Chapter 7
“Yes, yes, yes!” The little hamster bounced and rolled in a flurry of nods, readily agreeing to his sister’s demands.
Even so, on his way downstairs, Yu Xiaoyuan once again ran straight into the chubby tabby cat lounging lazily in the sunshine.
The moment the fat feline caught sight of him, it cracked one eye open, leaned forward, and gave him a curious sniff. Then it sat up, tilting its head in sheer bewilderment. Inside that oversized little skull, there seemed to be a thousand feline mysteries it couldn’t quite unravel.
The cat stretched out a soft, padded paw, tentatively batting at this strange human. It couldn’t comprehend why this two-legged giant smelled exactly like the delicious little hamster it had cornered the previous night.
Sniff, sniff. Curiosity got the better of it.
Its moist, dark nose twitched inquisitively. “Meow?” Its emerald-green eyes held massive question marks. It even patted the young man’s trouser leg with its front paws, letting out an insistent, questioning cry.
Seeing this, Uncle Zhang couldn’t help but swat the cat playfully over the head with his palm-leaf fan. “What are you sniffing around for, you silly creature?” Turning to Yu Xiaoyuan, the old man chuckled warmly. “It probably catches the scent of your pet hamster. My cat had a grand time playing with your little fellow last night!”
“Oh… haha, right.” A grand time under the jaws of a predator, you mean.
Yu Xiaoyuan wrinkled his nose. Taking advantage of Uncle Zhang looking the other way, he spun around and pulled a furious face at the fat tabby. Just you wait—I’m plucking out your whiskers tonight! Hmph!
As a civilized human, he wouldn’t bully a pet. But the moment he shifted back into a hamster under the cover of night, yesterday’s score would be settled!
The residential complex boasted beautiful landscaping, backed by a quiet, wooded knoll. It was the very spot where the little hamster had deposited the wordless jade pendant the night before to endure heavenly lightning.
Following the faint spiritual trace back to the slope, he discovered the pendant lying in the dirt. Kun Tianya—who had been so unbearably smug and tyrannical yesterday—was now teetering on the very brink of spiritual obliteration.
Splendid! Calling down divine lightning really is efficient, labor-saving, eco-friendly, and good for the soul.
Making sure nobody was around, the boy shifted back into a tiny hamster. He slipped the pendant’s cord over his head, and the heavy stone shrank instantly to match his miniature form. The long red string nestled neatly beneath his thick, fluffy coat, vanishing without a trace.
Eager to inspect the artifact’s properties, the little hamster chanted a silent command: “Enter!”
With a soft flicker, he vanished straight into the jade’s pocket realm.
It was truly vast! Before him stretched an endless green plain, fringed in the far distance by soaring mountain ranges veiled in delicate mist. A crystal-clear stream shimmering with starlight meandered through the meadows, eventually pooling into a serene lake at the center of the domain.
This was the legendary spiritual spring. Drinking from it could instantly replenish depleted magical energy and restore vitality. During the onset of the apocalypse, when survivors burned with agonizing fevers that determined whether they would awaken special powers or degenerate into the walking dead, a single draught of this water guaranteed an ability awakening.
Even better, the spring water possessed the miraculous property of purifying blighted, toxic soil that would otherwise become barren after the cataclysm.
In the original novel, once the female lead, Jiao Yuwan, claimed the pendant, she had been terrified that the artifact spirit would betray her just as he had betrayed his former master. She made sure that idiot never had the chance.
She had initially lured Kun Tianya with sweet promises of an equal partnership. Yet when the time came to bind their souls, she secretly hunted through the artifact’s hidden archives, selecting the absolute harshest master-slave blood pact. It bound Kun Tianya into eternal servitude, leaving him with zero hope of escape. If he harbored even the faintest flicker of defiance or resentment, the contract would flare, scorching his divine consciousness with agonizing spiritual flames.
Whenever Kun Tianya had hurled bitter curses at her back then, the divine fire had only burned hotter. Aside from enduring the torment, he was left with endless, useless regret.
In the hands of the original body’s owner, Kun Tianya had been treasured like a beloved little brother. The boy had hated to see him suffer, fussing over his well-being, doing the heavy lifting himself, and sharing every resource generously.
Jiao Yuwan, on the other hand, had treated him like disposable livestock. She routinely bathed and washed her hair directly in the spring lake to enhance her beauty, then forced Kun Tianya to irrigate the crops with the fouled runoff.
Planting and harvesting fell entirely on his shoulders. Organizing the massive multi-level storehouse was his task as well, forcing him to slave away day and night without rest.
He was left to watch helplessly as his spiritual essence was drained dry, without a drop of replenishment. Though she had promised to feed him monster crystals to restore the dimension’s spiritual reserves, she never gave up a single stone. Instead, she guzzled the pure spring water by the gallon. She hauled barrels of it outside to purify soil, cement her influence, or sell it at exorbitant prices to warlords in other safe zones.
