The next day, the autumn sun shone brightly, its warm rays falling on the top of the abandoned mailbox that Shu Bai often occupied.
Li Yuheng lay comfortably on it, his fur scorching from the sun, his tail tip patting the metal beneath him lightly.
Something's not right.
The sun is already so high in the sky, and that stinky cat still hasn't come to chase him away.
At this time normally, Shu Bai would have been squatting on the wall mocking him, or simply swatting him down with a paw.
He pricked up his ears and listened carefully to the sounds around him.
There was no familiar sound of cat footsteps.
An inexplicable feeling made him jump down from the mailbox.
He decided to go check out the smelly cat's cardboard box nest.
Following the route in his memory, Li Yuheng wandered to the corner piled with clutter.
He spotted the cardboard box that Shu Bai treasured at a glance, its opening facing outwards.
Then, he saw Shu Bai.
The usually majestic black and white cat was now lying listlessly at the door of the cardboard box, its head drooping and its ears limply pressed against its head.
Its once smooth and shiny fur now appeared somewhat dull and messy, and the cat looked as if its bones had been removed, so weak that it couldn't even immediately notice Li Yuheng approaching.
Li Yuheng stopped in his tracks.
Shu Bai seemed to sense his presence and barely managed to raise her head.
Those cat-like eyes, which always held an air of arrogance or coldness, seemed somewhat unfocused at this moment, but he still forced himself to speak, his hoarse voice uttering barbed words:
"What are you doing here? Came to see us make a fool of ourselves?"
When Li Yuheng saw his miserable state, his heart skipped a beat, and then a strange sense of irritation welled up inside him.
He twitched the corner of his mouth and retorted habitually:
"Otherwise what? Did you think we were here to serve you tea and water?"
He took a few steps forward, getting closer to the cardboard box, so he could see the sparse white surface more clearly.
His breathing was weak, and his body trembled slightly from time to time, clearly indicating that he was exhausted.
Li Yuheng frowned slightly.
He stared at Shu Bai for a few seconds, his mind racing.
He was perfectly fine yesterday. He was full of energy when we fought over milk. How did he turn into this overnight?
Injured in a fight?
Impossible. They both knew their limits; at most, they'd only scratch the skin.
Did you eat something unclean?
This cat is very wary and generally won't eat random things.
Could it be...?
He remembered the bag of iced milk from yesterday.
This silly cat... could it be... unable to drink?
Li Yuheng felt a mix of emotions in his heart.
On the one hand, I feel that the cat deserved it, since it was the one that stole my things.
On the other hand, seeing Shu Bai's weak appearance, he couldn't bring himself to feel any schadenfreude.
He even regretted it a little; he shouldn't have provoked him with that bag of milk yesterday.
Although my original intention was just to be a bit cheeky, I didn't really mean to hurt him like this.
"Tsk."
Li Yuheng moved closer and, under Shu Bai's wary yet helpless gaze, raised one of its front paws and roughly pressed it onto Shu Bai's head.
"Don't move. I'll scratch you if you do."
Shu Bai wanted to dodge, but he was too weak. He could only let out a threatening growl from his throat: "Get your filthy paws off me..."
Li Yuheng ignored him. A cool ghostly power silently passed through his palm and quickly spread throughout Shu Bai's body.
Shu Bai felt a warm current surge into her head, and her churning stomach instantly felt much better, and her limbs gradually regained their strength.
He looked at Li Yuheng with suspicion and uncertainty, wanting to say something, but was interrupted by Li Yuheng.
"Alright." Li Yuheng withdrew his paw, as if he had just casually patted him, his tone still carrying a hint of disdain.
"I get annoyed just looking at you like this. Get well soon, or people will think I've done something to you."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Shu Bai's face, which had regained some color. A fleeting moment of genuine regret for wasting a bag of good milk crossed his mind, but he would never say it aloud.
"Can you still stand up?" Li Yuheng asked, his tone not very friendly.
Shu Bai tried to move around and found that her body was indeed much more relaxed. Although it was still a little soft, she was no longer unable to move as before.
He slowly propped himself up and glanced at Li Yuheng with a complicated expression.
"I won't die." Shu Bai looked away, his voice still a little hoarse, but more confident.
Li Yuheng snorted: "That's for the best. I don't want to win against a sickly guy in the next fight; it would be an unfair victory."
After saying that, he turned around, flicked his tail, and walked away without looking back.
It was as if he was just passing by and casually made a sarcastic remark at him.
Shu Bai watched Li Yuheng's figure disappear around the corner. He remained silent for a moment, and finally just muttered a curse under his breath:
“…Stupid dog.”
On the other side, Li Yuheng strolled back to his usual corner, the slight irritation in his heart not yet completely dissipated.
He lay down, rested his chin on his front paws, and stared at an ant slowly crawling across the ground.
While transferring ghostly power to that stinky cat, he took the opportunity to investigate.
This guy's demonic power is indeed pitifully weak, almost negligible, and it seems to be sealed by some power, in a state of slumber.
No wonder it can't even transform into human form; it reacts so strongly to something as slightly stimulating as iced milk.
"Weakling."
Li Yuheng muttered a curse under his breath, it was unclear whether he was referring to Shu Bai or to himself for meddling.
He rolled over, belly up, basking in the sun, and decided to stop thinking about that troublesome cat.
…
That afternoon, Li Yuheng was dozing off by a half-collapsed flower bed when he heard two middle-aged women chatting as they passed by.
"Hey, did you hear? The grandson of Old Li in that building over there had a high fever a few nights ago. He went to the hospital for injections and medicine, but nothing worked. He was delirious with fever!"
"Oh? That serious? What happened next?"
"Then, you know what? They somehow got some kind of 'master' to come in, saying the child was possessed by an evil spirit, and he performed a ritual in the hallway. And guess what? The child's fever broke the very next day!"
"Really? That's incredible!"
"Who knows? Anyway, a lot of people are saying that things aren't safe around here, and it's best not to let the kids go out alone at night..."
Li Yuheng's ears twitched, and he lazily opened his eyes, glancing at the two middle-aged women.
Possessed by an evil spirit?
He'd been wandering around this area for so long, and apart from that grumpy cat demon, he hadn't seen a single decent wandering spirit.
The underworld has very strict management over the souls of mortals; there aren't that many evil spirits to encounter.
Most likely it was a misdiagnosis by a quack doctor, or the child's own immunity improved, and it just so happened that some so-called master was faking it.
He chuckled, turned over, and continued his nap.
…
However, similar rumors intensified in the following days.
Either the neighbor's child cries incessantly in the middle of the night, or the neighbor's elderly person suddenly starts talking nonsense.
Moreover, the symptoms were all similar, medicine was ineffective, and in the end, they all had to seek help from experts to resolve the problem.
Rumors spread silently, like autumn fog, casting an uneasy shadow over this old neighborhood.
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