The crease between Xiao Yu"s brows grew deeper the longer she stared at her phone screen.
"Why hasn"t that silly cat responded?" she wondered, "His replies have always been instant."
Her unblinking gaze was disrupted when she heard a woman"s voice coming from outside the bedroom. "Xiao Yu, are you up? It"s time to go to a school!"
"I"ll be right there!" she shouted back.
Xiao Yu turned back to her phone and shook her head.
"Forget it, he probably didn"t see my message. I"ll get my money another day. He"s stupid enough to fall for whatever I say."
She then spotted Fish Ball from the corner of her eye. He was sprawled across the sheets, fast asleep. She unceremoniously kicked him off the bed.
"What"s happened? Is it another earthquake?" Fish Ball asked, struggling to open his eyes.
"Don"t you have your own bed? Why are you on mine?" Xiao Yu asked in a tone that could have frozen peas.
Fish Ball uttered a loud meow in response and scrambled for his phone. He started typing rapidly.
"It"s all that stupid dog"s fault! He stole my bed! I was so cold without it."
He blinked up at her innocently.
"I can only have fallen asleep if I"m in your arms," he added.
Xiao Yu did not reply. Her face merely puckered. She jumped off the bed, got dressed, and left the room. She was immediately greeted by Noodle, who wagged his tail excitedly and started circling her.
Her mom"s voice sounded from the kitchen again.
"He has been waiting outside your door all morning. He wouldn"t even eat when we told him that his food is ready."
"Aww, is this true?" Xiao Yu asked happily, squeezing the husky"s face, "My adorable little Noodle."
Her happy expression transformed into a death glare when she turned to Fish Ball.
"You"re full of lies, aren"t you? Noodle has been sleeping by my door the whole night!"
Fish Ball watched in defeated shock as she faced the husky again to give it a big hug.
"You devious monster!" he thought, staring daggers at the dog.
Noodle returned the cat"s hateful look with a side eye of his own.
"This house only has s.p.a.ce for one pet - me. A supercat with rubbish skills like you will only get in my way," he chuckled darkly to himself.
After one final head rub, Xiao Yu got to her feet and took a seat at the dining table. She ate breakfast quietly, bare feet swinging in the air.
Fish Ball and Noodle were busy eating as well. They had stuffed their faces into their respective bowls, gulping food down noisily.
Spirit Cat was hovering over them, undetected. His eyes were fixed on the dog food that Noodle was thoroughly enjoying.
"I wonder what that tastes like."
"I can"t put it in words. Whatever it is, it"s awesome," the husky responded.
Ever since he possessed the dog"s body, Ho Hao Cang started being able to communicate with the cat. He was able to understand his meows and even talk to him telepathically.
He had no clue why this was happening. He did not know that by using Spirit Cat"s power to keep himself alive, he was now half a supercat himself. A supercat without powers, that is.
"Hey, how"s your mission going? Have you located Ares and the gang?" the husky asked.
"I returned to the villa but it"s been sealed off. I can"t find any trace of them."
Noodle stopped eating for a moment, his eyes blazing.
"That"s alright. Just keep on searching. Once you find them, lead them here. I"ve got a plan."
Noodle"s determination and drive were completely absent at the cat cafe.
Zhao Yao stared at the table blankly. He looked quite frail with the dark circles under his puffy eyes. He felt weak and disoriented too. He had barely slept three hours the night before.
"Yo," s.h.i.+ Yu greeted, coming closer to take a good look at Zhao Yao.
"What happened to you? Did you spend the whole night being defeated at PlayerUnknown"s Battleground?"
Zhao Yao shot her a glare.
"Preposterous. I would never lose like that. I was up all night taking care of the cats."
He sighed dramatically. "Raising those little rascals has not been easy. To think I have to do it all alone. It"s not easy being me, you know."
As he spoke, Matcha paused in front of them, swis.h.i.+ng his tail. He stared up at Zhao Yao, his eyes rolling back into his head from extreme sleepiness.
"Zhao Yao, I played Mobile Legends through the night. I haven"t slept a wink. Can I take leave today?" he asked.
Like Matcha, Elizabeth, Roly Poly, and Dust Ball all wore the same, exhausted expression. Only Mango remained energetic and full of life. He was currently scrambling around the cafe in high spirits.
