552. The Not-So-Pure Black Bean
“Hey sis, how come you fell asleep while I was washing my face last night?”
“I wanted to tell you where the new toothbrush is! Did both you and brother-in-law skip brushing your teeth before crashing?”
Ning Chu was gobbling down breakfast, too embarrassed to lift her flushed face, managing a mumbled response: “Didn’t brush… I was too sleepy last night.”
Heaven knows how nervous she was when the doorbell rang! Wen Yang looked like he’d lost a fight with a pillow.
“Oops~ Sister might have dragon breath.”
Black Bean, drooping her ears, complained, “There were some weird noises in the house last night—boom, bang, and I swear I heard a kid crying!”
She rubbed her cat ears, looking all distressed: “That kept me from sleeping well.”
With every word Black Bean said, Ning Chu buried her head lower and lower; she almost dunked her face in her bowl, her ears glowing like ripe tomatoes.
She had planned to wait until Black Bean dozed off to sneak a late-night snack, but you know what they say—plans don’t always go as planned.
“Don’t sleep during class.” Mom tapped Black Bean on the head with her chopsticks. “Hurry up and eat; I’ll take you to school.”
“I’m old enough to go by myself.”
Black Bean was already in the first year of junior high, with her long hair cut short to comply with school rules, a bit more meat on her chest, and the look of a budding middle school girl.
Unfortunately, she was still just a cat with a less-than-stellar IQ, prone to zoning out, leaving her grades at the bottom of her class.
A classic school beauty with a hint of fail.
“Is anyone bullying you in class?” Wen Yang asked.
Having grown up in the countryside without parents, he knew all too well that middle school was prime time for bullying—this age group had zero fear and even less understanding of the law, so anything was possible.
Black Bean shook her head. “Nope! Everyone plays with me!”
“Good. If someone gives you trouble, don’t hesitate to tell your mom.”
Wen Yang remained calm, unlike Ning Chu, who was so flustered she couldn’t find her voice.
“Brother-in-law, can we go to the amusement park after school?”
“Only if you pay attention in class; I heard your grades are pretty bad?”
“I just don’t get it~” Black Bean sighed dramatically. “I don’t wanna go to school…”
She finished breakfast, languidly dragged her tail into the living room, tossed her homework into her backpack, and plopped down on the sofa. “Mom! We’re gonna be late!”
“Coming right now; check if you’ve forgotten anything.”
“Got everything!”
Black Bean’s nose twitched; her gaze fell on the sofa, and she curiously waved her tail. “There’s a weird smell on the sofa, too…”
Ning Chu, just stepping into the living room, froze in her tracks.
“Sis~” Black Bean called out.
Ning Chu stole a quick glance at Black Bean’s big innocent eyes, her face instantly painted crimson.
“I need to use the bathroom. We can talk later.”
Covering her face, she hurried off to the bathroom.
Seeing her sister’s flustered state, Black Bean couldn’t help but smirk, chuckling silently to herself.
“Time to go!”
She instantly wiped the grin off her face, grabbed her backpack, and zipped toward the door, shouting, “I’m here, I’m here!”
“Mom! Can I have some pocket money? I wanna buy spicy strips!”
“No way! Enough with those junk foods!”
As the door swung shut, quiet fell over the house. Without needing a nudge from his future mother-in-law, Wen Yang took the initiative to clean the dining table, until Ning Chu emerged from the bathroom, looking like she’d lost a battle, and helped him out.
“Black Bean isn’t as innocent as she seems.”
“What?”
“She’s messing with you.” Wen Yang chuckled, taking the dishes from Ning Chu as he washed them. “I just saw her laughing on the sofa.”
“Seriously…?”
Ning Chu couldn’t shake the image of Black Bean’s round, cute little face from her mind, which made her look like a pure and naïve little girl.
But, of course, both Mom and sis were succubi, and Black Bean was hitting puberty, entering junior high with access to the internet… Back in her own middle school days, she had already been surfing the web looking for Little Emperor Wen stuff!
What’s more, Black Bean used to be a side character in those stories, turned into a catgirl to repay the protagonist!
“So she actually knows everything and is just pretending?” Ning Chu said, her mouth twitching in disbelief.
“Seems like it?” Wen Yang quickly finished washing the dishes and put them away. “Otherwise, why would she be sneaking smiles?”
“I’m going to check the browsing history on the computer…”
In the guest room, there was an old computer—it couldn’t handle many games but was totally fine for browsing the web and watching videos.
Ning Chu abandoned Wen Yang and dashed into the room, opened the computer, and clicked on the browser.
The browsing history was empty.
But that only confirmed it!
That little cat was definitely not as innocent as she looked!
She even deleted the history! What else could it be but guilt?
“Pretending to be clueless while messing with me!” Ning Chu slammed her hand on the table. “When she gets back from school, I’m going to have a little chat with her!”
In her mind, her little sister had always been as pure as freshly fallen snow, and now she realized she had already been tainted!
After the embarrassment of being teased, a new worry struck her: “Black Bean doesn’t have a boyfriend, does she?”
That silly little thing couldn’t have got taken advantage of, right?!
What if she ended up pregnant in junior high… that would be a nightmare!
“Wen Yang! Wen Yang!”
Ning Chu anxiously got up and peeked out of the room into the living room.
“What’s wrong? Why the sudden rush?”
“This afternoon we’re picking up Black Bean after school! You have to keep an eye on her, especially those boy classmates!”
Wen Yang looked stunned, rubbing the back of his head. “Alright…”
Ning Chu scampered out of the bedroom, perched herself beside Wen Yang, leaned forward with both hands on the sofa, and earnestly declared, “Wen Yang, it’s decided—having a son in the future is definitely the way to go!”
“If it’s a daughter, once she grows up, we’ll have to worry about her dating and getting taken advantage of. And odds are, our daughter would probably become a succubus too.”
“A son won’t have those issues—after all, he’ll just be messing around with someone else’s daughter, which isn’t great, but it’s better than her being taken advantage of…”
Her face, tilted back in a mix of seriousness and anxiety, made it hard for Wen Yang to contain his laughter, but before he could react, Ning Chu slapped her palm on his thigh.
“Stop laughing! I’m being serious here!”
“Okay, okay, no more laughing…”
Who was it that said they wanted to be child-free and not have any kids?
And now, a year later, they couldn’t stop debating whether to have a boy or girl, while Ning Chu’s social media was filled with adorable videos of kids.
“By the way, come with me.”
Suddenly, Ning Chu grabbed Wen Yang’s hand and dragged him toward the master bedroom.
“This is Mom’s room, right?”
Wen Yang paused, wondering if they were crossing some boundaries here.
“Yeah, just help me open a cabinet; it’s locked.”
“What exactly are you trying to get?”
“The household register!” Ning Chu declared boldly. “We need to grab it while Mom’s out, then we can go register!”
“？？？”
