After Raising Monsters, I Was Loved by Everyone in the Wasteland – CH10

Chapter 10

The sound of rain drizzled outside the window, while the room warmed by the heater was enveloped in silence.

Xiao Hei was quieter than usual. When the heavy rain began to fall, he glanced back inadvertently.

After all the fuss, Wen Xin really didn’t have the energy to cook a proper meal; he just grabbed something simple to fill his stomach.

He looked at the downpour outside, then suddenly scooped up the black furball who was pretending to nap on the table and started to pet him.

Xiao Hei was caught off guard.

The young man’s petting technique was skillful—gentle yet firm. His porcelain-white fingertips grazed the side of Xiao Hei’s face, scratching repeatedly, sending waves of tingling pleasure.

Unable to resist, Xiao Hei soon surrendered to Wen Xin’s touch, his gaze becoming hazy as he emitted restrained purring sounds.

Wen Xin leaned close to his ear and chuckled softly, “Does it feel good when I scratch you?”

“Roar.”

The soft roar clearly showed he was too embarrassed to admit how much he enjoyed it. Wen Xin chuckled again and gently coaxed, “So, do you want me to scratch you again tomorrow?”

“Roar.”

“But scratching takes effort. It’s not too much to ask for a little reward for my hard work, right?”

“Roar.”

“So, when I bring him back later, you must not argue with him again.”

“Roar… roar?”

Suddenly, Xiao Hei’s hazy eyes cleared.

He quickly turned to look at Wen Xin, who innocently blinked his eyes. “You’ve already agreed; you can’t go back on your word.”

Looking at the expectant face of the young man, Xiao Hei frowned, but his gaze gradually softened.

Noticing this, Wen Xin happily hugged Xiao Hei and gave him a big kiss.

“Xiao Hei, I knew you were the best!”

With that, Wen Xin stood up, quickly put on his coat, grabbed an umbrella, and before Xiao Hei, who was still in a daze, could react, he stood at the door and promised loudly, “We’ll be back soon—”

The door closed with a bang.

The roar that Xiao Hei had held at the tip of his tongue was swallowed back down, and the corners of his mouth twitched incessantly.

Glancing again at the pouring rain outside, he closed his eyes helplessly, seemingly in resignation.

*

Late at night, the lack of light and the heavy rain blurred the usual scenery into a misty haze. Under such conditions, trying to find a cat was extremely difficult.

“Little Green, Little Green—Ah Lü!”

All this time, Wen Xin didn’t know the green furball’s name and could only call out based on its color.

However, despite anxiously calling several times, he didn’t see any sign of the other.

Perhaps the green furball had left in a huff; searching like this might be a waste of effort.

But Wen Xin recalled the stubborn little figure standing in the sunset and felt that the green furball was still around.

So Wen Xin didn’t stop.

The wind howled, and the fine rain blew into the places the umbrella couldn’t cover, soaking Wen Xin’s clothes and hair.

He merely wiped his wet face, paying no mind as he continued searching.

Finally, when he reached a bush near the corner of a wall, a small round head poked out from the shadows.

“Meow…”

The meow was very faint; if Wen Xin hadn’t been paying close attention, he might have missed it.

He looked down and saw the familiar little guy, and his heart finally settled.

Ah Lü had originally reverted to his true form, curled up in the shadows, but the moment Wen Xin came looking, he instinctively transformed back into a cat.

This inevitably led to his fur being soaked by the rain, pitifully clinging to his body, turning him into a bedraggled “skinny cat.”

The scene before him was so similar to the day he had found Xiao Hei.

Wen Xin felt a pang of sympathy and a bit of heartache. He squatted down to pick him up. “Why don’t you guys know to avoid the rain?”

Unexpectedly, the green furball dodged his hand and took a step back.

Those beast-like eyes trembled, avoiding his gaze, as if apprehensive about something.

Wen Xin softened his voice. “Good boy, Xiao Hei won’t be mean to you anymore.”

But the green furball still refused to come closer, retreating even further.

Wen Xin was puzzled.

It wasn’t until he noticed the green furball stealing glances at the bandage on his hand that he suddenly understood.

But instead of withdrawing that hand, he extended it further for the green furball to see more clearly. “You know, this is proof that you protected me.”

Upon hearing this, the green furball was dumbfounded, staring at him oddly, wondering if Wen Xin had lost his mind.

How could an injury be proof of protection?

Wen Xin was forthright. “First, this wound was self-inflicted; it has nothing to do with you. Second, and most importantly, if it weren’t for you, I would have suffered a more serious injury or even died.”

The green furball opened his mouth.

Wen Xin didn’t give him a chance to wallow in self-reproach, cutting off his doubts directly. “Are you afraid you’ll hurt me?”

“But you’ve clearly been protecting me all along. Even when I kept rejecting you and deliberately ignoring you, and even made you angry in the end, you still didn’t lay a hand on me.”

The young man curved his eyebrows, his eyes seemingly filled with starlight, dazzling and bright.

He spoke slowly and firmly, “I believe you won’t hurt me.”

The pouring rain was entirely blocked by the lowered umbrella.

In this quiet, narrow bush, time seemed to stretch out. After a long while, the green furball finally stopped avoiding him and allowed the young man to hold him in his arms.

