Watching some hide behind flower beds, others duck into rooms, and still others leap straight onto the wall before poking their heads out to peer at him warily, Chu Qiguang asked, "Are cat monsters always this timid?"
Qiao Zhi said, "What do you mean timid? It's called being cautious." He called out to the scattered cat monsters, who looked ready to bolt at any second: "All right, all right, stop running! This is the person buying your food every day."
Only upon hearing that did a white cat jump down. Looking at Chu Qiguang curiously, it asked, "You're the one buying us food every day? Are you trying to be our son? What kind of monster are you?"
Seeing the vein throbbing on Chu Qiguang's forehead, Qiao Zhi hastily clapped his paws together and said, "Baimi, shut your mouth! This is the boss who feeds and waters you every day. Show some manners!"
Toward Qiao Zhi—a big cat brother who possessed great martial arts and handsome looks—Baimi's attitude was somewhat better. At his words, the white cat twitched his whiskers and held his tongue, merely licking his paws in an unhurried manner.
Meanwhile, other cat monsters began sauntering over one after another, their curious and guarded gazes sweeping back and forth across Chu Qiguang.
"This is the guy who feeds us?"
"Hey, feeder, since you're here, why don't you shovel the shit out of the flower beds before you leave? There's barely any room left to step."
"The food is the same every single day. Don't you know how to switch it up?"
A calico cat also trotted up to Chu Qiguang's feet, rubbing against him as it spoke: "Let me mark you. You humans all look the same; wouldn't want to fail to recognize you later."
Seeing how picky and utterly arrogant these cat monsters were, Chu Qiguang couldn't help saying to Qiao Zhi, "Is your cat clan... always this cocky?"
The white cat Baimi said, "Hey! Have you never seen a cat this cocky before? Well, now you have!"
Qiao Zhi promptly clamped a paw over Baimi's mouth and looked at Chu Qiguang apologetically. "Don't worry. See how polite, sensible, and diligent I am? That's because I've undergone professional training. Other cats can do it too."
Chu Qiguang frowned at the unruly cat monsters before him, reflecting on the differences between dogs and cats.
'These cat monsters... don't seem quite as easy to swindle as that pack of bootlicking dogs.'
Hearing Qiao Zhi's words, Chu Qiguang smiled. "Mm, I understand. I've always had great faith in the potential of you cat monsters. Tell them what we have planned."
Qiao Zhi looked at Baimi and said, "This is Master Chu. He'll be providing you with food every day from now on. We just want to know: would you be willing to do some work for us?"
"Impossible! Not even if you say so, Big Brother Qiao!" Baimi's gaze hardened, and he declared solemnly, "For the cat clan shall never work!"
Qiao Zhi asked patiently, "Why can't you work for us? The food we provide is definitely better than what you steal out there, and it's far more reliable."
The cow cat rubbing against Chu Qiguang shouted, "Work? It's impossible for us to ever work! Worst comes to worst, we'll just go back to the streets and steal our food and drink."
The cow cat's cry immediately drew widespread approval from the cat monsters present. Watching this aura of 'freedom' radiating from them, Qiao Zhi couldn't help a hint of envy from surfacing in his eyes. He sighed inwardly: 'Alas, when did reality wear away my sharp edges... and turn me into this creature who works so hard and cultivates so bitterly?'
On the surface, however, he put on a serious front and said, "All right, Lulu, that's enough."
Only then did Chu Qiguang learn that this cow cat was named Lulu. From what he could observe, this cow cat named Lulu and the white cat named Baimi seemed to carry the most weight among the group.
Watching the cat monsters' behavior, Chu Qiguang truly hadn't expected them to be so fiercely resistant to work. Frowning, he asked, "Then why did you catch rats for the fox at the baozi shop—for Lin Nan?"
The white cat Baimi scoffed, "Who said we caught rats for him? We traded rats with him for cat wine!"
"Cat wine?" Chu Qiguang was slightly taken aback. Were these cat monsters a bunch of alcoholics? He frowned immediately. Drinking ruined business... He began considering whether he should force this bunch of drunks into rehab.
Chu Qiguang looked at Qiao Zhi, who directly explained in his mind: "Cats naturally like to get high on cat leaf. This cat wine is brewed from cat leaf. It feels really nice after you drink it..."
Chu Qiguang's eyes flickered. Listening to Qiao Zhi's description, he thought, 'This cat leaf... must be catnip, right?'
During his previous life on Earth, he had known that cats enjoyed sniffing catnip. That plant could attract and stimulate cats, even causing them to hallucinate after consuming it, yet it caused no harm and wasn't addictive.
Chu Qiguang questioned him in more detail and learned that although this so-called cat wine was called wine, it was made entirely from cat leaf and various botanical seasonings, containing no alcohol whatsoever.
Even without alcohol, because it gave the cat monsters a pleasant buzz and produced an effect just like being drunk, it was called cat wine.
'A wine that isn't wine?'
Chu Qiguang reflected that given the conflict between humans and monsters in this world, hardly anyone would brew catnip wine for stray cat monsters on the streets. Lin Nan had seen this exact business opportunity: using cheap catnip to brew wine in exchange for rats caught by the cats, then using the rat meat to make meat baozi and sell them as pork.
The end result was effectively trading wild catnip—which grew everywhere—for the commercial value of pork.
Considering Lin Nan's industry chain, crude as it was, it was already remarkable for this era.
Chu Qiguang couldn't help admiring inwardly: 'A real professional.'
'Sure enough, I'm not the only person in this world who thought of exploiting the value generated by monsters.'
Once he understood that the cat monsters merely wanted to drink catnip wine, and having confirmed with Qiao Zhi that this cat wine was indeed harmless, Chu Qiguang jutted his chin at Qiao Zhi and conveyed in his mind, "Tell them we can brew cat wine too."
So Qiao Zhi spoke up: "We can brew cat wine for you as well."
To the side, the cow cat Lulu piped up, "Am I the only cat who thinks he's just talking out of his ass to trick us? Who knows if he even knows how to brew cat wine? What if he gives us counterfeit wine when the time comes?"
Grinding his teeth, Qiao Zhi said, "Once we've brewed it, we can give you a batch first to taste."
Tilting her head, the cow cat Lulu said, "Really? I don't believe you."
Qiao Zhi explained, "No... we genuinely just want to provide a reliable place where everyone can trade for cat wine."
The white cat Baimi yelled, "So you think we can't get cat wine ourselves? Are you looking down on us?"
The cow cat Lulu said, "First of all, I've never brewed cat wine before, but watching Lin Nan do it looked pretty simple. I think we can brew it ourselves."
Qiao Zhi felt deeply exhausted. "I don't mean to look down on you. I just want cats who want cat wine to be able to drink it whenever they want."
Lulu gave Qiao Zhi a sidelong glare. "So you don't care about cats who don't drink cat wine?"
Baimi leaped onto the wall and clamored, "Are you discriminating against cats who can't drink?"
Lulu cried out, "Surely no one actually thinks every cat monster has to drink cat wine, right? As a monster yourself, you couldn't possibly have taken a liking to human filth like drinking culture, could you? Could you? Really?"
Chapter 61