When there was only one day left before the national exam for the students at ho, Man Xing walked so quietly that she didn’t dare to make a sound. The system didn’t even schedule any evening classes and even helped with sleep aid. Three-Five-Five didn’t snore while sleeping either!
However, Chu Tingwu did notice that Three-Five-Five was leaving early and returning late.
Shao Lingwu also seed inexplicably nervous and short of breath… but it didn’t seem like he had done anything wrong.
Though she found it strange, her intuition didn’t raise any alarms, so she didn’t pay much attention to it.
With the system around, Three-Five-Five wouldn’t be in any danger without her knowing. As for Shao Lingwu, the most dangerous thing he had ever encountered in his life was probably getting lost because he couldn’t tell directions.
On the day of the biology national exam, Man Xing drove the three candidates to the exam venue. Chu Xiao’s parents originally wanted to co too, but:
“It’s fine, Xiao Xiao has his aunt to take care of him, so we’re reassured. If we go, it might just distract him.”
Chu Xiao: Are you talking about this aunt who’s two months younger than ?
Chu Xiao didn’t think he would be distracted by other factors during the exam—he had always been a reliable child, and this wasn’t his first national exam either; he had even been to international competitions. When it ca to studying, he was the traditional type who took things step by step.
Zhou Qiang was also a reliable one. Her strongest skills were estimating scores and morizing quickly. She always had an accurate assessnt of her own abilities, and her results were consistently stable. As soon as she finished writing her exam, she could roughly predict her score.
That’s why she didn’t dare to estimate Chu Tingwu’s results—
Chu Tingwu’s experints were always excellent, but her written exam performance had improved too quickly.
During the training camp, everyone stayed together, and Zhou Qiang quickly realized: Chu Tingwu had only been studying for competitions for a year. She wasn’t a genius, just an above-average smart person. By the end of the training camp, her level had only improved to the middle tier of the camp. She could perform stably enough to make it to the national exam, but she might not make it into the top fifty, which was required to join the national team.
But after the provincial exam, she noticed that Chu Tingwu’s accuracy rate in the written exam had improved significantly… If she maintained this level, a gold dal was almost certain.
At least Chu Tingwu could choose the university she wanted to attend.
As she was thinking this, Coach Yang and others were also evaluating this batch of candidates.
Coach Yang was the head coach of this year’s national biology competition team. He had visited the Sangcheng winter camp for a day, taught Chu Tingwu and the others, and chatted with Teacher Fu.
In a class, the students who perford poorly and those who excelled often left a deep impression on the teacher. When good and bad students mixed together, it was even more morable. And if a group of them even went out to cause trouble together, well, a ticulous teacher could probably recite how many cats they had at ho.
Coach Yang knew that Chu Tingwu had a cat nad Three-Five-Five at ho and had seen her experintal talent and rapid progress.
He praised her to those around him: “Her experints are truly well done.”
The experints in the biology competition were all based on fixed topics. The more tis you practiced, the more skilled you beca, giving you an advantage. But what Coach Yang admired was Chu Tingwu’s mindset during the experints—
Apart from following the standard procedures, her movents were graceful and swift, her hands steady, and her mindset calm, as if she could casually replace any broken equipnt ten tis over.
The coach beside him: “…Are you impressed by her skills or her family background?”
Coach Yang waved his hand: “Let’s see more.”
Though he was optimistic about her, if her results didn’t et the standard, he couldn’t accept her.
But clearly, the final assessnt had already begun—once in the national team, the gap in skill levels wasn’t that significant. They might also test your mindset, qualities, overall ability, and even a bit of luck. So, the coaches were busy tagging a few promising candidates they thought could make it.
Especially those who seed calm, like Zhou Qiang, who was thinking about where to have dinner that night, and Chu Xiao, who was checking the tidiness of his desk.
Chu Tingwu, however, was thinking about sothing else: Three-Five-Five had left early in the morning. Had she made new friends outside? Were they cats or dogs? Cats could co straight into the house, but dogs needed to change their slippers!
-
Three-Five-Five would never steal exam papers.
She was an honorary police cat who had completed police training courses and understood what “stealing” ant. In fact, she was quite skilled at catching thieves.
So, recalling her ti “serving” at the police station, she quickly rembered that cats didn’t own property (the police didn’t pay her in physical wages), that things her kitten liked needed to be bought with money (Chu Tingwu had opened a bank account for her, but cats couldn’t withdraw money), and that stolen items belonged to the police (they were archived and returned to their owners). Therefore, cats could take things from thieves.
Because cats were the police.
Shao Lingwu didn’t fully understand Three-Five-Five’s line of thinking. He had just taken on the task of looking after the cat while others were busy.
