I Really Want to Pet My Wife's Cat Ears - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Ji Mianmian actually understood English!

As a character in a cat-raising mobile game, Shuoyu couldn’t for the life of her understand the necessity of implanting English puns into her.

But then again, she could draw and cook, too! For operations that were complex and required a great deal of creativity, learning English should be quite simple. Shuoyu’s preconceived notion that Ji Mianmian was omnipotent meant that her initial surprise was fleeting, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared.

She pushed open the door with a smile. “What are you doing, Mianmian?”

The young girl was wrapped in a pristine white bath towel, raising her hand to dry her hair with a soft, light-beige towel in front of the mirror. Perhaps the bathroom was too stuffy; her voice now carried a cute nasal quality, sounding muffled: “Just finished bathing, drying my hair.”

The small house was only equipped with electric lights, various furniture, and living necessities; modern small household appliances like hair dryers were non-existent. It was unclear whether her grip had become stronger from regular archery practice or if Ji Mianmian was simply rough with herself, but Shuoyu watched her rub her hair and cat ears together inside the towel without a hint of mercy. The skin on the inside of the cat ears was naturally thin, and now it had been pinched into a faint pink by the girl.

Shuoyu felt both heartache and a sense that this perfectly placed fragility was moving. Her throat moved, and her eyes sparkled with a smile: “Baby, let me help you.”

The cat-eared girl looked up: “Hmm? Can’t Sister only use pre-set tools?”

Shuoyu laughed: “That’s why you need to assist me. First, wrap your hair with the towel… Right, wrap it once around your head… tuck that extra corner back in.”

Watching the girl on the screen seriously wrap her waist-length hair and cute cat ears, Shuoyu opened the interaction panel and used Stroke. Ji Mianmian had mentioned before that the transparent hand stroking her head was warm and applied just the right amount of pressure. This time, Shuoyu used Stroke to its full potential, manipulating the controller to guide the transparent hand in a massaging motion over the girl’s head.

Ji Mianmian closed her eyes, earnestly enjoying the sisterly care.

Lately, more and more images had been sprouting in her mind. Most were of her sitting quietly in a studio, applying oil paints to a canvas. Sometimes it was a still life, sometimes flowers, and sometimes human models. That world was magnificent, filled with a quiet vitality.

But sometimes, images of her talking and interacting with other humans appeared. That’s right “humans.” In those intermittent, broken, and blurry flashes, she didn’t have cat ears or a cat tail! she interacted with everyone so naturally, as if she were one of them.

Now, with her eyes closed, Ji Mianmian felt images appearing before her eyes again. It felt as if a long, long time ago, someone had also helped her groom her hair like this. The aura of that person was very gentle, but it was a different kind of gentleness than Shuoyu’s it was the role of a “mother” whom she could act spoiled with and rely on infinitely.

Ji Mianmian frowned, desperately wanting to turn her head to see that person’s face. Seeing the girl’s expression suddenly become uneasy, Shuoyu immediately stopped the Stroke action.

“Did I hurt you?”

She hadn’t obtained the sense of “touch” yet, so she had no real sense of how much pressure the stroking actually applied.

Ji Mianmian’s attention returned to the present: “Ah! No, Sister is very gentle.” She reached her fingers under the towel wrapped around her head and felt around. “It seems almost dry!”

As she took down the damp towel, Ji Mianmian pondered whether she should tell Shuoyu about the things appearing in her mind lately. On Cat Island, Sister was the only one she could talk to about human matters.

Amidst the girl’s downward-looking contemplation, the woman’s cheerful voice rang out.

“By the way! The drawing paper and pigments have been researched. I’ve made several sets; they’re all for you!”

Shuoyu didn’t know which type of painting Ji Mianmian was best at, so she prepared all the art materials she could think of: sketching paper, oil painting paper, Xuan paper… pencils of different hardness, oil paints, colored gouache, palettes and easels of all sizes…

Looking at the dazzling array of art materials on the table and the woman’s expectant, gentle gaze in the air, Ji Mianmian decided to respond to her enthusiasm first. She twitched her ears and said with a smile, “Thank you, Sister. With these pigments, I can paint in color!”

Seeing the constant notifications: Ji Mianmian Favorability +10, Ji Mianmian Favorability +5… Shuoyu’s mood also became excellent.

She thought to herself that “paper people” were truly better—liking is liking, hating is hating, and their emotions are directly manifested in favorability. She even thought greedily: “If only human social interactions in the third dimension could be visualized. That way, insincere partners like the Li brothers would be filtered out immediately, and recruitment would be so much simpler!”

Thinking of all the employees still left to hire, Shuoyu couldn’t help but vent her frustrations to the girl on the screen.

Shuoyu: “Mianmian, Sister might be very, very busy for the next few days. My vacation only has half a month left! I have to finalize design drawings, supervise the renovation from time to time, meet employees to sign labor contracts… I have to meet so many strangers, just thinking about it is annoying!”

She wasn’t socially anxious; she just loathed meaningless social behavior and hated expanding her social circle. Sure enough, Ji Mianmian offered comfort, her words so pleasant they made Shuoyu feel incredibly soothed.

Then, she saw uneasy, lonely, and worried little emojis appearing over the cat-eared girl’s head.

