The Cat’s Fate

In Lin'an, the cat demon Shen Ayi has one abiding mission: to find a good home for every kitten. Adopting a cat requires a formal proposal and betrothal gifts, with even more fuss than a wedding. She makes a living arranging these adoptions, “marrying off” the cats around her one by one to good families.

She has lived for more than a hundred years, and she does all this for one reason only: to repay an old debt.

In the first year of the Zhihe era, a scholar named Zhao Chongmo found a dying stray cat on the stone steps behind Lingyin Temple. He made fish soup, drew a little portrait, and named it “Ayi.” Later, the court summoned him, and he never returned. All he left behind were the words, “I'm sorry.”

Eighty-seven years later, a copper coin fell from a teahouse and struck her on the head. She looked up and saw that face: Zhao Chongmo, newly appointed as a judicial officer in Lin'an Prefecture.

He remembers nothing of his past life, yet has dreamed about cats all his life.

This time, she does not want to owe anyone one last goodbye.