Dust Ball turned to her side and started to swing her legs frantically as if she was running, "I caught you now Zhao Yao! Hahaha!" Dust Ball laughed hysterically as she slapped a toy rat back and forth.
Zhao Yao frowned and curled his lips. "What the heck?..."
Dust Ball opened her mouth and continued running in the air as she imagined herself sprinting in a beautiful gra.s.sland.
Zhao Yao was completely confused by Dust Ball"s reaction to the "cat gra.s.s". Curious, Matcha went forward and took a closer look. He frowned and said, "Isn"t it just some gra.s.s? Why is she so excited over gra.s.s?" Matcha turned around and stared at Dust Ball who was still running while lying down. He shook his head and sighed, "Does she live in a village? How does one even get high on gra.s.s?"
Just as he finished his sentence, he took a whiff of the "cat gra.s.s".
Matcha"s pupils began to dilate as his senses started to tingle. Suddenly, he collapsed onto the ground and start to roll about everywhere.
"Hahaha, this feels so good! I love it! I love it!" Matcha burst out laughing and started to drool all over the place. He looked like a complete lunatic. "I"m so high right now!" Matcha could feel himself floating in the air as he imagined himself jumping into a hot sauna tub.
Every single cat in the room came running towards the bowl of "cat gra.s.s" and all of them started to exhibit all sorts of strange behavior and actions. It seemed as if the "cat gra.s.s" had some kind of magical power.
Roly Poly started to giggle as he sat on the floor and moved his jaws in a chewing motion. It looked like something he would do normally except for the fact that there is absolutely nothing in his mouth.
Meanwhile, the rest of the cats started to wobble about while some laid motionless on the floor. Others sprinted around for no apparent reason. It looked like they all had a whiff of marijuana.
Elizabeth appeared beside Zhao Yao out of nowhere and asked, "It"s catmint isn"t it?" Besides Elizabeth, some of the cats were also unaffected by the catmint; they simply went to sniff the catmint out of curiosity but had no reactions whatsoever.
Mango was also unaffected. She stared at Roly Poly with a curious look but was greeted with a nasty surprise. Roly Poly grabbed her and started to lick her everywhere. He tried to nibble on her ear but luckily Mango managed to escape in the nick of time. Poor Matcha became Roly Poly"s next victim.
Zhao Yao came to a sudden realization after hearing what Elizabeth said. "She"s right... It does seem like it"s catmint."
Although Zhao Yao had never once bought catmint, he did read about the effects of catmint on cats online.
He sighed as he took another look at the aftermath of the catmint incident. All the cats were lying on the floor and looked exactly like a bunch of drug addicts. He shook his head as he picked up the bowl of catmint but somehow the bowl felt heavier than it should be. He was surprised to see Dust Ball hanging from below the bowl. Dust Ball had been hugging the bowl all along and was left dangling midair as Zhao Yao picked the bowl up.
In fact, catmint was equivalent to marijuana from a cat"s perspective. More than half the cats would develop some sort of reaction to catmint. Exposure to catmint would stimulate their emotions and as a result, some cats might even experience visual illusions.
Though they might share similar symptoms with humans after taking marijuana, catmint was not addictive and had no harmful effects to their body.
Zhao Yao rolled his eyes and thought to himself, "I clearly ordered cat gra.s.s, why would they deliver catmint to me?"
He quickly opened up Taobao"s website and checked his order. He suddenly realized that catmint was included in the contents list. Zhao Yao searched cat gra.s.s on the search bar again and was shocked to see catmint products appearing in the search results.
"I typed cat gra.s.s but catmint products showed up in the search results?"
"d.a.m.n it! How could this be allowed!" Zhao Yao cursed. "Selling catmint as cat gra.s.s??"
He calmed down a little after looking at the cats who remained wasted on the floor and thought to himself: "I guess it"s alright... Since they are harmless to the cats, I could consider using it as a reward."
Though cats might have strong reactions to catmint, they usually last for a short duration.
After several minutes, the cats started waking up one by one.
Matcha woke up groggily and started to panic, "Who am I?! Where am I? And where"s my phone?"
Roly Poly attempted to sit upright but couldn"t do so. He gave up trying and continued lying down. Suddenly, he felt something in his mouth and spat continuously until an orange fur came out of his mouth. "Whose fur is this? How did it end up in my mouth?"
Roly Poly looked at Matcha and noticed a bald patch of skin on his back. Roly Poly quickly looked away and acted as if nothing had happened.
Dust Ball"s eyes were wide open when he realized that the cat bowl had already disappeared. She hopped excitedly as she exclaimed, "One more time!!"
"Where"s the catmint?"
She ran towards Zhao Yao and chanted, "Catmint catmint catmint catmint! Where is the catmint?"
"One more time! One more time! One more time!"
Seeing how excited Dust Ball was, Zhao Yao smiled and thought to himself: "It seems like Dust Ball loves catmint... I guess she must have experienced sniffing catmint during the days when she was still living in the streets."
Zhao Yao gestured to the bowl of catmint in his hand and asked, "You want catmint?"
"Yes yes yes!" Dust Ball nodded her head repeatedly with her tail standing upright as she began to rub against Zhao Yao"s legs with her body. "I must have it every day or I"ll feel miserable the entire day."
"Loyalty +5"
A notification showed up in the mission panel. All this while, Zhao Yao had been making cat dishes for Dust Ball and feeding her delicious snacks. He even trained her powers and played with her frequently and her loyalty level merely rose by 10 points to reach a total of 40 points. Surprisingly, after giving her catmint, her loyalty level actually rose to 45 points.
"This cat..." Zhao Yao shook his head and questioned Dust Ball, "Catmint shouldn"t be addictive but why are you acting this way? Are you addicted?"
Speaking of which, Dust Ball sighed and a look of despair flashed across her eyes. "It"s a long story..."
Zhao Yao was curious to hear the story and asked, "Cut it short then. I"ll give you catmint if you tell me the story."
Dust Ball licked her lips and laid down on the floor as she licked herself and recalled, "When I was young, I was even smaller than I am now which makes me an easy target for bullying. It"s not easy for me to enter a pack and so I lived alone. I felt more and more lonely with each pa.s.sing day."
She sighed and continued, "One day, I was attacked by another cat yet again. I was very upset and hurt. But just then, a white cat approached me and offered to bring me to a lovely place. We cats can"t really express ourselves very well due to the limitations of our language; you know that as a fact too. I didn"t know what he meant by a lovely place but I didn"t think much about it and followed the white cat."
"There was a room in the bas.e.m.e.nt where he brought me. Once we reached the place, I saw many cats lying lazily on the floor. Some others were busy licking themselves happily."
"It was my first time going to a place like that with so many cats. I was very anxious and afraid. The white cat brought me to one side and showed me the catmint. He began sniffing the catmint and offered me to join him. And so I did."