Cat Mascot Costume

Yirui An’s expression froze, and she let out an awkward “ah.”

She wasn’t very emotionally intelligent, and there was still something innocent and childish about her. Curiosity outweighed her embarrassment, and she even had the nerve to ask, “So what I did was pointless? You weren’t upset after Teacher Nan rejected you?”

“Pointless. I’m very happy. I’m not upset.” Yu Mao’s tone was stiff and mechanical.

Apart from her, no believer could ever meet a god while still alive. She was already lucky enough; of course she should be content.

Yirui An tilted her head, shoved her fingers into her hair, and scratched hard, frowning in complete bafflement. She thought Yu Mao was really strange.

Too strange.

She still wanted badly to understand Yu Mao, but repeated setbacks had taught her not to deliberately probe any further. From her point of view, trying to guess Yu Mao’s thoughts would only backfire.

Seeing that she’d stopped asking, Yu Mao walked around her and left.

Once preparations for the first public performance began, all the contestants were busy; only Yu Mao remained as free as ever.

Then the production team dragged her off to film an ad.

Getting a commercial gig was a good thing. She never minded making extra money, so she cooperated pretty well.

Even if the brand’s request was for her to wear a cat mascot costume and recite the copy in cat speech while introducing cat food.

Crazy.

Yu Mao put on a pure white cat mascot suit that only left her face exposed. Expressionless, she crouched on top of a long table and meowed her way through the cat food in front of her.

The brand couldn’t understand a word. They only thought the cat speech sounded authentic, and they were extremely satisfied. In a generous gesture, they even gave the mascot costume to Yu Mao.

Yu Mao thought it was pretty warm, so she wore the whole thing back.

To be fair, the outfit was quite cute. The fur was snow-white and soft, with a thin layer of cotton filling underneath; it looked plush and huggable without being bulky.

All four paws were made to look realistic, and the hand paws had silicone pads for grip, which solved part of the problem of holding things.

And on top of the hood were two huge pink cat ears, with long wisps of fur at the tips.

Yu Mao walked slowly, her long tail swaying behind her as she turned into the building and headed straight for the practice room.

At this hour, most contestants had probably already finished dinner and were either resting in the dorms or practicing in the rehearsal rooms. By the time Yu Mao reached the end of the corridor and looked through the window in the door, she spotted a familiar figure and pushed the door open.

The moment she stepped in wearing that unusual outfit, most of the room turned to look.

But before anyone could cry out in surprise, they caught sight of her face and swallowed the words back.

Better not call out to her; it would only ruin the mood.

Especially since Yu Mao made it so obvious that she didn’t want to deal with anyone except Nan Changgeng.

Class A was small, but the practice room wasn’t limited to Class A contestants; contestants from other classes who got along well had also come over to help or collaborate.

There were already two people gathered beside Nan Changgeng. She was busy “teaching” and hadn’t noticed Yu Mao come in yet.

Yu Mao ignored the glances aimed her way, found a spot against the wall with practiced ease, and sat down, curling into a little white tangyuan. The costume was thick; at last, she didn’t feel cold anymore.

She tucked her hands away and gazed at Nan Changgeng’s profile as she concentrated on teaching. Her nose bridge was exquisite, like a mountain made of snow, connecting to the gray-blue sea at its base. Half a red sun rose and set there, as if a deity were descending with a divine decree.

And her hair—what was it? The darkness of the world flowed through it like a river. Yu Mao tilted her head slightly, looking at her from an angle, and a damp, soft mist rose in her heart.

Nan Changgeng was always busy; she took on many responsibilities that weren’t really hers. Yu Mao knew it was because she was a good person.

Because she was a good person, Yu Mao also had to make herself into a good person... at the very least, she couldn’t be a bad one.

Sometimes she thought it would be better if Nan Changgeng were a bad person; then Yu Mao wouldn’t have to worry so much about what she could do for her.

If Nan Changgeng had many desires, then Yu Mao would have the right to satisfy them.

But being a good person was fine too; helping others was enough to make happiness easy to come by.

Besides, she liked it when the people around Nan Changgeng looked at her with reverence and gratitude, as if this world didn’t only have Yu Mao’s one believer.

More. Give her more...

Yu Mao swallowed, and out of the long passage of time, that lingering desire rose again.

After a few minutes, Nan Changgeng finished answering one contestant’s question. During the break, she rolled her shoulders back, lifted a hand to press the back of her neck, and turned her head from side to side. Just then, her peripheral vision caught the extra “cat” by the wall.

Her eyes widened at once, and before she even clearly saw who it was, her gaze had already lit up. Once she recognized Yu Mao’s face, she couldn’t hold back her smile.

Too cute. That little face was trapped inside the cat hood, making her delicate features stand out even more vividly, like a beautifully crafted doll; little nose, little mouth, and glass-like black eyes.

Yu Mao was tilting her head as she looked over, just like the chubby cat at home that used to stupidly tilt its head whenever it was curious.

Nan Changgeng’s brows and eyes curved; even the sharpness naturally built into her features softened, like down feathers brushing past, drifting over a deep gray-blue ocean with rippling light.

Seeing her reaction, Yu Mao’s heart thudded.

She immediately straightened her head and, from a proper angle, received the whole bright, shimmering world rushing toward her. It seized her mind.

She smiled because she saw me.

The violent pounding in her chest nearly made Yu Mao’s ears ring; it was as if tides were squeezing and bursting out, crashing against her ribs and even making her body sway.

Happy. Happy. Happy.

It hurt.

