**January**
“My mom is coming.”
As the evening bell rang and students streamed out of the classroom towards the cafeteria, Ning Chu suddenly announced to Wen Yang.
“Uh?” Wen Yang blinked, caught off guard.
“It’s already early January, I got my ID a long time ago, and my mom’s paperwork is all set… If it weren’t for the hassle of registering Black Bean, she would have come to change my school record by now.”
Early January, with just three weeks left until finals.
As she spoke, Ning Chu tugged her scarf up, covering half her face.
Her cheeks were flushed, her nose even redder, and while she wore a thick cotton jacket that made her look like a chunky penguin, her lower half was dressed in plush leggings topped with a long skirt that reached her calves.
With temperatures hovering around ten degrees, if it weren’t for the need to hide her tail, she wouldn’t want to wear a skirt in the dead of winter.
Fortunately, the leggings were thick enough to keep her legs warm.
Wen Yang felt a bit anxious; he distinctly recalled how dissatisfied her future mother-in-law seemed last time.
“When is she coming?”
“Tomorrow noon.” Ning Chu paused, “Oh, right, Black Bean is now called Ning Xin; Black Bean will just be her nickname from now on.”
“She’s coming too?”
“Not anymore~ She has tutoring classes every day now~ She’s starting fourth grade next semester.”
Her tone was laced with teasing and schadenfreude. A perfectly fine little black cat just had to transform into a catgirl, and now she was left without school excuses.
Rumor had it that on her first day of tutoring, Black Bean cried and rolled around at home, refusing to go to school.
But the next day, after her mom served up boiled shrimp, Black Bean happily scampered off to class!
“How tragic.” Wen Yang chuckled, shaking his head. “With her personality, how can she possibly learn anything?”
“My mom’s only hope is that she can eat and drink without going bad.”
“Black Bean is nine now, or at least that’s what’s on the registration.”
Giving the topic some thought, Ning Chu and Wen Yang stepped into the cafeteria.
The outside chill was cut off, and the bustling atmosphere inside made the air feel warmer. Holding her textbooks, Ning Chu settled at a corner of the cafeteria, her earlier lightheartedness about Black Bean quickly vanishing, leaving a frown on her face.
Finals were coming up soon.
But she lacked confidence in her exams.
Though she’d completed a whole university education in her past life, that field had nothing to do with what she was studying now!
Feeling despondent, she flipped through her textbooks alongside Wen Yang’s notes, cramming a last-minute review during lunch.
“I told you, just ask me if you don’t understand,” Wen Yang said as he sat down with a tray, handing her a bowl of rice and some disposable chopsticks.
“Aren’t you busy?” Ning Chu mumbled. She could still manage her specialized subjects, but English and advanced mathematics were giving her a headache.
Each page felt like it was written in a different language!
After taking a mouthful of vegetables, she suddenly leaned over towards Wen Yang and lamented, “Wen Yang~ I’m out of money~”
“Huh?”
“I only made two thousand this month~ sigh~”
“Is this you flexing on me?” Wen Yang shot her a bemused look.
“Look! My novel subscriptions have dropped again! I can only make forty or fifty a day~”
Ning Chu whipped out her mobile phone, showing Wen Yang the back-end subscription stats, grumbling while still pleasantly swaying her upper body, her mouth quirking up.
The novel’s performance was unexpected!
She thought she’d barely scrape by with perfect attendance, earning a measly thousand or eighteen hundred a month, but after a month of being published, she raked in an impressive twenty-three hundred in royalties! A new personal record!
Though royalties wouldn’t come until the fifteenth…
“Be grateful, will you?” Wen Yang sighed in mock resignation. “I’m out here working my tail off and still earning less than you holed up writing.”
Ning Chu proudly lifted her chin. “That’s right! If I can earn even more in the future, I’ll become a full-time novelist!”
“That sounds great, not tiring at all.”
After finishing up, as they stepped out of the cafeteria, Ning Chu shivered in the cold, cupping her hands together and puffing out a breath, a plume of mist rising to warm her palms.
“Why is it so cold?”
She complained about the miserable weather.
“The school is on a hill, of course it’s cold at a higher latitude.” Wen Yang, radiating warmth like a human furnace, felt no chill even in ten-degree weather. “I heard it might snow this winter.”
“I’ve never seen snow…”
Ning Chu instinctively leaned closer to Wen Yang, seeking warmth from her “furnace.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her hands beneath the hem of his coat.
“Much better~”
She closed her eyes in comfort, pressing her face against his back.
By now, their classmates all knew they were a couple. Though rumors still whirled around them, Ning Chu was beyond caring.
“I can’t walk like this,” Wen Yang laughed, glancing back at her reddened cheeks. “Buy some gloves? Don’t get frostbite.”
“I don’t like gloves…”
“Once we get back, it’s all about writing and studying~ So busy~”
Ning Chu clutched Wen Yang’s waist, warming her hands and using him as a shield against the cold wind as they strolled leisurely away from the school.
It was only six-thirty, but the sky was already dimming, a bright crescent moon visible in the distance, and streetlights were illuminating early.
Riding the bus, they returned to their rental apartment.
As soon as they stepped inside, Ning Chu peeled off her scarf, shed her coat, and burrowed under the covers.
Even though the blanket was icy and damp, it was still better than that hellish outside.
“Wen Yang! Come teach me advanced math!” She leaned against the headboard, waving her textbook at him.
“I need to use the bathroom first.”
“Alright~”
Ning Chu glanced down at her book, but her mind was elsewhere.
Over the past month or two, she would need to buy new underwear again. She wasn’t sure whether it was natural growth or if it was due to Wen Yang’s attention.
As she got used to life as a girl, she felt more and more like a factory-new model.
She grabbed some lip balm, smoothing it over her dry, chapped lips.
Wen Yang climbed into bed, sitting close to her. “What don’t you understand?”
“This…”
“Remember, there’s a tuition fee for tutoring.”
Ning Chu huffed. “Why do you only think about the spicy stuff?!”
She bit her lip and murmured softly, “So tonight… should I use my mouth?”
Wen Yang shook his head, his hands sliding under the blanket to touch her legs, clad in leggings.
“What else do you want?” Ning Chu frowned.
These days, her skills in both handiwork and other… arts had improved, but so had Wen Yang’s resistance.
This guy must be cooking up some new tricks!
Was he planning to devour her tonight?
A mix of fear and repulsion welled up, but so did a hint of anticipation.
Ning Chu clenched her little face, trying to suppress that flicker of hope. “You tell me.”
“Let’s teach you first, and we can talk later.”
“It was agreed we’ll only do it after marriage…” Suddenly, an ominous thought crossed her mind.
Could it be… doing it from behind?!
Oh no! There’s no way I can accept that!
——————
*Fast forward a bit…*