When the stream finally trickled down to a thread and the central lake turned murky and stagnant, Jiao Yuwan had flown into a panic, demanding more water from Kun Tianya.
Yet the spirit was powerless. He was merely an attendant born alongside the jade, bound to its inherent natural limits.
Assuming the worst, Jiao Yuwan immediately concluded that he was holding out on her. After all, he had colluded with her to murder his previous master; what was stopping him from hiding the spring for himself?
Driven by an insatiable need to maintain her prestige outside, she tortured Kun Tianya through every cruel method available each time she stepped into the realm, demanding he surrender the hidden spring. Yet cruelty could not conjure water from dry stone. Only when the realm was on the verge of total collapse did the stingy woman finally part with a handful of crystals—far too little, far too late.
The little hamster, however, held the original owner’s genuine ancestral bloodline. By fundamental right of inheritance, his command was absolute, and neither the jade nor its resident spirit possessed the power to resist him.
The hamster planned to track down that exact user manual and give that ungrateful brat a taste of his own medicine. Despicable as Jiao Yuwan had been, using ruthless discipline to suppress a traitor was undeniably practical.
The little hamster crossed his front paws over his chest, his hind paws tapping a light rhythm against the soil: tap, tap, tap.
Then he hesitated. His sister was waiting for him at the apartment, and his uncle was already traveling home. If he dawdled here searching through old records, he would keep his family waiting.
That won’t do. Dealing with Kun Tianya could wait; the battered spirit couldn’t run away anyway. If he ever stepped out of line again, calling down a fresh bolt of lightning to roast him would take mere seconds.
“little hamster has urgent business to attend to today,” he announced grandly into the air. “I’ll settle the score with you when I have time.”
With a flick of his will, he stripped Kun Tianya of all rights to draw spiritual nourishment from the realm’s resources. Highly pleased with himself, he exited the pocket dimension and sprinted toward home on his stubby legs.
Confirming that the Kuntian Jade was genuinely miraculous made him so giddy he felt light enough to float!
Using his fluffy, round head, the hamster nudged aside a thick patch of grass and bounded joyfully into the open air.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak~” Sister, your little hamster has returned~
Plop.
He landed on something surprisingly plush.
The little hamster blinked. He was standing on a bed of warm, velvety fur. Curious, he reached down and patted it with his front paws. Squeak? Why is this moss so wonderfully soft?
“Meow…?”
Below him, the fat tabby cat—one hind leg raised high in the air as it diligently groomed its belly—froze mid-lick, staring blankly ahead. It could clearly feel a plump little hamster, fallen from the heavens once more, sitting squarely atop its head.
Uncle Zhang, who had just stepped outside with a bowl of food to call his pet for lunch, stopped dead in his tracks.
“Well, I’ll be. I had no idea you two little rascals were such close pals in secret.” Chuckling, the old man leaned down and stroked the cat’s broad back. “Good boy.”
The little hamster swallowed hard. “Squeak, squeak…” No, not in the slightest.
Uncle Zhang beamed, reaching out to give the milk-tea-colored furball a fond pat as well. “You’re a good boy too, little fellow.”
The cat’s raised leg slowly lowered to the ground.
The little hamster cautiously rotated his head, desperately calculating an escape trajectory.
“MEEE-OWWW!!” LUNCH TIME!
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!!” THE BEAST IS HUNTING ME AGAIN!!
The hamster bolted. His front legs dug frantically into the dirt while his hind legs kicked off in violent bursts, launching him forward in a blur of frantic leaps.
This was no ordinary run; it was a desperate race against the reaper!
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” Have mercy!
“Squeak, squeak!” Uncle Zhang, control your ferocious beast!
He ran so fast his rounded ears flattened straight against the back of his head. The thick fluff on his cheeks was blown backward by the wind, exposing the sharp little tip of his pink snout—though, sadly, any sign of a defined jawline remained entirely lost to chub.
Furious at having its meal bolt, the fat cat charged with enraged meows: “Meow-ow! Meow-ow!” Its paws scrabbled against the pavement, kicking up gravel as it closed the distance with terrifying speed.
Uncle Zhang stood paralyzed for two seconds before brandishing his leafy fan and giving chase.
“Lihua! Stop this instant! Bad cat!”
“Don’t throw a fit just because I caught you playing!”
“That little hamster from the twelfth floor is such a polite child, why can’t you get along?!”
“Lihua!! Are you ignoring your grandpa now?!”
The cat heard nothing. Its mind was entirely consumed by the desperate urge to catch that fluffy snack.
Racing toward his apartment block, the little hamster pulled off a brilliant evasive maneuver—a razor-sharp ninety-degree drift! Behind him, the overweight cat couldn’t shed its momentum and plunged headfirst into a dense azalea bush.
