017 Black Cat's Tail

The messy scribbles on the A4 paper indicated the drafter's clumsiness in painting skills, full of a beginner's random smears.

Yet these lines seemed to have their own spirit, here a stroke, there a stroke, converging into a deft posture.

As the phone began to ring, Lin An snapped out of that indescribable state.

Looking at the painting before him, he let out a sigh of regret.

To say he felt regret, however, was because he had only drawn a fluffy black cat's tail.

No normal artist would start a painting of a cat with the tail, especially not one that took up the entire A4 paper, leaving no room for other parts of the body.

But that lightly flicked, coquettish charm was unmistakable and leapt out from the paper.

Why start with the black cat's tail?

After pondering for a while, Lin An couldn't help but laugh and cry; it turned out to be because the office's black cat often played with him using its fluffy, cute tail.

He could vividly feel every detail of that tail, the cute yet powerful sensation, the cool yet warm touch, the way it lightly brushed against his neck and ears…

Could it be?

Did he have to touch the black cat in all possible ways to be able to paint the entire cat?

Oh…

Lin An's expression held much resistance.

But it seemed he had no choice.

He had finally found a way to control his hallucinations!

The Deer Play Breathing Skill combined with the paintings of Little Deer by Master Qi Laozhai were clearly the right path, but this technique was so intense that he would faint shortly after starting it.

On the other hand, the 'Spirit Cat Body Stretching Skill' taught by Doctor Zhang didn't lead to 'energy congestion' and allowed the strength generated by the Breathing Skill to spread throughout his body.

But he couldn't possibly crouch on the ground and shamefully strike a cat-like stretching pose each time he encountered a hallucinatory monster.

That would be social suicide!

He needed to find a way to paint the portrait of the black cat to use as a method for comprehending the essence of the Spirit Cat, so he could enter the state of the Breathing Skill as easily as he did with the Little Deer illustrations, anytime, anywhere.

As for getting a cat of his own to observe…

Um…

Lin An wasn't ready to become a cat owner; he could hardly take care of himself, let alone a cat, so forget it.

So, the next thing to do was to find more chances to interact with the office's black cat and finish this painting to use it in combination with the Breathing Skill and Spiritual Cat Spinal Stretching Technique.

The persistent ringing of the phone pulled Lin An to his feet, his body making popping and crackling sounds, inexplicably feeling as if he were filled with some unique energy.

He tried to feel it carefully but the sensation disappeared, and he shook his head in resignation, pulling out his phone from his pocket.

Without anyone to guide him, he truly knew nothing about these transcendent forces.

The caller was his boss.

Lin An didn't want to answer the call; it was Friday afternoon and the weekend was approaching, and no worker wanted to take a call from their boss at this hour.

He sighed softly but eventually decided to answer.

"Hello, boss, I was just…"

"An!" interrupted the boss's voice on the other end, cutting off Lin An's hastily contrived excuse for not answering promptly, "Join me for mountain climbing the day after tomorrow, on Sunday!"

"!!!"

Lin An was stunned for a moment, glanced at his phone, and blinked, doubting if he had heard correctly, "Climbing… mountain climbing?"

"Yes!" The boss sounded particularly excited, "A weekend outing to Yunlu Mountain, several yoga studios in Shenhou City are organizing this event together, leading everyone to breathe the fresh air of Yunlu Mountain's natural oxygen bar and to relax the spiritual stress brought by office life."

Heh~

Lin An laughed silently. Don't you dare intrude on my life outside of work hours, if you did, I wouldn't have this much stress from my job.

He felt his ability to handle stress was quite good.

He finally had a portentous weekend, a solution for his hallucination disorder, and it was the perfect time to take private jobs for some extra cash as usual.

He wanted to save up some more money.

But he couldn't outright say that, as no company liked their employees freelancing on the side, even during off-work hours.

The young boss rattled on, "An, this matter is very important to me, oh, no, I mean, it's very important to us!"

