“...I respect everyone's choices about gender, but cosplay does not give you permission to burst into an occupied men's restroom.”
He placed particular emphasis on men's.
The tall man before Qin Ting wore a mask, but his presence marked him as either a celebrity or an influencer with several hundred thousand followers at minimum.
His carefully styled hair looked artfully tousled, with side bangs brushing the ends of his brows. Narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes fixed on Qin Ting with undisguised anger.
Mortified and panicking, she tried to explain.
Her mouth produced a meow.
Wonderful. She could no longer maintain a fully human shape, and now she had lost human speech too.
Predictably, the man became angrier.
“Are you one of my fans? If you wanted my attention, what you just did was memorable enough. You don't need to commit this thoroughly to the character.”
Qin Ting wanted to cry. No—she was too frightened and tense to form words.
She unlocked her phone to type an explanation, but he confiscated it first.
“Do you intend to take a photo with me in here?”
Helpless, Qin Ting pulled lip gloss from her pocket, intending to write on her hand.
His tongue remained a knife.
“Now you want an autograph? You certainly know how to manufacture an opportunity.”
Out of options, Qin Ting lowered her head and tried to bow.
The stall was genuinely too small. The moment she bent forward, her forehead collided with his chest.
“Enough.” His clenched teeth made a faint grinding sound. “If you don't leave, I will call the police. Stay away from me.”
Hurried footsteps sounded outside, accompanied by a quiet call.
“Sister... Sister Ting...”
Xiao Zhou had seen Qin Ting's message and rushed over.
Qin Ting pushed the door, desperate to escape. This time, however, the man refused to let her out.
He caught the door—and her hand with it.
“Why summon an accomplice?” he whispered beside her ear. His hoarse voice felt familiar, though she could not remember where she had heard it. “Are you planning to record something so you can invent a scandal and extort money later?”
His breath brushed her ear.
Outside of work, Qin Ting had never stood so close to a man. Now they were trapped together in a restroom stall, with one of her hands held inside his.
Her heart pounded. Beneath her hat, both ears trembled. Her tail pressed tightly along her body.
The sensation became unbearable.
With her free hand, she knocked rapidly on the door.
Xiao Zhou followed the sound. At the familiar steps, Qin Ting threw her weight into one sharp movement and elbowed the man backward. His grip loosened.
At that exact moment, Xiao Zhou opened the stall, dragged Qin Ting out, and wrapped her in a coat that reached her calves.
Qin Ting signaled with her eyes. Xiao Zhou understood immediately.
“I'm sorry. My sister has been ill, so she isn't herself. Here is my contact information. If compensation becomes necessary, please call me.”
“If you can't control your family, don't bring them outside,” the man said as he emerged, his face cold as ice. “If I wanted compensation, you probably couldn't afford it.”
“Don't tell anyone you saw me.”
He ignored Xiao Zhou's offered contact information, slammed the restroom door, and strode away.
There was no time to think. Xiao Zhou grabbed Qin Ting's hand.
“Sister, what happened? Why did you run into the men's room?”
“There were too many people taking pictures. I panicked. The moment I got out of the van, I ran toward you, but I went the wrong way. How was I supposed to know a restroom this nice would have a broken stall lock? I just...”
Xiao Zhou sighed.
“He isn't important right now. Someone posted a video of you leaving the van and claimed you were Zou Songpu's girlfriend. We can't use that vehicle for the time being.”
She punched the air.
“The company has only one van it can spare for us! I looked from a distance—the windows are smashed. Those people are insane!”
“What? Do you know who did it?”
Qin Ting felt the sky collapse.
The company owned one recreational vehicle and two business vans. Limited resources meant Ning Jiajia received priority. The boss had approved this little van only because Qin Ting was auditioning personally for Qin Sheng.
She still remembered the voice message Xiao Zhou played that morning:
Tell her passing the audition is a minor matter. The vehicle must return completely intact. Its insurance has expired.
Wonderful.
Now she had to pay.
Once Xiao Zhou began talking, no gate could stop the flood. Qin Ting was already calculating repair costs while her assistant continued.
“I didn't dare get close. I pretended to pass by and heard that Zou Songpu's fans did it because they couldn't accept him having a girlfriend.”
“If I find Zou Songpu after joining the production and ask him to pay for the van, will he?” Qin Ting asked like a wandering ghost.
“No. You'll be fortunate if he doesn't sue you for violating his privacy.”
Qin Ting bristled. “What did I do to him? Why would he sue me?”
Xiao Zhou was taller. She put an arm around Qin Ting's shoulders as they walked, booked a ride, and contacted a tow truck for the van.
“Sister, can you only take on a cat's appearance without gaining a cat's smell or sensitivity? The man you just crashed into was Zou Songpu.”
“Right. My hearing improves only when the ears appear. I can climb trees only after turning completely into a cat, and when I grow—”
Qin Ting stopped.
“What did you say? Zou Songpu?”
She was finished.
A nobody so obscure she had drifted beyond outer space had stepped in miraculous luck and passed Qin Sheng's audition. She had planned to turn her career around. Even criticism of her acting would increase her visibility and bring other roles.
Instead, she had trapped the male lead inside a restroom stall.
Z University even used fragrance in its restrooms, but that hardly mattered. A famous actor plagued by stalkers had wanted one peaceful trip to the toilet. Then a woman scheduled to work beside him for six months burst inside.
If the story spread, his image would suffer.
Her role was probably gone.
Qin Ting's brows, ears, and tail all drooped. Xiao Zhou held her as they headed toward the pickup point.
The driver called and asked them to cancel. Traffic had stopped beneath the weight of journalists and television vans.
“Where did all these reporters come from?” Xiao Zhou wondered after hanging up. Then she gasped. “How did I forget? A university friend who now shoots celebrity photos told me Qin Sheng was holding a campus casting competition at some school. It must be here!”
Qin Sheng had not appeared publicly for years. After announcing preparations for a new film, he vanished. His sudden appearance, combined with news that Zou Songpu was on campus, made a forty-minute crawl over one kilometer seem fast.
They needed another solution. Qin Ting required hours to recover from a partial transformation; she could not wander through such a crowded place.
What people feared always arrived.
Xiao Zhou had sharp eyes. In the distance, a cluster of people raised their phones, pointed toward them, and began running.
Qin Ting's ears were painfully sensitive. She grabbed Xiao Zhou and sprinted the opposite way.
“Stop looking! Why are your idol's fans chasing us again?”
“Those aren't fans! They're stalkers. Normal fans never destroy public property!” Xiao Zhou protested while running.
Across the enormous campus, a person bundled in a long coat on a scorching day dragged a tall, short-haired woman along the path. They attracted countless stares, including those of reporters who had already arrived.
Journalists unwilling to miss any clue gave chase.
At the worst possible moment, the tow driver called and demanded to know why no one remained at the vehicle. Without verification, he could not take it.
Xiao Zhou's eyes lit up. She promised they were coming, wrapped an arm around Qin Ting, and abruptly changed direction.
By the time they reached the van, both were gasping. The impatient driver had already discarded four or five cigarette butts.
Xiao Zhou showed the relevant documents and signed the confirmation. Then she pulled him aside and quietly slipped him some money.
He looked both women up and down before reluctantly allowing them to ride with the tow truck back to the company—and toward the storm awaiting them.