During the break, Su Nianyao went to the restroom, and when she returned, she found a small note secretly slipped into the crack of the windowsill.
The handwriting was delicate: Yaoyao, your desk is on the rooftop.
Yaoyao?
Su Nianyao was full of confusion. Since when did she have a friend who could call her by a nickname?
She scanned the entire classroom but still couldn’t guess who had slipped her the note.
Forget it. Rather than asking others, she decided to retrieve her own desk and chair herself.
As soon as Su Nianyao stepped onto the stairs, light footsteps came from behind her.
Before she could turn around, someone suddenly grabbed her by the back of her collar and dragged her all the way to the rooftop.
“Bang—”
The rooftop door slammed shut, and the lock clicked into place from the outside.
…She had forgotten again. Right now, she attracted aggro with perfect accuracy and had a born-to-be-bullied label attached to her. According to the setting, anyone could rack up achievements by bullying her.
She calmly brushed nonexistent dust off her skirt, stood up, looked at the tightly shut iron door, and sighed in resignation.
Well, today she was destined to skip class.
Leaning against the wall and spacing out, she remembered that the next period was French, an elective language class, and the lesson was specifically about phonetics. She had picked up a little here and there before, but her pronunciation was still nonstandard. Missing class now would make her fall behind, and falling behind would trigger her aggro passive, trapping her in the vicious cycle of being teased, the teasing escalating, being bullied, and the bullying escalating.
Just thinking about it made her head ache.
She couldn’t stay trapped in this loop, like someone endlessly walking into a ghost wall. If she did, she still wouldn’t have time to win over Jiang Tang by the time the college entrance exam and graduation rolled around!
What if the person she liked was into top students and she failed her exams? Wouldn’t all her efforts be like drawing water with a bamboo basket, leaving her with nothing?
“Mimi~”
Speak of the devil. A voice filled with teasing amusement suddenly sounded from behind her.
Su Nianyao whipped her head around. Before she could feel glad that Jiang Tang had delivered herself right to her door, she was so shocked by the transformed rooftop that her eyes widened.
The open-air rooftop, which had originally been scorching under the sun, was now covered in lush green artificial turf, like a miniature sports field.
A camping canopy stood on the turf, a few delicate potted flowers sat in the corner, and a small round table surrounded by cozy lounge chairs occupied the middle. There was even an oversized lounge chair that could double as a bed. A projector and a whiteboard stood beside it, fully equipped, while a bladeless air conditioner slowly blew cool air beneath the canopy, forcibly transforming the sweltering rooftop into a private little haven.
Jiang Tang lounged lazily in one of the chairs, having changed into a simple, elegant long dress. She looked at Su Nianyao with a smile, her eyes and brows curving as she crooked a finger and slowly called out, “Mimi, come here~”
“Why are you here?”
The moment Su Nianyao saw Jiang Tang, her taut nerves inexplicably relaxed.
“I’ve requisitioned this rooftop…” Jiang Tang said with complete confidence before chuckling. “Mm, for petting cats.”
Petting cats?
Su Nianyao looked around but couldn’t see even half a cat. Instead, she spotted several cat teaser wands, including feather ones, pom-pom ones, and ribbon ones, with an absurdly complete variety of styles.
She couldn’t help marveling silently. If the Jiang family’s butler saw the young lady squandering money like this at school, he’d probably get such a headache that he’d have to hold his forehead. Rich people really could do whatever they wanted.
But Su Nianyao had no intention of taking over the butler’s job and policing the young lady’s spending habits.
That would cost extra.
Since she was already here, she wanted to first figure out what exactly Jiang Tang liked about her. If it was only her looks that had pushed the Affection Rating to 99, then she’d really need to save money to buy some Charm Halos to wear.
She decided to make use of what was available and test the waters. Today’s persona was a poor but outstanding student who loved learning and was indomitable.
“Open the door. I need to go back to class.”
“What class?” Jiang Tang tilted her head, her eyes full of mockery. “French class?”
Oh?
She could accept it and even cooperate this much?
Su Nianyao deliberately put on a stern face. “You clearly know, yet you still ask on purpose.”
“Why would a kitty learn some tongue-twisting foreign language? There’s no need.” Jiang Tang waved her over carelessly. “Come sit.”
