The System Mistook Me for a Cat

Chu Tingwu had a talk with Teacher Shi, her homeroom teacher.

Teacher Shi's emotions were quite complicated.

The banner at the gate of No. 5 Middle School, which read "Warmly celebrating student Chu Tingwu for winning the gold medal in the International Biology Olympiad," was still hanging there. Over a year ago, they had discussed how Chu Tingwu, despite her talent, rarely did her homework and her family didn't seem to care, wasting her potential. When the banner was eventually hung, although they had anticipated it, they were still a bit stunned.

Teacher Shi recalled that Chu Tingwu's academic progress was steady, improving bit by bit. What was most impressive was that she had never taken a step backward. While other students seemed to study merely to cram knowledge into their heads, Chu Tingwu always gave the impression that she truly understood what she learned.

Teacher Shi smiled behind his desk, "It's good that you're not coming to school anymore. You're free now, but the others haven't settled down yet. Don't influence them."

Some students had already transferred to other classes to prepare for the college entrance exam, leaving the remaining students under even more pressure, feeling like balloons that could burst with a single touch.

Chu Tingwu nodded, picked up her documents, and took one last look at her friends who were in class through the classroom window. Not wanting to draw too much attention, she walked quietly down the hallway towards the stairs, catching glimpses of a few freshmen in other classrooms.

Finally, she went to the school's small zoo.

The zoo exuded a peaceful and lazy atmosphere, with the cleanliness of the environment well maintained. Apart from the staff, there were a few adoption guardians in the zoo, chatting with the staff while feeding the parrots.

...Right, today was Saturday, but the third year students didn't have Saturdays.

Seeing Chu Tingwu walk in, the staff initially thought she was a truant student, but since she wasn't wearing a school uniform, they took a closer look:

"Junior Master Chu... uh, no, Chu Tingwu!"

"Oh," the adoption guardian interjected, "the one on the banner!"

The guardian even pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. Chu Tingwu saw that it was a souvenir from the small zoo, featuring a peacock. "Chu Tingwu, can you sign your name? My daughter admires you a lot. If you could write a line encouraging her to study, she would be very happy."

The request was not difficult. Chu Tingwu took the pen and wrote the blessing. Meanwhile, another parent sighed, "She doesn't like studying. She only likes playing games and watching videos. We've set a limit of half an hour per day, but she insists that the game is for learning and then challenges us—how could we possibly answer?"

"Oh," Cheng Cai chimed in, "if it's 'Study Unbreakable,' then—"

Indeed, it can be used for learning.

The parent: "Lately, there have been quite a few question banks about games. We told her that this definitely wasn't for learning, but she still argued—all signed? Thank you, uh?"

Why was there an additional line after "Study hard": "or else you'll get random difficult matches"?

After the parent left, Chu Tingwu began to exchange words with Cheng Cai—the latter was originally a graduate of No. 5 Middle School, who had come to visit during the adoption program. Shortly after, she quit her company job and took over the media publicity for the small zoo.

On paper, the management of the small zoo still belonged to their student club. However, since Cheng Cai took over, the students no longer needed to spend much energy on it. With her wealth of experience and steady style, she quickly began to handle overall management.

But the work at the small zoo was not difficult, as there were enough hired caretakers, and the animals were well taken care of. Cheng Cai mainly handled promotion plans, liaising with designers, maintaining relationships with adoption guardians, and regularly sending videos and updates on the animals to the guardians. Due to being quite meticulous and time-consuming, three months later, when the funds were sufficient, the club hired two more people to assist her.

With Chu Tingwu's return, Cheng Cai briefly discussed recent issues with her—

"More and more adoption guardians want to take the animals away."

Initially, they had set a "one-time adoption period" of three years, which coincided with Chu Tingwu and her friends' graduation from high school. However, they hadn't anticipated that out of the eight people, three had entered the competition class, and now one had already been admitted to university. The new club members, however, hadn't been recruited—

Because the school wasn't too supportive, merely not overtly opposing.

The adoption guardians, having formed bonds,

"The adoption price includes the cost of care and feedback, which is naturally higher than the original price of the animals," an employee behind added with a smile. "But in reality, many adoption guardians who want to take the animals away are willing to offer even more."

In other words, they would actively send extra money.

They had only collected a one-time fee during the adoption process, and the later facility maintenance relied on account promotion and souvenir sales, albeit not much, it could balance the books.

However, perhaps because of the continuous videos, updates, and daily life chats about the animals... some adoption guardians felt compelled to give additional tips to the staff.

Even though Cheng Cai had stated on the account that taking care of the animals was their duty and no additional money was needed, and that the staff's work was regularly rotated, not fixed, it still couldn't stop people from sending money.

Apart from that, whenever adoption guardians visited the school to see the animals, they couldn't help but spend money offline, feeling that since they were there, they had to buy something.

So, their funds were quite plentiful—

"But if this continues, I really feel like the small animals are our hostages, holding them to get money from others."

So, what should they do about the small animals?

The parrots' lifespan was quite long. Some of the parrots behind the birdhouse glass recognized Chu Tingwu and flew to the front of the glass, tapping with their claws as a greeting. Perhaps because of Chu Tingwu's faint scent, most of the other animals didn't react much, as if they hadn't seen her at all.

In theory, there were four peacocks here, but two males were asleep, and the other two were strolling on the grass outside, including the mother blue peacock and her chick, whom Chu Tingwu had adopted.

