The Cat's Pact: Midnight Guardian

Xiran had always thought she would never keep a cat again, until one snowy night, a silver-gray tabby nestled into her arms, its emerald eyes hiding an ancient rhythm.

Echoes beneath the bridge began to recite broken names. She, the scholar Li Ze, and the guardians realized that someone was numbering, packaging, and selling these voices. In the shadows, a secretive organization was arranging “twilight sessions” where the wealthy could listen to other people’s memories again.

With a cat’s three beats, several hydrophones, and an old ledger, they pieced together fragments of sound, decoded the spectrum, and guarded the circuit. But as they closed in on the chain of transactions, they discovered that a complete recording had already been presold and would change hands at dusk.

Time was running out, the buyers were waiting, and the names were being torn apart.

Xiran had to choose: use tenderness to recite the memories back to where they belonged, or watch helplessly as they were auctioned off as commodities? Who could finish reciting those unfinished words, and who would pay the price for the memories?