“…”
Young lady, please stop making up these strange nicknames. She was about to break character.
“Sit down obediently, Mimi.” Jiang Tang pointed at the turf by her feet.
Su Nianyao stood still, stubbornly maintaining her persona as a resilient little white flower and a poor but outstanding student. “You were the one who had people drag me here and lock the door, right?”
“Mm, isn’t it obvious?” Jiang Tang admitted calmly, without the slightest attempt to hide it.
“…”
Shouldn’t you deny it a little so the two of us can go back and forth for a few rounds? It’s really hard for me to keep acting all by myself like this!
“Sit.” Jiang Tang repeated in a tone that allowed no refusal. “Don’t make me move. Otherwise, I’ll just have someone tie you up and bring you over to sit.”
Su Nianyao was helpless against the young lady baring her claws. She had made her move, but the other person refused to play along. She could only walk over obediently and sit quietly by her feet.
“Lean your head over.”
Jiang Tang reached out and gently pressed the back of her neck, guiding her head onto her lap.
Su Nianyao’s heart skipped a beat.
She kept calling her Mimi and had prepared a whole bunch of cat teaser wands. Could it be… that the cat she wanted to pet on the rooftop was Su Nianyao herself?
A pair of warm hands had already slipped into her hair, slowly lifting a few strands and idly braiding them into little plaits.
“Yesterday after school, why didn’t you refute what those people said?” Jiang Tang asked first, her tone light.
“Huh?”
Jiang Tang’s fingers combed through her hair with a gentle, comfortable pressure. Lying on her lap, Su Nianyao inexplicably felt a little sleepy, and her voice came out muffled.
“Yesterday at the school gate, someone said you were my follower dog.”
Was she really this direct?
Su Nianyao was stunned for a moment. Faced with the choice between pretending to be aggrieved and pretending to be strong, she chose to pretend not to understand. “How did you know?”
“There is nothing in this entire school that I don’t know.” Jiang Tang’s tone carried a hint of proud certainty. “I’m asking you why you didn’t refute it.”
“There’s nothing worth arguing about. It’s just a bunch of idle people gossiping for no reason.”
“You are not a dog.”
Su Nianyao instinctively looked up at her.
Jiang Tang lowered her eyes, her gaze settling seriously on Su Nianyao’s face.
“You are my Wild Cat.”
Su Nianyao: …
Goosebumps instantly crawled up her arms. Could she please stop being so mushy?
Could Jiang Tang be trying to flirt with her?
“Don’t tell me you don’t want to be my little Wild Cat and actually want to be my follower dog?” Jiang Tang wore a cool, leisurely smile and lightly pinched her cheek. “Being my dog isn’t that easy. In this blazing heat, you’d have to climb over the school wall and line up to buy me a strawberry milkshake.”
Su Nianyao instinctively glanced at the scorching sun outside, where even the air seemed to ripple from the heat.
Forget it, forget it. If being a cat in Jiang Tang’s heart meant being a cat, then so be it. At least being a cat was comfortable and required no effort.
Just as she was secretly compromising, Jiang Tang lightly tugged at the back of her collar again.
Su Nianyao straightened up with the pull, not noticing that two cat-ear-shaped buns had appeared on her head.
Jiang Tang propped her chin on one hand and looked over her appearance with satisfaction, her eyes full of mischievous delight.
“Come up and sit, Mimi.” She patted the side of the lounge chair.
Su Nianyao looked at the wide, soft lounge chair. At least it was more comfortable than sitting on the floor!
The air conditioner was blowing just right over there. How could that not count as taking advantage of the situation?
Even if she was supposed to win the other person over, she couldn’t mistreat herself.
She nimbly climbed onto the chair. Afraid of crowding Jiang Tang, she turned sideways and leaned against the armrest, only for Jiang Tang to press her head back onto her lap.
Warm fingertips wove through her hair, their movements light and gentle, exactly like someone petting a cat.
The cat herself asked irritably, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
She felt terribly itchy. Every place Jiang Tang touched seemed to itch in a way that made her slightly uncomfortable.
“Shh, class is starting.”
Jiang Tang snapped her fingers crisply.