Daily life in love

Yu Miaomiao looked up and asked, "How did you feel when this photo was taken?"

"This one?"

Looking at this unique photo, Jiang Chengyi recalled, "At that time, I was probably thinking..."

"Your hair is golden in the sun, it's so beautiful."

He smiled slightly, "I originally thought the photos didn't capture this moment, so I wanted to use my eyes to remember you at that time in my mind."

Yu Miaomiao awkwardly looked away from the photo.

"I'm right here beside you..."

She muttered, "What's there to remember?"

“They are different.”

Jiang Cheng shook his head, "You're different every day."

"So I will remember you every single day."

Yu Miaomiao didn't believe it. "How is it different?"

Jiang Cheng recounted them one by one, "For example, the first time we met, the way you glared at me while holding the cage, I thought to myself, 'This girl looks like a cat with its fur standing on end.'"

Recalling the incident, Yu Miaomiao still felt lingering fear, "You were going to sterilize me, of course I was terrified!"

“When we were filming on the mountain, I saw you playing with a cat toy by yourself. You acted very calm, but I guess you didn’t even realize that your ears turned red.”

Jiang Cheng gently touched Yu Miaomiao's earlobe, his voice tinged with amusement, "Just like now."

Yu Miaomiao covered her burning ears and rolled away on the grass. "No, you saw it wrong!"

Jiang Chengyi immediately changed his tune, "Okay. I misread it."

"Also, that night in the cave, you had a fever and kept clinging to me. The next morning, you looked like you couldn't believe it, really..."

Jiang Chengyi chuckled softly, "Very cute."

"Ah, there's more..."

Yu Miaomiao couldn't stand it anymore, so she flipped over and straddled him, covering his mouth in embarrassment and anger, "Don't say anymore!"

Jiang Cheng compromised with a single gesture.

After the two of them joked around for a while, Yu Miaomiao lay down on Jiang Chengyi to rest.

Perhaps it was because the atmosphere was so nice today, but she unconsciously drifted into memories, "At first, I didn't like you very much."

"It should be dislike."

Jiang Chengyi said, "When we first met, you really disliked me and kept your distance from me, but for some reason, you would always secretly look at me. At that time, I kept wondering if I had offended you."

"I later found out that you had been treating me as a competitor."

Yu Miaomiao argued confidently, "Since you're the most outstanding applicant for the FA scholarship, of course I have to thoroughly investigate your situation."

Jiang Chengyi didn't answer for a long time.

She belatedly realized her mistake and began to regret it.

Was what you just said... too cold-hearted?

Is Jiang Chengyi upset?

"actually……"

Yu Miaomiao awkwardly explained, "Actually, I see you as more than just a competitor..."

"Miaomiao, I'm so glad."

She was startled, propped herself up, and looked at Jiang Chengyi. "What?"

Under the night sky, Jiang Chengyi's eyes reflected the starlight. "I'm so glad that you consider me a competitor."

"If it weren't for this, perhaps we would never have crossed paths or met."

He suddenly stood up, hugged Yu Miaomiao, and buried his face in the crook of her neck.

"I can't imagine what my life would be like now if I hadn't met you."

As he spoke, his warm, trembling breath brushed against the girl's neck, revealing a rare vulnerability.

He was afraid of a vague and uncertain possibility.

We will meet again.

She pulled Jiang Cheng away, looked into his eyes, and said firmly, "In the eyes of us demons, the fate between people is predetermined."

"Even without the FA scholarship, and without all that trouble, we would still meet and be together."

"Will we definitely meet...?"

Jiang Chengyi gazed intently at Yu Miaomiao, then kissed her without warning.

"Hmm..."

The kiss lasted a long time. Yu Miaomiao pulled away from Jiang Cheng to catch her breath and complained, "At least tell me beforehand."

Jiang Cheng pressed his forehead against the girl's, breathing softly: "Miaomiao, if that's really the case, I wish I could have met you when we were little."

