The System Mistook Me for a Cat

Hang Ling was certain that Three-Five-Five was indeed a very intelligent cat. Calicos were already known for their smarts, but her intelligence stood out even more.

She glanced at Chu Tingwu, who was silently communicating with Three-Five-Five, and couldn't help thinking: Perhaps it had something to do with little Chu... When humans and cats can communicate smoothly and naturally, a cat's comprehension ability would naturally improve.

In the end, she opened a can of food, but also asked Chu Tingwu to clear up the misunderstanding. Then, Three-Five-Five rolled one of the cans towards her, exchanging it for the bottle of milk that Chu Tingwu had drunk yesterday—which surprised Hang Ling once again.

"Three-Five-Five... she could probably enter some kind of competition now, couldn't she?"

The canned lamb and milk weren't equal in value, but clearly the cat didn't care about food prices, nor did she understand why humans couldn't eat canned food and cat milk. Still, she had exchanged for Chu Tingwu's "food."

Hang Ling grabbed her colleague Lizi and shook her vigorously: "If my cat could work and support me, I'd be over the moon!"

At first, she had been worried that the human and cat wouldn't get along well, but now it seemed they were getting along too well, making her feel a bit jealous.

Lizi also looked serious, watching Oreo pouncing aimlessly at shadows on the wall: "I don't need Oreo to support me, I'd be happy if he could just clean his own litter box."

Hang Ling: "That's even more ambitious."

Lizi: "Aren't you tempted?"

Hang Ling: "Uh..."

Seeing Chu Tingwu carrying ingredients to the opposite side, Hang Ling paused: "Little Chu, are you going to livestream today?"

Chu Tingwu: "?"

She shook her head: "No... I don't like showing my face."

If the system were to do the filming, she thought that even if she did livestream, she probably wouldn't show her face. But the drone ordered by the system hadn't arrived yet, and besides, it was just a cat food video, so there was no need to livestream, right?

But Hang Ling seemed to have misunderstood, nodding solemnly, lost in thought.

After eating, Three-Five-Five's expression also turned serious—although it wasn't very obvious under all that fur—but it was reflected in her actions as she squatted by the door.

This time, Hang Ling understood without Chu Tingwu's translation: "Does she want to go out for a walk?"

Chu Tingwu: "...More or less."

No, it was slightly different. Three-Five-Five wanted to go out to "work."

At present, the calico mom had only figured out one equation—

The baby doesn't drink milk or eat cat food and canned food, catching cats can be exchanged for canned food, canned food can be exchanged for milk, and the baby will drink the bottled kind of milk.

Hang Ling came over to check Three-Five-Five's bandage, and after confirming there was no problem, she still gave a word of caution... As for refusing, she hadn't even thought of refusing. Although she had only known Chu Tingwu for a few days, she was completely won over by this cat-speaking ability. If she could even get cats to catch other cats, how could she possibly lose Three-Five-Five on a walk? Unless Three-Five-Five wanted to leave on her own.

"By the way, if I come across stray cats on the way, should I catch them?"

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Hang Ling: "Well—"

Most people in the office would catch cats, but since little Chu was new, Hang Ling explained the cat-catching formula to her: "Priority goes to unspayed females without kittens. If it's a nursing mother, taking her away means her babies won't survive. Then come kittens around two months old, or even younger if the mother can't care for them. After that are male cats. We give them all a spay/neuter package when we bring them in."

"Oh, and can you tell if a female cat has been spayed?"

Chu Tingwu said before closing the door: "I can ask."

Hang Ling: ...You can even ask about that?

Considering Three-Five-Five's injury, Chu Tingwu didn't walk fast. The human and cat soon strolled to the antique-style street by the Guishui River. At this time, the street was missing the figure of a fat orange cat, but there were still many fishermen by the riverbank.

Three-Five-Five looked at the fishermen, then at Chu Tingwu, and then at the fish.

Chu Tingwu: "Let's not, okay?"

Three-Five-Five's expression remained dignified, her long fur flying wildly in a gust of wind. She stopped looking at the fishermen and fixed her golden pupils on the shimmering water surface, then glanced at Chu Tingwu.

Chu Tingwu: "...Alright."

