Lost in the tangled mess of emotions in my mind, I suddenly heard a strange “scrape-scrape” sound by my ear, faintly accompanied by a girl’s tsk of dissatisfaction.
Snapping back to reality, I turned my head to look beside me. Not far away, under the ivy climbing the wall, a cat-girl was being overly playful, kicking at the vines with her legs wrapped in thick black tights.
The twisting ivy had snagged her ankle, making her stumble several times in place.
Noticing my gaze, Zhinian quickened her efforts to untangle the vines. As she tugged at them, she kept shooting speculative glances my way, as if worried I’d think she was always this clumsy or even tease her for it.
Seeing this, I simply withdrew my finger from the vending machine’s display screen, crossed my arms, and quietly watched Zhinian—like observing a kitten tangled in a ball of yarn after playing with it.
“Ugh, meow… Gu Fan, stop staring! Hurry up and pick our lunch so we can go.”
Zhinian’s clear, water-like face flushed red in an instant. She pouted her cute cherry lips, her rose-red eyes narrowing slightly, her voice soft and sweet as she spoke to me.
I nodded, saying “Got it,” and turned back to the vending machine. But my peripheral vision stayed on Zhinian, worried she might trip over the ivy.
Being with my not-so-bright childhood cat-girl required constant attention to every detail, staying on high alert. If she got hurt, I’d feel the pain too.
Reflecting on the sudden surge of empathy I’d felt since reconnecting with Zhinian, I noticed she had finally freed herself from the pesky ivy that had gripped her ankle, nearly peeling off her black tights.
“Ugh, how embarrassing!”
Zhinian puffed out her cheeks, wrinkling her little nose. With my attention sharp enough, I caught her muttered grumbling.
After untangling herself from the ivy, Zhinian still seemed to be holding a grudge. Her cat tail behind her was irritably swishing up and down, a clear sign of her bad mood.
As expected, unable to swallow her frustration, Zhinian launched her revenge plan.
Under my peripheral watch, the clumsy black kitty kicked out her foot again. But the untrimmed, overgrown ivy fought back.
When the kitty tried to pull away after venting, the vines mercilessly snagged her slender ankle once more.
“Meow!”
This time, Zhinian’s movements were a bit too dramatic, forcing her to hop on one foot like a comical flamingo.
She stumbled to the wall, gripping it to keep from falling flat on her back like a total klutz.
Zhinian’s face twisted in distress, her eyes drooping slightly, radiating an unspoken sense of grievance.
Seeing this, I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Are you a magnet, Zhinian?”
“Meow? You saw that, Gu Fan? Ugh, I mean, it wasn’t on purpose… Right, it’s my tail’s fault! It hooked the ivy, and I didn’t notice, so I got caught. Yeah, that’s it!”
Zhinian scrambled to weave an excuse to save face, but her word bank seemed a bit lacking.
After stumbling over her words for a while, she somehow managed to cobble together a semi-coherent explanation.
Once she finished justifying herself, Zhinian quickly grabbed the wall with one hand, shakily bending down……to try and tear off the ivy wrapped around her leg.
But this time, the vines were far more numerous and tangled than before, clinging to her calf and knee. Without help, it would take her a long time to free herself.
What’s more, Zhinian’s figure posed a challenge. As she bent down with her entangled right leg raised, most of her view was blocked by her own “cotton balls.”
With a helpless sigh, I walked over and crouched in front of her, gently lifting her right foot to rest on my left shoulder. Patiently, I used both hands to untangle the troublesome ivy for her.
Once I arrived, Zhinian immediately reined in her outward nervousness, obediently entrusting herself to me.
The foot resting on my shoulder was relaxed, showing none of the muscle tension you’d expect from someone in a tricky situation.
Her other hand, hanging idly by her side, alternated between clenching and relaxing, as if an intense internal struggle was unfolding.
Finally, as if the battling sides within her reached a verdict, the winner seized control of her left hand, gently placing it on my right shoulder.
Noticing me look up and squint at her, Zhinian quickly pursed her lips, rushing to justify her left hand’s action with rapid words.
“Uh, I got a bit unsteady and needed to borrow some support. It was instinctive—Gu Fan wouldn’t mind, right?”
A flawless excuse—if I hadn’t noticed that the foot on my shoulder was completely relaxed, perfectly capable of maintaining her balance. I might’ve actually believed her.
Well… cat-girls are different from ordinary people, after all. Though I sometimes tease her…
Zhinian may be a little klutz, but in truth, among the unique variant of cat-girls, she’s quite exceptional.
Her athletic performance has always been impressive since childhood, and her control over her body’s stability is remarkable.
The only reason she stumbled so clumsily when caught earlier was because I was there. Nervousness and panic tend to make Zhinian lose control of her body, turning her awkward and fumbling.
As my thoughts wandered, my hands had already untangled all the pesky ivy vines.
Zhinian reluctantly lowered her right foot to the ground, muttering so softly it was almost inaudible: “Clearly… Gu Fan’s the one being pulled by the magnet.”
Her voice was so faint I wasn’t sure if I’d misheard. By the time I stood up, brushing the dust off my hands, Zhinian’s expression had shifted to the cold indifference she usually reserved for strangers.
Just then, the sun peeked out from behind the mountain. With no clouds to block it, it once again bathed this secluded area in sunlight.
The outline of Zhinian’s profile was gilded with a frosted-glass-like golden glow by the high-hanging sun. Her voice was like steel dipped in cold water.
“Let’s go, Gu Fan. Hurry up and pick lunch so we can head back.”
The girl finished speaking expressionlessly, then turned away, clutching her wildly swishing cat tail in her arms. She walked quickly to the steps under the railway bridge to wait.
I didn’t get another chance to catch her fleeting expressions. All I could see was her upright figure and the shadow cast by the sunlight.
The cat tail she held kept frantically signaling her chaotic emotions with its tip, and her bristling cat ears twitched as if trying to shake off all her troubles.
The rusted train timetable by the steps, stained faintly with rain, gleamed under the sunlight, its shape resembling the silhouette of Zhinian’s melancholic thoughts.
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