409 Happy New Year! ?

Old Cat trailed closely behind Matcha. He would carefully place his paws on spots Matcha had already stepped on, for fear of destroying his artwork.

"Sir George, if not for you, Zhao Yao would not be able to maintain the current peace which cat nation enjoys. You are truly remarkable!"

Matcha was indifferent to the compliments and simply nodded his head in response. He then reached his paw into the snow before a shudder ran down his body. The snow was fun to play with, but it was way too cold.

Old Cat saw his opportunity and immediately reached his paw forward, resting underneath Matcha's paw. A bashful grin spread across his face as he uttered, "Sir George, use my paw to create your masterpiece."

"Oh," Matcha's eyes finally met Old Cat's as he looked towards him. With his right eyebrow shot up, Matcha enquired, "Aren't you scared of the cold?"

"Oh, we village cats have trodden across the roughest of terrains. A thick layer of callus had developed beneath our paws, hence we're not as susceptible to the cold."

At last, a wide grin stretched across Matcha's face. With Old Cat's paw in his hand, Matcha began to print his paw print all over the place, creating an art of sorts. Matcha whispered, "You are a smart fella and I like that about you. Tell me, what do you want?"

A jolt of excitement rushed through Old Cat's body. However, he was still exceptionally careful with his choice of words, "My power lies in my mouth. However, it requires a fair amount of words before it actually takes effect. But my dear master Zhao Yao has imposed the two words limit on me, thus making my life a living hell. Sir George, if you ever have the opportunity, can you put in some good words on my behalf?"

"The two words limit truly puts you in a difficult spot." Matcha pondered about it before replying, "I will mention your circumstances to Zhao Yao. However, he is an extremely unpredictable man. Even I dare not to vouch for a positive result, so don't pin all your hopes on it."

"Yes, yes, I understand. I am immensely grateful for Sir George to even consider putting in some goods words for me."

Suddenly, a deafening meow erupted from a corner, attracting everyone's attention. Matcha and Old Cat swept their heads towards it and noticed a giant cat towering over them. This was none other than Lion Head with her power activated. She was even bigger than a fully grown tiger as she plunged into the bed of snow. Mango, Dust Ball, Lightning, Airplane and her were all happily engaged in their snow war.

"Don't run!"

Meanwhile, Ares was still in the midst of constructing his second snow cat with Lucifer as his mannequin. Immediately, he noticed a towering figure looming over him, but it was too late. Before he could react, the giant cat had already smashed his snow cat to pieces.

"This stupid fat cat! What the hell are you trying to do?"

"Hahaha, come catch me if you can!" Lion Head taunted as he picked Roly Poly off the ground before escaping from the cats right behind her. Lion Head's huge body sent a flurry of snow spiraling in the air before landing on Elizabeth and family. It looked like a snowstorm as Elizabeth's body was drenched with snow.

"Rude!" The same red glimmer flashed across Elizabeth's eyes as Lion Head's body froze, with her paws rooted to the ground.

Ares was still writhing in anger as images of his destroyed masterpiece flooded his mind. With a loud bellow, a wave of deflective field swept towards the pair of obnoxious cats as an avalanche of snow overwhelmed them.

The remaining supercats rushed over and immediately dug all the snow away. Dust Ball immediately exclaimed when she saw the tiny head popping out of the snow, "Roly Poly, are you alright?"

A faint smile stretched across Roly Poly's face, "I'm fine, perfectly fine."

Zhao Yao sat on the bench as he observed his cats play. It was getting rather boring as Zhao Yao whipped out his phone for a round of Mobile Legends.

Business was dreadful over the subsequent days. Most of the students had already returned home for the new year celebration. Hence, Zhao Yao decided to use this opportunity to treat everyone to a well-deserved break.

…

On the eve of Chinese New Year, both Baiquan and Hanako did not return home but instead spent it in Zhao Yao's apartment. Zhao Yao even released the cats from his belly into the apartment for this special occasion.

The apartment was swarming with cats running all around the place, creating a somewhat joyous mood befitting of the occasion. Because of Baiquan's tardiness, they failed to secure a restaurant booking and had to make do with a home-cooked hotpot meal.

Baiquan and Hanako each had a pot to themselves while the cats shared one giant pot. The cats required no additional seasoning. Their meat was simply blanched in boiling water before it slid down their throats. At most, it was dabbed with a smear of Baiquan's homemade saltless sauce.

Obviously, Zhao Yao returned home for his reunion dinner before joining the rest in the hotpot.

The cats' eyes probed expectantly at the pot as bubbles floated to the surface, propelling the meat upwards. The aroma was simply too enticing for Matcha to resist as he secretly reached his paw towards the succulent meat floating on the surface of the soup.

However, his paw was immediately intercepted by Elizabeth's paw, "Don't use your dirty paw for the food! Do you know how much bacteria is in your paws? Secondly, do you know how hot boiling water is? It will immediately turn your paw into food for us to eat!"

Elizabeth slid the remaining cats a death glare before threatening them, "No one is allowed to take the meat using their own paws! Understand? It's either you wait for Ares to scoop the meat out using the deflective field or you use the spoons assigned to you. Do you understand?'

Hence, the cats huddled their heads together, over the boiling water as they stared expectantly at the pot full of meat. Suddenly, a deafening scream echoed across the place, "Zhao Yao is giving out red packets in the group!"

"What, what?"

"Is it our end of year bonus?'

Their heads immediately retracted from the pot and were buried in their phones. Zhao Yao had explicitly reminded them about this in the afternoon when he invited everyone to the WeChat group.

However, there was nothing! Zhao Yao had not distributed a single red packet!

They knew that they were tricked. By the time they had craned their necks towards the pot, one-third of the meat had already evaporated into thin air.

"What's going on?"

"Who stole all the meat?"

Lightning joined in the scolding while gobbling down the beef in his mouth, "Who is that immoral cat? How dare he eat behind our backs?"

Suddenly, Dust Ball's voice echoed in the cats' ears as she exclaimed excitedly, "Zhao Yao has distributed the red packets!"

Lightning responded by sliding her a condescending glare, "Trying to learn from me? Do you think that I would actually fall for such a stupid trick?"

Seeing the happy faces all around him, Lightning succumbed to the temptation and tapped on his phone only to see all 10 red packets already redeemed. Anguish sagged through his body as he muttered, "Just 10 red packets? How stingy can Zhao Yao get?"

Matcha bellowed with laughter as he screamed, "Yay! I got RMB 228!"

Dust Ball was just as happy as she announced, "Me too! I got RMB 196!"

Elizabeth's lips drew into a nasty snarl as she stared at that miserable sum staring in her face, RMB 6.8.

Just when her brain was about to explode with fury, another red packet had appeared on her screen. This was the reward for being the most popular cat in the café. The amount was enough to paste a wide grin on Elizabeth's face as the snarl disappeared into thin air.

After that sumptuous meal, Matcha collapsed to the ground with a contented smile on his face when he declared, "In this upcoming year, I am going to establish my rule and control over the entire cat nation!"

With joy fluttering through her, Elizabeth whispered, "I'm going to earn tons of money in the upcoming year! Dust Ball, how about you? What do you wish for?"

Elizabeth cocked her head upwards and was greeted by the sight of a snoring Dust Ball. Somehow, she had already fallen asleep amidst the screams and meows.

"Hmph," the background noises had a hypnotic effect as it lulled Elizabeth to sleep. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier until she finally succumbed to it.