Zheng Qing didn’t let the little paper crane stay in his pocket for too long.

After the Saturday night elective class ended, he immediately returned to the dormitory, transformed into a black cat, and let the little paper crane lead the way to find his shadow cat.

The reason for turning into a cat was firstly that it was inconvenient to move around the school as a person, and secondly, he hadn’t figured out how to communicate with that cat yet — he simply felt that transforming into a cat might alleviate the awkwardness when they met.

The paper crane fluttered under the moonlight, light as a butterfly, darting between the corners of the walls and the bushes.

However, the black cat following behind felt increasingly uneasy — because the route the paper crane was taking was very familiar to him, it was the direction where the Cat Fruit Tree was located.

This suspicion was confirmed when the paper crane stopped under the Cat Fruit Tree.

The black cat clearly saw on the ’throne’ of the Cat Fruit Tree, another black cat that looked almost identical to him, laying there with its two front paws together, basking grandly in the moonlight.

With the tip of his tail, the black cat could guess that it was the shadow cat.

What annoyed him more was that there were two charming mother cats lying on either side of the shadow cat at the moment, a Persian Cat on the left and a Ragdoll on the right, and a queue of cats carrying gemstones, herbs, spirit fruits, and other various gifts in their mouths, respectfully offering them below the throne.

This made the black cat, who prided himself on ’light taxes and few levies’, almost distort his nose with anger.

Oh, so all the tributes he barely collected before were stolen by that shameless shadow cat!

Meanwhile, he finally realized why those mother cats had become particularly enthusiastic and bold during his previous visits to the Cat Fruit Tree — he originally thought it was merely a seasonal factor, but now it seemed likely due to the shadow cat’s misdeeds. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Shameless creature!"

The black cat roared in a low voice, his entire body swelling several times larger in anger.

The hanging hairy fruits on the branches opened their eyes, surprised at the ’king’ under the tree, then looked at the ’king’ on the throne, their round eyes filled with confusion and curiosity. The cats still queued to offer tributes were scared into a huddle, with several even dropping their gifts in fright.

Instead, the shadow cat appeared exceptionally calm. Realizing it had been caught by the rightful owner, it didn’t sprint away but calmly soothed the two small mother cats beside it before lightly jumping down from the Cat Fruit Tree.

"I am your shadow, so if I am shameless, then you belong to a hyper-dimensional shameless creature." It sorted out the logical argument very clearly.

"Only now do you admit you’re my shadow?"

The black cat’s ears flared into airplane shapes, hanging its tail, staring at the shadow cat, almost spitting saliva onto its face: "Who gave you the guts! How dare you?!"

The shadow cat leaned back to avoid the black cat’s splattered saliva.

"Jiang Yu’s permission." This answer left the black cat momentarily stunned, the fiery anger turning into cold ashes in an instant.

Its raised paw froze in midair, quickly glanced around, confirming no little white cat was present, then hesitated to speak again, with a hint of uncertainty questioning:

"Who permitted it?"

"Jiang Yu, Jiang Da Headmaster." The shadow cat leisurely stroked its whiskers.

"She knows you’re causing trouble at the Cat Fruit Tree?" The black cat’s paw landed on the ground, scratching the turf, suppressing the urge to grab the shadow cat’s face.

"No." The shadow cat responded very straightforwardly.

The black cat’s just extinguished anger flared up again, feeling like it was being toyed by the shadow cat before him: "Since she doesn’t know, how could she possibly permit you to cause trouble?"

"She granted me a bunch of little mother cats, don’t you know?" The shadow cat confidently counter-asked.

"What nonsense..." The black cat took a deep breath, its figure expanding like a panther, almost transforming into a black tiger.

The shadow cat on the opposite side was equally unyielding, its figure growing against the wind, momentarily transformed into a large black cat almost equal to Zheng Qing.

The battle under the tree seemed imminent.

The furry fruits on the tree had long lost any bit of sleepiness, eyes wide open, squatting on the branches, watching the duel between the two ’kings’ cautiously, while the two little mother cats on the throne cheered, supporting the shadow cat.

Fortunately, the black cat retained some reason, its peripheral vision catching the little paper crane dancing above the two cats, suddenly recalling its purpose for tonight, again suppressing the urge to explode.

"When did she agree to that?" The black cat gritted its teeth and asked.

"During the Battle of the Black Prison."

The shadow cat didn’t keep it mysterious, explained the cause and effect in one fell swoop: "Do you remember jumping off from the Inner City to save Zhu Si? She wanted me to go rescue you when you were in danger below, the price at that time was One Thousand Jade Coins, a bunch of little mother cats, and a full set of ’Classical Star Magic’, including ’Book of the Dead’ ’Corpse Eating Rituals’ ’The Fragment of Sellino’ ’Book of Ebon’ ’Book of Eod’ ’Book of Dekan’ ’Nass Chronicles’ and so on, an entire set of classics... I mentioned it to you, did you forget?"

The black cat sniffed — it really did forget — mainly because it never took the ’debt’ of a cat, especially a shadow-transformed cat, seriously. As for why Jiang Yu ’breached the contract’, Zheng Qing figured she most likely forgot too, considering that after the Battle of the Black Prison, the shadow once returned to his foot, losing its freedom and naturally its status as an independent debtor.

At this moment, it couldn’t thick-skinnedly demand the shadow cat to go ask Jiang Yu for the debt.

The shadow cat should have had similar considerations.

Seeing the black cat shut its mouth, its form also shrinking a bit, it nodded satisfactorily, then followed suit and reduced its size, raising its tail to point to the small pile of gemstone tributes on the ’throne’: "Setting aside the ’Classical Star Magic’ set temporarily, let’s talk about the One Thousand Jade Coins owed to me... I think this should count as a joint debt between you and your spouse, so I’m collecting these gemstones to offset the debt, is that okay?"

The black cat was bewildered by the shadow cat’s ’joint debt’, its form shrinking even smaller.

"So those two little cats are..." The black cat also raised its tail, pointing to the Persian and Ragdoll Cats peering down from the throne, its tone carrying a bit of deliberation.

The shadow cat fluffed its fur under the black cat’s gaze.

"They are just my ’servant cats’!"

The shadow cat screamed, apparently worried the black cat would misunderstand something, emphasizing the two little mother cats’ status: "Just simply to massage my legs, comb my fur, and catch bugs... don’t you think there are especially many bugs because of insects awakening these two days!"