(一)
奥米过完7岁生日party,一脸失落地回到了自己的小房间。有一只猫的愿望又落空了。妈妈总是不肯松这个口。他是多么想要一只猫啊!在任何地方看到一只猫,他都会凑上前去,猫儿大多也不躲他。他觉得他能懂得猫的各种行为,情绪,叫声,甚至,他觉得自己就是一只猫。可是,妈妈是那么厌恶那些毛茸茸的小动物。
奥米在小床上翻来翻去,和这7月的天气一样烦躁,朦朦胧胧睡不着。正迷糊间,忽然听见窗外有一声轻轻的猫叫。“是Rogue!” 奥米一下子清醒过来,跳下床跑到窗边。Rogue叫声特别温柔,并有着独特的发音。他晚上经常从窗户看到Rogue 跑来跑去,在各家串门,白天就见得少得多。她有时候是独自行动,有时候则带着一只黑猫或者花猫。Rogue 也时而不时拜访奥米的小屋,但从没有被奥米家人发现过。
奥米打开小窗,看见浑身白色长毛的Rogue趴在窗台,两只大眼睛像灯泡闪闪发亮。如果是白天,你会清楚地看到她的两只眼瞳是异色的,一只天蓝,一只金黄。要说美貌,Rogue绝对评得上头榜,但邻居们对Rogue是又爱又恨。要是听到邻居四婶或者李阿姨的尖叫,八成又是Rogue 做了啥坏事。
Rogue从小窗蹿进奥米的小房间,跳到桌子边的一个软椅上,又叫了几声。突然间,奥米比以前任何时候都完全地听懂了她说的话,根本不需要猜测:“奥米,你知道有个猫咪博物馆吗?”
“猫咪博物馆?嗯。。。我好像听过这个名字,但是别的就不清楚了。”
Rogue 一眼瞥见奥米桌子上有一包小鱼饼干,蹿上去捞了几颗,继续开口:“昴~猫咪博物馆在艾克斯市,在人们眼里,它就是个展示关于猫的各种资料及历史,还有众多与猫有关的艺术收藏品的普通博物馆。里面有一些猫住民,来博物馆的人们可以和他们玩耍。 但这不是猫咪博物馆的所有功能。” Rogue 顿了顿,狡诘地一笑接着说,“它真正热闹的时候是在晚上,没有人类访客的时候。有各种各样的猫出入,活着的,已故的,传说中的,名人变化的。“
"已故的猫? "
“是的,不过是从你们人类角度说已故的。其实我们在地球上都是化身,和真身没区别,也经历生老病死,但是所谓死亡,只是化身的毁灭。我们的真身在猫星球上,可以活很久很久。”
“猫星球? 哇!上面有很多很多猫吧?它在哪?”奥米眼睛闪闪发亮。
Rogue 不耐烦地拉长身子打了个哈欠,把话题转了回来:“猫咪博物馆实际上是个猫星球联络站。你想去猫星球吗?想的话跟我去博物馆吧。“
“当然想啊!我们怎么去呢?“
Rogue 冷不丁跳到奥米身上:“抱住我,闭上眼。“
(二)
奥米闭上眼睛,顿时感觉整个人悬浮了起来。不过这种感觉没持续几分钟,就被怀中的Rogue轻轻抓了一下,回到地面:“到了,睁眼吧。”
深夜的博物馆展厅只有壁灯亮着,奥米第一眼就看到面对着他的满墙关于猫咪的画。梦露猫最抢眼睛。一个角落里画的一对猫,好像其中一只生着病,奥米挺纳闷,不过也就匆匆扫过不多想。忽然,他兴奋地冲着一幅画嚷道:“哈!这是加菲猫!” 画上的加菲猫朝他翻了个白眼,跳出画框。顺着加菲猫的跳跃轨迹,他这才看到周围阴影中有十几只猫,模模糊糊可以分辨出有奶牛花色的,褐色的,白色的,黑色的。他看到一只很奇怪的猫,普通的黄褐色,尖尖的大耳朵,只有一只眼睛,却有三条尾巴。奥米禁不住朝这只奇怪的猫看了好久。那只猫看到奥米在看他,咧嘴一笑,发出奥米从来没有听过的奇怪声音。
奥米正想和那只猫聊两句,展厅门外忽然直立走进来一只穿着深蓝T恤,戴着眼镜的瘦长蓝猫,Rogue 喊了声“猫叔~” 猫叔走近Rogue,又转身看了看奥米,问Rogue:“这就是你说的那个孩子奥米吗?”
