Chapter 138.1 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (17.1)
Chapter 138.1 – Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (17.1)
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Chi Xiaochi crossed his legs casually and leaned back against Boss, wrapping one arm around the black leopard’s back.
“Let me introduce a new team member.” Chi Xiaochi spoke carelessly, “Gu Xinzhi.”
The team members all looked at each other, a little uncertain about what attitude they should use when dealing with Gu Xinzhi.
Did they feel that Captain Ding liked this guy surnamed Gu? Well, nobody had ever seen Ding Qiuyun treat anyone with such an icy attitude before.
Did they feel that Captain Ding disliked him? Everyone knew that this person had gone to live directly with the Ding Family as soon as he entered the town.
For these men and women who admired Ding Qiuyun, they hadn’t done much of anything this week besides rack their brains and hearts to guess whether or not the two of them had been sleeping together in the same bed.
Gu Xinzhi had never paid any attention to other people’s gazes. He looked at Chi Xiaochi, “Gun?”
The sniper gun that he’d used for two years had been left behind at Sun Yan’s place and was now probably in the public storehouse.
Chi Xiaochi grabbed an iron bar from the corner of the truck and tossed it to him.
Gu Xinzhi accepted it well. He caught it easily, weighing the iron bar before swirling it around in a movement that was like floating clouds and flowing water. His actions were very smooth. “Sandpaper.”
Someone pulled out sandpaper from their backpack and handed it over to him along with a cigarette.
Gu Xinzhi didn’t thank them. He took the cigarette and clamped it in his mouth. But when he reached out again for the sandpaper, Chi Xiaochi stretched out his leg and stepped on the edge of the sandpaper.
He propped up his head in one hand and opened his mouth, “Say ‘thank you’.”
Gu Xinzhi was a little confused. “… This was something he gave me himself.”
He didn’t know how to get along with others and found it difficult to emphasize with others. His understanding of normal etiquette was even weaker.
His alcoholic mother and stepfather had taught him nothing, but they had been a living example of one thing: If he liked something, he had to fight for it at all costs.
Gu Xinzhi didn’t like wine. He liked Ding Qiuyun.
After getting to know Ding Qiuyun, he only looked at Ding Qiuyun, and there was no room for anything else.
Others took his indifference for granted. After all, it was common for those who were stronger to be focused on something above them. Even Ding Qiuyun had once thought so.
But Chi Xiaochi didn’t think so.
He tapped his toe twice on the sandpaper.
As they looked at each other, Gu Xinzhi seemed to understand something. He used the tip of his tongue to push aside the cigarette filter, then nodded to the person who’d lent him these things. “Thank… thank you.”
Chi Xiaochi finally lifted his foot.
However, his Boss Coal seemed to be a little uncomfortable. Small grunts emerged from its throat, and its ears rubbed repeatedly against Chi Xiaochi’s thighs.
Yan Lanlan also noticed the black leopard’s slightly abnormal behavior. “Captain Ding, what’s wrong with Boss?”
Chi Xiaochi didn’t seem to have sensed anything. “What do you mean, what’s wrong?”
Yan Lanlan: “Isn’t it a little too attached to you recently?”
Chi Xiaochi rubbed its ears, “I raised it, bite by bite. If it didn’t stick to me, then wouldn’t it have no conscience?”
Another team member interjected, “No, Captain Ding, Boss doesn’t look quite right to me. It’s a bit like…”
He started to talk, then stopped. His gaze drifted towards Yan Lanlan.
With this reminder, Chi Xiaochi turned his gaze towards Boss, who was rubbing gently at his waist and crotch. He finally realized something.
Boss was attached to him. Most of the time, when they were interacting in private, it would often sniff at him or jump into bed to get closer to him. However, it was always reserved in front of others and was very elegant when it came to sitting, sleeping, and even in daily life…
Yan Lanlan got straight to the point. “It’s in heat.”
Chi Xiaochi and 061 were both stunned.
During this week, 061’s body had indeed felt a little strange. His body had felt tight and hot, and his lower abdomen was always itchy. His spirit felt cool and comfortable when it was beside Xiaochi, but the symptoms had become more obvious since this morning. His abdomen felt like it was both burning hot and itchy, but fortunately, his reason remained, and he was able to bear with it.
Chi Xiaochi grew worried. He lay on the black leopard’s body and attempted to study its reproductive system.
He asked, “Then what should we do?”
Since Yan Lanlan didn’t seem to mind, everyone simply faced the topic directly and discussed it openly, “Find a place to camp tonight and let Boss go out and find a female leopard.”
Yan Lanlan said, “Do you think there are female leopards running wild everywhere? It would be considered really lucky if it could even find a male leopard.”
Sun Yan’s voice drifted over from the truck cab, “It’ll already be considered good if it can find a hyena.”
