On a stage made of flowers, Wen Yang knelt on one knee, holding a rose in his hand, gently taking Ning Chu’s hand.
She lowered her head, shyly wanting to turn away, but her gaze still landed on his sincere and loving face.
“I...”
The cheering voices of friends and family rang out from below, with Zhang Shaoqing’s loud shout of “Kiss her!” echoing particularly loudly.
She bit her lower lip, her excited emotions building in her chest, struggling to hold back, wanting to spill out.
Just as she nodded and was about to speak, she suddenly froze, reaching up to touch her rough face.
Why am I a man?
That’s right, I was a man...
She froze for a moment, and when she looked up again, she saw Wen Yang hastily standing up. The audience below let out a series of booing sounds.
...
The noisy clamor abruptly interrupted the dream. Ning Chu suddenly opened her eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling, still shaken by the dream.
How could I have such a strange dream...
She instinctively raised her hand, looking at the delicate, pale, jade-like palm, noticing the scarlet nail polish decorating her fingertips.
The panic in her heart slowly faded away, and Ning Chu weakly placed her hand on her forehead, tiredly closing her eyes again. But the images from the dream flashed through her mind like slides in a projector.
I can’t sleep now.
She gave a bitter smile and turned her head toward Black Bean beside her.
This cat was lying spread-eagle, taking up two-thirds of the bed, with her tail draped across Ning Chu’s waist. The furry touch made Ning Chu feel a bit itchy.
Black Bean was sound asleep, breathing evenly with a slight snore, and her cat ears were buried under her hair, as if blocking out all outside noise.
Outside, Ning Chu could hear her mother cleaning and preparing breakfast. The noise was rather loud, no wonder Black Bean had covered her ears.
The sweet little cat-girl didn’t attract Ning Chu’s attention, though. She just stared at Black Bean’s youthful face, her mind still replaying the strange dream.
Maybe it was because she had once been male, or maybe everything she had now felt too easy to obtain...
She had inexplicably crossed over, inexplicably returned to the appearance of her middle school days, gone to a university in an imperial world, and inexplicably turned into a girl.
Ning Chu always had doubts about her current life, fearing that one day she would suddenly wake up and find herself still that man, living alone in a rented apartment without a mother or friends, just a few hundred bucks in her pocket, reluctantly heading to an internship job.
Even after years had passed, everything still felt like a dream.
It was like landing a high-paying but unstable job when she was so ordinary herself, always worrying that this job could be lost at any moment.
When Wen Yang left her side, the vague unease only heightened her anxiety.
Ning Chu lowered her eyes, picked up the phone beside her, opened her chat with Wen Yang, and typed a line trying to describe her dream, to confide in him. But after a moment of hesitation, she deleted everything.
“Good morning.”
She sent a good morning sticker and put her phone aside, letting out a long sigh.
She silently got out of bed, careful not to wake Black Bean, but the bed shaking still disturbed her steady breathing.
“Sis?”
Black Bean, still half asleep, looked up at Ning Chu sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Time to get up.”
“Hmm~ are you in a bad mood?”
“No.”
Black Bean gently grabbed her heart-shaped tail that was hanging down. “Then why isn’t your tail wagging...”
“I’m not a dog, why should I wag my tail?”
Ning Chu furrowed her brow in discomfort and pulled her tail away from Black Bean’s grip.
“You always wag it when you’re in a good mood.”
She always felt like Black Bean treated her like a dog. Ning Chu rolled her eyes silently and got up, heading outside.
She usually kept her tail wrapped around her thigh, hidden beneath her skirt. It was very noticeable when she was aroused, but other times, it was easy to forget about it.
But unexpectedly, Black Bean seemed to have figured out her emotions just from her tail.
Outside the bedroom, her mother was cleaning and mopping the floor. The house was cleaned every two days, and [N O V E L I G H T] the floors were always spotless. Compared to that, Ning Chu’s rented apartment could almost be called a pigsty.
“Breakfast is on the table.”
When her mother saw her daughter walking out of the room, she casually reminded her.
“Thanks, what are we eating today?”
“Sea oyster pancakes, crispy edges.”
Ning Chu’s eyes lit up, and her tail perked up too. The heart-shaped tip swayed from side to side as she eagerly ran to the dining table, complaining to her mother, “The sea oyster pancakes at school are so hard to get. Wen Yang brought me two once, and they were disgusting.”
“Go brush your teeth and wash your hands. You’re a grown-up, and I still have to remind you.”
“Oh~”
The dream was long forgotten by Ning Chu, and her bad mood was replaced with excitement.
She returned to the bathroom, brushing her teeth while asking her mother, “Mom, when are you and Uncle going to get your marriage certificate?”
“Why do I feel like you’re more anxious than I am?”
“I have things to do. I can’t just wait forever, right?”
Her mother, holding a mop, stood at the bathroom door, watching her daughter brush her teeth in front of the mirror, teasing, “You just got home, and you already want to go look for Wen Yang? You’re turning your elbow outward.”
“Impossible! I’d rather live here every day!” Ning Chu immediately denied her mother’s guess and hurriedly asked, “So when exactly? I need to find a job internship for the summer.”
“Next month.”
Ning Chu instinctively shook her head. “That’s not good!”
“You think I need your permission to get married and get my certificate?” Her mother looked at her through the mirror, her teasing expression evident.
Ning Chu realized she had been tricked. She turned around and tried to act cute to cover it up: “Mom~”
The high-pitched tone even made her cringe.
But her mother loved it, smiling even more brightly, “It’ll be on my birthday, the weekend after next.”
As expected...
But that was still more than ten days away.
Ning Chu tentatively asked, “Mom, what if we do it a few days earlier?”
Her mother paused, then immediately understood her intention, sighing, “Still saying you’re not in a hurry to see Wen Yang?”
“I’m really not, I’ve got an interview scheduled...” She tried to argue, but under her mother’s teasing gaze, her stubborn mouth was easily defeated. She lowered her eyes in guilt, “Okay, fine. I want to see Wen Yang.”
Her mother rolled her eyes at her. “If you want to go, then go. What does it have to do with me?”
“Really? Then I’ll go today...”
Her mother’s face darkened almost immediately.
Ning Chu suddenly remembered that her stubbornness was definitely inherited from her mother...
“Well, I should at least go with you to get the certificate, right?” To avoid the consequences of her words, she quickly corrected herself, “Mom~ It doesn’t matter if we get the certificate a few days earlier. Why wait until your birthday?”
Her mother’s expression softened a little, and with a hum, she turned to leave. “Just got home and already want to leave. Don’t you want to spend more time with your sister?”
“When your uncle gets back from his business trip, it won’t be long. Then he’ll take you to a restaurant for dinner.”
“You’ve been thinking about men all day, just stay home and behave!”
Ning Chu could only force a smile. “Of course not~”
