Objective Achieved.

Chen Miansheng quickly made his way back to the small courtyard.

There was no one at the entrance; everything looked exactly the same as before. That meant Gu Wu and Ah Chu hadn’t found the little orange cat in the other direction either.

His heart sank. But just as he stepped into the courtyard and reached the door of the inner room, his dark pupils constricted slightly.

—The door to the inner room was wide open.

His fingers curled slightly by his side, trembling uncontrollably. A sudden itch caught in his throat, and he covered his mouth to cough heavily twice before striding into the inner room.

The moment he entered, he saw a complete mess.

The wardrobe was wide open, and the neatly folded clothes inside had been thrown all over the floor. A small round stool lay on its side in the corner.

Chen Miansheng pressed his lips together. His long lashes lowered slightly as his gaze shifted toward the bed.

The quilt was raised in a distinct arch, outlining the curve of a human body. Above it was a head of long, black, waterfall-like hair, hiding the person’s face beneath.

Chen Miansheng’s breath caught. He stood frozen for a moment, unmoving, until the increasingly loud sound of his heartbeat and an insistent voice in his head shouted in unison, “Go. Go.” Finally, his feet moved.

The person on the bed seemed to be asleep. Everything was quiet. The quilt rose and fell steadily with each breath, just like the way the little orange cat used to sleep.

Her long hair draped down naturally, obscuring most of her face. But nestled in those strands, that familiar bronze tag peeked through — the one with his surname etched into it.

Seeing it gave him a small sense of reassurance, but also made his breathing grow slightly uneven.

His tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth. He clenched his hand, then slowly released it. He repeated the motion several times before kneeling by the bed, one knee on the ground, positioning himself in front of Fei Yan.

His Adam’s apple moved. He lifted his hand, hesitating in mid-air for a second, before gently brushing aside the long strands of hair bit by bit, revealing the woman’s face.

So it was true — his little orange cat was actually a young woman.

Her face was small enough to fit in his palm, with the faint softness of baby fat. Her lashes were long and dark, fluttering slightly in the air, perhaps from an uneasy sleep.

She looked exactly like the cat in his dreams.

Even Chen Miansheng himself couldn’t tell what he was feeling in that moment.

Shock. Excitement. A kind of joy like a dream coming true—along with a swirl of unnameable emotions he’d been suppressing for a long time. His throat felt like it was burning, something deep inside on the verge of breaking free.

But just seeing her sleep so quietly made him feel deeply content.

His gaze softened. His fingertips lowered slightly, barely grazing the girl’s cheek.

In the quiet room, a whisper suddenly broke the stillness — so soft it was almost inaudible:

“…Little Orange.”

Time passed, minute by minute. The sun inched toward the mountaintop.

Still kneeling on one knee, Chen Miansheng rested his head on one hand as he kept watch by his little cat’s side. No one knew how much time passed before the sleeping girl’s lashes fluttered and she slowly opened her eyes.

He stared at her intently.

Her eyes looked exactly like the cat’s—deep black, slightly damp with the daze of waking up. She blinked a couple of times, her gaze filled entirely with his reflection. It was a striking sight.

He opened his mouth to speak, but just as he did, the girl suddenly pushed herself up and, without a word, dove straight into his arms. She even nuzzled his neck with her head like she always did.

The moment it happened, both of them froze.

Fei Yan’s arms were still wrapped tightly around his neck. Her eyes widened in panic as she stared at the human hands in front of her.

Something was clearly wrong.

Wait a minute…

Why hadn’t she changed back?!

The next thought hit her like a lightning bolt.

Oh no. She’d been found out.

Meanwhile, Chen Miansheng stared at the person in his arms, stunned. The way she had jumped into him, the way she rubbed her head against him — it was exactly what the little orange cat would do.

Perhaps after spending so much time around him, she’d even taken on that faint pinewood-and-cool scent that belonged to him.

He had raised that little orange cat until she’d become plump and round, but the girl in his arms was delicate and petite. The ends of her thick hair brushed against the side of his neck, tickling the skin and his heart at once.

He glanced down unintentionally, his Adam’s apple bobbing again.

