“What’s wrong, Brother Zhi? Why do you look so down?”
At night, in a bubble tea shop filled to capacity, Chen Tingting held her cup with both hands and sipped daintily, trying to appear ladylike.
“Someone’s causing trouble.” Shi Lezhi clasped his fingers together, elbows on the table, holding his head up. He looked very weighed down.
“Causing trouble? What kind of trouble?”
BANG!
Shi Lezhi couldn’t take Chen Tingting’s light tone anymore. He slammed the table hard in frustration.
“The people I sent got thrown in the jail. What kind of trouble do you think?!”
In that moment, the people around the shop turned their attention to them. Some even pulled out their phones, clearly ready to enjoy the show. No one tried to step in.
“Brother Zhi, did I say something wrong? I’m sorry...” Chen Tingting’s hand slipped, and the bubble tea she was holding dropped to the floor.
“Huu... it’s fine. Tingting, it’s not your fault.” Shi Lezhi took a few deep breaths, calming down before he sat again.
“Mm...”
“That white-haired girl—she’s got a pack of dogs licking her boots, protecting her. They beat up all of my guys.” As he spoke, Shi Lezhi clenched his fists tighter.
“That’s insane. Since when did she get so popular?” Chen Tingting was shocked. Her pretty eyes widened, full of jealousy.
“I’m wondering the same. Nearly twenty guys—all backing her. That chick must’ve given them some kind of benefit. No way they’d be that loyal otherwise.”
“But don’t worry, Tingting. I’m not like them. I like pure girls like you. Not that kind of skank.” Shi Lezhi reached out and pulled her petite, soft body into his arms.
“Uh...” Chen Tingting resisted a little, but couldn’t match a grown man’s strength, and obediently shrank into his embrace.
“Right—seems like the leader of the pack was from your class. What was his name... oh, Zhang Deyi.”
“Huh?!” Chen Tingting flinched at the name and couldn’t help blurting out.
“Tingting, you know him?”
“No, no! Just see him in class sometimes, never even talk.” Chen Tingting quickly denied it, terrified Shi Lezhi might find out what she’d done in class.
“Is that so? Yeah, makes sense. My Tingting’s so shy—how could she go around talking to random boys.”
“You know which dorm he’s in?” Shi Lezhi’s face turned dark and sinister.
“It’s in the class group chat. Why?”
“Let me see.”
......
......
The night deepened. The moon was hidden behind clouds, and the entire area around the campus was shrouded in darkness.
The once lively street was now completely deserted.
It felt like if someone went outside now, they’d definitely get mugged.
“...”
“Meow.”
Su Yun didn’t know how long she’d been asleep—she was awakened by sharp meowing.
Still groggy, she opened her eyes and could only see the black and white of night—the kind of darkness visible to normal people.
But then, as her gaze lowered slightly, she suddenly saw a pair of glowing green eyes staring right at her.
In this quiet, empty room, the green glow stood out sharply.
“Ah!?” The moment Su Yun saw it, she jolted awake, practically leaping out of bed.
“I’m telling you, I’m really strong now. I’m not scared of you!”
“Meow~”
The reply to Su Yun’s deliberately loud warning was a soft, gentle meow.
“Huh?”
Su Yun slowly lowered her “claws,” blinking and rubbing her eyes in confusion until she saw it clearly.
In front of her was an orange tabby cat, sitting on her bed. It jumped down and walked up to her.
Even without the lights on, she could see it clearly.
“Meow...” The orange cat bit her white sock.
Su Yun no longer felt sleepy. Seeing the black-and-white sky outside the window, she knew it must be pretty late.
If it weren’t for this cat waking her, she definitely would’ve slept straight through till morning.
She was a little annoyed, but seeing it was just a cat, she didn’t say anything.
“What’s up?” After a while, the cat was still tugging at her sock.
And it kept pulling toward the door, as if trying to take her somewhere.
“You want me to follow you?”
“Meow~” The tabby meowed again and raised its head at her.
Can you understand me? No way...
Then the cat jumped up and, right in front of Su Yun, landed on the doorknob and with one leap, flipped the door open.
Su Yun watched in shock.
She slowly followed the cat, still stunned.
Creak... creeeeak...
“?” But the moment she stepped out of her bedroom, she heard a strange sound.
It was coming from the front door.
The cat had stopped meowing, standing near the door, then turned to look at her.
Did this cat find something and come to tell me?
Su Yun didn’t have time to be surprised again—she quietly walked closer to the door. The strange sounds became clearer.
It was the doorknob being twisted, along with an odd metallic scraping.
“Who’s there!?” She didn’t even know where the courage came from, but she shouted at the door.
Thump…
Footsteps—fast ones. Fading quickly until they disappeared.
Someone had been there. A thief? In the middle of the night?
Su Yun’s heart raced. After a moment, once she confirmed the noise had really stopped, she finally relaxed a bit.
If someone had really broken in tonight and she was the only girl in the room—that would’ve been terrifying.
Just imagining it made her afraid.
“Thank you.” Su Yun thought of something and crouched down to pet the orange tabby.
“Meow~” The cat let out a pleased meow as it was petted.
Click.
After a while, Su Yun stood and tried the doorknob.
It felt loose.
Something wasn’t right. The resistance from before was gone.
She took a deep breath and opened the door.
She hadn’t expected anything—until she looked and saw half the doorknob outside was missing, just a hollow shaft remaining.
“What the hell—what the hell!” Su Yun froze, completely dumbfounded. She couldn’t help cursing.
There was no other way. It was so late—she could only call her landlady.
Seeing she was just a young girl, the landlady told her to come spend the night at their place.
There was only a baby in the landlady’s home, just a few months old and not able to talk yet. Lots of empty rooms—looked kind of lonely.
After Su Yun finished talking with the landlady, the orange tabby cat had vanished without a trace.
......
......
The next day, the landlady found out that the person was actually someone who’d lived there before—so they still had a key to the building’s main entrance.
Because of this, the landlady got a new sensor lock installed on the main door. The whole building got new yellow keycards.
As for whether the thief could be caught—the building’s surveillance only showed a figure wearing a hood, face completely obscured. All they could do was hand the footage to the police and let them check external cameras.
Su Yun returned to her apartment, now with a repaired door.
It was already noon the next day.
She couldn’t understand—why would the thief specifically target her place?
She lived on the 11th floor, for crying out loud.
Tilting her head, she could only chalk it up to bad luck.
She sat down on the edge of her bed and opened her phone. There were new posts in the fan support group.
This time, though, there were no “Snow White” beauty pics—just a bunch of guys sitting around a big table, eating happily.
Scrolling through, she realized—it was a celebration dinner they’d thrown the night before, celebrating getting those people who tried to smear their goddess thrown in jail.
(First time I’ve felt this excited. It’s like I’m the main character in a manga.)
(If only every day could be like this.)
(Don’t jinx it.)
(Sorry, I take it back. Better if stuff like this doesn’t happen again!)
Ten-plus guys teaming up to beat down sleazebags who tried to ruin a girl’s reputation—this kind of thing thrilled teenage boys full of righteous energy.
Reading their chat, Su Yun felt really touched.
They actually did all that... for me.
If I were a real girl, I would marry them all.
Wait, no—I'm kind of a girl now...
Forget I said that.
Su Yun’s mood brightened a little.
But then she remembered she had to go see Qin Xue later and started feeling unsure again.
Honestly, after a good sleep, Su Yun wasn’t as emotional as she had been the night before.
Even if Qin Xue just thought she was fun to tease—well, she could play along. After all, the money was great, and it’s not like she had to do anything that crossed her bottom line.
(End of Chapter)