Cat, your dirty brother... Bah, four-eared brother is here

Outside Cangzhou Demon Market, on the green stone mountain.

"Every time I go to the demon market, I have to specially make this broken bone token. I really don't know what White Lord is thinking."

Si Er, dressed in beautiful brocade clothes, twitched his four ears and fiddled with the white bone token in his paws.

As Si Er fiddled with the bone token, it immediately shattered into fragments, while waves of fluctuation radiated into Cangzhou Demon Market.

Seeing the bone token shatter into fragments, Si Er shook his paws and cleaned the bone fragments stuck to his paw pads.

After shaking his paws for a while, Si Er raised his hind legs and scratched his left pair of ears.

"Why are my left ears so itchy today!" Si Er tilted his head and scratched his left ears vigorously, while murmuring to himself, "Left itchy means wealth, right itchy means disaster."

"Could it be that I'm going to make a fortune today?"

Just as Si Er finished speaking while scratching his ears, several toads suddenly appeared in front of him.

The leading toad had a horn on its nose, with striking black and green toad skin.

This toad turned out to be Dan Taixi, who had previously failed to support the donkey demon. Dan Taixi came to Si Er and spread his limbs, lying prostrate on the ground, respectfully saying to Si Er: "Dan Taixi clan's Dan Taixi, welcomes the arrival of Master Si Er!"

"Alright, alright."

Si Er put down his hind leg that was scratching his ears, and said to Dan Taixi in front of him: "Don't be so long-winded, I want to see your big boss."

"Borrow your big boss's demon king token for a while and send a message to my brother White Lord!"

"The big boss is waiting in the government office. Please come with me, Master Si Er."

"Oh my, where did you frogs learn so much red tape!"

Si Er jumped directly from the rock onto Dan Taixi's back, raised his claws and patted the fleshy horn on Dan Taixi's nose.

"Hurry up and take me to see Brother Dan Tai, I need to quickly send a message to Brother White Lord."

"Yes!"

Dan Taixi carried Si Er on his back, turned around and returned to the demon market.

Dan Taixi’s two thick and powerful hind legs had just exerted force, carrying Si Er into the mountain waters.

The other toads also followed behind Dan Taixi into the waters between the mountains.

After entering the mountain waters, a small path appeared in front of Dan Taixi and Si Er.

Si Er looked at this path that opened up in the vast gray mist, flipped over and lay on Dan Taixi's head, looking at his claws boredly.

Oh, my claws have been a little dull recently, I need to find something to sharpen them.

As Si Er looked at his claws, his left pair of ears started itching again. He simply scratched his ears while asking: "Little toad, has anything interesting happened in Cangzhou Demon Market recently?"

"Master, there really is one thing."

Dan Taixi suddenly remembered what happened yesterday, and Si Er paused his ear-scratching motion and exerted even more force.

"Speak quickly, speak quickly!"

"Yesterday, a white cat went berserk in the demon market for an ordinary old man, and even brought Aunt Bu the madam of Hongque Building to mediate, saying that the cat was Hongque Building’s top class VIP guest."

"White cat?"

Si Er tilted his head, and Dan Taixi said, "Yes, that white cat has very rich demonic energy, comparable to a great demon who has attained the Dao."

Upon hearing Dan Taixi say that the white cat has very rich demonic energy, Si Er immediately lost interest.

Spirit cats don't cultivate demons, or their legs would be broken.

It’s rare for a cat from Mao City to cultivate demons, so this white cat is probably not a fellow villager from home.

"I heard from bystanders that the white cat was very generous, extremely extravagant, and gave out at least a hundred gold and silver just as rewards."

"When eating at Delicacy Residence restaurant, more than two spiritual stones were spent."

As soon as Dan Taixi finished speaking, Si Er’s left pair of ears suddenly became hot, the eyelids of his twitching heart jumped, arousing his intuition, causing Si Er who didn’t originally want to ask more to flip over and lie on Dan Taixi’s head, patting the toad's fleshy horn to urge him.

"Tell me more about that white cat!"

"Oh, that white cat..."

Before Dan Taixi could say the words that followed, he directly leapt out of the path, taking Si Er into Cangzhou Demon Market.

And outside this path leading directly to Cangzhou Demon Market, there was a bald parrot with shriveled feathers, curled up at the roadside.

There wasn’t a single feather on its chicken-skinned body, and its nose was blue and swollen, looking extremely miserable.

Thud thud thud!

As the muffled thudding sounds landed, the bald parrot raised its head and looked in the direction the sound came from.

It just so happened to see several toads walking out of the small path, and on the toad at the front lay a cat dressed in beautiful brocade clothes, with a pair of ears on each side of its head, double the ears, quite exotic.

Upon seeing this cat, the bald parrot blinked, hurriedly got up and ran towards Dan Taixi.

Or more precisely, towards the cat on Dan Taixi's head.

"Hold on, hold on!"

As the bald parrot shouted loudly, Dan Taixi also stopped, looking down condescendingly at the bald parrot.

"You are..." Dan Taixi's eyelid jumped, "Hongque Building’s colorful parrot, how did you become like this?"

"Oh, I was punished for making a mistake!"

The bald parrot shrank its head, while Si Er also stuck his head out to take a look, his eyelids jumping.

"Where did this bald chicken come from, why so pitiful?"

As Si Er spoke, he spat out several gold coins from his mouth, "Take this to buy some clothes to cover your shame."

"Thank you for your generosity, sir," the bald parrot thanked Si Er first, then continued, "But I'm not here to beg for money this time, I was waiting specifically for you."

