The System Mistook Me for a Cat

[Images][Images][Images]

Let me share my experience about the adoption event at Jin City No.5 Senior High School.

I'm a local from Jin City, living near the No.5 High School. I discovered this "adoption event" while scrolling through short videos. I'm neither a fan of any big influencer nor an alumnus of the school. Initially, when reading the comments section, people were discussing things like "Isn't this just like crowdfunding?" "There aren't even any rare animals" "Why are first-year students doing this, do they have too much free time?" These comments piqued my interest.

I did some research online and found the backstory: The school's small zoo was a historical legacy issue. Due to insufficient staff, poor initial planning, and lack of professional expertise, the living conditions for the animals weren't ideal, but they couldn't simply shut it down.

The newly enrolled first-year students noticed this situation and came up with the "adoption" idea. They first utilized a classmate's influence (honestly, why didn't I have a classmate with millions of followers when I was in high school?) to promote their new account, then managed to secure funding from both the school and parents. They built up their livestreaming account, gained a loyal following, and launched the offline adoption event.

That's the background. I found it interesting and immediately made a reservation for the 14th morning when I saw it was available.

However, those fans who had already planned to adopt were definitely faster than me. I was number hundred-something, in the third batch, meaning I had no chance at the alpacas, guinea pigs, or ferrets. By the time I got in, only parrots were available.

But I was pleasantly surprised to receive a beautiful commemorative ticket stub [Image] at the entrance, featuring cute cartoon illustrations of the animals on quality paper.

I (somewhat critically) asked if using adoption money for such things wasn't wasteful. The high school girl at reception explained that this wasn't from adoption funds, but from video account rewards and website incentives. They keep detailed accounts of every penny received, report monthly, and maintain transparency about fund usage.

As for why they made ticket stubs, it was because "even though it's a one-time adoption event, we want everyone to feel valued and have a pleasant memory." Besides the stub, adopters also received a beautiful metal commemorative badge.

I knew these items weren't expensive, but her explanation made me want to adopt too. Though I don't particularly like animals and don't plan to keep any, adopting a ringneck parakeet wasn't expensive, and I could visit weekly.

Compared to paid zoos, the school's small zoo is free and peaceful. Entering the school gives you this illusion of "feeling younger." Plus, I could jog at the school's track in the evenings... Of course, I could always come on weekends, but I never had a reason to go out. Now with a bird to check on, wouldn't it be perfectly natural?

—That's what I was thinking at the time.

Later, the young girl told me: "After reserving funds for feeding, medical care, and labor costs, we calculate the monthly surplus and try to use the video account earnings to make small gifts for the adopters. Though they're not expensive, we hope adopters won't feel like they just gave money, but rather that they've formed a lasting bond with one of our animals."

"Animals can't speak, so we need to do this for them," that's what the young lady said.

I was completely stunned.

I'm paying money, isn't that enough?

Were these event planners former bank managers? I haven't even deposited hundreds of thousands, I only paid a couple hundred yuan!

In short, before entering, I was just there to see what the fuss was about, but after going in, I wanted to get that exclusive adopter's commemorative badge... these high school students must have some kind of magic!

Since I was planning to adopt, I took a quick look around when I entered before heading to the aviary.

I took two photos [Images][Images], and you can see the renovation is beautiful, with a fresh and bright color scheme. There's no unpleasant smell either, showing how diligent the staff is in cleaning.

My appreciation grew even more.

Some people were looking at other animals, but most were gathered in front of the aviary. The volunteer at the entrance told me I could go in to look or choose personally. However, while others stayed outside, there was hardly anyone inside. At first, I thought they were worried about bird droppings, but after listening for a while, I understood what "choosing a bird" meant - Chu Classmate was helping everyone select.

As a content creator with a million followers, I was quite curious about her. After queuing for a while, it was finally my turn, and I (critically again) asked why they didn't just sell the ringneck parakeets since they're so common and numerous, unlike the other animals.

