"Of course not..." Dubian paused, "but no matter what, Mr. Xiaoquan is innocent."
One person and one cat, they exchanged words, and the air around Jiutiao Meijie became increasingly tense.
"Dubian Che, are you being too arrogant?" Her delicate and beautiful face was completely shadowed.
"Arrogant?" The Literary Girl beside the window took a white rose out of the plastic bottle.
She said in a calm voice,
"It seems like you’re playing with Dubian Che, but actually, many times, it’s he who leads you by the nose, clever Dubian Che."
The girl put the rose to her nose and gently sniffed it.
Despite that being one of the most beautiful roses at the island country’s most famous flower market, the Ota Flower Market, it was still unclear whether the flower complemented the face or the face made the flower look better.
"Clever? I don’t think so," said the Dubian Cat. "Jiutiao Meijie plays me because I love her; she’s led by me because she loves me too."
"Enough!" Jiutiao Meijie interrupted the drifting subject.
She looked at the Dubian Cat, "Tell me, why didn’t you tell me this from the start?"
"Maybe for fear you wouldn’t believe it," Xiaoquan Aonai chimed in to help explain, "Look, on my first day here, I totally took it as a dream. The idea of swapping bodies is beyond imagination."
"Did I ask you to talk?" Jiutiao Meijie still gazed unflinchingly at the Dubian Cat.
Xiaoquan Aonai pouted unhappily, feeling less scared and embarrassed.
If Jiutiao Meijie hadn’t been so domineering, she might have apologized properly out of guilt and sought forgiveness.
But , treating her as a criminal and giving her orders, what did it mean?
’What’s so great about that.’
Feeling the sixteen-year-old girl’s rebelliousness, the Dubian Cat sighed inwardly.
"This matter was completely unexpected," he said, "When it happened, my first thought was not to let you know, worrying you’d blame Mr. Xiaoquan, not to hide it from you."
"What’s going on with you and that Xiaoquan Aonai?" Jiutiao Meijie demanded.
"Purely teacher-student relationship. She came to Tokyo from a rural public high school through her own efforts, so she takes good care of me, who also came from the countryside."
Jiutiao Meijie turned to Kiyono Lin by the window.
"Odd or even?" Kiyono Lin said.
"Odd," Jiutiao Meijie replied.
Kiyono Lin extended her slender finger, grasped a rose petal, gently plucked it off.
She softly placed the petal on the clean windowsill, then began picking the second one.
It was then that Xiaoquan Aonai realized that the odd and even they had been talking about referred to the rose petals.
But even if she knew, so what?
Did Jiutiao Meijie seem to particularly trust Kiyono Lin?
Odd, even, odd, even...
No one was counting, so Xiaoquan Aonai had to silently count in her mind.
She thought she would give up quickly, or make a mistake midway, but for the brain, it seemed like organizing a bunch of scattered books into order—troublesome, but hard to mess up.
There were an odd number of petals.
Kiyono Lin gently twirled the rose stem, giving Dubian Cat a glance.
If it weren’t for the petal she had tucked into her book, the count should have been even.
The Dubian Cat glanced at the ring in Jiutiao Meijie’s hand.
"Speak," Jiutiao Meijie said impatiently.
"The truth," Kiyono Lin placed the rose stem on the windowsill with the rose petals, creating a unique aesthetic.
Jiutiao Meijie gazed deeply at the Dubian Cat.
The Dubian Cat jumped up, leapt onto Jiutiao Meijie’s shoulder, and stuck out his tongue to lick her cheek.
Jiutiao Meijie grabbed the cat by the neck and took him down.
The Dubian Cat hung limply, tail drooping, his cat face confused.
It made no sense; Jiutiao Meijie should have softened a bit by now.
Jiutiao Meijie held the cat, inspected his paws, then tossed him onto the table.
The Dubian Cat jumped onto her shoulder again, this time, Jiutiao Meijie did not reject him.
"Is it over?" Xiaoquan Aonai tentatively asked.
"Over?" Repeating the word, Jiutiao Meijie snorted with disdain.
Along with her sound, messy yet orderly footsteps echoed through the corridor.
"Knock knock." A respectful knocking sound.
"Miss," Shizuru’s voice.
"Yes!" Led by Shizuru, a group of plainclothes bodyguards filed in.
"What’s going on?!" Xiaoquan Aonai stood up in a panic, knocking over the chair.
"Take him back," Jiutiao Meijie ordered.
"Yes!" The bodyguards slowly walked toward Xiaoquan Aonai.
"Kiyono!" Xiaoquan Aonai cried for help.
"Don’t mess up my desk," Kiyono Lin walked out of the Human Observation Department.
"Wait a minute!!" Xiaoquan Aonai hid behind the elm desk, cornered against the window.
The Dubian Cat inwardly mourned for Xiaoquan Aonai.
Kiyono Lin was just silent, but regarding a girl occupying his body...
Anyway, since it was Jiutiao Meijie who moved first, she didn’t agree or disagree to give Xiaoquan Aonai some trouble by taking advantage of the situation.
He wanted to help, but unfortunately with strangers present, it was better for the cat not to speak.
He was only allowed to tell them a very shallow part of the System, even with permission.
"Mr. Dubian," Shizuru pulled out a gun, a sneer with a hint of excitement for finally reaching this day.
"A gun—" Xiaoquan Aonai screamed.
The sixteen-year-old girl’s rebellious heart crumbled completely against the Tokyo heiress’s malign forces.
The meow meant: Don’t worry, you’ll be locked in a villa with good food and drink.
The leading bodyguards immediately moved forward, ready to grab Xiaoquan Aonai’s arms and take her away.