High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 727: Chapter 75: The so-called Cat Literature_1

Having established the itinerary, the most pressing matter at hand was to locate the hideout of the vest-clad mouse.

The black cat turned its head, its gaze falling on the forest cat.

Because the fat one had previously smeared some Bai Xian onto it, the forest cat’s grotesque injuries on its face and body had completely healed, leaving only a few pink scars. At the moment, this stupid cat was lounging lazily on the ground, gnawing enthusiastically at a large chunk of chicken breast held between its front paws.

Sensing the black cat’s gaze, the forest cat jumped up abruptly, all the while crooning in its throat and wagging its tail in a conciliatory manner, much to the black cat’s annoyance. The black cat had always thought that tail wagging was a dog’s habit. Who knew that among these cats, more than one had picked up this ”foreign habit,” and flaunted it pretty niftily at that?

If one day they go out and meet dogs from the college, would they have to wag their tails to greet each other?

The thought was enough to make one sigh.

Feeling annoyed, the black cat curled the tip of its tail, raised a little white paw, pointed at the green-vested mouse next to it, and then indicated the woods behind the forest cat. The black cat wanted the forest cat to lead the way to the mouse’s hideout.

The forest cat stared blankly at the gestures, looked at the mouse, and then turned to look at the desolate woods behind it several times. In the end, it turned back, let out two ingratiating howls, and proceeded to nibble at the chicken meat by its foot.

”The way you gestured can’t even be understood by me, let alone it!” Doctor Xiao finally could not bear it any longer, stepped forward, and moved the black cat back, ”That’s not how sign language works!”

The black cat’s face turned red at this, though no one could tell because of its fur.

”You’re not a cat. How would you know it couldn’t understand?” The black cat muttered under its breath, turning its head, and seeing the inexplicable expression in the eyes of the little doll cat. It grew furious, and pulled a piece of fried chicken out of the fat man’s chicken bucket and threw it to the little cat, ”What are you looking at? Eat your meat!”

”Meow!” The small cloth puppet cat cried happily, holding the piece of meat and frolicking towards the distance.

”That’s my fried chicken!” The fat man cried out angrily, stretching out his plump hand to protect his bucket of chicken, while peeking into the bucket, ”Hmm... Only five pieces left!”

”You already had a lot.” The black cat glanced at him.

”Many indeed, but not enough!” The fat man shook his head, picking up a piece of chicken and stuffing it into his mouth, sighing in satisfaction.

Xiao Xiao ignored the chaos next to him.

He opened his notebook, casually flipping to a blank page, then took out a feather pen, sucked on it and started to write without hesitation.

”It can’t even understand gestures, and you are expecting it to read words?” Zhang Ji Xin, who had just finished cleaning up the pile of ’offerings’ on the ground, turned back and caught a glimpse of the doctor’s actions, and couldn’t help asking curiously, ”Do you understand ’cat language’?”

”There’s a Cat language?” Upon hearing this, Zheng Qing was immediately intrigued. He remembered that in Harry Potter, there was a talent called ”Parseltongue” described where wizards can communicate with snakes through ”hissing” sounds. Nevertheless, he had always thought that Parseltongue could only be passed verbally, and not written on paper.

But now he was not just reading a story but found himself in a real wizard university. If in this world, there exist animal languages, it is not an impossible thing.

”Cat language? Aside from meowing, do cats make any other sounds? Can such a simple vocalization be turned into a standardized language?” Lin Guo, who was sitting on the back of the Black Mountain Goat and intently watching a few kittens grooming each other, turned around in surprise upon hearing this.

”Fascinating things happen in the world all the time. Something like ’cat language’ isn’t that strange, even sparrows have seventeen or eighteen different kinds of chirps.” Zhang Ji Xin felt satisfied with the flurry of questions from the others and added with confidence, ”I heard my brother say that deep in the library there are some books that describe animal languages. If you’re interested, you can go check them out...”

”If you find anything, let me know. Maybe I can help apply for a university-wide research grant.” Doctor Xiao, in the middle of scribbling down some notes, hummed without looking back, ”Communicating with animals has always been one of the biggest research topics in the wizarding world. Even the druids don’t have a formal tradition of animal language... If the school really has those books, we can get them, and we’re set.”

His words were essentially saying that Zhang Ji Xin was a blatant liar.

The red-faced male wizard turned purple with anger, grumbling about how ’he had heard’ and ’his brother said’ and ’the library is so big, maybe they really have them.’

The black cat twitched its ears without adding fuel to the fire, tiptoed around Doctor Xiao, and sat down next to the forest cat.

The forest cat shifted uneasily, but under the black cat’s gaze, it eventually sat obediently in place, not moving at all.

And the black cat finally saw what Doctor Xiao had written on his ’cat language.’

On the bottom right of the blank paper, he had drawn a small mouse wearing clothes. On the top left corner of the paper, he had painted a bunch of clothed little mice. Though the strokes were somewhat rough, from Zheng Qing’s perspective, the details of that mouse in clothes were impressive and full of character.

Then Xiao Xiao grabbed his quill, pointed at the captive mouse at his feet (Zheng Qing had used an Inferior Suppression Charm on the it as a precaution for the long journey ahead), and it now lay stiffly on the ground.

After pointing at the mouse, Xiao Xiao pointed to the mouse in the bottom right corner of the paper several times. Finally, the forest cat seemed to understand somewhat.

”Get it?” Xiao Xiao nodded, pointed to the group of clothed mice in the top left corner, and then pointed to the desolate woods behind the forest cat, the direction from which the forest cat had previously returned with ’offerings.’

”Rawr!” The forest cat immediately stood up and scampered off towards the woods.

After running a few steps, it turned back and looked at the black cat.

The black cat took a deep breath, turned to a few Absolution hunters, ”Now that the doctor has figured it out, so... see you later?”

Xiao Xiao closed his notebook, waved his hand, carried all the odds and ends, followed Zhang Ji Xin and walked towards the edge of the forest without looking back.

From a distance, Zhang Ji Xin’s complaints to Xiao Xiao could be heard, ”You didn’t even know cat language, you just drew a picture!... But there really are books about animal languages in the library, I’m not tricking you! My brother told me... ”