illegitimate daughter
"Ready—Go!"
As the director blew his whistle, an eerie silence fell over the starting point. Shen Yi'an and Yun Jin, the cat and the human, were staring at each other. At that moment, a few drops of muddy water dripped from Shen Yi'an's bangs onto the ground.
Three minutes later, Yun Jin gracefully squatted down and pointed to the finish line with her paw.
"Meow meow meow meow—Sir, please go first."
"That way I won't get hurt," Yun Jin thought to herself.
Shen Yi'an took a deep breath, stepped forward, and performed a standard standing long jump, accurately landing on the yellow smiley face pattern in the center of the inflatable mat.
The mat suddenly dented, and then, like a slingshot, it was launched into the muddy water, splashing mud that precisely covered Yun Jin's face.
The scene erupted in laughter as loud as a pig being slaughtered.
Shen Yi'an silently got up and returned to the starting point. Yun Jin raised her mud-covered paws and, as Shen Yi'an tried to apologize, delivered a meow punch right between his eyebrows.
"Meow meow meow meow! -- You %#:&"
The little mud cat used very foul language.
Next, after Shen Yi-an discussed with the director, the director, who was laughing so hard he cried, accepted Xiao Yun's solo challenge.
Upon hearing this, Yun Jin twitched her ears, and with graceful cat-like steps, she took a few light leaps and reached the finish line in no time.
Covered in mud, Shen Yi'an stood at the finish line, opening his arms as if to give Yun Jin a victorious hug, as if in revenge. Yun Jin immediately bristled and tried to escape.
But it was too late. Yun Jin was buried in his chest, and could only desperately wave her claws through the gaps. I really wanted to give her a few more cat punches.
Yun Jin didn't want to talk about what happened after that. After all, she had been harmed by Shen Yi'an twice, twice in total, enough to turn a cute little kitten into a terracotta warrior.
After it was over, even Yun Chen refused to touch her, which broke Yun Jin's heart. She slunk into her cat carrier and was then rushed to a pet store.
However, the fact that everyone was in such a miserable state gave Yun Jin some comfort.
Zhang Shuo was dragged around the field by Bruce, and finally "plop" he was dragged into a mud pit, leaving him with only his two hands desperately clinging to the edge of the inflatable mat.
The timid Ragdoll cat, Egg Tart, chose to run away out of fear, and no one could catch it.
Only after washing herself clean did Yun Jin dare to lie on the bed. Fortunately, she still had a weekend to recover her energy.
Cats dare not imagine how they would cope with a job that only allows them to have one day off a week or only two days off a month.
Yun Chen was busy in the kitchen, the sound of the cleaver hitting the cutting board making a rhythmic noise.
The cat dared not imagine what life would be like without Yunchen.
Yun Jin let out a long breath, her hands expertly swiping across the tablet. The top three trending topics were:
#ShenYiAn'sGamingBlackHole#
#ZhangShuo's Godhood in the Mud#
#Has the cloud cat become sentient?#
Will Shen Yi'an really not lose fans? Yun Jin scrolled past these entries.
The message bar on one side was flooded with over 99 red dots, and fans' enthusiastic comments were popping up everywhere:
[Yun Miaomiao is a genius!]
【Baby Cloud, Mommy loves you!!】
[Yun Miaomiao is definitely a human in disguise.]
...
Yun Jin's hand lingered on this comment for a long time; she was indeed a human who had transformed.
With the tablet covering her chest, Yun Jin was momentarily at a loss for what she had done. The cat demon identity she once loathed had now become a disguise she relied on for survival.
Although she said she would delete her account and leave after filming the show, the days when she could gain love and money by acting cute and charming in front of the camera had slowly eroded her resolve, making it hard for her to escape like a frog being slowly boiled in water.
Yun Jin looked at her hand in the air and felt a little unfamiliar. How long had it been since she had returned to human form? If she continued to maintain her cat form, she would eventually be unable to return to human form.
"Sis, it's time to eat." Yun Chen hummed a song as he brought out two steaming, golden-brown fried rice dishes.
"Is there no more noodles?" Yun Jin asked, somewhat disappointed. Her cat ears drooped down, and she looked at Yun Chen pitifully.
“Yes, we’re out of stock,” Yun Chen shrugged and opened a packet of seaweed flakes for bibimbap. “Sis, do you want some of this? It’s a little bland this time.”
"When are you going to buy it?" Yun Jin's tail swished restlessly behind her.
"Tomorrow night," Yun Chen couldn't help but laugh at his sister's eager look. "Sis, are you in such a hurry?"
“No,” Yun Jin scooped up a large spoonful of fried rice and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing until her cheeks were bulging like a hamster, and mumbled indistinctly, “What I mean… is that I want to go with you.”
"Oh, that's really strange—" Yun Chen deliberately dragged out the last syllable as he leaned closer to her. "Didn't you get scared by an overly enthusiastic salesperson last time and never dare to go to the mall again?"
"People change." Yun Jin, who was eating with her head down, replied in a muffled voice.
Yun Chen glanced at his somewhat conflicted sister, put down the porcelain spoon, and with a soft "ding," startled the sparrows perched outside the window.
She looked intently at her somewhat uneasy sister and asked softly, "Can you tell me what's wrong, sis? I don't know why, but you seem very troubled."
Yun Jin paused in her action of holding the spoon, and said softly, "It's nothing, it's just... I suddenly realized that it seems like it's been a long time since I've gone out properly in human form."