“对的,我把他带过来了。我任务完成啦,先溜啦~”
“hi,奥米,很高兴看到你~” 猫叔伸出一只爪子搭了下奥米的手臂:“我是猫叔,这里的负责猫。Rogue 和你说过猫星球了吧?你想去猫星球吗?”
“想~~不过,Rogue 只提到一点点猫星球,您能给我详细说说吗?”
“好的。猫星球是一个很美丽的星球,在一个神秘的叫猫眼星云的地方,距地球很远很远,好像有三千光年?不过对我们猫咪来说,这个距离不是问题。在猫星球上,主要居民当然是我们,猫。也有别的各种物种,有的地球上也有,比如老鼠,鸟,鱼等等。我们有远高于人类的文明,但是那里温度比地球高,资源也不如地球丰富。很久很久以前,我们猫星球的环境还是很好的。。。但是后来,随着文明的发展,环境越来越差。变坏的环境加上空间有限,早在一万年前,我们就开始考虑外星移民,地球就是我们的选择之一。” 猫叔说着,目光迷离起来。
"你们是怎么过来的呀?" 奥米好奇极了。
“你知道虫洞吗?这是我们到地球的主要方式。多亏了我们的先祖猫斯克Catusk, 三千年前,他在虫洞领域取得了历史性突破,猫星球开始大规模移民。只不过我们的移民方式是化身移民,当化身移民到别的星球,比如地球时,猫星球上的真身就被数码化压缩储存在云盘里。化身死亡时,则通过彩虹桥激活真身。这是最便捷的方式。当然也有真身到别的星球的,但大多不久呆,只是暂驻考察。根据需要,也有化身在猫星球。真身化身没什么两样,不过化身有更大的变化选择,化身甚至可以是人的模样,只是我们大多数猫都不乐意;而真身有更灵活的存储延续方式。“
“那在地球上出生的猫咪呢?他们在猫星球上也有真身吗?”奥米问。
“是的,化身生出的只是化身。相应的数据会在猫星球自动创造出来。猫星球是我们永远的家园。”
远处忽然传来碰的一声。“一定又是Rogue 顶翻了食物盖儿。” 猫叔习以为常地撇撇嘴。
“Rogue 带你过来,是因为猫星球上出现了一些严重问题,我们需要有一批外来力量来协调。经过考察,我们觉得你是合适人选之一。“
"哇噢!我就这个样子过去吗?我过去要做什么? "
“不,你需要变形,因为人类这个形象目标太大太不方便。也是化身变形。你要做什么我不能透露,这附近有个我们的培训基地,你要在那里先接受几天训练再去猫星球。你会慢慢领悟到你要做的事的。”
猫叔魔术般从怀里掏出一只盒子递给奥米:“你要先吃下里面的猫爪饼。”
"吃了猫蜀黍给的猫爪饼,会不会变成小猫咪?"
"会变小老鼠。"
(三)
“小老鼠!” 奥米惊叫一声,把周围几只猫吓得跳了起来:“猫和老鼠不是死对头吗?可是我喜欢猫啊!”