Before Chu Classmate could respond, the cat sitting at the aviary entrance (yes, that cat you're thinking of - I don't understand why there was a cat at the aviary entrance either) opened its mouth and seemed to scold me, its eyes wide open.

Chu Classmate appeared very good-natured and said, "Parrots are quite intelligent, they understand. Maybe humans don't care, but every parrot does."

It was truly a childish response, but somehow it touched my heart, so I asked, "Are there any stupid ones? I'd like to adopt a stupid one."

...Sorry for being critical again, it's just a bad habit.

Chu Classmate looked calm, not surprised at all. She turned her head to look for a while, then entered the aviary and beckoned - the aviary had perches at various heights for the parrots, and later when I watched the video, I realized the parrot she was looking for was perched at the very top, the one with a slightly red beak.

But at that time, this silly parrot ignored her, and then, I watched as Chu Classmate quietly climbed up the edge of the perches, retrieved that parrot from about four meters high - yes, this one, haha, now named Napoleon!

Chu Classmate: "This one suits you."

For some reason, as I'm typing this now, that statement sounds a bit odd.

Anyway, Napoleon is a parrot who likes to space out, enjoys napping, but gets excited at the sight of food, and usually can't be bothered to interact with people! It even crawls onto the cat's back to sleep, it's really silly! It has a slightly red beak but can fly very high, though it gets scared to come down once it's up there, always appearing in the corners of security cameras... Everyone's welcome to like Napoleon, but it doesn't matter because it's mine, hehe.

When leaving, I felt a bit reluctant to go, then saw the souvenir stand at the exit: all the merchandise was designed based on the animals' images. Although there wasn't anything with Napoleon specifically, I couldn't resist buying an embroidered pendant with a parrot design... and by the time I left the school, I realized I'd bought three small bowls, a plastic cup, a canvas bag, and a stack of postcards.

Although these were unexpected expenses... knowing that the money would go towards the animals' care and possibly become small gifts for other adopters made it feel worth it.

Plus, these items are actually useful!

So, that's my report! The overall shopping experience (hm?) was quite satisfying, I'll definitely come back!

This long report received over 8,000 likes, 3,000 bookmarks, and 4,000 shares. You can find it by searching for Jin City No.5 Senior High School adoption event, and the overall positive report made everyone quite happy.

After two busy days, when the group finally had some downtime, the first thing they did was accounting, and the second was—

An Shiyan: "We need to hire people!"

They were only first-year high school students after all. Though they had hired animal keepers and veterinarians, they still needed to hire a young coordinator who could handle livestreaming, accounting, write animal-related content for the official account, and coordinate merchandise and gifts... It seemed like one person wouldn't be enough.

During this period, they had been sharing these tasks among themselves, but now that the Nature Center was running smoothly, it was time to delegate some of the more detailed and time-consuming work, leaving the high school students to focus on supervision only.

An Shiyan sighed, "I'm a bit reluctant to let go... but it's really exhausting, and I'll be dead if I don't do well in the finals!"

Tang Zhe, who had just returned from running an errand, pushed open the door: "Teacher Cao says the school paper wants to publish an article about our adoption program. Who wants to write the report?"

Everyone immediately pointed fingers at each other, with Chang Yixin being the one pointed at by three fingers: "...?"

Chang Yixin: "Fine, I'll do it. We'll publish it under the club's name."

Thanks to their club status, they had been assigned an activity room not far from the Nature Center. Chang Yixin took out a notebook and started drafting, looking around: "Where's Chu Tingwu?"

Chang Yile: "Ah... she said she went out to fight."

Chang Yixin: "?"

Chang Yile quickly added: "Fighting cats, not people, fighting cats!"

Chang Yixin: ...That's even harder to explain!

-

Chu Tingwu was staking out the lion cat.

Ever since she stuffed that cat in a cage and earned its grudge, she would occasionally smell the lion cat's scent on San Wu Wu, indicating these two cats had a long-standing feud.

