Chapter Eighty-Five: A Terrible Misunderstanding Over This Matter

I stood frozen, staring in panic at the heap of clothes before me, searching through them again and again, but never finding my little undergarment.

How could that be? Could something wrapped up inside a bundle simply vanish?

I thought about it for a long time, yet I could not work out what had happened to make me lose the thing tucked deepest inside my luggage.

In the end, though, I had to accept it: I remembered plainly that I had packed it, but by the time all was said and done, I could not swear that I had truly brought it back with me.

When a little cat goes about carrying a bundle on its back, a few mishaps are only natural.

Perhaps I had dropped it somewhere unremarkable, somewhere I myself never noticed?

So be it. If it was lost, then it was lost.

At the time I thought very simply: one lost undergarment, so what? At most, it would cause a little trouble for the natural world.

I never imagined that this one piece of clothing would stir up such a storm that it nearly cost me my life.

On the first day after it went missing, Forget River said he had business at night and would not be coming back. He did not even appear himself; instead, a kitten brought me his message.

On the second day, the waters were calm and nothing happened. Forget River returned, looking exhausted, and slept beside me as always after our customary bedtime exercise, then fell into a deep slumber.

On the third day after it went missing, all was still quiet.

It was not until the fourth day that I noticed, when Forget River came back, a trace of dark aura clinging to him.

At the time, I had no idea this had anything to do with my missing undergarment, and I could not understand what on earth had angered him.

But after spending so long with him, I could tell: whenever that thick black aura rose about him, he was either angry or furious.

So I instinctively took a few steps back, watching him and guessing at hundreds of possibilities in my mind.

Until he curved his lips in a smile and beckoned to me.

"Come here."

I immediately ran over with a sweet smile, all eagerness and flattery. "Master—"

But before I could even reach him and rub against him, he slapped me aside!

I froze.

Normally, when I was in human form, Forget River would not hit me.

It did not really count as a beating, but even so, that motion made me feel humiliated, unable to make sense of what had happened.

"On your knees. I have something to ask you." He sat in the chair, his face still cold as ice.

To be honest, the Forget River before me now was even more frightening than the last time, when I had nearly been taken by a vengeful ghost and he had been furious.

Forget River was the kind of person whose calm anger was even more chilling, fearsome enough to make you tremble from the bottom of your heart.

So I clenched my teeth and knelt down.

In that situation, of course I would not dare place my hands on his knees again. That would have been inviting trouble.

Since he had been willing to reach out and pull me back just now, it meant he did not want to touch me at all. Yet I truly could not understand why he had suddenly become so enraged.

Gripping my collar, Forget River suddenly bent down and asked through gritted teeth, "Say it. What have you been doing these past few days?"

"I... I was waiting for you at home."

"Nothing else?" He narrowed his eyes fiercely. "Don't think that just because I smelled that wolf thief a few days ago and didn't deal with you, I wouldn't know!"

My whole body jolted. Good heavens! Just how good was this man's nose?

That day, I had only gone to his house in cat form to look at my little sister. I had not even gone inside.

I had merely stood on the wall and looked from a distance for a while. He could even tell whose scent I had brought back on me?

Well... thinking about it, that made sense. Forget River's nose... it was even better than a dog's.

Fine. If I was going to lose, then so be it.

But why had he not dealt with me that day, only to turn around and deal with me now?

"Master, I was only afraid you'd worry!"

With a crack, Forget River's fist crushed the metal clasp on my collar.

I shuddered all over. Then I saw him flick his hand and cast the useless scrap aside.

I felt that Forget River was already on the brink of losing his temper. Naturally, I did not dare move a muscle.

Truth be told, I was still very afraid of him hitting me. Although Forget River had never truly laid a hand on me before, at most doing what he had just done and pushing me away because he did not want me to touch him.

Could he be disgusted with me about something?

That kind of action clearly meant disgust, but what had I done to deserve it? Was it because I still carried the scent of Han Mingxuan on me?

I was utterly bewildered, yet Forget River was truly angry, so angry that he had even crushed the metal clasp. Clearly, he very much wanted to beat me.

I naturally had to behave better. In such a situation, the best thing was to explain everything from beginning to end.

"Master, I really only feared you'd worry. That day I went back with Fish Treasure. I never even came into contact with Han Mingxuan. I only stood on the wall to look at my little sister. I'm sure you can smell it too; the scent shouldn't be very strong, should it? Please believe me..."

"Only looked at your little sister?"

"Yes, I only looked at my little sister. I really didn't do anything else!"

"Heh. Looked at your little sister, and looked so much you had to take off your clothes?"

His eyes were narrowed as he spoke through clenched teeth, every word seething with hatred and making my heart twist into a tight knot.

How could he know that day I had taken off my clothes? But that was not me taking them off; after I turned into cat form, my clothes shrank and fell away naturally!

So I hurried to explain. "No, Master! That day it suddenly hailed. My head was hit so badly it hurt, so I changed back and hid under a little shed! Master, you know... whenever I turn back into cat form, I—"

"What do I know? That you sneak out again while pretending to obey?" Forget River suddenly stood up, yet he seized my hand.

I panicked at the movement, but then I realized he had tied both of my wrists together with a leather cord.

Then the cord was yanked tight, and my two wrists were suddenly pulled hard together.

"It wasn't like that! I only changed into human form, and my clothes fell to the ground. I just picked them up again! Really!"

I had once experienced something like this before, and the result had been that the exercise afterward was a little more intense. But right now, all I wanted was to explain things clearly, so I did not stop talking for a moment.

Yet I had not expected that, as Forget River dragged me along, he would tighten the cord on my hands and pull me straight taut, lifting me up by it.

My hands were raised high. My feet were still on the ground, but the feeling was utterly beyond my control.

What was this? An upgraded version of not wanting me to run away? This time he was not even going to let me move an inch?

"Master, I—" I tried to explain, but he cut me off.

"I'll give you one more chance. Tell me: who did you meet that day, and what did you do? You'd better say everything clearly."

"Everything I said is true! I went out with Fish Treasure! Halfway back, it started pouring rain, so I turned into cat form and my clothes fell off! Then I carried my little bundle home to see my sister. After I saw her, I came right back! I didn't lie! Really!"

But Forget River still stared at me with his eyes narrowed hard.

I felt a little frightened, drew in my neck, and then heard him let out a cold laugh. He reached out and gripped my chin so hard it almost crushed it.

"Aren't I good enough to you?"

"You are, you really are!" I hurriedly nodded.

If one were to ask who in this world treated me best, besides Forget River it would only be Little Cloud and the others.

My parents had left early. I had played both father and mother, caring for my sister, and only here with Forget River did I truly understand how the word "spoiled" was written.

That was why I had come to rely on him. That was why I—loved him.

"I treat you well, so why did you still go looking for him?" When Forget River said this, his tone held a trace of complaint, and also a little... hurt.

Hurt? Why would he be hurt?

"Who? Who did I go looking for?" I widened my eyes, and when I saw the anger in Forget River's gaze, along with that unreadable emotion, my heart ached like never before.

"Still pretending not to know?" He curved his lips in a smile, then somehow produced my undergarment from nowhere.

Huh? He had found it?

"That belongs to me..." I stammered, and for some reason, seeing it lifted in his hand filled me with a kind of... embarrassing blush of spring.

My face had inexplicably gone red.

"Of course I know it belongs to you!" Forget River smiled again, and the smile was chilling. "But I want to ask you this: why does your undergarment reek of that ghostly smell from the Underworld, and of the scent of mating with a male?!"