Chendeng was like a puddle of water, flowing in his arms, its tail hanging down, occasionally twitching slightly. It was so white in the sun that it seemed to glow.
The villagers saw it with their own eyes and believed it implicitly.
“It’s achieved immortality, I saw it, it even glows!”
“Really?”
“Yes, yes!”
Heng Yuze stayed in Lishi Village for one week. During this week, Bai Chendeng ate five meals a day, consuming all the village chief’s reserves. Yet, it didn’t gain weight; instead, its fur became increasingly lustrous. It remained a puffy, non-solid mass, pitiful yet adorable, like a giant dandelion when held.
A week later, the Administration Bureau’s car arrived. Heng Yuze briefly negotiated the village chief’s request to repair the ancestral shrine and hold a ceremony. As the car drove away, the scene flashed past—he seemed to see Tong Youchun huddled in a corner like a drowned dog.
Heng Yuze picked up Bai Chendeng and moved him to the other side of the car window to look at the scenery.
“My dear, shall we go pick grapes to eat next?”
His fingers gently massaged the cat’s neck.
Bai Chendeng’s ears twitched.
“Meow.”
Yes.