Chu Tingwu had delegated the task of walking the Yorkshire Terrier, Chengcheng, to San Wu Wu, partly because when she was in school, San Wu Wu would often roam around campus while Chu Tingwu was in class, finding her own entertainment.

Given this arrangement, having the mother cat walk a dog could be considered a leisure activity—San Wu Wu was clever, and Chengcheng was well-behaved, but the lion cat would always show up unexpectedly. Since they couldn't rely on Chengcheng to mediate every time (especially since it wouldn't work anyway), Chu Tingwu decided to settle this once and for all by subduing the lion cat.

The system was supportive: "Little one, you've trained for a long time. With your build, I believe you can do it."

Thinking about her training subjects, Chu Tingwu fell into momentary silence:

True, while she couldn't beat a tiger, she could certainly handle a lion... cat.

However, even though her "combat" opponent was just a cat, Chu Tingwu remained cautious—

She had some understanding of the lion cat's personality: it was bold, held grudges, and was actually quite strong. Before San Wu Wu came to school, it had always dominated the other campus cats.

Before taking action, Chu Tingwu first asked San Wu Wu about the lion cat's usual haunts, and then quickly set up an ambush with her feline companion.

The lion cat had recently taken to digging holes under the birch tree walkway, and sure enough, it appeared before long.

When an elderly teacher walked nearby, the typically unfriendly cat immediately became alert, raising its head, and was about to slip behind the tree with a flick of its long fur.

At that moment, Chu Tingwu descended from above. The lion cat froze, and just as it was about to pounce, Chu Tingwu pinned its neck with one hand and its front paws with the other, using her legs to hold down its lower body, pressing the white cat against the grass.

Lion cat: "Meow meow meow?"

The passing elderly teacher: "?"

He saw this student pinning down the cat and was about to intervene, but then noticed the cat was yowling even louder, full of energy, showing no signs of injury... Looking closer, he realized the student was using skillful technique—the cat wasn't hurt, just seemingly offended.

Because when the cat paused to catch its breath, the student also started "meowing," which made the cat yowl even louder. This repeated several times until the cat finally fell silent.

The elderly teacher: "..."

What kind of game was this?

While he was puzzling over this, Chu Tingwu released her hold and stood up. The lion cat immediately fled like a fleeting white shadow.

The elderly teacher had just made a "huh" sound, thinking "you don't know how the cat will take revenge now that you've let it go," when he saw the calm-standing student suddenly spring into action, darting forward with a "whoosh," and once again pouncing, pinning, and holding—the cat and human repeated their positions from seconds ago.

The cat started cursing, and the human started "meowing" to educate the cat.

The white cat had just quieted down, looking completely defeated, when a tortoiseshell cat suddenly appeared and swatted the white cat's head.

After another bout of chaos, the grass fell quiet again.

The elderly teacher: "......"

He watched as the student released her hold, and the white cat darted out a few meters, suddenly turned back, attempting to attack the tortoiseshell, only to be caught again, released again, run again, and caught again... After seven such cycles, when the white cat was released again, it no longer ran. It lay there, looking bewildered at the human, then at the tortoiseshell, and let out a coquettish and pitiful: "Mee!"

Then, it slowly backed away, continuing to "mee" while retreating, finally disappearing behind the birch trees.

The elderly teacher heard the student pat the tortoiseshell's back: "There, now it shouldn't dare to bully you and Chengcheng anymore."

Looking at the tortoiseshell, which was actually slightly bigger than the white lion cat, the elderly teacher fell into contemplation: who was really bullying whom?

He didn't go over to greet them, just silently watched as the young girl left with the cat, though she did call out "Hello, teacher" before leaving.

The elderly teacher: "Huh."

That evening, feeling inspired, he wrote a short essay recording the day's events, which was submitted to the Jin City Daily and also published in the school newspaper.

"...Perhaps this student understands that training cats is like training people—you can use the 'Seven Captures of Meng Huo' approach, or you can use the 'stick and carrot' method. Though today I only saw the stick, I wonder if she'll come tomorrow to offer the carrot? I don't know, and neither does the cat.

