Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Three days before college started, on the eve of leaving home.

My attachment to my cat had reached its absolute peak.

My family’s chubby little orange cat, Jiang Jiang, was perfectly in sync with me.

With a soft meow, he flopped down by my feet and rubbed against me.

My hand moved from Jiang Jiang’s ears, along his arched spine, all the way to the tip of his tail.

Pure silky bliss.

Jiang Jiang loved having his butt patted and his tail stroked the most.

Immersed in my practiced technique, he raised his little butt, urging me to keep going and not stop.

He was so adorable it hurt.

I picked up my phone and filmed while stroking his tail.

Then I posted a cat-petting video to my social feed.

Before long, the cat worshippers in my friend circle came online one after another.

In the comments, they showered Jiang Jiang with praise.

[Too cute, my little baby!]

[You naughty little cat, what color sack do you prefer?]

[Your tractor engine is really loud.]

Amid the sea of cat-lover quotes, one discordant comment suddenly popped up.

[Can you stop touching him?]

My grin froze. Who was this person?

No contact note.

When had I added him?

I tapped into his username, visited his profile, and saw his photos.

The school heartthrob, Cheng Yi?

At eighteen, he led the national team to win the men’s ice hockey championship at the Winter Olympics and got a guaranteed admission to D University.

With his overwhelming talent on the ice, his striking, aggressively gorgeous features, and his 188-centimeter frame with broad shoulders and long legs,

he was absolutely slaughtering online.

He hadn’t even enrolled yet, and netizens had already voted him D University’s school heartthrob in advance.

When had I added this guy as a friend?

As I thought it over, my hand kept twirling the cat’s tail around and around.

My phone rang. A video call came in.

I answered it.

Cheng Yi’s high-definition handsome face instantly filled my phone screen.

This guy really wasn’t just ordinary good-looking.

Under the red light, his features were sharp and handsome, his jawline clear.

He was so attractive it was almost aggressive.

No wonder people from the neighboring universities lined up just to come see him.

Even though I was internally screaming like a kettle over how handsome he was, my expression stayed rock steady.

I put on a distant, cool persona with all my might and frowned slightly.

“What is it?”

“Stop twisting it. Take your hand off first.”

Cheng Yi’s voice was unnaturally hoarse.

As if he were in extreme pain.

Only then did I notice there wasn’t any red light at all. His face was simply that red.

What had he been doing to make his face turn that red?

Even the veins at the side of his neck were bulging.

But what did that have to do with me twisting my cat’s tail?

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

Cheng Yi gritted his teeth, his voice squeezing out between them.

“That place on me seems to have an Empathy Link with your cat’s tail.”

A look of restrained embarrassment appeared on that smug, untouchable B-king face of his, and it was extremely out of place.

“Do you understand?”

What was he even talking about? I still didn’t get it, so I asked him,

“What place?”

Cheng Yi seemed to give up on himself. He simply shifted the camera downward.

Only for an instant, then he moved it back up again.

I was so startled I quickly let go of Jiang Jiang’s tail.

Was I allowed to see that for free?

Did he have a bottle of mineral water stuffed in his pants?

But then again, he was six foot two, and his nose was that high, so it wasn’t impossible.

Damn it, what was I thinking!

I tried my best to maintain my cold, distant persona.

“Cheng Yi, I could absolutely report you for sexual harassment for this. I already screen-recorded just now.”

Actually, I hadn’t.

His claim that that part of him had an Empathy Link with my cat’s tail sounded way too ridiculous.

As a proudly rational young citizen, I wasn’t that easy to fool.

Still, Cheng Yi didn’t look like he was faking it.

He had no reason to make up a lie like this to trick me.

Cheng Yi apologized to me and explained that he had just seen the cat-petting video I posted.

The timing and technique matched the strange sensations he was feeling there.

That was how he’d reached this conclusion.

The only way to test a theory was to put it into practice.

With the camera pointed away, I secretly picked up Jiang Jiang’s tail again and gave it a light squeeze.

A muffled groan immediately came from the other end of the phone.

Oh my god. It really seemed kind of true.

Still skeptical, I carefully rubbed it up and down.

Cheng Yi’s breathing grew heavier with every passing second.

Cheng Yi also realized what my hand was doing off-camera.

His voice turned even hoarser.

“Lin Yuqiao, be gentler.”

Cheng Yi stared at my face, his words barely forming, as if he had reached his limit.

The next second, the video call was suddenly hung up.

I seemed to have taken the experiment a little too far.