Chapter 1

An ordinary weekend.

An ordinary little apartment.

Jiang Cheng was curled up in a beanbag chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, dozing off like she usually did. Sunlight streamed through the window, dust particles floating lazily, just like every other summer afternoon.

But this afternoon took a sudden turn. Jiang Cheng snapped open her eyes in the middle of her nap—a strange current seemed to surge through her body, leaving her numb and weak, her fingertips twitching.

It felt like a switch had been flipped in her brain, and information that had been locked away for who knows how long came flooding in like a dam breaking.

Jiang Cheng’s pupils contracted. She remembered everything!

So she wasn’t from this world after all. She was a transmigrator.

When the electric sensation faded, Jiang Cheng rolled onto the floor, drenched in cold sweat, gasping for air.

She closed her eyes to calm herself, sorting through and absorbing the flood of information.

She still had all the memories of growing up as “Jiang Cheng”—childhood, adolescence, college, her parents’ deaths, graduation, dealing with relatives, selling the house, moving to this city alone to settle down. Yet now, she knew with absolute clarity that she was a transmigrator, from a different world.

But who she was before the transmigration, what kind of world she came from, and when she had crossed over—all of that was a blank, completely blank.

Jiang Cheng rubbed her face, sat up, and stretched her hands in front of her, examining them. She checked her body—nothing seemed particularly different. She had full control over it.

But being told now that this body might not even belong to her? That was hard to accept.

In her memories, up until this awakening, “Jiang Cheng” had lived a complete, ordinary life as a regular person.

She glanced around her apartment—though it was just a small studio, the floor-to-ceiling window was bright, and the decor was cozy.

The layout felt like a hotel: the bathroom was right next to the entrance, and the rest was an open space. Near the window was the sofa, TV wall, dining table, and a sideboard. Further in was the bed, with a wardrobe at the foot of it, and a desk that doubled as a vanity, holding cosmetics and a laptop.

There was no balcony, just an oddly shaped floor-to-ceiling window with a bit of extra space where she kept the beanbag chair, perfect for soaking up the sun.

The inheritance from her parents had bought this apartment with some leftover change. Her salary wasn’t huge, but it was enough to live on and maintain a fairly comfortable life in this city.

It was ordinary, uneventful—nothing to complain about, really. Maybe it was because she was sitting in the sunlight pouring through the window, which made it easy to feel lazy and content.

This sudden awakening as a transmigrator seemed utterly meaningless to her life.

Just... let it be.

She turned her gaze to see someone walking a pet downstairs. Jiang Cheng picked up her phone and checked the time.

Living alone without much financial pressure, she had bought the latest phone model this year. It was a slim clamshell phone, nine buttons with a comfortable feel, equipped with a color screen and even a built-in camera for taking photos.

This phone, the newest model of the year, was arguably the most advanced personal device in this world right now. The joy and novelty she felt when she first got it were still vivid in her memory. That was just a few months ago.

But now, holding this latest phone in her hand, Jiang Cheng somehow felt none of her old fondness for it. Instead, there was a faint... disappointment?

Deep down, it felt like this device hadn’t quite met her expectations, that it wasn’t worthy of her liking.

Why had she liked it so much before?

Because before, she hadn’t awakened.

Jiang Cheng realized that even though she still hadn’t unlocked the memories of her life before transmigrating, her true self was already influencing the consciousness and perceptions of the identity called “Jiang Cheng.”

The phone showed it was almost three in the afternoon.

At this time on a weekend, she was supposed to...

“Meow~”

A cat’s meow echoed from downstairs.

Jiang Cheng leaned out to look—two cats were already staring up at her window from below.

“Coming! Coming!” Jiang Cheng hurried to her feet.

The youth apartment complex, with its small unit sizes, attracted investors who rented them out. Tenants came and went, and some irresponsible ones would abandon their pets when leaving, so the neighborhood had quite a few stray cats.

Weekend afternoons were her designated time to feed them.

Jiang Cheng quickly gathered cat food and bowls, grabbed her bag, and headed downstairs.

When she appeared, four or five stray cats she usually saw had already gathered downstairs.

As she approached, two friendly cats came over to rub against her leg, while the others backed away cautiously, finding cover to watch her warily. It was easy to tell which ones were recently abandoned and which had been stray long enough to be hurt by humans.

Jiang Cheng crouched down to pet the heads of the two affectionate cats, then walked through the courtyard garden to her usual spot. She took out two bowls, filling one with cat food and the other with bottled water.

Compared to food, it was harder for cats to find clean water outside.

Her chosen spot was on one side of a path in the garden, opposite a bench meant for residents. After setting up, Jiang Cheng moved to the other side of the path and sat on the bench, keeping a safe distance. That way, the more wary cats would come over to eat.

Ideally, the best approach would be to take the stray cats home and adopt them.

But Jiang Cheng had lost her parents before she even graduated. After that, she had to handle their funeral, graduate, find a job, sell the house, buy an apartment, move, and adjust to the workplace—all on her own. Facing both entering society and living alone, she wasn’t sure yet if she could take on the responsibility of a pet.

Having experienced the loss of a loved one made her unusually cautious about matters of life, death, and parting. She feared she might also give up and abandon a pet, so she had held back until now.

But at this moment, sitting on the bench and watching the cats across the path—some eating cheerfully, others cautiously—eating cat food and drinking clean water, the world felt completely different yet utterly unchanged. Even if she had remembered she was a transmigrator, so what? Monday would still come, with work to do, a salary to earn, and the same routine of eating, drinking, and sleeping.

