The morning exercise bell from the distant school had long since faded. Qin Yi felt the rooftop’s cold wind had nearly quenched his restlessness.

He put away his phone, regained his calm, and pieced together the cause and effect. He roughly grasped what had happened.

Could she… be Lin Jin transformed?

Qin Yi returned to the room and sat on the chair by the bed. He carefully admired the cat-eared girl’s adorable sleeping face.

She’d clearly woken once in a daze—the quilt he’d tossed aside was now tightly wrapped around her, leaving only her small head exposed. Even in sleep, her cat ears would occasionally flick.

So cute… he almost wanted to… tease her badly.

Most cat owners share a strange quirk: waking their sleeping cats by petting them. Qin Yi felt the same urge.

After watching her a while, he headed downstairs to the steamed bun shop for two breakfast sets. Back in the room, he paused, then rode his old, creaking bicycle to the market.

This small town had no pet shops. Buying live fish for her was necessary.

At the hotel, Lin Jin woke to bright daylight.

Panic surged. Frantically dressing, she mentally cursed her childhood friend: That bastard Qin Yi skipped school without me again! Why didn’t he wake me? Damn it—I’ll definitely be late. Scolded yesterday, and now this? What is this? Stubbornly repeating “Sorry, my bad, won’t happen again” but it does?

Wait—these feet…

Lin Jin, about to put on underwear, widened her emerald-green eyes in disbelief. Her pupils shrank to needle-thin slits. Uh… these tiny feet… so pretty… pink toes like little pearls… My toes could never look like this!

Am I still a cat?

Forgetting her clothes, she hopped on one foot, dragging slippers, to Qin Yi’s full-length mirror.

The mirror didn’t lie. It reflected her truth: cat ears, a cat tail, a girl’s figure, and mesmerizing emerald eyes.

What the fuck!

This is absurd!

Is this me? Could this be me? Could this really be me? This can’t be me!

Waking as a cat was ridiculous enough—but a catgirl? Testing my limits?

Lin Jin vented her helpless fury on Qin Yi’s bedding, then slumped against the bed in dejection.

What do I do? Where’s Qin Yi? That damn bastard—where’d he vanish? Will he even recognize me when he’s back? How can I face anyone like this?

She’d already checked: the cat ears and tail were truly part of her.

What is this? A mutation? A freak? Biohazard?

The only person who knew her state—and the only one she trusted—was gone. Lin Jin plunged into sheer panic.

Like napping alone at home until 4 PM, waking to an empty house.

A feeling of being forgotten by the whole world.