The streets gradually grew busier with pedestrians. Neighbors greeted each other; some pushed wooden wheelbarrows out to work, while others opened their shops for business. Anxi Street finally came alive.

The little black cat hid in the shadows, its eyes watchful yet indifferent, but it refused to leave.

“This bead must be very important to you,” Chen Ji muttered to himself. “Even though I teased you several times and the bead bounced off, you still didn’t want to give up.”

He waved at the little black cat, motioning for it to follow him into the medical hall, but the little black cat remained motionless, observing him secretly.

Just then, activity stirred at the eatery across the street. The strong young shop assistants removed the door panels and carried baskets of steamed buns and bread to the entrance. Steam billowed from the steamers in the morning sunlight.

Chen Ji looked up again, only to see the little black cat staring intently at the steamers…

The little black cat’s gaze reminded him of his younger self, staring at someone else’s instant noodles on a green-skinned train.

Chen Ji hesitated for a moment, then walked over and asked, “How much is a steamed bun?”

The eatery assistant replied with a smile, “Ah, it’s young Doctor Chen! Buns are still two copper coins each, same as always.”

Chen Ji pulled out two copper coins from his sleeve. It was the money he earned from cleaning the floor yesterday, and it was all he had.

“I’ll have one,” he said, slipping the two coins into the assistant’s hand.

The assistant cheerfully asked, “Just one? Is that enough?”

Chen Ji replied with a laugh, “I only have two copper coins; I can’t afford more.”

The eatery assistant looked surprised. Who would admit to being so poor that they couldn’t afford more than a single two-copper-coin bun these days?

One bun cost two copper coins, a catty of rice ten copper coins, and a catty of eggs twenty copper coins. Even the poorest families could usually scrape together two copper coins.

But Chen Ji’s frank demeanor suggested he felt no embarrassment at all.

“Alright then, I’ll sell you one bun,” the eatery assistant said warmly after recovering from his surprise.

Chen Ji glanced at the little black cat on the eaves, then suddenly asked, “Excuse me, do you know if there’s anywhere nearby that sells fish?”

“Are you looking to buy fish?”

“I’m just asking for now; I don’t have the money to buy any yet.”

The eatery assistant smiled and said, “Only smoked salted fish is sold nearby. If you want live fish, you’ll have to go to the East Market, which would take more than an hour round trip.”

“Are fish expensive?”

“That depends on the type of fish,” the assistant chuckled. “Crucian carp and grass carp are cheap, ten copper coins a catty, while sea bass is more expensive, about thirty copper coins a catty. The wealthy merchants and scholars who frequent the East Market are said to even eat sea fish. I heard that when Luocheng was prosperous, many sea fish were transported here daily.”

Chen Ji casually asked, “So Luocheng isn’t doing so well now?”

“Times have changed. This used to be the capital in the previous dynasty, a place of extravagance and luxury. Now it’s fallen into decline; only some old masters still boast about it being the capital. But everyone knows the truly prosperous places now are Shengjing in the north and Jinling in the south,” the assistant lifted a steamer lid, and amidst the rush of white steam, he wrapped a bun in paper and handed it over. “Here you go, your bun.”

Chen Ji took the bun but didn’t eat it. Instead, he turned around and placed it on the threshold of the medical hall. Only then did he bend down to pick up the shoulder pole and water buckets, and swayed his way inside the medical hall.

The little black cat jumped down from the eaves and approached the medical hall’s entrance. It sniffed the bun, then walked away with its head held high, seemingly unwilling to accept Chen Ji’s kindness.

But after a few steps, it turned back and picked up the bun.

It stood at the medical hall’s entrance, watching Chen Ji’s back as he carried water to the backyard. It seemed to want to follow him in and look around, but ultimately turned and left.

Ever since She Dengke and Liu Quxing got into a brawl in the backyard, they hadn’t returned to the main hall. With their master away, both were lazy and unwilling to come out to work.

Chen Ji also enjoyed the peace and quiet. When hungry, he would get a grain pancake from the kitchen. When thirsty, he would scoop water and boil it to drink. If patients brought prescriptions, he would measure out the medicine for them; he politely declined those seeking diagnosis.

He spent almost the entire day studying the general principles of medicine, but he focused specifically on the branch of external injuries.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Ji unwittingly fell asleep leaning on the counter. When he woke up, he saw the black cat from Evening Star Courtyard quietly perched on the counter, watching him.

The black cat’s fur was disheveled, and it had a fresh wound on its neck, oozing blood.

Chen Ji smiled and raised a hand to greet the black cat. “Why are you so quiet when you walk? Did you get beaten up again?”

The black cat slightly raised its head defiantly.

Its expression was like that of many men after a fight, holding their heads stiffly as if to say, “I didn’t gain anything either!”

In reality, these are just excuses from the defeated.

“Wait a moment,” Chen Ji went to the kitchen to fetch a ‘fire stick’ to light a flame, and lit the oil lamp on the main hall’s counter.