“别担心~”猫叔微微一笑,解释说:“老鼠和猫的敌对并不是刻在基因里的。只不过一般老鼠的体型、力量、来源丰富程度等等,正好落在猫的捕猎范畴里。特别在地球上,当第一批常规猫移民来到地球上时,老鼠在人类世界中正好泛滥,极为易得,而我们的先祖也正好需要有些借口同人类建立联系,捕捉老鼠就成了当时猫界流行的事,而这在人类眼中,就成了猫鼠敌对的刻板关系。”
“其实我们猫的心思哪里只会在老鼠上,哈哈哈。我们。。。” 猫叔沉稳的脸上露出一丝傲娇,感觉差点说漏了什么,又赶紧克制了下去。
“后来的猫移民情况就变化很多了。做稳了主子位置之后,有的猫转移了重心,他们更愿意把时间精力花在更重要的事上;有的猫还保留狩猎习惯,但也不一定就对老鼠们感兴趣。”
猫叔停下来,从怀里又摸出一套茶具,放在附近的桌子上,泡了壶乌龙茶。“喝茶吗?”猫叔问奥米,奥米摇摇头。猫叔自个儿端起茶杯舔了舔茶水,继续说到:“你看Rogue,她对老鼠就没有兴趣,对天上飞的鸟儿,水里游的鱼儿反而兴趣大得多。” 奥米噗呲一声笑了起来,想起Rogue 干的坏事里,确实有过不少吓坏张叔家的鹦鹉,打破王奶奶家鱼缸之类的事儿。
猫叔又转了语调说:“不过当然,猫对老鼠威胁性还是很大的。我们可能只是抓来玩儿,顺带练手,小老鼠却可能会因此丧命。即使文明规定不允许伤害小老鼠,不在一个力量等级上,还是很容易造成伤害。所以如果有猫儿说自己的‘心理种属’是老鼠,老鼠们不要相信他,除非他除去那些能造成伤害的硬件,并给了老鼠们足够的考察时间来证明。”
“小老鼠要是觉得自己是猫,想跻身猫的世界呢~” 猫叔顿了顿,“他本身得有足够的实力才行。靠什么政策、舆论产生一时半会的”融入“是没有用的,最终被伤害的还是自己。”
“在我们猫星球上,我们的文明已经不允许我们猎杀小老鼠,小鸟之类的弱小,我们已经做了很大努力和他们和平共处,一起建设家园。而且我们承认,有些方面他们比我们更有优势。在我们的传统强势方面,我们也不反对他们来试,我们给这个机会。但是实力差别太大的,硬让他们参与,并不合理。”
“但是在地球上,哈哈” 猫叔得意地笑了一下,“地球文明还没到那么高的程度,我们猫当然就更放飞自我啦~ 有很多猫更愿意来到地球是因为这个。当然还有很大一部分猫是来传递爱,拯救人类的。”
猫叔看了看奥米:“你如果化身小老鼠,首先你还有保留有人类的思维,而且作为我们的特派员,我们会给你移植一些我们猫的能力,这些对你们来说是超能力,这样你就有足够的资本和我们猫们打交道了。”
猫叔说完这些,又灌了几杯茶,抹抹嘴问奥米:“怎么样,奥米,你愿意吃下这块猫爪饼,变成小老鼠去猫星球吗?”
I
Omi returned to his small room with a look of disappointment after his 7th birthday party. The will of owning a cat fell through again. Mom was always reluctant to allow. How much he wanted a cat! Whenever he saw a cat, he would get close to it, and most cats didn't run away from him, too. He felt he could somewhat understand cats' various behaviors, emotions, and sounds. He even thought he was a cat. But his mom was so disgusted with those small furry animals.
Tossed around on his small bed, Omi was as irritable as the weather in July that he was dimly but just unable to sleep. Suddenly, he heard a soft meow outside the window. "it's Rogue!" Omi woke up and jumped out of bed, ran to the window. Rogue's call was so gentle and unique. He often saw from the window that Rogue was running around each house at night, while much less been seen during the daytime. Sometimes she ran alone, sometimes with a black or tabby cat. Rogue also visited Omi's room from time to time but was never detected by Omi's parents.
Omi opened the window, saw Rogue who had all the white furs lying on the window, with two big eyes shining like light bulbs. If it is daytime, you would see her two different colors' pupils; one is sky blue, the other is golden. To appraise with beauty, Rogue is definitely on the top. But neighbors both liked and disliked Rogue. If you heard the screams of neighbor the fourth aunt, or Aunt Li, it was highly probable that Rogue did something terrible again.
Rogue jumped into Omi's small room through the window, then jumped onto a soft chair by the table and meowed a few more. Suddenly, Omi fully understood what she was saying, much clearer than any time before without guessing: "Omi, do you know the cat museum?"
"Cat Museum? Hmm... I seem to have heard this name, but I don't know anything else."
Rogue caught a glimpse of a packet of small fish biscuits on Omi's table. She jumped up to scoop a few, then continued to chatter: "Mao~The Cat Museum is in the Aks city. In people's eyes, it is just a place where displays various materials, information, and history about cats, and it is an ordinary museum with many cat-related art collections. There are some cat residents, and people who visit the museum can play with them. But these are not all the functions of the cat museum." Rogue paused and smiled slyly. Then she lowered her throat and said, "It's really lively at night when there are no human visitors. There are all kinds of cats coming and going: live cats, deceased cats, legendary cats, and celebrity changing cats."
