16 Chapter 16: A Strange World

Everything around her had changed. She felt strange, scared, and terrified.

"Um."

Wu Yahua nodded.

Is this a dream? Or...

"Then get up now and eat at the dining table in the living room. I won't bring the food into your room." Liu Mingjun walked out and reminded him, "Hurry up! The porridge will get cold later, and you won't like it."

As soon as Liu Mingjun walked out of the room, Wu Yahua turned over and sat up in bed.

She got up a little too quickly, causing her to feel dizzy and her vision to go black, but luckily she recovered within a few seconds.

It wasn't a dream, she really changed back.

From a cat back to a human, the cat's paws became human hands.

She opened her clenched right hand, revealing a pet tag with the words: Xie Yun's cat (Goudan) and Xie Yun's cell phone number.

The nameplate hanging around the cat's neck is enough to prove that she was once Xie Yun's cat.

So what about herself when she turns into a cat?

Wu Yahua was eager to know this, so she lifted the quilt, put on the familiar pink slippers, and ran to the living room.

Liu Mingjun had already prepared a bowl of vegetable and lean meat porridge and placed it on the table. He turned around and went to the kitchen to get the prepared side dishes.

"Mom." Wu Yahua tried to call out.

"Yes." Liu Mingjun brought some side dishes, pulled out a chair for Wu Yahua, and said, "Sit down and eat."

Wu Yahua sat down obediently and asked, "Did anything special happen to me during the summer vacation?"

Something special? Liu Mingjun thought about it and shook his head, saying no.

Wu Yahua pointed at herself and asked, "Am I normal? Have I always been at home?"

Liu Mingjun was confused by Wu Yahua's questions.

This child had a high fever and started to behave strangely.

"This summer, you were playing at your grandmother's house in the countryside. Now, school is about to start, and you're coming back. It started raining heavily on the way. You could say that this rain is poisonous. You got a little bit of it, and you fell ill. You had a high fever on and off for two days, and it only broke today."

"What!" Wu Yahua couldn't believe her ears. "I'm going to my grandma's house to play? Didn't my grandma pass away when I was a sophomore in high school?"

When Liu Mingjun heard this, his face fell. "What did you say? Are you confused because of the fever? Your grandmother is alive and well. Don't curse her to death."

Wu Yahua's head was a tangled mess.

She couldn't have remembered it wrongly. Her grandmother died after falling down in the middle of the night when she was in her second year of high school. She remembered it very clearly. The local village held a funeral banquet with musical instruments and singing, and invited a funeral band. She was sitting nearby, responsible for collecting funeral gifts.

Could it be that... I have traveled back to my high school days before my grandmother passed away?

Wu Yahua quickly took Liu Mingjun's mobile phone from the table and was shocked to see that the date displayed on the phone was September 8, 2025.

World University starts on September 10th, which means that school will start in two days.

Wu Yahua sat there in a daze, feeling cold all over.

A hand touched Wu Yahua's forehead.

"The fever's gone. What's wrong with you? You're acting weird." Liu Mingjun said, "Why don't you come with me to the hospital and get your brain checked?"

Wu Yahua couldn't drink the porridge anymore.

She wanted to be alone.

She was as dazed as a puppet. She stood up and walked to the bedroom. "Mom, I want to lie down for a while. My head is still fuzzy, like I haven't woken up yet."

Back in bed, Wu Yahua took out a pet tag with Xie Yun's cell phone number from under her pillow.

She noticed that her cell phone was on the bedside table.

Before she turned into a kitten, she went back to the dormitory to get her suitcase and went home. Her cell phone was on the bed in the girls' dormitory of World University. Now the cell phone appeared at home intact.

Looking at the suitcase, it was also placed in the bedroom.

The question is, if I turned into a kitten, what about myself? From Liu Mingjun's words, I learned that I had returned home from World University during the summer vacation and then went to visit my grandmother in the countryside. Two days ago, I got caught in the rain and fell ill with a high fever. I recovered only today.

My already confused mind became even more confused.

Wu Yahua took the phone, unlocked it with facial recognition, and looked through the photo album. She was shocked to find that the most recent photos in the album showed that she was indeed playing in the countryside.

Not only did I take pictures of the natural scenery of the countryside, but my phone also captured the customs and culture of the countryside.

Most importantly, there are photos with grandma.

He slid his finger across the screen and saw a photo with his grandmother. The photo was taken between July and August 2025. Wu Yahua was so scared that he threw his phone away.

The phone fell on the surface of the quilt and stopped at the lit interface, freezing at the intimate selfie of Wu Yahua and her grandmother with their faces touching.

It's so weird.

Could it be that my high fever had inflamed and short-circuited my nerves, causing my memory to become fuzzy and unable to recall what had happened?

Wu Yahua picked up the pet nameplate in her hand. It was indeed engraved with Xie Yun's cat (Goudan), mobile phone number, etc. This was enough to prove that Wu Yahua had turned into a cat and had once existed.

Faced with such a messy and confusing situation, Wu Yahua fell on the bed, kicked up the quilt with her legs to vent, "Ahhhhhh!"

Liu Mingjun passed by the bedroom door and was frightened by Wu Yahua's strange cry. He asked, "What's wrong? Are you in pain?"

"It's okay, Mom, I'm fine, don't worry, I just want to lie down for a while." Wu Yahua responded with her face buried in the soft quilt.

After a high fever, Liu Mingjun found that the child seemed to be a little abnormal, but he couldn't tell what was wrong.

The person is still the same person, but just different.

