You are a cat demon

"Little Blackie! Do you like these flowers? Do you like them?"

Ruoye presented you with delicate white lilies, almost shoving them in your face. You quickly took a half step back, turning your face away to show your disinterest.

Lilies are highly poisonous to cats, but this level of toxicity wouldn't pose much of a threat to you, a cat demon. Last time, Village Chief Zhang Qingshan used a mixture of demon bone powder and lily powder to treat your leg injury; he might have been trying to fight poison with poison. Ruoye is still young and doesn't understand these things, let alone things that even some adults might not know. She didn't do it intentionally, and you wouldn't hold a grudge against a child.

As your close friend, Ruoye quickly understood your meaning. She withdrew her hand, picked a foxtail grass from the roadside, and teased you by holding it out to you at varying speeds.

This is a completely natural cat toy.

However, that's giving you too much credit. Someone as aloof and arrogant as you would never play around with a cat demon.

You just play around with her without any regard for your image.

Ruoye taunted you by waving foxtail grass, encouraging you to jump higher. You lived up to her expectations, jumping more and more joyfully, higher and higher, until you had surpassed her height.

This height is nothing to you, just a drop in the ocean. The cat demon has a strong jumping ability. In the wild, when you were trying to catch birds, the highest you ever jumped was more than ten meters in one go.

Since arriving in Sakura Village, you've hardly needed to hunt anymore. Aside from occasionally helping Village Chief Zhang Qingshan catch rats and various pests and poisonous insects in his house, your physical activity level is far less than before. Although Ruoye sometimes teases you with foxtail grass, you imagine it's a hunt in the wild, allowing you to release pent-up energy. However, while you don't get tired, Ruoye does; a human cub's stamina is far inferior to yours. Moreover, foxtail grass is fragile; it breaks with the slightest touch of your paw, forcing you to replace it with another. You wonder why you don't seem to be using much force. After this, dozens of broken foxtail grass blades lie scattered on the ground. Most importantly, you jump too high, far exceeding the jumping limits of an ordinary cat. Anyone with half a brain would suspect something, so you have to restrain yourself, preventing you from fully enjoying yourself; happy times are fleeting.

But strangely enough, recently, you feel that happy times are getting longer and longer. No, they can no longer be called "happy". You have started to feel a little tormented.

You used to be able to play this game for over an hour without getting tired or even out of breath, while Ruoye's arms ached so much she could barely lift them. However, as time went on, your stamina seemed to be getting worse. Before half the game time was even over, your legs started to feel slightly sore and weak, so you had to stop and rest every now and then. At first, you could jump higher and higher, but after a few jumps, you couldn't wait to lie down and rest.

You think you're probably not sick; it's probably just that spring has arrived and the cat demon's mating season has begun.

You've never experienced this, and you don't know what being in heat feels like. You've only seen males of your kind in heat; they're very active and aggressive, as if they have inexhaustible energy. Even so, you can't completely rule out this possibility, after all, you are an exception, and it's normal for you to be different from other cat demons.

The reason you'd rather deceive yourself than directly rule out these possibilities that are inherently zero is because...

"You should lose weight, Xiao Hei!"

You misheard.

Yes, you must have misheard.

"Wow, look at that cat! It's so fat, hahaha!"

"They say 'nine out of ten orange cats are fat, and the tenth one is so fat it'll collapse on the bed,' but this cat isn't even orange! Could its fur be dyed?"

"I remember it used to be so skinny, what has it been through these past few months?"

"Look at its belly! Hahahaha! Oh my god! I can't laugh anymore!"

"Is this the legendary piglet? Haha!"

……

Forget it, you can't fool yourself anymore.

You'll never forget the sight you glimpsed by chance when you passed by the large floor-to-ceiling mirror at Zhang Qingshan's village chief's house: a... gas cylinder.

Which cat demon looks like a gas cylinder in a mirror, with five pounds of dry rice every five pounds, shoulders thicker than waist, waist bigger than buttocks, buttocks bigger than face, and no neck? I don't know if it has hyperthyroidism or cerebellar atrophy, but it's definitely not like a normal cat demon.

How could this be you?!

You were so startled by your reflection in the mirror that you developed airplane ears.

But undeniably, the gas cylinder in the mirror reacted with the exact same shock and defensiveness as you, wore the same expression of disbelief, and every single hair on its head looked exactly the same. All signs pointed to you as the gas cylinder being you, and you being the gas cylinder.

Since you came to Sakura Village, you've been like a different cat.

You become lazy and slow to react; the whole cat exudes an air of not being very smart.

You no longer need to roam around searching for and hunting prey, nor do you need to be constantly alert to avoid predators. You no longer face any survival obstacles. Even if there are rats in the village, or those "meddlesome" dogs get involved, you can simply ignore them all, except for those belonging to Village Chief Zhang Qingshan. At first, you used to wander around the village frequently, patrolling your territory, but now you're too lazy to do that anymore, and your exercise level is much lower than before. Your mind is completely relaxed, and coupled with good food, you've naturally gained a lot of fat; you could probably squeeze oil out of it if you pinched it.

Although monsters are generally considered beautiful for being strong, this level of "strength" is not what you'd expect!

You still have some idol image to maintain. Seeing your former fit and handsome self turn into this fat, slouchy couch potato must be worse than death for you.

Although Wakaba sometimes comforts you, saying that you're cute even when you're chubby, and that she'll love you no matter what you look like, even if you become as fat as a ball, you always turn your back and gently brush away her hand that tries to touch you with your tail, indicating that you don't have to talk if you can't.

你这副仿佛被全世界抛弃了的可怜模样，看得大黑狗都心疼你了，它摇着尾巴走过来想舔舔你的毛髮安慰你，结果又被本就心情不好的你逮住狠狠地揍了一顿……

For your health and to help you regain your original handsome (or cute in Ruoye's eyes) appearance as soon as possible, Village Chief Zhang Qingshan has devised a high-intensity weight loss plan for you, which Ruoye will supervise.

In short, eat less and move more.

You don't care about food. You're a cat demon, so you rarely get to eat your fill in the wild. You're often hungry, and it's normal to go hungry for a day or two. You've experienced even harder times than that.

Even so, when delicious food is placed in front of you, your "tears" will inevitably trickle down your cheeks. Seeing your greedy expression, Ruoye felt a pang of pity and forgot her promise, wanting to plead for you. Village Chief Zhang Qingshan glanced helplessly at Ruoye, who was clinging to his sleeve and acting coquettishly, then looked speechlessly at you, whose eyes were full of longing. He hardened his heart and poured all the meat into the big black dog's bowl.

Okay, you think to yourself, now you have another reason to beat up the big black dog.

When you first started your weight loss plan, you were definitely struggling. After all, you'd finally gotten a good life, and before you could even enjoy it for a few days, you were going to have to suffer again, which wasn't even as free as your days in the wild. When hobbies become chores, they become tedious, like that "Foxtail Grass" brand cat toy you used to love playing with.

"Little Black? Little Black? Move a little!"

The only response Wakaba received was your belly rolling around on the ground.