The night deepened, and the sound of wind and rain outside the window had quietly ceased at some point.
Only the soft tap-tap of water dripping from the eaves remained, making the silence in the living room feel even more abrupt and tense.
Warm yellow light filled the room, yet it couldn’t disperse the invisible smoke of war drifting between the two non-human girls.
Chiai still lazily occupied the widest and softest center position of the long sofa like a queen cat inspecting her territory, her long golden hair spreading across the cushions.
She squinted her glassy-colored eyes, her gaze filled with undisguised ridicule and scrutiny as she looked toward the corner of the living room—at Bai Wanxue, who was curled up in an old cat bed that was now far too cramped for her human form.
“Hey~ It’s not like this cat is criticizing you, meow.”
Chiai drew out her words in a sweet, sugary tone, but every syllable felt like a honey-coated needle.
“Why crawl into that small, broken cat bed that might be covered in dust from several years ago instead of lying on this big, comfortable, empty sofa?”
She tilted her head slightly, her face twisting into an exaggerated expression of mockery.
“Could it be~ that even with that human-looking little head of yours, your actual brain capacity isn’t much different from when you were that stupid little white cat? You really don’t know what’s good for you, do you? You can’t even enjoy a little comfort?”
Faced with this obvious provocation, Bai Wanxue didn’t immediately bristle.
She simply curled her body tighter, almost embedding herself into the old cat bed as if it were the only fortress that could give her a sense of security.
She lifted her pale red eyes and calmly met Chiai’s gaze.
Her voice was light and clear, yet carried a stubborn rejection.
“Because right now… only here, in this tiny space, can Wanxue barely avoid smelling… smelling that very, very annoying scent on you.”
She even intentionally wrinkled her small nose as if she were truly bothered by some foul odor.
“Tch~”
Chiai let out a sneer as if she had heard a hilarious joke and elegantly rolled her eyes.
“You? A little Cat Demon who hasn’t even fully adjusted to her human form yet dares to look down on this cat?”
Her tone shifted, suddenly carrying a trace of imperceptible resentment as she scanned every corner of the living room.
“This cat went to a lot of trouble to slowly erase and cover up every bit of that… well, weak scent you left behind in this crappy house! I never expected, absolutely never expected…”
Her voice suddenly rose, carrying an accusatory tone of being offended.
“You lingering ghost of a girl, you actually came back today, meow! And you brought back an even… more annoying aura!”
Bai Wanxue listened quietly, a hint of realization flashing in her pale red eyes.
She wasn’t led astray by Chiai’s emotions.
Instead, she caught another key point and spoke slowly in an almost innocent but direct tone.
“Then what about you? Wanxue heard Master say… before she was with Wanxue, Master raised another cat. Later… that cat, for some unknown reason, suddenly died.”
This sentence was like a needle, accurately piercing one of Chiai’s hidden sore spots.
Her originally lazy posture instantly stiffened.
A sharp light flashed in her glassy eyes, and she interrupted sharply and immediately,
“First! That’s none of your business! Stop poking around into things you shouldn’t know!”
Her tone was fiercely defensive.
“Second!”
She sat up straight, pointing a finger at Bai Wanxue and emphasizing,
“Don’t go around saying ‘together, together’ all day long! The time this cat spent living and being together with your so-called ‘Master’ is much, much more than an ugly white cat like you who joined halfway! Understand! Who do you think you are?”
Bai Wanxue wasn’t intimidated by her momentum.
Instead, she seemed to find confirmation in the overreaction.
She tilted her head slightly, a look of sudden realization appearing on her face.
She let out a soft “Oh~” and then asked in an almost cruelly blunt tone,
“Wanxue understands, meow… Those excited words just now, do they mean to say… you like Master even more, even more than Wanxue does?”
“What?!!”
Chiai jumped off the sofa like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
Her cheeks flushed a deep red at a visible speed, the color reaching all the way to her ears.
“You’re saying this cat… likes her?! Likes your Master, Su Yuqing?!!”
She acted as if she had heard the most absurd joke in the world, her voice turning shrill with shock and humiliation.
“Stop joking, okay! Please wake up! Do you know what this cat’s current status is?! I am a Super Idol! I am Kasahana Chiai, beloved by thousands! If the people in this world who like this cat and want to confess their love lined up one by one, they could circle the Earth several times, meow! How could I possibly… possibly…”
She seemed unable to find the right words to describe such “degrading” behavior.