The small flame flickered, not enough to illuminate the entire room, but just enough for the small space occupied by the man and the cat.

Chen Ji blew out the flame on the thin wooden strip and muttered, “You fight with Concubine Yun’s cat every day. Doesn’t Concubine Jing help treat your injuries? Maybe you should hide from it for a while, or else you’re going to get beaten to death.”

The black cat raised its head, looking somewhat indignant.

“There’s no need to be indignant,” Chen Ji gestured. “You’re still so small, probably not even a year old, and it’s so much bigger. It’s normal that you can’t beat it. A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years. You can go find it again when you’re fully confident.”

At this point, Chen Ji became serious. “But remember, that time you must deliver a fatal blow; don’t give it a chance to recover.”

The black cat listened, and a thoughtful look appeared in its eyes.

Chen Ji felt a little puzzled. “Can you really understand what I’m saying?”

The black cat did not react.

Chen Ji said with a smile, “Let me put some medicine on you.”

The black cat watched as Chen Ji suddenly began flipping through medical books rapidly. The young man muttered to himself, “Let me see what medicine can be applied to external injuries. I specifically studied this today… Right, *Shechuangzi*. There’s a large quantity of this stuff. If I take one gram, Old Man Yao definitely won’t notice.”

The black cat’s previously tense body relaxed slightly.

Chen Ji took some dried *Shechuangzi* and carefully ground it into a powder.

He looked at the black cat. “I’m putting some hemostatic medicine on you, don’t scratch me.”

To his surprise, when he applied the powder to the black cat’s wound, it truly didn’t flinch or try to escape, as if it knew this was for its own good.

The black cat remained like a small statue. Its gaze followed Chen Ji’s movements, and finally, its body, which had been ready to bristle at any moment, gradually relaxed.

The little black cat’s fur was thick, requiring careful parting to examine, which was time-consuming.

Once Chen Ji had treated all of the black cat’s wounds, he immediately smiled. “Mission accomplished!”

As he spoke, he realized the black cat had fallen asleep, its small head resting on his palm.

Chen Ji remained silent for a long time, his hand never moving away.

The man and the cat remained in that small pool of light, quiet and gentle.

Chen Ji looked down at the little black cat, and after a long silence, he spoke absently, “I guess I can only talk to you about this.”

He leaned against the counter, his gaze fixed on the flickering flame. “When I was in the hospital, I thought I wouldn’t die. I was so well-prepared, even getting a psychiatric diagnosis to escape punishment after killing someone, but I ended up being killed instead. But if I’m dead, I’m dead. As long as revenge was taken.”

“Li Qingniao told me that people from North Kuru were responsible for smuggling me. I don’t know what he meant. Where is North Kuru? What is the Forty-Nine Heavens? How did I suddenly reincarnate as a young apprentice, living alone in this world…”

“When I learned from my master that I still had family, I wasn’t really looking forward to it… Well, maybe a little. But that evening, as the last rays of the sunset faded from me, I felt abandoned by the world.”

“Is that a bit melodramatic…”

Chen Ji babbled on, saying all sorts of disjointed things. Since arriving in this world, he had found no one he could trust, no one worthy of trust. He could only keep his secrets and confusions to himself, and ultimately tell them to a sleeping kitten.

It seemed even he found it a little ridiculous, so he lowered his head and softly said to the black cat, “Thank you for listening to all my rambling. I feel much better!”

At that moment, the little black cat actually opened its eyes, and gently placed a paw on Chen Ji’s wrist, as if comforting him.

Chen Ji stared at the furry little paw for a long time, then asked, “I guess it’s because you haven’t beaten the white cat, and Concubine Jing and Chun Rong are annoyed that you’re not strong enough, so they won’t treat your injuries or feed you. That’s why a cat raised by a dignified princess would care about a meat bun, right?”

The little black cat watched him silently.

Chen Ji asked seriously, “How about this: once I’m able to leave the medical hall, you can wander the world with me?”

The little black cat looked confused.

“No, that won’t do, it needs some ceremony!” Chen Ji pulled a sheet of prescription paper from inside the counter, and with a brush, he clumsily wrote down an ancient ritual prayer for hiring a cat: “Cat slave of Luocheng, wrapped in dark clouds, Chen Ji now hires ‘Dark Cloud’ to his home. Having no dried fish, a crystal bead shall serve as the betrothal gift. May the Kitchen God witness our non-abandonment, and the City God witness our grace and righteousness.”

As the last character was penned, he took out a cinnabar inkpad and looked at the black cat. “If you can truly understand me and are willing to follow me, then put your paw print here.”

Under the young man’s gaze, the black cat hesitated for a quarter of an hour, then actually lifted its paw, dabbed it in the cinnabar inkpad, and pressed its paw print onto the hiring document.

The next moment, the hiring document spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into specks of light in the air.

Chen Ji watched the brilliant spectacle before him, and murmured to himself, “This world really isn’t normal…”

A voice asked, “What’s not normal?”

Chen Ji slowly turned his head towards the black cat…