Xie Meili took out the gifts and handed them one by one to her brother and sister-in-law.
The ones for Xie Qi and Qu Yanning were all local specialties from home.
Xie Xiaobao hadn’t been back for a long time, and seeing the fragrant little dried fish made his mouth water.
He excitedly tore open his own gift, but halfway through, the smile on his face froze.
He stared blankly at the giant running wheel inside the box and looked at Xie Meili in confusion, “What is this?”
“A running wheel.” Xie Meili explained, “It’s like those hamster wheels, but enlarged. Usually, if the hamster gets too fat, it runs on this to lose weight.”
Xie Xiaobao immediately felt wronged, his eyes pleading as he looked at his brother’s dried fish.
“Why did I get this? I don’t want it at all!”
Xie Meili gave him a sideways glance, eyeing his chubby figure, “You can’t keep eating like that.”
Xie Xiaobao angrily threw the running wheel aside and sat at the dining table with a huff.
Xie Meili sat beside him.
When he ignored her, she scooted closer and asked, “Are you and He Yu really together?”
Xie Xiaobao blinked, “????”
Xie Meili said, “I followed your Weibo. What’s your relationship with the president of He Entertainment?”
Just tricked by his brother, the innocent Xie Xiaobao replied, “We’re just good friends.”
“Well, do you know there are a lot of CP fans of you two on Weibo now?” Xie Meili asked.
Xie Xiaobao shook his head, “What’s a CP fan?”
“It means fans who think you two are a couple.”
The explanation was complicated, so Xie Meili kept it simple, “If you’re not that kind of relationship, you should be careful. I think He Yu’s feelings for you aren’t purely friendly.”
“Ahem.” Xie Qi, who had been silent, suddenly cleared his throat and stared at Xie Meili.
“Dinner time.”
Xie Meili looked at him curiously, “Brother-in-law’s still in the kitchen.”
“Yeah, just reminding you,” Xie Qi said flatly.
Xie Meili was puzzled but turned back to talk to Xie Xiaobao.
Still tangled in what Xie Meili had said earlier, Xie Xiaobao asked eagerly, “What did you mean just now?”
“I meant that He Yu’s feelings for you—” Before Xie Meili could finish, Xie Qi interrupted again, “Dinner time.”
Xie Meili looked at him.
The siblings exchanged glances for a moment, and then Xie Meili seemed to understand something.
She picked up her chopsticks and said, “Okay, let’s eat.”
Xie Xiaobao: “………………???”
“But you didn’t finish what you were saying.”
Xie Meili poured him a glass of milk and replied, “What I mean is, you should be careful when you’re with He Yu, or else people will misunderstand.”
Although Xie Xiaobao wasn’t cunning, he wasn’t dumb either.
He immediately caught the stiff turn in the topic.
“You obviously meant something else!”
He looked at his older brother on the left and his sister on the right and felt cornered.
“You two are teaming up to fool me.”
Xie Meili gave Xie Qi a look: You’re the one stopping me from speaking, you deal with it.
Xie Qi looked at her for a moment and finally said, “Meili wants to say that He Yu’s intentions toward you aren’t pure.”
Xie Xiaobao’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes widening slightly, “Really?”
Xie Qi: “Just guessing.”
Xie Xiaobao felt disappointed. “Oh.”
Seeing his little brother so down, Xie Qi frowned and, without changing expression, lied right in front of his sister, “He Yu’s attitude doesn’t matter. What matters is yours.”
“If you only see He Yu as a friend, then if he really likes you, you should take the initiative to distance yourself.”
Xie Xiaobao anxiously fiddled with his fingers, wanting to argue but not knowing how.
Xie Meili watched in shock.
Xie Qi observed Xie Xiaobao’s expression and continued, “Since you don’t like him, you shouldn’t lead him on. Honest cats can’t do things that deceive someone’s feelings.”
Xie Xiaobao blinked, looking both confused and helpless.
Xie Meili next to him felt too sorry to watch.
“What’s going on?” Qu Yanning came over with a bowl of stew, seeing Xie Xiaobao in a daze, glared at Xie Qi, “What’s wrong with Xiaobao? I told you not to keep bullying him.”
Xie Qi snorted coldly, “When have I ever bullied him?”
Qu Yanning didn’t want to argue with this petty cat and served Xie Xiaobao a bowl of fish soup, carefully picking out the best piece of meat from the fish’s belly and placing it into Xiaobao’s bowl.
“Xiaobao’s been working hard outside, eat more.”
He also served Xie Meili soup and sat down, ignoring the big cat who was sulking.
Xie Qi snorted, served himself soup, and casually served Qu Yanning a bowl as well.
After dinner, the three cats—one human and two cats—sat in the living room watching TV and chatting.
The three cats, arranged from biggest to smallest, lay side by side on a long bolster pillow.
Xie Meili was the smallest.
When she transformed into human form, she looked like an eighteen-year-old, but among the Cat Tribe, she was still a cub in her juvenile stage.
The three cats snuggled closely, their tails flicking back and forth behind them.
Xie Meili glanced at her second brother and gave him a look.
Xie Qi caught on and got up first, followed by her.
They headed to the balcony upstairs.
Xie Xiaobao was still lying there daydreaming, his tail curling and stretching unconsciously.
Once on the balcony, after confirming no one downstairs could hear them, Xie Meili meowed, “Why did you lie to Xiaobao just now?”
Xie Qi crouched down, wrapping his tail around himself and stepping his front paws on it.
“Xiaobao’s too innocent. He Yu only has to put in a little effort and he’s already stolen his heart. It’s best to crush it before it even starts, while he still doesn’t realize.”
