“Meow, meow!”

Only after Gao Liang nodded in satisfaction did the girl finally stop, looking pitiful. Even then, her mouth still moved on its own, as if she were still meowing.

It took a while before she raised her head in grievance. Her eyes held complicated emotions. The most obvious one was pleading, but there was probably something Gao Liang hadn’t noticed.

A thick surge of humiliation, anger, and killing intent.

“So now you can take me with you, right? Uwaa... I wanna go home—”

The girl pleaded in a teary, mumbling voice. Gao Liang nodded, pointed at the textbook on the desk, then walked to the windowsill and beckoned to her.

“Grab the book. We’re leaving through here. It’s only the second floor, not that high. You’ll be fine.”

“Uh...”

The girl picked up the book and walked to the window hesitantly. She looked down, then turned back to Gao Liang with a slightly pale face.

“Th-This can work?”

“No problem. I’ll show you first!”

As he spoke, Gao Liang jumped onto the windowsill, felt his way along the edge, found the angle, and leaped over to the drainpipe.

Then, with two easy movements, he slid down using the pipe and landed steadily on the ground.

The whole sequence left Lin Lin dumbfounded.

Th-This, this, this...

What amazing moves. Seriously amazing...

Lin Lin even wanted to clap, until Gao Liang shouted up at her from below:

“Hey, Lin Lin! Toss the book down first, then jump down like I did. It’s not hard!”

“Uh...”

Lin Lin lowered her head and looked at the ground.

Hiss—

It was only the second floor, so there wasn’t really much to hiss at, but she still really wanted to hiss.

Th-This...

Actually, it was still kinda high.

What if she just... totally didn’t dare jump?

The girl hesitated for a long time. Seeing how scared she was, Gao Liang started to feel troubled too.

“Hey, Lin Lin, how about I go get a teacher?”

“Th...” The girl glanced fearfully at the dim old classroom and asked downstairs in a trembling voice, “How long would that take?”

“Well... at this hour, there probably aren’t many people left at school. About an hour, I guess. At the very least, it’d take an hour to get you out.”

A-An hour?

Hiss—

The girl suddenly felt gusts of cold wind behind her. A strange itch crept over her ankle, like someone had suddenly grabbed it. She was so scared she hurriedly turned her head to look around, and then...

She got even more scared. Uwaa.

“N-No, no, no, that won’t work. Gao Liang, c-can you climb back up?”

The girl called down helplessly.

Uh...

Gao Liang wiped his sweat. Yeah... that really did seem impossible for him.

“Then just jump down!” Gao Liang shouted from below. “It’s fine. It’s not high. I’ll catch you!”

“Really?”

Lin Lin felt the yin chill behind her growing heavier and heavier. No good. She had to get out of here fast.

With his promise to catch her, Lin Lin finally gathered her courage. She climbed onto the windowsill and took another look.

Mm... he was right. The drainpipe really wasn’t far. If she could grab it, she could slide down easily.

And if that failed, she could just jump. At worst, she’d sprain an ankle.

It was just...

Still a little high.

The girl felt dizzy for a moment. Down below, Gao Liang was still shouting encouragement.

“Lin Lin, don’t worry! I’ll catch you!”

The girl looked down at him with his arms spread open, closed her eyes, nodded, and then...

Jumped!

“Whoosh—!”

A sharp rush of wind sounded as the girl completed an elegant little cat-like leap.

The only problem was...

In her panic, she forgot to jump toward the drainpipe.

So the girl dropped straight toward the ground. Gao Liang rushed to where he predicted she would land, and then—

“Bang—!”

Gao Liang: dead.

...

“Awuu... that hurts...”

Only after quite a while did Lin Lin crawl out of Gao Liang’s arms. She held her head, her eyes still wet with tears—whether from the humiliation of meowing earlier or from the fall just now, who knew.

There were some bruises on her arms, and her knees too, but no scrapes and no bleeding.

Phew... thank goodness, thank goodness. That scared me to death. I thought I was gonna get smashed stupid.

Good thing... it seemed like she’d landed on something and gotten a bit of cushioning.

...

Wait, she landed on...

“Gao Liang!”

The girl hurriedly looked down. Only then did she realize she was sitting on Gao Liang’s thighs, while his arms were wrapped tightly around her waist. When he saw that she’d noticed, he finally let go.

“Cough, cough... Lin Lin, y-you should stop sitting on top of me. It really hurts...”

“Ah, sorry, sorry!”

The girl hurriedly got up in embarrassment, then helped pull Gao Liang into a sitting position. He was breathing heavily, and it looked like she’d hit him pretty hard.

Uh...

Lin Lin stood to the side with her head lowered in shame. Once he’d recovered a little, she leaned closer and awkwardly checked whether he had any wounds. She even wanted to touch him and see, but managed to stop herself in the end.

Even if this guy was her mortal enemy, and even if she was usually pretty happy to see him suffer...

If he got hurt because of her, then she still felt... kind of bad about it.

“Um, Gao Liang... are you okay?”

“Mm... I’m fine. Though this little kitty’s jumping skills still need work.” Gao Liang patted himself off and looked at her with a helpless smile. “Aren’t cats supposed to be good at jumping? Didn’t they say even twenty-story buildings are no problem?”

“I’m not a real cat!”

Lin Lin was truly speechless. At a time like this, if it were her, she’d already be lying on the ground demanding medical fees! And this guy still had the spare energy to joke about that?

“Well, I guess I can’t really blame you, Lin Lin. I heard that if the height is too low, a lot of kittens actually die because they don’t have time to adjust their landing posture.” He waved it off. “Anyway, let’s call it here for tonight. Lin Lin, I’m heading home.”

“Oh...” Lin Lin nodded. She should probably head home too.

But before he left—

Lin Lin suddenly reached out and grabbed Gao Liang.

“Um...” The girl lowered her head and asked shyly, “That thing you promised me... you’ll do it, right? You’ll still tutor me, right?”

“Mm, probably? But I don’t want to do tutoring in this kind of tiny classroom anymore. There’s no space, and it’s too stuffy. How about this—this weekend, we pick a time and find a better place to study?”

“Huh?” The girl hesitated and thought it over for a while, but in the end, she still agreed.

Based on what she now understood about this guy, if he asked for something, it was best to agree right away. Otherwise, he might come up with even harsher conditions later...

“Okay. Then this weekend. Mm... location to be decided.”

Gao Liang thought for a moment, then suddenly gave a mischievous grin. He looked at her, held out a hand, and added another condition.

“Of course, tutoring comes with terms! And that is—until the next tutoring session ends, every time Lin Lin sees me, she has to give me one cute little meow~”

“What?! Y-You... you’re pushing your luck!”

“Oh? I suddenly feel like I might be a little busy this weekend.”

“N-No... wait! Uu... I agree. But only on one condition... you can’t make me do it in front of a crowd. People will think we’re... that kind of relationship.”

“Okay, I accept that, cute little kitty~”

Gao Liang looked at her with a cheerful smile.

This was nice. He and Lin Lin were almost friends now.

That little vampire princess’s advice really did work.