Of course, Chu Tingwu had forgotten to tell him: Three-Five-Five doesn’t need you to take care of her; she’s more likely to take care of you.
Three-Five-Five thought the sa. She quickly identified the human boy following her as her “follower” and sowhat disdainfully licked his hair once (Shao Lingwu: Wait! My hair is naturally curly; licking won’t straighten it!).
After completing the grooming ritual, Three-Five-Five accepted this slightly clumsy follower… It was said that cats always had human followers, so it was normal to let him tag along.
Shao Lingwu: “Where did you find this toy car?”
Three-Five-Five: “ow?”
Shao Lingwu had a sudden realization: “Do you want to fix it for you?”
He had already mastered the skill of repairing tricycles. With a quick online search, fixing a toy car shouldn’t be too hard!
Three-Five-Five was unimpressed: You can have it, ow.
Her kitten probably wouldn’t like this kind of thing anyway; it couldn’t even fit her kitten.
So, after a long silence, Three-Five-Five started thinking of sothing else.
Without a police officer around, finding a thief was surprisingly difficult! After so thought, Three-Five-Five quickly set her sights on a police officer.
She spent the day sitting at the feet of a traffic officer directing traffic at the intersection of Tanzhou Street. The lucky officer occasionally glanced down at the cat, then at Shao Lingwu, who was squatting nearby filming, and finally walked over to Shao Lingwu and said:
“If you’re going to post that video online, don’t show my face.”
These days, even cats were being trained for social dia. It was quite interesting, but he couldn’t pet her while on duty.
Shao Lingwu: “==”
He quietly retreated with Three-Five-Five.
Realizing she had chosen the wrong target, Three-Five-Five didn’t give up. She continued wandering the streets, occasionally exchanging a few words with the local cats.
Shao Lingwu followed behind, pushing his bicycle through the narrow alleys of Shangjing. Flower branches stretched out from the walls, and a cat suddenly leaped over his head, shaking the flowers and scattering petals all over him.
The cats exchanged a few sharp, loud ows, completely different from the way they cooed at humans. Occasionally, a dog tied up in a courtyard barked through the crack in the door, and Three-Five-Five, extrely annoyed, puffed up her fur. Shao Lingwu hurried over: “Let it go.”
Why bother arguing with a dog?
Shangjing had an incredibly dense population, seemingly encompassing people from all walks of life. No matter how unique you were, once you entered this city, it was like a drop of water rging into the ocean. People sitting at their doorsteps chatting would casually glance over. No matter how peculiar you were in a small town, in Shangjing, you were just another face in the crowd.
Shao Lingwu hadn’t been sure which university he wanted to attend before. He had a carefree attitude cultivated from a life of privilege. But at this mont, he thought Shangjing wasn’t so bad after all.
He looked at the tortoiseshell cat ahead, a faint smile appearing on his face, until Three-Five-Five walked over with a rope in its mouth, calmly lifting its chin to signal him, the assistant, to take over.
Shao Lingwu: “Ah… oh.”
Hmm?
What’s this sll…?
He silently looked up and found himself face-to-face with a horse.
The horse blinked, its head leaning forward slightly, as if wondering why he hadn’t co to lead it yet.
Shao Lingwu: “?”
Wait—
Three-Five-Five: “ow?”
Three-Five-Five thought he was such an idiot.
The mother cat, tired of waiting for the slow assistant, took the reins in its mouth, stepped onto the stirrup, and jumped onto the horse’s back. After settling down, it raised its front paw and patted the white horse’s neck.
The white horse, understanding the cue, began to trot.
Shao Lingwu: “…”
Soone sitting at the entrance chatting casually glanced over. This was Shangjing—seeing a cat riding a horse wasn’t strange. A horse riding a cat would be worth a second look—wait, what?! A cat is riding a horse and running away?!
The people chatting stood up, the dog owner opened the door, and the cyclist on their way ho turned around in confusion. Three-Five-Five rode the white horse past them.
Shao Lingwu hopped onto his bicycle, regretting not renting an electric tricycle at that mont.
Wait!
Fortunately, when Three-Five-Five on horseback passed the intersection of Tanzhou Street, it was stopped by a traffic officer.
The officer halted Three-Five-Five, repeatedly confirming that there was indeed no one on the horse’s back, just a cat looking back at him with a puzzled expression (how could he even tell the cat was puzzled?). Then he turned to Shao Lingwu, who had caught up:
“Are you still filming a video?”
Shao Lingwu: “…It’s not who trained it.”
The owner is taking a national biology exam. Please go find her, thank you.
The officer didn’t bother looking for Chu Tingwu because the horse’s owner—or rather, its new owner—showed up.
This batch of horses had been sold by the stable to a racing club, and the club’s boss had co to pick them up. However, during the handover, the most beautiful white horse had gone missing, leaving them baffled.