The riverbank was sloped, with railings installed. At the bottom where it met the water, you could see silt and water plants washed up. The fishermen were spaced several meters apart so their fishing lines wouldn't tangle. When Chu Tingwu led the cat between two fishermen, one kept watching his float, while the other calmly glanced at her, then at the cat. His calm gaze turned wary, and he kicked his fish basket closer to his feet.

Then, Three-Five-Five stepped through the railings with her cat-like gait, steadily walking down the slope to the bottom.

The wary fisherman let out a "whoa" and warned, "Be careful your cat doesn't fall in the water, it's very slippery."

Chu Tingwu thanked him, then heard him suddenly exclaim "Ah!" A second later, a smoky gray shadow darted up from under the railing, carrying a plump silver-tailed fish in its mouth.

The fish wasn't very long, but it was quite fat. Three-Five-Five dropped the fish at Chu Tingwu's feet and wrapped her tail around her ankle.

The wary fisherman stared blankly as Chu Tingwu put the fish into a borrowed plastic bag, then praised the calico by scratching under her chin.

This young girl seemed to ponder something, then started "meowing" to communicate with the cat. Finally, she switched back to human language and said slowly: "I don't eat fish, but I can film you catching fish and post it online to earn money. Money can buy ingredients, milk, and other things I can eat, so Three-Five-Five can support me."

Wary fisherman: "?"

Is this a conversation a cat can understand?

He looked at his fishing rod, then at the human and cat beside him, and finally couldn't resist taking out his phone—

He saw the cat bump its head against the girl's forehead, then the girl took out her phone and started recording a video of the cat.

The wary fisherman also started recording a video of the cat... He felt like he might capture something big, and the girl didn't stop him either.

Then, the previous scene played out again!

The smoky gray calico once again stepped down the slope with her cat-like gait. This time she stared at the water surface for over ten seconds before launching a fierce attack. In the instant the water splashed, she was already back on shore with a fish in her mouth, repeating the action of dropping the fish in front of the girl before starting to lick her wet fur.

Wary fisherman: ?!

How amazing is that?

He sent the video to his fishing group chat and couldn't resist posting it on his social media. When he looked up again, the passing girl had picked up the plastic bag with the fish and was walking away with her cat.

Fisherman: "Oh no!"

He hadn't asked for her video account, and he wanted to follow her!

Mainly because he felt the cat had good fishing luck, and he could take it out to look at while fishing to borrow some of that luck!

-

Since she had agreed with Three-Five-Five to use the fish-catching video to make money, Chu Tingwu wouldn't go back on her word.

She asked the system about the incentive mechanism for individual content creators on Fenghua Video Network, and opened her own video account for the first time.

The first cat food video had nearly reached two million views, and the second one, just posted recently, already had almost 100,000 views. However, thinking about the system's narration for those videos... Chu Tingwu didn't want to open them.

Currently, the total income from views was over 2,000 yuan. She showed the backend to Three-Five-Five. The cat obviously couldn't understand, but still pawed at her once, and then Chu Tingwu handed over the video post-production work to the system.

The system was very calm: "I'll upload it in three hours. They say normal people need some time for post-production."

Chu Tingwu: "Okay."

She always left these things to others to handle.

While Chu Tingwu continued walking the cat, a video from another angle was circulating in the local fishing group chat.

Cats catching fish wasn't actually rare, but capturing it on camera so clearly was quite uncommon. After all, who knows when a cat will make its move, and animals as video subjects don't cooperate.

These days, any kind of video has the potential to go viral, either based on skill or luck. But beneath this video was a proud comment from the wary fisherman:

"This cat is amazing! See the leash? It's a house cat. The girl walking it told it to go catch fish, and it went down and caught some. It even did it twice. I didn't catch the first time on camera, but I got the second time, that's why the footage is so clear."

Some people in the group said he was making it up, but others said their own house cats were just as obedient, they just couldn't catch fish. Since it was a fishing group, the topic quickly shifted back to fishing.

Suddenly, someone asked a question:

[Does letting a cat catch fish count as using a tool? Like using a fishing rod or net?]

The discussion in the group chat fell silent for a second.

Hmm... does it count or not?

-

If this video was originally just interesting, with the cat being cool, the discussion dialogue from the fishing enthusiasts' group added an unexpectedly comedic effect when posted. Someone shared it on their personal platform, and by 7 PM, the video and dialogue began to go viral as a short video.

