Inside the cramped bathroom, the air seemed to still hold the lingering warmth of the phone call she had just finished.
Su Yuqing leaned her back against the cold tile wall, her fingertips turning slightly white from how hard she was gripping her phone.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the heart that was fluttering wildly in her chest because of the agreed “weekend meeting.”
“Yeah, yeah! Okay, okay.”
She nodded vigorously at the phone, even though the call had already ended, as if trying to brand this fragile promise into reality.
“Then, I’ll see you this weekend.”
Only after confirming the last detail did she press the end-call button with a sense of relief.
Almost immediately, a flood of uncontrollable joy and liberation broke through her composure.
She suddenly crouched down, buried her burning cheeks in her knees, and let out an extremely suppressed but incredibly excited low growl in a breathy voice only she could hear:
“YES!!”
Unfortunately, this private celebration had only just begun when it was ruthlessly interrupted by a cold and mocking voice.
“Tsk —”
The sound came from the crack in the door, carrying a cringeworthy level of sarcasm.
“You can make your phone calls however you want… but what’s the meaning of hiding in the bathroom, locking the door, and doing it in secret, meow? Is there some… unspeakable little secret you’re afraid I’ll hear?”
With a creak, the door, which hadn’t been fully locked, was pushed open by a sudden force.
Zhi Ai leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded.
Her glass-colored eyes acted like the most precise detectors, scanning Su Yuqing from head to toe, taking in the ecstasy that hadn’t yet faded and the panic she didn’t have time to hide.
She had clearly been standing outside for a while, like a stalking cat, patiently waiting for the moment when her prey was most relaxed.
Su Yuqing’s heart tightened, like a child caught stealing candy.
She practically bolted upright, forcing herself to appear calm and trying to cover it up with a casual tone.
“It’s—it’s nothing! It’s just… the signal is better here!”
She clumsily changed the subject, waving her phone around as if she could erase that leaked “YES!!” along with the weekend agreement she had just made.
“But I’m in a good mood today! I’m ordering takeout for lunch! If there’s something you want to eat, you’d better tell me quickly before I place the order. Once the opportunity passes, it’s gone!”
She tried to use a “treat” to bribe her, or rather, to divert her attention and create an illusion that everything was normal.
But Zhi Ai didn’t buy it at all.
She let out a sneer, the irony in her eyes almost turning into something physical.
“You make it sound like… if you were in a bad mood, you would actually roll up your sleeves, walk into that kitchen you’ve turned into a mess, and cook something yourself…”
She slowly walked into the cramped bathroom, making the space feel even tighter and the air grow thick.
“Which time did you not end up relying on takeout to survive? Hmph. Don’t you think using that kind of excuse is a bit too clumsy, my dear Manager?”
“Hey, alright, alright!”
Su Yuqing was made even more embarrassed by her persistent pressure and ruthless exposure.
She could only raise her voice to hide her guilt while her fingers unconsciously swiped across her phone screen, making the takeout app interface light up and go dark again.
“Stop worrying about these useless details! Tell me what you want to eat, quickly. I’m really going to order now! If you’re slow, you get nothing!”
However, Zhi Ai did not order any food as she wished.
She simply stared at Su Yuqing with a gaze that felt like a dissection.
She waited until the fake smile on Su Yuqing’s face was about to freeze before she slowly threw out the core question.
“So, you —”
She tilted her head slightly, her cat-like intuition allowing her to accurately capture the key to the problem.
“Are you really going?”
“Huh…?”
Su Yuqing didn’t react for a moment, her brain still immersed in the chaos of how to hide the truth and order takeout.
“Go… go where?”
“This weekend.”
Zhi Ai’s voice suddenly turned cold, each word sounding like an ice bead hitting the tiled floor.
“To meet that… blue-haired girl named Liuli. Meow.”
She clearly repeated the keywords she had just overheard.
That last onomatopoeia was uttered with a warning tone, as if her territory had been violated.
“Oh! So you… you were talking about that!”
Su Yuqing realized what she meant, and then a smile that tried to be nonchalant appeared on her face.
“Well, I… I already promised her. Look, the time and place are already set. If I don’t go in the end, in terms of the impact and everything… it would definitely be bad, right? A person should keep their word…”
She tried to use universal values and social rules to defend herself, constructing a logical reason.
