The space at the collar was only so big, and Imuel squeezed inside, getting squished into a little kitty pancake.

He blinked blankly. His little cat cheek was pressed tightly against the doctor's pectoral muscles. The curve of the muscles was full, the touch soft and just right, rising and falling with the doctor's breathing. Deeply buried in it, Imuel could barely breathe.

The fur on the top of his head puffed up; he was so hot he was about to get a fever.

"Mew..."

'How could it be like this...'

'He already knows I am the Grand Duke, yet he still made me press my face against his chest!'

'Fri- Frivolous doctor!'

Imuel felt extremely awkward. In his kitten form, he could step around unbridledly, but now that his identity as the Duke had been seen through, he suddenly became shy. His mind was full of a chaotic mess of thoughts, and he didn't even dare to move.

Bai Yu, however, didn't know about these winding thoughts. He tucked the little kitten in well, lowered his head, and asked, "We're going up. Hold on tight, and don't move around."

Imuel was currently struggling to poke his head out from the edge of the trench coat. From the doctor's angle, he could only see his furry, round head, his two soft little ears like perked-up jelly, trembling from time to time.

Imuel nodded, and his head rubbed against the doctor's chest, almost sinking completely into it.

The kitten couldn't hold back and instinctively took a sniff, wrinkling his brows.

Bai Yu let out a muffled chuckle.

Imuel was startled. Not daring to move again, he pretended to be elegant in a soft voice: "Meow..."

Okay.

Bai Yu immediately grabbed the edge of the rope ladder, familiarly pushed open the cover, and with a light flip, made it out of the basement.

The corner of the garden was located in a remote area. Imuel had to come here every Mutation Period. Worried about being seen in his kitten form, he never set up any defenses in the garden. This place was sparsely populated, with no guards patrolling or servants walking about. Coupled with the fact that System 55 could display the surrounding guards as red dots, Bai Yu nimbly bypassed all the checkpoints and entered the storage room of the Grand Duke's Mansion.

Having been a manservant for a few months, the doctor had already figured out where things were kept in the Duke's Mansion. After making a few trips back and forth, he rolled away a thin mattress and a quilt, several cushions and pillows, and a roll of carpet. Afterwards, he cut up some meat for the kitten in the kitchen, casually took some canned goods and sunflower seeds, and finally, surprisingly brought a box of fruit containing diced pineapples and grapefruits.

—If one didn't say they were taking refuge in the basement, they would have thought Bai Yu came to the Duke's garden for a picnic vacation.

Pineapples and grapefruits were very expensive fruits in Illyria. Imuel's expression was complicated.

At first, he was still a little nervous, clinging tightly to the collar of the doctor's trench coat, his entire body tense, afraid of bumping into anyone, but by the end, he had already grown numb to it.

The doctor had figured out the security blind spots of the Duke's Mansion with utter clarity. Going back and forth between the mansion and the garden, he shuttled about freely, as if entering an unpopulated land. When he had taken enough food and drink, he also grabbed two flat tin flasks, filled them with hot water for warmth, and even brought along a book.

The storage room of the Grand Duke's Mansion had seemingly become his free market where he didn't need to spend any money.

He first laid down the waterproof carpet, then threw down the large items, and carried the small items down in his pockets. After a bit of tidying up the odds and ends, the underground space took on a new look.

After a few rounds, Imuel stared blankly at the basement, completely unable to recognize it.

This place was originally meant for slaves to live in. There were only a few iron-framed beds, an iron desk, and scattered restraints.

There were several iron-framed beds, laid out in the open. The joints of the frames had long since rusted. In Imuel's memory, his mother, his uncle, and many other disobedient slaves offered as tribute had all been tied to them, while the experimenters flipped through charts, chatting and laughing as they cut open their skin.

It was an icy-cold torture bed. The only memories it left him were of fright and terror.

But the doctor lit a small camping lamp, pieced several beds together to be as large as the Duke's bed, then covered them with a tarpaulin, laid down the cushions, and pulled over the blankets.

