ALWARFC Chapter 87

In the backstage monitoring room, a group of people were staring intently at the screen, eagerly following the latest developments.

On the screen, five actors—including Su Ran—were tied together by a single rope like a string of candied hawthorn, all dumped in the corner of a kitchen, listening to the ghosts’ threats as they passively followed the plot.

The leading ghost was the most terrifying. Its neck was empty, yet it held its head in its hands, baring a ferocious grin at them. Half threatening, half playing along with the script, it began to speak of the hidden secrets aboard the cruise ship.

On this cruise ship, from the captain to the cook, everyone was undead. They spread false stories about hidden treasure on the ship to lure in wave after wave of greedy humans, who came courting death. Then, these victims would be taken to an island and offered as sacrifices to a demon, all to prolong the lives of the undead.

Because the extras were too “excellent”, the main cast was left both terrified and hungry. Their faces were blank, dazed, and utterly withdrawn, to the point where there was no need to worry about them breaking character or needing a retake. The storyline flowed smoothly, quickly progressing to the next segment.

As the assistant scriptwriter, Jiang Yimian checked the script in his hands, confirmed the upcoming scene, and got ready to head out and arrange for the other actors to take their positions.

Jiang Qiuxin was grooming a Maine Coon. The over-one-meter-long cat lay lazily across his legs, purring in contentment as its poop-shoveling servant pampered it.

Seeing Jiang Yimian about to leave, Jiang Qiuxin put down the brush and called out, “Perfect timing. I’ve got some instructions to give that group of extras, too. Let’s go together.”

The Maine Coon’s silvery ears twitched, and it half-opened its eyes to glance at its human.

“Baby, I’m going to work now. Keep sleeping, okay? When you wake up, remember to eat the salmon I cooked for you. I even added your favorite canned food.” Jiang Qiuxin spoke to his beloved cat in a voice so gentle it could drip water, wearing the affectionate expression of a doting old father on his handsome twenty-something face.

Jiang Naitang let out a lazy meow, shifted into a more comfortable position, and continued napping. Overwhelmed by the cuteness, Jiang Qiuxin gave the Maine Coon a big smooch on the forehead, then reluctantly followed his cousin out.

Jiang Yimian gave his cousin—who was looking at the Maine Coon with an infatuated expression—a speechless glance, and muttered as they walked, “Seriously? Actors come here to act, but your cat, just an extra, is being treated like an emperor.”

“You don’t get it. Naitang is so small and so delicate. How could I not take extra care of him?” Jiang Qiuxin said with heartfelt sincerity, “My poor Naitang had such a pitiful life. He passed away before even reaching adulthood. It was so hard for us to be reunited like this. How could I not make it up to him?”

Jiang Yimian reminded him with a blank face, “Your Naitang lived to seventeen. That’s a full life. Where are you getting this ‘died young’ thing?”

Jiang Qiuxin said righteously, “Seventeen isn’t that old, okay? For a human, seventeen is still underage, isn’t it? If Naitang were a person, he’d still be in high school when he passed away! How can you say something so cold, heartless, and vicious to my poor baby?”

As he spoke, he turned and looked back at the Maine Coon’s silhouette with a pained expression. “Look at him. He’s gotten skinny. He must’ve been bullied by all those cruel, evil ghosts in the underworld!”

Jiang Yimian also turned back to look, just in time to see the Maine Coon lazily stretch—its nearly 1.3-meter-long body covered in thick, fluffy fur. He couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Bro, your cat is almost the size of a tiger. And you’re calling him small, pitiful, and skinny?”

No reply.

Puzzled, Jiang Yimian turned his head, only to find Jiang Qiuxin staring dead ahead. Following his gaze, he saw a few ferocious, sharp-toothed ghosts grinning coldly at them, their expressions disturbingly sinister.

“Eh? Perfect timing, you’re both here…” Jiang Yimian pulled out the script, about to go over the scene with them, when, in the next second, Jiang Qiuxin, sensing things were off, yanked him back hard.

“Run, run, RUN!” Jiang Qiuxin grabbed him and took off at full speed.

“We’re crew, not actors! Why are we running from extras?!”

“These evil ghosts don’t follow orders at all! And none of the big shots in charge are around today. If we go over there, aren’t we just handing over our heads on a platter?!”

*

Yes, all the death gods were indeed absent today.

Jiang Qiao had left the island last-minute to return to the capital due to family matters. Su Ning was still on the island, but occupied with another matter. He had brought Su Miao over and settled him in the guest room right next to his own bedroom.

Su Miao, the son of the Fourth Elder, was the same one who had lost his fertility after indulging in too much debauchery, then went to extremes and adopted the ancient Su Clan egg-hatching method to have children.

Because Su Miao had yet to successfully hatch an egg and was completely clueless about how to proceed, Su Ning, as the Su Clan’s ancestral figure, was thoroughly vexed. In the end, he had no choice but to come and teach him up close. After all, the future of the Su Clan still rested on the younger generation.

At this moment, in the guest room, Su Ning was standing there with a dark face, gritting his teeth as he taught Su Miao how to hatch an egg.

“You can’t just pour blood on them. You have to place them under your own body and use your body heat to incubate them. But since your body temperature isn’t high enough, you either need to find someone to sleep with you and help incubate the egg, or go buy a few hot water bottles and keep them under the covers to maintain the warmth…”

“So it’s because my body temperature is too low!” Su Miao suddenly saw the light and blurted out in excitement, “As expected of the Ancestor—so experienced! We juniors still have so much to learn…”

Su Ning, who could clearly feel the mockery from the room next door, had no interest in this kind of flattery. With a blank face, he interrupted coldly, “Shut up. Stop sucking up. Hurry up and hatch your egg.”