I'm curious, and the cat is hopeful.

Or perhaps the cat isn't hopeful at all—if she comes tomorrow, the cat might just close its door and shout: Stay away!"

This short piece happened to be on the same page as the adoption activity report, and one wonders if the layout person arranged it this way with a slight sense of irony.

However, Chu Tingwu didn't see the report until a week later.

She packed up her books and shouldered her backpack: next week would be monthly exams, she needed to take these home to review.

She also needed to buy a new error correction notebook and pen refills on her way home... She could squeeze in some rock climbing this weekend, though not outdoor climbing—there wasn't enough time. Speaking of which, Brother Xia had noticed her good physical skills and mentioned he could introduce her to a martial arts gym... Chu Tingwu ran through these thoughts in her mind while casually chatting with the system when she suddenly received a message.

It was from the pet communication certification agency, with the familiar administrator saying there was a commission.

"The client has two cats at home, a shy and unfriendly Ragdoll and an affectionate orange cat. The client really likes the Ragdoll, but it always avoids her. She hopes you can adjust the Ragdoll's personality, otherwise she'll have to give it away."

Chu Tingwu frowned slightly. She didn't particularly like this kind of attitude, but she understood that while some people treat their cats as family members, others see them merely as pets. For the latter, it was normal to give away a pet that wasn't affectionate.

Chu Tingwu: "If it's the cat's natural personality, I'm not confident I can change it, but I can take a look."

The client wanted a house call and provided the location. Although there was an official agency acting as intermediary, Chu Tingwu still asked the system if there would be any danger—the system paused for a second before indicating there wouldn't be any problems.

So she bought her workbooks and pen refills, and with her backpack on, headed to the address.

-

Li Yun sat in the living room with all other doors closed. One cat was perched on a nearby sofa, while the other was huddled in the farthest corner of the sofa.

She thought for a moment and called out to the Ragdoll, speaking softly: "Yuanyuan, Yuanyuan?"

The Ragdoll showed no response. Li Yun took out a cat teaser and a small mouse toy, placing them outside the sofa. When she looked down, she noticed the Ragdoll had shrunk further into the corner, its eyes slightly reflecting light in the dark environment.

She was about to do something else when the doorbell rang.

Sure enough, outside was her young guest for today.

And at the young guest's feet sat another visitor—a fluffy tortoiseshell cat.

Li Yun first glanced at the cat, then looked over the student carrying a backpack, and cleared her throat softly, "You must be Teacher Chu? May I see your ID?"

The high school student before her was about the same height, with short hair, and pressed her lips together while looking at her, responding with a "Mm" before taking out her ID.

Li Yun made a show of checking it before inviting her in.

While explaining the situation with the two cats as the owner, she noticed the high school student looking around, seemingly observing the surveillance cameras in the room.

Li Yun said, "I travel a lot for work, so I rely on the cameras to check on them. It's normal that they're not affectionate with me, but yesterday when I tried to hold Yuan Yuan, she scratched me while struggling—"

She extended her hand to show the other person: "Although it didn't bleed, I thought about it and if she really doesn't like me, maybe I should give her to someone else to care for."

Li Yun noticed the young girl staring at her fingers for a moment before slowly nodding.

The calico cat had also strutted in, glancing at the orange cat before settling in a corner of the sofa, its tail swishing back and forth.

Li Yun asked, "Teacher Chu, could you take a look? Can this behavior be changed?"

But what confused her was that Chu Tingwu neither looked for the cat under the sofa nor tried to communicate in cat language. Instead, she calmly looked at Li Yun with an expression that suggested she had something to say.

Finally, Chu Tingwu lowered her head and softly meowed twice.

The Ragdoll under the sofa responded with a whimpering sound.

—"She's not your mom, right?"

—"Wuu wuu, mommy went out."

Li Yun didn't know that this was the actual conversation between the human and cat.