The cushion was a soft cotton pad of appropriate thickness, the blanket was a smoky-grey fleece throw, and the flat flasks filled with hot water were placed at the foot of the bed. Then, the doctor pulled up the ginger-yellow quilt.

He hugged the kitten in his arms, and they lay down together in the quilt. The heat of the flat flasks was continuously transmitted, making the bed piping hot. The doctor leaned against the head of the bed, resting with his eyes closed. His fingers stroked the kitten listlessly, the temperature of his fingertips equally scorching hot. Imuel had no choice but to poke out one paw, and eventually, he stuck out half of his body.

Bai Yu: "Be careful not to fall off."

Imuel: "Mew."

Okay.

Leaning beside the doctor, he swayed his tail absently, his gaze falling on the iron desk.

This desk was the writing table where the staff recorded their observations. When slaves were tied to the iron beds, they would sweep their sharp gazes over the slaves' entire bodies, then write down their judgments with a fountain pen: which slave was sick and not worth keeping, which one was still considered healthy, which one could perhaps be bred to give birth to beautiful children, and which one was not recommended for breeding... Just a few short lines of text, yet they were verdicts of destiny.

But now, the desk was being used by the doctor to hold fruit.

Grapefruits and pineapples were placed on a small wooden box, both cut up and neatly arranged. The bright yellow and vivid red flesh was cute and appealing, and one could smell the faint fragrance of the fruit juice. Next to it was the book the doctor had brought along, with a white cover, and at the edge of the desk lay a handful of sunflower seeds.

His beef paste was also placed on the table. Imuel could eat it just by lightly hopping up.

All of this was completely different from what he remembered.

Imuel didn't remember much of his childhood; firstly because he was too young, and secondly because it was too painful. He intensely loathed the basement, like loathing an ugly scar, but now, the doctor had gently taken over and smoothed them out one by one with blankets and soft cushions.

The ugly appearance of the basement in his memory no longer existed, replaced by the doctor's body temperature and the warm quilt.

Bai Yu never wronged himself. Even if he was only staying for three days, he still had to transform the place to be comfortable. The modified basement was very cozy, simply like a warm nest.

His and the doctor's nest.

The kitten became visibly happy.

It was already late at night. Bai Yu didn't know why Imuel was so excited. He arched around under the quilt like a burrowing hamster. If the doctor had a cat teaser wand in his hand, the kitten would probably be able to pounce up into the air.

—Before promptly being subdued by the doctor with a single hand.

Bai Yu made a gesture to be quiet: "It's late. Go to sleep."

Imuel: "Mew."

He obediently curled up into a ball, snuggled beside the doctor, and stopped moving.

For the next three days, Imuel hid under the covers and slept.

Bai Yu, on the other hand, slept during the day and came out at night, carrying out his unhealthy routine to the end. He slept in the basement during the day and patronized the storage room at night, taking whatever caught his eye, with the fruits varying day by day.

System 55 stared dumbfounded at its host. It had thought that Bai Yu was the most upright out of the first three, but didn't expect him to have such a wild streak: "No way, Host, are you really just taking things?"

Bai Yu's expression was calm: "Everything in the mansion belongs to Duke Imuel. If the Duke objects, he can tell me personally."

"..."

Duke Imuel was just a palm-sized kitten who could only meow and couldn't even speak clearly. How could he object?

And three days later, the long Mutation Period finally passed.

Taking advantage of the dark and windy night, Bai Yu once again tucked the kitten against his chest and slipped into the Grand Duke's bedroom.

He placed the kitten on the Grand Duke's bed, took out clothes from the wardrobe, and handed them to Imuel.

Imuel was so tiny that he was almost completely buried. He struggled to dig his way out of the pile of clothes, his little ears drooping. His two front paws stepped on each other back and forth, occasionally glancing up at Bai Yu, before he meowed softly.

If he were in his human form, this posture would probably be 'fidgeting coyly'.

