Raising a Child
Summer sunlight filtered through the floral patterns of the sheer curtains over the bay window and spilled into the room, carrying with it a trace of scorching warmth.
A ringtone suddenly burst into life—
“Burn my calories!”
On the bed, Ye Susu let out a dissatisfied little whine from the back of her throat, sounding like an annoyed baby animal. Her pale little hands drooped over her ears, firmly blocking out the noise.
Before covering them, she even remembered to wipe away the suspicious liquid still lingering at the corner of her mouth.
But one second later, she jolted awake.
Where were the long, perfectly symmetrical whiskers on her face—the kind only the most beautiful cat of the century could possess?
And what about the fluffy white fur on her cheeks, so soft and pleasant to touch?
She leapt up—
Only to slip straight off the bed with a rustle.
As she slid out from beneath the lake-blue quilt, half of a pair of long, slender legs came into view.
They were fair and straight, with small, delicate kneecaps…
These were the gorgeous long legs possessed only by humans, legs made for walking upright.
Had she successfully cultivated into human form?
[The 100th Lifetime begins.]
Ye Susu pressed a hand against her smooth forehead.
Only when she heard the system notification did she finally become fully awake.
According to her clan’s cultivation system, she had already lived through ninety-nine lifetimes as a cat.
She only needed to complete one final lifetime before she could cultivate into a great demon and achieve immortality.
She had heard her seniors mention before that in the final lifetime, she had to experience the seven emotions and six desires of humanity. Only after living out a complete human lifespan and dying naturally could she transcend the cycle of reincarnation.
With that thought, she looked around.
The room was only six or seven square metres in size.
Once a large bed and vanity had been squeezed inside, there was barely any space left. The ceiling above her head was already mottled and peeling, with several cracks running across it.
Against the opposite wall stood an extremely simple little fabric clothes rack.
That was probably the original owner’s “wardrobe.”
Poor.
Very poor.
Ye Susu, who had spent ninety-nine lifetimes living among humans as a cat, understood her current financial situation in a single glance.
She thought for three seconds, then lowered her head.
After a long silence, she pursed her lips.
Trembling slightly, and still clearly unused to her new body, she slowly stretched out one finger and poked her chest.
It bounced slightly beneath her touch.
Soft and squishy…
Ah!
Ye Susu immediately flopped face-down onto the bed, curled her fingers into tiny fists, and scratched excitedly at the bedsheet.
This feeling…
After all these lifetimes as a cat, she, Ye Susu, had finally managed to pet a human!
And in this lifetime, she could touch one whenever and however she pleased!
After three hundred years of being forcibly stroked and petted by humans, this cat had finally turned the tables!
“Burn your calories…”
Her phone rang again.
Ye Susu happily wriggled around on the bed a few times before slowly finding the phone. She picked it up with practised ease.
“Hello?”
As a knowledgeable cat who had secretly learned human skills, there was nothing she didn’t know how to do.
“Hello? What do you mean, hello? It’s your cousin! Susu, I’ll come pick you up in half an hour. We have a drinking party at noon, so make yourself look pretty. President Li said he’s going to introduce us to a few advertisers.”
Memories suddenly flooded Ye Susu’s mind.
In this lifetime, she had transmigrated into a novel.
And she had become a cannon-fodder supporting female character.
This supporting character was vain and desperately wanted to marry into a wealthy family.
However, her cousin Ye Wan, who had been jealous of her beauty since childhood and also acted as her manager, manipulated her.
Not only had Ye Wan made her become an online livestreamer who constantly showed her face in public, but for the sake of gaining resources, she even encouraged her to accompany men at drinking parties.
As a result, Ye Susu completely lost any chance of becoming involved with the owner of the livestreaming company—the male lead, Li Yinchen.
“Susu, remember to spray that bottle of seductive perfume. Your livestream results have been awful lately, and the company isn’t even planning to renew your contract. Everything depends on this!”
Ye Wan’s voice rose at the end, filled with temptation.
Ye Susu lay on her stomach across the pillow, swinging both feet behind her.
She tilted her head and blinked.
According to the novel’s plot inside her head, she had listened to Ye Wan and attended that drinking party, sacrificing her dignity and beauty.
In the end, she lost both her money and herself.
Not long after that, Ye Wan would also trick the original owner of this body into getting plastic surgery.
The operation would fail.
Complications would leave her disfigured, and she would even end up owing the company an enormous sum of money for the surgery.