After returning home, the young man had showered and still carried the scent of body wash—a light, fresh woody fragrance with a hint of floral notes.

In the rain, the scent was faint, so the green furball moved closer, carefully sniffing the aroma, as if wanting to remember something through it.

Wen Xin discussed with him, “Do you have a name? No? How about I call you Ah Lü (Little Green)?”

Ah Lü responded softly.

Man and Furball returned home, and Wen Xin paid special attention to Xiao Hei’s reaction.

Xiao Hei didn’t get angry; he just lifted his eyelids to glance at them and then closed them again.

Surprisingly, the green furball in Wen Xin’s arms struggled a bit, jumped onto the floor, and proactively approached Xiao Hei.

The atmosphere was somewhat stiff. The green furball spoke first.

Ah Lü said, “During that experiment, I really didn’t plan on letting them survive…”

As he recalled the scene from that time, his expression was unexpectedly calm, or perhaps numb, so he spoke slowly.

“The more mutants died, the greater the chance of survival for oneself. So everyone went on a killing spree, biting anyone they saw—including me.”

“There was blood everywhere, screams everywhere. I didn’t know who bit me—it hurt, hurt so much that I couldn’t think about anything else. As long as anyone dared to attack me or come near me afterward, I’d bite and inject venom.”

“Until finally, only a sheep was left.”

Originally, Xiao Hei was just listening quietly. At this point, he opened his eyes, his gaze sharp as arrows piercing toward Ah Lü.

Surprisingly, there was no ferocity in Ah Lü’s eyes, only confusion.

“It rushed toward me.”

At that time, Ah Lü had exhausted his venom to the last drop, his body covered in wounds inflicted by other mutants, and even his tail had been broken off.

Aside from his remaining sharp fangs, he had basically lost the ability to fight.

He was tired and in pain, more afraid that he would die, his nerves stretched to the limit. In the chaos, he heard a plea for mercy.

The one pleading wasn’t the sheep but the dying tiger beside him.

The sheep, originally without much combat ability, was at a disadvantage in the melee. To protect it, the tiger had paid a great price.

Ah Lü had managed to keep half his tail; the tiger had lost even her tail, bleeding profusely.

Knowing she was at the end, the tiger used all her strength to howl in despair, saying that the sheep posed no threat and hoping Ah Lü would spare it.

However, before she could hear Ah Lü’s response, she died in agony.

Even when her body lay motionless, her lifeless eyes continued to stare at Ah Lü, full of pleading.

What happened next, Ah Lü rarely thought about.

He resisted recalling that past; whenever he thought of the sheep’s heart-wrenching cries, he felt his heart being torn apart.

It was only when he was curled up in the rain-soaked bushes earlier that he vaguely remembered that after the tiger died, besides the sheep’s hysterical wails, he also heard the incessant chatter of humans through a loudspeaker.

Things like “This sheep’s crying is quite heartbreaking,” or “Certain parts of a sheep’s anatomy are similar to humans.”

And “Haha, hearing you say that makes me want to try it…”

Those vague words weren’t fully understood by Ah Lü, who was solely focused on survival.

But he remembered that after hearing those words, the sheep stopped crying. Her eyes turned so red they seemed to bleed, and she went completely mad, opening her mouth to bite him, as if she were suicidal.

Facing a life-or-death threat, Ah Lü didn’t hesitate.

He had become numb to killing. Just like killing other mutants, he easily strangled the weak sheep and then pierced her warm neck with his sharp fangs.

After hearing the cause and effect of this past event, Xiao Hei moved his lips and after a long pause, made a sound of acknowledgment.

Regardless of Xiao Hei’s reaction, the green furball remained standing there in a daze after finishing his story.

Time seemed frozen, stuck at this moment, unable to move forward.

Until Wen Xin came over with a towel and a hairdryer.

“Ah Lü, come here.”

Wen Xin first wiped the green furball with a towel, then set the hairdryer to low and carefully dried his fur.

After finishing, Wen Xin noticed that the atmosphere between the two furballs was a bit strange and raised an eyebrow.

He thought they hadn’t reconciled and were still awkward with each other.

Thinking that, as their owner, he had to act as a catalyst for breaking the ice, Wen Xin picked them both up, one in each hand.

Before the two furballs could react, they were subjected to Wen Xin’s enthusiastic and chaotic cuddling.

“Alright, alright, what’s past is past. We should all look forward, right?”

Xiao Hei’s fur was completely messed up from his rubbing, and the green furball, having never experienced such heavy and frenzied affection, was nearly suffocated.

The green furball was utterly terrified. “Is… is he usually like this?”

Xiao Hei struggled but couldn’t break free. “I don’t know; he never did this before!”

It was also Wen Xin’s first time trying such an intense form of cat cuddling. His whole face was buried in their chests, chins, and cheeks, wrapped in soft fur, feeling the vigorous muscles moving beneath the skin of the two little guys, as if experiencing some kind of silent excitement.

Before, Xiao Hei had been too reserved for him to dare do this.

Now it was as if a new world had opened up, becoming more addictive and more indulgent.

In the end, the two furballs couldn’t take it anymore and ran away, and the stagnant air finally moved again.

Meanwhile, in a secret research base in City H, two thousand kilometers away, a storm was brewing.