“Thump! Thump!”
My heart pounded fiercely, but not in that way it does when I’m close to Gu Fan, when it beats in rhythm and releases that mysterious energy called ‘happiness’, nourishing my catgirl body, my tail perking up and swaying gently in the wind.
Right now, my cat tail drooped low to the ground, unmoving and stiff, as if it were dead. If you looked closely, you might see that the jet-black fur was bristling, tense and on guard.
Just as I expected, Father, Grandfather, and Mother were all waiting in the courtyard.
Grandfather sat on the steps at the entrance to the main house. Maybe Grandmother had helped bring out that old armchair for him. He was lying there at ease, a sandalwood cane resting on the armrest.
His half-squinted eyes were fixed sharply on the gate where I stood. The moment he saw me, a glint of excitement flashed in them.
The money tree has finally come home—it’s only natural Grandfather is happy, right? With his chauvinistic temper, he might start shouting and lashing out at me at any second.
I could only blame myself for being too perceptive and observant. No matter how hard I tried to ignore everyone’s changing expressions in the courtyard, my excellent catgirl instincts picked them up and tossed them into my mind for me to process.
Grandmother still sat on the vine swing, but she wasn’t swinging it. She just sat there quietly, her eyes lowered to the ground, so still she almost seemed like a statue.
Standing beside Grandmother was a black-haired catgirl whose features somewhat resembled hers.
But unlike Grandmother’s gentle, naturally graceful aura, this black-haired catgirl’s face was cold, her crimson eyes staring at me with an icy gaze, like I was facing a frozen iceberg from the arctic.
Under her emotionless stare, it felt like I had fallen into hell, my whole life being weighed by a merciless judge.
“Hu…..”
I secretly let out a breath, forcing myself to calm down. I couldn’t let nerves make me faint before the confrontation even began.
My body was tense to a strange degree, and I didn’t even know if I looked weird in the eyes of the others.
If anything, I could only blame my catgirl constitution—too sensitive, overly flexible, making me look awkward and twisted.
After a fleeting moment of wild thoughts, I clenched my fists and forced myself to straighten my back, moving forward a few steps. Then I slowed down, turned, and closed the gate behind me, locking it tight.
The rustling conversations in the courtyard vanished the instant I stepped in, like ghosts melting away. It was as if no one had ever spoken at all.
The other four people simply ‘welcomed’ me home each in their own way.
To my surprise, the one I expected to speak first—Grandfather, Mr. Shen, who always saw himself as the head of the family—just stared at me with those faintly excited eyes, his mouth tightly shut.
“Zhi Nian, you’re back.”
The man’s voice that echoed through the courtyard was so gentle it felt like a warm spring breeze. If you didn’t look at the speaker’s face, you might have thought he was a young, handsome boy.
I followed the sound to the corner of the yard. A cluster of manmade bamboo fencing stood quietly there, and a tall young man stood with his back to everyone, his dark blue coat fluttering lightly with the wind and the rustling leaves.
After speaking, he slowly turned around, his ambiguous, peach blossom eyes gradually focusing on me. Yet in them, I sensed something like my mother’s—an intentional, false concealment of emotion.
“……. Did you need something? I’m in a hurry, very busy.”
Maybe it was just that Father lacked experience talking to a daughter he’d been separated from for years. Normally so eloquent, he now seemed much more silent.
Grandfather, sitting on the main house steps, was the first to reply.
“Busy? Your father wants to take you to the big city to enjoy life. Why are you as clueless as your mother and grandmother, you silly cat? Stupidity runs in the family!”
Grandfather’s legs might be weak, but his tongue was as sharp as ever.
Hearing his particularly cutting words, I couldn’t help but frown tightly, quickly stringing together a retort in my mind, but in the end, I just sulked in silence.
Forget it, there’s no point arguing with an old, stubborn man. He can say whatever he wants. The only person whose opinion matters to me is Father.
Mother and Grandmother, also present, showed no displeasure at Grandfather’s words. Maybe they were just used to it, or maybe, like me, they simply couldn’t be bothered to respond.
What caught me off guard was Father, who gave a half-smile and slyly said, “Father-in-law, you’re getting on in years. Maybe you didn’t think through your words. This is my family matter. I don’t want Yuan’er or Zhi Nian hearing this kind of thing again.”
Grandfather grumbled at that, instantly deflating and reclining back in the armchair, waving a hand for Father to deal with it.
Seeing this, Father quietly stepped out from under the shadow of the bamboo fence into the sunlit courtyard, stopping less than ten paces from me.
At that moment, I suddenly heard a soft creak as the vine swing moved.
“We’re already divorced, Lin Chengxiao. Please remember that. This is ‘our’ family matter, and there’s no need for an outsider like you to interfere.”
That cool, emotionless voice, as calm as if reading from a book, belonged to Mother, who was standing beside Grandmother.
She clicked along in her low heels, walking toward us step by step, finally stopping at a spot neither too near nor too far, forming a triangle between the three of us.
Father narrowed his peach blossom eyes slightly. Even as Mother jabbed at him so bluntly, he showed not a trace of anger, looking at her instead with the fondness of a man watching his sulky young wife.
“I know, Sister Shen Yuan… This is the foolish mistake I made back then. How could I forget? Now that I’ve finally dealt with all those company troubles, I just want to make it up to you and Zhi Nian.”
“Drop the act. I already told you inside—however many women you secretly met in those hotels on ‘business’, I know better than you. Don’t get too caught up in your own drama, Lin Chengxiao.”
“Ai… I had no choice back then. I know you both have issues with me, and I know I made an unforgivable mistake. If you can’t forgive me for now, at least let me make it up to Zhi Nian, all right? We can’t afford to wait—Huacheng’s education is what’s best for Zhi Nian.”
In the sparring words between Mother and Father, the topic suddenly shifted to me.
Sensing the four people I was most closely related to staring at me with their unreadable eyes, I felt as if I were wearing a heavy suit of iron, so oppressed I wanted to throw up.
“Zhi Nian, you make the decision yourself. If you go with him to Huacheng, then you don’t need to contact me again.”
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