YM778.TV Chapter 30
It takes over four hours to drive from Fallen Phoenix City to Jin City. Chu Tingwu slept through most of the journey, waking only to the sound of Three-Five-Five\'s snoring, reminiscent of a tractor.
With the truck\'s high chassis and the sun rising, Aunt Mei donned sunglasses. Chu Tingwu turned to look out the window, where skyscrapers gradually neared, their tops still shrouded in fog, pushing a sea of clouds towards them.
They were an hour away from reaching Jin City.
Aunt Mei spoke, "Chu Chu, isn’t your mother’s company located in Jin City?"
Chu Tingwu replied, "Yes, my mother and brother are here, while my father, stepmother, and half-sister live in Xun City, the neighboring province."
After her parents divorced, her mother, Lu Cenyin, devoted herself to her career and never remarried. Her brother had resisted going to a local university, hoping to study out-of-province, but was eventually persuaded otherwise. Post-graduation, he was expected to join his mother’s business and eventually take over.
Her father, Shen Yue, remarried the year following the divorce and soon had a daughter with his new wife. Compared to her mother, her father made sure to visit his mother with his new family during the holidays, so Chu Tingwu was more familiar with them.
But familiarity didn\'t equate to closeness.
During the New Year, she and her grandmother would be taken to Xun City. Her stepmother was polite, but Chu Tingwu spent most of her time alone in her room or with her grandmother.
A few years ago, during New Year\'s Eve, a drunken Shen Yue declared at the table, "In the future, my business will definitely be split between Tinglan, my only son, and Mumu, my daughter—"
The stepmother’s smile faltered as she glanced at Chu Tingwu.
Chu Tingwu, sipping her cola, heard her grandmother ask, "Oh? And what about Tingwu?"
After that, her grandmother stopped taking her to Xun City for New Year\'s. If Shen Yue wanted a family reunion, he would have to make the effort to come to Fallen Phoenix City himself.
That same year, Chu Tingwu woke up and opened her door to find her long-absent mother, Lu Cenyin, talking with her grandmother in the living room.
"My assets will be split equally between Tinglan and Tingwu. I told Tinglan when he turned 18, and he agreed. As for Tingwu, it’s up to you to tell her, but I will always be there for her."
Her grandmother, stroking her head, expressed some regret, "Compared to other children, our Tingwu is already very fortunate... but I wish she didn’t have to compare herself to others..."
With such wealth, she could lead a relatively affluent life; familial regrets seemed minor. Yet, when compared to her closest family, her brother and half-sister, Chu Tingwu felt nothing, but those who loved her felt the regret.
Eventually, the person who loved her most left this world, but then a cat that loved her appeared, along with—
"Sweetie, you can take off a coat when you get out of the car; it\'s quite hot outside. I\'ve turned on the air conditioning, so it\'ll be cool as soon as you enter... Also, there\'s chilled plum juice in the fridge..."
Three-Five-Five was still snoring, and Chu Tingwu murmured an acknowledgment, though it was unclear who she was responding to. Then she added, "Right, I\'ll send a message to tell brother and mom I\'ve arrived."
They probably still thought she would arrive on the first day of school.
-
Actually, that wasn\'t the case.
Chu Tingwu had probably forgotten about her own activity on her UP main account.
When her brother, Lu Tinglan, saw her leave request from the day before yesterday, he guessed she was about to set off.
Ever since he discovered his sister was a cat food streamer, Lu Tinglan had silently followed her account, then watched as the cat food UP main ventured into parkour, app development, city promotional videos, and animated short films...
Lu Tinglan: "?"
Your summer vacation and mine seem quite different?
After securing her accommodation, Chu Tingwu also sent the address to her biological mother for reporting, and Lu Tinglan got the address from his mom... and then... he kept waiting for his little sister to tell him where her new home was.
This summer wasn\'t idle for him either; he was about to enter his senior year and had pulled together a bunch of classmates and friends to start an independent game studio.
