Chapter 25
The alarm clock woke Shang Che right on time, and sunlight leaked in through the gap in the automatically drawing curtains.
He instinctively furrowed his brows, opening his eyes with reluctant hesitation, and looked toward the corner out of habit—inside the doll bed, the small figure wearing light blue cloud pajamas had its back turned to him, facing the wall, appearing as though it were still “pretending to sleep.”
Only its posture was a bit too stiff compared to before.
Throwing off the blanket, he got up and crossed the cool floorboards barefoot, casually picking up the tap lamp that had rolled to the side of the doll bed. Just as he was about to set it back on the headboard to charge, he heard rustling noises coming from behind him.
Having been anxious all night long, the cotton doll heard the footsteps and cried out in flustered, helpless panic: “Human!”
The sound was shockingly loud, even carrying a slight break in pitch, exploding in the quiet morning air.
Caught off guard, Shang Che was startled by it. Rubbing his temples, he turned back to look at the doll bed: “…Full of energy so early in the morning.”
The cotton doll had already twisted its body around, its two small round hands nervously wringing the hem of its pajamas, its cat-like mouth straining into an upward curve: “He… hehe…”
Its laugh was a bit stiff, its golden eyes blinking rapidly, its line of sight drifting all over the place—it simply didn’t dare to make eye contact with Shang Che, as if looking for a second longer would leak some massive secret.
Shang Che didn’t overthink it, merely assuming the little creature was acting silly again.
Washing up with crisp efficiency, he walked over to the desk. His gaze swept across the open workbook and test papers, and he casually unzipped his backpack.
Ziiip—
To the cotton doll, the sound of the zipper opening sounded like a terrifying alarm siren.
Its entire plush body froze stiff, not even daring to move the tuft of hair on its head, able only to pray that the 10-centimeter cotton doll inside the backpack was hidden in a spot deep enough to avoid being discovered by its keeper.
Please…
Don’t get discovered…
Whatever you do, don’t…
Seeing him reach his hand right into the backpack, the cotton doll didn’t even dare to blink out of sheer nervousness.
Fortunately, Shang Che merely checked to ensure everything was inside, then began methodically stuffing the test papers, workbooks, and pencil case off the desk into the bag one by one.
“I’m heading to school,” he said to the small lump of cotton on the bed that was noticeably far too quiet. “Wait for me at home.”
Pausing, Shang Che added: “If you get really bored, you can go sit on the rocking chair to soak up the sun.”
The cotton doll’s line of sight was still glued to that black backpack. Hearing his words, it snapped back to its senses, pulling its face into an extraordinarily brilliant smile: “O… okay!”
This voice was more than half a pitch higher than usual, sweet to the point of sounding a bit cloying.
Shang Che’s motion of picking up the backpack paused slightly.
Raising his eyes, he closely examined the tiny pink creature—the smile was a bit exaggerated, the eyes were blinking rapidly, and the entire doll radiated an aura of… guilty conscience?
Shang Che furrowed his brow—how could that be possible?
Swaying his head slightly, he dismissed the thought. The cotton doll probably didn’t even know what a guilty conscience meant; it was likely just because he hadn’t slept well last night that such an absurd thought had popped into his head.
“I’m off.” Shang Che slung the backpack over one shoulder, not forgetting to turn back and bid farewell to the little Cotton at home right as he reached the bedroom doorway.
“Human,” the cotton doll suddenly called out to him, its voice light and soft, carrying a final thread of anticipation, “can Cotton really… not go… to school?”
If the human was willing to take it to school…
Cotton would tell him…
Sitting on the bed with its tiny hands rubbing together, the cotton doll tilted its face up to look at its keeper, seemingly waiting for his final decision.
Shang Che stood in the light and shadow of the doorway, his silhouette sharply outlined against the backlight. His voice held no fluctuation, yet sounded firmer than ever before: “No.”
A categorical rejection, paired with an unfeeling back, shattered the cotton doll’s final thread of hope.
Since the human was unrighteous, he couldn’t blame Cotton for being unjust!
The Cotton King had given the human a chance—it was the human who failed to cherish it!
Then it wasn’t Cotton’s fault!
Sunlight fell upon the doll bed, coating the little creature in light blue cloud pajamas with a fluffy golden border. Those golden eyes—always so bright—dimmed completely the second Shang Che shut the bedroom door.