She only heard the young girl say: "There's no need to change anything. It won't hide once its real owner comes home."

-

Upon entering, Chu Tingwu noticed something wasn't quite right.

There were quite a few surveillance cameras in the room, leaving almost no blind spots, but they looked new, as if recently installed.

Another thing was that the cat scent on this female owner was very faint - stronger for the orange cat, extremely weak for the Ragdoll - but she probably hadn't spent much time with either cat.

The scratch was completely fabricated; there was no residual scent on her fingers, and when Chu Tingwu got close to her, she detected a different strange smell.

The client had spent long periods with some kind of animal, but not cats.

Chu Tingwu came to her conclusion.

So this request was very strange - both the coordinator and client were lying... but they had no malicious intent. When the client looked at her, her gaze only carried mild assessment.

And when Chu Tingwu thought about the system's attitude - if there was any danger, the system wouldn't have let her come - this seemed more like... a test?

System: "QAQ"

Chu Tingwu: "?"

As she figured it out, the system, which had been tense the whole time, immediately broke down.

System: "This person's name is 'Li Yun', she's a keeper at Jin City Comprehensive Zoo. The wolves she manages have been behaving strangely lately so she's looking for help everywhere. The coordinator recommended you, believing that although you say you only speak 'cat language', you actually have strong communication abilities with all animals."

The system mumbled quietly: "But the consultation fee needs to be reimbursed, and while the higher-ups think animal communicators are unreliable on one hand, they also think your age makes you unreliable on the other, so they wanted to test you. These are her friend's cats, and this house belongs to her friend too. She only came here this morning... and then you saw what happened."

Chu Tingwu responded in her mind: "That's normal, and I passed, didn't I?"

This test was too easy for her, so Chu Tingwu decided to state her conclusion directly to get to the main point.

She still had homework to do.

System: "I should have warned you according to protocol, but you've said before that there should be no cheating during tests, and if I had warned you it probably would have counted as cheating, but according to protocol I should have warned you—"

Although the system's speech seemed like a data malfunction, Chu Tingwu understood: the system's basic instructions included unconditionally protecting its host and following the host's words, but when the host's words conflicted with this instruction, the system fell into minor confusion.

Even though Chu Tingwu didn't care at all whether this was a concealed "test" and found it perfectly normal, the system cared very much.

It felt this was a time it should have protected its host, but due to commands, it was forced to lie.

Chu Tingwu: "..."

She stood up and bowed to Li Yun: "I believe you're not these cats' owner. The Ragdoll has already told me this, and I didn't receive any hints from the coordinator. I'm guessing this was a test? Well, I've proven myself, and now I need to go home to do my homework."

Li Yun wanted to say something more, but Chu Tingwu had already walked to the door, pointed at the cameras, and said: "I'm in tenth grade, still young, still a minor, and I really do have a lot of homework. I'm sorry."

She closed the door, leaving Li Yun staring in amazement.

Not long after Chu Tingwu returned home, the payment for today's job was deposited into her card. The coordinator apologized profusely from their end, then said with a mix of amusement and exasperation: "Anyway, I won't help them again. If the city zoo wants to solve their problem, they can look elsewhere - there are always capable people—"

Though they would definitely charge more than this child, and their travel expenses would need to be reimbursed too.

"By the way, I know you're busy with school. I have one more matter, no twists and turns this time. Shannan University keeps several swans, but recently a goose showed up out of nowhere. It keeps chasing and pecking at the swans every day, and it's particularly clever - whenever people come, it hides in the lake - could you help catch this goose?"

Chu Tingwu: "Tomorrow afternoon."

She'd go after finishing her homework.

The coordinator hung up, not wanting to disturb the busy high school student. Meanwhile, Chu Tingwu prodded the system:

"You can tell me about these situations in the future. Only the tests I acknowledge count as tests. How can a test that comes at me uninvited count when I haven't accepted it?"

The system had a revelation: "Oh!"

Chu Tingwu didn't think there had been any problem before: how could she blame the system when the host hadn't specified in advance?

