Chapter 17: Seeking Death
They had always been together, but the little kitten mostly stayed on him, hidden in his blind spot where he couldn't see the kitten at all.
After saying those sentimental words, he added in his heart, *Maybe, when it grows up, it'll be eaten and I'll never see it again?*
For now, he could still take a few more glances whenever possible.
After all, they’re the cutest when they’re young, a bit adorable too.
Chu Wenmao didn't expect Zhang Chang to suddenly want to look at him.
Was this some sudden overflow of fatherly love?
He cautiously looked at Zhang Chang, who was bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight, "Why are you looking at me?"
"You're on me, it makes me look like I'm talking to myself," Zhang Chang made up an excuse on the spot.
In the past, when hunting, he had always been alone, quietly waiting for prey to take the bait, without any mind to observe other animals.
Now, with the little kitten constantly reminding him it’s around, he just wanted to take a look at it.
"Anyway, it’s just the two of us," Chu Wenmao cautiously glanced around, unsure, "Or... is it?"
Just as he finished speaking, the sound of rapid running came from not far away—a rabbit was being chased by a fox.
Chu Wenmao wasn’t sure if this red fox was the one that seemed to know too much. It didn’t exactly look the same.
Zhang Chang wasn’t particularly interested in catching foxes, mainly because foxes liked to play dirty tricks.
The glands near a fox's tail could secrete a nauseating odor that made all animals choke. It was so repulsive that even the stomach would involuntarily try to vomit.
Even if you caught a fox in the end, the thought of eating fox meat would be gone.
That's why foxes lived relatively comfortably in the forest.
But if the little kitten wanted to try fox meat, it wasn’t entirely out of the question.
"Do you want to eat it?"
"Are you asking about the rabbit or the fox?" Chu Wenmao blinked and asked.
A fox that knows too much is bound to be silenced.
"Whichever one you want to eat, I’ll catch it," Zhang Chang replied nonchalantly. He could beat them both, though the fox would be more troublesome.
Before Chu Wenmao could make a choice, the rabbit, while looking back at the pursuing fox, didn’t notice what was ahead and with a *thud*, ran straight into a tree not far from Zhang Chang.
Was this the legendary "waiting by the tree for a rabbit"?
They didn’t even have to lift a finger; the rabbit would knock itself out on the tree and die.
Chu Wenmao’s green eyes lit up instantly.
What did this mean?!
It meant this rabbit was fated for him!
Without thinking twice, he dashed out from behind the tree, grabbed the rabbit in his mouth, and ran, even as the fox behind him howled in anger:
"That’s my rabbit! You little brat, put it down!"
Chu Wenmao ignored the fox’s furious roars, dropped the rabbit in front of Zhang Chang, then immediately jumped onto Zhang Chang's back.
Hiding on Zhang Chang made him feel like he had a protective charm, standing tall and glaring at the fox as if saying, *Come on if you dare.*
Though he couldn’t beat the fox, Zhang Chang certainly could.
The fox, seeing the fierce lynx, stopped in its tracks. Zhang Chang said nothing, but simply nudged the rabbit meat closer to himself.
His meaning was clear: *This is my kitten’s catch, so it’s mine.*
The fox, after some thought, decided to back off.
A male lynx like Zhang Chang was best avoided if possible. In fact, carnivores rarely clashed face to face, except for lynxes and wolf packs.
Seeing the fox retreat, Chu Wenmao was ready to smugly jump down and inspect the rabbit meat that had practically fallen into their lap when Zhang Chang said softly:
"Hold on tight."
Zhang Chang didn’t actually intend to catch the fox, but foxes were sly and treacherous. He feared this one might go and inform the wolf pack.
The fox hadn’t expected that even after surrendering, the lynx would chase him down, kicking him over and pinning his tail.
"Wait, wait, wait!" The fox cried out urgently, "I know what you're worried about, but you don’t need to be."
"I won’t go tell the wolf pack your whereabouts."