These days, only a few independent game studios make money, but thankfully the platforms are mature. Whether they can become popular depends mainly on their game production quality and creativity... But only when he truly started "entrepreneurship" did Lu Tinglan realize what a tough life it was.
His mother, Lu Cenyin, didn\'t invest money; the startup capital came from his small investments and savings from holidays over the years. Starting from scratch, he quickly got used to splitting a penny in half to survive. Just last month, he had a big argument with a partner and friend. When he checked his phone, his little sister was doing parkour.
Half a month ago, their first game was about to launch, and amidst all the testing and bug fixing, he was shoveling takeout into his mouth when he checked his phone again to see his sister\'s app had hit the trending list, even tied to a city promotional SMS, and overnight, downloads had exceeded three million.
Lu Tinglan: "......"
If he didn\'t know Chu Tingwu disliked him, he might have knelt down and begged his prodigy sister to take him under her wing.
[Tingwu:]
[I\'ve arrived.]
Lu Tinglan: "Okay, stay safe. Do you need me to help you move your luggage?"
[Tingwu:]
[No need.]
Lu Tinglan: "Alright. (pat pat)"
No reply came.
No reply came from the other side.
Lu Tinglan: "......QAQ"
He scrolled up through their chat history; they talked once every week or two. The last time was when Lu Tinglan learned that Fallen Phoenix City had several days of torrential rain and told Chu Tingwu to be careful. The time before that, Lu Tinglan had sent Chu Tingwu a screenshot of a very cute cat—
And then Chu Tingwu said, "It is very cute."
And then there was no more.
No more from the other side!
"Aren\'t you a cat owner? Shouldn\'t you be showing off your tortoiseshell cat?" He was ready to lavish praise on the cat\'s majestic gentleness and long fur... but the person on the other end wasn\'t playing by the usual rules!
"My sister must really hate me..." In the studio, he tossed aside his phone and said, "Actually, that man wanted to take me with him years ago, not my sister. My mom argued with him out of spite, insisting on taking me instead, and as a result, my sister ended up unwanted by anyone."
If he were in her shoes, he\'d probably despise such a beneficiary too.
So, when their mother mentioned dividing the family assets equally, Lu Tinglan even breathed a sigh of relief.
His business partner was furiously typing on the keyboard: "Our sister was only five back then, she wouldn\'t remember, don\'t overthink it."
Lu Tinglan retorted, "Get lost, since when are you \'our sister\'!"
Lu Tinglan continued, "Last year, when I went to our grandmother\'s house, my mom drove us to the amusement park. We were sitting in the backseat, and guess what... She had her phone but didn’t play with it, just looked out the window the whole way, without saying a word to me."
If playing games, reading novels, and listening to music are normal, how could someone just stare out the window the whole journey... It was clearly a statement of her attitude.
Thus, between "making my sister endure a few hours with someone she dislikes (himself)" and "giving her some extra money to pay for services," Lu Tinglan chose the latter, letting Chu Tingwu find her own moving company.
...Although he was indeed overwhelmed with work.
After hearing this, his partner turned and said, "Then she really does dislike you a bit."
Of course, there was another possibility—she might get carsick.
-
Chu Tingwu said, "My relationship with my brother and mother is still okay; my brother is the third person on my message list."
The first two were Hang Ling and You Zhenzhen, and the fourth was her class teacher.
Aunt Mei drove into the residential complex and parked downstairs: "Then they must trust you quite a bit, letting you live on your own."
"When my great-grandmother was hospitalized, my mom thought about bringing me over," Chu Tingwu greeted Aunt Mei as they got out of the car, "but I didn\'t want to, so she probably just got used to it."
A woman and a cat got out of the car, and Aunt Mei turned to see both human and feline looking around, sniffing the air as if trying to identify the different scents.
Does the air in different cities have different smells?
Their apartment was on the second floor, number 202, in a building with two units per floor. It took them some time to move all the furniture upstairs. In their new home, Three-Five-Five showed rare signs of alertness, sniffing around the well-decorated room, pawing at the carpet for a good half hour before finally settling down in front of the air conditioner.
