You Still Want to Hold Me While You Sleep?

March 7th gently nudged the bathroom door shut with her heel. It closed with a click.

Steam instantly enveloped them, warm and fragrant with sweet body wash and the lingering scent of March 7th's body.

Dangling in midair, Lin Feng instinctively curled his tail.

"First things first, stay still and behave," March 7th said, setting him on a small stool in the corner of the bathroom. She added, "And don't peek."

Lin Feng blinked his beady eyes.

Peek? With these beady eyes, I'm not even sure I have pupils. What could I see?

Even so, he obediently lowered his head, putting on an innocent "I don't know anything" act.

March 7th hummed in satisfaction and turned toward the bathtub.

Water splashed, and the steam grew thicker.

Lin Feng secretly cracked his beady eyes open.

March had wrapped a bath towel around herself and tied it in place. With her back to him, she was bending over to test the water temperature.

Her long pink hair was pinned up behind her head, exposing the fair skin of her nape, faintly flushed by the heat.

The lines of her shoulder blades showed through the steam, supple and symmetrical.

"..."

Lin Feng silently closed his beady eyes.

Dude, you're a Cat Cake now.

A Cat Cake.

No gender, no dirty thoughts, no racing heart.

He repeated it to himself three times before he managed to suppress that bit of primal human impulse.

"Mm, the temperature's just right." March 7th turned around and picked up the Cat Cake from the stool. "Come on, let's rinse you off first."

When the warm water poured over him, Lin Feng's entire cake body jolted.

His soft, squishy body shrank slightly in the hot water, then quickly relaxed.

To be honest—it felt good.

Hot water ran down the curves of his cake body as March 7th's fingers gently kneaded his surface, washing away the layer of dirt bit by bit.

Her touch was very light, as though she feared she might accidentally crush the Cat Cake.

Not only was she light-handed, she was especially gentle. The way she touched him was every bit as good as a full-body massage, and it felt wonderful.

Lin Feng was enjoying himself immensely.

"You're pretty clean... much cleaner than I thought," March murmured as she washed him.

Lin Feng wanted to meow to show that he had always been particular about hygiene, but a little water got into his mouth, and he could only shake himself awkwardly.

"Pfft, don't shake! You splashed my face!" March 7th laughed and leaned back, raising a hand to wipe her face. Then she was so amused she doubled over. "You're just like Pom-Pom after a bath."

So March had washed the Conductor like this too?

Haji-Pa, you lucky rascal, you're eating good!

Once she had washed and rinsed him clean, March 7th wrapped the Cat Cake in a dry towel and rubbed him a couple of times.

"All right, you're clean."

She put the bundled-up Lin Feng back on the little stool and slipped off her bathrobe. A glimpse of the scene flashed before his eyes.

Lin Feng nestled in the towel, with only his head poking out.

He seemed to have just seen something incredible.

But it was fine. The girl didn't know anything, so he could just pretend he didn't know anything either.

March was still humming that Robin song from earlier, enjoying the comfort of her bath. She was clearly in a good mood.

The steam in the bathroom had yet to disperse. Lin Feng watched March finish bathing, put her bathrobe back on, and stand in front of the mirror to fix her hair.

All the while, he kept repeating to himself:

I'm just a Cat Cake. I don't know anything...

After a while, March 7th pulled on a roomy set of pajamas. Only then did she pick up Cat Lin Feng with satisfaction and push open the bathroom door.

"Phew—a bath feels so good."

The air in the room felt much fresher at once.

She put the Cat Cake on the bed and sat down on the edge, drying her hair with a towel.

"Speaking of which," March 7th said, suddenly tilting her head to look at the little creature on the bed as she dried her hair, "are you a girl or not?"

Lin Feng's cake body stiffened.

"Dan Heng said creations don't have genders... but why do I feel like you're a little too crafty sometimes? You don't seem much like a little girl."

March 7th narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, her nose almost touching his beady eyes. "If you're a boy, you're not allowed to sleep in my bed tonight, got it?"

"Unless I turn you into a girl?"

