When that golden lightning struck, the chubby cat was blissfully gnawing on a chicken leg she had snatched from a wolf!
She instinctively looked up, only to be hit squarely by the bolt.
Then, she felt her entire body electrify, tingling from head to tail, immediately followed by a bone-aching pain that swept over her. As she lost the last bit of her consciousness, she vaguely heard the sound of a wolf's anguished howl...
——
"Doctor, how is my Jiaojiao doing?"
"The fever has subsided, she'll be fine after a few days of quiet rest."
The chubby cat thought that after being struck dead by lightning for stealing a chicken leg, she should have entered King Yama Hall, but to her surprise, upon opening her eyes, she was facing the current scene.
She stealthily opened her eyes and saw the room was filled with people, about a dozen heads staring at her— their eyes shining like 100,000-volt light bulbs, scaring her into closing her eyes again quickly.
However, the people around her had already seen that she was awake, and they were all overjoyed.
Standing right in the front, a woman from the Ruanlin Family pressed her hands together and bowed repeatedly to the heavens, muttering incessantly, "Jiaojiao, you little darling, you've finally woken up, truly our ancestors have blessed us, bless us, ancestors."
Then, she impatiently shooed the men standing at the front of the bed, disgusted with them for blocking the air for her little darling, "Move, move aside!"
After shooing them away, she immediately bent down and lovingly called out to the person in bed with a voice that was exceedingly gentle, "My little darling, quickly open your eyes and look at grandma, you nearly scared grandma to death."
As she spoke, she picked her up from the bed and held her in her arms, gently patting her back. The woman was treating her with such indulgence, it was as if she was about to take out her own heart to give to the little child as medicine!
"..." The doctor at the side felt a twitch at the corner of his eye, but fortunately, having become accustomed over the past few days, he knew the Ruan Family was unlike any other.
While other families treasured their grandsons as jewels, the Ruan Family treated their granddaughter like a golden nugget.
He silently gathered his belongings and squeezed his way out of the crowd of men who adored the little girl as if their lives depended on it, thinking to himself how fortunate he was to have saved this girl, and by doing so, he had saved his own life!
After the doctor left, the whole ward suddenly became noisy.
The chubby cat opened her dark, shiny eyes wide, first looking at one person, then another, feeling a terrible headache, and growing increasingly dizzy. Their calling of her name was making her head buzz, scrunching her small face into a knot.
And as she frowned, the woman holding her, from the Ruanlin Family, turned sour-faced. First, she pressed the little girl's head into her chest to cover her ears, then bellowed at the people around her, "Be quiet, all of you get out! If you disturb my little darling, I'll skin and debone you!"
A group of young men silently closed their mouths, gazing longingly at the treasure in her arms.
It wasn't that they were afraid of the woman from the Ruanlin Family, but rather they were genuinely concerned about disturbing their precious Jiaojiao.
They all cherished the only little sister in the family, and this time, when she fell ill, even after the doctors had issued a critical illness notice—not only the adults at home were terrified, but they were even more petrified!
Reluctantly, they began to leave the ward one after another.
Once they were gone, the ward finally fell completely silent.
"Mom, let me hold her," said the last one left in the ward, besides Ruan Jianguo and the woman from the Ruanlin Family.
"No need, I can still carry her." Ruanlin Family's woman refused, looking down at her granddaughter who was gazing back with wide open eyes. Her heart melting into a pool of water, she couldn't help but recall the frail appearance of the girl a few days prior, and her eyes moistened.
"My little sweetheart, if something had happened to you, how would grandma live on? Thank goodness, thank the heavens." As she spoke, a stream of warm kisses fell upon the child.
Frightened, the chubby cat instinctively let out a sound.
But unexpectedly, the sound wasn't the familiar "meow" she expected, but instead a human baby's "ah-ah-ah"!
She was horrified and her eyes went wide!
Struggling in the woman's arms, she then noticed that her limbs had also transformed into the small hands and feet of a human.
This... this... THIS!!!
"Ah-ah-ah-ah—"