Heh.
“What did you say…? Meow, meow, meow, meow—ah, there’s a cat causing trouble. I can’t really hear you… Meow… ah!”
Click.
Ye Susu swiftly hung up.
Across her ninety-nine lifetimes, she had experienced every kind of hardship imaginable as a cat.
Illness.
Being hit by cars.
Being abandoned.
Wandering the streets.
All kinds of miserable deaths.
Now that she was finally human, she absolutely refused to live another miserable life.
And she definitely wasn’t going to let anyone order her around!
She tossed the phone onto the bed and sprang to the floor, rushing over to the dressing table where a livestreaming camera had been set up.
She raised her head.
In the round vanity mirror on the table, she finally saw what she looked like in this lifetime.
She was wearing a dark black spaghetti-strap nightdress.
Against the black fabric, her snowy skin looked as smooth and pale as fine jade, while her lips were bright and rosy like peach blossoms.
She picked up the mirror and raised it higher, turning sideways so she could see more of herself.
Her long, straight black hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
When she turned, the silky strands rippled lightly through the air before settling gently against her back.
Ye Susu’s expression immediately became solemn.
She lifted a strand of hair with the pad of her right index finger and very seriously curled it around her finger.
“Mm. The fur quality is acceptable.”
This human form pleased her!
Bang—
Just as she was admiring herself, a sudden noise came from outside, as though something had fallen to the floor.
Ye Susu raised an eyebrow, put down the mirror, and walked out of the bedroom.
The apartment consisted of just one bedroom and one living room.
From the hallway, she could immediately see into the tiny kitchen opposite.
A fluffy little head was sticking up barely an inch above the stove.
The child seemed to hear the bedroom door open.
He turned around in alarm, revealing a slightly frightened little round face as delicate and beautiful as carved jade.
His large, dark eyes were clear and pure like black obsidian.
His tiny nose scrunched nervously.
Two little curly cowlicks stuck up from the top of his black hair, trembling slightly in the air.
Ye Susu froze.
“Mom…my…”
The child’s soft voice carried obvious fear.
The word struck Ye Susu like lightning.
Countless images suddenly emerged from the depths of her memories.
Mommy…
This was the son of the supporting character, Ye Susu.
He was four and a half years old this year.
He had been born after an accidental one-night encounter.
The child’s biological father…
Unknown.
Because of this child’s birth, the original Ye Susu had been forced to drop out of university.
From then on, her life had gone completely off course.
Ye Susu stared blankly as these memories flashed through her mind.
[100th Lifetime Mission: Experience familial love and raise the cub until he reaches a healthy adulthood.]
Hearing the voice inside her head, Ye Susu’s expression immediately became strange.
More information appeared in her mind.
This fatherless child had been beaten and scolded by the original owner for years.
He had been abandoned several times and suffered from severe psychological problems.
After reaching adulthood, he completely blackened.
Not only did he come to despise women, he also hated the wealthy families his mother had desperately wanted to marry into.
Using his extremely high intelligence, he committed crimes, stole corporate secrets, and sold them on the black market.
He destroyed numerous companies and drove several wealthy businessmen into bankruptcy.
Eventually, after becoming worth hundreds of millions, he committed suicide inside his luxury villa.
It happened on Mother’s Day.
It was also his twenty-fifth birthday.
His short life had been filled entirely with pain and hatred.
Even in death, he had never found release.
[If the child blackens, the parenting mission will be considered a failure. All cultivation accumulated over the previous ninety-nine lifetimes will be erased.]
The corner of Ye Susu’s mouth twitched.
As a cat determined to become a great demon, she had devoted all ninety-nine lifetimes entirely to cultivation.
She had never intended to mate with an ordinary cat.
Much less give birth to kittens.
Yet in this lifetime, she had to raise a human child for somebody else.
While Ye Susu stood there staring blankly, the little boy in front of her misunderstood her silence.
He thought she was angry because he had dropped a bowl.
His fair little face immediately lowered.
He bit his lip tightly.
Looking both lonely and cautious, he slowly lowered the tiny hand that had been holding a spatula.
His other hand tightly clutched the seam of his trousers as he carefully stepped down from the little stool and onto the greasy, yellowish-grey kitchen tiles.
“The bowl… didn’t break…”
His soft voice trembled.
He even shrank his neck and took a step backwards, pressing himself tightly against the cabinet behind the stove.
