Chapter 84: Obedient Catgirl

The cost of acting on impulse sure is steep…

Or maybe it’s just that the speed at which a person goes from hopeful anticipation to deep regret is fast enough to scare even themselves…

There wasn’t even time or space to stop and think.

Just walking with Gu Fan to the Christmas tree, those brief ten-odd seconds were enough to make me start regretting bringing him here.

Christmas hasn’t even arrived yet.

Right now it’s just the warm-up phase.

Aside from a few little kids, the other visitors weren’t particularly enthusiastic, so it ended up being just the two of us under the tree.

Which meant… I had no excuse to pretend the crowd was too big and sneak away.

I swallowed nervously.

Blankly, I looked up at the massive tree—easily two and a half stories tall, reaching the second floor of the shopping center.

My original plan had sounded so great.

I’d use the excuse of making a Christmas wish to find out what material things Gu Fan still wanted.

If it was just him making a wish, that plan would have worked fine.

But I forgot that I had to participate too.

It wasn’t until I impulsively invited him over that I suddenly remembered this detail.

And now I’d have to be like those little kids—shouting out my not-so-innocent wish about Gu Fan in public…

Ugh. Just kill me already!!!

“My god… Is today the day disaster decided to fall squarely on my head?”

Clutching my forehead in frustration, I muttered under my breath, trying to ease the rising anxiety.

Next to the Christmas tree, there was a simple vending machine that accepted QR codes or paper bills…

You could exchange coins of corresponding value simply by scanning a code or inserting bills.

Many people, just joining for the fun of it, exchanged one or two coins, then quietly dropped them into the stockings while muttering their wishes.

Compared to those noisy little kids, their voices were much softer—well, they were adults after all.

Gu Fan had already gone up to the vending machine and exchanged two coins.

He hadn’t noticed my strange behavior from earlier.

“Here, Zhi Nian, let’s make our wishes.”

Gu Fan smiled gently.

Compared to me, whose moods constantly swung up and down, he always seemed so calm and steady—handling real life with such composure.

Not that I necessarily longed to be that calm.

In fact, I had a love-hate relationship with it.

I wished Gu Fan would be a bit more expressive with his emotions—but at the same time, I feared that if he went too far, he might become unpredictable or moody.

Well… if I’m going to agonize over it like this, maybe it’s best for things to stay the way they are.

With that thought, my mood brightened a little.

I took the coin from Gu Fan’s hand and deliberately walked a step behind him to the Christmas tree.

Gu Fan had already tossed his coin into the hollowed-out candy cane.

I didn’t rush to make my wish or declare what I wanted for Christmas.

Instead, I turned my head and stared at Gu Fan.

Compared to my own small and meaningless desires, I wanted more to understand what Gu Fan was truly longing for—what he needed.

With his hands devoutly pressed together, Gu Fan slowly closed his beautiful amber eyes.

There was nothing twisted or intense in his expression.

Instead, it gave off a gentle, graceful beauty—just like the warmth and refinement he always made me feel.

I stared for a while.

Before I knew it, my eyes had glazed over, and I found myself dazed.

I shook my head, snapping out of it.

With a clearer mind, I remembered my original purpose and began to focus again.

I listened closely to the Christmas wish Gu Fan was about to make.

Now that I think about it, this was actually the first time I had ever seen Gu Fan make a wish.

At the birthday party in the café, I had been completely blocked by those meddlesome classmates—I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of Gu Fan.

Naturally, I never got the chance to witness what he looked like standing in front of the cake, making a wish.

But… I guess some good things still manage to happen to me.

Like now—I get to have Gu Fan all to myself.

Is this what people mean by “blessings and misfortunes come hand in hand”?

Heh… if only happiness could always follow.

Shamelessly fantasizing about such impossible sweetness, I then heard the content of Gu Fan’s wish.

“Hmm… I hope that those close to me can get through the next year safely and smoothly. And then… hmm, I can’t really think of anything else.”

It seemed Gu Fan was a little troubled over what kind of Christmas wish to make.

He thought for quite a while before finally speaking.

In the end, he couldn’t hold it in and gave me a wry smile, shrugging his hands at the same time.

“I already made one this afternoon. Feels like I’m getting too greedy. If you go too far, it might backfire. Making two wishes in a row might annoy the gods.”

That’s what he said, but I had a feeling Gu Fan didn’t actually believe in the existence of gods.

His tone was so casual, it almost sounded like he was teasing.

If I hadn’t experienced time travel myself, I might have thought that so-called gods were just vague fantasies too.

As for now…

I could clearly feel my tail swaying mischievously in front of my body, brushing against me with a fluffy itchiness.

The cat ears on my head fluttered slightly in the breeze now and then.

These unmistakably real sensations kept reminding me—this wasn’t a dream.

This wasn’t some wild delusion.

I had truly, without a doubt, become a catgirl.

Maybe not a particularly cute one—but still a transformation that now stood in subtle contradiction with the worldview I used to have.

Thinking this way… then perhaps the success rate of my wish coming true might be much higher, right?

After all, gods might really exist, and if they can hear my wish next, please, by all means, make it come true!

With that hope in my heart, I stood on my tiptoes and tossed a coin into the hollowed-out candy cane.

The coin clinked against the plastic as it dropped inside.

I imitated Gu Fan’s posture when he made his wish—palms together, standing under the Christmas tree.

Softly glowing multicolored lights surrounded me.

I slowly closed my eyes, and the light filtered through my thin eyelids.

Now that this long-awaited moment had arrived… I didn’t know what to say.

I had just thought of many wishes, but precisely because I had too many choices, I couldn’t decide which to pick.

Now my brain was frozen from indecision.

Even though it’s allowed to think for a bit when making a wish, I can’t just stand here forever, right?

Gu Fan only took about twenty seconds to think of his.

I silently counted how much time I was wasting and decided to settle my Christmas wish within one minute.

Wishes spoken aloud in public can’t be as unfiltered as the ones in my fantasies.

Those insane thoughts should be kept for late-night dreaming only.

If I actually said them out loud, I’d definitely be taken as a lunatic and sent straight to a psychiatric hospital.

Restrain it—tone it down more and more.

I need to hint at my feelings for Gu Fan in a subtle way, but not so intense that it disgusts him.

I’d rather bury my filthy, ugly thoughts deep inside—

Like rotting grain left to decay in an abandoned warehouse—than let them ruin the good image Gu Fan has of me.

I just want to be a sensible, considerate catgirl.

A good catgirl who doesn’t make Gu Fan feel wary of me.