Three-Five-Five approached Spot of Black with elegant cat-like steps, then jumped onto the cardboard above it, using its sharp teeth to grip the cardboard and pull it back.
Hang Ling and the others could clearly see Spot of Black shudder, and then everyone realized that its head was indeed stuck in a very narrow opening of a foam box, which was pinned down by long nails and pressed with cardboard, plastic bottles, and even broken bowls.
Lizi ran downstairs, asking the family seeking help to hold up the safety net just in case, while upstairs, Chu Tingwu took the fishing rod from Hang Ling's hand: "I'll operate it."
Three-Five-Five continued to clear the garbage from above, and Spot of Black was finally able to shake its head, but still lay flat, wearing the foam board and making weak meows.
Hang Ling: "Do you know how to use it? Should I do it instead?"
Chu Tingwu: "It's fine."
After saying that, she made a cat sound.
The Spot of Black in the middle of the frame tilted its head, looking towards Chu Tingwu, while Three-Five-Five behind it suddenly raised its paw and patted its bottom, startling the timid cat.
The white cat with only a black nose tip had become dirty, and now stood up shakily. Under Chu Tingwu's verbal encouragement and Three-Five-Five's physical urging, it raised its head, as if ready to actively stick its head into the mouth of the fishing rod.
However, Hang Ling shook her head: "No good, the foam board is stuck in such a precise position, it's bigger than the rope loop of the fishing rod. Only its neck can fit in, which could cause problems when lifting—"
Moreover, this was an injured adult cat, and it would be too dangerous to just hook its neck.
But... since it had come to this, they could make do.
Hang Ling didn't expect the cat to be more cooperative, and was about to speak when she noticed Chu Tingwu making a few more cat calls. Then, surprisingly, Three-Five-Five also opened its mouth, followed by Spot of Black whimpering as it turned halfway, backing up to fit its rear half into the rope loop.
Chu Tingwu swiftly tightened the loop, then pulled the fishing rod back through the window. Hang Ling also immediately forgot what she was going to say and opened the net bag. Spot of Black struggled weakly for a moment before entering the net bag, then was poured into the pet carrier.
Right after, Hang Ling heard a click—
It was Three-Five-Five jumping back, and Chu Tingwu had reattached the leash to its collar.
Hang Ling laughed and scolded: "I didn't see when you unfastened it, but the camera I brought caught everything."
Didn't they agree not to unfasten the leash when they came out?
But seeing as the outcome was good, she wouldn't blame the young girl for now.
They carried the pet carrier downstairs, where the family seeking help and other onlooking residents of the community burst into excited cheers. Hang Ling arranged with the help-seeker: "We'll take it to the hospital for a check-up, it's probably injured. You can come pick it up after it's healed."
The help-seeker had already said in the group chat that they wanted to adopt Spot of Black.
However, Chu Tingwu didn't get in the car with them, because as agreed, she was to take Three-Five-Five to see the buried kittens, but Spot of Black also needed immediate examination.
Hang Ling: "Do you know where it is? Should I have Lizi take you?"
Seeing the performance of the girl and the cat in rescuing cats, Hang Ling truly suspected that Chu Tingwu could communicate smoothly with cats. She wasn't too worried about Three-Five-Five running away or getting lost, but still asked.
Chu Tingwu smiled: "She told me."
Watching the person walking away with the cat, Hang Ling: "...Could she really be a cat language genius?"
This "smooth communication" seemed a bit too smooth, didn't it?
-
The few kittens that had died earlier were handed over to the property management by the staff of Little Sun Hospital. After processing, the property management chose to bury them under the shaded lawn.
As Three-Five-Five got closer, the leash became tighter, and later, Chu Tingwu directly jogged to keep up with her... but she gradually stopped running. She crouched on a rock beside the lawn, pacing back and forth, making hoarse cat cries that sounded like a young child crying.
Chu Tingwu helped her clean her paws that had just come into contact with garbage. Three-Five-Five cried while licking Chu Tingwu's hand, then continued crying, coughing as she cried, until she gradually lost her voice.
She pressed her fluffy head against the warm body of the last "child," leaning in Chu Tingwu's strong arms, seeming to understand something, and finally choosing to accept something.
Cats can understand what "death" is, and she also knew how many kittens she had.
But now, they had formed a new family.