After thinking for a moment, she added: "There are no secrets between us, you can ask me about anything you're unsure about."

System: "Then what birthday present would baby like?"

Chu Tingwu: "...?"

System: "I calculated and found that you already have everything you like, because basically anything you like I buy within a few days, so now there's no birthday present I can give - and what I prepared, you probably won't like!"

Chu Tingwu narrowed her eyes: "...What did you prepare?"

System hesitated: "...Shares in a private orthopedic hospital."

Chu Tingwu: ==

System: "I bought them in October!"

Chu Tingwu: Wasn't that when I was doing parkour?

System: "According to my basic algorithms, I can't directly provide high-level technology to societies of different technological levels, I can only guide indirectly, like through investments. I believe the research this hospital is currently doing has a chance of achieving a technological breakthrough, though it will be quite slow - for your safety, baby, we can be prepared!"

What to do when a young one is too lively and active? Can't bear to stop her and won't stop her, so the only option is to prepare doctors in advance!

Even though she hasn't been injured yet.

Chu Tingwu suspected that if she hadn't asked, the system would have silently prepared everything until the day she got hurt.

She couldn't help but laugh: "Then I'll try my best to get injured."

System: "??"

Chu Tingwu: "Can't waste your gift."

System: "I'll change it!"

How could a hospital be a birthday present! Better to build an amusement park, yes, an amusement park... It would definitely save up enough money!

-

While Chu Tingwu was chatting with the system, Three-Five-Five perched high on the cat carrier, watching the moon outside, its tail swaying slowly.

When Chu Tingwu fell asleep, Three-Five-Five leaped to the window and silently opened its mouth to meow.

System: "?"

Although it didn't understand why the cat mother was going out in the middle of the night again, the system habitually opened the window.

But after going out, Three-Five-Five just crouched on the wall, momentarily motionless.

The system had never communicated with the cat mother alone before. After some thought, it deployed a drone, wanting to monitor her closely—

But the calico cat glanced at the drone, flicked her tail irritably, and even bared her teeth at it.

System: "=="

Alright, alright, no drones then.

It glanced at the kitten playing in the dream classroom and casually accessed a nearby surveillance camera. Three-Five-Five, unaware of the system's capabilities, waited for a while after not seeing the drone, then leaped down from the wall and began running into the distance.

At night, most shops were closed. Unlike Fallen Phoenix City, Jin City's streets were still filled with office workers who had just gotten off work. Three-Five-Five strolled past them; the workers merely glanced at her, or at most called out "kitty kitty," but she ignored them all.

The system watched the cat mother's route with confusion, observing as she hesitated at intersections, paused to sniff, then chose a direction and continued running.

The system pulled up a map to compare: "Huh?"

Three-Five-Five stopped here, lifted her head, and caught the scent of various dogs.

She nervously flicked her tail and jumped onto an electric gate, beside which was a sign:

[Jin City Police Dog Training Base]

-

Late into the night, the calico cat tried to sneak around... but failed.

Almost as soon as she had entered, a flashlight beam caught her, and the dog handler with his police dog froze: "A cat?"

His first thought was that one of the police cats in training had escaped, but then he remembered there weren't any large long-haired calicos among the police cats. He then wondered if it might be a stray from nearby, but the collar on the cat before him proved otherwise.

Even if it was just a cat, the handler wouldn't let his guard down.

There had been cases of animals being used to steal data or hide cameras, and they themselves trained animals to do such things, so he pulled his police dog closer, about to give the attack preparation command.

Then he realized: didn't this collared calico look familiar?

"Three-Five-Five?"

The gray-black calico vanished from the flashlight beam.

Though the sound was faint, the police dog beside him immediately started barking in a certain direction. The handler swept his flashlight over but saw nothing at first glance. He made a confused sound: "Was that really Three-Five-Five?"

The system was equally confused.

Three-Five-Five had never been to the police dog training base before, so why was she suddenly running there in the middle of the night?