The girl’s clothes weren’t properly arranged, and when she had thrown herself into his arms earlier, the friction between fabrics had loosened them even more. A corner of her inner garment now hung loosely, exposing a pale, slightly flushed shoulder.

His throat went dry at the sight.

His hands hovered awkwardly in the air, unsure whether to hold her or to push her away. For once, he didn’t know what to do.

Before he could react, Fei Yan suddenly broke free from his embrace and, without any explanation, started pushing him out the door, grumbling as she went, “Who told you to come in? Get out.”

Though Chen Miansheng had long been sick, his strength still far surpassed Fei Yan’s. She shouldn’t have been able to move him at all. But when he saw her flushed, beet-red face, he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth and sighed almost inaudibly.

Then, he allowed her to shove him out the door.

He watched as she slammed the door in his face without a trace of mercy.

Standing there, eyes on the firmly shut door, Chen Miansheng raised his brow slightly. A faint, helpless smile curved at the corner of his lips.

He didn’t move from his spot. Instead, he spoke with his usual unhurried voice:

“Little Orange, did you forget? This is my house.”

“And now you’re kicking me out? Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?”

His tone was exactly the same as always.

As if the one inside the room was still that same little orange cat he knew so well.

Tsk.

Chen Miansheng was seriously so annoying.

Fei Yan leaned back against the door, her cheeks burning hot and red. Overwhelmed with emotion, she was panting heavily, trying to use what little rationality she had left to analyze the situation.

It all seemed to have started when she suddenly fainted for no apparent reason, and when she came to, the first thing she saw was Chen Miansheng keeping watch beside the bed.

She was so used to being a cat that without thinking, she threw herself—now in human form—into his arms.

And then… it turned into this mess.

Fei Yan rubbed her temples in frustration, unable to make sense of it no matter how she tried.

She hadn’t transformed from cat to human in front of Chen Miansheng, so how could he be so certain and call her “Little Orange” in such a confident tone?

What’s more, if he truly believed she was the orange cat that had always been with him, why was he so calm? Why had he simply waited by her side for her to wake up?

A normal person would’ve thought she was some kind of demon and caught her on the spot!

Ughhh.

What the hell is going on?

Fei Yan scratched her head in agitation, and for the first time, the idea crossed her mind: “Maybe I should just turn back into a cat and run away from Chen Miansheng, never see him again.”

But she still vividly remembered what he’d said the day he made that collar for her: “If I ever lose Little Orange, I’ll be really sad.” The look in his eyes when he said it hadn’t seemed fake in the slightest.

Which led to the next question—could she really bring herself to make Chen Miansheng sad?

The answer was no.

Just as Fei Yan stood there, unsure what to do, a gentle knock sounded on the door.

She instantly spun around like a startled grasshopper, eyes fixed warily on the door, afraid Chen Miansheng might suddenly burst in.

But things didn’t go the way she feared. All she heard was his voice coming through the door, warm and calm as always:

“It’s getting late. Little Orange must be hungry too. Whatever it is, we can talk after you’ve eaten, okay?”

A moment later, he thoughtfully added, “Come out when you’re ready, Little Orange. I’ll be waiting in the woodshed.”

Fei Yan pressed her lips together. After a moment of hesitation, she put her ear to the door—and sure enough, she could hear the sound of retreating footsteps gradually fading away.

She let out a long breath and glanced sideways. Her eyes fell on some items in the room, and after a brief moment of thought, she quickly walked over.

Chen Miansheng had already finished preparing the food. Where he once used bowls and trays to feed the cat, he had now switched to two full sets of bowls and chopsticks on the table. It made the place feel even more like a home. His expression relaxed slightly, and the corners of his lips lifted into a faint smile.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the girl’s figure appear in the woodshed. He looked up and saw her walking in with an armful of writing supplies—brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “Sit down. I made all your favorites.”

But the girl quickly pulled out a sheet of paper from the stack and slapped it in front of him, lifting her chin in a clear gesture for him to read it.

Chen Miansheng just looked at her for a moment and couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle.

Even in this situation, she still acted exactly like Little Orange.

It was just… way too cute.

Fei Yan frowned, dissatisfied with his reaction, and pushed the paper closer, muttering, “What are you laughing at? Just read it.”