The long-haired cat also seemed to find the weather quite hot.
After lying down for a while, Three-Five-Five followed her downstairs to bring up the last few bits and pieces. As the elevator doors opened, they happened to face a neighbor stepping out.
She was a woman in her late thirties or early forties, with an intellectual air about her, wearing black-framed glasses. After a brief pause, she smiled and said, "Hello, I\'m from apartment 201. Did you just move in?"
She glanced down at Three-Five-Five. "Is this your cat? What a handsome tortoiseshell! We have a cat at home too..."
The two of them stood at the doorway and chatted for a bit. Chu Tingwu learned that the woman\'s surname was Yuan, and she was a math teacher at the local middle school. Her husband, Mr. Cao, taught English. Both were going to teach freshmen when school started. Their cat at home was a black long-haired Napoleon dwarf cat that waddled like a ball, hence its name "Coal Ball."
The couple also had a six-year-old son who attended the kindergarten next door. As they were talking, the door opened, "Mom, weren\'t you going out to buy popsicles?"
A round head peeked out from behind the door.
Teacher Yuan\'s son, Cao Meng, was a... very solid little boy.
Just as Chu Tingwu was about to say something, she blinked and looked down at Cao Meng\'s feet—
A more solid Coal Ball rolled out.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
So, your description of your cat wasn\'t a metaphor. It was literal.
Coal Ball: "Meow-woof!"
It sniffed Chu Tingwu, sneezed at Three-Five-Five, then hastily backed away, almost rolling down the stairs before being caught by young Cao.
Teacher Yuan: "...It was a gift from a friend who used to run a kennel. He also has cats, and Coal Ball was born to a big cat there."
Apparently, after spending two months in the kennel, it accidentally picked up an accent.
Cao Meng, holding the cat, widened his eyes and looked at Three-Five-Five, exclaimed, "Wow, how old is your cat, miss?"
Chu Tingwu: "Three years old."
Cao Meng nodded, seemingly wanting to reach out and touch, then looked up, "Miss, may I touch it?"
Chu Tingwu: "If you let me pet your cat too."
The two exchanged glances, struck a deal, and Three-Five-Five, who was usually quite tolerant of young ones, allowed itself to be petted for a while. Meanwhile, Chu Tingwu had already figured out Coal Ball\'s situation—
As a short-legged cat, it, or rather she, was a bit too fat.
Chu Tingwu first heard the heartbeat of Coal Ball, then confirmed that her condition wasn\'t too good.
Teacher Yuan obviously knew this, and she laughed awkwardly, "Coal Ball is a bit overweight, but we can\'t help but give in when she calls, and she can even open cans and snack bags herself... We just can\'t get her weight down."
Since they were just newly acquainted neighbors, Chu Tingwu didn\'t say much more and went back inside to fetch some chilled plum juice for them. Teacher Yuan also went home and brought back a box of cream puffs as a welcome gift.
Aunt Mei brought some ingredients and was cooking in the kitchen. Hearing the door close, she poked her head out and asked, "How are the new neighbors, are they teachers?"
Chu Tingwu: "Yes, their cat is very fat, and so is their son."
Aunt Mei couldn\'t help but laugh and cry at the same time: That\'s an interesting focus, and why is the cat mentioned before the son?
Chu Tingwu: "The kid kind of reminds me of my brother."
Aunt Mei: "Is your brother fat?"
I don\'t think I\'ve heard that before.
"When I was a child..." Chu Tingwu pondered, "Before my parents divorced, my dad seemed to be heavier, but he lost weight after the divorce."
Chu Tingwu still remembered, during their parents\' arguments, her brother Lu Tinglan would lie by the door, stuffing tissues into the crack to block out their increasingly loud voices, only to be scolded by their mother who pushed the door open.
She also remembered the sturdy guy sobbing intermittently, but trying hard not to make a sound, sitting next to Chu Tingwu on a chair, covering her ears with his hands.
