Early in the morning, Wen Yang arrived at the school gate.
He lowered his head to check his appearance, using his phone’s front camera to make sure his hair was neat, afraid something might be off.
A small car drove up from the far end of the road.
He glanced at the license plate and immediately straightened up, presenting his most energetic self.
The car stopped in front of Wen Yang. Ning Chu got out from the passenger seat, stretching lazily.
"Mom~ I'm going to class now, okay?" she said.
"I've finally come here, and you don't even plan to walk around your school with me," her mother complained.
"How about you let Black Bean keep you company? I have to go to class," Ning Chu said.
She was still dressed in her usual boyish outfit, which greatly displeased her mother.
"Can't you dress a little nicer? You're a perfectly good young girl, why insist on wearing boy’s clothes?""I'm just afraid the classmates will gossip..." Ning Chu hurriedly waved her hand, fearing her mother would start nagging again. "I'm leaving!"
She jogged over to Wen Yang and stood next to him by the curb.
"I'll take Black Bean back with me then," her mother said.
Turning around, she glanced at the backseat. Black Bean had her nose pressed against the car window, pawing at the glass and looking pitifully at Ning Chu and Wen Yang outside.
"Black Bean, say goodbye to sister."
"Eh..."
"It's alright, you'll see her again in two months," her mother comforted.
Black Bean looked very downcast, her energy completely drained. "Goodbye, sister~"
"Bye-bye! Be good and listen to Mom when you get home!" Ning Chu called out.
Just as she finished speaking, Ning Chu’s expression suddenly changed. She quickly ran up to the car.
"Mom! Wait a second! I need to tell you something!"
"What is it?"
She came to the car door, glanced at Black Bean in the backseat, and whispered to her mother:
"Black Bean is six months old now."
"Hm?"
"She has entered her... mating season..."
Ning Chu’s cheeks flushed as she reminded her:
"She’s still young, so don’t let her get lured away by anyone."
"Like you were?"
"Why bring me into this!" Ning Chu pouted in dissatisfaction and acted spoiled toward her mother.
"Anyway, keep a close eye on her! Originally, If she doesn’t turn into a cat girl, I was planning to have her spayed!"
"Alright, I get it," her mother said, smiling.
Ning Chu rolled her eyes at her mother and then turned back to Black Bean.
"Be good, alright~ Don’t make Mom angry."
"Mom~"
"Call me sister... alright, be good~"
"Okaaay~"
As the car drove away, Black Bean’s eyes stayed glued to Ning Chu until her figure disappeared completely from view.
She pouted, drooped her head, and even her once upright ears drooped down, her tail hanging lifelessly.
"Take a nap for now," Ning Chu's mother said. "When we get home, you’ll have steak to eat."
"Steak!"
Black Bean immediately perked up.
"All you ever think about is eating," Ning Chu's mother said helplessly but with a big smile, shaking her head.
"Who knows which stinky brat will end up stealing you away someday~"
"I’m just gonna stay at home and go nowhere!" Black Bean said earnestly.
. . . . . .
Watching her mother drive away, Ning Chu finally let out a sigh of relief.
She had finally managed to send her mother off, and Black Bean no longer needed her care.
Satisfied, she straightened her back and pulled a sachet out of her pocket, handing it to Wen Yang.
"Here! Yesterday I secretly plucked a bunch of tail hairs and stuffed them all in here."
"Make sure to carry it with you from now on, otherwise that female ghost will come bother you again."
Wen Yang agreed, but he still looked troubled.
"Your mom still doesn’t like me much, huh?"
"Yeah~" Ning Chu said, linking her arm with his and laughing, "But she’s not against us either!"
"That’s good then..."
"Anyway, it’s still early~" she added cheerfully.
Even if they planned to get married after graduation, it would still be more than three years away.
Who knows what might happen by then?
Ning Chu thought of what her mother had said yesterday, and her expression dimmed slightly.
"Wen Yang..." she murmured.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"If... if one day you stop liking me, just be a man and tell me directly," she said.
"???" Wen Yang blinked in confusion.