Only then did Chen Miansheng lower his gaze to the paper. After scanning its contents, he let out another soft laugh.

Fei Yan knew exactly what he was laughing at.

As a modern-day young woman from the 21st century, she had almost no experience with calligraphy brushes, let alone writing with them. But in this world, that was all she had to write with—so the characters she scratched out came out crooked and messy, to the point even she could barely recognize them.

Luckily, Chen Miansheng could—“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not your Little Orange.”

That made him laugh for the third time.

He chuckled a few more times before finally looking her in the eye and giving a lazy, “Mm.”

Clearly, he didn’t take her words seriously at all.

Fei Yan bit her lip and handed over a second sheet of paper—“I really mean it. I don’t even know how I ended up in your house.”

To her credit, she was thoughtful enough to anticipate his reaction and had prepared a follow-up in advance.

But that reason was just too hard to believe.

This time, Chen Miansheng didn’t even bother responding. He simply looked up and smiled at her.

Fei Yan deliberately glared at him and pulled out the third sheet of paper—”I’m serious.”

Seeing Chen Miansheng nod at her twice in a coaxing way, Fei Yan pouted and sighed in frustration.

She had already used up all three prepared sheets. These were the only reasons she could come up with.

She had never really expected these flimsy excuses—ones she couldn’t even convince herself with—to be enough to fool Chen Miansheng. All she could do now was take things one step at a time.

She was just about to spread out another sheet of rice paper to write more when the man who had been sitting in the wooden chair suddenly stood and leaned toward her.

Fei Yan’s pupils contracted. Instinctively, she leaned back. “You pervert, what are you doing?”

To her surprise, Chen Miansheng halted again, keeping a polite distance. He only reached out a slender finger, letting it touch the silver collar around her neck, then slowly let it trail down the clothes she was wearing, which had originally belonged to him. After that, he withdrew his hand without changing his expression, smiling as he looked at her.

“In that case, Miss, would you care to explain, if you truly don’t know how you ended up in my home, why you’re wearing my clothes and have my little cat’s collar on your neck?”

Fei Yan followed the path of his finger with her eyes, then looked back at the face she had seen countless times. She bit her lip.

Fine, she’d come clean. No more pretending. Alright?

With puffed cheeks, Fei Yan wrote four words on the paper and handed it to him: “Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Chen Miansheng replied, “Why should I be afraid?”

Fei Yan wrote again: “I’m not a cat.”

Chen Miansheng smiled. “I know you’re not a cat.”

Fei Yan’s expression froze for a moment.

Why was communicating with Chen Miansheng so exhausting?

She gritted her teeth and nearly started using the brush like a ballpoint pen.

With deliberate force, she jabbed the brush tip onto the paper, making her handwriting even more wild and distorted.

Seeing her treat his brush so roughly, Chen Miansheng didn’t get angry. He simply looked at her with a gentle smile in his eyes, as if he were still talking to his little cat, coaxing her softly, “Go easy.”

Fei Yan paused slightly. In the end, she softened her strokes and wrote, the characters still crooked and fierce: “That’s exactly why you should be afraid of me.”

This time, Chen Miansheng was quiet for several seconds. Then, in a sudden shift of roles, he asked in return, “What exactly should I be afraid of?”

Fei Yan furrowed her brows, opened her mouth—but no words came out.

Chen Miansheng lowered his gaze, and within his ink-dark pupils was nothing but Fei Yan’s reflection.

“Should I fear that you somehow switched the herbs in my medicine pot, and instead of getting worse, I ended up getting better? Or should I fear that you’ve stayed by my side for several months now, never harming me or anyone close to me, and even protected me in every way? Or perhaps, I should fear that you’ve always been there—keeping me company through those hard, sleepless nights?”

He looked up, his eyes intense, and asked again, word by word:

“Tell me, Little Orange—what exactly should I fear about you?”

So, Chen Miansheng had known all along that she had changed his medicine. At the time, he probably didn’t know her intentions or whether she might harm him—but still, he drank every dose without hesitation.

Fei Yan’s pupils shrank slightly, and for a moment, she didn’t know how to respond.