Chu Tingwu finally went to the Yorkshire Terrier, Little Chengcheng. Despite still being small, it was evident that it had been well cared for, though its fur's luster was slightly duller—it was well maintained, but it was already eleven years old.

Robust country dogs might leave their owners around twenty years old, but Yorkshire Terriers, a breed known for their difficulty in breeding, had an average lifespan of twelve years. And since Chengcheng had wandered for a long time and hadn't been well cared for before... it was gradually moving toward the twilight of its life.

This dog's sleep time had become longer than it had been two years ago.

It should have lived in the school security room, as it was a dog adopted by the school, but after Cheng Cai arrived, Chengcheng had its own dog bed in the natural pavilion, with cushions and toys. Now it lay on the soft cushion, sleeping. Only when Chu Tingwu approached did it slowly open its eyes.

Chu Tingwu crouched in front of Chengcheng, placing her arms flat on her knees. The small dog stared at Chu Tingwu's face, its wet nose twitching a couple of times, then tilted its head to look at her before letting out a "woof."

It got up, moving closer to Chu Tingwu to sniff her. It seemed to have confirmed something: "Woof, woof woof!"

Chu Tingwu knew that it had smelled the scent of Three-Five-Five on her and recognized her face, but the little dog's voice wasn't entirely joyful—there was also a hint of "tension." It even went behind Chu Tingwu, circling around her to confirm that there was no orange cat nearby. Then it looked out the window, letting out a sigh of relief.

Cheng Cai: "Chengcheng is scared that Three-Five-Five might also be here, so it's ready to stop any fights, right?"

This peace-loving dog wanted to nip any conflict in the bud.

Chu Tingwu knew that Cheng Cai hadn't adopted any animals, but after taking over the work, she assumed the daily dog-walking duty.

Chu Tingwu stroked the dog's chin, suddenly saying, "You know what? I now have a ranch."

When she first arrived in Jin City, she only had a "rented" house, but now she owned a ranch.

-

That evening, after the students of Jin City Fifth Middle School finished their evening self-study and left the school one by one around 9 p.m., they discovered someone standing across the gate, gliding on a skateboard.@@novelbin@@

The person looked fairly young and was not wearing a school uniform. They were munching on beef jerky and showcasing various cool skateboard tricks, though it seemed like they weren't even paying attention to their feet. Their gaze was fixed straight ahead, towards the school, but upon closer inspection, it appeared they were lost in thought.

"What an advanced level of spacing out," Chang Yile muttered.

As her gaze met his, Chu Tingwu spotted her—he waved, causing several people around to turn towards Chang Yile. She hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to rush over.

Then, ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​‍as Chu Tingwu balanced on one side of his skateboard, he raised both hands and mimicked aiming a gun at Chang Yile, even providing his own sound effect: "Pew."

Chang Yile: "Ah!"

She leaned on Chang Yixin, who had approached her: "I'm dead!"

Chang Yixin: "Tell me your bank card password before you die."

Following behind, An Shiyan pinched Chang Yile's cheeks, ignoring her "mortal wound," and said to Chang Yixin, "Quick, quick, let's share in the spoils."

Thus, the "deceased" jumped back to life, cursing her friends and family for their apparent disregard for her demise.

At that moment, Chu Tingwu also stopped Tang Zhe and a few others. The boys were from different classes, just like Chang Yile and Chang Yixin, but by the time they reached the school gate, they would naturally walk together—

In the past, Chu Tingwu would always be part of the group, along with the ever-present Three-Five-Five.

Qin Lan hesitated to speak, but Tang Zhe laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, saying to Chu Tingwu, "I thought you were gonna shoot us too!"

Chu Tingwu: "Oh?"

He placed his hand behind his back, flipped his palm, and pulled out a toy gun. Then, in front of everyone's astonished eyes, he pressed it against each of their shoulders, firing one shot each. The bullets turned out to be rubber pellets.

Chu Tingwu: "I bought it at the mini-mart near the gate while waiting for you. Why so surprised?"

Did they really think he had a real gun?

Tang Zhe: "..."

Theoretically, of course not, but this was Chu Tingwu!

After Chu Tingwu unloaded the rubber bullets and pointed the gun at an Orange Cat passing by, making "pew pew" sounds, An Shiyan finally couldn't take it anymore and confiscated his toy gun. They fell into a tacit understanding seamlessly, with some calling their parents to say they'd be home late, while others followed Chu Tingwu's uneven footsteps toward his home.

On the way, they discussed the small animal shelter, and when Cheng Cai's name came up, everyone fell silent.

Transitioning from fostering to full adoption would likely be quite time-consuming, and as students in their final year of high school, they simply didn't have the time to devote to it... Chu Tingwu stood on the stairs and turned around: "That's why I came back."

In that moment, the light from the corridor illuminated his head, and the cat hairs on his shoulders seemed to shimmer with a divine glow. Chang Yile felt it was getting too sentimental, so she borrowed the "toy gun" from An Shiyan and fired an imaginary shot at Chu Tingwu.

Suddenly, Chu Tingwu raised his hand, making a peace sign with his fingers.

An Shiyan: "Why the sudden peace sign?"

Sure, it was cool, but there was no need to be so dramatic about it.

Chu Tingwu: "No, I just caught the bullet."

An Shiyan turned to the others: "I suggest we each give him a kick as we go in. It's on the way anyway."

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Hey!