Meow

That night.

Lu Menge paced back and forth in the faculty apartment. Seven steps from the door to the windowsill. Seven steps from the windowsill back to the door. Little White Tiger lay curled up in the rattan chair, its head turning with each of her trips. After several rounds, it yawned and buried its face in its paws.

She had been pacing for nearly two hours.

"Gu Yue."

Gu Yue sat on the sofa opposite the rattan chair, flipping through a book she had casually taken from Lu Menge's bookshelf. At the sound of her name, she lifted her eyelids slightly. Lu Menge had dragged her here by force—more precisely, Lu Menge had stood outside her dorm room and pulled her away from meditation with the words, "Come out with me," and an unprecedentedly serious expression. Gu Yue had not asked where they were going or what they were doing. One look at Lu Menge's face had told her: it was still that matter.

"You're sure you're going tonight?" Gu Yue closed the book.

"Now. Immediately. While I still have the nerve." Lu Menge snatched up the coat draped over the chair back, startling Little White Tiger with the force of the movement. "He already took me for some poor woman being kept at the training grounds this afternoon. I can't put this off. One more day, and he'll imagine another whole episode. Keep delaying, and he'll even picture what my 'sugar daddy' looks like."

Gu Yue did not move. Lu Menge had already reached the door, one hand braced against the frame as she looked back. Her amber fox eyes burned with determination.

"You're not coming with me?"

"I'm coming." Gu Yue rose, unhurriedly returned the book to its original place on the shelf, then took out her phone, unlocked the screen, and checked the remaining battery. The movement was so natural that Lu Menge did not think twice about it.

"Let's go."

Wu Changkong's office was on the second floor of the administration building. At this hour, he was usually still sorting through the day's training logs. Lu Menge walked quickly all the way there, her low-heeled boots striking out a dense rhythm along the corridor. Gu Yue followed behind, her steps as composed as ever, phone in hand with the screen facing down.

Light shone through the crack beneath the office door. Wu Changkong was indeed inside.

Lu Menge stopped before the door and took a deep breath. She glanced at Gu Yue, who gave her a faint nod. Then she raised her hand and knocked three times—harder than usual, faster than usual.

Footsteps sounded from within. The lock clicked softly.

The door opened.

Wu Changkong stood in the doorway, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to his elbows, an open folder in his hand. He had clearly been reviewing documents. When he saw the two women outside, one of his brows moved almost imperceptibly—not in surprise, but scrutiny. Lu Menge stood at the front, her coat draped over her shoulders, a light gray sweater beneath it. Her hair hung loose, its ends softly curled. Her posture was straighter than usual, her chin slightly raised, her expression tightly drawn. Half a step behind her, Gu Yue stood expressionlessly.

"Teacher Lu?" Wu Changkong lowered the folder.

Lu Menge opened her mouth.

What she had prepared to say was—"Teacher Wu, regarding what happened this afternoon, I need to explain it clearly. My strength is not limited to what you saw." She had rehearsed those words dozens of times in her head. On the way from the apartment to the administration building, she had continued silently reciting them, confirming every word, every tone, every pace, every emphasis.

But when she opened her mouth, a voice suddenly popped into her mind. More precisely, three words. Gu Yue's voice. Beneath the ginkgo tree that afternoon, that little brat had leaned close to her ear and said the most outrageous three words in the coldest possible tone—"Like seduction."

Then those three words exploded in her head. All the way to the tip of her tongue.

"Meow."

The corridor of the administration building seemed to hit pause at that moment. Wu Changkong's fingers froze at the edge of the folder. Gu Yue's phone lifted an inch.

Lu Menge's lips still held that slightly parted curve, but her mind had already rapidly completed an entire retrospective analysis—she had just made a sound. Not "Teacher Wu," not "come out," not any human language. It was a cat's meow. A soft, light meow, with the final note even drifting upward—meow. Gu Yue's words, "little kitty," had occupied her mind all evening. The instant she opened her mouth, the image of those three words collided with the line, "Come out, I have something to say," and produced an incorrect output.

She froze in place. Then her face began to burn. It did not slowly heat up—it simply caught fire, from her cheekbones to her ears, from her ears to her neck. Her entire face turned as red as if Heavenfrost Sword had slashed through it. She saw Wu Changkong tilt his head ever so slightly, and an emotion she had never seen before appeared in those cold, sharp eyes—blankness. Pure blankness, untainted by any judgment. He even leaned back half an inch, as if instinctively making room for some uncontrollable variable.

"Teacher Lu—"

She did not wait for him to finish.

She turned, took a step—and ran. Not an ordinary run, but the fastest speed she could possibly achieve in her life without revealing her true form. Her feet hammered out a string of rapid taps against the corridor floor. Her coat slipped from her shoulders and fell to the ground, but she did not pick it up. At the corner, she instinctively put a hand against the wall, slapping her palm against it with a dull thud, then vanished into the stairwell.

Lu Menge had run away. Nine-Headed White Tiger, an ancient holy beast who governed slaughter and conquest, who had never retreated half a step on the battlefields of the God Realm, who had not blinked when the Dragon God fell—had been scared off by her own cat meow.

