Chapter 36

From the moment he opened the ground, the smell of cat that hit me made me stagger. I was 100% sure that my friends were hidden by the man in that dark place.

The iron sheet was tilted upward at a 45-degree angle, and the man walked down with a flashlight. In the darkness, there was no sound of wind or grass, but I could hear my companion's angry sobs.

I have to go down through that entrance and take a look.

The man wasn't in there long. Within a few minutes he walked out of the entrance and pressed the ground down from above.

I watched him return to a small lighted cabin not far away. Even though I was itching to move, I didn't move for a long time. Instead, I lay on the cabin and waited for nearly three hours.

The yellow light in the house went out half an hour ago. I calculated the time it took for the man to fall asleep, and after hesitating for a long time, I decided to leave.

I jumped down from the roof, held my breath and ran to the place where the man had just stood. I circled around the loose ground before squatting on the ground and changing back to Li Feng's form.

To be honest, humans are bigger than cats after all. The moment the change happened, I had the illusion of being exposed. I always felt like there was a wind blowing tonight, and my back felt a little cold and damp.

I looked around again and after confirming that there was no one around, I concentrated all my strength on my arms and lifted up the ground.

What followed was a strong smell of cat feces!

I stumbled from the sudden push, and the strength in my hands almost slackened. I held my breath as hard as I could, kept my feet steady, and lifted the ground as hard as I could.

The ground and the dark entrance once again formed a 45-degree angle. I looked down and couldn't help frowning, because human eyes could not see through this endless darkness.

I lifted my foot and tapped the ground lightly to check the texture of the ground.

The ground beneath my feet felt hard, and I realized it was just cement, not the kind of noise that would disturb my sleep if I stepped on a bulging iron sheet. I hunched over and walked in, then turned and gazed into the vast darkness. I decided to pull the ground down a little, leaving only a crack.

I walked down the stairs.

This is not an enclosed space. I haven't felt any breathing discomfort since I came in, but as a human being, this small space still puts some psychological pressure on me. What's more, I have to face a group of cats and have to change back to my original form.

The basement is quite large. I guess that most of the underground of this factory has been connected to form a basement.

I was walking on this long corridor filled with iron cages. I could see the tools hanging on the wall and could faintly smell the scent of blood... Yes, I was not mistaken, it was the smell of cat blood.

I couldn't help but shiver.

The further I walked, the stronger the smell became. Every organ in my body was protesting my rash decision. I suppressed my nausea, slowed my pace, and continued on. I stopped at a fork in the road. The air was filled with two different scents: one healthy and lively, the other sickly and weak, originating from the left and right forks in the road respectively.

At this critical moment, I abandoned my compassion and turned left without saying a word to enter the space full of health.

When I saw my companions, I was shocked and thought that the environment here was a hundred times worse than I had imagined!

Everyone knows that cats are clean animals. They cannot tolerate living in an environment as dirty as a sewer. These cats in cages, no matter whether they are breeds or local cats, are dirty all over. What's worse, they have wounds. The visible parts such as eyes and mouths are either oozing pus or inflamed!

Their vitality was still very strong, and perhaps they smelled a strange smell, causing a commotion in the crowded cage.

A cat was squeezed and cried out. The sound sounded vaguely familiar to me. I looked over and unexpectedly met a pair of green eyes with tears in them. I recognized it at the first sight.

"Sanhua!" I was pleasantly surprised, and all my emotions slowly turned into grief and anger as I approached.

This calico lives with me in heaven. We met in heaven. It is Xiaoju's good friend. Because it has reached the age, it needs to abide by the rules of heaven before coming down to earth to transcend the tribulation.

Unexpectedly, this would cause it to fall into the devil's den on earth.

I looked around and saw that most of the cats trapped here were emaciated. Their eyes revealed sadness and despair. After repeated struggles, after repeated helplessness, they chose to give up and lie down in their cages, but they would also make a violent commotion at the unusual noise.

The calico before me was truly beautiful. Even though its fur had lost its former shine and drooped in a state of lack of nutrition, its eyes were still full of life. It wanted to leave, but it was already incredibly thin. If it weren't for its thick fur, I could see its protruding ribs and its round belly.

Sanhua, it’s pregnant!

Suddenly, I stared at it as if struck by lightning, with disbelief and grief flowing in my eyes. The moment it lowered its eyes, I glanced around it with uncontrollable anger.

But in an instant, I lost my temper. In this respect alone, cats and humans are indeed visibly different. When humans have desires, they will use their self-awareness to control them as much as possible, but cats can't do that. When they reach estrus, they become a group of fools who are born to pursue only desires and abandon everything else. I am no exception.

It’s just that because I’m spontaneously looking for Xiaoju, I specifically ask the Queen of Wuqing to temporarily abolish the function of my desire to ensure that I won’t affect the speed of my search due to irregular estrus.

But even so, after four years, I still haven't found Xiaoju. I have heard about it but never seen it. I am always one step behind others, especially this time, which is particularly regrettable.

"Xiao Li," Sanhua said, breaking the silence. It showed its special concern for me. "Why are you here? Are you here looking for Xiao Ju?"

I had nothing to hide from Sanhua, so I nodded very frankly: "But it's gone."

