Night fell, shrouding the city in a blanket of dazzling yet cold lights.
Su Yuqing walked out of the misty bathroom wrapped in a bath towel.
Her wet hair was still dripping, and when the droplets landed on her collarbone, they brought a chill.
She let out a long sigh, trying to expel the fatigue of a day’s work along with the invisible pressure of living with Zhi Ai.
The warm water had temporarily soothed her tense nerves, but the feeling of being watched that permeated the air remained like a shadow.
As she dried her hair with a towel, she habitually walked toward the closet to change into clean loungewear.
However, when she pulled open the drawer, her fingers met nothing but air.
She froze for a moment and looked down in confusion —
The compartment that should have held her neatly folded underwear and socks was empty, leaving only the smooth wood.
“Hmm?”
Su Yuqing frowned slightly, thinking she might have misremembered the location.
She opened the adjacent drawer — nothing.
She opened the one below it — still nothing.
A strange sense of unease began to crawl into her heart like small vines.
“It’s not here,” she whispered to herself, her tone filled with bewilderment.
So she crouched down and began to search the other drawers more carefully, even checking corners where she rarely kept clothes.
Only a single bedside lamp was on in the bedroom, casting a long, lonely, and anxious shadow on the wall.
“No, it doesn’t seem to be here either.”
Her movements became increasingly frantic.
While those items weren’t expensive, they were the styles she was used to wearing — comfortable and familiar.
More importantly, the feeling of private items vanishing into thin air was extremely unsettling.
“Where is it? Where could it possibly be?”
Her voice rose unconsciously, as if asking herself or questioning the silent room.
*Sigh* —
After searching every possible place, Su Yuqing took a sharp breath and stood up, running a hand through her damp hair in frustration.
“This makes no sense. It’s like seeing a ghost in the middle of the night.”
She clearly remembered folding and putting them away herself a few days ago.
How could every single piece be gone?
Just then, a lazy and slightly playful voice drifted from not far behind her, like a specter:
“Actually…”
The voice dragged out the tone with a feline sense of contentment.
“As long as you don’t have a guilty conscience, how could you possibly encounter a ghost, meow?”
Su Yuqing spun around and saw Kasahana Chiai leaning against the doorframe.
She had appeared unnoticed, wearing a silk black nightgown that made her skin look as white as snow.
Her long blonde hair cascaded down like a waterfall, with a few playful strands resting against her cheek.
Her Liuli eyes sparkled with mischief in the dim light.
She stared at Su Yuqing unblinkingly, a half-smile playing on her lips, as if enjoying a silent comedy.
Su Yuqing was startled by the sudden voice and figure, followed by a surge of annoyance at being disturbed and watched.
“Would it kill you not to mock me for once! Every single day with this.”
She snapped back, instinctively tightening the bath towel around her.
Chiai wasn’t angry. Instead, she clicked her tongue softly and shook her head, taking a few steps closer.
Her gaze lingered even more blatantly on Su Yuqing’s skin, which was slightly flushed from the bath:
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Look at you, meow…”
Her tone was sickeningly sweet yet carried a sting.
“Even after taking a nice, comfortable hot bath, some people’s inner fire just won’t die down…”
Su Yuqing didn’t want to waste energy on meaningless bickering, especially when she was at a disadvantage, being nearly naked.
She forced herself to suppress her anger, trying to bring the conversation back to the point.
“Alright, fine. My mood today… isn’t too bad. I’m not going to argue with you.”
She paused, her gaze returning to the empty drawer.
With a final glimmer of hope and an inescapable sense of embarrassment, she asked:
“By the way, you.”
“Hmm?”
Chiai tilted her head slightly, putting on an innocent and pure expression.
“What’s wrong with meow?”
“Lately… have you seen where my underwear and socks went?”
Su Yuqing tried to keep her tone sounding like a casual inquiry, but her reddening ears betrayed her discomfort.
“Whether it’s the ones I washed last week or the ones from the day before… I can’t find any of them now.”
