novelraw Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Chapter 44“B, à, bà—Dad is pronounced like that.”
“M, ā, mā—Mom is pronounced like this.”
“What do ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom’ mean?” Xiao Yu asked, perched obediently on a chair while Ai Qing drilled her on pinyin. She tilted her head.
“They’re the people who brought us into the world,” Ai Qing explained. “Like my dad and my mom—you remember, the two shouting outside the stair closet that day.”
“D-Dad?” Xiao Yu echoed, nodding vaguely. She practiced the sound several times. “Dad. Dad.”
“You don’t have to stare at me while you say it.” Her earnest, wide-eyed recitation made him feel vaguely criminal.
After another ten days she finally had the basic initials and finals down. The more characters and pinyin she mastered, the smoother their conversations became.
Some kitten habits, however, died hard.
Though she could walk on two legs, Xiao Yu still dropped to all fours the moment Ai Qing looked away. And at night, even in human form, she sneaked licks across the back of his hand.
He had no idea what was so tasty. A cat’s tongue is barbed; the rasp tickles. Human Xiao Yu’s tongue was soft and wet, and waking to it in the dark was frankly unnerving.
“Was... I good today?” She blinked up at him, expectant.
“You did great—keep it up.” He ruffled her hair, caught her meaning, and handed over a dried fish. “Eat slowly.”
Earlier she’d tried every trick to dodge lessons, giving him headaches. Once she’d even wedged herself into a crawl-space seconds before shifting, just to escape study.
Ai Qing had pictured her transforming in some cramped hole and felt actual anger. He hauled her to the sofa and lectured her: no more stunts.
The compromise: during her daily human hours she’d study only half the time, and every serious effort earned snacks.
Greedy for treats, Xiao Yu finally plunged into the boundless sea of knowledge.
She darted to the living room, fish strip clamped in her teeth.
Ai Qing checked the time and was heading for the kitchen when his phone buzzed.
A backend alert:
[Hello. Your novel *My Childhood Friend Turns into a Cat* will be featured on the new-site homepage “Starry River Recommendation” at 14:00, April 12, 2023.]
Ai Qing: “?!”
Holy—
He shot out of his chair, rubbed his eyes, read it again, then opened QQ and pinged his editor.
[Zhuanjiao Huakai]: (screenshot)
[Zhuanjiao Huakai]: Am I seeing things?
[Zhuanjiao Huakai]: You said my follower count was too low. I was already prepping for release.
Editor Gua Gua didn’t reply immediately, but Ai Qing was too elated to care. Whistling, he left the bedroom to start dinner.
Passing the sideboard, he scooped out freeze-dried snacks. “Good news, Xiao Yu—celebration time.”
“Mm!” She scrambled off the sofa, wobbled to the dining table, tossed a cube into her mouth, and swayed happily. “Good news! Celebrate!”
Last Tuesday he’d asked his follower tally: a hair over 1,200—normally below the Starry River cutoff.
This cycle, though, only one top-tier god and two seasoned lv5 authors had launched new books; the rest were in the same modest range. Each week seventeen slots open across all genres. Numbers ten to eighteen hovered between 1,000 and 1,500—borderline.
Gua Gua had told him not to hope and to ready his launch arc. Yet here he was—slipped in at lucky seventeen.
A tiny no-name on only his second web-novel, stepping onto Qidian’s infamous “newbie slaughter-field.” Landing Starry River this early meant stable royalties once the book went paid—enough to write full-time.
The thought made every chop sizzle.
[Editor Gua Gua]: Oh, that. You got lucky.
Mid-cooking, the reply popped up.
[Zhuanjiao Huakai]: Lucky how?
[Editor Gua Gua]: You were eighteenth. Normally you’d miss it, but the book ahead imploded over the weekend—followers tanked by Tuesday.
[Editor Gua Gua]: You’re next in line, original light-novel slot, so we bumped you. Grab it. Go on sale next Friday.
[Zhuanjiao Huakai]: Got it!
Grinning, Ai Qing screenshot the feature banner and dropped it into the author water-group.
“Thanks to whoever wrote themselves off a cliff,” he typed, then pocketed the phone and stir-fried in earnest.
Half an hour later, dishes done, he sat down to eat—only to find a wall of @’s.
He scrolled up: the chat had been roasting Qingshan Xu for missing Starry River—right when Ai Qing posted his win.
[Sky Cat Loves Rain]: So Zhuanjiao just kicked Qingshan out?
[Little Ragdoll]: Who was it that said Zhuanjiao’s book was dead on arrival?
[Qingshan Xu]: Cut the sarcasm. He just got lucky; that slot was mine!
[Qingshan Xu]: His story won’t last. First-month subs will flop. Wasted spot.
Ai Qing skimmed the tantrum, closed QQ, queued a political commentary video, and scratched Xiao Yu—now cat-shaped—behind the ears.
“Xiao Yu, we’re about to make real money. When we do, I’ll buy you the good stuff.”
“Meow~”