The two of them sat in silence for a long while until Chen Miansheng finally looked away, walked over, and pulled out the wooden chair for her. “Let’s eat first. The food’s getting cold.”

Fei Yan didn’t move. Not until he blinked and signaled her did she snap out of it and sit down as if waking from a dream.

Chen Miansheng had prepared all her favorite dishes from when she was still a cat. As a cat, she would have eaten enthusiastically, but under today’s circumstances, Fei Yan had little appetite.

After a few bites, she set down her chopsticks. “I’m full.”

Chen Miansheng looked up at her, visibly confused.

Only then did Fei Yan remember that he couldn’t hear her. She took the paper and brush again and wrote a single character: “Full.”

He laughed again.

Fei Yan shot him a glare and wrote on the paper, annoyed: “What’s so funny?”

Chen Miansheng shook his head. “It’s just a bit strange.”

Now it was Fei Yan’s turn to look puzzled. “What’s strange?”

Chen Miansheng chuckled. “Back when Little Orange was still a kitten, she could finish all of this in one go. Now that you’ve become such a grown person, you’re full after just a few bites.”

Fei Yan could clearly tell he was teasing her. She was just about to huff in protest again when he stood up and said, “Since you’re done eating, let’s go to the study.”

The sun set, and night quietly fell.

Inside the study.

Chen Miansheng narrowed his eyes slightly, looking puzzled.  “So that means… you’re not a demon?”

When he asked what kind of creature the little cat actually was, she had denied being an animal, deity, or demon.

Fei Yan thought for a moment and tried to explain as plainly as possible: “I’m human, but I don’t belong to this world. You could think of it as—I was forced to come here due to some uncontrollable circumstances.”

Chen Miansheng looked like he half-understood. He lowered his gaze slightly. “Uncontrollable circumstances?”

Fei Yan replied, “It’s hard to explain.” After all, words like “system” were far outside Chen Miansheng’s realm of understanding. If she really wanted him to fully grasp it, she’d probably still be writing by tomorrow.

Chen Miansheng didn’t press further. “Then why were you showing yourself in cat form before?”

Fei Yan didn’t feel like explaining in detail. “Also due to uncontrollable circumstances. I was forced to turn into a cat. Only by meeting certain conditions can I permanently return to human form.”

Chen Miansheng looked her up and down. “So… you’ve met them now?”

Fei Yan paused mid-stroke, then finally wrote: “I don’t know.”
Probably not—Chen Miansheng didn’t seem like someone who had fallen for her.

“Is there anything I can help with?” As soon as he heard there was a chance she hadn’t fully turned back, Chen Miansheng frowned slightly. “I’d like to help you.”

Fei Yan refused without thinking. “No need. You can’t help with this.”

What, was she supposed to ask him to fall in love with her? Just the thought of it was absurd.

Besides, now that something irreversible had happened, she wasn’t even sure if she’d still be able to stay by his side.

Not to mention that unreliable Thirteen  was nowhere to be found.

Small, pitiful, and helpless.
Life was hard. The cat sighed.

Chen Miansheng paused to think, then asked the question currently weighing most on his mind: “So when will you turn back again?”

Fei Yan handed him the piece of paper that said “I don’t know.”

Silence fell again.

Chen Miansheng could see that she really seemed a bit lost. Knowing that Little Orange had originally been human—and could now appear before him in human form again—was enough for him. So, he chose to steer the conversation away. “In that case, you should stay here. The study can fit another bed. Don’t worry about anything else.”

Fei Yan stared at him in a daze, then quickly scribbled on the paper: “You’re still letting me stay here?”

Chen Miansheng let out a soft laugh. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Resting his chin in one hand, he pondered a bit, then suddenly winked at her mischievously.

“Do you think I went to all this trouble raising Little Orange just to kick her out now and leave her all alone in a place she doesn’t even know?”

For some reason, those words sounded far too ambiguous in Fei Yan’s ears.

Her ears turned red from discomfort—but then her pupils suddenly shrank.

Just as Chen Miansheng finished speaking, Thirteen’s voice rang out in her head without warning:

[Congratulations, Host. You’ve completed Task #4 and earned one Affection Point.]

Wait—when had Thirteen given her a fourth task? She had no idea!