"Then you should rest. If you feel unwell, tell me immediately so I can go to the hospital for treatment. It's not good to delay a minor illness until it turns into a serious one. I've put the porridge in the refrigerator. If you're hungry, just add some water and heat it up. I'm going to work now."

work!

So many unfamiliar words.

Wu Yahua actually heard the word "go to work" from Liu Mingjun's mouth.

Since Liu Mingjun gave birth to Wu Yahua, she has been a full-time mother at home and has never gone out to work for a day. The family depends entirely on Wu Yahua's father Wu Tianle to earn money to support the family.

Now Liu Mingjun says she is going out to work. Is this family so poor that they can’t even afford to eat?

Wu Yahua was deeply shocked.

In the next two days, Wu Yahua found that things were even stranger than she had imagined.

Liu Mingjun did not go out to work temporarily. Instead, she went to work in a post office as early as the second year after giving birth to Wu Yahua. Later, the post office laid off employees, and Liu Mingjun did some other jobs one after another.

Now Liu Mingjun has opened a flower shop of his own. Business is not very good and the money he earns is just enough to cover the shop rent and living expenses.

Wu Yahua's father, Wu Tianle, divorced Liu Mingjun ten years ago due to a breakdown in their relationship. He remarried and had a son. He moved from Yuncheng to Cicheng with his second wife and son. The two sides had long lost contact.

The home Wu Yahua lives in now is the same as the one she remembers. The furniture and furnishings are almost the same, except that the wedding photo that her parents took in 2008 in her parents' bedroom is gone, and the 1.8-meter double bed has been replaced by a 1.5-meter bed.

The originally happy family of three became shattered, which was a heavy blow to Wu Yahua. In frustration and difficulty accepting the reality, Wu Yahua welcomed the first day of school.

School started, and she was promoted from a sophomore to a junior at World University.

The major I studied didn’t change, and the dormitory didn’t change either.

When Wu Yahua reached the fifth floor with her suitcase, she met Xie Lili who was just walking down from upstairs.

"Why are you here just now, Xiaohua? You're the only one missing from the dormitory. We planned to have a hot pot dinner outside the school after we all get together today to celebrate the new semester."

Xie Lili grabbed the handle of Wu Yahua's suitcase and helped her carry the suitcase to the sixth floor.

"We are still good friends, right, Lili." Wu Yahua confirmed to Xie Lili.

Wu Yahua was worried that after she became a cat once, her good friend Xie Lili would become someone else's good friend. After all, her family relationships had changed drastically, and she was worried that her friendship would change as well.

"What are you talking about? Of course we are good friends."

Xie Lili pushed the suitcase and took Wu Yahua into the dormitory.

It was still the familiar six-person dormitory. Wu Yahua’s bed hadn’t changed, and her roommates hadn’t changed either.

"Okay, sisters, we're all here. Let's go out for hot pot later. I'm going to go to the fourth floor to get something from my senior."

With that, Xie Lili was about to leave.

Wu Yahua saw Chen Xi's empty bed, pulled Xie Lili and said, "Not everyone is here yet."

It is impossible for him to isolate and exclude Shen Xi and not play with her just because he has a bad relationship with Shen Xi but a good relationship with Xie Lili.

We are all adults and cannot do this.

"Who's missing?" Xie Lili looked at Wu Yahua with a smile, "What's wrong with you today? You had so much fun this summer vacation, and now school has started, you're still not focused."

Wu Yahua pointed to Chen Xi's empty bed and said, "Chen Xi hasn't come yet."

The other three roommates in the dormitory all looked at Wu Yahua at this time.

Xie Lili's smile disappeared from her face, and suspicion hung on her face, "What are you talking about, who is Chen Xi?"

Wu Yahua, realizing something was wrong, was stunned.

Xie Lili said, "Since the beginning of our freshman year, there have been five of us living in our dormitory: you, me, Yanyan, Xiaohui, and Rabbit. That bed has always been empty. Who is Chen Xi?"

Wu Yahua looked at the three roommates in the dormitory.

She pronounced their names.

Yanyan.

"Zhuang Shengyan."

Little Gray.

"Mu Qianjiu."

rabbit.

"Huang Ziming."

Then there is Xie Lili in front of me.

Wu Yahua: "Lili."

"That's scary. What's wrong with you?" Xie Lili took a step back and touched her arm, which was covered with goose bumps. "Did you get possessed by an evil spirit? Why do you feel so weird?"

Rabbit sat on the bed, hugged the pillow and said, "It was really scary. When Huahua called our names one by one, I felt like a group of dark clouds floated in from outside and gathered on the ceiling of the dormitory."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sharp explosion in the sky outside the window, which scared the girls in the dormitory, including Wu Yahua, so much that they held their ears and screamed.

The explosion came from the clouds and was only heard once.

Later, the counselor asked everyone in the group not to panic. The reason reported by the Meteorological Bureau was a sonic boom. There was a military fighter jet conducting a test flight nearby and it mistakenly entered the vicinity of the World University. It frightened all the teachers, students and nearby residents and we are deeply sorry.

Wu Yahua was devastated.

Everything around her changed, and she felt strange, scared and terrified.

The most bizarre thing is that Shen Xi disappeared out of thin air, as if he had never existed.

There is no such person as Chen Xi in the class group, nor on the roster.

Just as Wu Yahua was struggling to doubt whether this world was the real world, she ran into Xie Yun on her way out of the school gate to eat hot pot.

He walked side by side with Hong Cangkang.

Xie Lili held Wu Yahua's arm and spoke to her, but she didn't hear a word she said and didn't know what Xie Lili was saying.

She just stared at Xie Yun, and really wanted to know whether Xie Yun had ever raised a cat named Goudan.