Chu Tingwu wrapped one arm around Three-Five-Five's abdomen and used the other hand to scratch her chin: "Well done."
She said.
As if praising the recent cat rescue action.
Then she softly "meowed," using the voice of a kitten to say: "...Mom."
Three-Five-Five raised her head and nuzzled Chu Tingwu's forehead.
Then, she jumped off the rock and walked beside this human again.
Chu Tingwu: "System, help me navigate back to the rescue house."
She had agreed with Hang Ling to bring Three-Five-Five back herself, and with the system, she didn't need any navigation software.
The system directly projected a route map that only Chu Tingwu could see in front of her at an angle. The image was very high-tech, and then a prompt popped up at the top of the route map—
"Baby, you're letting me handle all the content related to your video account, right?"
Chu Tingwu: "We agreed on that at the time... What's wrong? Is there a problem with the account?"
The system suspiciously fell silent for a second.
[According to the rules, if the host cannot grow normally due to external factors, the system can provide material assistance to improve the host's daily life—for example, if you don't have money for food, I can earn money for you.]
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Three-Five-Five: "Meow?"
[But, um, you actually have money, and I see they all use drones to shoot videos...]
No, no one uses drones to film cats or cooking.
Chu Tingwu: "Then I—"
[No, I can't use your money to buy drones!]
[Um, now there are people in the account backend asking if I want to accept sponsored posts...]
"Go ahead, as long as you don't use high-tech for illegal activities."
And in fact, Chu Tingwu thought, she couldn't control it even if the system did. It seems the video account has gained quite a bit of popularity, even able to accept sponsored posts? Is the system going to sell products with its AI metallic voice?
After getting permission from Chu Tingwu, the system's prompt tone seemed to become more lively, even though it was "earning money" for Chu Tingwu, but it didn't seem to realize this point at all.
-
Qiao Hu ended his livestream, but the impact during the broadcast didn't disappear.
It was because the "target" he chose was very easy to generate buzz. On one side was Qiao Big Eyes, who had never made a mistake in exposing frauds, and on the other side was an account that had been doing voluntary cat rescue. The latter was clearly on the "good" side, and uncovering the evil hidden behind goodness could greatly satisfy people's voyeuristic desires.
So, while Chu Tingwu and Three-Five-Five were still out, the "Cat Catching Master" and "Cat Food Tutorial" videos were recommended on the homepage one after another. But the first video to hit the homepage recommendations was actually a clip from Qiao Hu's livestream, which was a fan-made video that only edited part of the livestream footage.
In just a few hours, Little Sun Hospital gained over 10,000 followers, while Chu Tingwu's account surpassed 30,000 followers, even though her account only had one cat food tutorial video.
But corresponding to the number of followers was the "chaotic" comment section under the tutorial.
Or rather... it was chaotic for the first few minutes, with many indignant cat lovers convinced that they were staging for attention and had already started cursing.
But the cursers didn't expect that there was an unscientific existence in this world called the system.
The system thought for 0.01 seconds, the system referred to the actions of other content creators, and then, the system began to massively report and delete all comments containing abusive and provocative words.
As a result, the comments that could remain were like this—
[What kind of little cookie are you, meow meow meow meow meow, but the cat food looks pretty good.]
[Waiting for old Qiao to slap your little cat face! Why do I have to compliment the cat food to avoid having my comment deleted, the cat food smells good.]
[I'm really annoyed by those human content creators who use cats for traffic, cats are not your money-making tools, but cat content creators can be forgiven (you'd better really be one)]
[Are you never away from the backend for even a second, always deleting comments, don't you need to rest or eat or drink some water? You're really a diligent little cat (I give up)]
[A passerby asks what's going on in this comment section... and is no one really going to try making the cat food? It doesn't look difficult to make, the uploader's steps are quite clear, I'm kind of tempted to make some for my cat.]
[By the way, who exactly is the uploader of this account, is it the "system" or the person in the video... surely it can't be the cat, right?]
Perhaps because the system deleted comments too quickly, the remaining comments and bullet screen messages seem particularly playful, causing newcomers to be more confused and curious rather than deterred.
The system didn't pin any comments, but through likes, more neutral and informative comments gradually rose to the top—
[As someone who's been following this whole situation, I've been following both Qiao Hu and Little Sun for a long time, and I'm also a local from Fallen Phoenix City.
