Six days remained until the end of the month.
It was night.
In the bleak night sky, a crescent moon hung suspended.
Inside the bedroom, a gracefully dressed host on the LCD TV was broadcasting the news.
The living room lights weren’t on, but with the faint glow from the TV, a blurry silhouette could be seen.
The heating was on, raising the temperature of the already pitch-dark bedroom by several degrees.
Within what was originally a metal cage for animals, a young girl with a slightly baby-faced complexion quietly curled up.
Under the faint light, the curves of her nascent and developing body beneath her clothes were faintly visible.
Xu Yinsheng slowly woke up in this environment. Her lips were cracked, and her stomach was incredibly hungry.
There was a faint ringing in her ears, and the TV host seemed to be talking about a villa fire, no survivors…
“Where am I?”
Xu Yinsheng collected herself and looked around blankly.
She tried to sit up, but her head bumped against several thumb-sized bars.
The metal cage meant for animals was too narrow for her sixteen or seventeen-year-old body.
Lying down, her legs couldn’t straighten; she could only curl up.
Sitting, her neck couldn’t straighten either.
Much less could she stand upright in this cage.
The door was gently pushed open a crack, and a soft candlelight slipped in.
A man in formal attire, smiling, carrying a small bowl of cat food, slowly walked in from outside the door.
Click.
The bedroom light turned on at that moment.
The dazzling light made Xu Yinsheng, who had just been in a dark environment, unable to adapt immediately, and she instinctively lowered her beautiful eyes.
“Little kitty, time to eat.”
A gentle yet domineering male voice, unique to a victor, sounded by her ear.
Zhao Yicheng placed the small bowl of cat food outside the metal cage.
He then opened the cage, releasing the “little kitty” trapped inside.
“You’ve slept all day, you must be hungry, right? Master added a double portion of cat food. Eat slowly, don’t choke.”
Xu Yinsheng lunged forward.
“Ahhh! Zhao, what do you mean by this?!”
Drugged, confessed to, forcibly electrocuted and knocked out, then locked in a large cat cage, and now he was even feeding her cat food!
Did he really think she was made of mud?!
Even if he was truly insane, she would make him taste what a righteous iron fist felt like!!
Back in high school, when she got into a full-on brawl, Xu Yinsheng even had the nickname “Whirlwind Thunder Hand.”
And then…
“Ahhh, lighter, lighter, don’t use force, don’t use force.”
Xu Yinsheng screamed for mercy as Zhao Yicheng pressed her head to the floor with one hand.
“I was wrong, I was wrong, I won’t dare again, not next time.”
“Wuwu~ Old Zhao, no, Brother Zhao, my skull is about to shatter.”
After her gender transformation, her strength had greatly diminished.
While her agility might have improved, her power was significantly weakened.
She was subdued in one move by the other party, pressed to the floor and vigorously rubbed.
As the saying goes, where there’s life, there’s hope. At this stage, Xu Yinsheng decisively conceded.
The large hand on her head lightened its grip but didn’t completely release, maintaining the posture of pressing her head to the ground.
His other hand pushed the cat food bowl, full of cat food, towards her, as if training a disobedient cat.
“Eat,” Zhao Yicheng said.
A fishy smell assailed her nostrils.
By the smell, she knew it was very fresh, recently prepared.
But Xu Yinsheng’s stomach churned.
For a cat, this cat food was incredibly luxurious, but for a bipedal human, even a dog wouldn’t eat this stuff.
“I won’t eat,” Xu Yinsheng tightly sealed her small mouth, fearing that Zhao Yicheng would force the cat food into her if she wasn’t careful.
However, to her surprise, Zhao Yicheng did not take strong measures against her defiance, nor did anger appear on his face.
He merely furrowed his brow, as if encountering a little cat throwing a tantrum and refusing to eat.
He paused, then nodded.
“Good.”
Then, he deftly put Xu Yinsheng back into the cat cage and, in front of her, carried the bowl of cat food away, leaving her alone in the solitary bedroom.
“Old Zhao, can you let me out? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have hit your head last time.”
“For the sake of our years as brothers, I really didn’t mean it last time. After all, you drugged me, and I was scared!”
Xu Yinsheng didn’t want to spend the night in a cat cage.
Although she had just woken up and wasn’t very sleepy, she couldn’t stand or lie straight in this cat cage, and her body couldn’t move freely, which was extremely uncomfortable.
***
Zhao Yicheng, holding the cat bowl, looked as if he’d heard the biggest joke imaginable.
Hidden beneath his calm expression was an unspeakable madness.
He suddenly stopped, turned around, and stared intently at Xu Yinsheng, who was curled up in the cat cage.
“My brother died a long time ago.”
“You are my cat now.”
These words left Xu Yinsheng completely baffled.
“Is he cursing me or just swearing at me?” she muttered to herself.
“Then can I just have a hot meal? I’m still a human, after all,” Xu Yinsheng tried to extract some human rights from the mentally ill man.
A exaggerated curve lifted at the corner of his mouth, like a deep, mocking laugh. Zhao Yicheng gazed at his disobedient “cat” in the cage, and the side of his left face, where the gauze had just been removed, throbbed with pain.
“Little kitty, do you know what you’re saying? You’re a cat, not a human.”
“Pets have no human rights.”
He gestured to the cat bowl filled with cat food in his hand.
“This will be your food from now on.”
***
Five days remained until the end of the month.
Xu Yinsheng didn’t sleep all night.
The tiny cat cage simply didn’t allow for sleep, and even if she occasionally drifted into a shallow slumber, the hunger in her stomach would wake her up.
Zhao Yicheng seemed determined to raise her as a cat.
Every day, besides cat food, she would get a small bowl of milk, also served in a cat bowl, likely just enough to keep her from dying.
“So hungry.”
Inside the cat cage, Xu Yinsheng curled up, clutching her stomach.
After a day and a night without any food, her stomach was already rumbling terribly.
Coupled with the fact that she had only eaten snacks and soda before, her stomach acid was excruciating.
Now, she was practically starving, her eyes gleaming.
So hungry~
Xu Yinsheng thought to herself.
A bowl of cat food was quietly placed beside the cage, and the iron door of the cat cage was opened.
Xu Yinsheng knew it was breakfast time again.
Three meals a day, 15 minutes each.
If she didn’t eat within 15 minutes, Zhao Yicheng would take the cat food out of the room.
Even if she threw a tantrum and overturned the cat bowl, Zhao Yicheng wouldn’t get angry; he would simply pick up a broom and clean it, looking at her with a doting expression, as if to say, “My cat is being naughty again.”
It was as if, in his eyes, Xu Yinsheng was no longer a person, but a cat dependent on him for survival.
“Little kitty, aren’t you going to eat? I even gave you a double portion today.”
Zhao Yicheng half-squatted, gently watching Xu Yinsheng crawl out of the cage to stretch her body, simultaneously pushing the substantial amount of cat food in the bowl towards her.
Time passed minute by minute.
Zhao Yicheng gently watched his fasting cat, while Xu Yinsheng sat on the floor, staring at the cat food in front of her, lost in thought.
Soon, 15 minutes were up. Zhao Yicheng, seeing no movement from Xu Yinsheng, assumed she was still the same as before and reached out to pick up the cat bowl.
But a small hand grabbed his.
Xu Yinsheng hung her head, her voice full of compromise to reality.
“I’ll eat.”