### Chapter 456: Neighbor Brother
“It’s a girl… and she’s still hanging out with Wen Yang…”
“Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Yeah, she’s way prettier than the average girl. How did I miss this?”
Wang Jie was having a mini existential crisis, slumped over his desk, muttering in confusion.
He wasn’t even that daft!
“What’s going on?”
Ning Chu mused that maybe this was just the inertia of the plot. After all, even when she was stuck in her dorm with boys all around, living a blissful life, Wang Jie never caught on.
Thank goodness that until now, none of the plotlines had developed smoothly—she had thwarted them all! The ending where she was surrounded by boys had been altered.
It had turned into a pure 1V1 love story… but it still came with challenges.
Wang Jie turned to scrutinize Ning Chu’s face, frowning and then giving a sigh of despair.
Now that he looked closely, even dressed as a boy, Ning Chu’s feminine figure was hard to miss. They were living under the same roof, and he hadn’t noticed a thing!
Plus, Ning Chu and Wen Yang always had those subtle glances. Clearly, something was going on there!
“Am I really that big of an idiot?”
“Yes, you are.” Zhang Shaoqing said emphatically.
After morning classes, Ning Chu and Wen Yang headed to the cafeteria for lunch, just like always.
As soon as they sat down, her phone buzzed with a video call notification.
“Mom! I’m home!”
When she answered the video call, a big face filled the screen as Black Bean, all hyped up, yelled, “Grandma’s making dinner for me now! It’s all meat!”
“It’s sister…”
Ning Chu corrected Black Bean for the umpteenth time, glancing around nervously, worried that her classmates would hear.
That would make her a university student with a kid before hitting twenty… way too scandalous.
“Big sis~”
“Are you settling in over there?” Ning Chu asked casually, then turned to Wen Yang, “I’m craving fried chicken legs.”
“Alright, I’ll grab some dishes.”
This was Black Bean’s first attempt at using video chat, so her baby-fat face almost took up the entire screen: “Yup! The house is so big~ and so many snacks to eat~”
Seeing Black Bean’s delighted smile on the screen, Ning Chu’s worries began to ease.
She was really concerned that her little catgirl would have a hard time adjusting to the new environment.
For a cat, strong stress can be quite dangerous!
“Black Bean! Come eat lunch!”
“Coming!”
Ning Chu heard her mother’s voice in the background, and Black Bean disappeared from the screen.
She didn’t hang up the call but set the phone aside.
“What’s going on?” Wen Yang sat next to Ning Chu with his meal and glanced at the phone, “Where is she?”
“Off to eat. Looks like she’s doing well.”
“Good.”
Today, Wen Yang had only grabbed one plate of food and two bowls of rice. He break apart a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed them to Ning Chu, asking, “Is Black Bean going back to school soon?”
“Yeah, she definitely has to go to school.”
“Tough luck.” He shook his head, “She used to just lounge around at home, always had someone to scoop her litter, no worries about eating or sleeping.”
Going by that logic, Black Bean had it pretty rough now.
From a cute little cat to a catgirl who had to study, learn to socialize, and make money… all sorts of headaches were on the horizon for her!
In the past, Black Bean just ate and slept—never had to stress about anything.
“Sis! I’m off to eat!”
Black Bean suddenly popped back onto the screen: “Brother-in-law! Bye!”
As the video cut off, Wen Yang blinked and muttered, “Wasn’t I just called dad or bro before?”
“Maybe it’s something my mom taught her?”
With Black Bean gone and the plot characters at school mostly over Wen Yang, Ning Chu didn’t have to worry too much about encountering a few flirtatious foxes every day, leaving her free to focus on messing up the plot.
The novel she had signed was officially published two days ago. Even without a weekend job, she would be making a few hundred bucks a month with her attendance.
Everything was falling into place, and soon she could enjoy her university life!
As Ning Chu ate her lunch, her mood lifting, she swayed her body gently.
With one hand playing with her phone, she noticed another message notification pop up.
“Isn’t Black Bean supposed to be eating?” she murmured, “My mom wouldn’t let her eat and play on the phone, right?”
Though her mom was the queen of watching dramas and scrolling through short videos while eating…
Opening the message, her phone switched to the chat app, revealing a familiar yet slightly unfamiliar account.
“Is that Black Bean?” Wen Yang leaned over to sneak a peek at her phone screen, “Who is it?”
“Um… my neighbor brother from when I was a kid.”
Ning Chu groaned, dropping her chopsticks, resting her chin on her hand: “He’s back from the military after a few years and came to hang out.”
Then she remembered that before she transmigrated, this neighbor brother had also returned from military service around this time during her freshman year.
Since he hadn’t found a dream job after discharge, he’d come to her university city to catch up with friends for a couple of days and also look for work.
Naturally, she had gone out to hang out with him on the weekends, and they kept in touch and had a decent friendship.
Although meeting again would stir up old times, the situation was entirely different now…
She was a succubus now, and the interaction plot with her neighbor brother would definitely not play out like it used to.
“He probably doesn’t even know you’re a girl, huh?”
Ning Chu nodded gloomily: “Should I just not go?”
“But not going feels kinda bad…”
After all, he was a childhood friend who had always looked out for her.
Plus, she didn’t want to lose a friend she could really connect with just because of her rejection.
Wen Yang saw her hesitating and made the decision for her: “Just go, I need to head downtown for my part-time job this weekend anyway.”
“If anything goes wrong, call me, and I can be there quickly.”
Ning Chu agreed, feeling a bit relieved.
Once she realized this was a parallel world, she had anticipated meeting her old friend as a woman.
This was just the first of many meetings.
She couldn’t avoid every single one, right?
“The question is how to explain this,” she pondered, “Maybe I could say I have a thing for cross-dressing?”
“That excuse would fall apart if you ever want to marry me.”
“Who said anything about marrying you…? Maybe I’ll just dress as a guy? He wouldn’t remember what I used to look like since it’s been years.”
But Wen Yang worried about something else: “What if he ends up liking you?”
“???”
“On second thought, maybe you shouldn’t go?”
His possessiveness flared up again, his expression mirroring Ning Chu’s perfectly: “You can’t just go meet guys alone! I’m not comfortable with that.”
“Then… you come with me!”
——————
No updates today; I got caught driving without a license! Went off to edit the text instead…