Before Yu Miaomiao could figure out what Jiang Chengyi meant, he kissed her again.

...

If I had met you when I was a child, could I have protected you, prevented you from suffering so much harm, and made you not need to be filled with anger towards the whole world, and not need to arm yourself with cold thorns?

-

The next day, Yu Miaomiao finally came in handy in Xu Zhou's research.

The reason was that during the physical examination, he detected dozens of snow leopards that were suspected of having the ability to jump through space.

After some stimulation, a few of them actually awakened the ability to jump between spaces. However, due to their lack of skill, they jumped around uncontrollably, just like novices.

Xu Zhou then called Yu Miaomiao over, wanting to see if it would work on them as well.

"It actually worked!"

Xu Zhou was pleasantly surprised and circled around Yu Miaomiao, asking, "What exactly happened?"

"I've looked at your medical report many times, there's nothing special about it."

Yu Miaomiao sat bored in a chair. Around her was a group of snow leopards, men, women, young and old, all of whom were very excited.

An old leopard with snow-white eyebrows murmured happily, "This is a divine gift! I never thought that at 617 years old, I would still be favored by the gods."

Xu Zhou explained for the umpteenth time, "This isn't a gift from the gods; it's an innate talent that every monster is born with!"

A young leopard raised its hand, "Aren't divine gift and talent the same thing?"

Xu Zhou got stuck.

That seems to be the case...

Regardless, Xu Zhou decided to give Yu Miaomiao another thorough medical examination.

First came the photo. Yu Miaomiao was very skilled at taking these ID photos. She stood there expressionless, one, two, click, and that was it.

After Xu Zhou finished filming Yu Miaomiao, he turned the equipment to Jiang Chengyi, saying, "Why don't you come and get checked too? Anyway, the machine is suitable for both transgender people and trans women."

After they finished their medical examinations and were about to leave, Xu Zhou called them back.

"Miaomiao, you're not done yet. Turn back into your original form and check again."

Yu Miaomiao was puzzled, "Why do we need to check twice?"

Xu Zhou explained: "The human form and the original form of a monster have slightly different indicators, so a comprehensive physical examination requires testing both."

She then transformed into the original form, standing on the table, and had Xu Zhou take a picture.

Xu Zhou moved the instrument up and down, "No, the lighting is wrong, the picture is not clear."

He instructed Jiang Chengyi, "Lift it up, to about chest level."

Jiang Chengyi then picked up the kitten, placed it on his chest, and used it as a human-shaped display stand.

After filming, she had a medical check-up. After finishing the check-up, she saw Jiang Chengyi walking over from Xu Zhou and asked, "Did he need something from you?"

Jiang Chengyi said, "I asked him for the photos he just took of you."

"What's so interesting about medical exam photos?"

"It's so cute."

He opened his phone and showed it to Yu Miaomiao.

The kitten's light golden fur is fluffy and thick, with edges that melt in the bright sunlight, like a golden dandelion.

She stood upright in Jiang Chengyi's palm, her tail held high, her chin raised, and her expression proud. She was truly a spirited little kitten. She didn't look like a medical examination photo at all; she looked more like a photo submitted for a cat exhibition.

Yu Miaomiao looked at it from left to right, but still thought it was just an ordinary photo, and said, "I'm glad you like it."

Jiang Cheng dragged this photo into an album called "Meow Meow".

Yu Miaomiao scanned the photos and found they were all of herself!

Her pupils dilated. "Why are there so many photos? When did you take them?"

"It's accumulated over time."

Jiang Cheng suddenly remembered something and said regretfully, "When we first met, you showed me a lot of photos of yourself when you were little, but you took them away after a quick glance. If only..."

Yu Miaomiao refused without even thinking: "Impossible."

These photos are her embarrassing past. She only showed them in a moment of panic back then, and she would never show them to anyone else.

