Ch22 - Completing Preschool

Sparta gets his preschool diploma!

Editor: Vez 

Sparta’s livestream debut became an instant hit. Because it was too topical, it was pushed to the weekly best recap by the platform and placed in a prominent position on the homepage. The short ten minutes video was edited by netizens under different titles, which rapidly spread on major websites and triggered a heated discussion in the XF game circle. [My teammate from the top five hundred is actually…a cat that is out of this world!], a player posted. This Weibo post was forwarded by Xin Qin’s teammate from the day of the event, adding his point of view, his desperate experience of being a teammate with a cat. Both the language and tone were humorous. It was forwarded many times. In the end, it reached the official XF Weibo before continuing spreading. 

In less than two days, the XF game and cute pet communities knew that there was a fellow cat with a scar who could play games and play the assassin like a master. 

The first thing Scrambled Eggs did was to contact Xin Qin. [My friend, this is the perfect opportunity. If I knew how good your cat is at the game, we would have been popular long ago.]

This was also very unexpected for Xin Qin. He viewed the event that day as a livestream accident, but based on fans and viewers feedback, it seemed that they have unusual tolerance and hard to describe affection for cats.  

[What are you waiting for? Go strike the iron while it's hot. Let your cat play in your place this season.]

Xin Qin sent a series of ellipses. 

[Hahahaha, I was joking, just joking! But you should turn on your camera now. Now that your cat is the hottest topic, you need to use it to strike iron. Stream more and promote. Reuse the principle of riding on your cat’s success to promote yourself. Once you become famous, you can sign a better contract, get sponsorship, make some money and reach the pinnacle of your life.]

Xin Qin hesitated. In his original plan, there was nothing regarding Sparta’s debut. In his opinion, as a domestic cat, the Dragon Li cat should play to his heart’s content every day, eat delicious food when hungry, go to sleep when tired and not have to worry about anything. If he livestreams his cat, will Sparta be happy? Will the cat find this utterly boring?

[Don’t hesitate. Popularity is the most unreliable thing these days. It could disappear in the blink of an eye. Like exposing cold drinks on hot days. We have no say when the liquid decided to evaporate. If you do not grasp it, the opportunity will run far away. You never know, you may not have this opportunity again.]

Xin Qin intended to process this carefully. Even if he wanted to take Sparta into consideration, he would make a very suitable plan and he cannot let his cat blindly help him pursue baseless popularity. 

Sparta was not troubled by his fame, nor did he worry as much as his human. In fact, he knew nothing about this. He was still a cat worried about his exam. Fortunately, after racking his brain for several days, he finally came up with a solution. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Po P, jr jc jveia mja, uba j mtjcmf ab ajix ab ws qjra rfio ogbw afc wbcatr jub, P kbeiv afii wsrfio bo ktfc P kbxf eq ab olcv atja P tjv ugbkc eq jcv ws qjkr  tjv yfmbwf ragbcufg, rb ragbcu atja P mbeiv pewq tlutfg jcv ojgatfg. Ktja P kbeiv tjnf ab ifjnf ws wbatfg jcv rlrafgr fnfcaejiis, atja P klii yfmbwf j gfrqbcrlyif jveia mja.” 

One night, Sparta suddenly ran to Xin Qin and sat down in front of him. His two front paws were neatly placed together, chin up with lip raised on one end, looking very proud. He opened his mouth and started to meow. 

At first, Xin Qin thought Sparta was hungry or needed something, so he paused his game and gave his full attention to the Dragon Li cat, trying to understand the cat’s intention. However, after waiting for more than a minute, the Dragon Li cat was still going. He did not seem to want anything from Xin Qin. His meows were calm and gentle, as if he had something to say and saying it solemnly, as if he was giving a speech. Xin Qin could not resist setting up a camera and recording the Dragon Li cat’s grand speech. 

“I never thought I would assume responsibility over a human one day.

“A long time ago, when I was still a kitten, nestling with my beautiful sisters, there were always different humans coming and going. Some of them seemed very friendly, while some did not look very cat friendly, but none of them had ever paid attention to me. My two sisters were picked up one after another. When they left, they cried about how I needed to be cuter so I could find the right human as soon as possible. I really tried my best for them, but what is cute? I tried responding to human’s gibberish. Even if I did not like it. I tried being energetic and active. However, I was rejected in the end. No human wanted to choose me.” 

“Later, I grew older and less cut out for entering another human’s family. I began to hate the life of endless waiting. I fantasised that if I became stronger one day, I would go to the vast world outside and be a happy and free cat. I will not need humans and I will assume responsibility over any of them.”

“Then that day really came. I left, I became strong but I was also riddled with scars. I was proud of myself. No matter spring or winter, I had enough to eat. But one day, the moon was big and round, so bright that its light fell between the grass, among the leaves, and on the tip of my tail. That moment, I was so fascinated by it that I did not want to catch mice. I suddenly want to find a partner. So if there is such a beautiful moon again in the future, I can say to him, meow, look at the moonlight on the tip of my tail. 

“Maybe that is why I was willing to assume responsibility for my current and only human. I did not pick my human, and he did not choose me. But strangely, we belong to each other. My aunt said that my human’s father and mother abandoned him, leaving him with his lonesome self. 