At that time, Chu Tingwu was quietly drawing on paper.
The hands covering her ears trembled, and she had to struggle to open the drawer, take out some cookies, and ask, "Want some?"
Lu Tinglan: "..."
He sniffed, and in his fiercest tone said, "Yes!"
When they met again four years later, Chu Tingwu was still in elementary school, and her rebellious brother had slimmed down to a lanky figure. The two closest relatives by blood sat opposite each other, speechless, unfamiliar with each other\'s tastes or daily habits, only managing to exchange a few dry words before sharing a meal.
Their relationship had no issues; they were just not close.
Because they were not close, Lu Tinglan didn\'t know that Chu Tingwu disliked playing games, and that her habit when riding in a car was to stare out the window, letting her mind wander. Similarly, because they were not close, Chu Tingwu didn\'t realize how much Lu Tinglan cared about the past.
But for her, whether being raised by her grandparents or encountering Three-Five-Five and the system, it was all the best arrangement.
When Aunt Mei left, Chu Tingwu hugged her.
She was usually not expressive, so this was rare: "I\'ll come back to see you during the National Day holiday."
Aunt Mei responded, "That might not work. Teacher Zhang plans to go on a road trip, and we\'ll be on the grasslands. I\'ll send you some photos."
Chu Tingwu: "=="
Aunt Mei laughed and patted her head, seemingly finding it amusing to see her show a different expression, and took the trash out as she left.
-
After the only adult in the house left.
The human kitten and the adult cat looked at each other and began to truly "mark" the house.
The cat\'s method of marking was simple, rubbing around to leave its scent in the house, while the system opened all the doors, and Chu Tingwu walked into different rooms to adapt to the size of the house.
Aunt Mei hadn\'t mentioned anything about the house\'s decoration, but Chu Tingwu knew that if someone else entered, they would definitely find the decor odd.
The living room\'s sofa was like stacked hollow soft blocks, allowing one to climb to the top one section at a time. The ceiling was about three meters high, and sitting at the top was certainly risky, but Chu Tingwu easily jumped up, and soon Three-Five-Five joined her.
They both perched up there for a while, and Three-Five-Five soon crawled into the middle of the "sofa"—the frame of these soft sofas was hard, double-sided, and some placed against the wall just right for an adult to curl up and squeeze into.
For cats and flexible minors, it was essentially a large, side-open "cardboard box."
Chu Tingwu hid herself in a "cardboard box" over a meter high, with Three-Five-Five stretching her paws onto her shoulder, purring loudly.
Chu Tingwu: "...I wanted to say earlier, the way these sofas are arranged, they\'re actually cat climbing frames, aren\'t they?"
They were indeed more suitable for human-cat climbing frame designs, bigger, sturdier, and more comforting.
System: "QVQ"
The balcony was bathed in ample sunlight. Chu Tingwu pulled back the curtains, directly overlooking the playground of No. 5 Middle School.
During the summer vacation, the school was nearly empty, the playground spacious. The school\'s railings were curved at the tips, and between the railing and Chu Tingwu\'s balcony, there was a width of five or six meters, with a high wall of the residential area in between, and a road outside the wall where cars could pass.
Under the whole-house control system, the windows could also be controlled by the system. Chu Tingwu patted Three-Five-Five, asking her to stay at home, and then stepped onto the window ledge.
She leaped forward, stepped on the high wall, then jumped onto the school railing, and from there, easily hopped down into the school grounds.
No. 5 Middle School was filled with many Chinese parasol trees.
The playground was large, with a distant view of the lecture podium and the gymnasium, with teaching buildings even further away, and student dormitories behind several of those buildings, opposite which was the cafeteria.
Behind the cafeteria was a lake, home to swans and ducks, and in the grass by the lake, several peacocks were hiding from the sun under the trees.
Chu Tingwu: "...?"
She meowed, and soon a white cat emerged from the tree.
