### Chapter 263: Another Otherworldly Visitor?
Lilith was sprawled across the keyboard, her body curled up as she focused intently on the screen displaying “Qing Yu Nian.”
Although she didn’t quite grasp the worldview of Qing Yu Nian, her round, bulging eyes were glued to the screen, searching for handsome guys.
“This Emperor Qing is so hot! And Chen Pingping, too—he’s got that rugged old man charm!”
“And Wu Zhu is a cutie as well! I want all three of them!”
Too bad this was an alternate world. Back in her old home, if she saw such heartthrobs, Lilith wouldn’t be drooling like this; she’d have already made a move to seduce and whisk them away!
With a heavy sigh, she turned to look out at the overcast sky.
Even though the quality of life in this world was much higher than her old home, it had now lost its magic and even turned into a cat! No matter how high the living standards were, being a cat was a total loss.
Fortunately, being a cat was relatively safe—a bit hard to track for those hunting her down. The only downside was that she often got chased by dogs when she went out.
So why hasn’t anyone from my crew come looking for me, especially since Lina’s already here?
Lilith swiped at the spacebar on the keyboard with her paw, obviously unimpressed.
It turned out they were all just surface-level friends; the moment things got tough, they all scattered! Probably either defecting or establishing their own turf—no one thought to come find her.
Just as she was getting lost in her thoughts, Lilith suddenly sprang up from the desk!
Her limbs stiffened, back arched, tail held high as she bared her teeth at the window.
At some point, Li Na had quietly floated outside the window, head tilted, peering in to observe Lilith’s antics.
Totally blindsided, she realized with a shock that Li Na might not even have noticed she had turned into a cat! Gradually, she lowered her tail and, mimicking wild cats in a standoff, she began to inch backward.
She did her best to act like a normal cat that was scared out of its wits and, the moment Li Na’s attention shifted away, she bolted into the bedroom!
“Lin Nan!”
She screeched, bursting out of the bedroom and clinging to Lin Nan’s leg.
Lin Nan had just stepped inside and was a bit confused as Cola trembled, fur standing on end, glancing back and forth at Chen Yao.
“Did we get a burglar or something?” she said, nervously pulling Cola back a step.
“I’ll check it out,” Chen Yao said with a frown, turning to the shoe cabinet and pulling out a small power saw from the bottom shelf.
Lin Nan stared in shock at the little saw in his hands; she had no idea they kept that in the shoe cabinet!
“It’s because we run a restaurant at home, and sometimes we need a saw for cutting big bones. Totally reasonable, right?” Chen Yao flashed a smile at Lin Nan. “Actually, it was a family member who asked my mom to get it—they needed it in the countryside.”
She nodded, still dazed.
Lin Nan had heard of people keeping small saws in their cars to intimidate road rage incidents but never expected Chen Yao’s family had one at home.
Chen Yao tiptoed into the bedroom, peeking around for any sign of a burglar. After checking but finding nothing, he casually set the saw aside and looked at the still-frightened Cola, speculating, “Maybe it was a cockroach or a mouse that scared it?”
“That’s pretty embarrassing for a cat,” Lin Nan said, kicking her leg in disdain, but Cola clung to her pant leg like a limpet, refusing to let go.
Returning to the room, Chen Yao sat down at the computer and promptly closed the browser tab for the drama.
To prevent poor Cola from getting bored at home, Lin Nan had turned on a show before leaving, not even caring whether the cat could understand it.
Lin Nan reclined on her bed, feeling an odd atmosphere in the room.
Having used Purification Magic five or six times daily to uphold her “goddess” status, she had developed an instinctive sensitivity to magic.
It was like how seasoned experts can instantly spot a guy in female clothing or an old pro noticing a girl’s measurements at a glance—Lin Nan could also sense a magical presence in the air.
After she left, the room had only Cola around, but she could quickly eliminate the feline suspect.
Despite Cola acting strange lately, she had raised her from a kitten, so she knew her inside and out.
Could it be that Li Na came back?
It’s not like more people from the otherworld staggered in, is it?
She absently petted Cola, her hand stroking from the head to the back, her face full of worry.
“What’s wrong?” Chen Yao turned to look at her pale expression.
Ever since he confessed his feelings, he hardly ever saw her looking this troubled.
“Just a bit stressed,” Lin Nan admitted, knowing that magic matters were best kept away from Chen Yao, as she leaned against the headboard with the still-shaking Cola.
“Care to share?”
With a deep sigh, Lin Nan changed the subject. “What do you think our classmates will think of us when we go back to school?”
“They’ll think the couple finally got together!” he replied with a smile.
“More like they’ll think we’re both gay,” Lin Nan worried about what others might think.
Chen Yao didn’t care one bit. “So what? They’re just jealous you’ve got such a handsome boyfriend!”
Even with his reassurance, Lin Nan remained frowny. She knew she shouldn’t care about other opinions, but she’d always had a hard time ignoring what others thought since she was little.
“Be more confident! People see you and think you’re beautiful and envy me for having you,” Chen Yao said, sitting on Lin Nan’s side, envying Cola for getting a knee pillow while continuing to soothe her. “Anyway, by the time you return to school, everyone should know you’re a girl now, right?”
True enough, her mom would help her finalize the gender change paperwork once school resumed.
She’d then move into the girls’ dorm— even if the news didn’t spread, just entering the girls’ dorm would cause a stir among classmates.
After all, renting outside would cost a couple hundred extra…
Suddenly, Lin Nan froze.
“If we’re starting school in April, doesn’t that mean I need to start paying rent soon?”
“Hmm?”
“That place only has three months’ worth of rent paid, up until April…”
Lin Nan had only lived in that rental for about half a month, and the rent had already been paid by Zheng Qian’s friend ages ago. Originally, with just a month for the winter break, she could have packed up and moved to the girls’ dorm right after returning. But with how things were looking now, it seemed normal to not start school for another two or three months.
That would mean paying rent for a place she barely got to live in!
The worries kept piling up…
At least now, her best friend had become her boyfriend, and sharing some concerns with him felt less awkward.
“Is it really that bad? Just a few hundred bucks for rent. Think of it like losing a wallet or something,” Chen Yao chuckled. “You’ve been eating at my place, easily racking up a hundred bucks in meals—what’s a few hundred for rent?”
He wasn’t too concerned about money. “Plus, my earnings from video-making should be coming in soon, enough for your rent.”
Even though Lin Nan felt uneasy about using Chen Yao’s money so casually so early in their relationship, a few hundred wasn’t too much; she could pull some from her New Year’s money and be just fine.