Thinking like this, Jiang Cheng felt at peace.

Transmigrator or not, it didn’t make a difference.

Jiang Cheng brushed back the hair from her forehead. Turning her gaze, she noticed that at the other end of the bench, a black cat had appeared out of nowhere.

Completely black, no stray hairs, shiny like obsidian.

The black cat sat quietly on the bench, staring at the cats across the path just like Jiang Cheng. From this angle, its profile looked as soft as a baby’s.

It carried a hint of loneliness.

When you spend a lot of time around animals, you tend to develop a habit of talking to them. Especially for someone living alone.

“New here?” Jiang Cheng asked.

The few cats grabbing at the cat food weren’t all familiar to her, but she had definitely never seen this black cat before.

The black cat ignored her.

“Kitty~kitty~” Jiang Cheng reached out a tentative hand. “Here, kitty~”

Just as her hand was about to touch it, the black cat tilted its head and dodged her reach.

She was like a little person. You could tell she had a temper, not the kind of cat that liked to cling and cuddle.

Jiang Cheng had been scratched several times before she finally learned how to keep the right distance from the cat. When the little black cat didn’t want to be touched, she withdrew her hand. “Go eat some cat food, or else the others will finish it all,” she said.

The little black cat ignored her, just silently watching the crowd of cats scrambling for food.

Even though cats could be very quiet, Jiang Cheng couldn’t shake the feeling that this one’s stillness was a bit off. Maybe it was because black cats always gave off a mysterious vibe?

Usually, white cats might get bullied by a group, but that didn’t mean other cats were immune.

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help glancing at the cats across the alley, then turned back and asked softly, “...Are they freezing you out?”

This time, the black cat actually turned its head to look at her.

Did animals have expressions in their eyes, too? Yes, they did. Especially cats and dogs.

The black cat glanced at her and then turned its head away. But that look didn’t strike Jiang Cheng as a pitiful little victim—it was more like a gangster cat.

Cold and indifferent.

The black cat lifted a paw and began to lick it.

Jiang Cheng reached out her hand toward the black cat again, this time moving slowly, stopping at a spot still a short distance from its head.

She had touched the cat food earlier, so her fingertips carried the scent. There was no way a kitty could resist that.

Sure enough, even the aloof little black cat twitched its nose and turned its head. It seemed reluctant, but in the end, instinct won out as it leaned in to sniff Jiang Cheng’s fingers, then licked its lips.

Jiang Cheng chuckled. When the little black cat finished sniffing, she raised her hand to stroke its fluffy little head.

The black cat flinched slightly, but since it had already sniffed her fingers, it wasn’t as resistant as before. Jiang Cheng gently rubbed the top of the black cat’s head.

Even a thug cat couldn’t fight its instincts. Liking head rubs and chin scratches was just a born-in urge for kittens.

After a few strokes, the little black cat seemed to relax.

“Go on, eat quickly,” Jiang Cheng urged, “otherwise the others will eat it all.”

As if it understood, the black cat actually glanced toward the other cats. Its gaze rested on the stray cats fighting over the food, watching intently.

“Go ahead,” Jiang Cheng said, giving it a gentle push.

But the black cat suddenly hissed at her!

Jiang Cheng jumped back, startled, and quickly withdrew her hands.

The black cat turned its head and licked the spot where she had pushed it.

Jiang Cheng sensed something was wrong. She tried to look more closely, but the cat’s head blocked her view. When she raised her hand, she saw red on her knuckles from where she had pushed the black cat—it had a wound.

“You’re hurt?” Jiang Cheng hesitated for a moment, then stood up. “Wait for me here, little one. Stay right here.”

She ran back upstairs.

She had read some knowledge about raising cats on a pet forum and knew that some medicines could be used for both humans and cats.

Jiang Cheng grabbed the medicine from upstairs and hurried back down, afraid the little black cat might leave. Luckily, it was still on the bench.

“This might sting a little,” Jiang Cheng tried to comfort the cat. “Don’t be scared, little one.”

But what good could human words do for a cat? Jiang Cheng aimed at the wound and pressed the nozzle. The medicine sprayed onto the wound with a puff, stinging sharply.

The black cat let out a piercing cry and leaped off the bench like lightning, diving into the bushes.

Jiang Cheng crouched down to look, but its dark fur blended in completely.

“Ah,” she sighed, a little worried. She had only sprayed once, and though it seemed to have hit the wound, she wasn’t sure if the amount was enough.

The stray cats finished eating and left one by one.

Jiang Cheng went over to clean up. There was still some cat food and water left in the bowls. She picked them up and glanced back at the bench.

She moved both bowls over to the bench and crouched down, calling, “Kitty, kitty—”

But the little black cat didn’t come out.

Still, Jiang Cheng decided to leave the food and water there in case the antisocial cat got hungry. She would come back to collect them tomorrow.

“Kitty, kitty—” she called into the bushes. “There’s food here. Eat if you’re hungry.”

After she left, the sun slowly sank. The sky was awash with twilight, and the trees stretched their long shadows until the sky went completely dark.

The streetlights came on right on time, and tiny bugs fluttered around the bulbs.

Suddenly, the bushes rustled faintly. A cat black as the night crept out. It had been hiding in the bushes all along, using its dark coat as camouflage, warily watching Jiang Cheng.

But after that sharp sting, the wound clearly felt much better.

The little black cat vaguely understood something.

Its stomach was growling. It looked at the two bowls Jiang Cheng had left behind, padded over, and ate everything cleanly.

Then it sniffed the empty bowls. The girl’s scent lingered on them.

The black cat memorized that scent.