White Li broke out in a cold sweat.
Monster-eared people had very keen sense of smell. She could feel it herself.
The bracelet’s disguise might fool the eyes, fool cameras, fool all technological devices.
But scent was something you couldn’t fool a nose with.
The cat girl could tell she was the same kind. It would expose her identity!
What should she do?
Interrupt her?
But what excuse could she use?
Cover her mouth directly? That would be way too suspicious.
Cough loudly? Too fake—it would look like a guilty conscience.
Either way, she couldn’t let anyone else find out. How about just grabbing Lin Du and running?
Yes, that’s the plan!
White Li took a deep breath, turned her head, and was about to use being late as an excuse to pull Lin Du away.
The cat girl blinked, her mouth slightly open.
“You smell really good, meow!”
“Huh?”
White Li froze.
Smell good? What did that mean?
She lowered her head and sniffed her own sleeve. There was the smell of laundry detergent, the buns she bought this morning, and a little bit of sweat she hadn’t washed off last night.
How was that good?
Did this girl think she looked delicious?
White Li took half a step back.
“White Li.”
Lin Du’s voice came from beside her.
“You have bun filling on the corner of your mouth.”
“Huh? Where?”
White Li instinctively reached up to wipe it, but Lin Du’s hand was already there.
On his thumb was a small tissue, and he gently rubbed it against the corner of her mouth.
“Right here.”
The tissue on his finger had a bit of meat paste on it. He waved it in front of her.
“Hey, I can wipe it myself!”
“You were busy picking things up just now—how could you have taken care of it?” Lin Du tossed the tissue into the trash can. “Besides, wiping it with your hand isn’t hygienic. Your hands are full of bacteria.”
“You— I—”
White Li wanted to say something to argue back, but nothing came out.
Lin Du glanced at the cat girl, nodded at her as a greeting.
The cat girl was holding the newly reorganized flyers. Her eyes were still red, but a forced smile had appeared on her lips.
“Thank you, thank you, meow.”
She bowed deeply, her ears drooping forward with the movement, her tail swaying behind her.
“No need, no need,” White Li hurriedly waved her hands. “Happy to help someone in need. It’s nothing.”
“Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”
He patted White Li on the shoulder and naturally guided her forward, his hand resting on her shoulder.
“Oh.”
White Li let him lead her a couple of steps, secretly letting out a sigh of relief.
Wait.
Was it normal for guys to walk arm-in-arm like this?
It seemed… normal.
Back in her previous life, when she was in high school, didn’t the boys do the same?
Arms around each other’s necks going to the cafeteria, hands on shoulders heading to the bathroom, roughhousing—no one thought anything of it.
Not to mention, as soon as class ended, a group of them would carry some unlucky guy off to get “shafted.”
Right, totally normal.
White Li tried to convince herself. Her pace got faster and faster until she was almost jogging.
“Why are you walking so fast?” Lin Du looked puzzled.
“Didn’t you say we were going to be late?”
“No need to rush that much.” He turned his head to look at her. “Still twenty minutes left.”
White Li didn’t answer, just kept her head down and walked on.
After a few steps, Lin Du frowned slightly.
Too thin.
Her shoulders were narrow, not like a boy’s. The bones felt bony under his hand, and even through the school uniform, he could sense the delicate curve.
When she stood next to that cat girl just now, their builds were actually somewhat similar—shoulder width, waist size, even height was about the same…
He took his hand off White Li’s shoulder and shoved it into his pocket.
“Drink more milk. If you don’t absorb it well, you should see a doctor.”
“Huh?”
White Li whirled around, her eyes wide, and stopped walking.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said.” Lin Du shrugged and stopped too. “A guy being this skinny won’t do. You look like you’d fall over in a gust of wind. No girl would like that.”
White Li’s eyebrows shot up. She put her hands on her hips.
“Who’s skinny? I’ve got a standard figure! You know what a standard figure is?”
“Standard?” Lin Du looked her up and down, his gaze landing on her flushed, puffed-up face. “A girl’s standard, I’d say.”
“You’re the one with a girl’s standard!”
Lin Du smiled. “But you really should eat more.”
“Easy for you to say…” White Li stretched out her hand, palm up, and shoved it in front of him with an air of entitlement. “You pay. Lend me some money.”
“No.”
“Cheapskate.”
“I treated you this morning. And you said yourself you didn’t want to owe anyone a favor.”
Lin Du picked up the pace and stepped onto the stairs.
White Li froze for a second, then chased after him.
“Hey, stop right there! You’ve got a pretty good memory!”
“Hurry up. We’re going to be late.”
“Don’t change the subject!”
The two of them, one in front and one behind, chased each other along the street under the sycamore trees.
Their shadows stretched long on the ground, overlapping, then separating.
“You— stop running!”
“I’m not running. I’m just walking. Your legs are too short, aren’t they?”
“Has your mouth always been this sharp? Just wait till I catch you!”
…
At the cat café entrance.
The cat girl held the stack of flyers, watching the two retreating figures.
The shorter one hopped every two steps, as if saying something to the taller one.
The taller one occasionally turned his head, the corner of his mouth twitching—was he laughing or answering?
“They seem to have a really good relationship, meow…”
She sighed softly, her tail swaying behind her.
“So envious.”
The cat girl’s nose twitched again.
No mistake. The shorter one had the scent of her own kind.
…She was also a monster person.
But she had seen the fear in the other’s eyes at that moment, so she chose to change the subject.
The cat girl lowered her head, looking at the crumpled flyers in her hands, then touched the silver collar around her neck.
The collar was icy cold and heavy, like a tag on her body that could never be removed.
If she caused harm to a human, it would sound an alarm.
She understood. After all, it was the monster people who had invaded this world and brought disaster.
But she was just an ordinary monster person born in the human world, found and raised by a kind old woman. She had endured so many stares and discrimination just to grow up.
“I really want to become human…”
She murmured to herself, her voice so soft only she could hear.
She wondered how that other monster person had managed to transform like that.
If she could disguise herself as human and walk in the sunlight, that would be wonderful.
To have friends to go to school with, someone to wipe the bun filling from the corner of her mouth, someone to chase after her in the street.
That kind of life… must be really happy.
The cat girl stood there for a long time, so long that the hem of her skirt was lifted gently by the wind, then dropped, lifted again, then dropped.
She shook her head, snapped out of it, and smoothed out the wrinkled flyers.
“Work is important, work is important. It was hard enough to find this job…”
She took a deep breath and pushed down all those messy thoughts.
Then she lifted her head and put on a smile once more—a professional customer-service smile she had practiced countless times.
“Hello, sir!”
She handed a flyer to the next passerby.
“The cat café just opened. Feel free to stop by~”