The cat was pure white except for a black tip on its tail. Chu Tingwu took out her phone and snapped a photo, quickly matching its name on the 365 Cat Census APP.
【Name: A Bit of Black】
【Family, meat-lover, can be petted but not for too long, will scratch if petted too much】
After going online and gaining some popularity, many of the first registered were the school\'s campus cats, as this APP was indeed very convenient for recording and matching, capturing the student demographic first.
A Bit of Black came over to sniff her, then gestured for Chu Tingwu to follow.
Chu Tingwu followed it to the cafeteria, where she and the auntie feeding cats at the entrance looked at each other.
A Bit of Black immediately lay down, exposing its belly and meowing twice.
The aunt sighed: "Wait a moment, I\'ll get you some..."
Was this young student here to pet the cat?
A Bit of Black also turned its head, looking at Chu Tingwu with a puzzled face:
Why aren\'t you meowing? If you meow, she\'ll give you food.
Chu Tingwu: "Thank you, no."
She was mistaken for a new stray kitty!
Under the watchful eye of the aunt, who insisted on hospitality, Chu Tingwu stroked the pitch-black belly of the white school cat twice. The cat looked puzzled but did not scratch; instead, it licked her a couple of times.
Chu Tingwu took the opportunity to inquire about the "peacock" from the aunt: "Why is there a peacock in the school?"
The aunt replied, "Oh, are you about to start school here? See that house over there with the reflective roof? That\'s actually a small zoo, but it\'s mostly birds."
It\'s unclear what the principal of No. 5 Middle School was thinking years ago, deciding that students should interact more with nature and animals, thus moving them into the school. The zoo housed mostly ordinary animals that didn\'t require many permits, with a majority being domestic birds and a few inexpensive small animals like skunks, long-nosed raccoons, and snakes.
When there weren\'t many students around, the peacocks would be taken out for airing—
It is said that every year there\'s a requirement to observe animals and write essays about them, from narrative to expository, until the students leave school.
"Just two years ago, there was a student who was almost guaranteed admission, tried to steal the school\'s white ferret... Oh dear, he almost lost his guaranteed spot."
Chu Tingwu thought, "Your school\'s students are quite lively."
No, it\'s her school now too.
Chu Tingwu tried to approach the "small zoo," but the smell of various animals made her retreat and start worrying about her future essays.
After running a few laps on the playground to loosen up, as the sky darkened and the cool breeze rustled the leaves, Chu Tingwu skillfully walked to the edge, lazily grabbed the vertical railing, and was about to climb out.
"That one over there—"
"Hey! Which class are you from?"
From a distance, a teacher saw Chu Tingwu climbing the fence and immediately shouted.
Is this one of their No. 5 Middle School students? Why is she climbing the fence to leave school?
He was about to rush over when he noticed the vague figure pause; her originally sluggish movements suddenly became agile, almost instantly stepping on the top of the railing where it bent enough to stand on—though the teacher had only seen cats pass by here before—and then she leaped forward beautifully, effortlessly landing on the wall of the opposite residential area, then jumping down and disappearing from sight.
Teacher Cao: "?"
Rubbing his eyes, Teacher Cao couldn\'t help but wonder if what he had just seen was an illusion.
It was too brief, the lighting was poor, and it was backlit, so it was very possible he had seen wrong... Maybe it was just an animal from the small zoo that had escaped—yikes!
Wouldn\'t that be even more terrifying?
He absentmindedly left the school gate, absentmindedly went home, and was absentmindedly tackled onto the couch by his son: "Dad, can I go play with the girl next door and her three-year-old cat?"
Teacher Cao: "Huh?"
He looked at his wife: "Did someone move in next door? What are they like?"
"Class 1-1, Chu Tingwu," his wife Yuan Zhixiao smiled, "Her student number is 2. She doesn\'t know yet that I am the homeroom teacher of Class 1, and you will be her English teacher for the next three years."
Teacher Cao: "That\'s quite a coincidence!"