The moment the question was asked, the innocent expression on Chiai’s face stiffened for a fraction of a second.
It was incredibly brief, but Su Yuqing, who had been staring at her, caught it.
Chiai’s eyes flickered, and she retorted in an offended tone:
“Why… why would you come all the way over here to ask me such a question?!”
Su Yuqing was taken aback by the overreaction and felt a bit angry herself.
“No, hasn’t it just been the two of us in this house these past few days?”
She looked around and emphasized, “If I don’t ask you, who should I ask? The air? And why shouldn’t I come ask you specifically?”
Chiai seemed to realize her reaction was a bit unseemly.
She quickly adjusted her expression, though her tone remained deliberately distant as she tried to clear herself:
“What Benmiao meant just now was — “
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin slightly, adopting a haughty attitude.
“What could such private items of yours possibly have to do with Benmiao?”
She even went as far as to put an exaggerated look of disgust on her small face.
“I… I’m not some pervert. How could I… ever be interested in a human’s panties and socks…?”
When she said the word “panties,” her voice dropped, carrying an indescribable ambiguity and emphasis.
However, it was that very emphasis that sparked a realization in Su Yuqing’s mind!
She suddenly grasped the key point, her eyes narrowing slightly as she took a step forward, her sharp gaze locking onto Chiai’s Liuli eyes that were trying to look away:
“Oh~?”
Su Yuqing dragged out her tone, her face showing a mix of suspicion and a “caught you” expression.
“Just now, I… don’t think I mentioned ‘panties’ specifically among the things I lost, did I, meow~?”
She mimicked Chiai’s verbal habit, making the “meow” sound very meaningful.
“May I ask… how exactly did you know?”
She pressed on, giving Chiai no room to think.
Chiai clearly didn’t expect Su Yuqing to be so sharp in catching that slip of the tongue.
A very faint blush instantly rushed to her cheeks, and her eyes began to wander.
But her strong pride — or rather, the stubbornness of a feline — wouldn’t let her admit defeat easily.
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, she straightened her back and raised her voice to hide her guilt:
“Humph! That’s naturally because my brain is 100 times smarter than a Big Idiot like you who’s dazed all day long, got it…!!”
She tried to overwhelm the other with momentum, but her slightly trembling voice still betrayed the panic in her heart.
Looking at Chiai’s “guilty conscience” act, Su Yuqing understood most of it.
The cat’s previous strange behaviors, that intense possessiveness and desire for control, seemed to find a more concrete and spine-chilling confirmation at this moment.
At this thought, she was no longer angry, replaced instead by a deep sense of powerlessness and a chill from being targeted by a pervert.
“Heh, give it a rest.”
Su Yuqing gave a cold laugh, her tone carrying the exhaustion of seeing through everything.
“Hurry up and give me back my clothes.”
She held out her hand, her tone leaving no room for argument.
“Otherwise, I’ll really have no choice but to walk around this house in just this bathrobe…”
This was a threat of sorts.
She knew Chiai had a strong sense of “ownership” over her and likely wouldn’t want her “exposed” even in a space with only the two of them.
Faced with Su Yuqing’s sudden firm and direct attitude, the panic on Chiai’s face became even more obvious.
Her eyes darted around, and her fingers unconsciously twisted the silk belt of her nightgown as she seemed to struggle intensely inside.
Finally, under the pressure of Su Yuqing’s unyielding gaze, she slumped her shoulders like a deflated balloon.
In a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, she admitted with a stubborn awkwardness:
“Fine… then I admit, your… clothes were indeed taken by me.”
As expected!
The last trace of hope in Su Yuqing’s heart vanished.
Suppressing the chill rising from her soul, she continued to press:
“Fine, then hurry up and give them back to me.”
Su Yuqing just wanted to get back what belonged to her and end this uncomfortable conversation as quickly as possible.
However, Chiai shook her head, a complex expression of innocence and malice appearing on her face.
She said softly but clearly:
“No… they’re already gone, meow.”