There was nowhere else for him to retreat.
He looked exactly like a child who had been beaten so many times that he had learned to fear it in advance.
Ye Susu was horrified.
If she still had fur right now, every single hair on her body would have puffed up until she became a giant furball.
The original owner abused this child?
The little boy’s eyes were filled with fear when he looked at her.
He was only four or five years old.
For cats, that was basically still kitten age.
He should still be learning hunting skills.
When she had been a kitten, she couldn’t even remember how many glasses she had broken in her poop-scooper’s house.
“If it fell, then it fell.”
Ye Susu hurriedly waved her hand to show that it didn’t matter.
She walked a few steps closer, but stopped outside the kitchen.
She was afraid that approaching him would only make the child even more frightened.
But after getting a better look at him, Ye Susu’s heart sank.
This human cub was more pitiful than many young animals she had seen before.
He was wearing a small grey checked linen shirt.
The cuffs had been worn down so badly that the original pattern could hardly be seen anymore, and there was a thumb-sized hole in the chest.
The matching black trousers were clearly one size too small.
They ended far above his ankles, exposing black socks and a stretch of snow-white skin.
The spatula he held was even bigger than his small, soft fist.
Beside him stood a tiny stool.
It raised him to exactly the right height to cook at the stove.
Clearly, today was not the first time he had cooked for himself like this.
Was this…
Child labour?
Ye Susu pressed a hand to her forehead in disbelief.
She had never raised a cub before.
But even when she had lived as a stray cat, she had fiercely protected the kittens living within her territory and refused to let anything happen to them.
Because respecting the elderly and protecting the young was something her first poop-scooper had taught her.
“The noo-noos are almost… almost ready…”
The little boy quickly raised his head and cautiously stole a glance at Ye Susu.
When he saw that she really did not look angry, the tension finally eased from his small face.
Even his tiny chest visibly relaxed.
But with Ye Susu staring at him, he seemed to become uncomfortable again.
He quickly climbed back onto the stool to deal with the pot.
However, he was in too much of a hurry and missed his footing.
His tiny body, which only reached Ye Susu’s waist, swayed dangerously in mid-air.
Cold sweat immediately broke out over Ye Susu’s body.
She rushed forward to catch him.
But the little boy had already steadied himself.
Although his movements were clumsy, every step was clearly practised.
He placed noodles into the pot.
Added salt.
Cracked in an egg.
Added some vegetables.
Finally, he stretched his short little arms as far as they could go, picked up the lid, and only just managed to cover the pot.
Ye Susu’s heart ached.
She could not help remembering her thirty-third lifetime.
That had been the lifetime when her poop-scooper abandoned her and she had been forced to rely entirely on herself.
This cub…
He reminded her of those most painful, frightening and helpless days of her life.
A wave of sadness overwhelmed Ye Susu, leaving her momentarily dazed.
But one second later, she inhaled deeply.
She stepped forward, stretched out her right hand, and cleanly took the large spatula from the little cub’s struggling grip.
After hesitating, she lifted her left hand and placed it on top of his fluffy head.
The little boy had been about to jump down from the stool.
His entire body instantly froze.
Even his soft little head seemed to stop moving.
The wall behind the stove was covered with reflective greaseproof tiles.
At that moment, they clearly reflected his beautiful black eyes.
They were wide with shock and slightly unfocused.
Ye Susu narrowed her eyes.
Using two fingers, she pressed down the little cowlick sticking up from his head and smoothed it neatly into place.
“I’ll do it.”
Silly cub!
As long as there was an adult cat around, there was absolutely no reason for a little cub to hunt for food!
Steam gradually filled the kitchen.
Ye Susu’s emotions surged.
Since raising him was part of her human-world cultivation, she would take good care of this child.
She would raise him until he grew up healthy and happy!
She was solemnly making this vow to the heavens when, in the next moment, a timid, soft little voice sounded almost inaudibly beside her ear.
“Mommy… the noo-noos are already… ready. When the water boils… we can eat them.”
Ye Susu: “…………”
They were already done?
Her face heated.
On her very first day, she had somehow ended up making the little cub cook for her?
Just as she struggled with this embarrassing realization, another sound suddenly rang inside her head.
[Daily Missions activated!]
[1. Let the cub eat one delicious meal.]
[2. Have one affectionate interaction with the cub.]
[Reward: 1 Parenting Point.]
Ye Susu blinked.
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