He actually had a good impression of the neighbors next door, not only because they strictly adhered to the renovation schedule without disturbing the neighbors too much, but also because the renovation supervisor hired by them would go up and down the floors every week to deliver fruits as an apology for the noise and the constant use of the elevator.
The fruits weren\'t expensive, but at least it showed a good attitude. It seemed that the neighbors were easy to get along with. Now thinking about it, little Chu Tingwu next door would be living there for at least three years, having such neighbors wasn\'t too bad.
Teacher Yuan nodded, "I chatted with her for a bit. She\'s a quiet girl, not much of a talker, but she seems very organized and calm. Didn’t she list her guardian as her mother? Her parents are divorced, and it seems she lives alone, just with a cat."
It seemed that as teachers, they needed to pay extra attention to this child.
Cao Meng: "==="
"Dad, you haven\'t answered me yet. I want to bring Coal\'s treadmill over too."
Teacher Cao: "...Who brings a treadmill when visiting someone\'s house!"
Their cat Coal did need to lose weight. They had bought a cat treadmill, but Coal could only run a few steps before lying down on it—yet Cao Meng thought it was quite impressive that Coal could run those few steps, so whenever guests came over, he wanted Coal to perform. It even progressed to the point where he wanted to take the cat treadmill out with them.
He picked up his considerably heavier son and weighed him: "They just moved in, busy and all. Go tomorrow, after you take a bath."
What was with this kid\'s hands, had he been digging for coal? Why were they so dirty?
-
When Chu Tingwu woke up in bed, she stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, feeling a bit dazed.
She was going to school the day after tomorrow... But, she always felt that something was off with the system today. "Has my account been cyberbullied again?"
The system was shocked: "How could that be!"
Who would dare? And even if such a thing happened, it wouldn\'t let the issue reach her and affect her mood, right?
A bad mood could affect physical development!
Chu Tingwu: "Then why were you playing music while I was having breakfast..."
Was it rock? A new taste?
System: "Cough."
System: "Kiddo, you don\'t have any plans today, right... After breakfast, do you want to go out for a bit?"
Chu Tingwu stroked her chin.
She put the bowl in the dishwasher, and Three-Five-Five, who had been sitting on the robotic vacuum cleaner, also jumped down and walked to the door, looking like it was wondering if it was going out for a walk today—The tortoiseshell mother was ready to patrol the new territory and meet with the local stray cats.
But Chu Tingwu always felt like the system had arranged something, so she took out the leash.
Three-Five-Five: "Meow."
The leash was like a pact between them, signifying that today, Three-Five-Five had to follow Chu Tingwu.
She massaged the carpet with her paws for a while before Chu Tingwu stepped out, with the system controlling a drone to follow them.
Chu Tingwu descended the stairs.
A stretch limousine was parked downstairs. As she approached, the driver stepped out to open the door for her, gesturing for her to enter.
Chu Tingwu: "?"
Had the system secretly made a fortune and decided to let her inherit a fortune?
Despite her confusion, Chu Tingwu\'s expression remained calm. Three-Five-Five hopped in first, followed by Chu Tingwu.
After the car drove away, Cao Meng, who was squatting beside a sandpit with a shovel, dashed upstairs, exclaiming, "Mom, they\'ve discovered that the girl next door is an alien—"
Teacher Yuan: "What nonsense are you spouting now?"
Cao Meng: "?"
He wasn\'t spouting nonsense! The girl had a little UFO by her side, as round and plump as a coal ball.
He grabbed the coal ball\'s front paw, silently swearing to himself: I must find evidence of my sister being an alien and then touch that UFO!
The UFO was way cooler than a treadmill!
-
The "abducted" Chu Tingwu stepped out of the car and saw the towering gates ahead emblazoned with the colorful letters "Jin City Fun Kingdom." She raised an eyebrow, guessing what might be happening—
"System?"
【Kid, although I can\'t afford to buy you Disney right now, I\'ve rented this place. This amusement park is all yours for today...】
The system was somewhat embarrassed.