This is what Sanhua wanted to tell me. Xiaoju was taken away right in front of it. I heard that someone asked for this cat by name, with a clear target, and the acquisition date was three days ago.

Sanhua wondered why I knew that Xiaoju was bought, so I told it everything about my experience today.

We cats essentially all grew up around Wuqing Niangniang, it was just a matter of distance. Sanhua and I, for example, were her closest companions, so when the cats in the cages heard of this connection, they began whispering among themselves, pinning their hopes of escape on me, and the place became noisy.

"Please save us," said the orange cat closest to me, using its fur color to try to arouse my sympathy, "otherwise we will be taken to the slaughterhouse by those bad guys and chopped into pieces!"

The other poor, dirty white cat, with tears in its eyes, clung to the iron gate tightly. "Please, only you can save us from here now. I don't want to be skinned!"

The scene fell into chaos for a moment. I remembered that I had not covered the ground tightly, and reminded them to keep quiet. However, how could creatures that saw the light in the darkness be willing to live in the darkness again? When they saw me, it was like seeing the Goddess of Green, and they prayed madly that I could lead them back to heaven safely.

I was very clear-headed. If the situation continued to get out of hand, I would be in big trouble. I couldn't stand it any longer and shouted, "Shut up first, or we'll all die!"

There is no point in gently comforting unconscious creatures. Since they are clamoring about being afraid of death, it is better to hit them directly where it hurts and give them a dose of strong medicine that will pierce their hearts.

After my sharp rebuke, the world finally quieted down.

I felt genuinely tired. Looking at these cats, I could have put on disguise and put on a hat of helplessness to ignore their fear and let them fend for themselves in fear.

But I can't. I looked at Sanhua. I knew very well that I didn't come here for it, nor for Xiaoju. I knew that there was a group of cats here, but I came here for this group of guys with an overwhelming desire to survive.

Now that I'm here, I must be determined and take them away.

I can't leave them here, not even one.

"Listen to me," I said, feeling the weight of this responsibility weighing on me. I closed my eyes, calmed myself, and soothed my turbulent emotions before opening them again. "Actually, I could have chosen not to come this time. I only came several miles after I smelled your presence in the air. I was determined to rescue you. You can trust me, and you can only trust me now. Stop arguing and listen to me, okay?"

Whispering sounds began to be heard among the cats, and no cat gave me a positive answer. They were all frightened by the Grim Reaper's scythe hanging above their heads. I could understand their temporary confusion, so I could wait patiently for them to tell me in person, trust me, and let me take them away.

At this time, Sanhua took the lead and said, "We will all listen to you."

There was a cat taking the lead, and the cats next to the calico followed suit. The sound grew louder and louder, and the air became lively.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at their cooperation. I smiled broadly and said, "Okay, then you have to tell me everything that's happened recently without reservation."

"Tell me everything you know, Xiaoli." Sanhua said solemnly.

I asked all the questions I wanted to ask one by one.

Sanhua said it was lured into a car that was already packed with cats, including puppies and other animals, all of whom were tortured to death. It was lured because it was so hungry that its limbs were weak. After being captured, it stopped resisting and did not suffer much pain or harm.

The carriage covered with black cloth could not see the outside scenery. It only knew that it had been a long journey, a very long time, and had added many new companions along the way, until it arrived at the dim basement.

This basement is very large. As I guessed, the factory owner dug up all the underground. The upper part is a real slaughterhouse that specializes in killing livestock for human consumption. The lower part is where they secretly sell animals that are on the edge of the law in pursuit of excitement and high profits.

Due to environmental issues and the unstable condition of the animals, the area is divided into several sections. The area where Sanhua and I are is the area with good specimens and relatively healthy bodies. On the other side, in an area I haven't visited yet, there are some sick or dying animals living.

Sanhua said that once you are drawn in there, only death awaits you. The lucky ones will die naturally, but the unlucky ones will be cut into pieces.

These words filled my ears, and the more I listened, the colder I felt. It was as if I was hiding under the scythe of the Grim Reaper, surrounded by death, curled up quietly in the dark, waiting for death to take my place.

The tragedy of the animals over there deserves my sympathy, but I also know that since I have come here, life here is not easy either.

Sanhua started to cry as she thought about it: "I'm so scared."

Rather than being violently assaulted by its estrus companions, it is more afraid of the butcher knife that humans hold over its head and are reluctant to drop.

"Do you know how many people have come here to buy cats these days?"

Since it was locked in this cage, it has seen people coming to this basement every day. They grin and look at cats like commodities, caring only about appearance and price, without considering that cats are also living beings like humans.

In their eyes, cats can only serve humans.

They bought the cats and killed them with one blow, which was a blessing in disguise. The most terrifying thing was, Sanhua said, that he heard the man who sold them tell his customers that they were going to be abused. It was indeed miserable to have their skinned and their meat eaten, but there was something even worse, which was to film videos of their abuse and upload them to secret networks to attract attention and make more money.

They know they will die, but they are afraid of dying in pain.

At this point, some cats were already trembling, as if they were the next to be tortured. The sounds of whimpering and sobbing rose and fell in this dark space, and even I was trembling.

So the little orange that was bought...

I dare not think about it anymore.