"Cats who are deceased?"
"Yes, it's just the deceased from your human's point of view. In fact, we are all incarnations/ avatars on the earth, which are no different from our natural bodies. We also experience birth, old, sickness, and death, but the so-called death is just the destruction of the incarnations. Our natural bodies are on the cat planet and usually can live a long, long time. "
"Cat planet? Wow! There must be oceans of cats! Where is it?" Omi's eyes were shining.
Rogue stretched out and yawned impatiently, turned the topic back:" The Cat Museum is actually a liaison station to cat planet. Do you want to visit Cat Planet? If so, follow me to the museum."
"Sure! But how can we get there?"
Rogue jumped to Omi unexpectedly:" Hold me, close your eyes."
II
Omi closed his eyes; then he felt the whole body levitating suddenly. But this feeling didn't last for a few minutes that he was lightly touched by Rogue, who was in his arms, and returned to the ground: "Here, open your eyes."
In the museum exhibition hall late at night, only the wall lamps were on. At first sight, Omi saw the whole wall of paintings of cats facing him. The Monroe cat grabbed the most attention. In a corner, in a portrait of a pair of cats, one of which looked to be sick. Omi was puzzled but just swept across. Suddenly, he excitedly yelled at an image: "Ha! It is Garfield!" the painted Garfield rolled his eyes at Omi and jumped out of the picture. Following the action, he saw a dozen cats in the surrounding shadows. Omi could vaguely see those cats with different colors: black and white, brown, black, or white. Suddenly he saw an extraordinary cat, ordinary tawny, big pointed ears, with only one eye but three tails. Omi couldn't help looking at this peculiar cat for a long time. The cat grinned when Omi looked at him and made a strange sound that Omi had never heard before.
When Omi was about to chat with the cat, a skinny blue cat wearing a dark blue T-shirt and glasses suddenly walked in from the door of the exhibition hall. Rogue shouted, "Uncle Cat~." Uncle Cat approached Rogue, turned to look at Omi, then asked Rogue, "Is this the kid Omi you talked about?"
"Yes, I brought him here. Now my mission is complete; I am leaving first~."
"Hi, Omi, nice to see you~" Uncle Cat stretched out a paw to touch Omi's arm: "I am Uncle Cat, the cat in charge here. I think Rogue has told you the story of Cat Planet? Do you want to visit Cat Planet?"
"Yeah, I do~~, But Rogue just mentioned the Cat Planet. Could you tell me more about it?"
"Okay. The Cat Planet is a wonderful planet in a mysterious place called the Cat's Eye Nebula. It is very far from the earth, about three thousand light-years away? But for us, cats, this distance is not a problem. The main inhabitant of the cat planet is us, cats, of course. There are also various other species; some also can be found on the earth, such as mice, birds, fish, etc. We have a civilization much higher than that of humans, but the temperature there is higher than that of the earth, and the resources are not so rich as the earth. A long time ago, the environment of our cat planet was wonderful... But with the development of civilization, the environment became worse and worse. The deteriorating environment and limited space pushed us to consider alien immigration, which was as early as 10,000 years ago, and the earth is one of our choices." Uncle Cat said, his eyes blurred.
"How did you come to earth?" Omi was so curious.
"Do you know wormholes? This is our main way to reach the earth. Thanks to our ancestor Catusk. Three thousand years ago, he made a historic breakthrough in the field of wormholes that we started large-scale immigration. It's just that our immigration method is incarnation immigration. When the avatar immigrates to another planet, such as the earth, the natural body on the cat planet is digitally compressed and stored in the cloud disk. When the avatar dies, the natural body is activated through the rainbow bridge. This is the most convenient way. Of course. There are also some real bodies visiting other planets, but most of them just stay for a while for temporary scientific inspections. According to needs, there are also avatars on the cat planet. The avatars are no different from the real bodies, but the avatars have greater options for changes, while the real bodies have more flexible storage and continuation methods."
"But for those cats who are born on the earth, are they have their natural bodies on the Cat Planet?" Omi asked.