【Everyone else gave you gifts, and I wanted to give you one too.】
But since Disney was out of reach and buying "Jin City Fun Kingdom" wasn\'t an option, renting it for a day was the next best thing to let the child have some fun.
Jin City Fun Kingdom, located near Jin City, was the largest amusement park in the area, covering eighty acres. Recently, it had seen daily visitor numbers around twenty thousand, but with school starting soon and summer ending, the numbers had dropped to about seven or eight thousand a day.
After renting the entire park, the staff didn\'t need to be on site; the system took over the park\'s control systems, telling its own little cat: play however you want.
Chu Tingwu: "......"
She pursed her lips, then her mouth curved into a smile, accidentally revealing a dimple: "Then I\'ll just play around?"
She had been to the amusement park a few times before, but being young, many rides were off-limits... Now, she still wasn\'t old enough, but the system had rented the whole park!
The car that brought her left, and the gates of the amusement park closed. Chu Tingwu unleashed Three-Five-Five, starting with a slow walk, then breaking into a jog, and finally, she just went for parkour—
After all, parkour was just a way to get around.
She headed straight for the drop tower.
System: "......!"
At the highest point, Chu Tingwu could feel her heart pounding. She looked down at the drone that was a step slower in flying up and instinctively reached out to grab it.
Even though she knew the safety latch was locked, the system panicked: "Kid, don\'t pull too hard!"
It was so worried that the soft body of the kitten would not be held securely by the chair, unable to support its young cub\'s waist!
As the bungee ride ended, the cub nodded calmly, stepped off the seat, and then stepped onto the steel column gap behind the bungee machine.
The system: "?"
Although it also found the structure as tempting as a cat climbing frame... No, tempting for cats, it insisted on some safety measures. Where was the safety harness?
After coaxing the cub to wear the somewhat useless safety harness, the system wiped its sweat, watching the cub easily climb halfway up, then rest for a few seconds before breathlessly reaching the top of the bungee machine.
Three-Five-Five was still below, on a steel bar that was just the right height for a human to step on, but not so friendly for cats.
She looked up, her pupils shrinking under the sunlight, her fur dancing in the wind.
At the top, Chu Tingwu clamped a steel bar between her legs, completing an "upside-down hang."
In parkour, there were also upside-down moves, but she had never imagined the world could appear so clear in her eyes—
The distant forests, the roller coaster, the indoor amusement park painted like a monster, all spun in her view, the lake reflecting the sky. Chu Tingwu could feel the wind brushing through her hair.
And the system was shrieking: "Aaaaah!"
Chu Tingwu: "?"
The system: "I, I\'m just excited because I\'ve got a new idea for modifying drones..."
You\'re not planning to turn it into an unmanned aerial vehicle, are you? So it could catch Chu Tingwu if she fell.
She knew the system would never refuse any of her requests, only finding ways to support her—whether she was doing dangerous things, for which it would help commit arson and murder, or things that threatened her own safety, for which it would do everything possible to ensure her safety, as long as she was happy.
Chu Tingwu couldn\'t help but smile.
She grinned, feeling the high-altitude wind, her core muscles powering her as she suddenly sat upright at the top of the bungee machine, arms spread wide in the sunlight: "I really like this."
The system: "Hmm?"
Chu Tingwu: "I mean, I really like this gift."
The descent was slower than the ascent. When she was about five or six meters from the ground, Chu Tingwu simply jumped down.
Her forepaws touched the ground first, absorbing the impact in a squat.
Then, she and Three-Five-Five meowed at each other, both leaping at the same time—Three-Five-Five to the second steel bar.
Chu Tingwu, meanwhile, reached out her arms to catch a higher pipe, glancing down:
She estimated she had jumped about six meters high.
That figure was "terrifying"!
—But in reality, she had been able to jump six meters two months ago; in dream class, six meters wasn\'t even enough to reach the top of a cabinet.
Because she was just a kitten.
She could feel her heart still thumping powerfully, not because of the bungee machine, nor because of the thrilling activities before, but because of excitement.
