After saying her goodbyes to Qin Yumo, Xu Yinsheng took her previously worn clothes and left the room, heading toward the Viscount’s chambers.
As for those words she had just spoken—of course, they were lies.
Boyfriend?
How could she possibly have a boyfriend?!
At best, Zhao Yicheng could be considered half a childhood friend, or maybe a quarter of a boyfriend, but if Zhao Yicheng came looking for her, she’d rather die than go back.
If she truly returned, wouldn’t the rest of her life be like being welded inside an iron cage?
Those words were just meant to calm people down.
Now she had more than ten fixed hours each day in her shape-shifting form.
Hiding was simply impossible.
It was better to pull a clever escape and live as the silver-haired cat-eared girl beside Viscount Weili for another half month.
While Xu Yinsheng pondered how to convince her parents after half a month that this cat-eared girl was actually their son, she rounded a corner and accidentally collided headfirst into someone.
“Sorry.” “You again?”
Xu Yinsheng looked up.
The man before her was tall, average-looking, dressed in plain white—utterly unremarkable, the kind you’d never notice in a crowd.
“Here to sneak snacks from the pastry room again?”
The white-clothed man raised an eyebrow teasingly.
After running into Xu Yinsheng at the pastry room so many times, he already knew she wasn’t there for the pastries.
She used skipping class as an excuse to steal snacks and even competed with his cat for food.
Truly, the world had gone downhill, and people were not as they used to be.
“Cough, cough.”
Xu Yinsheng choked on his words and coughed twice.
What do you mean stealing?
This was her rightful reward as a maid!
The white-clothed man ignored her and glanced around the flower bushes, seemingly searching for something.
After finding nothing, he turned back to Xu Yinsheng, who was holding several pieces of clothing, and asked, “Have you seen a blue-and-white cat?”
“No.”
Xu Yinsheng shook her head.
Along the way, she hadn’t seen a single cat, or even a ghostly shadow.
Only Qin Yumo kept glancing back every few steps, reluctant to say goodbye.
“Sigh, it’s gone missing again.”
The white-clothed man sighed.
“Really troublesome. I’ll have to buy a cat cage when I get back.”
“No way!”
A loud shout rang out.
The white-clothed man looked over.
Xu Yinsheng only then realized she had overreacted and lightly cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment.
She’d slipped into her cat persona again.
Sigh, it was all Zhao Yicheng’s fault!
If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t carry such a huge psychological shadow!
“Well, I mean, keeping a cat locked in a cage isn’t good for its development,” Xu Yinsheng tried to explain.
Hearing this, the man thought for a moment and nodded.
“You’re right. Then I’ll get a collar with a tracker. Otherwise, if someone kidnaps it for cat meat hotpot, we wouldn’t even know.”
Xu Yinsheng: …
Well, that does make sense.
They didn’t chat any further and parted ways.
The man continued searching for the cat while Xu Yinsheng carried the clothes and quietly knocked on the Viscount’s door.
The door wasn’t locked—probably to accommodate Xu Yinsheng.
The furniture was neatly arranged, and the room was tidy.
The window was open, allowing golden sunlight to pour in and bathe her in warmth.
As soon as she entered, Xu Yinsheng closed the door behind her and instantly activated her shape-shifting ability, transforming into a silver-haired cat-eared girl.
Her perspective immediately lowered, a cool breeze brushing her head and tail.
The cat ears were fully exposed to the air.
Xu Yinsheng tossed the clothes onto the sofa and walked over to a full-length mirror.
In the mirror was a head of snowy white, shining hair, dazzling like frost atop a mountain peak.
Her face was petite, eyes not particularly large, with a sharp nose and soft lip line, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned—she looked like a doll.
Her ruby eyes gleamed with clarity, full of mystery and allure.
The fluffy white cat ears were unlike human ears—like a 3D version of an anime character, lively and adorable.
Xu Yinsheng glanced at her reflection and then lifted her right hand to gently touch the cat ear on the left side of her head, murmuring, “Looks like the ears on top are more for decoration.”
She had once seen a heated discussion on a forum about monster girls, especially over the number of ears cat girls had.
Now, as the world’s only cat-eared girl, Xu Yinsheng could definitively answer that question.
The pair of cute cat ears on her head were more ornamental than functional; her hearing still relied on the human ears on the sides of her head.
After posing in front of the mirror for a while and trying out every cat girl pose she could remember from her wildest fantasies, Xu Yinsheng regretted that her phone had been stolen—otherwise, she could’ve taken some photos as keepsakes.
After all, as a popular character in human fantasy works and a regular in all sorts of anime, she was the dream material for countless otaku.
Even a spoiled brat like Xu Yinsheng had fantasized about having a cat girl of her own.
Some of her ex-girlfriends had even liked cosplaying as cat girls.
Once she’d played to her heart’s content, the big cat leapt onto the large bed.
Time to sleep.
Night.
In the dimly lit room, a small bedside lamp gave off a soft, warm glow.
The silver-haired cat-eared girl was holding a fairy tale book, telling a story to the man lying in bed wearing a grayish-white mask on his robe, looking like a well-behaved child.
“…And finally, the Frog Prince ignited the nuclear bomb, and all the frogs in the kingdom saw their wicked queen.” Closing the book she had somehow pulled from the bookshelf, the man swallowed a sleeping pill and fell asleep without her noticing.
Xu Yinsheng puckered her lips in disdain.
She had thought he was a delusional believer and that she’d be well fed and cared for.
But come nightfall, he’d pull out a book and have her read bedtime stories.
She switched off the lamp on the nightstand, but the man continued sleeping soundly.
Xu Yinsheng chose not to rest in the room.
Instead, she quietly and carefully slipped out, trying not to make a sound.
Closing the door silently behind her, she transformed into a red-haired Valkyrie and headed in an unknown direction.
The manor at night was peaceful and serene.
There were few patrols, and security was so lax it hardly seemed like a traditional manor.
Xu Yinsheng didn’t need much effort to reach the outside wall.
Of course, she had no intention of escaping.
Viscount Weili wasn’t Zhao Yicheng.
Though also mentally unstable, he wouldn’t forcibly hold her captive.
She just wanted to climb the wall and see the real world outside.
Whether it was a woman’s intuition or something else, Xu Yinsheng felt an inner voice urging her to go out and take a look.
The wall was nearly five meters high and over ten centimeters thick.
Razor-sharp thorns atop it stabbed the skin painfully.
Climbing such a wall was no easy feat.
Most would be intimidated by the towering wall, but Xu Yinsheng was no ordinary person.
After carefully confirming no one was around and that the surveillance cameras were off, she transformed back into the female version of Xu Yinsheng she rarely used—her perfect “blank slate” form for fusion.
Then, slowly raising her hand, her delicate fingers tapped three points in midair.
“Bloodline Loli’s Agility, Dawn Valkyrie Lina Kox’s Physique, Silver-haired Cat Girl’s Swiftness.”
Xu Yinsheng got a bit cheeky here.
Immediately, a pair of small, translucent bloodline wings sprouted atop her head.
To her left appeared a figure of a sharp, red-armored woman wielding a crimson dragon spear.
To her right curled a tiny, irresistibly cute silver-haired cat girl’s apparition.