"That wolf pack is no friend of mine. If I tell them, they’ll eat me instead!"
Zhang Chang ignored him and asked the kitten on his back, "Want to eat fox meat?"
"Will it cause trouble if we let him go?" Chu Wenmao, now starting to smell the fox's typical foul odor, didn’t even want the tail, let alone the meat.
The more he smelled it, the worse it got. He buried his face deep into Zhang Chang’s fur and took a deep breath to feel better.
With his face buried, his voice came out muffled, "He smells awful. I don’t want to eat him."
Fox: "!!!" How rude!
For the sake of his life, the fox endured.
Zhang Chang had smelled the stench too. Covering his nose with one paw, he said to the little kitten, "Go hide behind the tree."
Foxes were cunning, and he had decided to kill this one, not for himself, but because he feared the kitten would vomit uncontrollably from the stench.
Upon hearing this, Chu Wenmao lifted his head. He could almost guess that Zhang Chang was planning to kill the fox, and the ever-doubtful fox guessed it too.
Before the lynx cub could jump off Zhang Chang’s back, the fox's tail twitched slightly, and it began to release its escape-inducing stench.
Amidst the sound of dry heaving, Zhang Chang’s paw lifted off the fox’s tail, and the fox seized the opportunity to escape.
Zhang Chang realized that if he didn’t let go, the kitten might die from the unbearable stench.
Ignoring the fleeing fox, he immediately turned and ran, escaping the area now polluted by the fox's foul smell.
"Blegh, blegh!" Chu Wenmao arched his back, thinking the stench was worse than a public restroom.
Even though the air was much fresher now, he couldn’t stop dry heaving.
He almost wanted to throw up the meat he’d eaten at lunchtime.
Zhang Chang fared a little better than Chu Wenmao. He stood nearby, gently patting the kitten's back with his large paw.
Chu Wenmao was so sick from vomiting that the whole cat seemed unwell, and he let out a long sigh as he sat down, still feeling that awful stench lingering. It felt like it had seeped into his very bones.
He lowered his head to sniff his paws and nearly threw up again.
"Blegh--!"
"It’s soaked in," Chu Wenmao muttered, unable to take it. He turned to sniff Zhang Chang’s paw and immediately gagged again. "We need to take a bath."
With that smell lingering, he felt like he could puke for days.
Zhang Chang, of course, let the little kitten have his way. He picked up the rabbit meat the kitten had stolen and headed toward the stream.
The clear water gently flowed around their bodies, but Chu Wenmao still felt like the smell lingered. Without any soap or bath products, he turned to face Zhang Chang, his little mouth pouting sadly. Just as he was about to voice his complaints, a pink petal floated past, leaving behind a faint, refreshing fragrance.
"The peach trees are blooming."
Chu Wenmao looked up in the direction of the petals. The bright moonlight happened to illuminate the peach blossom tree, where the gray-brown trunk was adorned with quietly blooming flower buds, their pink-white petals standing still.
It didn’t take long for the peaceful moment to be interrupted. A tabby cat’s black paw reached out to pluck a blossom, and next to it, a lynx stood guard like an accomplice, ensuring the tabby didn’t fall.
Chu Wenmao showed some restraint, only picking a few blossoms, just enough for both him and Zhang Chang to wash up with.
Returning to the stream, Zhang Chang’s large body was enough to block the flow of the water, while Chu Wenmao stood downstream, rubbing the petals against his fur.
The more he washed, the more he felt like one of those ancient concubines bathing in flower petals.
When he was done, he rubbed some petals onto Zhang Chang, saying as if it were only natural, "You need to wash too. Otherwise, how will I nap on you during the day or lie on your back at night?"
Zhang Chang, feeling the kitten’s paws glide over his body in front while the water gently brushed against him from behind, suddenly felt somewhat restless.
"I can do it myself."
He quickly finished washing, and the peach blossom scent did wonders to soothe his tormented nose. Chu Wenmao, fully refreshed, shook the water from his fur and sat on the shore, tilting his head up, waiting for Zhang Chang to groom his fur.