A glimmer of salvation appeared before the hamster’s eyes!
“Squeak, squeak!!” Home is in sight!
Yet the cat shook the leaves from its ears with terrifying speed. Digging its claws into the turf, it launched into a ferocious mid-air pounce! The hamster threw himself into a wild sideways roll to dodge, but the gap between them shrank to inches!
Panting wildly, the little hamster scanned his surroundings for cover.
Suddenly!
He spotted a sleek black sedan parked by the entrance, alongside a tall man in a crisp charcoal suit who was glancing down at his smartphone.
Without a second thought, the hamster dug in his claws, scrambled up the man’s tailored trousers, and shot up his torso in a frantic scramble—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Down below, the cat arrived a second too late. Glaring upward, it circled the man’s dress shoes, hopping on its hind legs and batting the air in frustration.
Mu Feiyi felt something light yet surprisingly solid clambering up his chest. His brow furrowed in mild annoyance and confusion. Looking down, he found a tiny, quivering ball of fluff clinging desperately to his lapel.
“A… hamster?”
At his feet, the round-headed tabby was beside itself with urgency. Not daring to scratch a human, it resorted to nudging the man’s cuff with its snout, letting out sweet, melodic purrs and pathetic mews, practically begging him to hand over the tasty prize on his coat.
Mu Feiyi gently detached the stunned furball from his lapel, resting it in his palm. Then he glanced down at the cat, whose green eyes were shining as it greedily licked its chops.
“Did your lunch escape?”
“Meow~” The tabby cranked up its charm, shamelessly flopping onto its side and rolling over to present its soft, exposed belly to the tall gentleman.
It was an unmistakable bribe: A rub of the sacred royal tummy in exchange for the hamster in your hand.
Sitting in the human’s broad palm, the hamster instantly saw red. He hopped up and down, squeaking furiously while clamping his front paws around the handsome man’s long, elegant fingers.
You shameless feline! Where is your dignity?! You’re actually trying to seduce a human!
Hey, mister! Don’t you dare fall for this cheap cat-trap and sacrifice me to that beast! Anything that cat can do, this little hamster can do better!
Steeling his pride, the hamster threw himself backward, wiggling his hips and proudly displaying his soft, pinkish-white belly to the sky!
Look! Whatever the cat has, I have too!
Mu Feiyi let out a low, amused chuckle, gently cupping the plump creature. The hamster had felt vaguely familiar at first glance, but seeing it up close only deepened his curiosity.
“Hah… hah… I’m so sorry, sir!” Uncle Zhang finally arrived, leaning heavily on a tree branch and wheezing for breath. “That… that little hamster belongs to the family on the twelfth floor. It’s clever—it knows its way home. If you set it down, it’ll run right back inside.”
With that, the old man marched over and swatted the cat firmly on its rear. “If I ever catch you hunting your neighbors again, there’ll be no dinner for a week!” He scooped up the struggling, twenty-pound tabby under one arm and began hauling it away.
“I will take him upstairs,” Mu Feiyi replied with a polite nod.
“Much obliged, young man. The girl on the twelfth floor mentioned her pet is quite the escape artist.” Uncle Zhang waved a hand and trudged back home, dragging his sulking cat behind him.
The moment the coast was clear, the little hamster puffed up his chest and squeaked mockingly at the departing feline.
Think you’re so tough? Come back and try me! Just try!
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!” Tonight I’m breaking into your apartment, shredding your gourmet kibble bags, kicking litter all over your floor, clawing your scratch posts to dust, and letting your grandpa blame you for the whole mess!
The cat squirmed violently in Uncle Zhang’s grasp, yowling in frustration, only to be silenced by another stern pat to its rear.
Mu Feiyi watched the tiny furball dancing proudly in his palm, brandishing its miniature claws with hilarious arrogance. Where was the trembling, pitiful creature that had flattened its ears against its neck in terror mere moments ago?
He rolled the little hamster gently in his hand. “Are you… provoking that cat?”
“Hmm?” His voice dropped an octave, the lingering cadence deep and mesmerizing as his thumb stroked the tip of the hamster’s velvety ear.
A shiver of pure bliss rippled down the little hamster’s spine. Goodness… this human’s petting technique is heavenly.
Dazed, the hamster licked his lips, acting thoroughly dignified as he sat down cross-legged in the palm.
Pet away, human. Consider this your grand reward for rescuing this venerable mouse.
“Squeak?” Wait, what are you doing?
I gave you permission to stroke my ears, not… not to go down there!
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!!” Where do you think your hands are wandering?! What are you doing?!
Ignoring the protests, Mu Feiyi smoothly flipped the hamster onto its back. Removing his silver-rimmed glasses with his free hand, he narrowed his sharp, dark eyes, inspecting the squirming furball with genuine curiosity.
“Are you a little boy… or a girl?”