"Or do you want to become a girl?"

Become a girl?

Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat.

Immediately afterward, he made the quickest on-the-spot response of his entire cake life—

He flopped down and rolled over on the bed, exposing his soft belly. His four little fleshy paws curled up, and he let out a soft, drawn-out "Meow—ow—"

To top it off, he gently brushed the tip of his tail over the back of March 7th's hand.

March 7th froze for a moment, then burst out laughing and reached over to rub his belly. "All right, all right, playing cute is cheating. You pass."

Lin Feng breathed a long sigh of relief.

Passed.

March 7th draped the towel over the back of a chair, lifted the covers and climbed into bed, scooping up the Cat Cake and placing him beside her pillow.

"You can sleep here tonight. Don't run around."

She turned onto her side, facing the pillow, her warm breath blowing over Lin Feng's cake body.

The scent was so good it made him dizzy!

A small bedside lamp glowed in the room, its warm yellow light falling on March 7th's profile. The shadows of her eyelashes swayed gently beneath her eyes.

Between the girl's youthful appearance and her slightly trembling eyelashes, Lin Feng couldn't help thinking:

Sure enough, a beautiful girl is ten thousand times cuter when she's asleep!

Lin Feng lay beside the pillow. He had originally planned to wait until she fell asleep, secretly turn back into a human and slip out.

But at some point, March 7th had reached out and rested a hand gently on him. Her palm was warm, and her fingertips rubbed against him unconsciously.

Lin Feng: "..."

This bed is so comfortable. Who wouldn't want to be held in someone's arms, cuddled under the covers—

Wait, no!

Lin Feng pulled himself together and turned his Cat Cake body slightly, making himself as comfortable as possible beneath March's arm.

He had to hurry and advance. Comfortable as it was to be a Cat Cake, he didn't want to be one for the rest of his life.

Lin Feng silently called up the system, and the detailed description of the new skill he had just obtained appeared before his eyes once more:

[Mimetic Construct Separation: The host can split off an independent creation individual (creation/Mimicry Construction). At the same time, the two consciousnesses can interact, and consciousness can be transferred]

Following the skill description, Lin Feng silently willed it to activate.

He felt as though a part of his body had split away, along with part of his perception of his surroundings.

At the same time, a stream of white data emerged from his Cat Cake body, gradually gathering into a blurry human form.

Soon, the human figure's outline grew clearer.

It had the same familiar appearance, and even his clothes had been constructed for him.

This body had been formed through data mimicry construction, and the clothes on it could be changed at will by his consciousness.

This was March's room, so Lin Feng didn't dare make too much noise. He simply stretched his limbs a little.

His gaze fell on the Cat Cake beside the pillow.

The Cat Cake's beady eyes stared back at Lin Feng. It was a strange feeling, looking at himself.

But this state felt great!

On the one hand, the Cat Cake could serve as his cover at any time, while he could move around using this body.

He looked away from the Cat Cake and at March, who was sleeping soundly.

The Cat Cake's perspective was different from his.

Before him, March's breathing rose and fell steadily, and a glistening droplet was trailing from the corner of her mouth—

It was drool.

If she herself found out that she, a beautiful girl, drooled in her sleep too, who knew how embarrassed she would be?

Lin Feng reached out and gently brushed aside the loose strands of hair in front of March's eyes.

She seemed to sense something. Her eyelashes remained tightly shut as she smacked her lips, clutched the blanket and curled up into a ball.

The poor Cat Cake was pinned beneath the blanket.

A feeling of suffocation washed over him at once.

Lin Feng couldn't worry about much else at that moment. He slowly pulled the blanket aside, then quickly picked up the Cat Cake and put him back beside the pillow.

Phew~

Luckily, he could now split off another version of himself. Otherwise, with his Cat Cake body, being wrapped up in March's blanket and smothered there all night would surely have caused problems.

Once he had done all that, Lin Feng's body turned into white light and returned to the Cat Cake. He had been through enough today.

He had tried what needed trying. At this point, he might as well sleep first.