Yan Lanlan earnestly tried to protect the young. “No way. Our Boss can’t screw a dog. That’ll be too good for the dog.”
061 listened as everyone actively discussed his breeding problem. His mood was complicated.
He wanted to hear what kind of solution Chi Xiaochi would come up with. After all, Chi Xiaochi had a quick mind, and Ding Qiuyun himself was a veterinarian. Maybe they could find some sort of medicine…
Chi Xiaochi pondered for a while, then asserted, “It’s better to simply castrate.”
061：“……………………”
Chi Xiaochi was very reasonable about it, “I remember that after leopards mature, they go into heat at least twice a year. It’s too inhumane for Boss to have to bear with it all the time.”
Sun Yan: “Castration is the eternal cure.”
Everyone in the car laughed.
061: “……” He couldn’t laugh at all. He even had a bit of an impulse to leave the team.
The black leopard opened its mouth and bit at the hem of Chi Xiaochi’s sweater, shaking it twice unhappily.
But Chi Xiaochi misunderstood its meaning. He comforted it, then said softly, “I’m just teasing you, just playing around. Don’t be angry.”
But 061 soon heard Chi Xiaochi ask him in his heart, “Liu-laoshi, Liu-laoshi, when castrating, what dosage of anesthetic will make Boss feel less pain?”
061: “……” Ha, humans.
061 didn’t plan to personally coach Xiaochi on how to castrate himself, so he said, “Find a place to camp today and see if it can find a mate. After all, the world’s medical conditions haven’t been maintained. It won’t be good if it gets infected.”
Chi Xiaochi felt that his words were reasonable, so he temporarily put down the idea of artificially sterilizing Boss Coal.
Along the way, everyone discovered that their worries were all in vain.
They didn’t have to think about what attitude to use with Gu Xinzhi. Gu Xinzhi never participated in their conversation. He sat there quietly, like a natural part of the car’s decor. His sense of existence wasn’t much higher than that of the iron bar in his hand, and sometimes, they would even forget that there was an extra person sitting in the car.
In the middle of the night, the group found a patch of desolate wilderness to set up camp.
The sizzling sound of roasted rabbit came from the direction of the campfire.
Sitting amidst a forest of tents, Chi Xiaochi tied a remote positioning device to Boss’s right forepaw even as he earnestly gave it physiological education, “Boss, it doesn’t matter if you can’t find a partner. You see? There’s a tree there. The thing on the tree is called a tree hole…”
061 wanted to express that his ears were a little pained by this. He didn’t want to hear too much of it so he turned and walked away.
Chi Xiaochi ran after him and said sincerely, “Don’t forget the way back.”
Boss Coal’s figure soon merged with the night.
Chi Xiaochi stood in the cold wind and said to 061, “I feel like an old father.”
061 was both angry and upset as he thought to himself, I don’t have a father like you who wants to castrate his own son.
Chi Xiaochi returned to the campfire.
His earlier expression which was akin to a father reluctant to see off his child was unanimously ridiculed by the team.
Sun Yan smiled. “Captain Ding, your actions are really like begging at Buddha’s feet at the critical moment.”
Sun Bin: “… Big brother, be a bit more cultured. There’s a gun.”
Sun Yan knocked him on the head. “You’re the one that has no culture. Polishing a gun at the Buddha’s feet.”
Sun Bin exclaimed when he was knocked on the head and closed his mouth aggrievedly.
Amidst the laughter, Chi Xiaochi added firewood to the fire. He thought worriedly, don’t let Boss be lured away by a beautiful female leopard and not return home.
Gu Xinzhi sat far away, embracing the iron pipe that he had been polishing until it was sharp and bright. He looked obsessively at Ding Qiuyun who was sitting with the crowd, feeling sour and jealous.
However, that thin trace of maliciousness in his heart was soon beaten away and dispelled.
He had at least built up a simple basic cognition through those repeated dreams: Ding Qiuyun cared about these people.
If he had any thoughts of hurting them, then he would never be able to get back with Ding Qiuyun again.
He closed his eyes and simply tried to achieve ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
But the noise from the distance pricked at his heart and made goosebumps burst out on his back.
Gu Xinzhi turned over and thought: …Mine. All of this should’ve all belonged to me alone.
He stretched out his hand and scratched five long finger marks on the cold, wet soil. He took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm the black waves in his heart.
But he still trembled with hate.
Just before he was about to burst with these feelings, he turned over again, rolled up his sleeve, aimed carefully in the moonlight, and slowly cut out a deep wound on the inside of his forearm with the iron pipe.
The tingling pain and cutting sensation finally succeeded in calming the boiling emotions in his heart.
He couldn’t do anything that would disgust Qingyun anymore. He couldn’t bear to see Qingyun’s eyes as he died with everlasting regret again. He absolutely couldn’t.