Trembling, I raised my phone above my head and awkwardly switched to the front camera.
I’ve never liked using my phone to document things, nor have I ever had the habit of dressing up nicely to take selfies to post online or keep for myself.
Even now, though I’ve technically become a girl, I still haven’t developed that awareness to preserve my beauty.
Through the camera, I saw the black-haired catgirl on the screen, her hair a bit messy, her cat ears slightly curled inward. No matter how I reached out to smooth them, they wouldn’t straighten—the tension deep inside me causing this.
Maybe I should just give up?
I hadn’t properly taken care of my skin or soaked in a bath for days. At most, I had quickly tied up my hair and taken a fast shower before going out today.
On top of that, the dress and outfit I wore today weren’t all that pretty. I rushed out without putting on my nicest dresses since I wasn’t meeting Gu Fan for a date.
These tights have been worn for days too. Although they don’t smell much, I still despise this version of myself.
Just as cowardice crept in, the devil reappeared before my eyes, painting a vivid picture of Gu Fan being successfully charmed by me.
“Trust in the catgirl’s charm. As long as you take a slightly bold step, no matter how much he tries to keep up his gentlemanly facade, he won’t be able to resist.”
Unconsciously swallowing, I scanned my surroundings and, seeing the corridor was nearly empty, steeled myself.
I was about to head into the restroom and find the stall in the farthest corner to carry out the devil’s plan when suddenly an angel appeared on my phone screen, fluttering its wings as it guided a catgirl with similar hair color to me over.
“Yo~ little catgirl, long time no see.”
Leaning on a wooden sign, a black-robed catgirl yawned lazily. When I turned my head to look at her with a wary gaze, she casually waved her palm at me.
“Want your fortune told? You’re my first customer today, so I’ll give you half off.”
The fortune teller, a black-robed catgirl, pushed back her slightly slipping sunglasses with her finger, covering her eyes.
Only then did I notice the writing on the wooden sign.
“Pure ancient-style fortune telling, fair to all—marriage, studies, wealth… everything you can imagine. From the past’s history to the future yet to happen, I can tell it all. One reading costs just one hundred yuan.”
The brush-written characters flowed across the wooden board, but the only thing that felt out of place was the freshly printed QR code sticker pasted at the bottom.
This was a perfect example of combining tradition with modern times—true progress, perhaps?
Though I doubted the professionalism of this black-robed catgirl, I recalled being stopped by a catgirl using a crystal ball for divination a few months ago. Upon closer observation, it seemed that the crystal ball fortune teller was this very same catgirl standing before me.
“How about it? Pretty cheap, right?”
The fortune teller raised her unusually thick eyebrows and grinned, leaning toward me.
Recalling the past, I took a small step back and replied coldly,
“If I’m not mistaken, last time it was only ten yuan per reading, wasn’t it?”
“Uh… how do you remember that so clearly?”
Caught off guard by my call-out, the fortune teller’s expression stiffened. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly before explaining with a bitter smile.
“The market’s tough these days. It takes days to save up enough for some good food. Young people don’t really believe in this stuff anymore. If I don’t rely on other cats, I can’t even fill my belly.”
I didn’t quite understand her last sentence, but what I cared about most was whether this fortune teller could, like last time, use her cryptic divinations to give me some ‘conquest’ tips or inspiration for dealing with Gu Fan.
The angel and devil flying around on my phone screen and before me vanished without a trace with the fortune teller’s arrival.
I exited the selfie camera and aimed at the QR code on the wooden sign, about to scan a hundred yuan to try it out when the fortune teller suddenly reached out and stopped me.
“Hey, wait. Let me give you a free reading first. Consider it a gift for old friends meeting again.”
“… Fine.”
A free pie falling from the sky is not to be refused.
I shrugged, letting the much older black-robed catgirl dance around me in a mysterious way before she grabbed my palm and carefully traced the lines in my hand.
“Hmm? Such a big change. It wasn’t like this last time. Strange.”
The fortune teller muttered, leaning close, lowering her sunglasses slightly to reveal her faintly purple vertical pupils staring at me.
This was the first time I’d been this close to another catgirl, and my heart skipped a beat.
Then I marveled at how unique the catgirl species were—eyes like these were extremely rare in reality, just like my blood-red eyes. Anyone unfamiliar with me would be startled at first glance.
“I’ll take a look to see what caused such a big change in your fate in just a few months.”
The fortune teller rambled on as if no one else was there. Maybe I lacked insight or was too dull-witted, but I couldn’t understand a single technical term she muttered.
I even felt like there was some hypnotic effect, causing me to yawn involuntarily.
Only when my eyelids began to droop did the fortune teller suddenly cry out, “Ouch!” and jump aside, her eyebrows raised high as she waved the wooden sign like shooing away some strange flying things circling her.
I quietly observed for a moment, about to turn and leave out of boredom when she called out to stop me.
“Hey, don’t go! I got your reading. There were some resentful spirits from parallel worlds coming to settle scores with me just now. They somehow got attached to you. After I pulled them out, they were really pissed off. This exorcism won’t cost you a thing.”
An exorcism? Looks like I’m quite a hated catgirl if resentments from parallel worlds cling to me.
I wore a polite smile and nodded lightly at the fortune teller’s nonsense, not really taking it to heart.
After all, aside from waking up one day reborn as a catgirl and the red-eyed catgirl I’d seen like a hallucination a few days ago, I hadn’t encountered any other unusual or strange events.
“So then, fortune teller, do you know how to solve my current troubles?”
I looked at her with as gentle an expression as I could muster, cutting straight to the point I most wanted to know.
I was too annoyed to listen to any more pointless chatter.