Her tone became increasingly agitated and confused, as if she were desperate to deny an emotion she didn’t even want to examine herself.
“Anyway… anyway, there’s no way it would be that so-called ordinary, mediocre Master of yours…! What’s so good about her?! Why would she be worth ‘liking’? It’s a joke!”
However, faced with this long string of nearly roaring denials, Bai Wanxue’s reaction was exceptionally calm.
She simply kept her clear, pale red eyes open, staring silently and intently at Chiai, as if she were looking through the excited facade to see the truth in her heart.
This silent gaze was more piercing than any words, making Chiai feel a strange sense of guilt and irritability.
At that moment, Bai Wanxue’s nostrils suddenly flared slightly, as if she had discovered a new world.
She temporarily looked away from Chiai’s flushed face and turned toward the area of the sofa where Chiai had been sitting.
Her small nose seriously sniffed the subtle scents in the air, and then she said firmly, word by word,
“Sniff, sniff… There is. Something. There.”
Chiai, still caught in her excitement, froze for a moment.
She subconsciously asked back,
“What? What is there? Don’t try to change the subject!”
Bai Wanxue’s brow furrowed slightly as she carefully deciphered the faint scent clues.
Her tone became certain.
“I’m not mistaken… Wanxue’s nose has already smelled it. It’s a… very special scent. It’s right over there, under those sofa cushions… It seems like there are many, many good things hidden there.”
A cat’s natural curiosity and desire to explore flickered in her eyes.
“Hey, hey, hey! Is your nose broken too, you ugly white cat?! Or has your brain completely rotted?”
Chiai immediately countered loudly, trying to use her volume to cover the flash of panic that crossed her face.
She subconsciously used her body to block the gap at the side of the sofa.
“What good things could be under these crappy sofa cushions?! Could dried fish suddenly grow there? I think you’ve gone crazy wanting something delicious! I suggest you stay right there in your little broken cat bed and stay put for this cat, meow…!!!”
Her warning carried a hint of imperceptible tension, but it was already too late.
A glint of craftiness flashed in Bai Wanxue’s pale red eyes.
She tilted her head slightly, throwing Chiai’s words back at her.
“That won’t do, meow~ Wanxue remembers that you said yourself just now that the other half of the sofa was a spot specifically left for Wanxue…? Since it’s my place, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to check it, right?”
Before the words even finished landing, and long before Chiai’s defensive nerves could fully react, Bai Wanxue took advantage of her smaller and more agile frame.
She moved like a bolt of silver lightning, acting before her opponent could!
“Hey! You…! Stop right there!”
Chiai cried out and reached out to block her, but Bai Wanxue’s target wasn’t the main seat Chiai occupied.
It was the other end of the sofa that Chiai couldn’t immediately reach—
With a light leap, Bai Wanxue pounced onto the other edge of the sofa.
She extended her slender fingers, accurately grabbed the fabric of the sofa cushion’s edge, and then pulled it up with force—!
Rip—
In the blink of an eye, as the cushion was torn away, the “secrets” that had been carefully hidden beneath were suddenly exposed to the bright light.
They fell into Chiai’s widened eyes and Wanxue’s curious gaze.
There, revealed for all to see, were several pieces of various colors and soft materials—clearly stuffed in there in a hurry and looking a bit wrinkled—
Women’s underwear and socks!
They were piled together in a mess, as if someone had shoved them in haphazardly to quickly hide the evidence.
The air seemed to freeze.
Chiai stiffened on the spot, the blood draining from her face for a second before rushing back, turning her bright red all the way down to her neck.
Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t make a sound.
Her glassy eyes were filled with the shock of being caught red-handed, shame, and an inescapable embarrassment.
As for Bai Wanxue, she looked down at the pile of “spoils.”
She was stunned for a moment, but then a mixture of pride and “I knew it” appeared on her face.
She even leaned in closer, sniffing lightly like a real little cat.
Then she looked up at the frozen Chiai and spoke in her ethereal voice, trailing her words slowly with a triumphant announcement.
“Wanxue really didn’t guess wrong, meow~ The ‘things’ hidden in here really are… incredible ‘treasures’—”
“Meow.”
That last, soft cat cry was exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the living room, and it was also exceptionally…
Sarcastic.