Chapter 250: The Festival (1)

I turned off the shower, and the pattering droplets of water trickled down from the tips of my hair at my forehead.

I drew a deep breath and leaned my back against the tiled wall behind me.

It was the height of summer, and I had not set the water temperature very high, so the wall, covered in a thin layer of mist, still carried a faint coolness.

The coolness seeped through my skin into my spine and made me shudder involuntarily.

I puffed out my cheeks and let out a soft sigh.

I grabbed the towel from the clothing rack, wrapped my shoulder-length hair into a bundle, then picked up another folded dry towel and walked out.

My overly playful cat ears bounced around inside the bundled towel, but I ignored them.

Having lived as a catgirl for this long, I had long since learned to disregard their spontaneous movements.

I was the only one at home.

A few days earlier, after returning to her hometown for the Qingming Festival to pay respects at the graves, Mother had gone straight back to the company to busy herself with work, the same as always.

There was no need to worry about whether I was properly dressed, so I simply wrapped myself in a single large towel, sat on the edge of the bed, and picked up the phone that was charging on the nightstand.

Lin Yun: “I’m almost off the highway. It should take another half hour to reach your place. Zhi Nian, remember to order me some milk tea, and grab some snacks while you’re at it. I’m about to starve flat.”

Lin Yun: “No more fighting needed.jpg”

Zhi Nian: “Dinosaur giving OK gesture.jpg”

I froze for a moment before realizing it was Big Sis, then hurriedly added the note afterward.

Ah, looks like I forgot to add a note for Big Sis.

When I saw the short messages from Lin Yun on the lock screen, my brain short-circuited.

I had been thinking that today’s plan was to nestle in the bedroom under the air conditioner, stare at the ceiling, and figure out how to put into practice those one hundred things to do together with Gu Fan one by one.

But after Big Sis’s messages arrived, that plan had to be temporarily set aside.

Although I did not know through what channel Big Sis had learned that this small county town was holding a centennial celebration, as a local who was not very familiar with the local area, I still had to do my best to take Big Sis around the festival.

Of course… I still had a little private intention of my own.

I wanted to see if there might be a chance to run into Gu Fan at the cultural plaza where the celebration was being held.

Then I could take the opportunity to get close to him a little and declare sovereignty in front of those classmates with him.

Umph umph, is this idea of mine a bit too extreme?

Other classmates have nothing to do with us. Wouldn’t it be a bit inappropriate for me to go show off our affection and force-feed them dog food like this?

Moreover, I haven’t even formally confirmed a relationship with Gu Fan yet. Would doing something like this make him dislike it?

Forget it, forget it. Better to just honestly take Big Sis around for a tour.

Treat it as investigating a day in advance what shops and amusement facilities there are at the celebration.

No need to specially search for Gu Fan’s figure and neglect Big Sis’s feelings.

Suddenly a cool breeze rolled in from the window.

The long black cat tail behind me that had been patting the bedsheet was blown by it, shivered, and curled into a ball nestled behind my hips.

I shook my head and discarded all those scenarios that had not yet happened.

I stood up, rubbed the towel wrapped around my hair, and walked toward the vanity where the hair dryer sat.

After sitting by the bed for a while, my hair and cat ears were still dripping wet.

The most annoying thing every day after becoming a catgirl was how to quickly “dry” myself.

It was not that I had mysophobia.

If I were living alone as a cat in this world, maybe I would turn into a slovenly shut-in catgirl?

Thankfully, after waking up transformed into a catgirl, I still had my dear childhood friend accompanying me.

In order for Gu Fan to see a clean little catgirl every day, I could only force myself to pay more attention to skincare knowledge so that Gu Fan would never have a day of despising me as an aging cat whose looks had faded.

Umm… Online they all say that catgirls have a long anti-aging period.

Even in old age, appearance and figure won’t decline noticeably.

I wonder if that will hold true for this rather special catgirl of mine?

Thoughts flitted around in my mind like annoying mosquitoes in summer.

By the time I came back to my senses, my body’s inertial actions had already finished drying my hair with the hair dryer.

I neatly put on the white gauze dress I had prepared in advance, then simply tied my hair into a high ponytail with the blue hair ribbon by the vanity.

If it had been me right after becoming a catgirl, just the makeup and dressing process before going out would have taken at least half an hour.

Now I had become used to it.

Feeling extremely calm about doing these things—was this numbness?

It should be said that practice makes perfect.