Meanwhile, "Qiao Hu's World View" also posted a video.

His video this time actually had substance. Removing the rambling intro, he raised several points of doubt in the video and hoped to connect with "Chu Tingwu and Three-Five-Five" for answers:

"Although I personally don't quite believe it, the videographer credited under the cat food video is the same as the one from the Little Sun Cat Rescue account. We compared the angles of light and shadows to determine the time when the cat food video was shot, which is... and the Little Sun account has follow-up footage of filming and feeding the cat. Referring to the video posting time—"

"It only took half an hour from filming to posting, completing editing, voiceover, and post-production within 30 minutes. May I ask which superhuman production team this is? (laughs)"

"Another question is about the 'cat catching master' persona. You can actually see that this persona started to be built up two days ago when Chu Tingwu first adopted 'Three-Five-Five'. At that time, Little Sun posted an update saying that Three-Five-Five, who wanted to escape, suddenly became affectionate, falling in love at first sight with the new adopter. All the comments below were congratulatory (image). But looking at this angle (image), this was taken after the so-called affectionate moment, right? This calico still hisses at the person feeding it, with its ears flattened, seeming to have a very bad attitude... Only affectionate towards the strange adopter but not towards the rescuer who fed it? People can have personas, but do cats need to be given personas too?"

"Also here, to prevent other cats from stealing the cat food, Chu Tingwu directly uses her foot to kick, ῳ*Ɩ the cat meows here, but our kind rescuer is still smiling happily..."

"The cat food wasn't even filmed. I'd like to ask, is what's being held up really cat food, or some special prop? If possible, could Chu Tingwu connect with us for a live stream? It's not that we really doubt, it's just that everyone hopes cats can receive better and more thoughtful treatment."

Qiao Hu also listed some questions about hygiene, cat litter, and such. If you look at the videos with a critical eye, you can always find faults. Some situations are actually normal, but when he describes them this way and only shows short clips before and after, they seem unreasonable.

—Many people who follow drama only read headlines, and those who follow video drama only watch edited clips. In this fast-paced era, no one will watch the entire video, and the pieced-together truth can be interpreted at will by those who piece it together.

The video was posted at 5 PM, with high views. Everyone seemed to assume that "Chu Tingwu" should come forward to prove herself, but there was no response from her side.

Half an hour later, someone in the work group chat @'ed Qiao Hu, telling him that Chu Tingwu had responded—

The description of the first cat food video now included the name of the post-production team.

Qiao Hu: "...That's it?"

He knew some of the accusations were a bit far-fetched, but if the other side doesn't play along, how can he continue the act?

"Well, at least it proves that Chu Tingwu indeed has a dedicated operations team, right? An individual content creator probably couldn't afford such a professional team..."

This was also the thought of many others. Chu Tingwu's response seemed to tacitly acknowledge the accusations about creating a persona.

Qiao Hu started his live stream somewhat frustratedly—he streams video browsing daily—and probably because he had been watching more cat videos, after just a few scrolls, a marketing account's video of a cat catching fish appeared. It was filmed by a fishing enthusiast, the short video was only about 20 seconds long and finished quickly, but it was worth a laugh.

"This cat is much better than me, it can even catch fish to feed its owner," Qiao Hu laughed, subtly referencing his previous debunking video again, "Only someone who truly loves cats could raise a cat like this, not someone who uses cats as a tool for viral content."

[That cat looks familiar...]

[You're right, Old Qiao. My cat just...]

[Um, why does it really feel a bit familiar]

What's familiar about it? Although it's also a long-haired calico, don't all calicos look like they've been singed by fire?

A flash of unease crossed Qiao Hu's mind, but the next video had already started playing, so he put the thought aside. That is, until he saw an employee frantically waving at him from across the room.

Qiao Hu: "Haha, I'll go get a drink of water first."

[Old Qiao, go check out Chu Tingwu!]

[Oh boy, oh boy... Chu Tingwu posted a video, huh...]

[Oh, Old Qiao...]

Qiao Hu left his computer very anxiously. A team member immediately handed him earphones, telling him to watch the third video posted by Chu Tingwu.

The video was clearly filmed by the girl holding her phone herself, and in the frame appeared that familiar... smoky gray long-haired calico.