Chapter 29
Nightmare
Qing Guang tried its best to take out the talisman from its bib and casually patted it on the beauty couch. Then, it casually licked its claws.
In the corner was a green lotus leaf-patterned three-legged incense burner. Wisps of green smoke curled up from the mouth of the stove and slowly dispersed in the air.
The fragrance of chrysanthemum lingered in Madam Gu’s nose.
Madam Gu felt dizzy and half-awake.
“Meow!”
A demonic cat’s meow sounded in Madam Gu’s ear, as if it was right next to her ear. She was so frightened that she shivered and sat up.
“Bai Lu!” Madam Gu shouted sternly, but what came out of her mouth was a meow.
Madam Gu was stunned and vaguely realized that something was wrong. Before she fell asleep, she was clearly in her own room, but now she was in a garden surrounded by huge flowers and trees.
She raised her voice to shout for more help, and once again heard the high-pitched mewling of a cat.
Madam Gu frowned tightly and wanted to stand up. Only then did she notice that her hands and feet had turned into furry black claws.
“Meow, meow!” Madam Gu panicked. She was terrified. Her roars were hoarse and her entire body was cold.
She finally realized that the mewling was coming from herself. She had turned into a cat!
“Gah!”
A pitch-black crow swooped down at her from above. Madam Gu instinctively raised her arm to swat it, but she was pecked by its sharp beak.
Madam Gu screamed. The crow flapped its wings and pecked at her again, cawing.
In her panic, she ran wildly. Everything around her was unfamiliar. Buildings, houses, trees, flowers… At this moment, they were all huge. There was a sense of oppression that came from the dark clouds.
Behind her, the raven in the air refused to give up. It followed her like a shadow, pecking at her back and head.
She ran through a few chrysanthemums in a panic and saw a wide and flat racecourse ahead. In the field, young boys and girls in high spirits were riding tall horses with their hooves flying.
A bowl-sized polo ball flew between the galloping horses and the swaying staves.
In Madam Gu’s eyes, those horses were like those strange monsters depicted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. They were fierce and demonic. As long as the hooves of the horses stomped down, it was enough to take her life.
Madam Gu hurriedly stopped and widened her eyes in fear.
In the next instant, she heard a thud as a bowstaff swung hard into the polo ball. It flew toward her like a shooting star, almost too fast for the naked eye to catch.
Madam Gu hurriedly tried to dodge, but she couldn’t react in time. She could only watch as the polo ball smashed into her forehead…
A bone-piercing pain spread from her head, as if the world had collapsed. Endless darkness surged towards her…
Madam Gu closed her eyes and fell back uncontrollably. She could vaguely hear a few noisy voices.
“Oh, where did this black cat come from!”
“What bad luck! Throw the damn cat out!”
“…”
Madam Gu was groggy and could not exert any strength in her body. She felt the back of her neck being roughly lifted up… The darkness drowned her like a bottomless swamp. Coldness and pain spread to her limbs and bones.
She opened her eyes with all her might and realized that she had been thrown into the smelly trash. When she opened her mouth, a nauseating slop flowed between her teeth.
Flies and gnats buzzed around her.
“Woof woof…”
Two scrawny feral dogs had come at the scent. Hungry, bloodthirsty eyes fixed on her, and saliva dripped from their long mouths. Their sharp fangs gleamed with a startling cold light.
A yellow dog howled and bit her fragile and slender neck…
...
“Meow!”
Another mournful meow sounded. Madam Gu, who was lying on the beauty couch, suddenly opened her eyes. Her turbid eyes were still in shock, and her chest was heaving violently.
Eagerly, she lifted a hand to her face, then looked repeatedly at her palms to make sure she was human, not cat, before she caught her breath.
Was it a dream now, or had it just been a dream?
She sat up on the beauty couch, distracted. Pain throbbed in her forehead. She had a splitting headache and was breathing heavily.
The talisman paper stuck under the beauty’s couch had burned to ash. When she moved, the ash fluttered to the floor.
Someone outside seemed to have heard the commotion in the room. She drew the curtains and entered.
“Madam!” Granny Xu bowed to Madam Gu and reported ingratiatingly, “I brought people to search the surroundings carefully. I didn’t see any wild cats outside.”
Madam Gu was still thinking uneasily about the dream she had just had. The rough crow’s cry still echoed in her ears, and an ominous feeling rose in her heart.
Granny Xu personally served tea to Madam Gu. When she bowed, she noticed that there were a few cat hairs on her shoes. She couldn’t help but frown and sigh. “Madam, in my opinion, the cat raised by the Second Lady must have sneaked into the Benevolent Harmony Hall.”
“The Second Lady is really too much. She clearly knows that you’re enemies with cats, but she still insisted on raising it.”
“…”
Granny Xu rambled on. She hated Gu Yanfei to the core.
She had traveled thousands of miles to a remote place like Huaibei for Gu Yanfei and had been delayed in Danyang City for three months. She had left the capital for four months, but she had not benefited at all. Even her originally good job had been taken by someone else.
For the past two weeks, Granny Xu had been holding this in her heart. She wanted to find an opportunity to teach Gu Yanfei a lesson. Now, the opportunity has finally come.
Granny Xu’s lips curled up, and a hint of malice flashed across her eyes.
When she heard the word ‘cat’, Madam Gu’s eyelids trembled violently and her pupils dilated.
Granny Xu noticed the change in Madam Gu’s expression and thought that she had guessed her intentions. She said obsequiously, “Madam, leave this matter to me. I’ll personally bring people to the Yuheng Garden. I’ll definitely end that cat and throw it out to feed the dogs!!”
The scene of her lying in the trash could not help but appear in Madam Gu’s mind. The dogs’ black mouths were wide open, and their fangs were aimed at her neck…
...
Panic rose from the bottom of her heart and spread through her body.
“Meow!”
Outside the window, the loud meow of a cat suddenly sounded again, startling Madam Gu so much that she jumped up from the beauty couch, as if she had become a cat in a dream again.
She shoved Granny Xu out of the way. At the same time, the teacup fell from her hand to the floor. The blue-and-white porcelain cup shattered into pieces, sending shards and tea flying in all directions.