Su Ning was absolutely right. His two black-hearted gossip-loving dads were in the next room watching all the drama unfold through a water mirror.

When Su Weisheng first heard about this “egg-hatching method”, he was so embarrassed he refused to acknowledge any connection with those poor kids. But as time went on, he gradually got used to it—and now, whenever the topic of “egg-hatching” came up, he even showed a bizarre amusement in watching the mess.

Truly, watching other people’s drama and gossiping about their chaos… was just too entertaining.

Hearing their conversation, Su Weisheng asked You Sui with great interest, “So then, by this logic, how did Yinzi hatch the egg back then? Did he share a bed with someone to do it?”

You Sui stroked his chin thoughtfully, then shook his head. “That, I’m honestly not too sure about. Things were so busy back then, I didn’t pay attention to those kinds of details. Thinking back on it now… I really missed out on some important information.”

The two exchanged a knowing look, both showing a trace of regret.

What a pity. The youngest must’ve found it so humiliating that he buried the whole thing deep, refusing to let it leak out. They hadn’t gotten any gossip back then, and now it would be a pain to dig up the full story.

Just then, a phone call came in.

Su Weisheng glanced at the caller ID and pressed the answer button. “Jiang Jinbao? What is it?”

“Great-grandfather, save me—!” On the other end of the call, Jiang Yimian began ranting in bitter despair, describing how the evil ghosts were completely unruly and refused to cooperate, begging his great-grandfather to stand up for him.

But Su Weisheng and You Sui couldn’t go over right now.

And clearly, neither Su Ning nor Jiang Qiao could step in to solve the problem at this moment either.

After a moment of thought, Su Weisheng made the call: “Just take Jiang Naitang with you to manage the extras.”

“Take Naitang?” Jiang Yimian was stunned. “Take the cat? What’s that gonna do, kill the ghosts with cuteness to get the job done?”

Su Weisheng sneered, “No. He’s much more useful than you.”

Jiang Yimian: ???

Why did that… sound like an insult?

Even after hanging up the call, he was still dazed.

Someone asked, “What did Great-Grandfather say?”

Jiang Yimian shifted his gaze toward the innocent little cat who was still napping lazily. “Great-Grandfather told me… to bring the cat to negotiate…”

The Maine Coon seemed to hear the others murmuring. Its silver-furred ears twitched slightly. It arched its body and stretched out in a long, lazy motion. When its cat eyes swept over the humans, there was a hint of disdain in its gaze. “Meow~”

*

Jiang Qiuxin had just gone to the kitchen to serve his little darling a bowl of salmon for dinner. When he returned, the cat was gone.

He looked around in all directions, searching, but saw no sign of the cat. Confused, he asked the others, “Where’s my Tangbao? Has anyone seen him?”

The assistant, Xiao Bai, hesitated for a moment, then pointed outside and recounted what had just happened. “Jinbao already took the cat and left.”

“Naitang is just a little kitten who’s not even grown yet! What use is he?!” Jiang Qiuxin exploded on the spot. “No way. Jiang Yimian, that useless thing is going to get my baby bullied for sure!”

In that moment, the instinct to protect his fragile little cat completely took over. He even forgot his usual fear of ghosts and stormed out furiously. The others, afraid something might go wrong, quickly followed after him.

They arrived near the cruise ship.

They hadn’t yet found Jiang Yimian and the others, but from the deck they heard a loud bang bang bang—it sounded like a fight. As they moved closer, they saw Jiang Yimian huddled in a corner, trembling with fear and clearly scared out of his wits. And not far from him…

The giant Maine Coon had several unruly evil ghosts pinned beneath him. His broad, thick cat paws were slapping their faces one after another with loud whap whap whap sounds. The ghosts wailed in pain, begging for mercy, but the big cat didn’t let up in the slightest. Worse yet, his mouth was spouting nonstop profanity: “Trash! You’re the one who scared Jiang Qiuxin, huh?! Don’t you know that’s my human, the one under this grandpa cat’s protection?!”

“I hit him ‘cause I love him. When the hell did it become your turn to lay a hand on him?!”

Everyone was stunned.

Jiang Qiuxin was dumbfounded as well.

This fierce, foul-mouthed feline brute…Was this supposed to be the still-not-fully-grown little kitten he’d been talking about?

With a flurry of furious cat punches, Jiang Naitang beat those evil ghosts into utter submission, leaving them obedient and trembling.

Once the cat had had his fill of pummeling, he turned his head. Only to see his poop-scooper standing right behind him.

In the blink of an eye, the Maine Coon who just a moment ago had been growling like a burly Northeastern man, suddenly and effortlessly pitched his voice up into a high, sweet tone and let out an adorably coy: “Meow~”

He leapt straight into Jiang Qiuxin’s arms, rubbing his oversized fuzzy head against his hand like an affectionate, clingy little kitten.

Jiang Qiuxin was silent.

Jiang Naitang, seeing that his human wasn’t responding, gave his hand another nudge with his fluffy head, urging him.

Jiang Qiuxin looked down at his beloved Maine Coon, took a deep breath, and forced himself to ignore the horrifying scene he’d just witnessed. His voice softened, sounding as if nothing had happened at all: “Baby, you must’ve been scared, huh? Come on, let’s go home and eat some salmon…”

All that stuff about a violent cat cursing like a Northeasterner? Fake. Absolutely fake. Totally fake. Completely fake!!

His Jiang Naitang would always be his sweet little kitten who never grows up, the one who only used his tiny kitty fists to thump his chest and beg for cuddles!

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