Outside the window, the sounds of students playing happily after school drifted in, and cars honked their horns incessantly; the world was bustling about.
Yun Chen reached out and touched her head: "It's okay. As long as we're still by each other's side, everything will be alright."
——
Regret is deep regret, and Yun Jin deeply regrets her hasty decision.
For someone with severe social anxiety, shopping malls on weekend nights are nothing short of hellish. They're teeming with people, with children running and playing, and couples holding hands and stopping frequently...
Yun Jin wanted to escape but couldn't. She just wanted to go out for a walk; she didn't intend to go and gain experience.
Let's go back an hour to when Yun Jin and the others were preparing to leave.
"Want to go shopping?" Yun Chen asked as he bent down to tie his shoelaces. "The collars on all your clothes are ruined from washing. Let's go buy a few new ones."
The mirror in the wardrobe reflected Yun Jin's faded white clothes. The pattern on the short sleeves was no longer visible, and there were several crooked patches sewn on the cuffs of the trousers, showing that someone didn't know how to sew.
Although Yun Jin was poor, she was far from being so poor that she couldn't afford clothes. She just didn't want to buy them. The thought of buying something that didn't fit and having to send it back herself, along with dealing with people, made Yun Jin feel annoyed.
As a result, Yun Jin hasn't bought any new clothes for several years. She usually wears two sets of clothes alternately until she ended up like this.
“Alright…” Under Yun Chen’s “friendly” gaze, Yun Jin agreed.
Yun Jin couldn't go on shopping for long, so Yun Chen ordered two cups of milk tea and sat down to rest for a while.
"Sis, are you alright?" Yun Chen couldn't help but ask, seeing his sister's deathly expression.
Yun Jin huddled in the corner chair, holding a cold milk tea cup in both hands, the straw already flattened from biting it.
"No, I need to go back. There are too many people here." Yun Jin took a few deep breaths, her clenched knuckles turning slightly white.
“Alright, then you rest here for a bit,” Yun Chen sighed. “I’ll go buy some vegetables and daily necessities.”
"Go ahead..." Yun Jin took a sip of milk tea and watched her sister leave.
The crowd surged around like a tide, and the sounds of laughter, footsteps, and broadcasts intertwined to create a terrifying vortex.
Yun Jin stared at her reflection in the glass shop window across the street: a girl in old clothes, hunched over, her hair casually tied in a ponytail.
Perhaps she's not suited to be human; she's better suited to be a cat.
Yun Jin thought dejectedly.
"Da, da, da."
A pair of black leather shoes came into Yun Jin's view.
Yun Jin's gaze climbed up from the lace stockings on the little leather shoes. The white tutu trembled in the air conditioning breeze. The girl tilted her head and looked herself up and down, her braid hanging down to one side.
"Sister, can I sit here for a bit?" She blinked her big, dark eyes, looking very cute.
"Sure, little one, where are your mom and dad?" Yun Jin moved the milk tea cup closer to herself.
She skillfully climbed onto the chair, swinging her short legs that couldn't reach the ground, looking quite old-fashioned.
"Oh, my mom and dad are arguing, and I wanted to come out and make them worry," the little girl said calmly.
"Huh?" Yun Jin's eyes widened immediately. "Little friend, you can't joke like that. Go home now."
"Big sister, if you knew my story, you definitely wouldn't let me go back," the little girl said, feigning seriousness.
"Big sister, can you get me a glass of lemonade? I can tell you a story." The little girl pointed to the sign.
Good grief, this little girl is just trying to scam a glass of lemonade.
"Little girl, don't lie, go home now." Yun Jin didn't want to talk to her anymore and prepared to get up.
“If something happens to me,” the little girl whispered, “the police will check the surveillance footage and find that you were the last adult to talk to me.”
"Then I can just call 110 now," Yun Jin said with a smile.
"You can't call 110!" The little girl's "mature face" crumbled instantly. She cried and tightly gripped Yun Jin's clothes with her little hands.
The little girl's cries drew the attention of several customers nearby. Yun Jin felt several probing gazes directed at her and could hear their whispers.
"Why are you still playing on your phone? Don't you even care about your daughter?"
"Exactly! They're completely irresponsible towards their own children!"
Yun Jin sighed. She shouldn't have gone out today. She slowly lowered her hand that was holding the phone.
Yun Jin had no choice but to order her a glass of lemonade and soften her voice, "Then tell me, why don't you want to go home?"
The little girl gulped down a big mouthful of water, wiped away her tears, and then said, "Because my mom and dad are both celebrities, and I'm an illegitimate child."
"You have a father and mother, how could you be an illegitimate child?" Yun Jin couldn't help but ask.
Are kids these days so precocious? She thought back to her own childhood, when at this age she was still crying over a lollipop.
"The adults say that my mom and dad don't like me." The little girl's tone was calmer than a child's.
Yun Jin suddenly didn't know whether she should continue the topic. If it was false, it was just innocent childish talk, but if it was true...
As soon as the words "Then who are your father and mother?" left her mouth, Yun Jin regretted it; this question was far too rash.
The little girl suddenly looked up: "I can't tell, or you'll be in trouble."
"All right."
Yun Jin leaned back in her chair with some disappointment, but her gaze unconsciously followed the little girl's eyes.
A man wearing a dark short-sleeved shirt stood by a pillar not far away, his hat brim pulled low and his mask covering most of his face.
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