Wafts of meat fragrance accompanied the faint white steam coming out from a small metal container atop an open fire. The fire created an interplay of light and shadow upon the faces of the people surrounding it. The fire lit their faces and their bright, sparkling eyes.
Lin Sanjiu didn't know how long it had been since she had seen hot, sizzling food. Though she craved for a bite, she could only sit beside the food and stare.
Just moments ago, she refused to accept her condition and insisted on trying a bite of that meat. The meat literally "went through her body undigested" and fell to the floor. Because of that, the siblings reproached her for quite a long while.
"I think the meat should be done?" When Rena said those words, Lin Sanjiu could hear the saliva in the girl's mouth, the girl was almost gurgling her salvia, "I think it is ready!"
Before she finished her sentence, she rapidly brought her chopsticks to the side of the metal container—
Thwack. Her chopsticks were smacked away from the metal container, this was followed by a loud, furious reprimanding, "You can only eat when I say so!"
Even though his voice sounded very sweet, it was still very domineering when he was stern, "The cheese inside hasn't fully melted, and the rice at the bottom is still hard! It obviously isn't ready!"
As Rena had rarely seen him being so strict, she immediately nodded and bowed before returning to her seat. She was very ashamed of herself and quickly apologized, "Sir, please don't be angry. Don't be angry."
At that moment, the cat doctor, always well-respected by everyone, twitched his white whiskers and stared at all of them disdainfully with his green eyes showing a "you're-all-not-worthy-to-be-called-humans" attitude.
Lin Sanjiu and the siblings had accidentally stumbled upon the cat doctor's territory earlier that day in the afternoon.
Even though the face they saw from the window of the second floor belonged to a furry cat, it did not hinder his display of shock. After the two parties stared at each other for a few seconds, the bicolor cat spoke to the humans in a polite, reserved but extremely unwelcoming tone, "Oh, we meet again. My fr- friends."
He said the word 'friend' with much difficulty as if it troubled him greatly. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling impressed by his self-control when the cat finally finished that sentence.
The moment the siblings saw the cat doctor, they were instantly spell-bound. This particular charm that the cat possessed seemed to affect everyone except Lin Sanjiu, even without the cat specifically targeting anyone. The two teenagers immediately showed their extreme delight and greeted the cat doctor warmly, "Dr. Hu! We didn't know we'd meet you here! You are not working at the provincial hospital today?"
Meowie Hu shifted his eyes left and then right before answering, "Yes, erm, many people came to the provincial hospital recently, so it is difficult for me to work there…"
Lin Sanjiu wanted very badly to ask the cat about the nature of his work. However, she changed her question at the very last minute, "Did the provincial hospital also turned into a mutated building?"
The cat doctor let out a somewhat troubled sigh and nodded his head.
"If you don't mind, why don't you come along with us!" The current Reno had forgotten about cat phobia entirely, and invited Meowie with a voice full of sincerity, "Who knows? We might be able to assist you or even get rid of possible problems you may encounter..."
Meowie Hu almost seemed like he wanted to reject instinctively, but for some reasons, he turned to the interior of the building and suddenly asked bashfully, "Previously, you mentioned that you would get some corpses for me… how is it…"
"Isn't there more than enough dead bodies in that building for you to use?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
Reno and Rena were now basically blind even with their eyes wide open. However, Lin Sanjiu could see everything very clearly. There were many human-shaped black shadows hanging in the room that the bicolor cat was in, and it was a creepy sight to behold.
When the siblings heard the cat, they immediately felt ashamed of themselves. They had racked up quite a kill count, but neither of them remembered to bring a corpse back for the cat doctor. Thinking about it, they felt extremely apologetic. To make up for their oversight, the two children were even more determined to persuade the cat doctor to join them with the justification that they wanted to find "the perfect corpse" for the doctor.
"Only one?" the bicolor asked coyly.
"We will get you any amount you need!" The siblings guaranteed as if they were talking about radishes.
Momentarily, the little cat appeared seemingly perplexed by the situation. The children persuaded him, one after the other, with unyielding enthusiasm and hospitality. Finally, the cat shot a quick glance at Lin Sanjiu— seeing that she didn't have much of a reaction— he suddenly sighed and nodded courteously toward them, "If that is the case, please let me tidy up my humble abode before I invite you in for a discussion."
With that, the cat brought them into the building after fifteen minutes.
Lin Sanjiu didn't mind the way that it rubbed its body on each wall while it was leading them. After all, there was certainly no sign of those corpses after he cleaned up the place. However, Lin Sanjiu felt that it could be better if blood would stop seeping out from under the doors.
The three humans and a cat sat around a round table. After they exchanged glances with each other, they found that they didn't have anything to say. There was a sudden awkwardness in the atmosphere.
"Since my friends are here," the cat doctor wrapped his tail elegantly around his body, "I'll need to treat you guys to a meal. Thankfully, a family member of a patient of mine brought some cans of food for me today. If you don't mind, I could cook a meal for you. Nowadays, the living conditions here are rather lacking, forgive me for any negligence."
"But… the food here have all been corroded by black matter, isn't it?" Reno asked cautiously.
The cat immediately looked up at Reno and replied calmly, "Both of you have already been fully corroded."
The siblings were stunned and suddenly found themselves speechless.
It was evident that the cat doctor often cooked for himself because he had a full set of cooking utensils and his actions showed his cooking proficiency. In the beginning, Lin Sanjiu actually had doubts about the cat's ability to cook, but she was stupefied a few minutes after his ethanol stove was lit.
The scariest part of it was that Meowie Hu did not tolerate any opposing opinions when he was cooking.
Seeing that the food was almost ready, the cat doctor acted a little milder. He wore two mittens on his paw and took the metal container away from the fire. "Even though the food supply in this world cannot be compared to what it was before, with a bit of effort, the food can taste pretty good. Go ahead and taste this. Does this rice with seaweed bits and cheese-filled luncheon meat taste good?"
As the siblings accepted the food from the cat, they were almost going to cry. After they arrived at Kisaragi Station, they had been eating that yellowish-green army ration without any warmth. When the smell of meat hit them, they felt a sense of salvation.
While the kids gorged themselves, the cat doctor restrained himself and stopped only after taking too fussy bites of the food.
Lin Sanjiu tried her best to avert her gaze from the food. Perhaps, in an attempt to distract herself, she asked quietly, "By the way, are you a duoluozhong?"
The cat, who had been licking his fur, paused suddenly.