Xie Meili tilted her head in confusion, “Xiaobao’s already an adult cat. He can find a mate.”
“But it can’t be He Yu,” Xie Qi said in a low voice.
“He Yu is too scheming, calculating how to fool Xie Xiaobao completely. This human is kind to Xiaobao on one hand but is still going on blind dates. If it wasn’t for Grandma Li mentioning it by chance last time, even I would’ve been fooled.”
Xie Meili hadn’t expected He Yu’s kindness toward Xiaobao to be fake.
Even though she was clever and mature for her age, she still couldn’t fully understand the complexities of feelings.
“Don’t tell Xiaobao, so he won’t get hurt,” Xie Qi said seriously.
“I’ll handle He Yu. If you’re going to deceive a cat and make a fool of the Xie family, you have to be taught a lesson.”
Xie Meili meowed, “What do you want to do?”
Xie Qi used his paw to rub her head and said, “That’s big cat stuff. Cub things don’t need to worry about.”
Xie Meili was displeased and twisted away from under his paw, “Fine, I won’t say anything.”
The two cats, one big and one small, reached an understanding and slowly went downstairs together.
Downstairs in the living room, Xie Xiaobao was still dazed, drifting into sleep.
Qu Yanning, worried he might catch a cold, covered him with a small blanket.
Xie Qi walked over to check on him, gently licked his foolish little brother’s fur, then shifted into his large form, picked up the softly purring Xie Xiaobao, placed him on his back, and carried him back to his room.
***
Xie Meili’s holiday lasted seven days.
Originally, Xie Xiaobao planned to stay just two or three days, but he extended his vacation and stayed at Jade Garden the whole time.
Knowing that Xie Xiaobao had nearly been emotionally deceived by a human, Xie Meili didn’t mention his weight but kept creating various topics to divert his attention, so he wouldn’t think about that human who tricked him.
She had learned many useful things from the Cat Tribe teachers—from some fun little Magic Techniques to various interesting stories—and told each one to Xie Xiaobao.
His eyes shone with amazement.
These were things he never had the chance to learn, so he listened especially attentively.
“You’re getting more and more like big brother and second brother.” Xie Xiaobao flicked his tail and tilted his head at her.
Xie Meili pressed her head against his.
Hearing this, her wagging tail paused for a moment, then she carefully observed Xie Xiaobao’s expression and cautiously meowed, “Not really, I don’t want to be like them.”
Xie Xiaobao looked at her admiringly, “Isn’t it good to be like big brother and second brother?”
The tip of Xie Meili’s tail twitched as she quickly thought of how to answer without hurting Xie Xiaobao’s feelings.
Since childhood, Xie Xiaobao had been physically weaker than his two brothers and naive in personality.
Even the youngest, Meili, was more calculating than him.
This wasn’t a problem—after all, the four siblings couldn’t all be equally clever.
But ever since Xie Xiaobao accidentally ate an unknown fruit, his body matured rapidly.
He was forced to endure pain, skipping the adolescent phase and becoming an adult in one leap.
Afterward, he no longer had to suffer constant growth pains, and the family was happy he was finally healthy.
However, a new problem emerged—Xie Xiaobao had no spiritual energy inside him.
The Cat Tribe was a spiritual species, relying on the spiritual energy within their bodies to transform.
The amount of spiritual energy was a measure of a cat’s talent.
Cats without spiritual energy could only remain in their feline form and could not transform into human shape.
They were outcasts, rejected by the tribe.
After enduring the long fifteen-year growth period, Xie Xiaobao finally became an adult, but his body held not a trace of spiritual energy.
Aside from transforming, he couldn’t learn any Magic Techniques or use any Magical Treasures that required spiritual energy to maintain.
Even his physical strength was weaker than that of ordinary cats.
He was basically just a normal cat.
Most importantly, if other cats found out, he might face discrimination and exclusion.
Therefore, even after recovering, he never attended the tribe’s school, avoided contact with other cats, and rarely returned to the tribe.
When he first learned this, Xie Xiaobao was very depressed.
The family’s comfort couldn’t help him truly get over it.
He spent a long time recovering from the blow and finally decided to explore the human world.
If he couldn’t find a place in the Cat Tribe, maybe he could find something in the human world.
Humans didn’t have spiritual energy or Magic Techniques either, so their starting points were the same.
Maybe he wouldn’t be worse than others there.
Xie Meili thought for a moment and said, “They’re all so big and strong. If I grew up like that, wouldn’t I be ugly?”
Xie Xiaobao was stunned for a moment.
Thinking of Meili growing tall and sturdy like their brothers, he burst out laughing.
Seeing he hadn’t gone off-topic, Xie Meili breathed a sigh of relief, then widened her eyes and pounced on him, pressing him down and biting his ear.
Relying on his bigger size, Xie Xiaobao flipped over, pinned her down, and rubbed his head hard against hers until her perfectly neat fur was tousled before stopping.
He pinned Xie Meili with his paws and asked in a rough voice, “Still dare to do that?”
Xie Meili kicked her legs and flicked her tail on the tatami mat.
Her eyes rolled as she said she didn’t dare.
Xie Xiaobao licked her with satisfaction and then let go.
Seizing the moment, Xie Meili let out a meow and pounced again, this time pressing her whole body over Xie Xiaobao’s face.
Falling backward onto the tatami mat, Xie Xiaobao’s face was buried in a fur belly, unable to see anything.
He flailed his limbs, trying to climb free.
Xie Meili wrapped her front paws around his head, proudly meowing.