Zhang Chang naturally walked over to where the kitten was sitting.
Chu Wenmao squinted his eyes in enjoyment, thinking that next time, he should avoid going after foxes. That smell was just too revolting.
After grooming, it was still early, so they set out to find the next patch of grass to continue hunting rabbits.
Hiding behind another tree, Zhang Chang was carefully removing the rabbit’s fur, making it easier for the kitten to eat.
Since the kitten didn’t want to see it, Zhang Chang kept his back to him while cleaning the rabbit.
Chu Wenmao wasn’t even paying attention to Zhang Chang cleaning the rabbit. He was fixated on the tree in front of him, recalling the scene of the rabbit slamming into it.
The rabbit didn’t seem to die too gruesomely.
There wasn’t much blood, and outwardly it didn’t look much different from when it was alive—still within his acceptable range of death.
He just wondered if it hurt when it hit the tree.
He had read reports before that during severe accidents, the brain doesn’t have time to issue commands before a person loses consciousness, so the nervous system can’t transmit pain signals to the brain. Therefore, in that split second, one wouldn’t feel pain.
He wondered if this applied to animals too.
Chu Wenmao tried using his head to feel out the tree’s roughness and hardness.
When he added a bit more force to his attempt, instead of hitting the tree, his head collided with a not-so-hard brown paw.
He turned his head to find Zhang Chang standing beside him, looking down with furrowed brows, "Did you hit your head this morning?"
Zhang Chang muttered softly, "You weren’t very smart to begin with, and now you seem even dumber."
Otherwise, what kind of good cat would go headbutting trees?
Chu Wenmao: "....."
"You’re the dumb one."
Zhang Chang pressed one paw down on the kitten while retracting the paw that had been headbutted. "So what exactly were you doing just now?"
It couldn’t be that he was trying to die, right?
"Nothing much," Chu Wenmao, now flattened under Zhang Chang’s paw, protested, "Could you take your paw off me?"
Zhang Chang didn’t move.
"If you don’t want to explain, I don’t mind showing you my real temper."
In his eyes, the little kitten had been treated a bit too kindly lately, and the kitten was starting to think he had no temper.
"With that tiny body of yours, you’re only fit to be bullied by me."
Chu Wenmao’s face was practically pressed to the ground, and it seemed Zhang Chang was genuinely angry.
He tried turning his face toward Zhang Chang, hoping to act cute and beg for mercy like before, but Zhang Chang seemed to sense his intentions. His paw pressed harder, keeping Chu Wenmao’s face facing the cold, unfeeling tree.
Unable to get away with it, Chu Wenmao opted for a different approach.
"I saw a bug on the tree, and I was just getting closer to take a look."
Even after saying that, Zhang Chang remained silent. After waiting for a while and seeing that Zhang Chang still wasn’t going to speak, it was clear that his excuse wasn’t being accepted.
"Could you not treat me like this?" Chu Wenmao squirmed a bit, his tone unusually soft, "I’ll groom your fur for you when we get back, okay?"
He hadn’t groomed Zhang Chang for a few days now, and Zhang Chang hadn’t asked him to either.
Not receiving a response, he spoke again, unsure why his voice carried a slight nasal tone, sounding somewhat pitiful, "You said you wouldn’t hit me when I came down…"
As soon as those words fell, the paw pressing him down was withdrawn.
Watching Zhang Chang turn to leave, Chu Wenmao immediately stood up, grabbed the cleaned rabbit meat, and followed behind.
Along the way, neither of the two felines said a word.
Chu Wenmao’s first punishment was to walk by himself, no longer allowed to ride on Zhang Chang's back.
His second punishment was that Zhang Chang didn’t speak to shield him or wait for him, making him carry the not-so-light rabbit meat all by himself.
His third punishment came at night: he had to sleep alone, no longer allowed to lie on Zhang Chang’s back.
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