The Cat Who Farms in the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland – CH24

Chapter 24 – The Unusual

Xia Lu Nong suddenly turned into a little cat, and Xia Huo Qu, feeling uneasy, went to discuss with Lao Liu whether they could return to the base early.

Lao Liu hadn’t expected to encounter a snake tide on this trip. He took a few puffs from his cigarette, his brow furrowed as he sighed, “I also feel it’s not very safe. How about this: let’s look for supplies for another day, find a safe place to rest at night, and when we’ve filled two trucks with supplies, we’ll head back.”

Xia Huo Qu thought for a moment, “How about I take Xiao Nong back first and let Captain Yan stay here? With him around, he should be able to protect everyone.”

“Ah, please don’t,” Lao Liu pleaded, “The snake tide is so large that just Captain Yan alone might not be able to manage. Why don’t you stay one more day? After a day, we’ll surely gather a lot of things. You know it’s not easy to drive out two big trucks; if we go back empty-handed, we’ll really suffer a loss.”

After saying this, before Xia Huo Qu could respond, Lao Liu added, “Vice-Captian Xia, I have two packs of special milk powder that haven’t expired. I can bring them to you. You can prepare some for Xiao Nong in the next couple of days and make some meat porridge; it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Seeing that he had even dropped the formalities, Xia Huo Qu felt he couldn’t refuse. Reluctantly, he said, “Then I’ll observe for a few more hours. If Xiao Nong’s condition worsens, I’ll have to take him back early.”

“No problem,” Lao Liu readily agreed, “Compared to supplies, people are more important. If it comes to that, we’ll return with you.”

Xia Huo Qu left feeling defeated.

Yan Xi Nian was using a T-shirt to cradle the kitten while it slept. When he saw Xia Huo Qu return, he smiled, “You were persuaded by Lao Liu, right?”

Xia Huo Qu replied, “Lao Liu has it tough too.”

Yan Xi Nian directly stated, “You’re too soft-hearted.”

Xia Huo Qu shot him a gloomy glance, “Give me back Xiao Nong.”

“Just let me hold him for a bit longer. I haven’t seen such a soft kitten in over a year. Remember when you picked up a little cat and brought it home for me when we were kids?”

“How could I forget?” Xia Huo Qu’s lips curled up slightly in a smile, “But later your mom wouldn’t allow it and sent it to your grandma’s to catch mice. We even had a quarrel over it.”

As they reminisced about the past, they exchanged smiles.

Yan Xi Nian lifted the little cat higher, “This one definitely isn’t going anywhere. We’ll raise it well.”

“Speak a little louder; Xiao Nong will hear and bite you.”

Yan Xi Nian chuckled, “That can’t happen. The kitten’s teeth haven’t hardened yet.”

Xia Lu Nong had no idea what his two older brothers were talking about. He was tired from his body’s strain, his little belly rising and falling as he slept soundly in the nest made from his brother’s T-shirt.

After a short rest in the morning, everyone continued to search for supplies.

Their escape in the early hours wasn’t in vain. This time, Lao Liu drove the truck, bringing them to the largest market in Zhangshu County.

Almost two years had passed since the disaster struck. Most buildings had been flattened by the earthquake, and the once-prosperous market was now covered in green plants.

The group spread out to search slowly.

Xia Lu Nong woke up, smacking his lips in his brother’s palm. He scratched his brother’s sleeve with his little paw, “Meow.”

“What’s wrong?” Xia Huo Qu looked down at him, “Are you hungry?”

Saying this, Xia Huo Qu opened his backpack, took out one of the water bottles, opened the lid, and poured a cup of milk for him.

Xia Lu Nong hadn’t meant to mention that, but the enticing smell of milk triggered his hunger, and he immediately felt his stomach rumble.

As soon as he thought of the question he wanted to ask, he hurriedly stumbled over to the edge of the cap and began to lick up the milk with a “smack, smack” sound.

The cat’s mouth was flat and wide, and unlike humans, its cheeks couldn’t easily wrap around things. Right now, he could only use his tongue to roll the milk and get it into his mouth one small lick at a time.

After licking for quite a while, Xia Lu Nong finally finished the bottle cap of milk. A ring of milk foam surrounded his mouth, soaking his soft white fur.

Instinctively, the kitten extended its pink tongue to lick. After licking, he felt sleepy again, and a hint of drowsiness flashed in his watery green round eyes as he looked blankly at his brother.

What was he going to say before he drank the milk?

Xia Huo Qu gently scratched the kitten’s head. “If you’re tired, just go to sleep.”

“Meow.” The kitten yawned, its long whiskers trembling. It plopped down into the nest formed by his brother’s T-shirt and closed its eyes to sleep.

Yan Xi Nian leaned over to take a look, clicked his tongue, and was about to tease him.

Xia Huo Qu shot him a glare, defending the kitten. “Kittens can sleep anytime.”

Yan Xi Nian raised his hands in surrender.

Old Liu led the group to spread out in the market area to search for supplies.

During the earthquake, most of the items in the market were destroyed, and nearly two years had passed; most of the remaining supplies had gone bad.

They searched high and low, finding some knives, cloth, seasonings, and a few dried mushrooms and black fungus from the mountains.

Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian didn’t join in too much, wandering slowly outside the market.

Xia Lu Nong, transformed into a kitten, was too weak to even bite into meat, but his senses were much sharper.

He had just woken up and wasn’t too sleepy.

The omnipresent sunlight was manageable; his pupils could change, so it wasn’t too glaring, not enough to disturb his sleep. But the sound of his brother chatting with Yan Xi Nian and the clattering sounds of rummaging not far away made him a bit irritated.

His tail drooped down and swayed. Unable to sleep, he had no choice but to open his eyes, lie on his brother’s hand, and meow at him.

Xia Huo Qu looked down. “What’s wrong?”

Xia Lu Nong suddenly remembered: how come he couldn’t change back after transforming? Wasn’t everyone else able to return easily?

He turned around and stood up, his little short legs walking back and forth in his brother’s palm, meowing at him.

Yan Xi Nian asked, “Does Xiao Nong want to say something?”

Xia Huo Qu felt a bit helpless. “Even if he says it, I won’t understand it now.”

“Meow!”

“Don’t rush. I’ll get you some paper and a pen.” Xia Huo Qu handed the kitten to Yan Xi Nian and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from his backpack. “Can you write by holding it in your mouth?”

“Meow!” Xia Lu Nong nodded.

Xia Huo Qu rubbed the soft little kitten’s head and brought the pen to his mouth, letting him hold it to write.

Xia Lu Nong tried several positions and sadly realized that the kitten’s body was only slightly longer than the pen, and his small pink mouth was tender and small; apart from the little canine teeth, the other teeth hadn’t grown in yet, making it quite difficult to hold the pen.

He held the pen awkwardly, scribbling on the notebook in front of him.

Yan Xi Nian read out loud while watching, “Transform… into a human? Xiao Nong, do you want to change back into human form?”

Xia Lu Nong nodded vigorously.

The kitten’s body was not fun at all; he no longer eagerly looked forward to transforming.

Xia Huo Qu said, “The transformation has already exhausted the energy stored in you, so you won’t be able to change back in the short term. We’ll think of a way once we get back to the base.”

“Meow?” Xia Lu Nong’s eyes widened, “Meow, meow, meow!”

With this little cat body, he could only drink one small bottle cap of milk at a time. How long would it take to store enough energy to transform back into human form?

Xia Huo Qu understood his meaning from the kitten’s expression and answered without him having to write it down, “Just let Dr. Ou use some healing abilities on you when we get back.”

The little cat looked at him in a dispirited manner.

The fluffy, long-haired little kitten was simply adorable. Xia Huo Qu rubbed the kitten’s head again. “It’s not just about using healing abilities on you. Beastmasters usually have two types of abilities: one like mine and your brother’s, where the muscles are particularly developed and focused on physical strength, without any special abilities; the other type has a weak beast form but possesses special abilities.”

The little cat looked up at him, its moist green eyes full of anticipation, urging him to continue.

Yan Xi Nian also rubbed the kitten’s head next to Xia Huo Qu, seriously affirming, “What your brother said is true. Dr. Ou’s beast form is still a squirrel, much smaller than your adult form, and her special abilities are very useful.”

“Meow.” The little cat’s ears perked up, and it sat up straight with its chest out, sitting properly in his brother’s palm, even oblivious to being rubbed by Yan Xi Nian.

The three of them wandered nearby.

Xia Lu Nong perked up, focusing intently on his surroundings, hoping to find something valuable.

The lighting was great, and his pupils were narrow slits. As he turned his head to look around alertly, he actually appeared a bit majestic.

He sniffed the air, quickly catching a whiff of something unusual in the wind, something slightly bitter.

“Meow, meow, meow!” Xia Lu Nong exclaimed, extending his front paw to point in a certain direction.

He was still quite inexperienced in using his cat body and couldn’t even stabilize himself on three paws. When he stretched out his paw, the entire cat lost its balance and tumbled over in Xia Huo Qu’s palm, landing with a confused expression on his face.

Xia Huo Qu suppressed a laugh, but the amusement in his eyes was undeniable as they crinkled up.

“Ugh—” Xia Lu Nong, feeling down, buried his head in his brother’s palm.

Xia Huo Qu forcibly changed the subject, stepping in the direction pointed to by the kitten. “What’s over there?”

“Meow.” It could be something good.

Yan Xi Nian followed Xia Huo Qu closely, holding an iron hook. When they reached the direction Xia Lu Nong pointed to, he used the iron hook to clear away the weeds and vines above and moved the cement slabs and bricks aside.

Once the clutter was cleared, Yan Xi Nian quickly understood what was underneath.

It turned out to be some medications!

“Not bad!” Yan Xi Nian exclaimed, picking up a medicine from underneath, “Nifedipine sustained-release tablets… Not bad, these pills are basically undamaged. How did you know there were medications here?”

After transforming, Yan Xi Nian had become a tiger, and even in human form, his sense of smell was sharper than that of an ordinary person. He hadn’t detected anything, and it was unlikely that an ordinary person could have either.

Yet, Xia Lu Nong, a little kitten that had only transformed recently, found it so quickly.

Could it be that a blind cat stumbled upon a dead rat?