Bai Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, realizing as an afterthought that Imuel was feeling shy, so he took the initiative to close the door: "Call me when you're done changing."

The kitten let out a long sigh of relief.

Only when the door clicked locked did he change forms under the cover of the blanket. The light and thin little blanket barely covered his privates. His two legs curled up slightly, and the lines of his ankles, legs, buttocks, as well as his waist and abdomen were all very beautiful.

The Duke almost never participated in outdoor activities and did not see the sun all year round. His skin was slightly morbidly pale, and under the pale moonlight, it glowed with a satin-like luster.

Clearly, every transformation was like this, but this time it felt exceptionally shameful.

The doctor was right outside the door, separated only by a thin wall.

He hurriedly reached out and grabbed his clothes to cover his body, hastily putting on his inner shirt and underclothes, and then meticulously changing into his complicated outerwear.

Imuel looked at himself in the mirror.

The person in the mirror was undoubtedly good-looking. Imuel possessed a face famous throughout Illyria. His mother was the most beautiful slave catgirl in the kingdom, and his father, the old Duke, was a handsome and romantic playboy in his youth. The child born from the union of these two could never be ugly.

His black hair was inherited from his father, thick as ink, while his eye color and most of his facial features were inherited from his mother. Imuel's mother had an intensely glamorous face, her fan-like eyelids slightly drooping all year round, her brows and eyes exuding a languid and affectionate charm. Reflected on Imuel's face, it manifested as a delicate beauty tinged with a slight gloom.

If such a face were placed in a bar or banquet in Bai Yu's past life, it would absolutely be a lethal weapon that could slay both men and women.

Yet Imuel gripped the edge of the mirror and silently bit his lower lip.

Time was too hasty, and Bai Yu was still waiting at the door. He didn't have time to tidy up, nor did he have time to wash up. He could only let his hair fall loose, draping over his chest.

Imuel wasn't sure if Bai Yu would like it.

They had met so many times before, yet Bai Yu had never expressed any liking. The doctor had always maintained a faint expression, treating the Duke like thin air.

There was no doubt that Bai Yu liked the kitten, and although his identity had been pointed out in the basement and he had received kisses and hugs from the doctor, those were also meant for the kitten, not for Imuel.

Imuel looked in the mirror and felt a bit dispirited.

Having just gone through the Mutation Period, his complexion looked worse than before. Even if he wanted to remedy it, it was too late.

Imuel actually disliked it when others praised his looks. Those covetous gazes would remind him of his mother, his brother, his identity as a slave, and the label of using one's appearance to serve others. That was why he kept nothing on his table, not even a tube of lip balm.

But as he licked the dry, peeling traces on his lower lip, he felt a bit of regret.

At the door, Bai Yu knocked gently: "Imuel?"

The kitten had been in there for far too long, so long that Bai Yu couldn't help but suspect if he had been tangled to death by the clothing sashes.

It sounded absurd, but given the kitten's size, it was entirely possible.

A flustered voice came from inside the door: "Coming!"

Having been a kitten for three days without speaking human words, Imuel's voice was a bit hoarse. He almost hastily tidied himself up, then paced over to the door and reservedly opened it.

Thus, the doctor's gaze fell upon him.

Imuel didn't raise his head, but he could feel Bai Yu's scrutiny. That gaze pinned him in place, bringing a burning sting.

He pursed his lower lip, silently clenched his fingers, and secretly began to mock himself.

It turned out that one day, he too would be like those slaves being picked out by their masters, apprehensive and uneasy, just so the person looking at him would like what they saw.

Yet all of his reactions were fully taken in by Bai Yu.

The doctor broke into a sudden smile.

So it turned out that even someone as beautiful as Imuel had moments of apprehension, inferiority, and a lack of self-confidence.

And Bai Yu certainly couldn't possibly bully his kitten. So, Imuel heard the doctor's slightly amazed sigh:

"Imuel, you're very beautiful."