"The sister of the owner of Suxin Software, a shareholder in Suxin Software Company, Chen Shuyun, will also be there with her yoga studio, so I can't give up this opportunity."

"You know, she usually keeps a low profile, and the yoga studio doesn't accept new members, so it's really hard to find a chance to talk to her."

"I've got to find a way to impress her in one minute and get her on board with supporting Antler Software to become the outsourcing partner for Suxin Software."

So, the young boss tried to approach the sister of the female owner of Suxin with gifts last time and was turned away?

Lin An was stunned. "Didn't the owner of Suxin Software say last time that she would visit our company to talk about a collaboration?"

"Chen Xinmi!" The young boss introduced, "The name of Suxin Software's owner is Chen Xinmi, this woman is really inscrutable. Even though she's all smiles, who knows what she's thinking, I need to add an extra layer of precaution."

"Anyway, that's the plan, we agreed on it, huh? We're going hiking together on Sunday. I've signed us up for VIP memberships at a yoga studio, and it's thirty-two thousand a year. You better not let all that money go to waste."

Hiss~

"How much?"

The young boss laughed, "Pocket change, as long as I can find the opportunity to seal the deal, it's all pocket change~"

Lin An couldn't fathom these wealthy people's spending habits. A membership fee of thirty-two thousand for a year, just for the chance to talk to the sister of the female owner of Suxin Software for a minute?

No wonder their programming group leader, Mr. Liu, hung out with the young boss all the time; who knows how many similar premium memberships he had enjoyed.

"Alright." Having spent so much, Lin An really didn't have the heart to refuse.

"Cool, get to bed early tomorrow. I'll pick you up early the day after tomorrow, don't forget."

As if relieved, the young boss hung up immediately.

On this side of the phone, Lin An's expression was odd.

Ever since he began experiencing these hallucinations, he couldn't help having a unique perception of various 'emotions'. As he encountered more and more demons and ghosts over time, he inexplicably found himself able to deduce something from the tone of others' voices.

Relieved?

Was the sister of the female owner of Suxin Software, Chen Shuyun, such an impressive person that even a playboy like the boss felt pressured when dealing with her? Was that why he needed to bring Lin An along?

As for why Mr. Liu, the young boss's loyal leg-man, wasn't invited, it probably had to do with the fact that it was a yoga event, and Mr. Liu's greasy, fat face and belly, tested by alcohol, were somewhat inappropriate.

Heh~

After musing for a while, Lin An returned his attention to the black cat painting in front of him.

Even if it was just a cat's tail.

He scrutinized the painting carefully, observing every detail, then decided to place it on the floor and once again adopted the stance of the Spirit Cat Spinal Stretching Technique with his hands on the floor.

Just as he had incorporated the rhythm of the illustration 'A Young Deer Leaping from a Rocky Mountain' into his Breathing Skill, the painting of the cat's tail now immersed him in the nimble rhythm of a cat.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a tail.

Yet as he entered the zone, he could distinctly feel his spine's twisting motions beginning to change.

It was no longer about relaxing as Doctor Zhang had described.

It was a certain…

A certain indescribable agility.

From the movement of his tailbone, radiating through his entire spine and extending to his neck.

This unique vibration frequency allowed Lin An to clearly feel that his spine was influencing the movement of the surrounding muscles, tendons, and skin.

In an instant, Lin An felt as if his body was completely controlled by his spine.

"Give me back my eyes~" an ugly head rolled towards him, leaving a trail of blood behind.

Startled by it, Lin An's back muscles powered up, triggering an enormous surge of strength around his spine as if pulling countless springs, the force shooting through his body.

He sprang up on all fours like a cat scared out of its wits, and took off from the ground!

Fly~

Thud~

His head banged against the ceiling hard.

The impact made Lin An's tears stream down; as his strength gave out, he crashed to the floor, feeling pain all over.

"Give it back~" The ugly head stopped its gruesome chant at the sound of Lin An's wailing and retreated under the bed with a spew of black tongue, muttering to itself, "You didn't see me, you didn't see me..."