"Waiting for me?"

Si Er's ears twitched, and his left ears became even hotter, shaking unceasingly.

"That’s right," the bald parrot didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "Our butler Bo asked me to notify you that your brother from your hometown has arrived at Cangzhou Demon Market."

"My brother from my hometown?"

Si Er frowned, his hometown was naturally Mao City, and the only one who could be called his brother was the stingy stuffy gourd.

But with stuffy gourd’s miserly personality, he would usually not leave his Tan Cat Hall, let alone run to Cangzhou Demon Market thousands of miles away.

"Yes, your cousin from home, Cube's Yao Feixuan, has come to Cangzhou Demon Market!"

...

In the inn,

"Woof?"

Thirteen's head peeked out from the doorway, looking at the foggy room, the dog tilted its head, but accidentally made itself fall to the ground from leaning too hard.

"Alright, stop pretending to be silly at the door, come on in."

Du ke's voice came from the inner room, and the dog immediately got up, walked into the room, sticking close to the ground.

It also closed the door.

Because Thirteen could hear that the Cat Lord was not very happy.

After closing the door, Thirteen walked into the inner room of the guest room and saw Du ke squatting on the beast skin, sucking hard on the smoking pipe.

Although his expression was plain, sadness could be seen in his eyes.

And Dr. Sun, who was supposed to be called by Du ke to eat together, was nowhere to be seen.

Thirteen looked at the white cat with hidden sadness in his eyes, carefully approached him until he reached Du ke's side. The dog didn't make a sound, only silently went around to Du ke's back and lay down on the beast skin, using its body as Du ke’s backrest.

Feeling Thirteen's warmth rubbing over, Du ke also grinned, and stroked Thirteen's head with his free paw.

"Thirteen, why do you think some people are unable to redeem themselves?"

"Awoo?"

Thirteen tilted his head.

Cat Lord, what does redeem oneself mean?

Du ke was stunned for a moment, then laughed out loud, pawing and rubbing the dog’s head fur.

"It’s meaningless, just take it as crazy nonsense I spouted from smoking too much.”

"Aroo!"

Cat Lord, now you make it so hard for Woof Woof to understand you!

"If it's hard to understand then don't understand. You just need to be yourself."

Du ke rubbed the doggie's head and said softly, "Just be a carefree little monster."

"Leave the rest to Cat Lord."

"In the future, no matter what problems arise, Cat Lord will find a way to solve them!"

"Woof!"

Thirteen nodded vigorously. At the same time, there was a knock on the door.

Through the cracks in the door came the timid voice of Little Rabbit:

"Sir, are you there?"

"I didn't find you in your room, so...."

Before Little Rabbit could finish, Du ke took out some spirit stones and gave them to the dog, saying:

"Take Little Rabbit and settle the bill for this inn. Give her whatever is left over. Ask Qianli Inn over in Cangzhou how much it costs to get from there to Yunzhou. Help pay a deposit, and the rest will be hers."

"Woof!"

Thirteen immediately grabbed the spirit stones in his mouth and left, barking at Little Rabbit as he went out the door.

Seeing that it was Thirteen who came out, Little Rabbit was taken aback. But once she understood his barking, she nodded obediently.

"Alright, please come with me."

Little Rabbit led Thirteen away. Meanwhile, Du ke blew out a puff of smoke, making the room even more misty.

At the same time, Du ke's spirit entered the black cauldron. He looked at Su Xiang sitting cross-legged inside with a smile at the corners of his mouth and said:

"I will send you home, Master Su."

"I will get you home."

"Just wait a little longer!"

...

"Shopkeeper, shopkeeper!"

When Little Rabbit led Thirteen into the inn's lobby, she called out while hopping up and down in front of the counter.

The flower bear behind the counter opened his eyes. His fur was mottled with age. Seeing Little Rabbit, he said:

"Oh, little Di Zi, is it you?"

"Is it the guest you brought yesterday who wants to check out?"

"Yes, Bear Shopkeeper."

"Alright, let me take a look!" Bear Shopkeeper immediately opened the account book beside him and squinted to find yesterday's record.

Meanwhile, Little Rabbit said to Thirteen: "Sir, you can go rest over there."

She pointed to a short stool across the room. Thirteen shook his head. Better finish this quickly so Cat Lord doesn't get impatient, he thought.

"Okay, I'll go hurry Bear Shopkeeper along."

Little Rabbit turned to urge the bear on while Thirteen looked around the lobby at all the guests coming and going.

Although the inn was very large, business wasn't exactly booming.

For monsters, no matter where they were, they could get by camping out for a night as long as there was shelter from the rain. Most of the monsters gathered in Cangzhou's monster market were newcomers without much money in their pockets.

The shops here catered to monsters with some level of wealth. Monsters with less money would choose to patronize street peddlers and night markets instead.

As Thirteen was observing the lobby, a cat with lustrous, multi-colored fur and four ears suddenly burst in from outside, shouting anxiously:

"Where's my brother? Where's my brother from back home?"

Seeing the four-eared cat with bright fur, Thirteen's ears perked up.

Lustrous fur like embroidered silk, four ears, eyes like amber—this must be the notorious Si Er the Silk Embroidered Thief!

The four-eared elder brother who had always silently taken the fall for Cat Lord!

Thinking of this, Thirteen suddenly shuddered anxiously and raced upstairs where the guest rooms were located.

Cat Lord, bad news! Your four-eared elder brother who's always covering for you has shown up!