Entirely unaware that an extra little “stowaway” had been added to his backpack, Shang Che hurried downstairs with swift steps. Switching into his shoes, he grabbed his keys and walked toward the mountain bike parked by the doorway.
Opening its eyes once more, darkness and cramped confines instantly wrapped around the cotton doll. Immediately after, it felt its body swaying up and down along with the backpack, experiencing occasional light jolts.
(@?@#): What was the human doing? Why did this feel completely different from the time he took Cotton out before?
It had no choice but to shrink further into the corner of the backpack, trying to wedge itself in place.
The cotton doll didn’t know where school was or how far it was. It only felt the jolting suddenly decrease significantly, while the surroundings turned noisy. All sorts of sounds flooded into its ears from every direction: blurry voices, laughter, chaotic footsteps, and a heavy, rhythmic “thump-thump” sound it had never heard before…
The process that followed turned extremely smooth, seeming as though Shang Che were navigating through a crowd.
Nervous yet excited, the cotton doll carefully adjusted its posture, shuffling inside the backpack until it finally found a spot near the side mesh ventilation hole.
Pressing its eyes against it, through the fine mesh, it caught sight of the blurry, swaying scenes of the outside world: cement ground sweeping past rapidly, feet wearing shoes of various colors, the green edges of plants, and shifting patches of fabric in different colors…
Before long, Shang Che came to a halt. The surrounding noises grew even more chaotic and increasingly loud. The cotton doll felt the backpack being set down, appearing to rest on a flat surface.
It felt a bit nervous at this moment: Was it at that place called school in human terms now?
In the next moment, the cotton doll heard the sound of a chair being pulled out, along with subtle noises, and then—with a ziiip—light flooded into the dark backpack.
Oh no! Was it about to be discovered?!
It hastily hid itself away, wishing it could curl into a tiny ball.
Shang Che seemed to be looking for something. The cotton doll saw a long-fingered hand reach inside, rummaging through the backpack. Those fingertips almost brushed against the corner where it was hiding several times, scaring it into freezing stiff, not daring to move.
Fortunately, Shang Che quickly grabbed the items he needed. Seeming to want to make it convenient to grab things next time, he didn’t pull the backpack’s zipper closed, leaving the open top of the backpack to let some light filter in instead.
A false alarm~
“Phew…” The cotton doll patted itself with its tiny hands.
It waited for a moment, and once it confirmed that Shang Che held no further intention of touching the backpack, it carefully crawled from the corner of the backpack toward the zipper opening, though not daring to draw completely close either.
The period of time that followed was both long and novel to the cotton doll. Staying inside the backpack, it could clearly hear all sorts of sounds from the outside world:
“Morning, Brother Shang!”
“Brother Shang, did you end up solving that problem from yesterday?”
“Morning,” Shang Che’s response was brief, seeming to carry a hint of a knowing smile. “Solved it. It’s on the desk, take it yourself.”
“Thanks, big boss!”
Inside the backpack, the cotton doll secretly and proudly puffed out its little chest: Woah~~~ Its keeper was indeed super awesome! Problems others couldn’t solve, its keeper knew how to solve them all!
“Brother Shang, did your little niece like the stuff I sent over last time? Does she need anything else? To welcome the arrival of the new doll, I bought a whole bunch more!”
“Ahem…” Shang Che paused, his voice sounding light and airy, appearing somewhat awkwardly uncomfortable, even accidentally slipping up, “No need for now. I… it… likes it quite a bit.”
“That’s great then!”
The cotton doll heard it—this was that human girl named Lin Zhi!
And, the human was secretly feeling embarrassed again!
It covered its mouth with its small round hands. It definitely couldn’t laugh out loud and get caught~
“A-Che, had breakfast yet?”
“Nope,” the cotton doll heard its keeper respond, his tone somewhat casual.
“Let’s go together then.”
Shang Che looked at the person before him, raising an eyebrow with crossed arms: “Yo, the sun must be rising from the west today. You actually have a day where you’re not eating breakfast at home.”
“Mm,” Lu Zeming pushed up his glasses, wearing a righteous expression, “Who am I doing all this for? Who else would keep you company for meals if not for me?”
The Cotton King’s golden eyes widened as large as they could possibly go, its cat-like mouth parting slightly: ?!
Nonsense! Cotton could keep human company for meals!
And!
Hadn’t human promised he would eat together with Cotton?