I tucked the fully charged phone into my skirt pocket, then put on a wide-brimmed sun-protection hat that concealed my playful cat ears.

The wide brim allowed me to cover the upper half of my face when I lowered my head.

This was a social-anxiety essential I had found online during this period, and today was the first time I was putting it to use.

Although for socializing, wearing this kind of hat made me seem a bit hard to approach, with a cool look.

Nowadays I really could not handle too many gazes from others.

I always felt those gazes were like needles pricking my body, making me uncomfortable all over.

Every night before bed, lying in bed, I always made grand statements about changing this timid personality of mine.

But as soon as I went out, I was immediately beaten back to my original form.

I had not even seen people yet; just standing at the entrance of the corridor and feeling the outside air, I was like the White Bone Demon from the TV dramas of my childhood, beaten back to original form by Monkey King’s staff.

That glamorous exterior vanished without a trace like foam.

Well… can someone like me be worthy of Gu Fan?

When I pushed open the door of my home, this thought involuntarily surfaced in my mind.

Is this inferiority complex acting up?

Or is it that a super waste like me shouldn’t have transformed into a catgirl, and a rat scurrying in the dark sewers might suit me better?

At the exit of the corridor, I looked toward the drainage ditch covered with a board, my lips pressed tightly together.

Whenever I associated these tragedies that had not arrived yet but were very likely to occur, my heart felt as if a wound that was hard to heal was being cut open with a knife.

The breath between each inhale and exhale slipped into the heart through the hole created by the wound, stirring it into chaos.

I unconsciously wrapped my arms around myself.

Through the sensation of contact between my arms and body, I slightly stabilized my restless emotions.

No matter what… as a young catgirl right now, with low emotional intelligence, shallow knowledge, and even an extremely twisted personality, at least I can use the advantages brought by my body to try my best to make Gu Fan ignore those and simply stick close to me all day.

Ding-a-ling~

The clear sound of a wind chime rang out melodiously and gently sorted out the tangled thoughts in my mind.

I space out for a moment before realizing, through the slight vibration of the phone in my skirt pocket, that someone was calling me.

“Ya, Zhi Nian, have you gone out yet?”

An energetic female voice came from the phone’s speaker.

“Mm-mm… just went out. Big Sis, have you arrived? So fast?”

“That’s how it is when the highway isn’t congested, and the rideshare I’m in isn’t dawdling either. The driver didn’t stop the whole way, just let me go to the service station for a toilet break and then continued on. I’m hungry and thirsty now. If I’d known, I shouldn’t have gone for convenience and not even brought a bag when I left.”

“Is that so… Then I’ll go find a good spot on the second floor of the milk tea shop first and send you the location later.”

“Okay, then I’ll leave it to Zhi Nian to arrange.”

After saying that, Big Sis hung up the phone cleanly and efficiently.

The phone placed by my ear was empty and silent, no longer making any sound.

Facing the sudden silence, the cat ears hidden under the wide straw hat twitched a few times.

A bit uncomfortable.

Although I had been answering the phone with the pair of ears below.

After so many years, feeling Big Sis Lin Yun’s vigorous and fiery personality again, I who was used to being indecisive could not keep up with the other party’s pace and rhythm for a moment.

We were not even that old, so why was my reaction always half a beat slow and sluggish?

Essentially no different from the elderly people on the roadside leaning on crutches and trembling as they walked forward.

“Umm, why do I feel like I’ve become an old person?”

I knocked on my own head through the straw hat, took a deep breath, and tucked the phone into my pocket.

The summer was scorching, the cement ground was burning hot, and heat haze swayed its body in the distorted air, dancing upward.

Spacing out plus answering the phone had taken a few minutes.

Even standing in front of the stairwell entrance without direct sunlight, the heat still seeped into my body through my skin.

Umm… Yet I still prefer the autumn and winter seasons more.

Once summer gets hot, I feel unbearably irritable.

The blood pumped by my heart seems to have added a bit of inappropriate restlessness.

The muscles all over my body turn into ants on a hot pan, jumping and urging me to hurry up and move.

When I went out I had not chosen to wear non-breathable stockings, and a light thin sweat had already seeped out on my bare calves.

I lowered my eyes and examined them for a moment, finally abandoning the idea of wiping with a tissue.

Anyway, after wiping it would sweat again soon.

Every year during this hottest period of summer, I always turned into a soaked cat.

Even without rain, perhaps this was the inevitable situation for a coastal southern small town?

