The big white cat didn't realize how childish it was. It changed to a less elegant posture, like a koala, and lay down on her, even taking the opportunity to lick her face.
Seeing this, the big, fluffy little cub nestled to the side imitated her, secretly sticking out its tiny tongue and licking its mother's cheek.
The big white cat's affection made Shen Wuqiu a little shy, but the baby's affection was different.
Shen Wuqiu turned her head and kissed the big, fluffy cat on the head, "Baby is so cute..."
Er Mao and San Mao weren't having it. They squeezed over while biting and fighting, like little puppies, and washed their mother's face.
The scramble was so intense that even Simao couldn't sit still. The little foodie thought there was something delicious on his mother's face, so he slowly squeezed in and licked Shen Wuqiu's face.
"Meow~" Simao looked at this older sister and then at that older sister, completely bewildered. There was nothing delicious on her mother's face.
"..."
The white cat, having reached her breaking point, lost the last vestige of maternal tenderness and proceeded to give her kittens a good beating.
Thus, Shen Wuqiu witnessed the spectacular scene of "mother and daughter killing each other"!
The scene wasn't as bloody as Shen Wuqiu had imagined. It was the first time she had ever seen such a scene, and she even found it fascinating.
By the time they realized what was happening and tried to stop it, the fight was already over.
The attempt with the four kittens ended in failure. One by one, with their heads drooping, they were carried into the rocking bed by the big white cat and stayed there obediently, meowing.
Shen Wuqiu looked at the cub's messy fur, blinked, and asked the big white cat, "You didn't hurt the baby, did you?"
The cat shook off its fur, which had been ruffled by the kittens, and instantly transformed back into a beautiful creature. It then tucked its anxious partner into the bed, saying, "Alright, now you can finally get some sleep."
Shen Wuqiu was no longer sleepy. She lay down on the bed next to the other person for a while and asked in a low voice, "Does it really smell?"
The seemingly random sentence left the cat stunned for a few seconds before it finally reacted, "Hmm."
"Then tell me what it tastes like?"
A cat with its eyes closed rubbed against her neck. "I can't quite describe the taste, but it's sweet with a hint of saltiness."
Shen Wuqiu still didn't believe it: "Can you smell it now?"
A cat gently licked her earlobe.
With just a little teasing, her sensitive nerves were fully awakened. Shen Wuqiu pushed her away, "Stop fooling around, weren't you embarrassed just now?"
Gu Lingyu raised her head, opened her eyes, and smiled at her: "Now you can smell it. Qiuqiu, you're so sensitive."
"..." Shen Wuqiu was furious and embarrassed. He wrapped himself in the quilt and ignored her.
Gu Lingyu persisted and moved closer: "That means Qiuqiu likes me too, right?"
You're overthinking it.
"You're so awkward, but you're still so cute. However, I would be even happier if you weren't so two-faced."
"I'm sleepy. If you're not sleepy, go for a run."
Gu Lingyu was a little disappointed, but when she saw Qiuqiu's reddened ear tips, that disappointment vanished in an instant. Then she raised her hand to turn off the light, looked up at the ceiling, and thought, "I wish Qiuqiu wouldn't be so awkward someday."
****
The next day was a bright and sunny day. Before seven o'clock, the golden sunlight was already shining through the air.
Mr. Shen and his wife got up early to pack and loaded all the prepared items into the car.
When Shen Wuqiu and the others came downstairs, the couple had already gotten ready and were ready to leave after they finished eating.
Knowing that he could no longer drink milk, Da Mao obediently followed his sisters and started eating various kinds of goat milk and meat paste.
Once everything was ready, the whole family set off in a flurry of activity to return to the mountain.
Knowing that the Gu family lived on Cliff Mountain, Mr. Shen's feelings were quite complicated. Besides curiosity and doubt, he was mostly worried and couldn't help but ask Gu Lingchen, who was driving. Knowing that Gu Lingyu was taking her nieces back to the mountain today, they had all come to the Shen family to pick them up in person.
"Although Yai Mountain is large, many people have walked on it over the years, but we've never heard of anything on it. You wouldn't happen to live in a cave somewhere, would you?"
With these worries in mind, Mr. Chen already pictured this scene in his mind: a dark and damp cave, with hardly any decent furniture, just a bunch of all kinds of cats crammed in...
