Chapter 42
The cotton doll’s understanding was remarkably simple—there was a camera in the bedroom and the human had a smartphone, so the human could see Cotton through the camera…
Then if Cotton had a smartphone and there was a camera at school, wouldn’t Cotton be able to see the human too?
“Human, take the camera… to school… for Cotton to see!”
Regarding the cotton doll’s wild, whimsical Cotton-babble, Shang Che naturally had to refuse sternly. He crossed his arms into an “X”: “I can buy you a smartphone, but not a camera.”
The cotton doll’s wailing still sounded soft and squishy: “Why~~~~”
“There is no why.” Shang Che felt that when necessary, he needed to display his dignity as a keeper.
Cotton Doll: “…Hmph!”
Cold, heartless keeper, Cotton isn’t going to like you anymore!
It wriggled its bottom huffily, facing Shang Che with its round back of the head.
Cotton Doll: !
—Tiny Cotton, huge temper.
Shang Che looked at that tuft of ahoge hair that seemed “so angry it was practically ascending to the sky,” reaching out to stroke it a couple of times.
The soft, squishy touch wove through his fingertips. When the edge of the hairpieces accidentally brushed against the base of his fingers, it brought about a fine, fleeting itch.
The cotton doll instinctively rubbed against it twice, then suddenly remembered that it seemed to still be angry at its keeper. It forced its head down:
Bad human, Cotton won’t let you touch…
The more the cotton doll refused to be touched, the more Shang Che insisted on petting it.
One moment he stroked the cotton doll’s head up and down with his hand, and the next moment he patted it gently. Then, he divided the cotton doll’s round head into two halves—smoothing down one half along the grain, and pushing the other half against the grain.
Looking at his masterpiece, Shang Che couldn’t help laughing. Picking up his phone, he snapped an extraordinarily precious, exclusively created photo—a round pink head facing away from him, half “matte” and half “glossy,” occupying nearly two-thirds of the frame, a cotton doll whose stubborn little silhouette practically spelled out the words “COTTON IS ANGRY.”
It was actually quite adorable.
The Cotton King had zero idea what this bad human was up to behind its back. It only knew that instead of waiting for its keeper’s comforting, it heard a soft laugh instead.
Making Cotton angry, and still able to laugh out loud!
The Cotton King is going to teach this human a lesson!
It turned around “aggressively,” raising a small hand to “accuse” him, only to be struck completely “dumbstruck” by the phone screen thrust before its face.
The cotton doll parted its small mouth, its expression looking somewhat dazed: “…Ah?”
What was this?
Pinkish… looks like Cotton yet doesn’t look like Cotton?
“Look,” Shang Che shook his phone: “Your photo.”
Whose photo did you say this was?!
This is Cotton?!
How could that be!
The cotton doll didn’t even have time to be angry anymore. It only felt astonished, surprised, and perplexed, a trace of utter disbelief surfacing on its fair, tender little face…
It was also the first time Shang Che had seen such a complex, rapidly shifting expression on it. Hesitating for a second, he asked: “What’s wrong? Did I take a bad picture?”
Although he knew he was terrible at taking photos, this photo was taken decently… right?
The head was a head, and the body was a body.
Shang Che examined it closely, still feeling that he had taken a rather cute picture.
The cotton doll asked in a small voice, seemingly afraid that its words might accidentally hurt this human: “…This is Cotton?”
Shang Che nodded: “Yeah, your back view.”
…Back view…
…Cotton’s back view…
The cotton doll’s cat-like mouth moved, saying nothing for a long moment.
Cotton’s sky, is this what helplessness feels like?
Cotton doesn’t have the brain left to think about other things anymore—
Cotton should just go back to watching cartoons—
The cotton doll didn’t know how long it had been watching. Looking at its keeper’s back, it spoke suddenly: “Human, aren’t you going to sleep yet?”
Shang Che was reading a book. Hearing its voice, he turned his head to look at it.
He asked: “Not watching cartoons anymore?”
The cotton doll thought for a moment, saying: “…Don’t want to watch this time; Cotton will watch next time…”
Quite good; it actually knew when to stop.
Shang Che raised an eyebrow: “So are you going back to your own bed, or are you going to keep clinging to mine?”
The cotton doll didn’t hesitate for a single second, sliding down smoothly, then kicking the blanket with its short legs as it flailed: “Human’s bed!”
Shang Che had long anticipated this answer.
Once he lay down, the cotton doll shuffled over inch by inch again, its head pressing against his shoulder.
“Human…” the cotton doll spoke suddenly.
Shang Che responded: “Mm?”
“That camera,” the cotton doll’s voice sounded tiny and muffled as it drifted out from under the blanket, its eyes blinking, “will it really… see Cotton tomorrow?”