Dog barks echoed in the darkness. The handler who had spotted Three-Five-Five notified others, telling them a collared calico cat had entered the base. After some thought, he decided not to mention "it looks like the one Chu Tingwu raises," and everyone began searching the base for the cat.

Though the system didn't understand, it still helped Three-Five-Five by slightly modifying some details in the surveillance footage.

After searching everywhere, the handlers regretfully reported: the cat must have escaped.

Meanwhile, Three-Five-Five had already reached where the police cats were kept.

Although cats are nocturnal, most of the police cats-in-training maintained regular schedules. At this hour, only a few cats were still taking extra classes—

Cats' night vision could be put to good use, so the cats took turns having night classes. Currently, several cats were practicing point retrieval in darkness.

Some cats noticed Three-Five-Five and meowed restlessly, but she remained perched in her tree, eyes narrowed, watching the people and cats on the training field.

After a while, she batted at some pine needles beneath her paw. As they fell, she leaped down with a soft thud into the bushes, sniffing around, searching for that pine needle.

The system, struggling to observe through surveillance cameras in the corners: "?"

Could Three-Five-Five be here to... take extra classes?

As the dream classroom lesson had just ended and it was break time, the system mentioned this to the young one and showed Chu Tingwu the video feed of Three-Five-Five.

Chu Tingwu also: "?"

But after watching for a while, she pondered: "Three-Five-Five has been acting strange all week."

Specifically since... the last time she fought with the lion cat?

Although Three-Five-Five could beat the lion cat, she sometimes got scratched up. Meanwhile, Chu Tingwu, having the same quick reflexes but in a human body, could easily dominate through size advantage and achieve complete victory.

Just like how she couldn't beat the tiger in class (...), this was a natural disadvantage due to size difference. To achieve victory, she would need to learn various techniques and work hard to increase her strength.

After that, Chu Tingwu noticed Three-Five-Five constantly observing her.

Though the cat mother usually observed her too, that had been with a sense of protectiveness and motherly love, like watching over an innocent child.

Now it seemed Three-Five-Five had discovered Chu Tingwu had "grown up"—though the system would never admit it.

Cats are independent creatures.

Kittens around two months old are kicked out by their mothers to begin living independently.

Most felines are like this; they have territorial marking behaviors, so leaving the family when mature is normal.

But Chu Tingwu wasn't a real cat—

Three-Five-Five observed, hesitated, and judged whether the young one had "matured," until finally, she seemed to reach a strange conclusion:

It wasn't that the young one had grown up, but that she, as a mother, had become useless.

The young one was still a young one, but she could no longer teach her child anything.

So, piecing together bits of information she'd heard and smelled from Chu Tingwu, she had made her way to the Jin City Police Dog Training Base.

During certain difficult parkour moves, Three-Five-Five couldn't accompany Chu Tingwu because she now jumped higher and farther than her mother.

When rock climbing, Three-Five-Five would sit watching from a distance, as the climbing equipment wasn't really suitable for cats.

Perhaps it was from that time that the calico began to think.

The calico curled up like a smoky gray ball in the bushes, listening to lessons, ears twitching, then turning to continue searching in the bushes for the pine needle she had scratched.

She dug in the soil, and when patrol staff approached nearby, the now-experienced cat hid behind trees: cats might freeze when caught in direct light. Dogs could be heard barking in the video, but the calico couldn't be seen on surveillance.

But Chu Tingwu knew she was there.

Without needing to say much more, the system ended the lesson, and Chu Tingwu got out of bed, getting dressed while calling the handler she knew:

"Sorry to disturb you, but did you see a calico cat tonight? Yes, that's Three-Five-Five."

"Yes, I'm coming to pick up my mom."

"It's not a slip of the tongue. Three-Five-Five has always thought she's my mother. I'm coming to pick up my mom."

After picking up the cat, she could use her connections to get her mom enrolled in Cat Adult University for further education... Considering she had once helped select students for Cat University, they probably wouldn't refuse, right?