At first, the surveillance footage made it seem like the horse had run off on its own. Upon closer inspection, they noticed a cat riding on its back.
—They hadn’t paid during the handover because they hadn’t shown the paynt receipt to a cat.
Now, all eyes turned to Shao Lingwu.
Shao Lingwu fell into deep thought.
The club boss, seeing that he was young and that the incident had nothing to do with him—it was all the cat’s doing—waved it off: “It’s fine, as long as the horse is back. Actually, this cat seems quite clever… our club could use a lucky cat… um…”
Shao Lingwu: “Actually, I think this horse is quite clever too…”
Half an hour later.
Three-Five-Five ended up with three horses.
Man Xing, who had been called to pick up the horses: “?”
Shao Lingwu, feeling a bit guilty: “I thought everyone might need a ride back after the exam.”
Man Xing: Thanks, I have a car.
Shao Lingwu: “But look, Three-Five-Five thought the sa.”
The mother cat felt the toy car couldn’t fit the kittens, so it swapped it for sothing the kittens could actually ride—fully automatic, a BMW, though the passenger seat was a bit cramped, only fitting two people, with room for one cat at most.
The club was considerate, even sending staff to help lead the horses. A trainer asked curiously: “Are you planning to open a horseback riding training camp?”
Man Xing & Shao Lingwu: “…”
The three horses were led all the way to the exam venue. The trainer grew even more curious: Was the school planning to start equestrian classes? But why weren’t the horses brought inside?
After a long exam, Chu Tingwu and her two companions walked out of the school with the other students. Along the way, she felt her intuition acting up.
Her usually sharp intuition told her that sothing both good and bad was about to happen—
From a distance, she spotted the three horses at the school entrance, along with the “family group” consisting of Man Xing, Shao Lingwu, and Three-Five-Five. Surrounding them were curious parents… and dia personnel there to take photos and interview.
Her companions noticed too.
Chu Xiao fell behind and whispered to Chu Tingwu:
“You’re well-inford. Does this school have any back doors?”
But today, no campus cat ca to give Chu Tingwu a heads-up.
Zhou Qiang grabbed her hand:
“I’m lighter. You can carry over the wall, and let Chu Xiao take the front.”
In ergencies, isn’t that what nephews are for?
Chu Xiao: “…”
Though reluctant, the three decided to keep their heads down and hurry back to the car. If they moved fast enough, they could avoid the reporters.
Closer…
The car and horses were getting closer…
But why did Man Xing’s expression look a bit odd?
Man Xing pulled out—a robot vacuum?!
The robot vacuum smoothly slid under the horse’s legs. Suddenly, a silver-white bird flew out from the tree. Chu Tingwu’s intuition told her to leave imdiately, but at that mont—
The robot vacuum stopped in front of them, having completed its transformation!
It had changed from a round robot vacuum into a square one, resembling a stool, complete with four legs!
What was the point of this transformation…
And the bird—no, the seagull drone—flew down, landing in front of the stool. It spread its wings, lifted its legs, and turned into sothing resembling a cat’s head… but not quite.
So what was the purpose of forming a head?
Chu Xiao’s hands trembled slightly.
Zhou Qiang instinctively covered her face.
Then, Chu Tingwu heard a familiar sound—the projection system activating! Amid the gasps of the crowd, the semi-transparent projection system in the device turned the combined robot into a highly realistic… Siberian tiger.
Oh, so that cat-like head wasn’t a cat—it was a Siberian tiger…
Chu Tingwu looked up, thinking the weather was great today, everything was great… except for the fact that the sun wasn’t out, so she couldn’t pretend to be suddenly blinded by it.
The Siberian tiger moved closer!
The system: “Congratulations!”
Several colorful, illusory fireworks popped up above the Siberian tiger’s head.
The system: “The lab recently made a technological breakthrough, reducing the cost of projection technology and solving the speed issue with chanical transformations… so I brought the new tech to show you! Are you surprised, kiddo? We can now make gas that cats your age enjoy playing. Kiddo?”
Now that the exam’s over, have fun!
Chu Tingwu asked without much hope:
“Did the projection technology also add realistic scents…? Actually, the horse sll I’m sensing is fake too, right?”
There aren’t three horses here at all!
She’d rather believe there were three large robot vacuums here!
The white horse stomped its hooves a couple of tis, poking its head out. Three-Five-Five, perched on its back, also poked its head out: “ow?”
Shao Lingwu peeked out from the back: “…ow?”
Zhou Qiang sneered, Chu Xiao remained expressionless, and Chu Tingwu raised her hand, slowly drawing a finger across her neck.
Shao Lingwu: “…”
Help!
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