Always Ending Up as an Animal Cub

Yu Tong’s cat face slammed into the villain’s chest. The impact was so strong that it almost turned him into a Garfield cat.

In that moment, he realized there was no need to agonize over how to make a villain worship a little kitten as their mentor. His fate with Yun Mingchen was probably over now.
Yu Tong lay down and gave up, while the system took out a small booklet and asked him which cat body he’d like to take after death.
Before he could choose properly, his neck was suddenly grabbed and lifted.

Yun Mingchen pinched him by the neck, lifting him up to his face.
The man and the kitten locked eyes, and Yu Tong could feel the disgust and disdain in the villain’s gaze, as if it was about to solidify into something tangible.
In a final attempt to lessen the pain of his impending death, Yu Tong began to make one last effort.

Yun Mingchen looked down at his new clothes, then up at the little cat. Today was truly unlucky.
He was about to go back inside when the drooping kitten in his hand suddenly tilted its head and softly meowed at him. The little paws, still hanging in the air, started kneading.
When there were no people or cameras around, Yun Mingchen’s expression completely lost control.

He arrogantly raised his head, furrowed his brow, and looked down at Yu Tong with a mocking gaze.
Although he still looked handsome, there was an inexplicable air of arrogance, as though the whole world owed him money.
The villain hadn’t reacted, so Yu Tong continued his kneading. After a while, he started to feel tired.

Just as he stopped, Yun Mingchen suddenly sarcastically spoke up, “What? Stopped kneading? Don’t stop, keep kneading, you damn thing.”
Yu Tong didn’t respond.
He was just a little kitten, unable to understand human sarcasm.

After all, this was a cultivation world, full of demons and monsters. If he acted too human, it might raise suspicions with the villain.
The system, an elite expert, offered advice. 【The book says the villain is cunning and profit-driven. Do you think that if you act smart enough, the villain will find you valuable and start liking you?】
‘The villain could never see an ordinary kitten as his life mentor. Eventually, he’ll learn about my uniqueness, but it’s too soon to reveal it. I still haven’t figured out his temperament. I’ll be cautious and wait a little longer.’

Yu Tong wasn’t sure whether his kneading had worked, or if Yun Mingchen had never really planned to kill him. Either way, the villain didn’t kill him this time.
Yun Mingchen, who was foul-mouthed, kept talking about the various ways the kitten could die as he carried him into the bathroom.
He made a call to the servant, asking them to send a set of pet bathing supplies.
When the supplies arrived, Yun Mingchen crouched in the bathroom, watching an online tutorial, and began to bathe the little cat.

His long, fair fingers, with distinct joints, gently massaged Yu Tong’s body. Most of Yu Tong’s body was submerged in the water, and he stared blankly at the warm light of the ceiling lamp.
Didn’t the villain just say he was going to drown him in the toilet and flush him down the drain?
Was this how he was going to drown him?

Yun Mingchen was a swordsman, and his hands had a layer of calluses from years of sword practice. They felt slightly rough but also kind of pleasant when they touched Yu Tong’s body.
At first, Yu Tong was a little uncomfortable with a stranger manhandling him. But after imagining it as a massage, he relaxed a lot.
He closed his eyes comfortably and sighed to the system in his mind, ‘Honestly, the villain isn’t that bad. Aside from his foul mouth, there’s nothing wrong with him.’

The system, flipping through the original text, muttered, 【Hmm… strange. In the original text, the villain was already a greedy, lecherous, sinister hypocrite at this point. This one looks like a little schoolboy.】
‘Isn’t the original written from the male lead’s perspective? His impressions of the villain came from other people, so it might be a misunderstanding.’
【But the villain’s character deviation value is still 0. According to the original, he should be a petty person. After all, the original character setup for him is gentle and kind on the outside, but behind the scenes, he’s a spoiled brat who abuses his power.】

As Yu Tong was pondering the system’s words, Yun Mingchen, who had been babbling nonstop about roasting cat meat and making cat fur coats, suddenly fell silent.
He stared seriously at the kitten in the basin, lightly muttering, “What’s this?”
Yu Tong followed his gaze.

Oh, it’s the little tomcat’s balls.
Yun Mingchen probably realized what they were, and with a curious gesture, he reached out to touch them.
Yu Tong knew that cats had no privacy in front of humans.

Some people would take pictures of cats eating, using the bathroom, or licking their butts, then post them online with captions like, “Ahhh, so cute!!!”
Touching the cat’s bell wasn’t even worth mentioning in the strange human behavior awards.
Yu Tong was human, so he didn’t know whether the kitten minded, but he sure minded.

He quickly tucked his tail between his legs and started dodging. Yun Mingchen, being the future villain, wasn’t necessarily bad, but he was damn annoying.
The more the kitten dodged, the more excited he seemed to get. It didn’t seem like he truly wanted to do something perverse; he just wanted to tease the little cat.
Yu Tong ran all over the place as the villain chased him. The system, smoking a cigarette, watched the scene with interest.

Finally, when Yu Tong sneezed from the cold wind, Yun Mingchen gave up on torturing him, turned, and raised the bathroom temperature by a few degrees.
By the time they left the bathroom, it was already past 9 p.m.
They had been in the bathroom for more than an hour, but the actual bathing only took thirty minutes. The rest of the time was spent by Yun Mingchen playing with the kitten.

Yu Tong, now all fluffed up, lay in the man’s arms, asking the system to check his character deviation value.
The system sympathetically looked at him, 【Still 0.】
Yu Tong trembled with anger.

