Chapter 4: Meow Meow Meow

Unfortunately, even the most ingenious solution couldn’t be implemented until he became a human being again. He hadn’t turned into a cat for a long time. The last time was when he first differentiated, and that was because his hormones were very unstable. After taking M-type inhibitors, or ‘Therian-specific inhibitors’, he had been back to normal.

This time, the bonding heat was triggered early without any preparations. There were no effective inhibitors, so he had to stay awake until the end of the bonding heat. 

Ping Mo could only stand it until the next day.

The normal inhibitors successfully blocked the pheromone spillover, but couldn’t fully contain the unbearable anxiety and cravings that came during the bonding heat. More importantly, he hadn’t eaten all day. If he, the titular/former Raptor Captain, died of starvation because he turned into a cat from his bonding heat, the territories of the small and large interstellar pirates would probably have a collective celebration.

Ping Mo decided to go out for food. He stared at the ridiculously narrow window sill, crouched and whipped his tail to pre-judge a few times, then finally leapt. Fortunately, even as a cat, Ping Mo’s skills were still impressive. He landed firmly on the window sill, pawed his way through the window, and deftly squeezed out.

Diagonally across from the faculty dormitory was the water room, where several students were lining up to get water. 

“This is the place. I really smelled omega pheromones yesterday. Especially sweet ones!”

Their companion didn’t think so. “How is that possible? This is a male alpha faculty dormitory. Where would there be an omega? You’re mistaken.”

“Really, I’ve never smelled such sweet pheromones. Super erotic! No lie, I almost…”

“I think you’re hallucinating. Watch less porn.”

“What porn! Fuck off!”

The students were joking around and didn’t notice when a small white cat jumped from the second floor, then agilely burrowed into the canopy of a sycamore tree. Ping Mo quickly adapted to his new body and flew all the way to the front door of the cafeteria, where he eventually arrived on the branch of a balsam fir tree. Hesitantly, he watched several stray cats as they rolled around and begged for food.

The big, fat orange cat was the most skillful in the “porcelain” business. 1 First it rubbed the students’ calves, and then fell with a thud to the ground. It straddled their feet, revealed its fat belly, whispered “meow” twice, and the food was in its possession.

Ping Mo, “…”

I can’t learn that.

Even if he had become a cat for the time being, he couldn’t abandon the dignity of being human. Even if he died of hunger, he won’t eat food in contempt.

Another half day later, Ping Mo squatted motionlessly on the ground, shrank himself into an emotionless ball of fur, and allowed several girls to surround him and smooth his fur.

“Is this a new one? I’ve never seen it before. It’s so cute! Look at the big eyes, the color is so beautiful!”

“Meow meow, what’s your name? I’ll call you Mimi from now on, okay?”

“…” Ping Mo resisted the urge to run away. He told himself that no one knew he was Instructor Ping, so there was no shame, he just had to hold on a little longer…

However, the few girls who petted him only handed out a ham sausage.

It still tasted like chicken, which Ping Mo hated the most.

“…”

When Lu DongWang went to the cafeteria to get food, he saw a small glutinous rice ball-like cat staring at an opened ham sausage in disgust, but it didn’t get it in its mouth even after several attempts.

The glutinous rice dumpling was small, and the sausage placed in front of it was big. But the other big cats hadn’t dared to come over to grab the food. Instead they stayed far away. It was a very scandalous scene.

“Hey, I see that you are a king.” Lu DongWang reached out to pet the cat, but was dodged by the hairy ball with disgust. It harrumphed at him fiercely, and showed two sharp canine teeth.

Ping Mo, although he was taking inhibitors, still had the characteristics of his bonding heat, and his anxiety hadn’t been completely eliminated. This resulted in contact with an alpha making him cranky.

“…” Lu DongWang touched his nose. “It’s really quite powerful.”

The cat looked really cute, and Lu DongWang was a veteran cat slave. However, in the extraterritorial station, he wasn’t in a position to keep a cat, so every time he met a stray cat, he would tease it and feed it. He especially loved the cute look.

“Don’t you like to eat ham? Then I’ll buy you a fish, okay? Wait here.” After Lu DongWang said that, he dashed into the canteen as if he was afraid that the cute kitty would run away.

Five minutes later, he returned and found the cat was still crouched there, as it tilted the fluffy ears on its head, and stared at the door with big gray-blue eyes. It flicked the tip of its tail when it saw him.

Lu DongWang had the illusion that it could understand human speech, and then he had a bold idea. He shook the packed lunch box, and smiled like a human trafficker who intended to sell children. “Come back with me? I’ll pick the fish for you before you eat.”

 

So Ping Mo, who had been out all day, returned to the familiar male alpha staff dormitory at dinner time.