Here's what happened: Little Sun has been posting videos about an injured tortoiseshell cat named "Three-Five-Five" these past two days. Three-Five-Five isn't friendly to humans, and the original plan was to release her, but she was later adopted by this account's uploader "Chu". Chu also volunteered at Little Sun's rescue shelter, contributing to the famous scenes of "cat-calling to lure cats" and "catching an orange cat barehanded", both of which are documented in videos. Afterwards, the adopter Chu opened this account, narrating this cat food tutorial from a system perspective.
However, according to the timeline, the cat food tutorial and the other two videos were all filmed today, leaving no time for such complex and refined post-production.
So Qiao Hu became suspicious of the account management, believing that a professional company is running the account, which also cast doubt on the authenticity of the other two videos... Currently, the video has indeed gone viral, but as for what's really going on, we'll have to keep following for updates.]
Below this comment, many people suggested that the commenter go to Little Sun's rescue shelter to see for themselves, but there was no reply from the original commenter.
Meanwhile, the system was also handling some backend private messages, directly deleting and blocking extreme content, with only one message it was still replying to—
This was a message from the official Fenghua Video Network, inquiring whether the team responsible for the video's post-production would accept commissions.
The network officials had decided to produce and film a documentary series on "Different Pet Ecologies in Urban Settings", filming and broadcasting simultaneously. They originally had a team lined up, but after one collaboration, that team raised their prices, and negotiations were currently at a standstill.
Coincidentally, the person in charge came across the cat food video uploaded by the system. He didn't care if it was promotional marketing; he only cared about whether he could sign this post-production team at a low price.
The message received a quick reply.
The backend of the "Chu and Three-Five-Five" account directly sent a website link. The information on the website was very complete. Although it was an unheard-of team, they seemed to have been responsible for some high-end work... Such teams often only need internal recommendations to fill up their schedules and rarely accept new work from strangers.
The person in charge was stunned and asked his assistant to verify the information on the website. They found that the team was registered abroad, and all content could be found in online reports and information—although as a post-production team, there wasn't much content, making them seem low-key, but their capabilities were clearly not low-key.
"I thought we might get lucky..." he sighed. "As expected, with such impressive technical skills, they couldn't be nobodies."
Thinking this, he took the matter more seriously and, instead of letting his assistant handle it, personally sent an email according to the website's requirements. To his delight, the email quickly received a reply from "customer service". Although the tone was rather cold, it was very polite.
Finally, both parties completed the negotiation at a price that just hit the psychological price point of the person in charge, and he breathed a sigh of relief:
He thought the other side would ask for an exorbitant price!
Therefore, although the price was not much lower than the previous team, the person in charge was in a good mood. Even when the other side said they couldn't sign a paper contract and could only provide an electronic signature, he didn't mind—having skills gives you the right to be a bit willful.
Finally, the person in charge tentatively mentioned the "cat food video": "Can you produce samples for us at the same speed as that video?"
Although there was a deadline in the contract, it wouldn't hurt to ask, right?
Customer Service 07: Certainly, do you mean completing the production of the first episode by midnight tonight?
Person in charge: "?"
Wait, no... that's not right? It's only four hours until midnight today?! Completing an entire 30-minute episode in four hours, is your team made up of superhumans?
Person in charge: "No, no, no, I don't have that requirement... Was that video really produced on such a tight schedule?"
How much rush fee would that cost! For just a cat food tutorial video, is it worth such a big investment for the team behind the "Chu and Three-Five-Five" account?
Yes, the person in charge also believed there was a team and marketing involved, but that wasn't important. He could also see that Qiao Hu was just after traffic, but he remained a dispassionate observer.
Customer Service 07: Not at all.
Customer Service 07: Rush jobs incur extra charges. How could it be considered a rush job if no extra fees were charged?
Customer Service 07: After all, cats are so cute.
Person in charge: "..." He had watched that video, so which cat exactly were they referring to? It should really be about the cat, right?
Customer Service 07: Isn't it cute?
Person in charge: "...It's quite cute."
Customer Service 07: Very well, we will complete the production of the first episode for you by midnight tonight, without any additional charges.
[Customer Service 07 has gone offline]
"...That was too quick," the person in charge muttered, "I could have continued with the compliments!"
One "cute" was worth 300,000, he could have genuinely praised it 300 more times!