Yun Mingchen, holding a delivery box, made him a simple little nest, even thoughtfully laying down a soft towel and a stuffed animal to keep the kitten company.
Worried that the kitten might not play, Yun Mingchen squatted by the cardboard box and lightly bumped the stuffed animal against the kitten. “Bite it, bite it.”
Yu Tong held the toy in his front paws and pretended to gnaw on it. The villain chuckled, looking very pleased.

He tapped the kitten’s little nose with his finger. “So obedient.”
To emphasize the villain’s outward appearance of perfection, the original text spent a lot of time describing his looks.
The author piled every possible compliment for a handsome man onto Yun Mingchen.

When he wasn’t being obnoxious or pretending to be gentle, his smile was natural and beautiful.
Yu Tong, who had been angry, felt his irritation melt away seeing Yun Mingchen smile so charmingly.
So far, Yun Mingchen seemed to be just foul-mouthed and handsy, but at his core, he was still caring and gentle. There was nothing that needed to be fixed.

Sure, he had some superficial flaws, but he was good-looking, a school idol, and having a little arrogance was normal.
Yu Tong had seen worse people than him.
That night, a murder had occurred at the academy, and the school issued a notice requiring all students to stay in their dorms after dark.

Yun Mingchen had no time to go after the male lead, Su Feng, and after feeding the kitten the food the servant brought, he sat down on his bed to meditate.
Yu Tong crawled out of his little nest and, using his Cat Pounce skill, landed successfully on the bed.
Yun Mingchen raised an eyebrow and grabbed him with one hand, placing him back in the nest.

Realizing that their relationship wasn’t yet close enough for him to be on the bed, Yu Tong settled down in the nest and began discussing the villain's mentor task with the system.
8102 told him that the "role model" requirement in the task didn’t actually mean the villain had to worship the host as a mentor.
As long as the villain gained something from interacting with the host and became better and kinder, the host would have completed the task.

Relieved, Yu Tong sighed.
He peered out of the box and looked at the young man on the bed.
Yun Mingchen’s features were soft, giving him a very approachable vibe. When he wasn’t speaking, he truly looked like a gentle, refined young man.

Yu Tong thought for a moment, ‘Brother, I still feel like something’s off with Yun Mingchen. He doesn’t look like a villain at all. Could you explain the character deviation value again? I want to see what’s wrong.’
【That value calculation is really complex. I’m not an expert, so I can’t really explain it. All I know is that it probably includes life view, world view, values, and sense of right and wrong, and maybe even the thought process.】
【You could understand it as all the factors that affect the villain's choices are included in the deviation value. Normally, a person’s behavior won’t stray from their character setup without external influence. What we need to do is make the villain’s character OOC (out of character).】

Yu Tong understood.
The deviation value was still 0, probably because Yun Mingchen still hadn’t fixed his flaws, but if he targeted them, it should work.
As he was thinking, there was a knock at the door.

Yun Mingchen casually raised his hand, and the bedroom door opened automatically.
A middle-aged man walked in, followed by the servant who had brought the pet supplies and a woman holding a camera.
The man greeted with a smile, “Good evening, Mingchen. Still meditating? You’re as hardworking as ever.”

The three people seemed to be familiar with each other. Yun Mingchen, who had a heavy idol persona, wasn’t in business mode and showed clear signs of impatience on his face.
The man didn’t seem to care. He changed into slippers and headed straight for the delivery box by the bed.
He bent over and rummaged through the box, checking out the little kitten. “Mingchen, when did you become so compassionate? You actually picked up a stray cat?”

Yun Mingchen coldly looked at him. “I didn’t pick it up, it followed me here. I’m meditating. You can leave if you don’t have anything important.”
The middle-aged man seemed to ignore the second half of his sentence and kept holding up the kitten, chuckling, “Look at the fur color. Is this a tabby cat?”
“I saw the footage of you picking up the kitten in the woods. You really picked the perfect angle. The composition is beautiful and shows your kindness. I’ll have someone shorten the video and post it online.”

Yu Tong noticed that as soon as the three people entered the room, Yun Mingchen became unusually agitated.
By the time the man picked him up, Yun Mingchen’s face had completely darkened. It seemed like something had triggered him, and his mood was very unstable.
The man pinched one of the kitten’s hind legs and observed, “I saw in the footage, the kitten’s walk was unnatural. Does it have an injury? Is this leg broken?”

Before he could finish, Yun Mingchen suddenly darted off the bed, snatched the kitten, and shoved him into his coat pocket, then kicked the man who was crouching by the box out of the room.
He used his spiritual power, and the man slammed into the wall in the hallway, looking injured.
No one said anything harsh, but everything looked perfectly normal. Yet Yun Mingchen was like a cat with its fur raised, growling at everyone to leave.

Yu Tong poked his head out from the pocket and watched in shock.
He poked the system. ‘Brother, is the villain’s mental state... okay?’
8102 glanced at the book, 【Hiss—seems fine. Suddenly getting angry, though... scary.】

The door slammed shut, and ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) when the three left, Yun Mingchen reached into his pocket, pulled out the little kitten, and placed him on the bed.
Yun Mingchen started gently playing with the kitten, focusing on his hind leg, then seriously said, “Walk a couple of steps.”
Yu Tong didn’t react immediately.

What does he mean? Is he asking me to walk even though there’s nothing wrong with me?
Yun Mingchen waited two seconds, nudged the kitten’s behind, and repeated, “Walk a couple of steps.”
Yu Tong: …

Alright, alright, I’ll walk.
Let’s talk this out, don’t push my butt, it’s embarrassing.