Chapter 2: Sold to the Highest Bidder—Please Pet Responsibly

When Gu Chuan’s thumb brushed Lin Xia’s soft pink paw pad, she finally understood what “cat stress response” really meant.

The auction house’s spotlights stabbed her pupils like a thousand silver needles. The amethyst crystals on her collar refracted the crowd’s greedy eyes, making the bidders look like a school of piranhas in tailored suits.

“Three billion, going twice!” the auctioneer’s voice pierced through the ringing in her ears.

Lin Xia dug her claws into the velvet cushion beneath her. Five minutes ago, she’d thought Gu Chuan was just humiliating her for fun by stuffing her into a gilded cage. Then she saw the compound displayed in the hologram—the same one she inhaled the night she turned into a cat.

“Last chance.” Gu Chuan’s fingers reached into the bars, idly massaging the scruff of her neck. “Admit you’re human in front of everyone, or keep playing my adorable little pet.”

His cufflink glinted in the light—a seven-petaled chrysanthemum that looked far too much like a venomous spider. Lin Xia’s mind flashed back to the encrypted file she cracked last night: Gu Corporation was mass-producing a “Morph Reversal Agent”… and her case was labeled #0001.

“Meow—(Go to hell!)” she screeched, slamming herself against the cage door.

The collar snapped tight.

Gu Chuan’s watch projected a holographic heart monitor—her green pulse line was spiking into dangerous territory.

“A pity.” He sighed and pressed a button. A burst of purple gas erupted from the bottom of the cage.

Her vision spun.

Just before she blacked out, she caught a glimpse of the buyer rising from Seat 03—a white-haired man in a traditional Tang suit, one eye covered by a cybernetic lens. Dr. Z. The same fugitive scientist who led the illegal experiments seven years ago.

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Cold water slapped her face.

Lin Xia’s first instinct was to lick her paw… until she froze, staring at her very human fingers, trembling in moonlight—complete with electronic shackles on her wrists.

“Welcome back, Dr. Lin,” Gu Chuan’s voice drifted out of the shadows.

He sat before a bank of monitors, one screen paused on an image of her curled up in his arms last night. “Eighty-two hours, thirty-seven minutes. You reverted to human form ahead of schedule.”

She yanked a lab coat off the table and wrapped it around herself, memories crashing in like a tidal wave—auction stage, purple gas, Dr. Z’s withered hand gripping her neck, whispering “Finally got you.”

Realization hit her like a lab explosion.

“You used me as bait?!”

Gu Chuan caught her wrists with ease, the heat of his palms bleeding through his shirt. “How else was I supposed to lure out the man who made your parents disappear?”

His finger brushed the birthmark beneath her collarbone—now glowing faintly with that same strange violet hue.

“And while we were at it, I wanted to test how dual-bonded emotions affect the reagent’s stability.”

“What do you mean dual—”

Before she could finish, alarms shrieked. Gu Chuan’s eyes sharpened. He pulled her into a blast pod just as a bullet tore past her ear.

Through the heavy door, she saw Dr. Z’s mechanical prosthetic arm smash into the lab. His robotic eye glowed red.

“My little kitty… time to come home.”

“Hold on.” Gu Chuan bit her earlobe. The taste of blood mixed with adrenaline.

She didn’t even have time to scream before the entire lab dropped vertically.

Weightless, spinning, heart racing, she heard his teasing voice in her ear:

“Time to escape, girlfriend.”

“I am NOT your girlfriend!” she yelled into the chaos.

“You didn’t seem to mind when you were licking your fur on my chest last night.” He pressed the emergency ejection, and the blast pod shot down into the underground river.

As water exploded around them, Lin Xia saw her fingertips shimmering with white fuzz again.

Dr. Z’s voice echoed after them, distorted by the rushing current:

“You actually used the dual-bond serum?! Gu Chuan, you’ll destroy the entire—”

The rest was swallowed by the river.

Clinging to Gu Chuan’s neck, Lin Xia felt their heartbeats sync. When they finally surfaced, dawn was breaking.

His soaked white shirt clung to his chest, revealing a glowing violet-gold tattoo—an exact match to the birthmark beneath her collarbone.

“Now do you believe me?” Gu Chuan brushed her hair from her face. “We’ve been metabolically linked since the day you spilled that serum seven years ago.”

His thumb pressed into her palm, where soft paw pads were reappearing.

“So unless you want me doing a live demo of catboy cosplay, maybe stop randomly transforming.”

Lin Xia’s scream sent birds flying from the reed beds.

She wasn’t sure what was scarier: the ring design sketches that just fell out of Gu Chuan’s shirt pocket—or the fact that she could now hear his heartbeat like it was her own.

And when he kissed her new cat ears with a smirk, only one dangerous thought crossed her mind:

Maybe staying a cat wouldn’t be so bad. At least mauling this bastard wouldn’t be a crime.