Little Cat - Chapter 2

It hurt.

It hurt to the bone.

My body felt as though someone had torn it in two and carelessly pieced it back together.

If Lu Peiran heard me describe it that way, though, he’d surely accuse me of lying again.

He believed synthetics couldn’t die.

And certainly couldn’t feel pain.

But the A-Ran I remembered from childhood hadn’t been like this.

He’d been a little delicate, but he’d depended on me deeply.

He couldn’t bear to see me hurt at all.

Even a cut on my hand would send him scrambling to call a doctor.

Then he’d ask tearfully, “Beibei, does it hurt? I’ll blow on it!”

Before I could answer, he’d puff out his round little cheeks and blow hard on my finger.

Eventually, he’d blow until he couldn’t catch his breath, frightening me into patting his back to help him breathe.

How had things ended up like this?

I thought back to the way he’d turned and left without hesitation, even after seeing how badly I was hurt. I felt lost.

Oh.

I remembered now.

It was because he’d found out I was a synthetic.

But he’d told me that even if I was a synthetic, I’d still be his best friend and partner.

He’d told me he’d never abandon me.

He’d lied.

Lu Peiran was always saying I lied.

Yet he was the one who lied most of all.

The thought sent a swollen ache through my chest.

I knew I was sad.

Lu Peiran always believed synthetics had no emotions or feelings.

“What you call emotions are just fake states simulated to fit the circumstances. You don’t understand human feelings at all!”

He’d flung my hand away then.

His anger was unmistakable in every word.

“Stop pretending, Shen Bei. How much longer are you going to keep deceiving me?”

But he’d forgotten again.

I’d told him I was different from other synthetics.

A faint cracking sound reached my ears.

I turned my head.

Through a haze of blood, I saw a cracked gemstone lying quietly on the filthy ground.

It should have been beautiful.

I tried to remember how it had looked before, but my memory seemed blurred.

Lu Peiran liked pretty, sparkling things.

So I’d compared over ten thousand gemstones, spent nearly all my savings, and used my tentacles to carve it little by little, ever so carefully, into the most perfect shape.

Today was his birthday.

I’d meant to give it to him and cheer him up a little.

But now it was broken and stained with blood.

Never mind.

I looked away and glanced at the mutated beasts flooding toward the explosion nearby.

Then I stood up again and injected myself with more calming serum.

The Lu family’s young master wouldn’t miss one ordinary gemstone.

Perhaps the Ming family’s girl didn’t need first place, either.

It was only me.

I desperately needed that energy crystal.