Only the room he returned to was not his own single dormitory.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw Pei Yutu, who was crossing his legs and yelling, “Old Lu, why are you so slow to get a meal? I’m starving…Why are you carrying a cat back?”

Lu DongWang immediately offered Ping Mo up. “Isn’t it cute? Look at the small ears, pink nose, especially the tip of the tail. I have never seen this color!”

Pei Yutu said warily and disgustedly, “You don’t want to keep it in the dormitory, do you?”

The dormitory layout was similar to Ping Mo’s, except that it was for two people. With only two days of work, they had already given it a strong single man style. Laptops, gamepads, external mechanical keyboards and all kinds of messy data cables piled up together. Porcelain ashtrays were still vaguely giving off thin wisps of smoke, dirty clothes were thrown horizontally and vertically on the sofa, the small living room still had an open suitcase, and the trash can was filled with ready to throw away take-away lunch boxes.

Ping Mo was being carried uncomfortably, and broke free from Lu DongWang’s hands when he heard Pei Yutu start chattering again, “Old Lu, you like these hairy beasts. Do they have germs?”

“…” Ping Mo raised his round head in shock and stared at him. With your pigsty environment, how can you have the confidence to dislike others?

Lu DongWang argued, “Absolutely no germs. Cats are especially clean, Pei, look, his fur. How white!”

Pei Yutu lazily shifted his gaze, met Ping Mo’s eyes, then suddenly sat up straight with an, “Eh.”

Ping Mo intuited that this man was incapable of saying anything nice, and licked his nose nervously. Then he heard Pei Yutu say, “These eyes…are a little like Instructor Ping’s!”

Ping Mo, “!”

Ping Mo subconsciously wanted to run, but felt like those eyes held him in place. Due to his hesitation, Pei Yutu took the lead, and pinched the soft flesh at the back of Ping Mo’s neck.

Pei Yutu looked at the fur ball that was waving its claws and paws, and for the first time thought a cat was cute. He laughed out loud and said, “This silly look isn’t like him though!”

Ping Mo, “…”

Lu DongWang’s eyes lit up. “Which Instructor Ping? Is that the little beauty you were talking about?”

Pei Yutu said loudly, “Yes!”

If the two people had been attentive enough, they would’ve found that the little hairy child who was being carried in the air had stopped struggling, and that the pair of beautiful, round, gray-blue eyes had instantly narrowed and were looking very dangerous.

Who was a beauty?

Unfortunately, a threat from a kitten was insignificant. Pei Yutu ignorantly continued to say, “Beautiful or not, he’s still an alpha, and a violent one at that. Not only that, he is a pretentiously double-standard person who openly favors the omegas, while he himself took leave without notice today. And those students! Chasing me around with distressed looks on their faces, asking me whether Instructor Ping’s sickness was serious or not. Tsk! You tell me, why do the omegas nowadays all like white-faced 2boys? Their taste must be broken!”  

Ping Mo expressionlessly twitched his little ears. Heh.

Teaching Assistant Pei didn’t know that he had been booked for the “Eighteen Companies of Little Shoes” package, and turned his attention back to the hairball in his hand. He said to Lu DongWang, “You can keep it, but you can’t let it into the bedroom.”

Lu DongWang, “!”

That meant yes! He knew that Pei Yutu disliked how pets shed hair, but today the sun came up in the west!

Lu DongWang was afraid that his roommate would regret it. He promised that the cat wouldn’t be allowed to go into the bedroom, but would make a nest in the living room, and then happily went to pick the fish for Ping Mo.

Unfortunately Ping Mo the cat, had no intention of giving Pei Yutu that face. He waited for Lu DongWang to finish serving dinner, a whole portion of steamed white chub fish, and then jumped onto Pei Yutu’s table.

Pei Yutu was on his laptop, eating and playing when he saw that a fluffy round head was peeking out from behind the screen. The cat and the man looked at each other. Ping Mo was licking his paws and legs leisurely, his long tail curled up in front of him. A harmless and quiet glutinous rice ball.

Pei Yutu looked at his round eyes, which were the same color as Ping Mo’s, and inexplicably found the cat to be quite pleasant and cute.

The next second, the cute kitty suddenly raised its paws and with a swift “snap,” spilled the soup bowl next to him. It splashed onto Pei Yutu’s pants before the cat jumped up and ran, his small body unusually athletic and dexterous.

Translator Notes:

The porcelain business means a con where someone pretends to bump into someone and cause the porcelain/objects in their hands to fall so the trickster can run off with the other party’s money小白脸(white face) Slang for gigolo, but nowadays men with feminine features and gay men whose looks have feminine traits (femboys) can also be called this term. Since gigolos live off their sugar daddy/patron they don’t have to work, so their skin remains fair/white and their appearance is lanky. That’s how the term got its name. Now lanky, fair-skinned men with soft facial definitions are all considered white-faced boys.