“You came.” Nan Changgeng smiled and beckoned to her. Her movements were casual, her eyes bright, and the end of her voice lifted slightly with expectation.

Yu Mao thought there was a hint of shyness in that smile.

Happy.

She braced herself on the floor with her arms and wriggled up from inside the thick costume, then walked over quickly.

The outfit really was a little too big on Yu Mao, like a child wearing an adult’s clothes. But because it was thick and fluffy, it didn’t look cumbersome; it just made her movements seem a little squirmy and wriggly, extremely soft, like a clumsy little bear.

Nan Changgeng’s eyes grew even brighter. Those gray-blue eyes, usually so hard to light up, always carrying a sense of calm and wisdom, actually shone like two clear lakes under the sun.

“Sis Nan’s been completely defeated by the fluff,” one contestant beside them teased.

Nan Changgeng laughed, still unable to look away, which only proved the point.

Yu Mao walked to her side, but she wasn’t used to looking down at someone from above, so she sat on the floor again and lifted her head to look up at her from beside her feet.

“There’s a chair over there, you...” Nan Changgeng lifted a hand and pointed not far away.

Yu Mao shook her head. “I like being on the floor.”

Nan Changgeng didn’t dwell on it and instead asked, “Where did this outfit come from?”

She hadn’t even finished speaking before her hand was already on Yu Mao, rubbing the cat ears. Soft as they were, they didn’t seem to feel as good as a girl’s hair.

“I wore it for an ad shoot; they gave it to me. Do you like it?” Yu Mao carefully placed a paw on her thigh and flexed her fingers, making the cat paw clench into a fist and then open again, revealing pink pads.

“It’s pretty cute.” Nan Changgeng didn’t answer directly, but stars practically sprang from her eyes, and even her voice unconsciously softened. She lowered her head to pinch the pads.

Her straight hair fell forward and obscured her expression. Yu Mao swallowed, then followed the urge in her body and extended her head between Nan Changgeng’s knees, tilting it to look up at her face.

A round, fluffy little head leaned over, with a small catlike face and shining black eyes. Nan Changgeng startled for a moment, then laughed and reached out to poke her forehead.

“What are you doing?”

She wasn’t expecting Yu Mao to give a serious answer; her tone was indulgent, like she was talking to a small animal.

The more she saw, the harder it became to treat Yu Mao like a normal human being.

She instinctively noticed the subtle details in everyone’s and every animal’s expressions and movements, and she was extremely sensitive to them, easily judging what state the other party was in at the moment.

Sometimes, she wondered whether this was some other kind of mysterious perception, not just simple observation. So when facing a girl who looked, however you sliced it, like a human being, she would always unconsciously treat her like a cat.

And Yu Mao’s responses only deepened that illusion again and again.

“I want to see you,” she said.

Just like that; direct, yearning, unmasked.

It was hard to make a cat resist the lure of cat treats, and it wasn’t easy to make Yu Mao stop looking at her either... Nan Changgeng sensed an extremely similar ripple of feeling between the two.

She didn’t avoid Yu Mao’s gaze, a small smile resting on her lips. Sitting with her back to the light, a thin shadow fell across her front, covering Yu Mao’s clear black eyes like a form of consumption.

Nan Changgeng realized that some kind of greed had begun to ferment in her heart.

And the clueless little cat still knew nothing, staring at her with burning eyes; innocent and pitiable, so fragile.

She couldn’t help feeling fond of her. Her eyes lowered slightly, and she reached out to pinch the girl’s cheek, her deep voice carrying laughter; her tone even seemed to hold a hint of teasing.

“Take the hood off and let me touch you.”

Yu Mao immediately pulled off the hood, not caring that it disturbed a nest of messy hair, and handed it over. Her gaze flickered faintly, secretly bright with delight, holding onto a sliver of hope that Nan Changgeng would put the hood on her own head.

But she hadn’t expected that what Nan Changgeng wanted to touch wasn’t the hood at all, but her head.

That fair, slender hand passed over the hood and went straight for her hair instead; first it ruffled it hard, then gently smoothed the strands down.

At times, the fingertips scraped across her scalp, sparking intense tingling. Yu Mao was caught off guard; from her spine all the way to her lower back, she went soft in an instant as if electrocuted, losing all strength and collapsing limply onto the woman’s lap. Her lifted head dropped too, her cheek pressing against Nan Changgeng’s thigh.

She was already half-sprawled there, lips parted, still dazed.

Seeing how stunned she looked, Nan Changgeng couldn’t stop laughing and casually gave her a couple of head massages.

Yu Mao’s brows twisted like two caterpillars, and she bit her lower lip, half enjoying it and half enduring it.

Blood... boiling... about to spill out.

She shakily raised one finger and pressed the knuckle beneath her nose, worried she might get a nosebleed.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to endure it for long. Nan Changgeng, while absentmindedly brushing aside the hair by her ear, exposed one ear with an earphone in it and paused.

At last, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked, “Why do you keep wearing earphones all the time?”

Yu Mao blinked softly and answered truthfully, “I need your voice every moment.”

When she couldn’t see her, music was her only comfort... her mental oxygen pump.

If there ever came a moment when she could no longer sense her, she would become a fish and drown on land.

Nan Changgeng heard her heart give a sudden jolt, thumping like a heavy drum inside her chest.

It was as if a tide rose from every part of her body and flowed backward, converging on her brain and drowning her in warmth; all she could hear was water.

She couldn’t recover her senses.

“God!”

Someone else cried it out for her from a throat that had gone blocked.