It was obvious that he had somehow slept through last night"s earth-shattering snoring.
Roly Poly batted his lashes at Zhao Yao.
"Shall we take a break today? We"re too exhausted to serve our customers well," the fat cat reasoned.
Zhao Yao"s vacant eyes bored into his.
"I slept the least of all of us. Do you see me asking for a break? Why do you even need a break? All you do all day is sleep in the customers" arms! I can"t sleep in their arms even if I wanted to. A break? No way."
Zhao Yao then turned to Baiquan.
"And you. Where were you last night? Why didn"t you help out?"
"I was asleep," Baiquan responded truthfully.
Zhao Yao gaped at him. "You could sleep through that kind of snoring?"
"I always put on my earphones and listen to music in bed."
Zhao Yao sighed.
"Alright, get to work. I"ll just rest here."
He intended to slump onto his usual table in the corner and nap.
The moment he sat down, however, he remembered that the earthquake cat was still stuck in the depths of the extradimensional belly.
Ares the Persian cat stared forward blankly, struggling to keep his eyes open. They were puffy and ringed with red. He looked like he was in extreme emotional distress, the kind that will cause him to collapse at any moment.
Wave after wave of loud buzzing noises had kept him up all night. It sounded like a thousand angry cicadas screeching right in his ears.
The worst part was that ever since the noise started, it showed no sign of stopping. Instead, it grew stronger and more forceful, literally shaking the ground. Ares felt like even his organs were vibrating from the impact.
At wits" end, he released his reflective field to s.h.i.+eld himself and his friends from the reverberations.
He would halt his power every half hour, checking to see if the noise had died down. Unfortunately, it never did.
"Are you kidding me?" Ares groaned, checking the time, "What kind of monster does renovation work at 4 a.m.?!"
He looked around him in despair. The rest of the cats were lying in a heap on the floor, blissfully asleep. Ares had made sure that the range of his power covered his friends as well so they could continue sleeping.
It was an altruistic move that required Ares to sacrifice both his mental and emotional well-being. He had to stay up, all alone, in order to maintain the deflective field.
He grew terribly exhausted and envious of everyone else, who could enjoy unadulterated rest. It felt almost unfair.
Ares could no longer remain selfless, especially when he watched Garfield turning to his side and curling luxuriously into a ball, drooling. He raised one paw, then smacked it squarely on Garfield"s face.
"What..? What"s happened?" Garfield asked, jumping to his feet in an instant, "Has the giant cat returned?"
His sudden movement had caused the rest of the cats to wake, alarmed. All four supercats descended into a nervous panic that led them to scramble in different directions, hiding in whatever boxes they could find.
"You useless lumps of fur," Ares seethed, "This noise has been going on for far too long! Do you expect me to block it out for you all night? I haven"t slept a wink!"
Garfield was the first to spring into action.
"Please, G.o.d, please let this end qui -,"
Four pairs of paws covered his mouth before he could complete his plea.
"How dare you make more wishes!" Ares raged, fire burning in his eyes.
Fujin the Siamese cat stuck out his tongue as he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Oh, that was close. This rascal almost wasted another wish."
"Boys, desperate times call for desperate measures. We"ve got to tie him up," Ares stated.
Within a few minutes, the cats wrapped Garfield up like a mummy with the tape and rope that they ripped from carton boxes. He struggled throughout the process but was unable to throw them off.
He could not speak because of the strip of tape tightly pressed against his lips, but he was yelling at his so-called friends telepathically.
"Hey! Why are you tying me up? I was just trying to help!"
"Help? Wasting our wishes isn"t helping, you idiot!" Ares turned from Garfield to the rest, "Make sure you all keep an eye on him. If he secretly makes another wish, beat him up."
Just as Ares gave his command, the constant noise stopped as instantly as when I started. He blinked his eyes rapidly a few times, then twitched his furry ears.
"It"s finally over?"
Outside the extradimensional belly, Zhao Yao sensed that Rice Cake has finally started to stir.
She opened her eyes gingerly, revealing orbs that shone brightly. She stretched, arching her back with a series of loud cracks from her joints.
She then opened her mouth and emitted one meow. The sound cut through the air and sent a visible ripple through it. It gained momentum as it traveled further, eventually c.u.mulating into a loud boom that echoed throughout the extradimensional belly.