Ji Mianmian opened her mouth: “Then will Sister still have time to come to Cat Island? There are so many new cats; you need to build good relationships with them and harvest more Meow Power!”

This was indeed an important matter. Shuoyu lowered her eyes in thought: “I’ll have time. These things are done step-by-step, so it certainly won’t be like last time, only being online for a short while for three days straight.”

She chuckled wickedly. Maliciously, she reached for the cat’s sensitive tail, teasing and caressing it as she spoke: “Is it only the new cats that need managing? It seems our Mianmian baby won’t miss me. Sister is so sad…”

Ji Mianmian panicked, ignoring the tingling, itchy sensation spreading from her tailbone like ants crawling. “I will miss you! Of course I will miss you!”

“Good. Hearing that my favorite kitten will miss Sister makes me feel full of motivation for work!”

Shuoyu admitted she was a bit “bad” at heart; she just loved seeing the cat-eared girl defend her feelings. Her scheme successful, she looked at the time on her phone.

“Oh, it’s so late! I promised to have a video call with a friend; it might take quite a while. I won’t be coming to Cat Island before bed. Goodnight, Mianmian!”

“I… mhm. Goodnight, Sister.”

After drying her hair, Ji Mianmian had originally wanted to talk to her about the hazy images she had seen lately. But the conversation had been dominated by Shuoyu; her mood was constantly manipulated by her sometimes bitter, sometimes joyful, sometimes full of gain and loss… Now that the chat was finally over and she found a chance to speak, Shuoyu was busy with something else and in a hurry to log off.

Ji Mianmian bit her lower lip, her amber eyes filling with moisture. her heart was in a mess, unsure if it was grievance or unease. But the person who could carry her bad mood had already left, and there was no one left to see her expressions.

In the end, the cat-eared girl walked to the table with a drooping tail, picked up a piece of white paper, and decided to first categorize the art materials and make a few simple color charts. The images in her mind were very fragmented now; Shuoyu probably wouldn’t understand if she spoke of them. It was better to wait until there were more images and she had worked out the logic herself.

On the other side, the video call connected. The manager, Ji Yun, gave Shuoyu an annoyed look. But in front of her daughter, her tone was very gentle: “Xiao Bei, look, it’s Sister Shuoyu. She misses you and wants to talk to you!”

The girl, who stayed in her safe indoor world year-round, heard the voice and her pupils moved. She raised her right hand and gave Shuoyu a mechanical wave, pursing her lips. For an ordinary child, not calling out to a person after an introduction would be impolite, but for a child with autism, being willing to give a reaction was already very good.

Ji Yun knew that if she stayed close, she might not be able to help speaking, which would affect her daughter’s focus and make her irritable. So, as usual, she tucked the phone into a stand, moved a bit further away herself, and left the space to Shuoyu and Ji Bei.

Shuoyu was using her tablet to video call Xiao Bei. She put on a gentle smile and started talking about what had happened since her vacation started; she knew Xiao Bei would listen intently. She talked about everything from researching the Fourth Definition district with Shen Zhiyin and Meng Xu, to the party a few days ago, and then to her favorite mobile game, Cat Island Diary.

She didn’t just narrate dryly; she also held up her phone and clicked through photos for Ji Bei to see. Xiao Bei was interested in the colorful world; she just didn’t know how to express it or how to accept it. Perhaps because it was mentioned so many times, a deep-seated impression formed in Xiao Bei’s mind.

The pale, thin little girl opened her mouth and uttered two words: “Mianmian?”

“Oh! Ji Mianmian. She’s a character in the Cat Island Diary I play. She’s very beautiful, very powerful when she draws her bow, and has a great personality. I like her very much…”

When mentioning what she loved, Shuoyu’s desire to share would become particularly strong. She directly opened the dedicated Cat Island Diary album and showed them to Xiao Bei one by one: Mianmian in her white dress, Mianmian lying in the small cart, Mianmian hugging Little Flower and petting the cat, Mianmian swimming in the sea… all kinds of cat-eared girls, free and unrestrained.

Ji Bei turned her head to look out the window. It was unclear if her gaze fell on the treetops, the greenery on the windowsill, or another hospital building a long distance away. She instinctively tugged at the corner of her shirt. After saying the name “Mianmian,” she didn’t speak again, maintaining her expressionless look. However, amidst Shuoyu’s constant narration, her eyes flickered as if hiding dots of light.

Over the next few days, Shuoyu was indeed busy beyond belief, but every time she found a moment to get on the game, she saw that Ji Mianmian was also quite busy. She seemed very familiar with all kinds of painting; in just a few days, she had painted a still life, two small oil paintings, and one gouache.

Unlike the cat versions of famous paintings she had drawn on the ground, what jumped off the paper were entirely new scenes. Shuoyu couldn’t paint, but that didn’t stop her from appreciating beauty. she felt her wife’s drawings were all beautiful the cats were incredibly lively and cute, just as lifelike as those on Cat Island. They were practically works of art!

Lately, she hadn’t had time to contact professionals, so after checking with No. 001 and learning she could publish them, she first opened a Cloud Weibo account titled “The Cat’s Drawings.” She uploaded these, along with the previous drawings on the ground, to the account. She reposted them with her main model account and then asked Shen Zhiyin to call on friends to help spread the word.

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