Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Vladimir dismissed the strays after giving all of them their new missions, and they all returned to their base. The daytime was when the cats rested, after all. The nighttime was their territory.
Richard landed on Zhang Zian’s shoulder carelessly and, seeing that he didn’t want to give it attention, babbled on about “sex philosophy.”
After finishing up on the stray cats’ end, Vladimir followed Zhang Zian back into the pet shop.
The moment they entered, they saw Fina, Old Time Tea, and Famous all gathered near the door, discussing something solemnly.
He surveyed the shop and found nothing out of place. The door was still locked, the metal grill was still down, and there was no sign of an invasion, so he glared at Richard for making a mountain out of a molehill.
“What are you guys doing?”
He walked to the cash register. “We’ve been busy the whole night. Are you guys not tired?” he asked, confused. “Why aren’t you guys going to sleep?”
Famous had stayed in the shop without going out yesterday, but Fina and Old Time Tea hadn’t slept the whole night like they did. Fina had always been fond of sleep, and Old Time Tea needed more sleep, considering its age. What could they be discussing instead of going to sleep?
Fina gave him the side-eye, but Snowy Lionet interrupted her before she could say anything. “Meow meow meow! Are your stinky men’s eyes for decoration? Don’t you see that we have an extra thing in the shop?”
“Huh? An extra thing?”
Zhang Zian was even more puzzled. If they’d said something was missing, that would have made more sense. It might have been lost, stolen, or forgotten, but why would there be something extra? Could it be that a customer had left something of theirs here yesterday? But would the elfins care about something like that?
He looked at the register and at the shelves, but he noticed nothing missing and nothing extra.
“Idiot!” Richard flapped his wings, slapping his head with them. “You’re so tall! Can’t you just bend down and look in the lower places? Even I can see it, but you haven’t!”
Zhang Zian silently added Richard to the little black book in his heart before bending down to take a look. The moment he did, he instantly took a few steps back in his shock, stammering, “Wha-What’s going on? Why…it… Why is it back?”
He hadn’t noticed anything that seemed off earlier because he was tall. He saw things from a higher level and didn’t notice what was on the floor.
Now that he had seen it, his hands were trembling as he gripped the register, so shocked he had run out of words to say.
The Holy Cat statue that had disappeared into wisps in the green patch earlier was now properly sitting right there. Since it was black in color, with the lights off and the room shrouded in darkness, Zhang Zian nearly wet his pants the first time he saw it, his heart almost leaping out of his chest.
The enemy had already infiltrated their base?
“Vla-Vladimir! Hurry! Punch it with your Meow Meow Doctrine Punch!” He finally got his bearings and started shouting.
Vladimir had already seen it and shook its head. “This is a lifeless statue. I’m not going to abuse my paw!”
Richard flapped its wings in Zhang Zian’s face again. “You still dare judge me for being jumpy? You’re even jumpier than me, you idiot!”
“What?”
Zhang Zian gaped and stared at the statue for a few more seconds before realizing that it wasn’t much different from any other object—unmoving, its eyes no longer shining red. It was only then that he finally placed his heart safely back into his chest.
He turned on the lights, carefully inching closer to take a look.
There was no mistaking it. This was definitely the Holy Cat statue—the one that had been raging on earlier in the grass patch, the one that had gone missing from the shop—but it had lost all signs of life.
The way it sat and the vibe it gave off were exactly the same as before it had disappeared, exactly the same as when it had still been in the British Museum. It had been placed in the same spot for a long time, the ground right underneath it staying white for that reason. Its position now was exactly on that white spot, as though it had never moved in the first place.
But other than its position and aura, its external appearance had a massive change.
The change that was the most obvious was under its left chin, where it was caved in, destroying its depressing beauty. The caved-in portion had a few gentle waves too, looking like…a cat’s claws, like it had been punched hard by a certain cat.
It hadn’t crushed the statue, but it had left the deep impression of a fist on a solid block of metal.
Other than that, it was also covered in scratches and scrapes, as though it had been dragged across a rough floor or cut by a really sharp object. Even one of the tips of its ears was chipped off.
Also, its disappearing nose ring was gone again, and the Wadjet amulet had shown up on its chest.
“What’s…going on?”
No one could answer that question.
Everything seemed like a dream.
Even Zhang Zian had begun to suspect that this was just a long dream. Maybe in reality, the Holy Cat statue had just been stolen away by someone, but the thief didn’t know the value of the statue and had thrown it away like trash. They’d finally picked it back up after great effort, and it no longer had its shine.
Even though this explanation made sense, it clearly wasn’t real.
If this was real, then all of their efforts before this would’ve been for nothing.
The simpler explanation would be that the heavily injured Holy Cat statue had lost its right to be an elfin and had been sent back to its rightful owner by the game.
“When… When did it appear?” he asked the elfins on site.
“Since Her Highness was waiting for Snowy Lionet, I stepped into the house before she did, through the second floor window,” Old Time Tea explained. “I felt a little fatigued, and I was planning to sleep after reading the morning news. When I came to the first floor, I felt that something was off. Her Highness came back at the same time and felt the same way that I did, so we searched around the room together. Not too long later, we found this Holy Cat statue.”
After hearing that, Zhang Zian didn’t comment, instead looking over at Famous. It had been in the shop the whole night, after all, and if anything was off, it should have been the first to know.
Famous lowered its head. “I’m ashamed to say that before Old Time Tea and Fina returned from the second floor window, I was already napping in the reclining chair on the first floor. I didn’t hear anything weird from start to finish. I thought they were insane when they started their search. Who knew…”
It was apologetic because something so weird had happened in the shop, and it had known nothing.
Zhang Zian saw how guilty it felt, so he pacified it. “This wasn’t your fault. The Holy Cat statue isn’t just any other statue, so it’s fine that you didn’t notice it.”
As for the two elfins on the second floor, Pi and Sihwa, he didn’t even bother asking. Even if he did, they would both be completely lost and might even get scared.
But the issue now was… What should they do with this reappearing statue?
