The next day’s sunlight was exceptionally piercing. I woke up to a headache and body aches, as if I had been taken apart and reassembled last night. An unfamiliar ceiling… this is Sister Yue Ran’s room!
Fragments of chaotic, shameful, yet slightly tender memories rushed into my mind. My cheeks instantly exploded in a bright red, and my body tensed up uncontrollably.
Ugh, last night… I actually did something so terrible last night!
I tried to carefully break free from Sister Yue Ran’s embrace, terrified of waking her.
Just then, Sister Yue Ran’s eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly woke up as well. She rubbed her temples, her brow furrowed tightly from the pain of a hangover, her eyes filled with vacancy.
“Hmm…? Guiyun?” Her voice carried the raspiness and confusion of someone who had just woken up. “Why are you… in my room?”
Her gaze was clear, filled with pure confusion, without a single trace of last night’s heat, fragility, or… possessiveness.
She… doesn’t remember?
My heart sank suddenly. An indescribable wave of complex emotions welled up—was it relief, or… a faint sense of loss?
“Sis-Sister Yue Ran, you were drunk last night…” I lowered my head, not daring to look into her eyes. My voice was as quiet as a mosquito’s buzz, and my paws unconsciously clutched the bedsheets. “I… I just happened to run into you, and you… you grabbed me and wouldn’t let me leave…”
I explained vaguely, my heart drumming in my chest.
Part of me hoped she wouldn’t remember anything to avoid the embarrassment.
Yet, another part of me felt that the Yue Ran from last night—the one who was so honest it made my heart ache—being forgotten like this was a bit… a pity?
Yue Ran propped herself up and rubbed her still-throbbing forehead, a look of apology appearing on her face. “Is that so… Sorry, Guiyun, I caused trouble for you. I didn’t… do anything strange last night, or… say anything weird, right?”
Her gaze fell on me, searching, but mostly it was the effort of trying to piece together memories lost to a blackout.
Strange things? Weird words?
Those embraces, those kisses, those tearful confessions and the final intimacy… in her heart, were all of those just “strange things”?
My ears drooped. A strange mix of grievance and shame washed over me, leaving me unsure of how to answer for a moment.
“No, nothing!” I shook my head in denial, my voice wavering from guilt. “Sister Yue Ran, you just… you kept saying you were dizzy and then held onto me so I couldn’t leave! Nothing happened!”
I hurriedly threw back the covers and jumped off the bed, moving so fast I nearly tripped over myself. “Um! Sister Yue Ran, you should get some rest! I-I’m going back now!”
It was almost an escape.
Running back to my own room and leaning against the closed door, I could still feel my racing heartbeat and the heat lingering on my face.
It’s for the best that she doesn’t remember… right…
I slowly slid down to sit on the floor, burying my burning face in my knees, my tail drooping powerlessly behind me.
But… why is my heart… in such a mess?
Sunlight streamed through the window as a new day began, but the ripples left by last night were only just beginning to spread.
Looking at the closed door, her eyes still held a lingering daze and a sense of emptiness. She subconsciously touched her lips, feeling as if… she had forgotten something very important.
Nearly crashing back into my room and leaning against the cold door panel, I could hear my heart thumping wildly in my chest. My face still seemed to retain Sister Yue Ran’s burning body heat and her alcohol-scented breath.
Ugh… it’s fine if she forgot everything…
I buried my burning face in my knees, my tail drooping weakly. But why did my chest feel like it was stuffed with wet cotton, both stifling and bitter?
I need to find something to do… I have to do something…
I practically crawled to the low table and grabbed my stylus. The screen lit up. I didn’t have any concept in mind; I simply relied on that nowhere-to-vent frustration and grievance to start scribbling wildly on the canvas.
Messy lines sketched out a petite loli cat-girl. She sat on the floor clutching her knees, her silver hair and dress soaked through and clinging to her body. Tears hung from the corners of her eyes, her cat ears were flat, and her tail was curled up wetly. The background was a blurred, cold floor. The entire drawing exuded an air of pitiful abandonment.
As I finished the last stroke and looked at the pathetic version of myself on the screen, the frustration in my heart seemed to leak out a little, but it was replaced by a deeper sense of vacancy.
Just then, a clear voice rang out directly in my mind:
[Ding! Detection of sufficiently strong creative and emotional resonance. Binding conditions met. Causal Picture Scroll System is sincerely at your service!]
Meow-ah?!
My tail puffed up instantly in fright, and the stylus clattered onto the floor with a thud. Wh-what was that voice?!
[Rules transmitting…]
[Rule One: The power of the pen is the mirror of the body. Any artwork you create of yourself with poured-in emotion will have its core state or events manifest in reality through a series of reasonable coincidences.]
[Wishing you a pleasant life and happy creating~] That airy final tone made my skin crawl.
A hallucination! I definitely didn’t sleep well!
I shook my head hard, trying to dispel that absurd voice. It must be that the situation with Sister Yue Ran has left me mentally exhausted!
Steadying myself, I decided to go out for some fresh air; maybe that would clear my head. I carefully pulled open the door. The hallway was quiet. I tiptoed out, wanting to sneak to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Just as I passed the corner of the hallway, near that old, slightly leaking air conditioner—
“Meow-yah—!”
My foot slipped without warning! It was as if I had stepped on an invisible layer of ice, and I instantly lost my balance, flailing as I fell backward!
“Thud!”
My back slammed hard against the floor, making me grimace in pain. Worse yet, I knocked over a half-full water bucket sitting by the wall—the one Ling Xiaoxiao had placed there earlier to catch the AC leak!
“Splash!”
Icy water poured over me from head to toe, instantly soaking my hair, my face, and my thin pajamas. Like a cat thrown into a pool, I lay on the floor coughing violently, drenched and shivering from the cold. Silver hair stuck to my face, and my clothes clung tightly to my skin, tracing… a pathetic silhouette almost identical to the drawing.
“What happened? What happened?!” Ling Xiaoxiao poked her head out of her room at the noise. Seeing my miserable state—lying on the floor, soaking wet, with a bucket overturned beside me—her rabbit ears stood straight up in shock. “Guiyun! Are you okay? How did you fall? And how did you end up like this?!”
She rushed over, frantically trying to help me up.
Lying on the floor, staring at the hallway ceiling and feeling the cold, wet stickiness all over me, that mechanical voice rang out leisurely in my mind once more:
[See? This system never lies. Causality, 100% hit rate.]
[Friendly tip: How was your first experience? Before your next creation, why not think about the ‘consequences’ first?]
Think about your head! This broken system is absolutely out to screw me over, isn’t it?!
I let out a scream of mental collapse, my tail weakly slapping the wet floor as I closed my eyes in despair.