Could I really jump that high, that far? Could I really stand so securely at such heights, effortlessly climb steel frames dozens of stories high, and anchor myself with just my arms? My strength allowed me to do so much more...
"This is just the first project," the system cheerfully said, "Kiddo, there\'s a lot more fun to come!"
Chu Tingwu climbed onto the roof of the carousel, and Three-Five-Five joined her to bask in the sun.
She wasn\'t fond of those virtual reality games; the slow-moving merry-go-round was hardly exciting, but she lingered in thrill rides like roller coasters and pirate ships. Eventually, she and Three-Five-Five rested in the mini aquarium, with Three-Five-Five fixated on a wall of fish, his head turning this way and that, while Chu Tingwu poured herself a soda water.
The amusement park was deserted except for one person, one cat, and the operational machines, yet it didn\'t feel empty or frightening. Chu Tingwu only felt a comforting tranquility:
"I like this..."
She paused, "I wasn\'t caught on surveillance today, was I?"
Not to mention, her superhuman jumping ability would be hard to explain if caught on camera.
The system was reliable: "There won\'t be any footage of today in the satellites either."
Chu Tingwu hummed in acknowledgment, leaning on the table, catching a glimpse of Three-Five-Five peering into the touch pool from the corner of her eye.
System: "?"
It noticed the cub\'s expression was serious, as if in deep thought, yet her avatar on the personal panel was smiling, indicating she was in a good mood.
What was going on?
Chu Tingwu: "I\'ve been thinking about some things I want to do in the future."
A cat\'s body, unique athletic abilities, sharp sense of smell, gradually awakening perception and hearing... She couldn\'t hide such a physique forever. Parkour was minor mischief, but in this world—there were many exciting sports where she could openly use her abilities.
She thought of some things she wanted to do in the future.
Maybe that future was a few months away, maybe years, but just thinking about such prospects seemed to make the world a more beautiful place.
Chu Tingwu: "Let\'s go on the Ferris wheel again."
She hadn\'t yet seen the sunset over this city.
System: "Sure, sure."
-
The next day, Teacher Cao let his son go out to play with Chu Tingwu next door. By the end of the day, the boy seemed quite happy, incessantly asking him to make a UFO.
Is that something a person could make?
Cao Meng: "Meiqiu and Three-Five-Five played, and I helped sister make a UFO, I got all the materials!"
It seemed like he went next door for a craft session.
Teacher Cao casually asked his son what he thought of Sister Chu.
Cao\'s son nodded solemnly: "Sister said Meiqiu needs to lose weight... She asked Three-Five-Five to train her, and also, she said she exercises every day, and I can join her... Dad, can you help her make the UFO tomorrow, you exercise, and then I keep the stuff?"
Teacher Cao: "?"
He waved his hand, casually docking his son\'s snack allowance for the day. As the little boy went off to complain to the cat, Teacher Cao\'s impression of Chu Tingwu grew a bit richer:
She seemed like a healthy and disciplined young girl, capable of entertaining his son for half a day, which spoke well of her character and patience.
Her English grades must be good, right? Wonder if she\'d be willing to be the English class representative once school starts?
These thoughts lasted until the next morning.
On the first day of September, the school registration day, Teacher Cao had to drop his son off at kindergarten and was running a bit late.
After brushing his teeth, he pulled back the curtains, took a breath of fresh air, and turned his head just in time to see Chu Tingwu, also ready to go, stepping out onto her balcony... probably to air out her room?
Chu Tingwu, with a small backpack, opened her window.
With a light leap, she jumped onto the window ledge.
Teacher Cao: “…”
The next second, the quiet, organized girl who liked to exercise and was very patient, leaped forward, landing precisely on the community wall, then with another jump, she landed perfectly on top of the school playground fence, and then she casually jumped down and strolled towards her classroom.
Though it was a whole set of actions, it was incredibly fluid and took just a second, leaving Teacher Cao with the name he intended to call out stuck in his throat.
So it was you!