If it were other catgirls, they would also become this disheveled.

Thinking this way, I pressed my lips tightly together.

As if cheering myself on, I did not even know why I made this running-start-like action similar to a leopard before hunting.

My feet in open-toed sandals pushed hard against the cement ground.

Da, da.

Perhaps driven by the nature of being a catgirl?

It could also be that the psychology popular-science videos I watched online a few days ago mentioned that before taking action, you can design a small action that’s easy to execute for yourself.

Umm, should it be called a switch?

As long as this switch is pressed, electricity will be transmitted, and the body as this device will start operating.

“Okay, set out.”

I murmured to myself in a very soft voice.

I clenched my hands into fists, and the tail coiled into a ball inside the white gauze skirt turned circles restlessly.

I took a step and walked toward the milk tea shop closest to home.

“Phew-ha! I’m alive again. My god, I feel like I have no regrets in this life. In this weather, you’re really my savior. Thankfully for the mango milk tea ordered by little Zhi Nian, otherwise I estimate I’d have died.”

Across the mint-green table, the girl with shoulder-length short hair squinted her eyes slightly, her back tightly leaning against the khaki short sofa.

The short-haired girl said this, then suddenly reached her hand toward my head.

With the straw hat removed, my cat ears naturally revealed themselves in this small second-floor space enveloped by the air conditioner’s cold air.

But the girl’s palm that had been frozen by the milk tea was clearly even lower in temperature than the AC cold air.

Even just lightly pinching the tip of my cat ear once made me feel incredibly stimulated.

I cried out subconsciously.

Sensing the inquiring gazes projected from the surroundings, I silently lowered my volume and replied softly to Big Sis.

Almost made a fool of myself.

“Waa, it’s not that serious… This is a small thing I should do. Big Sis finally came all this way; if I didn’t prepare properly I’d feel a bit guilty.”

This overly sensitive constitution of mine is really a drawback. I don’t know how to overcome it.

Every time my cat ears or tail are touched, I tense up and make strange cries.

Like those stray cats on the roadside that get stressed from a single touch. The difference is that my hissing might not be that scary?

Umm, what am I randomly thinking about.

I shook my head, trying to throw the chaotic thoughts aside.

The soft cat ears on my head also swayed gently with my movement.

I noticed that Big Sis’s gaze seemed to still be lingering on the cat ears.

The ill-intentioned look made my heart jump violently, and I silently scooted my butt outward a bit.

At the same time, I raised both hands to press down the cat ears.

“No… you can’t keep touching them, okay.”

I hurriedly stopped my voice, regretfully swallowed, and my gaze unconsciously started to wander.

Realizing that my tone might have been a bit too serious.

What to do, what to do?

Was I a bit too fierce?

It’s just touching cat ears, not a big problem, right?

It’s normal for girls to touch and hug each other; TV dramas often have such scenes.

It was clearly just normal interactive play, but my reaction was so stressed. It will definitely make Big Sis feel unhappy inside, right?

I hurriedly searched in my mind for words to make up for it, but the patch I sewed together instead made the other party let out a pu of laughter.

“Ah, I didn’t mean that doing this is bad. If Big Sis wants to touch, when there’s no one around, lightly touching once is okay. That sentence just now didn’t have the meaning of blaming Big Sis.”

“Haha, Zhi Nian doesn’t need to be so nervous. It was indeed me who was too abrupt, not saying anything in advance and just reaching out. Sorry about that.”

Big Sis said with a light and cheerful tone.

She bent slightly toward me with full action force, and the gentle smile on her face made my tensed body gradually relax.

Thankfully… Big Sis didn’t hold my mistake against me.

If I ran into someone who likes to hold grudges, I’d definitely be scolded harshly, right?

Unconsciously associating such things, the heart that had just relaxed suddenly hung high again.

A ripple-like undulating black vortex appeared on the ceiling overhead.

While sucking away the light before my eyes, it also wrapped the entire sky and pressed heavily down toward me.

“Well, Zhi Nian, you don’t need to consider so much.”

A clear knocking sound suddenly rang out, drilling into the collapsing vortex and yanking the chaotic me out in one grab.

Big Sis sitting across the table knocked the tabletop a few times with her index finger, her gaze firmly staring at me.

“This personality of yours hasn’t changed from childhood to now. Too soft; when unexpected situations arise, you always think it’s caused by yourself.”

“Isn’t it because I didn’t do well enough?”