“Oh? Is that so?”
Zhi Ai drew out her words, taking a step forward and tilting her head up.
Her glass-colored eyes reflected the cold light under the bathroom’s pale lamp.
“May I ask… what specifically is this ‘impact’?”
She tilted her head, looking as if she were genuinely curious.
“There are some things you might as well… explain to me more clearly. Meow.”
The sense of pressure descended like a physical weight.
Su Yuqing swallowed hard, her brain working at high speed to scavenge for reasons.
“Well… it’s, it’s like… the impression you give people. Think about it…”
“If you were dealing with someone else, and for something that was clearly agreed upon between the two of you, that person suddenly stood you up… then in your eyes, wouldn’t that person be… a very untrustworthy fellow?”
“Yes.”
Zhi Ai nodded in agreement, but the cold smile at the corners of her mouth didn’t fade at all.
“There is nothing wrong with those words, meow. Betraying one’s word is indeed contemptible.”
Su Yuqing breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had convinced her.
However, Zhi Ai’s tone suddenly shifted, like the sharpest cat claw tearing through all of her disguised logic.
“But —”
She extended her index finger and lightly tapped her chin, looking thoughtful.
“What if… the person you stood up was someone who, a long, long time ago… also ruthlessly dumped you, cheated you of your feelings, and threw you away like a used rag?”
Her gaze was like a scalpel, precisely cutting open the scar Su Yuqing was trying to hide.
“May I ask, at that time… would you still feel that your act of standing them up… was a bad thing? Would you still care about that so-called ‘impression’ and ‘credibility’? Meow?”
Su Yuqing’s breath hitched, as if an invisible hand were choking her.
Zhi Ai’s words were like a poisonous thorn, precisely piercing the place in her heart she least wanted to face.
Her eyes flickered, avoiding Zhi Ai’s sharp gaze, and her voice became weak and powerless.
“Sigh… that, that’s all stuff from a long, long time ago… Xiaozhi, whether we are humans or cats, we eventually have to look forward. Don’t always… always get caught up in some old, broken things from the past. People should live in the moment, be… be broad-minded…”
“Heh.”
An extremely faint sound, filled with endless mockery and cold laughter, escaped from Zhi Ai’s nose.
‘Caught up?’
Her eyes instantly became incredibly deep, churning with dark emotions originating from the fires of Hell that Su Yuqing could not understand.
‘Why do you think I went through the trouble of… crawling back to find you today from that cold, dark, and hopeless Hell? Huh?’
‘Is it just to hear you say that flippant phrase, “look forward”?!’
These words were not spoken aloud, but they transformed into a heavy pressure that permeated the air.
Su Yuqing trembled at that “heh,” but she still forced herself to finish.
“No matter… no matter what we say, doing this… this is still not good…”
“Call me Master.”
The unquestionable command fell like a guillotine, abruptly cutting off all of Su Yuqing’s weak and powerless explanations.
“Eh…?”
Su Yuqing froze, not reacting for a moment.
Zhi Ai’s eyes instantly became as sharp as knives, and her voice suddenly rose with a bone-chilling coldness.
“I said — call. Me. Master.”
She enunciated each word, every syllable sounding like a whip cracking in the air.
“Are your ears… deaf or something?!”
Before she finished speaking, Zhi Ai suddenly moved!
She lunged forward, grabbing Su Yuqing’s shoulders.
The immense force sent Su Yuqing staggering back until she hit the cold tiled partition of the bathroom with a heavy thud.
Immediately after, a cold and powerful hand clamped onto Su Yuqing’s slender neck like a steel vice.
It wasn’t fatal, but it was enough to make her feel the terror of restricted breathing and absolute suppression.
“Cough… cough-cough… Ah, Mas… Master… Mas… ter…”
The instinct for survival and deep-seated fear forced Su Yuqing to squeeze out that humiliating title from between her trembling lips.
Zhi Ai leaned close to her ear, her warm breath brushing against Su Yuqing’s earlobe, which was stiff with fear.
Her voice was low and dangerous.
“Don’t you… know how to use that mouth of yours… to address me?”
Her fingers tightened slightly, bringing a stronger sense of suffocation.
“So why… almost every time, do you always have to force me to come and ‘remind’ you personally? Hmm?”