No, now was probably not the time to worry about that.

Fei Yan hastily scribbled “One moment” on the paper, got up, and walked to a corner of the study, then started communicating with Thirteen in her mind.

“You’re back to normal?”

[…You could say that, Host.]

“Then why did I suddenly turn back into a human?”

[Because you’ve completed the ‘Love Development Program.’]

“Even if I completed the—wait, what did you just say? Say it again?”

[You’ve completed the ‘Love Development Program,’ so you returned to human form.]

Meanwhile—

Chen Miansheng sat on a wooden chair, resting his chin on one hand. His thick lashes were slightly lowered as he stared unblinkingly in the direction of the little cat.

He didn’t know why Little Orange had walked into the corner and turned her back to him, nor why she suddenly turned around again, those dark, glistening eyes fixed on him. She seemed excited, but beyond that, he couldn’t quite read her deeper emotions.

The corners of his lips curved slightly into a smile as he looked at her. But unexpectedly, as soon as she noticed, her fur seemed to stand on end and she immediately turned back around.

Fei Yan couldn’t believe it. Did Chen Miansheng really like her?

But judging from the way he treated her, it didn’t seem any different from how he had treated the orange cat before.

[Please trust the system’s analysis. However, since the system was just repaired and energy levels are still low, the host may randomly revert back to—]

“Wait a second.” Fei Yan interrupted the system halfway through, rubbing her fingers anxiously, feeling as if she were still dreaming.

She thought for a moment, quickly scribbled two words on a piece of paper, and then walked briskly back to Chen Miansheng. Facing his slightly puzzled expression, she pinched his arm through his sleeve.

After the pinch, she handed him the note: “Did it hurt?”

Instead of getting angry, Chen Miansheng laughed quietly and said, “It didn’t hurt.”

Tch. She knew it—she must still be dreaming.

But then Chen Miansheng said, “You didn’t use enough strength. That felt like a kitten’s tickle. Want to try again, but harder this time?”

Fei Yan: “?” She, Fei Mao Mao, had never heard such a strange request in her entire life.

But when she actually placed her hand on his arm again, Fei Yan hesitated. She pressed her lips together, then withdrew her hand and instead gave a firm pinch to her own arm.

The next second, her features scrunched up in pain as she sucked in a sharp breath.

Hiss—Chen Miansheng was lying.

That hurt a lot.

Seeing this, Chen Miansheng’s face changed instantly. He instinctively got up to check on her, but the girl quickly waved her hands and stepped back several times, silently mouthing something.

If he wasn’t mistaken, she was saying, “I’m fine.”

As she tried to accept the fact that “this is all real,” she was also racking her brain over how “Chen Miansheng could possibly like someone like her.”

She sneakily shifted her gaze to his face, only to see he was still staring at her.

He liked her? He liked her? He really liked her.

Fei Yan swallowed hard. No matter how she thought about it, it didn’t seem plausible.

She pursed her lips in thought, then held up the note with “Wait a moment” written on it to Chen Miansheng, and summoned Thirteen to open the Wheel of Romance.

Although she didn’t understand why the “Love Development Program” still hadn’t disappeared after the system confirmed Chen Miansheng’s feelings—and even issued her a new task—at least now that there was no looming threat, having a few more attributes wouldn’t hurt her.

The Wheel of Romance spun rapidly before gradually landing on a setting called “Please Listen to My Heart.”

[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the fifth attribute: ‘Please Listen to My Heart’—basic version.]

Another vague and confusing name. Fei Yan tried to analyze its possible function using the patterns of the previous ones, secretly wondering if it meant she had gained the ability to read minds.

She turned to face Chen Miansheng, staring at him intently—but nothing happened.

Fei Yan: “…”

Wrong guess.

She pouted in frustration and muttered, “Forget it.”

She was already used to how weird the system was. You never knew when an attribute like this might come in handy.

What she didn’t know was that the moment she said those words, Chen Miansheng suddenly looked up at her as if he’d heard something.

As the girl’s lips moved, he heard a voice for the first time in a long while.

It was a soft, gentle female voice that said: “Forget it.”

And it perfectly matched the shape of her lips.

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