Just thinking about such a scene made Mr. Shen shudder. How could his daughter survive if she lived with these cats in a small cave?
"Uncle Chen is really humorous." Gu Lingchen genuinely thought he was joking. "Yashan is indeed quite large, with a hidden mountain range stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles. Otherwise, the Heavenly Emperor wouldn't have asked our clan to guard this place."
Mr. Shen didn't quite understand this, nor did he care. He was preoccupied with the fact that humans and cats were different. Before, when they all lived together, he didn't think there was anything wrong with his son-in-law being a cat, but now that he saw the car heading straight towards Yai Mountain, he became a little worried.
As the grass on the dirt road ahead grew thicker and thicker, Mr. Shen became increasingly uneasy. If he remembered correctly, the road was about to end, and at the end there was nothing but a small, stone-carved structure less than a meter tall that resembled a small house.
After holding back for a while, Mr. Shen couldn't help but say, "Lingchen, are we still driving forward? I remember there's almost no road ahead."
"Don't worry," Gu Lingchen reassured him, "we'll be there soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Shen was surprised to find that the scene outside the window had changed. In the blink of an eye, the barren mountains on both sides of the window had been transformed into neat rows of flowering trees, and behind the flowering trees, exquisite classical buildings with eaves were faintly visible.
Before he could even catch his breath, he found that the car had stopped.
Mr. Shen stared blankly at everything outside. After a long while, he blinked, glanced at the strange woman standing at the door waiting for him to get out of the car, and then looked at Gu Lingchen, who had already gotten out of the car: "We've arrived?"
Gu Lingchen personally helped him down, saying, "Yes, we've arrived."
Mr. Shen and Su Yunzhi got out of the car together. Everything around them looked peaceful and beautiful, as if there were no seasons. Nearby, there were birds singing and flowers blooming, but if you looked further, you could see the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
"This...is this what Yai Mountain is like?" Su Yunzhi asked her father.
Mr. Chen shook his head, pinched his palm hard, and the pain confirmed that it was real. He then stomped his foot on the ground and looked up at the sky, which seemed to be no different from what he had seen outside.
Seeing their expressions, Gu Lingchen smiled and explained, "You humans can't see this place from the outside; there's a barrier here."
Mr. Shen seemed to understand, but not quite, and followed him forward.
"Welcome, Mountain Lord, Mountain Queen!"
With a shout, Mr. Shen was surprised to find that his daughter's son-in-law seemed like a completely different person. The light purple long cashmere trench coat he was wearing had somehow turned into a flowing white brocade robe. His hair, which was originally only shoulder-length, had grown to his ankles. His hair was tied up in a simple bun with a blood jade hairpin. He still looked like the son-in-law he knew, but his overall demeanor was completely different from before.
Su Yunzhi was also stunned, and subconsciously took her father's hand, "Then let's go with Lingyu."
Gu Lingchen thoughtfully explained for them, "My little sister is the God of Cliff Mountain, and also the patriarch of our clan. When she returns to the mountain, she will naturally transform into the God of Cliff Mountain. But don't worry, she is still the Lingyu you know."
Su Yunzhi nodded blankly, and seeing Shen Wujun standing to the side looking dazed, she nudged him: "Junjun, what are you doing?"
Shen Wujun blinked and came to his senses: "I feel like I've traveled through time."
Gu Lingchen turned around and smiled at him: "Actually, according to your human race's terminology, it can also be called time travel, but not time travel, but space travel. Although this place is also called Cliff Mountain, the place we are in now is a hundred and eight thousand miles away from the place you know. Crossing that barrier is equivalent to crossing different spaces."
Shen Wujun was not quite sure what was going on, but recalling the novels and TV shows he had read, he asked, "Could it be that mortals might accidentally cross the barrier and enter your world?"
Gu Lingchen: "Theoretically, no, but there are always too many uncontrollable accidents in the way of Heaven, so over thousands of years, there have been times when your human race has mistakenly wandered into this place."
As they talked, they walked over to Gu Lingyu and the others.
Once dressed in divine attire, Gu Lingyu took on the appearance of a goddess. She calmly accepted the kneeling worship of her clansmen and mountain people before waiving all the formalities.
