Facing his best friend’s accusation, Lin Jin stammered after a pause, "I... I don’t know either."

Seeing Lin Jin so utterly lost, Qin Yi’s heart clenched. He suggested gently, "Should we tell Aunt Lin?"

"Hmm..." The Kitten Girl shook her head. "I don’t want Mom worrying about me."

*She’d worry even more if you stay silent,* Qin Yi thought but kept it to himself.

Silence.

Heavy, suffocating silence.

The cat-eared girl grew increasingly restless. She murmured, almost pleading, "Hey... Qin Yi. What should I do? Please help me."

Her tearful eyes were heartbreakingly beautiful—like a white dove stained with blood.

Qin Yi stared, momentarily entranced.

*She’s all alone now. Only I know her secret. She has no one but me to trust. No one but me to rely on.*

*She’s so fragile—like dew on lily petals. One ray of morning sun, and she’d vanish on the breeze.*

*So... I want that dewdrop to belong to me alone.*

*Mine to take. Mine to keep. Mine to break.*

*To make her cry until those lovely eyes forever glistened with unshed tears.*

*What a beautiful sight that would be.*

*With my resources, I could erase her from this world completely. Keep her ignorant. Keep her helpless. Make her cling to me like a dodder vine—parasitic, dependent. No knowledge. No society. No escape.*

*Trap her in eternal darkness. Steal her chance at light.*

*Then I’d be her only master. Her sole owner.*

*I could mold her into anything I desired.*

*I’ve become a devil.*

*I am a devil.*

*How could I think such things?*

*This is Lin Jin—not some naive Kitten Girl!*

*She’s my childhood friend. My brother. My confidant!*

*Thank god reason crushed that monstrous urge before it grew.*

Qin Yi snapped back to reality, cold sweat breaking out on his skin. He looked away, unable to face those innocent, jade-green eyes.

*What darkness lives in me? I’m no better than a demon!*

Truthfully, such twisted feelings weren’t entirely unexpected for Qin Yi.

Orphaned young, he’d never learned how to love or be loved properly. Only Aunt Lin’s kindness later had kept him from spiraling.

But this was also raw human instinct: given enough temptation, even saints could turn monstrous. Especially when absolute power over another ignited the hunger to dominate, to violate.

Sometimes, crime wasn’t about punishment—it was about whether the temptation outweighed the conscience.

The lapse lasted only a heartbeat. Lin Jin, the Kitten Girl, noticed nothing. No alarm flickered in her trusting gaze.

Qin Yi steadied his racing heart and snorted at himself. *What am I doing? This is a society ruled by law. Core socialist values stand firm. Where do these filthy thoughts even come from?*

Besides—in his view, a man’s desires should roar like a sunlit river, not fester like a filthy backwater.

If he wanted her? He’d pursue her openly. No shame. No shadows.

What Qin Yi didn’t realize was the fatal flaw in his own reasoning:

Had Lin Jin truly been just a naive, ignorant catgirl—not his friend—he hadn’t denied he might have acted on those dark urges.