“I am willing to give him all the moonlight on the tip of my tail in the future. 

“I assumed responsibility over my human, but if I could go back and become a kitten again, I will definitely tell myself to make this decision sooner: I will assume responsibility over my human once I am an adult. He will become my partner as well as my responsibility.”

“A cat would never indulge in the past because we have the future. A mature cat will not betray their nature for temporary comfort. We are free, walking the road of solitary. One day, when we come to an intersection between freedom and solitary, that is when we have to grow up.”

Sparta’s speech lasted for more than three minutes. When he stopped, Xin Qin walked over and caressed his head, softly asking, “What’s wrong? Were you trying to say something to me?”

Sparta rubbed his cheek against the human’s finger. Miwu. 

For some reason, Xin Qin had this urge to hug his Dragon Li cat, so he did that. Sparta nestled in his arms and bubbled with purr. 

On the day of graduation speech, Sparta specially licked the fur on his head to perfection. He stood in the centre of the camera and began to meow out his speech in high spirits. Preschool was just the beginning of his student life, but it was his first step to success. When he was by himself without a human, he was content to have a full stomach everyday. But now that he had a human, he began to be greedy. He had a goal and fighting spirit. Just like when he was learning how to catch mice, he will eventually enrol in university and be one more step closer to his Miwu. 

Sparta had a very successful graduation speech. In fact, the kittens waved their furry paws at him for a long time. Cong Baohui even cried as the human he took over was not within his choosing. Compared to Sparta’s realisation, he felt that he missed something important in his cat life. “Is your human really not going to take in another cat?” He asked Sparta tearfully. 

Sparta used voice command to delete Cong Baohui from his friend list.  

On the other hand, the video of Sparta’s meowing speech posted by Xin Qin had trended around the internet, which triggered a new round of onlookers. There were even speculations that Sparta was a messenger sent to earth by the home planet of cat people. That speech was his declaration of independence to mankind. 

—[Being captivated is the second thing. The key is that Sparta sounds so soft and cute, so pleasing to my ears. If you listen more closely, there is a sense of melody, as if he is reading a love poem. I am so jealous of Sing God]

—[I am jealous to the point of beyond recognisable]

—[I already edited out the audio and set it as my ringtone. DM me for a copy] 

Sparta did not know of his growing popularity. He had successfully graduated from preschool and had a rare week’s vacation. However, the Dragon Li cat, who was used to getting up and surfing the internet at night, continued to stay up at night everyday, turning into not just in name only, but also in reality: a night owl. One night, Mochi pinged for a voice chat and suddenly mentioned to him, “Do you know how popular you are on human Weibo now?”

Sparta tilted his head. Weibo, what is that?

With strong curiosity and love for gossip, Mochi taught Sparta how to use voice commands to operate into a human’s Weibo account. He could not comprehend human words but he could distinguish the pictures. He was very pleased to see they were all of himself. 

Although Mochi also could not understand human words, he could recognise numbers, so he had a basic understanding of Sparta’s popularity. “Right now you have more than ten thousand likes from humans.” 

Sparta shook his head, showing his unconcernedness. He did not care how much ten thousand is. He only needed one human in his life. 

Mochi added, “If you become famous, it should be a good thing for your human.”

Hearing Mochi talking about Miwu, Sparta sat up straight and finally showed some interest. “How could that be a good thing?”

“Do you know how much money it costs your human to take care of you?” 

Sparta shook his head. What is money? Is it a type of can?

As if seeing the confusion on his face, Mochi patiently explained what money is and the role it plays. “In short, the cat kibble, canned food, freeze-dried food, nutritional gel, and other various kinds of snacks you eat, as well as your toys and your cat litter, are all bought with money. If you do not have money, you will not be able to eat canned food in the future.”

Sparta perked up his ears and curled his tail nervously. “So my human does not have money?”

“It is hard for humans to make money. For example, my human don’t make much. I have been living frugally on my canned food.” Mochi sighed and continued to meow, “But there are some humans who can easily make money. As long as there are enough humans that follow him, like him, he can make money.” 

“Then this is the popularity you mentioned?”

“That’s right, you just need to know that popularity can make money. As for how it is making money, that’s for your human to handle. As far as I know, many domestic cats gather popularity for their humans, so as to make more money and buy more cans. Do you remember the picture of the ragdoll I sent you? He is a big star in the human world, his popularity is very high.”

“Yes, I remember.” Sparta gave a big yawn. “But he is not that good-looking.”

“You understand nothing! Humans like this kind of thing. Of course, what humans like may be strange, for example, they like you.” 

Sparta unhappily roared at Mochi. 

“Fine, fine, maybe they think you have an irresistible cat charm? In brief, if you can be liked by more and more humans, your human’s life will get better.”

Sparta was still a little confused, since these things did not exist in his cat’s head before. “Does that mean my human is having a hard time earning money right now?”

“I think so.” Mochi was actually not too sure so he answered with uncertainty. Most humans are poor anyway.  

Sparta immediately fell into a deep worry. The big gold chain around his neck suddenly seemed to weigh more, so heavy that he could not lift his head.