Gu Yue stood where she was, maintaining her previous posture, one hand holding up her phone, its camera aimed at the stairwell where Lu Menge had disappeared. Her violet eyes watched the final frozen blur on the screen—a fuzzy mass of light gray sweater and flying silver-white hair—before she pressed the stop recording button.

The corners of her mouth split into a grin.

First, her shoulders trembled. Then a faint, distorted puff of breath escaped her throat. In the silent corridor, it sounded especially clear, as if something that had been suppressed for countless years had finally cracked open. Wu Changkong withdrew his gaze from the end of the corridor and turned to Gu Yue. He said nothing, his face still that of an iceberg, but the knuckles gripping his folder had turned faintly white.

Gu Yue finally could not hold it in any longer. One hand raised her phone while the other braced against the wall of the administration building, and she laughed so hard her whole body bent like a shrimp. Her silver hair slid over her shoulders, concealing her face but not the way her entire body shook. Her laughter rolled from her throat without restraint—the kind of wholehearted laughter she had never made since the Silver Dragon King awakened. Wu Changkong stood at the office door in silence, watching this student, who was usually colder than anyone, laugh until she could barely stand upright.

"HAHAHAHAHA—"

"..."

"A cat meow—you heard it, didn't you—" Gu Yue clutched her stomach, laughing so hard tears nearly came out. "Teacher Lu—she—"

Of course Wu Changkong had heard it. Everyone in the administration building who was not deaf had heard it. He could not understand it now. He needed to sort through all of Lu Menge's preparations before entering, her abnormal microexpressions just now, and that completely out-of-character "meow" all over again.

"Was she here to see me just now?" he asked.

Gu Yue wiped at the tears in the corners of her eyes, straightened up, and took a deep breath. She spent several seconds barely pulling herself back into the Silver Dragon King's composure, but failed—the corners of her lips were still lifted, and the lingering amusement in her violet eyes could not be erased.

"Yes. She originally had something to say to you."

"...What was it?"

"It's not important now." Gu Yue waved the recorded video file on her phone screen. "This is more important."

She turned and left, heading toward the stairwell. On the way, she bent down and picked up Lu Menge's coat from the floor. After taking two steps, she looked back at Wu Changkong, her violet eyes brimming with delight.

"Teacher Wu," she said, tilting her head, "if she comes looking for you again—don't speak first. Let her finish. Otherwise, she'll run away again."

Wu Changkong stood at the office door and watched Gu Yue disappear into the stairwell. The corridor fell quiet again. He slowly returned to his office and closed the door. He stood before his desk for a long time, the folder spread open on it without a page being turned. The scene kept replaying in his mind: Lu Menge opened her mouth—blushed—ran away. During those ten seconds, she had been completely different. Not the usual Teacher Lu, lazy, casual, and always in control. Not the woman who had once sat alone on the sofa and said, "They're all dead," with such calmness that his heart tightened. During those ten seconds, she had completely lost control.

He returned to the corridor, bent down to pick up the fallen folder, and brushed the dust from it. His gaze once more fell on the stairwell at the end of the hall.

"...Teacher Lu."

Gu Yue was still trembling when she reached the edge of the field. She draped Lu Menge's coat over one arm, then opened her phone gallery with the other and sent Tang Wulin a message.

Gu Yue: [Video]

Tang Wulin instantly replied with three question marks. Half a minute later, messages began popping up in rapid succession.

Tang Wulin: Is that Teacher Lu????

Gu Yue: Yeah.

Tang Wulin: What happened to her???

Gu Yue: She said she was going to explain things clearly to Teacher Wu. The moment she opened her mouth, she meowed. Then she ran. I recorded it from the side.

Tang Wulin went silent for a long time. Then he sent one reply.

Tang Wulin: Will she kill you tomorrow to silence you?

Gu Yue slipped her phone into her pocket and headed toward the faculty apartments. She was not afraid. Tonight had been worth it. This coat could serve as a bargaining chip tomorrow, and she would hide the recording somewhere safe and take it out every now and then to cheer herself up. When she reached Lu Menge's door, she stood there for a while. Through the crack, she could faintly hear Lu Menge talking to Little White Tiger—or rather, muttering to herself while pacing back and forth in the room. Her voice was muffled, completely lacking her usual lazy flamboyance.

"...I didn't mean to... I just kept thinking about it... then I opened my mouth and it was a cat meow. I've lived this long and never embarrassed myself this badly. Did you see Wu Changkong's expression? He definitely thinks I'm crazy..."

Gu Yue curved her lips but did not knock. She folded Lu Menge's coat neatly and hung it on the doorknob, then turned and walked toward her own room. Her violet eyes flashed beneath the dim yellow corridor lights. There was still amusement in them, but at the deepest part of that amusement lay a softness even she could not explain.

The moonlight over Eastsea Academy was beautiful that night. Tang Wulin lay curled beneath his blankets, replaying the video seven or eight times. He laughed so hard he nearly rolled off the top bunk, then found himself caught in a difficult choice between Gu Yue's messages: "Don't tell her you watched it," and "Send it again."