Shang Che turned his body slightly, looking into those golden eyes: “It will.”
“Then tomorrow Cotton… wants to greet the camera…” the cotton doll said earnestly. “Cotton wants the camera to know… Cotton misses human!”
Shang Che went silent for two seconds, asking with amusement: “How would the camera know?”
The cotton doll thought for a moment, then poked its head out from under the blanket, tilting its small face up to look into his eyes, saying word by word: “Because Cotton will… say to the camera: ‘Human! Cotton misses you! You have to… miss Cotton too, okay!'”
“That way the camera… will know, and then tell human!”
Looking at the cotton doll’s blinking eyes, Shang Che was brought to laughter by its childish yet adorable expression.
Silly Cotton.
The camera won’t know; only he will know.
“You’re right, Cotton King,” Shang Che spoke softly, reaching out to gently stroke the tuft of hair on the cotton doll’s head.
The tuft swayed. Instead of dodging, the cotton doll rubbed its head against its keeper’s palm.
Its voice was soft and squishy: “Human, good night~”
Shang Che watched the cotton doll beside him slowly close its eyes, its cat-like mouth completely still, its tuft of hair resting softly, its entire plush body exuding an aura of “Cotton is fast asleep.”
It really is acting more and more convincing, Shang Che thought.
The next day, before heading out, Shang Che intentionally pulled out his phone, giving the cotton doll a glance at the camera feed.
“See that?” He pointed at the large pink figure on the screen that occupied nearly the entire frame. “This is you as seen through the camera.”
The cotton doll leaned in close to look, its golden eyes widened into full circles.
“Woah—” It let out a long gasp, “Cotton is inside the smartphone!”
Shang Che: “Mm.”
“Cotton is so big!”
Shang Che: “…Because you’re closest to the camera.”
“But Cotton is still… super cute!” The cotton doll’s cat-like mouth split open into a wide smile.
Looking at its “Cotton is the absolute cutest” demeanor, the corners of Shang Che’s mouth curved up subtly.
“I’m off,” he said.
The cotton doll nodded, waving its small round hand: “Go ahead, human! Cotton will properly… let the camera watch!”
Shang Che turned and walked out of the bedroom.
The second the door closed, a soft, squishy cry echoed from behind him:
“Huuu~man—remember to watch the camera, okay—Cotton will miss you—”
What on earth? It clearly wasn’t like this before…
Where did this little Cotton pick up these tricks?
His footsteps paused briefly, and then he continued forward.
Before mounting his mountain bike, he opened his phone to cast a glance at the camera feed—in his bedroom, that lump of cotton was sitting on the bed, tilting its small face up, waving its small round hand with all its might toward the direction of the camera.
Shang Che turned on the audio, and heard it say: “Human! Cotton misses you!”
Looking at that silhouette waving its hand with all its might on the screen, the curve at the corners of his mouth deepened bit by bit.
After the security camera was set up, a fixed entertainment activity was added to Shang Che’s life—opening his phone to catch a glance at what that lump of cotton was up to at home.
At first, he merely checked it once in a while whenever it crossed his mind—sometimes between classes, sometimes during lunch breaks, sometimes when feeling a bit bored…
Yet as he kept watching, it seemed to turn into a habit. On a few occasions, he even found himself secretly flipping his phone over during class, lighting up the screen to steal a glance, before “despising” his own behavior afterward.
Once a class period ended, Shang Che opened his phone again, tapping into that familiar camera app—the bedroom scene appeared on the screen, but the cotton doll that should have been in the frame had vanished.
Shang Che’s heart thudded. Just as he was about to control the camera to move, he saw the blanket on the bed bulging into a little mound. Rapidly zooming in on the feed, he caught sight of the cotton doll’s pair of eyes peeking out through the gaps in the folds.
“…”
Shang Che let out a sigh of relief, feeling much more grounded, while simultaneously finding it somewhat amusing.
This little Cotton, what was it doing burrowing into the blanket for no reason… even rolling over to his side of the bed where he slept…
“A-Che, what are you watching?” Lu Zeming walked over, a flicker of probing curiosity flashing in his eyes.
Shang Che rapidly turned off the screen: “…Nothing.”
“So nervous…” Lu Zeming pushed up his glasses, stating with certainty: “You’re watching the camera feed at home, aren’t you? Let me take a look too.”
Shang Che held no expression on his face, yet his gaze was dark and heavy.
“Okay, okay, I won’t look. You watch it yourself.” Lu Zeming raised his hands in surrender, shrugging slightly and swaying his head, remarking in a volume barely audible to anyone besides the two of them: “Tsk tsk, truly a guy with terrifying possessiveness…”
“Who knows who it was that said back then, ‘I won’t like this kind of thing at all’…”
“A-Che, do you know him?”
Shang Che: “…”
Alright, shut up.