It was the first time Shen Wuqiu had seen her husband dressed like this, and she felt a little unfamiliar with him, unsure of what to do with her hands and feet.
As if knowing what she was thinking, Gu Lingyu tightened her grip on her hand, looked down at her with a smile, and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Qiuqiu, don't be afraid, I'm still your little kitten."
Well, the words "kitten" instantly ruined this outfit.
Shen Wuqiu was certain that the seemingly divine deity beside her was still the same Gu Hanhan.
Chapter 114
Upon hearing that her child needed to be baptized with holy water to grow up, Shen Wuqiu secretly imagined a thousand different scenarios of what would happen after the child went home with the person.
She thought that marriage between people of different races would inevitably encounter some obstacles, such as: being looked down upon for being just a lowly mortal; having some people of strange appearance; or being forced to eat random, unappealing food...
In short, she thought she had anticipated all the difficulties she might encounter.
Little did she expect that it was all because she had a narrow perspective.
These cats live a much more stylish and interesting life than we do; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it as a paradise on earth.
After a round of kneeling and bowing in welcome, an elderly man with white hair and a youthful face greeted them with a smile and invited them to enter the hall and take their seats, wanting to welcome them and wash away the dust of their long journey.
Although Shen Wuqiu was somewhat prepared, she was still a little shocked when she saw the magnificent palace in front of her, not to mention her father, who was worried that his son-in-law's family lived in a dark little cave.
The scene was so beautiful that he could hardly believe it, so he secretly asked Gu Lingchen, who was accompanying him:
"Are these houses and trees real, or did you conjure them up?"
Su Yunzhi, who was listening nearby, quickly tugged at him: "What did you say? Lingchen, don't take it to heart, he's just naive."
Mr. Shen retorted, "You talk like you've seen the world?"
Su Yunzhi didn't want to banter with him in this situation, but she couldn't hold back. After a moment of restraint, she said in a low voice, somewhat annoyed, "Look at what kind of question you're asking. Is it polite to ask someone this when you're a guest in their home?"
This whispered question was as if it were being spoken directly to Gu Lingchen. He didn't find Shen's father's question offensive at all. Instead, he chuckled and said, "Uncle's reaction was quite good. When I first brought Hehe back, she was worried that we would prepare a rat feast for her."
Upon hearing this, Su He chided him playfully, then turned to Su Yunzhi with a mischievous smile and said, "Cats catch mice, isn't that their nature? Besides, back in our day, which family didn't raise a cat to catch mice?"
This reminded Mr. Chen of something else, "If that's not eating rats, what will you eat?"
Gu Lingchen pondered for a couple of seconds: "The essence of the sun and moon."
Mr. Shen stared blankly at him, blinked, and then looked at Su He, "What is this 'essence of the sun and moon'?"
"Uncle, don't mind him." Su He secretly stepped on Gu Lingchen's toe. "Don't worry, they eat about the same things as us, they're just a little picky, like they prefer all kinds of fish."
Mr. Shen was a little relieved, then turned to Su Yunzhi and said, "I'd completely forgotten about that. I should have brought them more dried fish..."
As they spoke, a large group of people followed them into the main hall.
Inside the spacious and bright hall, everything was decorated in an antique style, just like the layout of an emperor's family banquet in an ancient costume drama.
Gu Lingyu took Shen Wuqiu's hand and naturally sat down in the main seat.
As soon as she sat down, a pretty little maidservant knelt down with a small copper basin beside her and said, "Please wash your hands, Shanhou."
Shen Wuqiu, who had never been served like this before, felt extremely uncomfortable. "Put it down, I can do it myself."
The pretty little maid was in a dilemma.
Gu Lingyu had already finished washing her hands perfunctorily. She glanced at the maid and casually took the small copper basin from her. "I'll do it. You can go now."
The maid stared at her with wide eyes.
Gu Lingyu had already skillfully placed the small copper basin on the coffee table, then took Shen Wuqiu's hand and put it into the water, rubbing it a few times before taking it out.
A maidservant nearby hurriedly handed over a soft handkerchief. Gu Lingyu took it and wiped Shen Wuqiu's hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the maidservant was still standing there dumbfounded, and she was immediately displeased: "Hmm?"