"Don't be like my dad..." Ning Chu continued, her voice soft. "One day he just got up and left... My mom waited for him for over ten years, but he never came back."
Wen Yang froze, heart aching, and quickly pulled her into a hug.
"That won't happen. Don't overthink it."
"Hopefully..." she said quietly.
"Yo, yo, yo~ Showing off your love in broad daylight?"
A teasing voice interrupted them.
Startled, Ning Chu quickly pulled away from Wen Yang’s arms and turned around.
A car had somehow pulled up behind them without them noticing, and Zhang Shaoqing was leaning his head out of the window, grinning mischievously.
"Wow~ Aren’t you afraid other classmates might see?"
Blushing furiously, Ning Chu kicked at the car door.
"Are you crazy?!"
She didn't dare kick too hard, worried she might damage the car, so she just scuffed the white door with the sole of her shoe, leaving a dirty smudge.
Zhang Shaoqing, who treated his car like his own child, immediately exploded.
"What the hell! Just kick me if you want! Why the hell kick my baby?!"
He jumped out of the car in a panic, grabbed a soft cloth, and carefully wiped the door.
Seeing that there was no real damage, he finally relaxed.
"Nutcase!" Ning Chu snapped.
"You're the nutcase!" Zhang Shaoqing shot back.
Wen Yang could only rub the bridge of his nose in frustration.
Every time these two met, it was either arguing or throwing sarcastic jabs at each other, it’s like they are mortal enemies.
"Alright, alright," Wen Yang tried to break it up. "Shaoqing, why didn’t you come back last night?"
"He probably got beaten so bad by his mom he couldn’t get out of bed." Ning Chu snickered.
Zhang Shaoqing sneered, "I’m a grown man! How could my mom beat me?"
"I just got chased for two whole streets! She couldn’t catch me!" he added smugly.
Ning Chu rolled her eyes at him.
Seeing that this thick-skinned guy still hadn’t "darkened," she felt even more reassured.
Looks like only emotional problems could push Zhang Shaoqing toward blackening.
Zhang Shaoqing got back into the car and waved at them.
"Get in. I’ll drive you two to class."
"You both probably don't know, but for the last few days, I was busy with a bunch of blind dates," he said proudly as they got in.
"Yet not a single cat girl among them! Damn it!"
Ning Chu had originally planned to introduce Black Bean to Zhang Shaoqing after she transformed into a cat girl.
But this guy was so impatient he couldn’t even wait a day and completely missed the opportunity.
Given Black Bean’s appearance, which is about ten years old in human terms, this pervert Zhang Shaoqing might really have dared to make a move if he had the chance!
Well, that was just how he was, at least according to the story she wrote.
"Hey, by the way," Zhang Shaoqing said as he slowly drove toward the teaching building, which wasn’t far from the parking lot,
"Did you guys finish the group project last night?"
"Remember, I’m only responsible for the in-class presentation. You guys need to give me a script to read from, otherwise I’ll have no idea what’s going on."
"Can't you just study it yourself?" Ning Chu asked.
"I’m just here to coast through college," he said shamelessly.
There were some students who pushed themselves harder than they did before the college entrance exams, but there were also plenty like Zhang Shaoqing, who were just coasting by.
Ning Chu was one of them too.
She sighed. "Fine, I’ll write the script for you in a couple of days. Just read from it when the time comes."
"Oh right, did you hear about Wang Jie?" she added suddenly.
Zhang Shaoqing blinked. "What about him?"
"His girlfriend drained him dry~" Ning Chu said with a giggle. "Yesterday, he could barely walk into the classroom, and he just happened to run into the one-kilometer physical test. The poor guy nearly collapsed."
Zhang Shaoqing had just parked the car. He turned around to look at Wen Yang and Ning Chu in the backseat.
“Wen Yang, how come you’re not limping yet?”
Wen Yang gave a shy smile.
“Still working on it.”
Working on it, my ass! Ning Chu cursed silently.
She jabbed Wen Yang in the side before snapping at Zhang Shaoqing.
"Mind your own damn business!"
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