"Oh, yes. An avatar always gives birth to the avatar. The corresponding data will be created automatically on the Cat Planet. Cat Planet is our forever home."
Suddenly there was a loud noise in the distance. "Rogue must have flipped the food cover again." Uncle Cat curled his mouth as usual.
"Rogue brought you here because there are some serious problems on the cat planet. We need a group of external forces to coordinate. After investigation, we think you are one of the right candidates."
"Wow! Will I go there like this? What am I going to do there?"
"No, you need to transform because the human image is too big and inconvenient. It is also an incarnation transformation. I can't disclose what you are going to do. There is our training base nearby. You have to receive a few days of training there before going to the Cat planet. You will slowly realize what you are going to do."
Uncle Cat magically took out a box from his arms and handed it to Omi: "You have to eat the cat's paw cake inside first."
"After eating the cat's claw cakes given by uncle, will I become a kitten?"
"You will become a little mouse."
III
"Little mouse!" Omi exclaimed that a few cats around jumped up with frightening: "Aren't the cats and mice deadly enemies? But I like cats!"
"Don't worry, Omi~" Uncle Cat smiled and explained: "The hostility between mice and cats is not engraved in genes. It's just that the size, strength, and abundance of sources of mice, in general, happen to fall into the hunting category of cats. Especially on earth, when the first regular cat immigrants came to earth, mice were flooded in the human world and were extremely easy to obtain. Our ancestors also needed some excuses to establish contact with humans. Catching mice became a popular sport in the cat world at that time, and in the eyes of humans, it becomes a stereotype of cat and mouse hostility."
"In fact, how can we cats' minds only be on the mouse, hahaha. We..." Uncle Cat showed a hint of pride on his calm face. Feeling that he had almost given away some secrets, he quickly restrained it.
"Later, the cat immigration situation changed a lot. After stabilizing the position of the master to human, some cats shifted their focus. They are more willing to spend their time and energy on more important things; some cats still retain hunting habits, but they are not necessarily interested in mice."
Uncle Cat stopped, took out a tea set under his T-shirt, put it on a nearby table, and made a pot of oolong tea. "Drink tea?" Uncle Cat asked Omi. Omi shook his head. Uncle Cat picked up a teacup and licked the tea, then continued: "You see Rogue. She is not interested in mice, but is much more interested in birds flying in the sky and fish swimming in the water." Omi laughed, remembering that in the list of bad things Rogue had done, there were indeed many things like that scared the parrots of Uncle Zhang's and broke the fish tank in Grandma Wang's house.
Uncle Cat changed his tone again: "But of course, cats are still very threatening to mice. We may catch them just as toys or just as practicing, but the mice may die because of this. Even if civilization regulations do not allow harm to mice, since mice are not at a level of strength as ours, it is still easy to cause damage. So if a cat says that his "psychological species" is a mouse, the rats should not believe him, unless he removes the hardware that can cause harm and gives the rats enough time to prove it."
"As to the little mouse, if he/she thinks he/she is a cat, he wants to enter the world of cats~" Uncle Cat paused, "He must have enough strength himself. It is useless to rely on policies and public opinion to generate "integration" for a time. The final one who is ultimately hurt is the mouse itself."
"On our cat planet, our civilization no longer allows us to hunt small mice and birds. We have made great efforts to coexist peacefully with them and build homes together. And we admit that in some fields they are better than We have more advantages. In our traditional powerful field, we do not oppose them coming in to try. We give them the opportunity. However, it is unreasonable to force them to participate if there is too much difference in strength."
"But on the earth, haha." Uncle Cat smiled triumphantly, "Since the earth's civilization hasn't reached such a high level as ours, we cats, of course, are freer to do something as willing~ There are many cats that are more willing to come to the earth because of this. Well, certainly, it is also a large part of cats are here to spread love and save human beings."
Uncle Cat looked at Omi: "If you become a mouse, first of all, you still have a human mind, and as our special agent, we will transplant some of our cat's abilities to you. These are superb abilities for you. So, you have enough capital to deal with we cats."
After saying this, Uncle Cat poured a few more cups of tea, wiped his mouth, and asked Omi: "What do you think, Omi. Would you like to eat this cat's paw cake and become a little mouse and go to Cat Planet?"