Jiang Cheng looked at her expectantly, "But I really want to see what you looked like when you were little."

She softened, "...Okay."

He opened his phone, scrolled to the bottom, found those photos, and handed them to Jiang Chengyi. "Here, this is only for you. You're not allowed to show it to anyone else."

Jiang Cheng looked at the photos of the kitten when it was little, yawning, spacing out, and glaring fiercely at the camera. Every picture was so cute that his eyes softened.

Scrolling to the next image, Jiang Cheng paused for a moment, because it was Yu Miaomiao in human form.

The background of the photo is an office, which should be from the same period as the previous prototype. The girl is very thin, with pale skin. Her school uniform hangs loosely on her body, and her wrist bones are exposed.

Her eyes, staring directly into the camera, weren't exactly cold, but rather devoid of emotion, like glass or some kind of inorganic substance, as if nothing in the world could concern her—

In the photo, Yu Miaomiao looks more like a delicate porcelain doll than a person.

Jiang Cheng felt a pang of pain in his heart. "When was this photo taken?"

Yu Miaomiao recalled, "It must have been the second year of junior high."

The next photo is a picture of a young woman in her twenties with Yu Miaomiao. The woman has her arm around Yu Miaomiao and is all smiles.

Yu Miaomiao's expression was no longer as empty as in the previous picture; instead, she frowned slightly, showing a hint of reluctance.

This subtle emotion transformed her from a doll into a living, breathing person.

"who is she?"

"My math teacher in the second year of junior high school."

Looking at the photo, Yu Miaomiao's eyes were filled with nostalgia.

Jiang Cheng noticed her emotions and said, "She must be very important to you."

"……right."

Have you contacted her over the years?

Yu Miaomiao remained silent for a long time before saying, "There's no need to contact her; she doesn't remember me anymore."

"Can I know what happened?"

She said, "She was my math teacher in the second year of junior high school. Her surname was Yang. At that time, I had just learned that no matter how good my grades were, I couldn't compare to those powerful monsters. My grades plummeted."

“She was a human and didn’t know anything about monsters. She was so anxious that she talked to me every day, asking me what had happened.”

"Later, when she visited the orphanage, she saw me being bullied by a monster and that's when she found out what had happened."

"She told me that having strong demonic power doesn't mean everything. I'm very smart and much more powerful than other demons. She also told me that there are positions in the Demon Department that don't check demonic power."

“During that time, she often came to see me, took me to eat all sorts of things, chatted with me, and took pictures of me when I wasn’t paying attention.”

"Then what?"

"Then... she was transferred."

"Because I am a minor, I am not qualified to sign the 'Letter of Responsibility,' so she could only drink the amnesia potion."

"After she left, an employee from the Yokai Department gave me a USB drive containing these photos."

Jiang Cheng looked at his phone and seemed to be able to feel the emotions of the photographer through these photos. "She must love you very much."

Yu Miaomiao gazed at the girl's bright smile in the photo, her gaze seemingly traveling back six years to that small office.

The petite Yu Miaomiao chased after the girl, saying fiercely, "Don't take pictures of me, I don't like them at all, delete them!"

The girl held up her camera. "No, these photos are very precious."

"It's just a photo, what's so precious about it?"

The girl crouched down, looked at Yu Miaomiao, and said earnestly:

"Miaomiao, the world is vast, not just about orphanages or schools. You won't be alone forever*. You will definitely meet someone who understands you. If He/She wanted to know what you looked like as a child, how regrettable it would be if there were no photos of you back then?"

A few months ago, Yu Miaomiao scoffed at these words.

But now...

She turned her head and looked at Jiang Chengyi, who was browsing the photos. He looked focused, as if he wanted to etch Yu Miaomiao in every photo into his mind.

Yu Miaomiao smiled and said, "Teacher Yang, you're right. These photos really came in handy."

I am not alone forever.

His name is Jiang Chengyi.